[RATE MY TEAM] Blaziken Knight ?!?!

[Pokeventurer]

Hey guys i am back with another team this time. as you may have guessed from the title this team includes blaziken, not just any but mega blaziken. this idea got to me while searching for obscure megas, where blaziken was one and i decided to build a team around it. this team was probably a better build than my expectations and i have been using it alot on showdown. currently after removing any flexibility errors in the team or type coverage. the team was at it's full potential and is one of my favorite builds i did by myself, Let's get started!

The Team Building Process:
                                        The team obviously started from the thought of using mega blaziken, i knew i needed enough support to keep it upon the field to atleast snag a win, redirection support was obvious to be used on the team, looking back at redirectioners amoongus, clefable, togekiss were all either weak or took a huge chunk from Tflame's BB, which was one think i needed to redirect as a first, pachirisu resisting it was the best available option to go for, so i just slapped it on with the team, on its most standard set, the weaknesses of flying were being handled but now both were weak to earthquakes. i knew a flying type was needed and the electric weakness would have been covered up well by pachi , crobat popped up out of nowhere, it struggled with the set but soon got in perfect shape. the psychic type weakness was becoming common on Blaziken and Crobat both my next intention was to get a dark type on the scene, the best dark type in my opinion was hydreigon. hydreigon was another option to switch in for both pachi and blaziken for EQ's. azumarill was the next slot with belly drummer set + it also got me comfortable switch-ins from teammates. the last slot was gonna basically crumble the whole team, i treid both rotom-w and raikou with discharge alongside pachirisu but they didn't quite paid off. i almost scrapped the whole team. after tons of testing with the first five member's i felt like i needed a perfect or a good counter to rain teams, swampert was like bad news for the whole of my team and  really needed to do something about it, ludicolo was the last and perfect member of the team, which really made it what it is and saved it at the spot from drowning.

The Team:


Blaziken @ Blazikenite
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Blaze Kick
- Sky Uppercut
- Substitute
- Protect

Mega blaziken could work for you even, it is basically he same thing as standard one with more power and speed, the base attack stat on this one was alone to make you consider it as a thing oh yes and the all so amazing speed boost ability atop of that, it can't be denied that all m-kangs and m-metagross' fall before it. i know already wondering 'why is this weirdo running like two physical moves over things like overheat and HP ice stuff, well my answers would that to be 1) i choose it as a physical variant to land as many physically strong hits on my opponents as possible and not sharing over sp.atk and atop of that give it a defense negating nature + a mega stone. 2) moves like blaze kick and sky uppercut were chosen to be more free while attacking, other than say high jump kick, superpower and flare blitz, however my complain was that these two came with a 90% accuracy which didn't costed me much.
substitute can also be a big question, by help of pachi's help with redirection when once i setted up substitute i was free to use any other moves with pachi. substitute was the better move over say atleast one mixed attack as i felt over lots of practice with the team and went against my own decision of using a special move.
Blaziken's awesome offensive typing makes it good to wipe out a chunk of meta like, bisharp, hydreigon, kangaskhan, heatran, tyranitar, aegislash, scrafty and many more, however is often hindered by intimidaters.
if still not enough for you guys some calcs to show you the power:

252+ Atk Mega Blaziken Blaze Kick vs. 252 HP / 96 Def Amoonguss: 218-260 (98.6 - 117.6%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Mega Blaziken Sky Uppercut vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Mega Kangaskhan: 186-222 (102.7 - 122.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Mega Blaziken Sky Uppercut vs. 152 HP / 92 Def Hydreigon: 186-218 (100 - 117.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Mega Blaziken Sky Uppercut vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Tyranitar: 276-328 (133.3 - 158.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Mega Blaziken Sky Uppercut vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Bisharp: 372-444 (263.8 - 314.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
-1 252+ Atk Mega Blaziken Sky Uppercut vs. 252 HP / 12 Def Scrafty: 110-132 (63.9 - 76.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252+ Atk Mega Blaziken Blaze Kick vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Mawile: 156-186 (99.3 - 118.4%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO



Pachirisu @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 204 Def / 52 SpD
Impish Nature
- Follow Me
- Nuzzle
- Super Fang
- Light Screen

