6th Gen Baton Pass - First RMT attempt

[Iondark]

Hello fellow Poketrainers! I will introduce myself initially so you get a quick idea since I am new and this is also my first forum post.

I am Iondark, a new player to competitive, but as many others have been playing Pokemon since I've been a kid with my GameBoy. I started taking Pokemon on the competitive side in 6th gen so it is new to me, but I am familiar with the mechanics by now as I've been playing competitively since the release of X/Y. I am currently in the 1500 rating, as I made a new account to use this team exclusively on it to play-test it.

Now for the Pokemon. Basically I felt like I haven't seen any baton pass teams at all currently, and I always thought they were neat to play because of all the different possibilities you have to do with constant changes.
Glance at the baton-squad

Goal:
Get as many stat boosts until I feel safe to sweep through the opposing team with ease with the least losses possible.
Usually lead with Gorebyss who runs Shellsmash to pass it off, and then chain off that, to sweep with M-Mawile or Espeon.

I am currently looking for help improving the team, any tips will be greatly appreciated because I know this team is not top notch as I recently made it and play tested it for quite a few hours. This is my first thought out team. It initially ran Scizor instead of Mawile, but Mawile has so much power to take advantage of.

Espeon @ Leftovers
Modest nature | Magic Bounce
252 SpA / 252 Spe / 4 HP
-Baton Pass
-Calm Mind
-Dazzling Gleam
-Stored Power

Explanation:
Pretty much staple to a baton pass team because of Magic Bounce. She also carries Stored Power which our wonderful beauty gets STAB on, after a Shell Smash gets an amazing 210 BP ([20 + 20*6] * 1.5 STAB) which makes her the special sweeper of the team. Dazzling gleam is an alternative attack to use to hit Dark types effectively where Stored Power will not.
I generally want to keep Espeon behind a Substitute because she really is a glass cannon, and losing the passing train is a big hit to this team working.
Plans for Espeon:
Currently I am unsure if I want to keep Calm Mind on her or give her another attack move to give more coverage and/or another attack to use if I do not have enough boosts for Stored Power.

Mawile @ Mawilite
Adamant nature | Intimidate
252 Atk / 128 HP / 128 Spe
-Baton Pass
-Sucker Punch
-Play Rough
-Ice Punch

Explanation:
Mega-Mawile is a beast, this thing got a huge overhaul with the mega-evolution, huge power is great. Basically the main sweeper other than Espeon on the team, but is more reliable when unboosted, even 1HKO popular threats in the current meta-game while unboosted. Sucker Punch is to have priority, Play Rough for strong stab which 1HKO's most things after a +2 Atk boost. The EV's for Mawile meant to have enough speed to outspeed on of the biggest threats it has, Garchomp, at full speed with a speed beneficial nature, but only AFTER Mawile gets 2x speed boost.

Plans for Mawile:
Mawile replaced the Scizor I initially had, mostly because I didn't even know she learned Baton Pass until I did more research into it. I am currently unsure about Ice Punch for now, but it is there to get some extra coverage, looking at Earthquake users. I am considering replacing Ice Punch with Fire Fang to be able to guaranteed 1HKO most Excadrill sets without an attack boost, but leave Glicor as a possibly bothersome wall if he runs a set with Earthquake for an unboosted Mawile, which will be rare but still something I have to look as a possibility.
Some calcs:

252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Fire Fang vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Excadrill: 406-478 (112.1 - 132%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Fire Fang vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Excadrill: 402-474 (94.8 - 111.7%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO
252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Garchomp: 576-680 (137.1 - 161.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mega Garchomp: 492-578 (117.1 - 137.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Gliscor: 358-423 (101.1 - 119.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 184+ Def Gliscor: 404-476 (114.1 - 134.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Mr. Mime @ Leftovers
Bold nature | Soundproof
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
-Baton Pass
-Barrier
-Calm Mind
-Substitute

Explanation:
Mr. Mime needs very little explanation as to why he is on the team. Being one of the staples to pretty much any team because of Soundproof to help avoid Roar and other sound moves since they go thru Substitute. The move-set is pretty much basic, 2 boosting moves for the obvious passing along, and Substitute because pretty much everyone runs it on this team, a free sub prediction can easily win the game.

