Preliminary notes: this is by no means a suspect thread, nor it is guaranteed that the move Baton Pass will ever be brought up for a formal suspect test.
Baton Pass and, in particular, full Baton Pass chains have always been a controversial topic on Smogon, especially at high levels of play. Top ladderers and tournament players tend to stigmatize the use of full Baton Pass chains as a cheap strategy, that requires next to no skill to be effective. The introduction in Gen V of Magic Bounce Espeon has made Baton Pass an even deadlier strategy, as moves such as Taunt and Whirlwind/Roar are no longer able to reliably stop the statistics boost chain. Moreover, Gen VI introduced Speed Boost Scolipede, that gives Baton Pass chains new toys to work with.
It is said that Baton Pass chains exacerbate the match-up component of the game, to the point where you either have a full counter to the strategy (i.e. a Pokémon like Sableye) or you're doomed to lose to it, unless a lucky crit occurs when the opponent isn't behind a Substitute. While the last point applies to many other Pokémon/strategies, it's an undeniable fact that preparing for full Baton Pass teams severely limits team building, given the very few full-counters to this strategy. It's no surprise that many teams at the top of the ladder are full Baton Pass teams.
With the above points in mind, the OU Tiering Council believes that, in the process of achieving a desirable metagame, the time has come to look deeper into Baton Pass, letting the community voice its opinion on the topic and evaluating possible ways to nerf the effectiveness of this strategy.
So, in this thread, notwithstanding the general rules of this forum, we expect you to address mainly the following points:
Closing notes: I decided to post this thread in the general OU forum and not in Victory Road to give everyone the possibility to voice their opinion but, before posting it this thread, keep in mind that:
Baton Pass and, in particular, full Baton Pass chains have always been a controversial topic on Smogon, especially at high levels of play. Top ladderers and tournament players tend to stigmatize the use of full Baton Pass chains as a cheap strategy, that requires next to no skill to be effective. The introduction in Gen V of Magic Bounce Espeon has made Baton Pass an even deadlier strategy, as moves such as Taunt and Whirlwind/Roar are no longer able to reliably stop the statistics boost chain. Moreover, Gen VI introduced Speed Boost Scolipede, that gives Baton Pass chains new toys to work with.
It is said that Baton Pass chains exacerbate the match-up component of the game, to the point where you either have a full counter to the strategy (i.e. a Pokémon like Sableye) or you're doomed to lose to it, unless a lucky crit occurs when the opponent isn't behind a Substitute. While the last point applies to many other Pokémon/strategies, it's an undeniable fact that preparing for full Baton Pass teams severely limits team building, given the very few full-counters to this strategy. It's no surprise that many teams at the top of the ladder are full Baton Pass teams.
With the above points in mind, the OU Tiering Council believes that, in the process of achieving a desirable metagame, the time has come to look deeper into Baton Pass, letting the community voice its opinion on the topic and evaluating possible ways to nerf the effectiveness of this strategy.
So, in this thread, notwithstanding the general rules of this forum, we expect you to address mainly the following points:
- Is Baton Pass (with specific reference to full Baton Pass teams) a problem for the development of the metagame?
- If so, what elements, in particular, do you think are pushing Baton Pass over the edge?
- Do you believe that banning individual Pokémon (such as Espeon/Scolipede) would make Baton Pass manageable?
- Would you support a blanket ban on the move Baton Pass?
- Would you support the introduction of complex bans (like Pokémon X+Pokémon Y on the same team)? Feel free to suggest more forms of complex bans, of course.
Closing notes: I decided to post this thread in the general OU forum and not in Victory Road to give everyone the possibility to voice their opinion but, before posting it this thread, keep in mind that:
- We're going to enforce a zero-tolerance policy for any form of trolling/flaming. Users who will attempt to troll this thread will be immediately banned without any prior warning (this applies specifically to newly registered accounts);
- If you have no knowledge (or next to no knowledge) of the game at high level of play (be it the top of the ladder of official tournaments) then you're not supposed to post in this thread. I don't want to see one-liners or uninformed posts;
- You're required to make civil posts and accept criticism from those who disagree with you;
- You're absolutely not allowed to discuss or question the tiering process and its current implementation.