Baton Pass Goodness -- UU

[ShinyFlareon]

I swear I actually plan on making this one >.< Mostly UU pokemon, but plan on using in regular play.

Drifblim@Leftovers
Calm nature
Ability: Aftermath
EVs: 80 HP / 252 SpD / 176 Spe
-- Baton Pass
-- Substitute
-- Stockpile
-- Shadow Ball/Hypnosis/Rest

As you can probably tell from the title of this thread, this team focuses on maintaining a Baton Pass chain, which starts here with Drifblim, who is the pokemon with the highest base HP that can learn Baton Pass and isn't Uber. First, Drifblim Substitutes, then behind it Stockpiles up to boost defenses. Shadow Ball stops Taunt from walling me, Hypnosis makes getting the Baton Pass off a little easier, or Rest to keep Drifblim in good health and able to come back later in the match to make more Substitutes.

Floatzel@Leftovers
Jolly nature
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def / 216 Spe
-- Bulk Up
-- Baton Pass
-- Waterfall
-- Return/Crunch

This way, I get a pseudo-Swords Dance as well as some defense -- also, this means that I can take Stockpile off Drifblim and replace it with something more practical. Waterfall for STAB and Return for coverage or Crunch for Ghosts which I think my team might otherwise have problems with.

Absol@Scope Lens
Lonely nature
Ability: Super Luck
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
-- Sucker Punch/Night Slash
-- Superpower
-- Fire Blast
-- Psycho Cut

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the coup de grace -- the recipient of Floatzel's Bulk Up's, and Absol really benefits from the Defense boost from Bulk Up. Absol is an absolute beast of a pokemon when set up correctly, and I've been dying to use one competitively for a while. Scope Lens increases the already boosted Critical Hit ratio without recoil damage (something that's always kinda turned me off about a Life Orb). Sucker Punch for excellent STAB, or Night Slash if I'm fast enough; Superpower for the likes of Heatran, Weavile, Regigigas, and Tyranitar; Fire Blast for Scarmory and Lucario, and Psycho Cut for most other Fighting-types. EVs are designed to make Absol as fast and hard-hitting as possible, even if it can't get the Baton Passed Swords Dances/Speed Boosts.

Mr. Mime@Leftovers
Calm nature
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 252 HP / 40 SpD / 216 Spe
-- Baton Pass
-- Calm Mind
-- Substitute/Encore
-- Charge Beam

The second possible recipient of Drifblim's Substitutes, depending on what is switched in. The idea here is to boost on the Special side with Calm Mind, rather that boost Attack and Speed like Yanmega. Mr. Mime's Soundproof also goes a long way in dealing with the threat of Roar that could so easily ruin my Baton Passing merriment. Charge Beam is a little something extra that may help boost Sp. Atk even more, and Electric has ok coverage.

Espeon@???
Timid nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Sp. Atk / 252 Spd
-- Psychic
-- Shadow Ball
-- Hidden Power (Ice/Fire/Bug)
-- ???

Fairly standard. Espeon gets the Calm Mind boosts from Mr. Mime, then proceeds to sweep. Psychic for STAB, Shadow Ball for other Psychics, Hidden Power Ice for Altaria, Fire for Steels and Grasses, or Bug for Darks and Grasses, while I lose coverage on Steels. Fourth move is up for grabs...I kinda want it to be an attack, but the only thing I can think of is Grass Knot, which, aside from Quagsire and Gastrodon, doesn't have a lot of use in UU. Maybe Swift?

Clefable@Toxic Orb
Calm nature
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 128 HP / 128 Sp. Atk / 252 Sp. Def
-- Wish
-- Ice Beam/Focus Blast
-- Thunderbolt/Shadow Ball
-- Toxic/Flamethrower

A special wall that can attack if it wants to. Wish to heal itself or the team, BoltBeam or Focus Blast/Shadow Ball combo, then Toxic for further team support or Flamethrower as another general attack.


Well, there you have it. I realize it's not that great, and there are probably a lot of holes in it that I'm just not seeing. But that's what I put it up here for, right?

EDIT: Don't ask me why I added the UU into the title...I have no idea myself -_- brain fart. Seriously. Pay no attention to it.

 

[ShinyFlareon]

Thread bump -- posted yesterday with no responses. Like I said, please pay no attention to the "UU" in the title. That was just a mistake.