Plans for Mr. Mime:
I honestly do not have many big plans for him because he is pretty much a staple to this team. Any tips or thoughts from anyone else is appreciated.

Vaporeon @ Leftovers
Bold nature | Water Absorb
240 HP / 140 Def / 128 SpD
-Baton Pass
- Surf
- Acid Armor
-Substitute

Explanation:
Vaporeon is one of those choices I am still unsure of. She is quite bulky and with this EV spread gives out a 115 HP Substitute which is quite nice. Acid Armor is the boosting move she gets and is quite nice, 2x defense right away, and her water typing makes have subs that don't fall apart too easily, and often times can survive 2-3 hits if not being hit by Electrical or Grass attacks. Surf is chosen here because of the extra damage it puts out over Scald which is the typical move on Vaporeon, which is only used when I'm trying to be offensive with her. I have performed some decent sweeps using Vaporeon after a Shell Smash was passed onto it.

Plans for Vaporeon:
Still unsure how secure her spot is on the team, but she still holds a very solid role, absorbing water and ice attacks that would go super effective on Gliscor.

Gliscore @ Toxic Orb
Impish nature | Poison Heal
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
-Baton Pass
-Defog
-Earthquake
-Substitute

Explanation:
This Gliscor set doesn't run a boosting move but instead runs defog, because hazards are a nuisance to Baton Pass because of all the flipping around, it would become too much residual damage for the team to handle, even with Magic Bounce they can sometimes get off (Prankster setters or things similar). Toxic Orb also triggers the turn that he get Baton Passed in which is great. He is my current answer to threats like Mega-Lucario (Physical), which is very present in the current meta-game. Gliscor 1HKO's after a +2Atk boost from the Shell Smash AND out-speeds him as well.

Some Gliscor vs Mega-Lucario stats:​

+2 0 Atk Gliscor Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mega Lucario: 458-542 (162.9 - 192.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
+2 252 Atk Adaptability Mega Lucario Close Combat vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gliscor: 175-206 (49.4 - 58.1%) -- 98.8% chance to 2HKO
+2 252 Atk Adaptability Mega Lucario Bullet Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gliscor: 118-140 (33.3 - 39.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO

An unsubbed Gliscor can take a +2 CC to the face and Earthquake the next turn before Lucario gets to

Plans for Gliscor:
I'm not sure if I will keep Defog on him for much longer considering I do have Magic Bounce to reflect hazards, but that will most likely happen once I improve myself as a player. If so I would possibly change it to Swords Dance just in case the Shell Smash train falls apart since there is no other attack boost on the team other than Shell Smash.

Gorebyss @ White Herb
Calm nature | Swift Swim
248 HP / 252 Spe / 8 SpD
-Baton Pass
-Shell Smash
-Agility
-Substitute

Explanation:
Generally the lead of the team to throw a Shell Smash ASAP, I have been really indecisive about my lead but so far felt like this was my best choice. The stats Shell Smash give are great especially with White Herb removing the negatives from it. With it's decent base defense stat, I decided to give it a balanced defense by investing the nature and extra EV's into the the Special Defense. The reasoning behind this is that I want to be able to generally always Shell Smash first unless I am facing a Taunt or something of the sort that counters what I am trying to do.
Plans for Gorebyss:
Agility is here just as a filler because it usually just Shell Smashes and sometimes gets a Substitute off before passing off the boosts. If I lose my train of boosts, I will attempt to come back to Gorebyss to get a +2 speed at the very least if I don't feel safe using Shell Smash without White Herb. I have tried Scolipede but the thing that throws me off is that I can only get a boost in attack, not that that is bad considering I have 2 other mons running Calm Mind. In the end game, I feel like Scolipede could become more reliable running something along the lines of Baton Pass, Substitute, Swords Dance, X-Scissor due to it having an offensive move and Speed Boost. I will attempt experimenting more.

Currently testing:
Scolipede w/ Swords Dance instead of Gorebyss, using Mega-Mawile a lot more due to it. I have barely any issues dealing with the popular Genesect lead, hasn't given me any issues.

Closing:
This team is currently still going through a lot of play-testing, I will be trying out more of Scolipede and Fire Fang on Mawile.
If you see anything I can change in the formatting of this RMT let me know because this is the first time I do this, as previously stated.
Looking forward to getting rates and tips from everyone.

