Quiver and Dance at My Stored Powers

[Phi]

So I'm a long time lurker who's just started actually trying to build teams and I've found the Baton Pass team I'm using has plateau'd on the ladder and I'm still fresh enough on fifth gen that I feel there's some obvious tweaks I can make to make this a lot better, asides from not doing a dedicated BP team. I'm going to post the team with a bit of commentary on each pokemon and then talk about my major problems, and I'd appreciate help with strategies/tweaks to overcome them.

Espeon@Leftovers
Magic Bounce
Timid 36 HP/ 88 Def/ 132 SAtk/ 252 Spd
Baton Pass
Stored Power
Calm Mind
Substitute/Hidden Power Fighting

The star of the show, and the reason I put this team together - Stored Power Espeon is no joke. I'm pretty sure he's got the highest special attack out of anyone that can use the move, and Magic Bounce complements it perfectly, keeping opponents from PHazing him. The EVs were kind of thrown together, but the idea is to make him bulky enough to take a hit or two early game deflecting stuff like entry hazards and leech seed, though in practice he still comes off as too light. I'm thinking of maybe forgoing a lot of speed investment for more bulk. The last slot is a toss-up too, since without Hidden Power fighting he's TTar bait through and through (though thankfully baton pass helps him evade pursuit), though sub helps a lot with early game set-ups on random special attackers, as well as really being the only defense BP has against Dragon Tail.

Vaporeon@Leftovers
Water Absorb
Bold 252 HP/ 212 Def/ 44 SpD
Baton Pass
Wish
Surf
Acid Armor

Basically go to for general bulkiness, with Acid Armor very vitally basically making the rest of the team for the most part protected from priority. Probably the most problematic member of the team, in that Acid Armor is really the only non-BP move in heavy rotation. I'm thinking about maybe changing Surf and Wish into a pseudo BoltBeam combo with HP Electric, since Gyarados between Intimidate and Taunt otherwise walks all over everybody.

Venomoth@Leftovers
Tinted Lens
Timid 252 HP/ 4 SAtk/ 252 Spd
Baton Pass
Quiver Dance
Sleep Powder
Bug Buzz

Despite his position here, probably the most common lead since he makes an awesome passing partner with Espeon. One Quiver Dance basically is sometimes enough for Espeon to just go medieval on the rest of the opponent's team, and Bug Buzz provides great coverage on most of the dark types that otherwise completely wall Espeon (I've had Stored Powers running off surprisingly low amounts of boosts 2KO Jirachi). Additionally, being one of the few Poison Types with Baton Pass is a huge boon, since it means that probably the most lethal hazard to the team can be removed (also the only spinners with baton pass are Smeargle and lolSpinda).

Gliscor@Toxic Orb
Poison Heal
Impish 252 HP/ 184 Def/ 72 Spd
Baton Pass
Earthquake
Agility
Protect

Basically, my go-to for speed passing when everything's hitting Venomoth too hard. Being a mono-attacker is probably his biggest problem, especially since so much is immune to Earthquake. Protect is probably the least necessary move here, and he really could use Taunt or Stone Edge there, though without it all of a sudden it seems like every attack with a secondary chance to paralyze or burn hits him before the orb can activate, especially when he's a speed passing lead. Maybe run him with leftovers to absorb poison when it comes and forgo protect entirely?

Medicham@Air Mail
Pure Power
Jolly 252 Atk/ 4 Def/ 252 Spd
Baton Pass
Acupressure/Bulk Up
High Jump Kick
Zen Headbutt

The only fighting type with Baton Pass, and unfortunately he's frail as shit and lacking in priority. Air Mail is to make trick users rage, Acupressure is the best move in the game, though Bulk Up is probably more reliable (though +1 defense does nothing for his frailty). Basically, he has the potential to either destroy most of the shit that gives Espeon trouble or fall flat killing himself with High Jump Kick on the opponent's Ferrothorn or something.

Scizor@Leftovers
Technician
Adamant 252 HP/ 40 Atk/ 216 SpD
Baton Pass
Swords Dance
Bullet Punch
Bug Bite

By far the most powerful priority available with Baton Pass, which basically keeps a ton of random frail fast stuff from breaking the chain early on. Probably his only real problem is that asides from that he's slow as shit even with a +2 speed boost making it easy for Fire Types to break the chain.

So that's the team. The idea is a bulky baton pass team that keeps on building up any boost possible making the team more impenetrable until it has enough boosts for Espeon to kill everything (remember, even without Special Attack boosts Stored Power with the equivalent of two maxed out stats (or +12) is more powerful than Lickilicky's explosion). A huge problem results from Espeon not having enough immediate bulk, which especially can make it hard to utilize Magic Bounce to keep stuff like Stealth Rock and Leech Seed off the chain. yeah I know BP chains went out of style at some point but Stored Power Espeon is terrifying, holding the most potentially powerful move in the game, and I think a chain is the best way to ensure that it works.

 

[Baller_King_SAZ]

Why would you use Air Mail ever?

Also use 248 hp evs on Scizor so you can take 4 sets of SR damage.

 

[Phi]

Trick just gets fucked up when someone tries to use on someone with Mail, it's like Arceus with a plate or Giratina-O. I guess maybe medicham isn't the best mon to use it on, but especially early game my team can't afford being swapped a choice item.

 

[SHOTTA]

First i been building a really good Bp Team and i noticed a couple of things Sub is Needed to protect against any crit's. Second your team is hurt bye these things Thundurus with taunt any thing with piority taunt. Third Perish song is also a problem.

