My Take on Baton Pass
Introduction
Roughly a month ago, I decided I would like to make a competitive baton pass team. Well, that didn’t go so well. I was off and on for over three weeks trying to make baton pass work. I got two things from that experience, about six failed baton pass teams and the knowledge of why baton pass teams seem to fail so much. I compiled all of the reasons baton pass teams fail, and I began to work around it.
-Having so many baton passers leaves a lot of places for errors
-Taunt and whirlwind are catastrophic for you
-If you don’t get a speed pass early in the game, you lose
-Most of the time when you do actually get a baton pass chain off, you don’t even kill all of their Pokémon
-Status effects on your teams receiver will kill you
With those problems in mind, I began to design a new team to avoid these errors. I started off by limiting myself to two baton passers to keep the team simple and take out a lot of things that can go wrong. Next I decided to make sure taunt was on all of my passers, this would prevent the other team from taunting and/or phasing. Lastly I added a strong group of Pokémon to clean up whatever mess is left after I make the pass. After I finished this team, I got it to 1450 on the ladder (which is fairly high for me) so I feel good about this team. I still feel as if the team could have some improvement though.
Meet the Team
Azelf @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Explosion
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Taunt
Dual-Screen Azelf, so far the best lead I have tried and a surefire way to keep my baton passer alive. Azelf opens the game with Reflect or Light-Screen; depending on which is better suited to the moment. Because of his speed, this guy can get up a screen before almost any lead can get off an attack. With a quick boost to defense, Azelf becomes surprisingly bulky. After a screen, Azelf is 2-3HKOed by Tyranitar, 3HKOed by Metagross, and 3HKOed by lead champ. This allows him to get off both screens and possibly an explosion vs. most leads. Also stopping non-offence leads from setting up with taunt. The only leads I have a problem with are Jirachi and Aerodactyl. Who I usually just which to smeargle or metagross on respectively.
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Gliscor (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 HP/60 Spd/196 SDef
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
- Taunt
- Baton Pass
This is my baton passer, with screens up; this thing never fails to get a pass off. Generally I start with Polish, then follow it up with two SDs. If I am against a Pokémon who I know will taunt or phase, I am able to counter it with a quick taunt. The Lum berry on this thing has saved me so many times; whether it be a stray freeze from an ice beam, a smeargle trying to sleep me, or even the rare paralysis from a stun spore. With the EVs, Gliscor reaches 470 speed after one sword dance. While stilling being able to be 3HKOed by lead Swampert’s Icebeam, 2HKOed by LO Starmies Ice Beam, and 2HKOed by Weavile’s ice punch. This gives me at least a Polish against those three and a Polish and two SDs against everyone else.
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Smeargle (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 96 HP/120 Def/252 Spd/40 SDef
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Baton Pass
- Ingrain
- Spore
- Substitute
Smeargle was originally my answer to phasing, but most of the time a taunt from Gliscor solves phasing. Now I mostly use him for a spore, a sub pass, or as cannon folder. He is also my best answer to trick-scarf Pokémon, he switches in when I expect a scarf and follows it up with spore, and then I get a switch to whatever part of the Baton pass I was on, basically a reset button. Another problem is when a choice rotom/gengar is spamming shadow ball on Gliscor, I am unable to baton pass into machamp because I will get OHKOed. Therefore I pass to smeargle (who is immune to shadow ball) and spore the switch in. Then I get up a sub and pass to Machamp. I am probably going to replace him; I just need to find a pokemon who can fill his narrow role.
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Machamp (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dynamicpunch
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
- Thunderpunch
BEAST, Machamp is beast. This is my main pass recipient, after two SDs, he OHKO the whole entire metagame. With one SD he OKHO’s everyone except Swampert and Cresselia. Lum berry is there to save me from status moves the turn he is passed in. He has good bulk so the only time he has a problem getting in is against Gengar and Togekiss, who I can both stop with my alternate recipient: Metagross. The EVs in speed give him the same speed as a boosted Agiligross after a polish.
