Although Talonflame are on average already the fastest of any extant bird pokemon in ordinary combat, there are on very rare occasions times when its 310 mile per hour speed is insufficient to get off the first move. Some non-avian flying pokemon exceed it in flight speed, as does the extinct Archeops and a vanishingly small number of terrestrial pokemon. (Pidgeot exceeds them all once it reaches full acceleration, which it can not do in the confines of a regulation or even a sky battlefield.) Variation between individuals, either inborn or through training, can also overlap the speed advantages of the Talonflame, and paralysis and a multitude of techniques can make any pokemon go far faster or slower than their ordinary speed.

Talonflame trained for high-level battles rarely have reason to care about the few faster pokemon, however, for they have a so-called "second speed": a mastery of the wind said to exceed even that of the wind god Tornadus. The principle of using wind to increase pokemon speed is well-known through attacks like tailwind, but Talonflame take this concept to a new order of magnitude, utilizing local winds to ensure any of their flying-type attacks will be the first to connect.

Talonflame, however, pay a price for their speed, for they ram their foes at such a pace that they often wound themselves as well as their foes from the impact. Wild Talonflame have solved this problem by avoiding combat with anything they take too long to kill, for their extraordinary speed is even more useful for fleeing than for fighting. Their domestic counterparts must rely on trainers conscious of their health, or at least those willing to deploy them strategically enough to make their Talonflame's sacrifice ensure victory for their team.