First Team in a while and I think it's good (but not perfect...)

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The Milkman

I read an article about Baton Pass teams in another section, and decided to try my hand at one. It's kinda fragile, but aren't all Baton Pass teams? So, here it goes.


Team At A Glance!

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Salamence (M) @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/4 Spd
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Claw
- Stone Edge
- Brick Break

This may seem odd as a lead, and the set may seem odder, but it actually works. It's basically a bluff Pokemon. I use Draco Meteor and it seems like a Specsmence. So they switch into a wall, or even better, a special wall(you'll see why that's important in the next Pokemon). I was originally going to use a straight-out Specsmence, but I decided to use this, so it could be useful later. I'm not quite sure about the attack though, if you think that it's wrong or bad, speak up. (Note: He isn't going to leave. It works!)


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Umbreon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 Spd
Bold nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Baton Pass
- Mean Look
- Yawn
- Moonlight

Now you see why I have to get a wall out. I trap the wall and sleep it(It could work if I trap something else, but walls are the best). I Moonlight if necessary and pass on the Mean Look to start the chain. The EVs are to get the moves in fast without being knocked out(252 Spd to get the moves in fast, and 252 HP to make sure I don't get KO'd) The nature was to bring up his mediocre Defence stat.

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Smeargle (M) @ Shed Shell
Ability: Own Tempo
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Ingrain
- Spore
- Substitute
- Baton Pass

Ah, Smeargle. How much do I abuse you? Let me count the ways.

1. Ingrain for an extra kick of healing with the Leftovers of my other Pokemon, plus Phaze immunity.

2. Spore, for when Yawn wears out and I need a boost of protection in sleep.

3. A Substitute to assure a safe switch-in for my next passer.

Pretty basic in this case, though.


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Celebi @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP/128 Def/128 SDef
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
- Aerial Ace

Awsome Swords Dance Passer. Come in with a Defence boost, and Substitute(the HP EVs give a 101 Substitute, the strongest on my team), then start Dancing. When the Substitute gives out, pass along to whoever needs it. Aerial Ace is for good type coverage.



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Scizor (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Swarm
EVs: 252 HP/4 Atk/252 Spd
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Agility
- Iron Defense
- Baton Pass
- X-Scissor

The passer that passes the two most important stats that can be passed(in my opinion). Usually, I pass the Mean Look from Umbreon to him and alternate Agility and Iron Defence until they wake up. The EVs are there for the same reason Umbreon has his EVs.

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Lucario (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk/196 Spd/60 SAtk
Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Close Combat
- Crunch
- Bullet Punch

Yes, I did copy this from the article. It just looks SO GOOD!! And it works like it looks. Except for the Hidden Power. I'm not really liking the fact that it can OHKO. Either way, it works well as my closer.

So, there it is. My first team in a while. Don't flame me too bad if it's bad. Constructive criticism please.
 
Choice scarf Heatran does a real number on your team. You dont have anything that can get rid of it either. Gengar is also going to hurt your team if it starts off in the form of hypnosis and its great coverage. Another thing to watch out for is the "not as often seen" taunting Gyarados. If you plan on running baton pass in such a vast number, you may as well just make the whole team a baton pass team. The starting Salamence you chose is theoretically a good idea, but thats just on paper. It may have the element of surprise, but it dosent really cover alot of the current starter choices. For instance, as mentioned earlier, Gengar starts are really going to throw you off because its puting something to sleep for sure. Concider starting with Ninkjask instead of Salamence. Ninjask is a more solid starter choice and an asset to most baton pass chains. You can choose to keep Lucario if you want, but you might want to choose something else to pass the chain to. Just in case the chain gets broken, your going to need something that is just as effective without the help from stat ups. I'd suggest a Garchomp. Its an absolute menace with speed passed on it too.
 
I find it fine to use a batton pass team. However, I think you have some wrong concepts.

The idea in bp is, set up and pass to a sweeper that can finish the opponent. If you achieve to get the set up and pass it to your sweeper, then you won. However, if your chain is broken once, you lost. Batton pass teams can work since they aren't expected and therefore teams are not prepared to counter them.

I feel that it's a mistake to have two sweepers (lucario and salamence). One should be enough. My reason to claim this is that if you fail to set up, two sweepers on their own aren't likely to beat a whole standard team and you won't have a second chance to set up, while if you get to pass the boosts, one sweeper will be enough to kill the foe. Specially you don't want a choice band sweeper. Imagine that you pass attack with a lot of effort to salamence, use brick break to kill a say tyranitar, and then they switch gengar in. That ruins your plan. Also if you stick with salamence (I suggest changing it) use 252 speed, since you need to outspeed everything you can (drop your hp since salamence isn't really a defensive poke and will die with quickly with or without hp ev's).