Next up as you know was pachirisu as it provided the best redirection support for blaziken. many people think it is the Sejun Park idea of redirection, but pachirisu fits in the best. at first i putted on the same set as Sejun's on this pachirisu, but soon wasn't fitting in perfectly. my first goal to modify my pachi was to run calcs and i soon got all the answers. i replaced sitrus berry for shuca berry to survive ground attack from lando and gastros alike which it wouldn't have even after 252/252/4.i setted the benchmark to survive kang's 252 double edge and put the leftovers in sp.def. this set worked out greatly.
an interesting thing about my pahirisu is the light screen which as the team finished got replaced over protect to give same support to ludicolo like an assault vest which i wasn't running. mega gardevoir was a big threat that i needed to handle, after or before crobat. pachirisu didn't had investments made in sp.def, well some but not much, light screen buffed up it in the specially defensive manner as well. nuzzle may sound like only a move to use to paralyze opponents but i found out quite often using it on my own pokemons when trick room went up, in addition to all this nuzzle worked greatly as a partial rain counter against ludiculos and also any scarfed politoed that make my way. again some calculations:

252 Atk Parental Bond Mega Kangaskhan Double-Edge vs. 252 HP / 204+ Def Pachirisu: 141-168 (84.4 - 100.5%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Choice Specs Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Pachirisu: 166-196 (99.4 - 117.3%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO "Not after halved"
252+ Atk Choice Band Landorus-T Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 204+ Def Shuca Berry Pachirisu: 144-171 (86.2 - 102.3%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO
252+ SpA Sheer Force Mega Camerupt Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 52 SpD Shuca Berry Pachirisu: 123-145 (73.6 - 86.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO



Crobat @ Choice Band
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Cross Poison
- X-Scissor
- Taunt

I really don't know from where it fell from but covering up the ground weakness was the idea. i didn't wanted it too be a second support after pachirisu. i personally got this idea of a choice banded crobat when i saw James Baek's CB Arcanine. which is known for its's supportive potential but also worked greatly in means of offense as same i wanted a choice banded crobat. i worked out really really well in the first test. with zen headbutt instead of taunt but soon i felt using nuzzle wasn't much of an option, and also zen headbutt wasn't getting used that much at all and wasted  a slot so i replaced it with taunt, combined with the awesome inner focus ability guarantees blocking TR from setting up. however the next turn switch out was a bit costly only. i also noticed that it even OHKO'ed some scrafties after being intimidated. hey was the base 130 base speed mentioned? it makes it one of the fastest pokemons in the meta, after some mega's and scarfed mons. seeing from crobat's supportive potential i was able to get many misplays from many veterans as well. the base 90 speed stat was elevated even further by a CB. X-scissors was there to attack psychic types for super effective damage.

-1 252+ Atk Choice Band Crobat Brave Bird vs. 140 HP / 12 Def Scrafty: 156-186 (98.7 - 117.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Crobat Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Conkeldurr: 276-326 (130.1 - 153.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Crobat Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 128 Def Hariyama: 330-390 (150.6 - 178%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Crobat Cross Poison vs. 244 HP / 56 Def Sylveon: 204-240 (101.4 - 119.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Crobat Cross Poison vs. 252 HP / 132 Def Mega Gardevoir: 182-216 (104 - 123.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Choice Band Crobat Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 12 Def Gothitelle: 135-160 (76.2 - 90.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO



Hydreigon @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 52 HP / 20 Def / 228 SpA / 4 SpD / 204 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Hydreigon proved to be one of the best members of the team. at first it was life orb standard 252/252/4 set, but i soon realized the landorus-t threat which was one of the biggest to the team and decided to make it scarfed.With exact amount of special speed EV’s needed to outspeed with timid nature and hence OHKO back a landorus-t the rest well tossed into the bulk factor (even if I ran 252 speed EV’s with modest nature, it wasn’t able to outspeed scarfed lando-t, so  timid nature was necessary). This special hydreigon, no one quite expected and many got wrecked by, winning me many games. Apart from this specified purposes no dragon’s can live in its presence anymore. From the point of supporting the core, it was also a second option to switch in for immunity to ground attacks. However adding the scarf made it miss many OHKO’es on the meta, he teammates were enough to take care of such things.


