With the datamine info today, we got a glimpse of our new player character’s partner: Torchic. At first, many people were surprised or disappointed to see this fan favorite be a support character, since support is certainly not the first word I think of when I look at Blaziken. But in actuality, this fried chicken is actually quite incredible for what we’re getting. Here’s the highlights:

• Torchic has the trainer move Blazing Hope, which raises the team’s stats by 2 special attack and 1 crit rate. This is the first time we’ve had a move that raises an attacking stat alongside a critical hit buff for the whole team (Maylene’s only raises accuracy for 1 turn alongside crit rate). One use gives the whole team 50% critical hit rate and 40% special attack, which is unheard of for a support move to date. It’s no exaggeration to call this one of the best support moves in the game thus far, and certainly the best special attacker support move. (On a side note, Will’s Xatu is currently falling in love with this bird)

• Torchic is our first F2P unit to possess X Attack All, finally giving us a good physical support move for players who don’t have Maylene, Liza, or Phoebe. But it’s still even better at supporting special attackers.

• Torchic’s stats are actually kind of insane for a free 3-star unit. Its stat total is flat-out better than every single 3-star unit we have to date, with a stat total of 1316. For comparison, our 2 best scorers previously for 3-star units were Crasher Wake (1297) and Korrina (1288 AFTER mega-evolution). This means that Torchic will have a good team score and can be brought along to EX stages even if it doesn’t have type advantage.

• To delve more into Torchic’s stats, it’s actually comparable to many 5-star supports we currently have. Rosa’s Serperior has a base stat total of 1332, and Phoebe’s Dusclops has 1347. Keep in mind that we’re still comparing a lvl 90 Torchic to lvl 100 versions of these 5-star units.

• Torchic is only 3 stars. This is actually a huge advantage, because that means we can further raise its potential with upgrade tickets. Once promoted to 4 stars, Torchic is a legitimately impressive tank with 550 HP and 165 in both defenses. This completely blows Glacia’s Glalie out of the water (500 HP and 144 in both defenses). And if you manage to get it to 5 stars, Torchic’s bulk is straight up comparable to Serperior’s.

• We’re not done yet! Torchic CAN EVOLVE, as evidenced by the fact that it does not have a uniquely named sync move yet. Every Pokemon with datamined evolution events currently does not have a unique sync move, while ones that won’t evolve already have a uniquely-named sync move, such as player Pikachu (Thunder of Newfound Passion) or Brock’s Onix (Rock Solid Rockslide). That means that Torchic WILL get even stronger in the future.

• Torchic is probably best compared to Phoebe, Lyra, Rosa, and Roxanne as a bulky support who can raise multiple offensive stats. Phoebe will likely still remain the best option for supporting physical strikers, but there’s a strong argument to be made that Torchic is just flat-out better than Lyra, Rosa, and Roxanne for supporting allied special attackers. Having a bonus crit buff tacked onto X Special Attack All is just too good to pass up.

So there you have it: I have no idea who decided to make Torchic a tanky support, but as it turns out, it’s shaping up to be really good at its role.