Pokémon X and Y/Species Strategies (Generation III Families)

This page contains information on every Pokémon family first introduced in Generation III, including stats, recommended movesets and evolutionary lines. All evolutionary lines are put together, even if an evolution or pre-evolution was not introduced in the same Generation as other members of its evolutionary family.

Torchic, Combusken and Blaziken
The Torchic line is probably the only line of starters since the original three to make a lasting impression among much of the series' fans, and it isn't hard to see why. With its good attacking stats and the amazing Speed Boost ability, Blaziken is a terrifying force in battles. Its two STABs give it a lot of coverage, and it certainly has the movepool to make use of it. Hi-Jump Kick and Flare Blitz is the ideal combination, letting it tear through opponents that don't resist its STAB moves, and it gets Swords Dance and Baton Pass to take advantage of its Speed Boost ability. Finally, in this new generation, it also gains a Mega Evolution, raising all of its best stats to deadly levels, turning it into one of the most dangerous threats in the game.

Blaziken's greatest strength is arguably its hidden ability Speed Boost, which sets it apart from other Fire-type starters. Speed Boost lets it gain Speed for every turn it survives, turning its Speed from average to unrivaled, and it can learn Protect or Substitute to guarantee it gets a boost. Opportunistic players can even make use of free turns, such as when an opposing foe switches out, to get a Swords Dance boost and make Blaziken an even greater threat. With enough boosts, Blaziken can become potentially unstoppable, being both difficult to wall due to its power, and impossible to outspeed with several turns of Speed Boost. Even when Blaziken does meet its match, it has access to Baton Pass, which can let it pass on all of its accumulated boosts to another offensive Pokémon, indirectly continuing its reign of destruction.

Even an unstoppable force like Blaziken still has its weaknesses, although they are difficult to take advantage of. It takes a bit of time to reach its peak due to its middling 80 base Speed, during which one can still attempt to take it out, though this is mitigated when it mega evolves. Its defenses are also pretty poor, so one can still take out an opposing Pokémon if it is hit by a sufficiently strong attack before it accumulates too many boosts. Priority attacks also ignore Blaziken's Speed no matter how high it becomes, with Aqua Jet and Water Shuriken in particular being great choices due to being super effective on Blaziken.

Volbeat
Volbeat and Illumise have a similar relationship with Plusle and Minun, being meant to be paired in a double battle but having poor synergy with each other and pretty terrible Pokémon themselves. Within the duo, Volbeat specializes in physical attacks. Volbeat's stats are pretty terrible, with subpar Attack, poor defenses and mediocre Speed. However, he is one of two Pokémon that learns Tail Glow, which raises his Special Attack by 3 stages. While Volbeat's Special Attack stat is absolutely abysmal to make use of it, he can also get Baton Pass as an egg move, letting him Baton Pass the effects of one of the best boosting moves in the game to a special attacker that can make good use of it. Volbeat's hidden ability, Prankster, also helps it immensely in this role, guaranteeing it can pass a Tail Glow boost at least once if it can survive one attack, which it usually can with Focus Sash.

If you want to use Volbeat, Tail Glow and Baton Pass are necessary moves, as Volbeat is simply too weak and too frail to do anything else. Prankster and Focus Sash is also a necessity on Volbeat, since it will ensure that Volbeat can pass a boost at least once, provided that he has not taken damage prior to using Tail Glow. His remaining two moves can be anything you like, but be forewarned that you likely won't get the chance to use them ever. Double Edge, Return or U-Turn are probably Volbeat's most damaging attacks, as its physical movepool is horribly barren. Encore is interesting if you can catch someone using a status move, giving you some more turns to set up boosts. For other support options, you can look into using Toxic, Thunder Wave, Light Screen, Swagger and Trick, all of which are affected by Prankster, but note that there are better Prankster users of these moves.

Illumise
Volbeat and Illumise are similar to Plusle and Minun, being meant to be paired up in double battles but having poor synergy and being pretty terrible Pokémon themselves. In this duo, Illumise is better at special attacking. Like Volbeat, Illumise has pretty poor stats, with her strongest attack stat being quite low, pitiful defenses and mediocre Speed. Even worst, Illumise lacks Tail Glow, meaning that there is even less reason to use her over her male counterpart. Illumise still gets Prankster for priority status moves, but she has to compete with all other Prankster Pokémon, including Volbeat.

There really isn't mush Illumise can do that other Pokémon can't. Its best feature is Prankster, so be sure to take advantage of it as much as you can. Encore, Light Screen, Swagger, Thunder Wave, Toxic and Tailwind are all fairly good status moves you can use. Additionally, it can get a unique combination of Baton Pass and Growth through breeding, and can also learn Sunny Day to double Growth's effect, but it is still inferior to the huge boost that Tail Glow Volbeat provides. In terms of attacks, Bug Buzz is Illumise's strongest STAB attack, though U-Turn is more useful for switching out after she has set up her status moves.

Deoxys
Deoxys is an interesting legendary Pokémon in that there are four different forms it can take, which it can freely switch between by checking the meteorites in Ambrette Town's fossil research center. By default, Deoxys is a simple glass cannon, boasting high attack stats and high Speed but poor defenses. Attack Forme Deoxys emphasizes these traits even further, letting Deoxys hit very hard but gives it the toughness of a Rattata. Defense Forme Deoxys inverts these stats, turning it into a defensive behemoth, but leaving it with below average attacking stats and Speed. Finally, Speed Forme Deoxys gives it a pretty balanced set of stats, but boasts the highest Speed of any Pokémon in the game.

Due to the sheer difference of stats between formes, it is obvious that every Deoxys forme has a different playstyle. Normal Deoxys is mostly outclassed by Attack Deoxys as they're both built as glass cannons, with Attack Deoxys being stronger in this regard, though Normal Deoxys has the advantage of actually being able to survive some attacks. Defense Deoxys is obviously made to tank attacks and wear down the opponent, but its high defenses also lets it support its team by setting up entry hazards or spreading status ailments while shrugging off attacks. Speed Deoxys is purely supportive, using its unrivaled speed to use as many entry hazards and status effects as possible before it goes down. However, the popularity of priority attacks really hinder it from doing this role effectively, so it struggles a bit to compete with Defense Deoxys in this role.

Deoxys's movepool is not shabby at all, with plenty of good moves that are usable for every one of its formes. Deoxys has a different level up movepool depending on its forme, but since it can switch between them any time it wants, you can actually get moves learned by one forme to be used by the other. For Normal and Attack Formes, there are tons of attacks it can choose to cover a wide range of types, including access to the strongest Psychic-type attack in the game, Psycho Boost, as well as Extreme Speed to guarantee that it hits first against priority attackers. A stalling Defense Forme Deoxys can utilize Toxic and Recover very well. Support moves for both Defense and Speed Formes include Taunt, Knock Off, Reflect, Light Screen, Spikes, Stealth Rock and Thunder Wave, all of which are reasonably effective on either forme.