 

[Cheesus Is Lord]

This seems like a pretty well put together team. I would definitely go with Shadow Ball on Drifblim, as I tend to see a significant number of fast Taunt leads. I am a little worried about the lack of ease in passing speed to your special sweepers, though Azelf is fairly fast so it's not that bad. It would be completely shut down (and all your hard-won stats lost) if a Weavile came in though (although fortunately they're not nearly as common as they used to be). Calm Mind as your only method of raising attack also worries me, because you really want to be able to OHKO most everything, and Mr. Mime can be easily threatened and forced out. If the speed thing becomes an issue, you can always replace Aerial Ace on Ninjask (which really doesn't do much) with Protect to allow you to pass to him (with Focus Sash) and pass enough speed to any Pokemon here that you won't need to worry.

I'm also a little worried about Trick leads. You won't be able to pass much from Drifblim with them and it'll be crippled for the rest of the match. I'm not really sure how to fix this problem though.

 

[Wiilio]

Cheesus brings up a good point; Trick is going to screw you over pretty bad. You might want to lead with Ninjask instead. You can get rid of Aerial Ace for either Protect or Substitute. If you opt for Protect, you can know what your opponent is about to do. If it's Trick, you can at least Baton Pass to something that the Trick'd item will work on. If you use Substitute, Trick won't even work, which could possibly give you a free turn to Swords Dance. If it's Azelf, just go ahead and kill it off with X-Scissor. The team seems to be built well, but my main concern is Absol on this team. As long as you are using Azelf, Vaporeon, and Ninjask on this team, you are bound to use it in standard (OU) play. Drifblim and Mr. Mime are pretty bulky, but Absol's frail. Perhaps it will be able to hit hard, but ever-common prioroty moves are going to severely hurt your strategy. Scizor and Lucario are very common in OU. Scizor has its 90 base power Bullet Punch (With Technician), and Lucario has Vacuum Wave and Extremespeed (Or Mach Punch but it's rarely used). These will most likely be revenge kills unless they switch in on moves they resist, but you might be better off using something more OU-oriented. Salamence is an excellent option. Azelf is frail too... I dunno, I just never liked the idea of my Baton Pass recipients being so frail. If you're alright with it, go ahead, but really be wary of priority moves.

For Drifblim, try a stat boosting berry instead of Leftovers, and Unburden over Aftermath. Once the berry is gone and Unburden activates, you'll have a Speed boost. While this Speed boost isn't able to be Baton Passed, it will help Drifblim pass its boost(s) before the opponent has a chance to attack. If you'd rather use the set now, that's okay too.

 

[ShinyFlareon]

Don't the defense boosts form Stockpile get BPassed too? I thought they did...

I had forgotten about Trick, to be honest. I was more concerned with Taunt, Roar, and Whirlwind. I know I don't really have a way to block Whirlwind, but Roar could be dealt with by Mr. Mime (to a certain extent) and Taunt by having at least one attack on everything.

The way I'm looking at it now, I think I have two options. Go entirely OU, or go entirely UU. If I go OU, I may have to forgo the long, elaborate Baton Pass chain (as the only fairly bulky OU pokemon to learn it are Celebi, Gliscor, and Vaporeon) replace:
Absol -> Salamence
Drifblim -> ???
Mr. Mime -> ???

And if I want to go UU, like the title suggests, I could replace:
Ninjask -> Yanmega
Azelf ->Espeon or Clefable
Vaporeon -> Lapras, Lanturn, or Ludicolo

I don't know what I'd put in place were I to go entirely OU, but the UU options sound pretty solid, and I may just do that -- switch the entire team over to UU. Thoughts?

 

[The Outrage]

The defense boosts from Stock Pile do get passed

 

[Wiilio]

Ah yes forgot that Stockpile was there. The Stockpile itself isn't passed, but the boosts are. So really, all Drifblim is doing is giving one of your other BPers a better chance to set up/attackers a better chance to set up to attack? I dunno... if it were me I'd rather BP Calm Minds with Drifblim, but whatever floats your boat.

 

[ShinyFlareon]

^ Well, I think I'm going to take this entire team UU, as there seem to be more solid choices for it there -- plus, I can still use Absol XD

Now, contrary to what I thought, Yanmega learns neither Baton Pass nor Swords Dance, so that slot in my team is now open.

I plan on putting Espeon in there too, but the Timid female Eevee I'd been hoping for since I first got Diamond and finally received from Bebe has a max Sp. Atk IV of 4, which makes me very, very sad :-( so I'm going to breed it. I just need an Everstone, first :-( It makes me even sadder because HP Fire, which this Eevee has, would be way more useful in UU than HP Fighting.

Anyway, Clefable will probably also find it's way onto this team somehow, maybe as my Wisher/Special Wall?

