As iconic as many of the Starter Pokemon from each generation of the games may become, the sad fact is that a lot of them don’t seem to be up to competitive play from what I’ve read online. Charizard was once one such example of what I’m talking about, but for many fully evolved starters like Charizard, Mega Evolution ended up changing many things for the better. The next Pokemon that I’m about to talk about didn’t necessarily need a Mega Evolution, but it’s still even more powerful for getting one.
This is Mega Factor!
The next Pokemon that I’m about to talk about is actually my favorite Starter Pokemon from the third generation games. Presenting one of the first Fire/Fighting-Type Pokemon in the games, Blaziken.
The very first time I played the original Pokemon Sapphire, I really didn’t know what I was getting into. I knew virtually nothing about the Hoenn Region, and I had practically no idea what sort of Pokemon I would encounter as the game progressed. So when the time came for me to choose a Starter Pokemon, I picked the one that I was the most familiar with from the anime, Torchic. My very first Torchic turned out to be female, and because I didn’t know what she was going to evolve into, I gave her the nickname Phoenix simply because she was some kind of fiery bird. At the time I had no idea that my little Torchic would eventually evolve into such a powerhouse Pokemon.
Natural Evolution: At level sixteen, Torchic evolves for the first time and becomes Combusken. I’ve always kind of viewed Combusken as this Pokemon’s awkward teenage phase because of how it looks. As odd as Combusken looks though, it’s at this evolutionary stage when out fiery bird becomes a Fire/Fighting-Type. At level thirty-six after a lot of hard training, Combusken evolves into Blaziken and takes on a much cooler appearance. At the time when I had first played Pokemon Sapphire, I never expected Torchic to eventually evolve into such an awesome Pokemon.
Mega Evolution: Blaziken is one of those Pokemon that didn’t necessarily need a Mega Evolution because it was a pretty powerful Pokemon as it was, but because it got one anyway it just makes it that much deadlier in combat. In addition to gaining a neater hairstyle, a better color scheme and those cool streamers on its wrists, Blaziken also receives a boost to almost all of its stats except for its HP. The biggest boost is of course to Blaziken’s attack and special attack stats. Blaziken’s ability also changes to the ability known as Speed Boost after Mega Evolving. The normal Blaziken could also have Speed Boost as a hidden ability, but having Blaziken gain this ability after Mega Evolution no matter what opens up some new possibilities. So if you’re playing the games and get stuck with a Blaziken that has its standard ability, all you have to do is just have it hold its Mega Stone.
Signature Move: Right after evolving, Blaziken immediately learns a powerful move known as Blaze Kick. Of course there’s actually nothing all that special about Blaze Kick. It’s just a powerful Fire-Type physical move that has a chance of leaving a burn on the opponent. In fact these days, Hitmonlee can also learn Blaze Kick through leveling up, and the attack can be passed on to certain Pokemon through breeding. In the end, Blaze Kick is sort of a more powerful version of Fire Punch, but it’s still a really awesome attack nonetheless.
That pretty much covers it for this week’s post. Next week I’ll be covering yet another Starter Pokemon that was blessed with the gift of Mega Evolution. Until next week, stay tuned.
