Blacephalon

Fire

Blacephalon has great Special Attack and Speed, rivaling the stats of Mega Charizard Y and Volcarona, making Blacephalon a nice offensive teammate on any Fire team. Blacephalon can make good use of either Choice Scarf to be a great revenge killer and cleaner or Choice Specs to become a strong wallbreaker. With Beast Boost raising Blacephalon's Special Attack every time it gets a KO and its ability to KO at least one Pokemon in about every matchup, Blacephalon can even sweep the opposing team in the right circumstances, especially if the opponent mispredicts its set. Unlike some other Fire-types, Blacephalon has room to carry Hidden Power Ice to ease the otherwise extremely hard Dragon matchup as well as other matchups like Flying and Ground, KOing the likes of Dragonite with prior damage and Landorus for its teammates. When equipped with a Choice Scarf, Blacephalon can revenge kill Choice Scarf Nihilego, one of the greatest threats to Fire teams, with Psyshock after opposing Pursuit trappers on the Poison or Rock team are gone. On the other hand, if Trick is used on either set, Blacephalon can cripple some would-be checks like Chansey and Mantine by locking them into a single move. Additionally, Blacephalon's typing makes it immune or at least resistant to most priority moves, such as Dragonite's Extreme Speed and Mamoswine's Ice Shard. However, Blacephalon's bulk is so ridiculously low that even resisted hits like Choice Band Scizor's Bullet Punch and Stakataka's Gyro Ball can 2HKO or even OHKO it. Couple that with a commonly found Stealth Rock weakness among Fire teams, and this means Blacephalon is extremely easy to wear down and cannot freely switch in and out of the field without proper hazard clearing and U-turn or Volt Switch support from its teammates. Furthermore, Blacephalon's poor offensive coverage options, limited to Hidden Power and a non-STAB Psychic-type move, often lead it to become deadweight in some matchups, such as against Dark and Rock teams. Finally, Blacephalon's Speed tier is a single point shy of Terrakion's and Keldeo's, while being three points below Latios's, all problematic threats to handle for Fire teams, making Blacephalon sometimes hard to make good use of against teams that often carry those Pokemon.

Ghost

Blacephalon is a good offensive option on Ghost-type teams because of its high Special Attack, which allows it to serve as an effective wallbreaker, and Speed, which helps it revenge kill Pokemon with base 100 Speed such as Mega Charizard X, Mega Charizard Y, and Volcarona. Blacephalon notably is able to take on Steel-, Grass-, and Ice-type threats such as Mega Scizor, Ferrothorn, and Alolan Ninetales because of its Fire-type coverage. Its Special Attack is further increased after every KO by its ability, Beast Boost, allowing it to snowball if its checks and counters have been worn down enough. Blacephalon also pairs well with many offensive Pokemon on Ghost, such as Gengar and Mimikyu, because of its high offensive stats and typing. Although it has high Special Attack, Blacephalon lacks coverage, thus getting walled by Pokemon such as Tyranitar, though it can use Trick to cripple some of its usual switch-ins such as Chansey and Mantine. Blacephalon also is easily worn down by Stealth Rock because of its Fire typing, and due to its lackluster defensive typing and bulk, Blacephalon can rarely switch in for free and is easily knocked out by a strong attack. In addition, Blacephalon is prone to getting revenge killed by faster threats such as Latios and Keldeo when not holding a Choice Scarf. Blacephalon is also easily trapped and eliminated by Pursuit because of its Ghost typing.