I bestow unto you... LC baton pass

[rustysneakers]

hey smogon. my friends and I are having a little cup tournament and i wanted to try and bring something challenging/interesting. i haven't seen many (or maybe any) baton pass teams around so i decided to give it a try. I think i have a solid start but i'm not really sure what's lacking. so without further ado, here's the team:

Shelmet @ Eviolite
Trait: Shell Armor
EVs: 116 HP / 156 Def / 236 SpD
Nature: Bold
- Acid Armor
- Recover
- Baton Pass
- Bug Buzz

Shelmet is usually my lead. With great defense and special defense, he almost always gets Acid Armors off. He resists the common mienfoo lead and bug has an excellent typing defensively in LC (except for those darn flying attacks). This team doesn't necessarily mind having hazards set up against it. Bug Buzz is there so he doesn't become complete taunt bait.

Mime Jr. @ eviolite
Trait: Soundproof
EVs: 196 HP/ 116 Def/ 196 SpD
Nature:Calm
- Baton Pass
- Calm Mind
- Encore
- Psychic

Generally I baton pass into mime jr. With an already great special defense stat, he gladly takes all the defense set up by shelmet and begins calm minding for the special attack and special d. Encore is there to force switches or stop others from attempting to set up at the same time. And finally, psychic is there, again, to stop him from becoming stopped by taunt. One of the biggest selling points for Mime jr, however, is his ability sound proof. this ability stops the likes of roar from switching him out and killing the chain.

Venonat @ Eviolite
Trait: Compound Eyes
EVs: 196 HP / 76 Def / 236 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Sleep Powder
- Agility
- Baton Pass
- Signal Beam

Generally the third pokemon i pass too, venonat supplies the team with the speed. With it's ability compound eyes, sleep powder gets a boosted accuracy. i didn't put too many evs in defenses because i usually try not to bring this guy in without defenses. This guy takes fighting moves like a boss, being 4x resistant to them and allowing free agilities until they decided to switch, at which point i can put a pokemon to sleep and baton pass for free. Signal beam, again, so i don't become taunt bait.

Mienfoo @ Eviolite
Trait: Regenerator
Evs: 76 HP / 196 Def / 236 SpD
Nature: Careful
- Baton Pass
- Drain Punch
- Substitute
- Swords Dance

Generally my 4th switch, I use mienfoo to boost the attack with swords dance. With already decent bulk, mienfoo can set up swords dance for days after the defense boosts. Drain punch rounds it off as a form of recovery if needed, and before passing to my sweeper, a substitute is set up for a free switch, assuming they can't break the sub.

Croagunk (the Sweeper!) @ Life Orb
Trait: Dry Skin
EVs: 188 Atk / 188 SpA / 132 Spe
Nature: Bashful
- Vaccum Wave
- Bullet Punch
- Dark Pulse
- Drain Punch

Meet the Sweeper. There are several reasons why I chose croagunk as a sweeper, but i'm not necessarily attached to him. Like i said at the beginning, this team doesn't necessarily care about hazards. The reason i say that (and one of the reasons why i chose croagunk) is because of his typing. Stealth rock only does five percent, and toxic spikes become absorbed by him. The other main reason i chose him is for his attack stats. having an equal attack and special attack, and access to two priority moves which are both physical and special, he is able to outspeed almost everything, except for sucker punch and fake outs. if prio isn't needed, drain punch will usually be used to recover life and dark pulse is for ghost types and anything that resists fighting. Finally, i chose a neutral nature because he is a mixed sweeper. i don't wanna take away from any of his stats, including his defenses. Let me know your ideas on this. However, like i said, i'm not necessarily attached to him and would be open to hearing new ideas for sweepers.

Tirtouga @ Eviolite
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 84 HP / 212 Atk / 92 Def / Spe 120
Nature: Adamant
- Shell Smash
- Stone Edge
- Aqua Tail
- Aqua Jet

Tirtouga is my attempt to round out the team. His main reason for being on the team is to take care of murkrow, a humongous threat to my team. He couples as a secondary sweeper as well. Standard Tirtouga set is standard, witih shell smash, two stab moves, and a prio move. i'm also not necessarily sold on him either. Murkrow is a huge threat and i need something to take care of it.

Any help with the team is greatly appreciated. I have a heard of a few people playing little cup baton pass by just passing swords dances instead of full baton pass. I'm not against that idea either. Anyway, help with the team would be greatly appreciated. Another major threat seems to be misdreavus. So any help with that would be appreciated as well.
Thanks

 

[Garchomp for president]

Though your team is greatly constructed together the is one massive whole on your team,

Abra. You do have 2 decent checks in the form or mime Jr and Tirtouga but hidden power grass or bug respectively will either 1HKO or 2HKO them both. Plus if Abraham doesn't carry hidden power Hourndour or snover walls them both. In each case respectively. For this resonance I highly suggest a abra with hidden power fire in exchange for mime Jr.

 

[ABfloww]

Hi!
Firstly I'd like to say it's nice seeing someone try something different and try baton passing in LC. Now to your team;

Shelmet/Mime.Jr/Mienfoo/Venonat/Tirtouga/Croagunk

To start of with i'd like to Restate what Garchomp for President said,and that is abra is a problem to your team offensively. but, heres the thing, how are you going to stop prankster taunts from Mukrow, Riolu's roar (when Mime Jr isnt around),Whirlwind, etc, etc. to fix this problem i was going to say Natu, but then i realized that it doesnt have baton pass. So i'll have to ignore that. although a magic bounce pokemon is very handy/ essential to any baton passing team! and it can really help out. but i guess, you might be able to try out Magic coat? or maybe Mukrow, with speed invesment. These are the pokemon that learn Magic coat that are in LC; Munna, porygon, Spoink. Now out of these only Munna, can learn baton pass. It also learns stored power. Which as you may know is very Powerful after a few stats boosts. Power is equal to 20+(X*20), where X is the user's total stat stage changes that are greater than 0 (including evasion and accuracy), for a combined maximum of 860. Does not decrease in power if any stat drops below the level +0.

So i guess you could try out Munna as the stat boost(s) recipient? see how that goes?
here is the set i recommend:

~Stored Power
~Psychic/Magic coat Eviolite 228 HP / 224 SpA / 8 Spe Bold nature
~Shadow ball
~hidden Power fighting/ Moonlight

1. take out Shelmet
2. Replace it with Murkrow/ Munna

This i feel will give your team a much better chance to succeed.

Let's just see how the team looks so far:
Munna or Murkrow/Mime.Jr/Mienfoo/Venonat/Tirtouga/Croagunk

Now may i ask you why you chose Croagunk as the recipient of the stat boosts? And also with speed boosts, i think you'll find it more useful if you remove the priority moves because it will already be able to outspeed most things, and instead put more powerful moves in there with a higher Base power.
Here is a list of all the moves Croagunk learns:
http://www.smogon.com/bw/pokemon/croagunk/moves

\You could also try replacing Tirtouga for maybe misdreavus, or Scraggy/ Abra.
What im saying is there is no need for another pokemon to set up ( shell smash) when you already have the rest of your team to do that.

Here is the official usage statistics for the LC metagame: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3481580

Well rusty snekers, i wish you good luck! hope youve enjoyed my feedback and that it helps you have more success. baton pass in LC is difficult to pull off, but all the best!