Edit: so...yeah. I'm definitely using Espeon and Clefable. I'll edit their sets into my first post, but I'll also put them down here, and keep looking for something to fill Ninjask's spot.

Espeon@???
Timid nature
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Sp. Atk / 252 Spd
-- Psychic
-- Shadow Ball
-- Hidden Power (Ice/Fire/Bug)
-- ???

Fairly standard. Espeon gets the Calm Mind boosts from Mr. Mime, then proceeds to sweep. Psychic for STAB, Shadow Ball for other Psychics, Hidden Power Ice for Altaria, Fire for Steels and Grasses, or Bug for Darks and Grasses, while I lose coverage on Steels. Fourth move is up for grabs...I kinda want it to be an attack, but the only thing I can think of is Grass Knot, which, aside from Quagsire and Gastrodon, doesn't have a lot of use in UU. Maybe Swift?

Clefable@Toxic Orb
Calm nature
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 128 HP / 128 Sp. Atk / 252 Sp. Def
-- Wish
-- Ice Beam/Focus Blast
-- Thunderbolt/Shadow Ball
-- Toxic/Flamethrower

A special wall that can attack if it wants to. Wish to heal itself or the team, BoltBeam or Focus Blast/Shadow Ball combo, then Toxic for further team support or Flamethrower as another general attack.

 

[ShinyFlareon]

Ok, sorry to double-post here, but I think I've found something to fill that empty slot. Again, I'll edit it into my first post, but I'll also put it here.

Floatzel@Leftovers
Jolly nature
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def / 216 Spe
-- Bulk Up
-- Baton Pass
-- Waterfall
-- Return/Crunch

This way, I get a pseudo-Swords Dance as well as some defense -- also, this means that I can take Stockpile off Drifblim and replace it with something more practical. Waterfall for STAB and Return for coverage or Crunch for Ghosts which I think my team might otherwise have problems with.

 

[ShinyFlareon]

Er...bump. Could someone please rate the three replacements I chose and how they fit in the team?

 

[Tina]

Looking at it, almost your entire team is either Ghost or Fighting weak. There can't be a Pokemon that resists both, but at least some neutrality would be nice...

I'd probably end up replacing Clefable.. even though it's really awesome and all, it'd be a good idea to replace it since I think it's the one that doesn't fit in the most.

Maybe a physically based Spiritomb, or a Muk...? Either could take advantage of Floatzel's Bulk Ups.

 

[ShinyFlareon]

Looking at it, almost your entire team is either Ghost or Fighting weak. There can't be a Pokemon that resists both, but at least some neutrality would be nice...

I'd probably end up replacing Clefable.. even though it's really awesome and all, it'd be a good idea to replace it since I think it's the one that doesn't fit in the most.

Maybe a physically based Spiritomb, or a Muk...? Either could take advantage of Floatzel's Bulk Ups.

I had planned on using Floatzel's Bulk Ups for Absol...but I see your point, I hadn't noticed the glaring weaknesses staring me right in the face. However, getting rid of Clefable means getting rid of a Wisher, and therefore healing for the rest of my team. Could you recommend something else?

I am considering getting rid of Mr. Mime. Stockpile on Drifblim does nothing that Calm Mind and Bulk Up can't, and it increases attack stats, too. Also, I'm noticing that I don't have anything with an Ice move, whereas the team itself doesn't really give a lot of coverage with it's moves -- certainly not enough to cover it's weaknesses. Ice Beam is probably desperately needed somewhere on this team, but if I get rid of Clefable and Mr. Mime, I'm not sure where it could go, especially since Espeon can't learn it (for some bizarre reason).

 

[smokinquincy]

Ive also noticed that IF you get Roared or Whirlwinded on, your Baton Pass will fail! Since that's an issue, you might want to consider something like Cradily with SuctionCups. Being Grass/Rock, its only weak against (Fighting/Ice?) In anycase, Baton Passing your stats onto a Cradily (or something that wont get forced out) could prove useful. Im not going to go over Smogon's analysis but Cradily makes a very nice wall and can stall your way through stealth rock/toxic and it gets rest too for any status.
If you choose to use Octillery, baton passing agility to octillery will end up making him a very tough phys/spec attacker. Besides, he has a pretty nifty move pool.
Chargebeam
EnergyBall
Surf
icebeam
?? Chargebeam raises sAtk... meaning potent threat?

 

[Mijzelffan]

and then finally absol was there in all it's might, and then an opponent came, roared and everything was all useles. Same goes for everyone who gets roared/k.o'ed while boosting stats to pass on.