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Metagross @ Life Orb
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 112 HP/252 Atk/12 Def/132 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Meteor Mash
- Thunderpunch
- Bullet Punch
This is basically agiligross minus the agility. Whenever I am unable to get a SD off on Gliscor, this guy comes in. He operates the same as a standard agiligross after getting passed a Polish, he is able to handle most pokemon notwithstanding Swampert and Rotom. With BP, this guy is also my answer to Aerodactyl and Crobat. If they are in the lead spot, I imdeiatly switch to this guy to handle it, afterwords he becomes a suicide poke. The EVs allow him to outspeed timid choice scarf Heatran, who is the biggest threat to this set.
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Kingdra (F) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 48 HP/96 Atk/80 Def/164 Spd/120 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Rest
- Outrage
- Waterfall
I can’t believe I never see anyone using Chesto Kingdra. This thing is like a god, most of the time it comes in after all my Machamp/Metagross are done sweeping and proceeds wipe out the rest of their team. For every game were I have used this pokemon, I have gotten at least one kill, usually two and occasionally more. The Idea of this set is come in and starts Dragon Dancing. Then you keep Dragon Dancing until you will be unable to survive another attack. After that you rest, and you usually end up with 825 attack, 735 speed, and ~80% health. Kingdra’s typing lets you hit with STAB Waterfall and Outrage for neutral on every OU pokemon. bar Empoleon. Another great thing about Kingdra is that there is no easy way to deal with him. He has only one x2 weakness to a type that few pokemon have. He has lots of resistances that ensure his survivability. Not to mention, no priority attack hits him x2 and the strongest priority attack (BP from CB Scizor) hits him for half damage. 164 EVs boost Kingdra's Speed so that it can outspeed base 115 Pokémon after a single Dragon Dance and outspeed +1 Speed-increasing natured base 100s after two.
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Introduction
Roughly a month ago, I decided I would like to make a competitive baton pass team. Well, that didn’t go so well. I was off and on for over three weeks trying to make baton pass work. I got two things from that experience, about six failed baton pass teams and the knowledge of why baton pass teams seem to fail so much. I compiled all of the reasons baton pass teams fail, and I began to work around it.
-Having so many baton passers leaves a lot of places for errors
-Taunt and whirlwind are catastrophic for you
-If you don’t get a speed pass early in the game, you lose
-Most of the time when you do actually get a baton pass chain off, you don’t even kill all of their Pokémon
-Status effects on your teams receiver will kill you
With those problems in mind, I began to design a new team to avoid these errors. I started off by limiting myself to two baton passers to keep the team simple and take out a lot of things that can go wrong. Next I decided to make sure taunt was on all of my passers, this would prevent the other team from taunting and/or phasing. Lastly I added a strong group of Pokémon to clean up whatever mess is left after I make the pass. After I finished this team, I got it to 1450 on the ladder (which is fairly high for me) so I feel good about this team. I still feel as if the team could have some improvement though.
Meet the Team
Azelf @ Light Clay
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Explosion
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Taunt
Dual-Screen Azelf, so far the best lead I have tried and a surefire way to keep my baton passer alive. Azelf opens the game with Reflect or Light-Screen; depending on which is better suited to the moment. Because of his speed, this guy can get up a screen before almost any lead can get off an attack. With a quick boost to defense, Azelf becomes surprisingly bulky. After a screen, Azelf is 2-3HKOed by Tyranitar, 3HKOed by Metagross, and 3HKOed by lead champ. This allows him to get off both screens and possibly an explosion vs. most leads. Also stopping non-offence leads from setting up with taunt. The only leads I have a problem with are Jirachi and Aerodactyl. Who I usually just which to smeargle or metagross on respectively.
