Baton Pass

[Rakan]

Baton Pass

Baton Pass is one of the more interesting playstyles, that, when used correctly, has devastating results. In Dream World, Pokemon such as Deoxys-S, Blaziken, and several others make it easy to pull off a Baton Pass sweep. There is definitely no shortage of sweepers to pass to, and Blaziken can even sweep itself!

This style has become increasingly popular, and the move itself is the reason why Blaziken is being considered as too strong for the metagame. Baton Pass with Blaziken is ridiculously easy to use, and its not difficult to see why.

There's only a few complete stops to Baton Pass, and that includes: Phazing, Priority status such as Thundurus's Taunt / Thunder Wave and Sableye's Taunt / Will-O-Wisp.

Is Baton Pass healthy for the metagame? Is it balanced with Pokemon such as Blaziken? What are the most common strategies used in conjunction with Baton Pass? Is quick pass or full pass more effective? Is Baton Pass usable without Blaziken? These are just a few of the questions to consider.

Discuss

 

[Harsha]

I believe quick passes are more effective than full Baton Pass in this metagame. With all the fast threats that loom and all the powerful Pokemon, you can't simply guarantee that your Baton Pass strategy will work. A good team for this would be V0x's and Omicron's quick pass team. They get up screens, hazards, and have two dedicated passers and some dedicated recipients. Their synergy is good, and when they get a Shell Smash to Jirachi, it is probably GG. Technician Breloom is also a good recipient because you can drop Swords Dance for coverage. Something else I've noted is Garchomp. Garchomp is an excellent Shell Smash recipient, especially behind screens, because it has power, bulk, and Speed.

When we talk about Baton Pass, obviously Gorrebyss comes to mind. Its access to Shell Smash makes it an ideal passer, as does its great pure Water typing. Espeon can also use Baton Pass, but with its typing, it's usually severely limited and has to pass quickly. Dual screen users are obviously appreciated given the power of everything in this metagame. Espeon can do that effectively and not be hazard setup fodder due to Magic Guard, something Deoxys-S lacks. However, with Deoxys-S's movepool and access to Taunt, that's not always a problem.

As long as you have good Pokemon to receive boosts, Baton Pass is certainly an overwhelming strategy in this metagame. With dual threats such as Blaziken that can attack or pass, it's hard to play well against these sort of teams.

 

[The QWAZ]

This may sound crazy but i have found that porygon 2 makes a good baton pass reciver, but it has great bulk and can be a very powerful offensive threat especially if download gives it a spa. boost

 

[DemonRaven]

Baton Pass is moderately healthy for the metagame. Blaziken being considered too strong due to bp is only fair, it's stats would skyrocket above most meaxes in it's tier. But in my opinion the real bp threat is mew. It's capable of many +2 moves as well as dual screens. It's movepool gives it the viability of deoxys due to this, and it is one of the most powerful baton passers around. Baton pass has proven to give the weakest pokemon created the ability to sweep, however it's not very difficult to break. This balances out the true potential of this move.

As the person above has already mentioned, gorebyss is the most popular baton passer and you most likely will never see a BP team without it. With shell smash coming out in gen 5, along with the already stat-boosting movepool it had, gave BP users icing on the cake. Another pokemon that may come to mind is mr. mime. It an set up great defenses in addition to the already powerful BP set it has. Espeon passes well due to magic guard and it's great special attack.

Quick pass is better than full pass. Full pass can be very risky, what with all of the taunt running pokemon. You could end up getting one of your weaker passers taken out and break the chain. As for blaziken, it's already extremely powerful and with baton pass boosts its up in the uber stat area, so it's not balanced in that respect.