Azumarill @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 212 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 20 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Protect
- Aqua Jet
- Play Rough

The first four slots looked quite synergistic with each other and I really needed a Pokémon to fit in with the team and do something, when I want to make a substitution. As an answer to counter sand which threatened crobat, pachirisu and blaziken, the name of azumarill came to the mind. Azumarill really felt like the perfect member to the team. Almost about guaranteed 80% of the azu’s nowadays were and are running belly drum sets, which I really liked. These are usually accompanied by the raichu’s for redirection help. My team had follow me + volt absorb pachirisu, which worked out the same way as a raichu and electric attacks turned in its favor. Azumarill’s EV spread is again taken from one of James Baek’s teams. I choose this spread as it didn’t had a waste of V’es in it and it was working really for the purpose of belly drum destruction. The moveset is as standard as an azumarill can be. During practice I noticed that I often didin’t lead with azumarill, but setted up late game and it helped me finish off with the +6 attack, and when it did so in the beginning well…. You know that I won for sure.


Ludicolo @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 76 HP / 92 Def / 140 SpA / 4 SpD / 196 Spe
Modest Nature
- Scald
- Energy Ball
- Ice Beam
- Protect

Well the team looked top notch at a glance, I was like, I’ll go on practicing and it’ll work out great. All I’ll need is to add another member to fill up. Well the first testing matches went amazing but then I stated loosing tons of battles. I though that this team was gonna be scrapped at the point. I tried a lot of things out for the last slot including rotom-w and raikou to deal with rain which I noted I had trouble with. I decided to takes some serious notes to test if the team can really work well or nah. I took some of the following notes which were important
. I was not doing well against rain teams, even with support of pachirisu.
. ground types like gastrodon and swampert were giving me trouble
. if I messed up on teams with lando-t on predicting the right time to HP ice it, before revealing the scarf, my whole team lost.

The perfect pokemon for this slot was only one left ‘ludiculo’. I was soo happy to find ludiculo for the last slot on the team. Ludicolo provided everything I needed for the team. First off was rain counter with swift swim ability and also OHKO’ing gastrodon and swampert, it was another awesome way of dealing with landorus therian.  Now I needed to build for the set.  Noticed that blaziken, crobat and azumarill were all hindered by the wide spread use of intimidates. Hydreigon’s special attacker potential was also lacking behind by the scarf on it. i needed to add the orb to it, in order to get it land more and more damage. at first fake out was putted on it, but during the tests i took the following important notes:
. My team had protect on only 2x members.
. Ludicolo was gonna be always the one faked out in two on two situations.
. No one hesitated doubling up onto ludiculo, anticipating the fake out.
. i didn't felt comfortable going with only two members with the move protect.

These handful of notes i took in order to test ludicolo, got me onto the decision of using my ludiculo with protect on instead of fake out, as i already had i neutralized with crobat's inner focus. i tested it and the protect on ludicolo saved and won me many games, can't believe how well it turned out. Energy ball over giga drain was putted on for the reasoning of landing more damage, hydro pump over scald could've been risky that is why that idea when came was dropped. Following are some calcs:

140+ SpA Life Orb Ludicolo Energy Ball vs. 252 HP / 148+ SpD Rotom-W: 117-140 (74.5 - 89.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
140+ SpA Life Orb Ludicolo Ice Beam vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Landorus-T: 250-296 (151.5 - 179.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
140+ SpA Life Orb Ludicolo Energy Ball vs. 252 HP / 252 SpD Gastrodon: 281-333 (128.8 - 152.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
140+ SpA Life Orb Ludicolo Scald vs. 252 HP / 132+ SpD Heatran: 109-127 (55 - 64.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery
140+ SpA Life Orb Ludicolo Energy Ball vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Tyranitar in Sand: 88-109 (50 - 61.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
140+ SpA Life Orb Ludicolo Energy Ball vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Terrakion: 172-203 (102.9 - 121.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO


Lead Combinations:
So after the team, i really wanna share some of the combinations on leads i make:

   + Blaziken destruction lead.
 -  + Belly drum activation lead.
 -  + Rain counter lead.