Thanks for reading!​

 

[shreshrej]

I just skimmed the team, I'm not very good with baton pass myself.
However, I have two small improvements I would make.

First, if you have shell smash, there is no reason for Agility. This avoids the defense drops, but Gorebyss isn't taking many hits anyway. I would add Surf or Ice Beam instead as a situational move of choice (for mamoswine leads) Also, try experimenting with Focus Sash.

Espeon is a "glass cannon" as you said, so it will be pretty hard for you to set up Calm Minds. The Psychic + Fairy Combo is decent, but it is resisted by Steel Types like Excadrill (Not like Excadrill is taking hits from +2 Espeon). Instead, I would use Hidden Power Fire instead. This allows you to hit scizor and excadrill and other steel types. If Hidden Power Fire isn't working for you, try Substitute (if Espeon gets it). You will be able to dodge Sucker Punches from other Mawile and Bisharp.

Hope this helps,
shreshrej

 

[Arcanine is Regal]

I have seen this team before and many variations of it...people always try and have a perfect baton pass team, myself included. That being said I do think scolipede deserves to be apart of this team. Except instead of running swords dance run Iron defense. Then in two turns you are at +2 speed nd defense and can pass cleanly to another poke.

Dont worry about espeon if you pass espeon enough boosts(which is pretty easy) it can easily ohko the enitre metagame including max hp blissey

+6 252 SpA Espeon Stored Power (380 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Blissey: 1905-2242 (266.8 - 314%) -- guaranteed OHKO

 

[Zebstrika]

Maybe it's my personal preference with Espeon (the one baton pass team I made was more defensive) but I like to have Morning Sun on it. Without weather everywhere you can actually pull it off decently. But giving up a coverage move sucks, when I ran it, I just ran stored power as my only attack.

Also a small nitpick with your Gorebyss EVs, always have your nature boost your highest stat, or have your nature boost a stat higher than what is possible without the nature boost. So for Gorebyss, run a speed boosting nature, for example. It's just more efficient to have your nature boost a stat that's already higher, you get more out of the boost. You could run an EV spread of 248 HP, 72 SpD and 180 speed EVs with a Timid nature, and you would have the exact same stats in each area as you currently run, with 8 EVs left over.

tl dr, with the Gorebyss EVs thing, run Timid over Calm. If you have more speed than you need with Timid, you can drop the EVs down. 180 speed EVs with Timid gives you the same speed you have now.

 

[Iondark]

First, if you have shell smash, there is no reason for Agility. This avoids the defense drops, but Gorebyss isn't taking many hits anyway. I would add Surf or Ice Beam instead as a situational move of choice (for mamoswine leads) Also, try experimenting with Focus Sash.

Espeon is a "glass cannon" as you said, so it will be pretty hard for you to set up Calm Minds. The Psychic + Fairy Combo is decent, but it is resisted by Steel Types like Excadrill (Not like Excadrill is taking hits from +2 Espeon). Instead, I would use Hidden Power Fire instead. This allows you to hit scizor and excadrill and other steel types. If Hidden Power Fire isn't working for you, try Substitute (if Espeon gets it). You will be able to dodge Sucker Punches from other Mawile and Bisharp.

Hope this helps,
shreshrej

Thanks for the input, I so far prefer to run White Herb because I do not want to pass the negative boosts, and Gorebyss can generally take a decent hit unless it's something harsh used against it, which makes me feel like I don't need Focus Sash, but I will keep what you said in mind.
The reason behind running Calm Mind on Espeon is if I have to bring her in early for anti-hazard/status with Magic Bounce, she will often times force a switch because of that and I will be able to get a free Calm Mind in giving her a boost in 2 stats while also adding BP to Store Power.

I have seen this team before and many variations of it...people always try and have a perfect baton pass team, myself included. That being said I do think scolipede deserves to be apart of this team. Except instead of running swords dance run Iron defense. Then in two turns you are at +2 speed nd defense and can pass cleanly to another poke.

I also do think Scolipede could really use a slot on the team, but with no other buff to attack other than Shell Smash, I wouldn't want to use Iron Defense, unless I add a Swords Dance elsewhere. It is also a matter of who to replace for Scolipede.

Maybe it's my personal preference with Espeon (the one baton pass team I made was more defensive) but I like to have Morning Sun on it. Without weather everywhere you can actually pull it off decently. But giving up a coverage move sucks, when I ran it, I just ran stored power as my only attack.