---
Gliscor (F) @ Lum Berry
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs: 252 HP/60 Spd/196 SDef
Timid nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Rock Polish
- Swords Dance
- Taunt
- Baton Pass
This is my baton passer, with screens up; this thing never fails to get a pass off. Generally I start with Polish, then follow it up with two SDs. If I am against a Pokémon who I know will taunt or phase, I am able to counter it with a quick taunt. The Lum berry on this thing has saved me so many times; whether it be a stray freeze from an ice beam, a smeargle trying to sleep me, or even the rare paralysis from a stun spore. With the EVs, Gliscor reaches 470 speed after one sword dance. While stilling being able to be 3HKOed by lead Swampert’s Icebeam, 2HKOed by LO Starmies Ice Beam, and 2HKOed by Weavile’s ice punch. This gives me at least a Polish against those three and a Polish and two SDs against everyone else.
---
Smeargle (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 96 HP/120 Def/252 Spd/40 SDef
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Baton Pass
- Ingrain
- Spore
- Substitute
Smeargle was originally my answer to phasing, but most of the time a taunt from Gliscor solves phasing. Now I mostly use him for a spore, a sub pass, or as cannon folder. He is also my best answer to trick-scarf Pokémon, he switches in when I expect a scarf and follows it up with spore, and then I get a switch to whatever part of the Baton pass I was on, basically a reset button. Another problem is when a choice rotom/gengar is spamming shadow ball on Gliscor, I am unable to baton pass into machamp because I will get OHKOed. Therefore I pass to smeargle (who is immune to shadow ball) and spore the switch in. Then I get up a sub and pass to Machamp. I am probably going to replace him; I just need to find a pokemon who can fill his narrow role.
---
Machamp (M) @ Lum Berry
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dynamicpunch
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
- Thunderpunch
BEAST, Machamp is beast. This is my main pass recipient, after two SDs, he OHKO the whole entire metagame. With one SD he OKHO’s everyone except Swampert and Cresselia. Lum berry is there to save me from status moves the turn he is passed in. He has good bulk so the only time he has a problem getting in is against Gengar and Togekiss, who I can both stop with my alternate recipient: Metagross. The EVs in speed give him the same speed as a boosted Agiligross after a polish.
---
Metagross @ Life Orb
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 112 HP/252 Atk/12 Def/132 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Meteor Mash
- Thunderpunch
- Bullet Punch
This is basically agiligross minus the agility. Whenever I am unable to get a SD off on Gliscor, this guy comes in. He operates the same as a standard agiligross after getting passed a Polish, he is able to handle most pokemon notwithstanding Swampert and Rotom. With BP, this guy is also my answer to Aerodactyl and Crobat. If they are in the lead spot, I imdeiatly switch to this guy to handle it, afterwords he becomes a suicide poke. The EVs allow him to outspeed timid choice scarf Heatran, who is the biggest threat to this set.
---
Kingdra (F) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 48 HP/96 Atk/80 Def/164 Spd/120 SDef
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Rest
- Outrage
- Waterfall
I can’t believe I never see anyone using Chesto Kingdra. This thing is like a god, most of the time it comes in after all my Machamp/Metagross are done sweeping and proceeds wipe out the rest of their team. For every game were I have used this pokemon, I have gotten at least one kill, usually two and occasionally more. The Idea of this set is come in and starts Dragon Dancing. Then you keep Dragon Dancing until you will be unable to survive another attack. After that you rest, and you usually end up with 825 attack, 735 speed, and ~80% health. Kingdra’s typing lets you hit with STAB Waterfall and Outrage for neutral on every OU pokemon. bar Empoleon. Another great thing about Kingdra is that there is no easy way to deal with him. He has only one x2 weakness to a type that few pokemon have. He has lots of resistances that ensure his survivability. Not to mention, no priority attack hits him x2 and the strongest priority attack (BP from CB Scizor) hits him for half damage. 164 EVs boost Kingdra's Speed so that it can outspeed base 115 Pokémon after a single Dragon Dance and outspeed +1 Speed-increasing natured base 100s after two.
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