Why Swampert over Blaziken?

Blaziken Attack and Sp. Atk stats are higher than Swampert, Swampert has high Defenses but in-game offense matters more than defense. Why?

Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.

Matchup against the gyms.

Swampert has an incredible matchup against Hoenn’s gyms. I’ll take you through them:

Roxanne:Mudkip wins, Torchic doesn’t do well

Brawly:Both neutral.

Wattson:Marshtomp is immune to electric and is super effective, Combusken is neutral.

Flannery: Marshtomp wins, Fire resists Combusken’s Fire and fighting is neutral

Norman:Combusken’s fighting is super effective, and Marshtomp can mess with Truant by using Dig

Winona:Blaziken is weak to flying and flying is immune to Swampert’s ground, but water is still neutral

Liza and Tate:Swampert’s water beats Lunatone and Solrock, and Blaziken is weak to psychic.

Wallace:Water beats Blaziken and is resistant to Swampert’s water, but ground is neutral.

Blaziken does pretty well against the elite 4 and champion, beating Sidney, Glacia, and Steven, while Swampert is neutral against all but Drayden and beats Steven with ground.

Swampert also learns a ton of HMs- Surf, Waterfall, Dive, Strength, and Rock Smash.

TL;DR: Swampert has a better matchup against the gyms. However, anything works in-game, so Blaziken is a perfectly good choice.

Hope this helps!

sourceOffense does matter more than defense in-game, but Swampert’s damage output is stronger than Blaziken’s in RSE. Like the other answer said, there are also a lot of strong opponents that use water, flying, or psychic attacks and far less that use grass attacks. Both of these reasons (and probably a few more that I forget) make Swampert significantly better than Blaziken.