As this to me is a debate of great interest for multiple reasons, I hoped to share my thoughts on certain aspects of the issue. First of all it seems that the "auto-win/lose" and "black-white" characteristic of Baton Pass teams is seen as a negative point by many, the complaint being that games against Baton Pass are either won or lost hard. I would like to bring up once more the nature of a Baton Pass team, which results in a good probability that when judging by the players' exact scores one of either players will have a large number of their Pokémon still remaining when the match is over: a Baton Pass team relies on nearly every member to fullfil its specific role and once a piece of the puzzle is taken away, the strategy crumbles.
In short the focus of a game against Baton Pass should not be on defeating one's opponent by normal means; it should be on bringing down a single member of the team, that the Baton Pass player has put all their money on. This brings us to the second intended meaning for Baton Pass's "black-white" characteristic, which is the allegation that this simply cannot be done without very specific alterations to one's standard team. It has however been pointed out multiple times that this is not entirely true, as a form of constant offensive pressure that many Pokémon in the tier can provide will keep a Baton Pass team from gaining any boosts at all.
With the above in mind, I'd like to address the first element people seem to distinguish as a problem in current Baton Pass teams, namely the move Stored Power. Although its base power becomes ridiculous after enough boosts have been accumulated, it would be the wrong choice to single out Stored Power as the culprit when a team is sweeped by Espeon: we see plenty of powerful setup sweepers and in general it is not how powerful they can become which we consider problematic; it is the ease with which this power is achieved. As mentioned before a ban of Stored Power is a rather insignificant one as it will not hamper the team's ability to gain the stat boosts they want and thus does not serve to nerf the team in a meaningful way. It is my view that one should opt to stop a Baton Pass chain before it is too late: with or without Stored Power, the consequences will be harsh if they fail to do so.
A complex ban of "Baton Pass + Stored Power" has little impact on the playstyle of Baton Pass as a whole and does not achieve the results that posters are looking for.
Two similar complex bans have been issued, namely "Baton Pass + Magic Bounce" and "Baton Pass + Speed Boost". To address these two options, I would ask you to look at the Baton Pass teams of the previous generation, which arguably had everything the team has access to now, except for Scolipede and Sylveon. Also please note that Baton Pass teams were never considered a problem at the time, which leads me to believe that both of those proposed complex bans are unnecessarily strict, for Baton Pass teams always had access to the combination of Baton Pass, Magic Bounce, and Speed Boost.
Now for my analysis I assume that Sylveon is best considered to be just another "counter" the team implements: Baton Pass has several flaws and Sylveon helps mitigate these because of its high special defense. Zapdos helps on the physically defensive side and against flying types, and then there are Gliscor, Mawile, Mew, Mr. Mime, Scizor, Smeargle, and Vaporeon among other, each of which serves their own niche. Scolipede however, is a Pokémon that every Baton Pass team uses without second thoughts, because it combines two different functions in one Pokémon: boosting defense and speed at the same time has proven to be very valuable to any Baton Pass team, and is likely what has made the playstyle that more viable than it used to be in the previous generation.
Every member of a Baton Pass team serves a specific function, boosting a certain stat and preparing for a specific threat; Scolipede by-passes this, boosting both the team's defense and speed stats, while fullfilling the role of the team's main physical wall to decent success. Considering that Scolipede can still be replaced by Ninjask, ensuring that the playstyle of Baton Pass is not nerved beyond playability, I believe that a full ban of Scolipede is a potent way to handle Baton Pass if necessary.
The point of not wanting to ban a Pokémon that is not overpowered remains, but there are plenty examples of Pokémon that, while only to be seen as too powerful in specific teams, found their way to the uber tier still in the past, Excadrill being the first example that comes to mind.
What I hoped to say in this post is in short:
- If Baton Pass is indeed a problem, the issue is not the high base power of Stored Power; it is the ease with which boosts are required. The way to defeat a Baton Pass team is to stop the chain before it starts, and whether nerves need to be made should depend on if and how easily this can be done: multiple wallbreakers have been proposed to stop Baton Pass teams, and a conclusion is to be reached by judging their capabilitiy of successfully handling the Baton Pass issue.
- If hits need be made, it is not unreasonable to force the playstyle back to its level of viability of the previous generation, in which Baton Pass was not an issue: ban Scolipede as it fulfills a role that could otherwise only be fulfilled by two seperate Pokémon.
Now I do not advocate a nerf on Baton Pass of any kind, but since I am in no position to make any difference if a vote is to be held, I'm happy to at least have made known my thoughts on the issue.
