By this logic, every OU team should have used a Sableye or w/e to handle Mega Kangaskhan. Is this healthy? Fuck no. If BP's counters are limited and mostly are obscure, it is just like any other broken threat.
Well, yes, they should have, and they did for the most part, or just run Mega Kanga themselves until it was suspect tested. That is to be expected when there is a very prominent threat in the metagame that you have no answer for, you run the answer to it. Kanga was extremely centralizing then and BP is not nearly as bad as that since its list of viable checks and counters consists of more than one pokemon. (Sableye didn't really cut it against Kanga either since it could just get a +1 PuP from scrappy and run a Facade set and still rip through you, burn or no) I'm not sure if
anyone ran a team without a Kanga counter during that time just expecting it to be banned and being convinced they shouldn't alter their team to make it "weaker" to handle it in the mean time.
Stop treating Baton Pass like it's 'oh so special' because it's a team and not a Pokemon.
Baton Pass
is unique in this aspect because it
is a team. On their own, every component of the chain is completely manageable. It is when you not only have the core but the redundancies and additional checks added onto it, like Vaporeon setting up Defense Boosts or Sylveon Calm Minding after you break Scoliopede or Espeon, that make it easier to restart than it should be. Remove those and it should be easier to power through for the average team and take pressure off your BP counter.
First of all, if they don't have any subs or boosts, then they don't have a chain yet, so you haven't broken anything and they still have 5 pokemon that will set up in your face as they switch in a counter, duh. Since unless you have a priority user that can threaten it, people usually lead with Scolipede, who can easily stall for boosts with sub/protect, they ALWAYS have boosts. If you didn't know that, get out.
If you just phazed an active chain out, the new pokemon coming into play will have no boosts or subs. This is called ending a chain, and was what the conversation you were referring to was about. The more you know~*
Likewise, if they lead with Scoliopede then there is literally nothing they can do to prevent you from just leaving Mega-Gyara in play and roaring it the turn after it protects. If they're giving that much momentum to you then you could even setup rocks during the first couple turns to start eating into them with their forced switching.
Here's a little game, try making a stall team that doesn't lose to BP. Once you do that, challenge some OU players on your level and ask them to pretend BP has already been banned. You'll lose a disproportionate amount of the time (assuming you would've won any at all), because the few slots you gave up to counter BP costs you big in a fair fight.
I have a game for you as well. Try making whatever team you like that has a counter to BP. Once you do that, challenge some OU players on your level and ask them to pretend BP hasn't been banned. You'll win a disproportionate amount of time (assuming you'd lose any at all), because the single slot you gave to counter BP gives you a big advantage in a fair fight.
When laddering, you can't afford to go in handicapped just to deal with a few bad players that copied and pasted a team because it lets them win and feel good about themselves. Your choices are to either lose more often to real players, or lose every time to a minority; or get this sick joke of a strategy nerfed so we can get back to playing pokemon.
"You're not playing pokemon because you're not playing how I want you to play" is precisely why this position garners no respect from me. If you care that much about winning rather than playing then run BP yourself until the rest of the ladder gets it together and starts building counters onto its teams. You have literally no reason not to simply because you can exploit the stubbornness of the people who hold your exact position. This isn't even an instance of "You have to run BP to counter BP", you literally could run a counter to it if you wanted to; just as you've stated, you simply don't want to, so get out there and rackup free wins on all of those Flamers and Kairyus.
Instead of doing that, just stop posting on this topic. Option 2 is already the favorite, so there's little reason to argue about it if that's really what you want.
Discussion is enjoyable. If you don't want me to post in the thread, then don't reply to me. That is a very basic concept in communication, especially on the internet.