Also a small nitpick with your Gorebyss EVs, always have your nature boost your highest stat, or have your nature boost a stat higher than what is possible without the nature boost. So for Gorebyss, run a speed boosting nature, for example. It's just more efficient to have your nature boost a stat that's already higher, you get more out of the boost. You could run an EV spread of 248 HP, 72 SpD and 180 speed EVs with a Timid nature, and you would have the exact same stats in each area as you currently run, with 8 EVs left over.

With the amount of Tyranitars you still see I don't find that I could get that much usage out of Morning Sun, it is rare that I find myself with a Espeon with any damage on it, unless she's just flat out KO'd. The substitutes generally do a great job keeping her healthy.
Thanks for the tip on the EV's, I'm still new at creating these so I appreciate the tips. The 8 extra EV's could indeed make a difference and I will fix it the way you suggest. Thanks.

 

[keyleth]

Nice team. I would suggest you to reconsider Mime's role on the team. If his sole is to protect from Roar, I'd much rather switch to Espeon when you know the opponent's gonna roar. Since it always plays last, it's easy to predict and pass to espeon when the opponent will do this. By bouncing the roar back, you might gain a free turn, if it switches for something bad for your opponent. You also mentioned it protects your sub from sound moves, such as Boomburst and Bug Buzz, and yeah, that can be a pain in the ass, especially because Bug Buzz hurts a +0 SpD Espeon badly. I would suggest checking it with Mawile, if possible, before passing to Espeon.

Anyway, dropping Mime could give you the gap you need for Scolipede. You could run something like this:

Scolipede @ Weakness Policy
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Careful Nature
- Iron Defense
- Baton Pass
- Megahorn
- Protect

I enjoy running Scoli as lead most of the times, scouting with protect, and iron defensing if I'm comfortable. With the ammount of talonflames and TTars, it's easy to proc weakness policy. If you can get +2 or +3 def (preferably with vaporeon, before switching to scoli), you can tank a brave bird/rock slide/stone edge/earthquake and get +2 atk and satk, and together with the speed and def boost, that must be enough for espeon to switch smoothly.

With the amount of Tyranitars you still see I don't find that I could get that much usage out of Morning Sun, it is rare that I find myself with a Espeon with any damage on it, unless she's just flat out KO'd. The substitutes generally do a great job keeping her healthy.

I agree with you here. Dazzling gleam means you can check Greninjas, Tyranitars, Mandibuzzes and Sableeyes (though, because they usually taunt early, and when you switch to espeon it bounces the taunt back, sometimes a crit foul play can really blow your strategy.. :( )

252 Atk Flying Gem Talonflame Brave Bird vs. +2 252 HP / 4 Def Scolipede: 204-242 (62.9 - 74.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Regarding Mawile, I would suggest dropping the ice punch and getting a SD, unless you're really confident you can pass some attack for it every game. As you pointed out, Getting +2 atk gives you enough power to punish with Play Rough STAB / Sucker punch most threats ice fang would cover.

+2 252+ Atk Huge Power Mega Mawile Sucker Punch vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Excadrill: 494-582 (116.5 - 137.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Other option you have is dropping defog from Gliscor, but then you have to rely on Espeon's bounce to reflect any hazard.

Besides roar (that can be bounced), There are two things that can counter most BP teams. Dragon Tail and Taunt. For the taunt, you can run attacking moves on most of your mons. If you drop the agility from gorebyss and add Surf, and add a Scoli with Megahorn, all of your pokemons can strike back with a taunt. It doesn't make you safe, since you can't setup, and may be disrupted while taunt is on, but at least you have a chance to save your buffs. Dragon tail can be blocked by sub.

I think BP teams have a lot of potential in the current meta, looking forward to how it's gonna perform.

 

[Iondark]

Hey Keyleth, thanks for the input. I'm sorry if I was quick on the Mr. Mime section. With his new Fairy typing added, he also blocks the above mentioned Dragon Tail. But he is also susceptible to the Taunts. I've been playing around with Gorebyss replaced for Scolipede but with Swords Dance and Focus Sash instead, but that seems like a very good idea.

I've replaced Ice Punch with Fire Fang currently which helps deal with Ferrothorn/Scizor/Genesect and other things of the sort.