slant Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 BATON PASSING TO THE TOP! TEAM AT A GLANCE INTRODUCTION OK so anyone who has gone on the ladder in the past week or so probably has had to face my annoying as shit baton pass team. Baton pass is basically a broken strategy right now since it does not depend on player skill, it is 100% reliant on team matchup. Either you have a counter to baton pass or you don't (more on this in the 'counters' section); if you don't then you are 100% screwed. The algorithm goes like this: Step 1, Is the opponent's pokemon (i) a hazard setter or phazer, (ii) offensive physical attacker, or (iii) offensive special attacker? If (i) go to Espeon, if (ii) go to someone who sets up defensive boosts, if (iii) go to someone who sets up spdef boosts. Then keep repeating step 1 until you are at +6 in both defensive and special defense, keeping up substitute if possible. Finally once your opponent can't break past your substitute, sweep with someone (most likely Espeon with stored power). This team sweeps on the special attacking side rather than the physical attacking side. Doing this allows me not to worry about foul play, which does negligible damage even to Espeon. I don't have a dedicated baton pass recipient - any single one of my pokemon can pull off a sweep if necessary. This additional flexibility allows me to adapt to my opponent's strategy and allows me to constantly be setting up in my opponent's face. Finally, every single one of my pokemon carries substitute which protects me against status and critical hits. Always try to keep your subs up! So basically I set out to make the most annoying team the world has ever seen, netting me a current ladder ranking of #2 and a whole lot of ragequits and pissed off opponents before my ladder ranking got reset again (someone should look into that...). And yeah I feel dirty for using baton pass. TEAM IN DETAIL Scolipede (M) @ Mental Herb Trait: Speed Boost EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Iron Defense - Protect - Substitute - Baton Pass Scolipede is a staple on baton pass teams for the sole reason that he is the guy that passes speed. Usually the way I play Scolipede is I alternate between substitute and protect a few times until I get enough speed boosts, then baton pass out. Of course if possible I try to get defense boosts in, but it is unlikely in the beginning, I typically use Scolipede to get up defense boosts only after my chain gets going. The only exception is against hazard layers since I don't care too much if my opponent gets up hazards, so I can use that time to set up a defense boost if I really want to. Mental herb is my item of choice here since otherwise an early taunt can shut down the match for me. With mental herb, I can set up an iron defense on the taunt and then baton pass out on the second taunt. Sylveon (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Pixilate EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Spd Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk) - Calm Mind - Baton Pass - Hyper Voice - Substitute Normally Sylveon is a great spdef wall, but it only gets better once it gets some calm mind boosts under its belt. Sylveon belongs in the chain because it has three things going for it: typing, bulkiness, and pixilate. Its typing means there are very few attacks that will hit it super effectively, its bulkiness ensures that after a few boosts, even super effective attacks don't break its sub. Finally pixilate allows me to have a strong stab attack in hyper voice that also bypasses subs (which is useful in many instances, particularly against opposing baton pass teams). Zapdos @ Leftovers Trait: Lightningrod EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk) - Charge - Substitute - Baton Pass - Thunderbolt Zapdos is my secondary special defense wall. In addition to passing around huge subs, with charge it is able to accumulate special defense boosts for my chain. Charge is such a great move, in addition to boosting my spdef, it also allows me to sweep with thunderbolt should I need to. Usually Zapdos is seen baton passing agility boosts, but since I have Scolipede, I don't need additional speed. Zapdos was chosen in order to help me deal with "flying spam" teams, mainly with Pinsir and Talonflame. Vaporeon (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Water Absorb EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) - Substitute - Baton Pass - Acid Armor - Scald Obligatory Vaporeon on the team. Everyone knows what he does, pass around huge substitutes and defense boosts. Moving on... Togekiss (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Super Luck EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk) - Substitute - Baton Pass - Air Slash - Nasty Plot OK so you're in a jam - for some reason you can't get your defensive boosts up? No problem! If you at least have some speed boosts in your chain, you can flinch something to death. With its natural bulkiness it is easy for it to get up a nasty plot, and then air slash away. Air slash is terrific single-type coverage, hitting most types for neutral damage, allowing Togekiss to be a nice back-up sweeper and special wall. Espeon (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Magic Bounce EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) - Baton Pass - Stored Power - Substitute - Calm Mind Espeon is a staple on baton pass teams due to its ability, magic bounce. With it, phazers such as Hippowdon and Skarmory can't ruin your