Blaziken - Fire/Fighting
Abilities
Blaze/Speed Boost
Roles
Fast attacker, Baton Pass, setup sweeper, wallbreaker, Knock Off, revenge killer
Assessment
A textbook case of a comeback that went too far.
As the original Fire/Fighting starter, Blaziken was utterly outclassed by the newcomer Infernape when Generation IV arrived, simply because it lacked Speed. Nintendo apparently couldn't bear to watch and gave Blaziken Speed Boost in Generation V. The intention was probably just to reverse their positions, but with Speed Boost and Baton Pass, Blaziken shot straight into Ubers and stayed firmly locked away there, never getting released even when its natural predator Talonflame arrived in Generation VI. The Pokémon with Speed Boost were Blaziken, Yanmega, Ninjask, Sharpedo, and Scolipede. Leaving Sharpedo and Yanmega aside because they lacked Baton Pass, Fire/Fighting Blaziken was clearly far more threatening offensively than the two Bug-types, Ninjask and Scolipede. It also had Swords Dance, and with its already excellent Attack fully invested, one Swords Dance could easily put it in a position to sweep with overwhelming Speed and +2 Attack. Whether it passed those boosts or attacked itself, it was extremely powerful. Fire and Fighting also provided broad STAB coverage, and among priority moves, only Aqua Jet hit it super effectively. It resisted Ice Shard and Bullet Punch and wasn't afraid of Mach Punch, so revenge killing it after it set up was genuinely difficult. Although Blaziken still had natural predators in OU, having natural predators didn't mean it could be unbanned-though, of course, it was usable on cartridge. Its base stats followed a middling-Speed, mixed-offense, low-bulk distribution, which was genuinely awkward before it gained Speed Boost. Afterward, those stats started looking respectable, although its Special Attack still went unused most of the time: its Attack was higher, it had Swords Dance, and its physical Fighting STAB