OU: Strategy Baton Pass

[Professor Palutena]

So many competitive communities are looking at putting a blanket ban down on Basin Pass for competitive play.

What do you think about Baton Pass teams? Do that take skill or are they "brainless"? Are that overpowered?

 

[Celever]

Baton Pass shouldn't be banned. There's nothing brainless about it, honestly. It's a playstyle I've never got to work well tbh. I think it's already restricted too much.

 

[Nyora]

Baton Pass definitely shouldn't be banned. Some Pokémon do get to actually use Baton Pass effectively such as Scolipede + Ribombee, but a whole lot other mons really only have Substitute or maybe a couple Calm Minds to pass on. It's not really overpowered seeing as how the boosts themselves can be mitigated by Unaware, Haze, etc. Also, Taunt completely destroys Pokémon trying to BP and BP also passes other bad things like Confusion and Leech Seed most notably. I don't think it its ban-worthy, etc. least not until they make a Pokémon that can actually abuse it. Also, I think it's kind of stupid on the opponent's side, because a lot of time sit seems people wanna ban this, though their teams are no where near prepared to face on, and that's why they want it banned.

 

[Scattered mind]

I agree with Rainy, I don't see any problem with BP. I certainly don't understand why it's called brainless. Once you manage to set up BP Sweep- that's not brainless if your opponent was not prepared for that. Same goes for Trick Room and Rain. If my opponent is not ready for a Trick Room Team or Rain team, they will lose pretty fast if I manage setting up everything right.

 

[StarlightSearcher]

It takes some strategy to make a BP sweep work. How many stats to pass down and when's the right time to "hand the baton off" to your main sweeper. You need to be aware of a BP team and how to correctly handle the situation before the sweep blows you away. A fast Taunter, Status Affliction, and/or bulky Pokemon can help diffuse a BP team and help you out immensely.

Baton Pass is not a broken strategy, it can be countered. You just need to know how to counter the Baton Pass time before it's too late.

Baton Pass should not be banned; but it probably will.

 

[Secret Agent Seal]

I think the above users are overestimating the skill required to execute a Baton Pass chain.

Baton Pass teams are mechanical in nature, in the sense that the best move is usually obvious to the player, and that the team plays out the same each game. Get Scolipede in on something which cannot break its setup, secure boosts, and pass to sweeper (Espeon in the case of incoming Taunt / Whirlwind / Roar). The player doesn't have to worry about the nuances of hazard control, prediction, chip damage, etc. Given this one dimensional nature of Baton Pass, there can only be so much decision making (or skill) when piloting such a team.

Mediocre levels of skill accounted for, Baton Pass can only win or lose depending on team match-up. Or in other words, there doesn't seem to be much relationship between skill (beyond a low threshold) and success rate when operating / battling a Baton Pass team. To me this is the against the ideal of fostering a competitive metagame.

I think Baton Pass needs to be handled somehow. My preference is an outright ban on the move, rather than some complex ban, because:

A) Players have often found ways to abuse Baton Pass even with complex bans in place, making an outright ban the safest option for stopping yet another suspect test down the line.

B) We've spent an unusually large amount of time trying to preserve Baton Pass through complex bans, which is a treatment than other banned Pokémon / Moves haven't received. Not only is this inconsistent, but I just don't think Baton Pass as a whole has a high enough value to keep on preserving via complex bans.

Ban Baton Pass.