baton pass chain. This is the most important part of your chain, and as such it should be kept in complete safety! Once enough boosts are accumulated in your chain, Espeon can easily sweep with stored power (with enough boosts it 1hkos Blissey!). You can also use it to reflect some hazards back if you feel like predicting, although again, it's not the end of the world if you let your opponent get stealth rock up. COUNTERS -Perish Song: I don't have Mr. Mime, so perish song shuts me down completely. Fortunately it's not as common in this metagame since usage of Politoed, the move's main abuser, has declined due to the weather nerf. -Some special sweepers: If they are brought in early, at best my special defense boosts can keep me on equal footing with their special attack boosts (for example calm mind vs nasty plot, or calm mind vs quiver dance). However it can be played around if you are careful. The worst offender seems to be lead Volcarona which my team struggles against. The main tool I use against it is Togekiss, but it isn't 100%. However leading with Volcarona is a bad idea in just about every other situation. -Haze: Most commonly seen on Quagsire. It is annoying to play against, basically you have to pp stall haze before you begin setting up your chain. But it is possible to beat. -Weird shit: Sturdy+red card, Topsy-turvy trick room Malamar, Power swap Ninetales, etc....Yeah it defeats my baton pass team but is unviable in just about every other circumstance. CONCLUSION Baton pass is just a broken, broken strategy. 90% of games are decided in your favor even before the match starts because of team matchup. If you run any sort of stall or bulky team, you're screwed. 5% of the time the baton passing team gets an automatic lose because the opponent has a baton passing counter. The remaining 5% of the time it is uncertain, but the outcome is decided by turn 3 or 4 of the game. Basically the only hope of beating it is to run one of the above-mentioned counters (again they are unviable in most circumstances except against baton pass) or maybe if you are running an all-out offense team, to prevent me from getting up my boosts before my chain gets going. The only thing positive I have to say about this team is that it is so simple to use that it is perfect for newbies that are learning the metagame. Anyways I'm retiring this team, it's gone as far as it will go. Feel free to try it out and tell me what you think! IMPORTABLE Scolipede (M) @ Mental Herb Trait: Speed Boost EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spd Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk) - Iron Defense - Protect - Substitute - Baton Pass Togekiss (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Super Luck EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk) - Substitute - Baton Pass - Air Slash - Nasty Plot Sylveon (F) @ Leftovers Trait: Pixilate EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Spd Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk) - Calm Mind - Baton Pass - Hyper Voice - Substitute Espeon (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Magic Bounce EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) - Baton Pass - Stored Power - Substitute - Calm Mind Zapdos @ Leftovers Trait: Lightningrod EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 SDef Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk) - Charge - Substitute - Baton Pass - Thunderbolt Vaporeon (M) @ Leftovers Trait: Water Absorb EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk) - Substitute - Baton Pass - Acid Armor - Scald Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamina Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 strong team xd gratz on peak. but yes team very annoying t_t If this team is played perfectly than the threats you listed are the only thing that can beat it maybe also roar heatran since espeon cannot really do much damage to it in the early stages. elated that you are retiring the team though. bp op n_n! oh i have mentioned this before but maybe an ingrain smeargle to help agaist phazers and to also make your pokemon gain additional health each turn making them more bulkier and also putting huge threats to sleep. Possibly get rid of togakiss altho that would make you weak to shedinja Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Desire Posted May 5, 2014 Share Posted May 5, 2014 really weak to DD mega t-tar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slant Posted May 5, 2014 Author Share Posted May 5, 2014 Kam- yeah spdef Heatran can be a pain in the ass. Smeargle is good and the extra line of defense against phazers would be useful, but yeah i'm not sure if Togekiss would be missed or not. DD- i haven't had a problem with ddtar yet since iron defense/acid armor defense boosts outpace dragon dance's attack boosts. In particular Vaporeon can set up acid armor and fish for a scald burn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJMistery Posted May 5, 2014 Share Posted May 5, 2014 i know a counter than can only be beaten with smeargle's ingrain: mold breaker (or his clones) + Roar Sacred sword with a pair of boosts also takes down some passers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RubyHeart Posted May 5, 2014 Share Posted May 5, 2014 I like the idea of baton passing. Like, each pokemon help each other out and such, however if one falls (Like Mr. Wormy) then it is screwed over owo Plus I can sorta see mono dark murder this team ^w^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.