Conclusion:
                       Ah finally this post comes to an end here. i would firstly like to point out that there were some mega Blaziken's used recently in nats somewhere, however the idea wasn't derived from there and this team was built about one or two weeks ago from the actual event, hence i would be the first to put it around a team, if it goes meta. by the time i finished completing this post some people might think it was taken from there but really wasn't. however as always i hope it was worth your time going through the post and you enjoyed it! Bye for now!

[DanielJames]

Interesting team! I like how you use Blaziken's signature moves, Blaze Kick and Sky Uppercut, instead of some of it's more popular options. I feel like Substitute should be replaced with Knock Off, seeing as you said you had to worry about Psychic-types, but I do see the use in Substitute. Overall, great work!

[evilsabre]

i would replace blaze kick and upper cut for more accurate moves imo but if you want to keep the signatures go for it i just hate how often those moves have let me down by missing

Edit i would use low kick and flare blitz(tho fire punch is is another option only loosing 10 base power in exchange for the 10% accuracy)

[z2porygon]

Problems with the team after a few tests:
Weak to fairies ( sylveon, gardevoir) - even though you have choice band crobat, you have no resist except crobat which is frail already

Weak to bulky water types ( rotom-w, politoed) - like you said ludicolo can cover these but ludicolo has no support for if something like Gastrodon + Strong mega or a way to beat Ludicolo ( Kangaskhan, Salamence)

Weak to bulky pokemon (Cresselia, Ferrothron, Assault Vest Lando-T) – Combinations of bulky pokemon like Cresselia tear apart this team

Spread attacks (hyper voice, heat wave, muddy water, earthquake) – Follow me doesn't stop these. Mega Charizard-y, Kingdra, Sylveon, Landorus-T just do a large amount of damage onto the team

Suggestions on pokemon and move sets

Pachirisu:

Needs protect>light screen because if I need to make a switch and kept pachirisu around I cannot do that without protect

I would most likely switch this pokemon for Amoonguss since the grass typing helps, can spore threats, and helps with bulky water types better than pachirisu.

Blaziken:

Substitute was not used often when I tested the team since Mega-Blaziken is one of the teams main ways to output damage

I would replace substitute with Rock Slide or Brave Bird.

Crobat:

Choice band is power but support crobat is bae. Quick Guard helps against thundurus, talonflame and opposing fake outs. Free Tailwind with Inner Focus.

Hydreigon:

Scarf helped me outspeed stuff to win a couple battles but its damage output is somewhat sad. Dark pulse doesn't 2OHKO cresselia

I would suggest choice specs and earth power instead of flamethrower

Azumarill:

Pretty good choice for the team. I found it hard to set up against well prepared teams.

Ludicolo:

I would suggest Raichu over Ludicolo. Raichu has access to Grass knot, Thunderbolt, Fake Out and Nuzzle. Raichu has faster fake out than kangaskhan and shuts down thundurus with the Hidden Ability Lightning Rod. Fake out can be the best way to set up against certain teams that are ready for the follow me. I would also suggest aegislash over ludicolo since it has wide guard and resist fairies

Overall it was a fun team to play with and I really enjoyed the team.

[GiMYz]

This seems an interesting team. You should try it in the new special season of Battle Spot (http://3ds-sp.pokemon-gl.com/information...691050178c) because all the Top20 most used pokemon of the past seasons are not allowed in that format, and your team doesn't feature any of those banned mons. I'm sure M-Blaziken can be great without Lando and Thundurus around You are also checking M-Metagross which is the premiere Mega of that format, just saying.