 

[Sarjinn]

I'm pretty sure Kojondo/Mienshao gets Baton Pass as well, and you could give it Fake Out for priority. You don't lose much from not having coverage with Psychic moves 'cause that's Espeon's turf anyway, and you'd have better speed to work with. Plus Regenerator will give you a bonus from the pass if you need to conk out to recover health. Life Orb would probably be best because of that; I figure you won't risk too much having your opponent get a trick off if the recipient is Mienshao and the item is Choice (unless it's a Choice Specs - usually Trickers are Scarfed though).

You'd also benefit from the extra coverage that moves such as Grass Knot and Stone Edge can offer; your team's coverage is somewhat limited.

 

[Phi]

Yeah, I can't believe I missed out on Mienshao, at the very least the higher speed and regenerator helps out a lot and any of the coverage moves you've listed is going to help out more on coverage than Zen Headbutt, though I'm not sure what to run since ideally I'd love Baton Pass/Bulk Up/High Jump Kick/Grass Knot/Stone Edge/Fake Out/Taunt but obviously I can't do all of that. Also one possible advantage of Medicham is Magic Coat, which gives another way of neutering especially priority taunters, though now that I think about that Medicham has no business being out against Tornadus or Thundurus. I'm gonna play around with both to see which works better, though Mienshao definitely synergizes pretty well with Espeon. What would be good bulky EVs on Mienshao, since I'm pretty sure he needs basically no attack to kill TTar.
Perish Song's been kind of a hassle, but nothing outside of Politoed runs it. Also there's not much I can do about it asides from running Mr. Mime, and since Magic Bounce helps deal with PHazing instead of ingrain I can play around it to some extent.
Sub seems pretty important, but I'm not sure who to run it on other than Espeon and Mienshao possibly if I add him (since with Regenerator they'd basically be "free").
I dunno, I'm gonna play around with some of this, especially Mienshao, but I'd love recommendations especially on specific moveslots that can be changed.

 

[Sarjinn]

If you're going to run Mienshao, Subbing seems kind of pointless if only because Mienshao's going to have better speed than a lot of things and so the Sub is more often than not going to be taken out first turn - Mienshao is very, very frail. Not only that, but unless you lead with Mienshao, Taunt is going to be somewhat pointless, because no one's reasonably going to risk trying to set up on Mienshao unless it's the first turn of the match and they're predicting a switch - you'll just end up giving them free attacks, which Mienshao will usually be unable to afford.

It's much more effective with the nature of your team to bring Mienshao in as a late-game sweeper if something goes awry with Espeon. You also need to give Mienshao as much options for attacking as possible because looking at your team, you've got four mono-attackers (Espeon with Sub, Vaporeon, Gliscor, Venomoth, etc). Obviously you can Baton Pass to effective attackers if you get walled, but that's giving your opponent free attacks again.

That's why I was thinking of giving Mienshao a pretty unadventurous set with Baton Pass instead of the traditional U-Turn, like so:

Mienshao@Life Orb
Regenerator
Jolly Nature
252 HP/4 ATK/252 SPD

Hi Jump Kick
Stone Edge
Grass Knot/Fake Out
Baton Pass

That would give your team something a lot more threatening and unpredictable that could easily deal with any obstacles that come your way, and would be made especially destructive if it was Baton Passed an Agility or SD. Mienshao will never mind being Taunted, so you can afford not to have a counter-Taunt here. Furthermore, Mienshao will best deal with any threats to your team in the way of Trickers (Rotom-W and Rotom-H will have good 'cause to fear switching in on Mienshao), so you can more effectively set up later.

Or, because your team doesn't really have a reliable special attacker (it's very easy to wall Vaporeon's Surfs, and Venomoth is too frail to reliably stay in), you could go for something less conventional such as a Mixed Mienshao:

Aura Sphere
Grass Knot/Hidden Power Ice
Calm Mind
Baton Pass

Mienshao will likely be able to scare something off to pull off a Calm Mind if you bring it in at the right time, and it doesn't need much, if any, investment into SpAtk to be effective (Mienshao has a significant SpAtk stat that is often overlooked).

These are just some rough ideas for using Mienshao in this particular team.

As for other things on this team off the top of my head:

Pursuit on Scizor over Bug Bite:
The only things you're going to want to Bug Bite instead of going right for the Bullet Punch are probably Psychic types who likely don't resist Bullet Punch (Reuniclus, Alakazam, etc) and will still take more than enough damage from it to invalidate Bug Bite's utility. You also don't gain much from Bug Bite's secondary effect. Seems better to take advantage of the common switch-out on Scizor to thwart your opponent's attempts to salvage a match if you're already boosted to a high enough level.

Keep the Toxic Orb on Gliscor, because you might want something to absorb statuses later in the game (just be careful about when and how you bring him in), but switch Protect out for either Taunt or Knock Off. Taunt because when your opponents realize your only move is Earthquake they may try to set up with something like Ferro, so you can render them ineffective with Taunt and thereby garner more opportunities for boosting, or Knock Off simply to further the anti-Trick defense, since your opponent cannot Trick if they don't have an item.

Really, all Protect does is give your opponent a chance to set up or wastes a turn overall; you don't have status on this team, and it's unlikely that Protecting on Gliscor will be a better move than just BPing out.

Think about changing Surf on Vaporeon to Scald in order to take advantage of the possible Burn; neutralizing physical attackers will help you set up more.

S'all for now, I'll come up with more ideas later.