Day 14: Blaziken

(BGM: Route 104 from Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald)

Well, it's been a while since our last starter Pokemon, and an even longer while since our last Hoenn Pokemon. Let's fix that by talking about one of Generation 3's starter Pokemon, and we have a great trio to choose from.

Sceptile is an awesome Grass type starter, one of my favorites honestly, but ever since the physical/special split introduced in Generation 4, I feel like Sceptile got nerfed quite a bit. Leaf Blade isn't as awesome as it was in the days of yore, unfortunately.

Swampert is the fan favorite Hoenn starter, and it's really not hard to see why. Great stats all around with the potential for a great movepool, and it's typing of Water-Ground means that Swampert only has one weakness to Grass-types. While Swampert is an awesome Pokemon, though, I find it to be just a little bit overrated.

So, that brings us to the last of the Hoenn starters and the one we'll be talking about today…

Blaziken!

(Insert Blaziken cry here)

(BGM: Rival Battle Music from Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire)

You want to know something? I originally hated Torchic when I first played Generation 3 all those years ago. Don't forget Generation 3 was my first experience with the Pokemon franchise. I had no idea what type matchups meant, or what evolution was, any of that mumbo jumbo. That also meant I had no idea of the Pokemon Torchic would eventually become. So, when I faced Roxanne, the first gym leader of Generation 3, with nothing but my Level 13 Torchic and some random Pokemon that I didn't bother leveling up at all, I got demolished.

So, like any kid who didn't know shit about Pokemon, I started over from the beginning, picked Treecko for my starter and treated Torchic like an afterthought…and that was the biggest mistake of my life at the time.

Lyra: Yeah, I can think of some worse things that you've done. (Thinks about stories like 'Persona 5 Meets Jackass', 'Pokemon Magnorm Region', and 'My Prediction for South Park Season 20')

Me: Hence why I said it was the biggest mistake I made at the time.

Anyway, a few years later when I had much more experience with the franchise, I decided to replay through Pokemon Emerald again, and this time go with Torchic and this time making sure to evolve it into Combusken so I could have a better chance against Roxanne. A few Double Kick's later, and I have a newfound respect for Hoenn's flame chicken, and said respect grew even more when it became Blaizken, and the rest was history.

Now that that brief history lesson is over, let's get into why Blaziken absolutely rocks!

First of all, I really like Blaziken's design; I really don't get why people say that it looks dumb. I mean, for crying out loud, it's a chicken that knows karate! That's just taking cock fighting to a whole new level. I also really like Blaziken's color scheme; the yellows and reds really showing this thing's badassery as a Fire-type Pokemon.

His design when he Mega Evolves is pretty cool too, going for a bit of a darker color scheme with reds and blacks rather than reds and yellows, with two long flames coming from both of its wrists. Not only is Mega Blaziken's look as badass as Vanilla Blaziken, but it's also rather majestic with those flames and the fact his model is constantly in the 'crane position'.

Moving on to stats, all I can say is that some pocket monsters just want to see the world burn. Attack and Special Attack is Blaziken's jam, and it has decent stats everywhere else. But once it evolves into Mega Blaziken, not only is his Attack and Special Attack amplified tenfold, but so is his speed, which only gets higher as his usual Blaze ability turns into Speed Boost, which boosts the holder's speed after every turn. Vanilla Blaziken gets Speed Boost too, but only as a hidden ability, FYI.

And what good is a Fire-Fighting pokemon without good fire and fighting type moves. Naturally, Blaziken can learn fire moves like Flare Blitz and Blaze Kick, which at one stage was his signature move, and through other means it can learn Flamethrower and Fire Punch. As for the fighting moves, in the earlier generations Blaziken could learn Sky Uppercut, but moves like Reversal and Bulk Up, which boosts attack and defense, have remained a constant throughout the series. Other noteworthy moves that Blaziken can learn naturally include Slash, and of all things, Flying type moves like Aerial Ace and Brave Bird!

In addition, Blaziken also has access to Acrobatics, Brick Break, Thunder Punch, Solar Beam, Close Combat as of Generation 9, Overheat, Earthquake, Poison Jab, Shadow Claw, and Rock Slide.

While Swampert may technically be the better Hoenn starter, as a reminder, this is a list about my favorite Pokemon, not the best, and for all the reasons I just stated, I definitely consider Blaziken to be my favorite out of all the Hoenn starters, and one of the best fire type starters in the series….

…

Even if it started a temporary trend where all Fire starters had to evolve into part Fighting type, but, that trend only lasted for the following two generations and, spoilers, you may be seeing one of them later down the line.