[Pokeventurer]

(Jul 15, 2015, 08:29 AM)evilsabre Wrote: i would replace blaze kick and upper cut for more accurate moves imo but if you want to keep the signatures go for it i just hate how often those moves have let me down by missing

Edit i would use low kick and flare blitz(tho fire punch is is another option only loosing 10 base power in exchange for the 10% accuracy)

(Jul 15, 2015, 12:48 PM)z2porygon Wrote: Problems with the team after a few tests:
Weak to fairies ( sylveon, gardevoir) - even though you have choice band crobat, you have no resist except crobat which is frail already

Weak to bulky water types ( rotom-w, politoed) - like you said ludicolo can cover these but ludicolo has no support for if something like Gastrodon + Strong mega or a way to beat Ludicolo ( Kangaskhan, Salamence)

Weak to bulky pokemon (Cresselia, Ferrothron, Assault Vest Lando-T) – Combinations of bulky pokemon like Cresselia tear apart this team

Spread attacks (hyper voice, heat wave, muddy water, earthquake) – Follow me doesn't stop these. Mega Charizard-y, Kingdra, Sylveon, Landorus-T just do a large amount of damage onto the team

Suggestions on pokemon and move sets

Pachirisu:

Needs protect>light screen because if I need to make a switch and kept pachirisu around I cannot do that without protect

I would most likely switch this pokemon for Amoonguss since the grass typing helps, can spore threats, and helps with bulky water types better than pachirisu.

Blaziken:

Substitute was not used often when I tested the team since Mega-Blaziken is one of the teams main ways to output damage

I would replace substitute with Rock Slide or Brave Bird.

Crobat:

Choice band is power but support crobat is bae. Quick Guard helps against thundurus, talonflame and opposing fake outs. Free Tailwind with Inner Focus.

Hydreigon:

Scarf helped me outspeed stuff to win a couple battles but its damage output is somewhat sad. Dark pulse doesn't 2OHKO cresselia

I would suggest choice specs and earth power instead of flamethrower

Azumarill:

Pretty good choice for the team. I found it hard to set up against well prepared teams.

Ludicolo:

I would suggest Raichu over Ludicolo. Raichu has access to Grass knot, Thunderbolt, Fake Out and Nuzzle. Raichu has faster fake out than kangaskhan and shuts down thundurus with the Hidden Ability Lightning Rod. Fake out can be the best way to set up against certain teams that are ready for the follow me. I would also suggest aegislash over ludicolo since it has wide guard and resist fairies

Overall it was a fun team to play with and I really enjoyed the team.

First of all thanks for suggestions. based on the thoughts of you two i though i might run some tests exact the team you guys suggested. after running a few tests, i thought of the following errors/issues in the team:
. Blaziken + amoongus (mega salamence, mega gardevoir, with low kick and flare blitz i was risking something every turn and wasn't sure of getting any OHKO'es)
. Hydreigon with specs missed many benchmarks, e.g defeating lando-t, dragon including mega salamence, opposition of hydreigon and garchomps. the EV spread soon became meaningless after that.
. it may just be me but now there were 3x support mons ( amoongus, {crobat and raichu both frail too}) and the offenses like blaziken and azumarill being attack magnets fall early too.

. you did read the purpose and goal of every pokemon in the discription, further calcs prove it:

Fairy type matchup:
. Crobat (no.1 check to fairies as you can see i don't need QG on crobat due to the reason i am not threatened seriously by anypriority status or moves )
. Pachirisu (light screen was for a purpose)

Water type matchup:
. Azumarill and ludiculo +light screen can't forgive these.

Bulky pokemon:
. Substitute set up against supports
. Belly drum activation (i noticed it that my trit against cresse's was to wall it out till the end bring in azu, set-up and sweep it +other pokemons) as far as ferrothorn (hydreigon's flamethrower)

Spread attacks:
. Every team has spread moves, wide guard would be an excellent addition., so far i was able to play around these very well.
. EQ and RS (lando-t, gachomp; my team checks them well)
. Hyper voice fairies (light screen and crobat check)
. Heat wave (azumarill, blaziken, hydreigon, light screen)
. Substitute: it was a move for the sole purpose. it allowed me to set up for the attacks which blaziken can't survive, while the partner takes care of the threat.

i respect all your opinions and do appreciate that you took your time and wrote me these replys. i think the difference of opinion, on the slots of both pokemon and moves i choose and what you suggested can be a clash in the different forms of playstyle * so don't start wars with me :P * and i think my response is self explanatory if you analyze the team further.

[Marcusube]

In reference to the original post, what's stopping Sylveon/Gardevoir from clicking Hyper Voice on your team