Now, you don't boost your defense. Imagine how much it would suck if you managed to pass speed and attack to lucario, just to be met by a poke that has focus sash. You hit them, leave them at 1 hp and they ko you back. Also, after passing attack, lucario won't have problems to kill any pokemon (make sure you pass +3 attack and +2 speed at least) so you won't need life orb. I suggest focus sash to prevent your lucario from being ruined. I suggest to introduce something like vaporeon or mr. mime to boost your defenses.

Also, a batton pass team needs a way to stop your foe from phazing you, sleeping you, using taunt or using explosion (remember that your chain being broken = you lost). So in order to stop that you should be boosting your speed as soon as possible to avoid taunt, using substitute to avoid sleep/explosion and using ingrain or a trapper to prevent phazers from switching in/phazing you. This is accomplished by umbreon and smeargle in your team. However two pokes for the same purpose seem to be overkill. My advice is to change smeargle since he can get killed easily, however, if you like it better, change umbreon. I suggest umbreon since he can resist more. Also, It'd be helpful to use wish instead of moonlight since it will help keeping your pokes alive. Also, 232 ev's on umbreon's speed are enough to be faster than those pokes you have to outspeed; put the rest on defense.

Note that if you choose to go with smeargle, then you don't need sub. Specially since smeargle's sub will get killed in one turn in a non def-boost bp team. You may claim that you can put a sub up after spore, but it'd help much more to use a different set up move instead like belly drum/swords dance or cosmic power. Also, since smeargle is weak, you would find focus sash useful or even lum berry in case they try to status you. Note that shed shell is pointless. You may say that as ingrain traps you, shed shell could save you. However you've got batton pass, and if by any reason you are slower and need to switch out, then you would lose your boosts (remember that your set up chain being broken means you lost) and at that position there's no point in keeping the match going.

Celebi and scizor seem to be ok. If you wish, you could put lum berry in any of them to stop status and add recover on celebi instead of aerial ace. I suggest no attack celebi for the reason I explained in the third paragraph. Your goal is to pass your stats to lucario, if you fail to it, be sure that celebi on its own won't win you the match, so focus on keeping the chain safe. Also, since you've got more than one attack booster, you may change one of them for a defensive batton passer like vaporeon or mr. mime or even a different speed booster like ninjask or zapdos. In my opinion zapdos would be great as a starter using agility. Zapdos lead won't reveal your team is a bp one and will scare phazers/taunters like skarmory or gyarados.

As an ideal plan, try to boost speed as soon as possible. Then try to trap a poke and put it to sleep. Next step is to set defenses up and putting a substitute up. Then you should boost your attack and finally pass everything to your sweeper and then enjoy. Remember to heal when necesary, don't think too fast since a single mistake will ruin your match and always adapt to your foe (don't be too strict in the way you set up or you will lose). Adapting is a key point sice things won't go the way you planned more often than not.

That's all I can think about at the moment. I hope you find it useful. And remember that you can't win every match.

Good luck!
 
Even with Umbreon, you're still pretty walled by Forretress, who can Explode at any given moment and end your chain.

I'd suggest a Special Attacker at least somewhere in there; I'm afraid just Draco Meteor on Salamence won't be enough to keep you safe.

Your team doesn't like Suicune much either.

-Add a Special attacker
-Watch out for that Fighting weakness. (maybe add a Ghost in there, like Drifblim?)
-Like somebody mentioned earlier, Gengar and Heatran are problems for you, unless you managed to get a good Speed boost to Lucario in time, which may be difficult to pull off.

On an overview, it isn't a bad team, but I think the team as a whole is a little too dependant on the chain to function without it. Most Baton Pass chains should have about two Pokemon who can still work without the chain just in case something random catches you by surprise and ends your chain.
 
IMO the only effective Umbreon set is one with Charm. Without it, you become just setup fodder for the likes of Gyarados, Heracross, Machamp, Lucario, and other strong fighters.

Wish could go over Moonlight as the omnipresent sand will destroy it, plus Wish helps most of your team who don't have recovery moves.

I would switch CBMence for SpecsMence as CB Dragonite AND CB Garchomp completely outclass it. Dragonite has access to Outrage and Focus Punch while Garchomp also has access to Outrage and STAB Earthquake. Either way you cut it, CBMence only has the element of surprsie on its side, and SpecsMence only has a few true counters, who are all handled by Lucario anyways.
 
So when they switch in that wall Sally will still be out.What happens if they switch in a wall and you switch to Umbreon.Then they switch to Heracross.Basically its GG.Now I advise putting a Gliscor it can BP speed and Atk and it counters Lucario and Hera.Maybe a Vaporeon to help with Heatran and Mix-Ape.

EDIT: Give Lucario a lonely nature
 
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