Introduction
Blaziken is a very aggressive character who uses the threat of Its powerful pressure tools to force mistakes from opponents on defense and in neutral. It compensates for its lackluster defense and zoning by keeping opponents at the wall and constantly mixing them up once it lands a single hit.
Blaziken's main strengths are offensive pressure up close, whiff punishing, and damage. Blaziken has several moves that leave it at frame advantage, forcing the opponent on the defensive. To compliment these moves, it has multiple attacks that counter pierce and it has moves like enhanced Heat Wave which can outlast even fully charged counter attacks. Its wall splat combos are amongst the strongest in Pokkén and can lead to either a Phase Shift or into multiple safe setups.
Blaziken's shortcomings are controlling space from long to mid range and defense in general. In both Field and Duel Phase, it cannot contest zoners until it gets close up. Its own projectiles have low priority and also have long startups and recovery. On defense, Blaziken's anti-air is amongst the slowest and it is one of the few characters without a command counter or red armor reversal. Its backdash also has lots of recovery, making it an inconsistent option to escape pressure with.