PVP Feedback - Baton Pass

Baganha · May 3, 2020

When entering q, u should be able to ban 1-2 pokemon u dont want to face. It would take longer q times but to me thats worth it. And if u dont like bp just ban scolipede.

Yeah lemme just ban all the threats to my team so when i q, me and everyone else's ladder results are completely skewed.

Soggyteabag · May 3, 2020

+1 nakofum

+1 mcschitter

You missed milotic btw

Milotic walls the raindance manaphy set and then hazes in return.

Also, I don't think that the full capabilities of baton pass have been explored yet. Passing to lapras is a good start, but I really haven't seen people try to pass to lesser used pokes. For example, Kingler is a fantastic breaker with stab liquidation + sheer force + sd. Its below average speed can be mitigated by baton passing. Overall baton pass just introduces so much variety in a otherwise standard meta with no innovation or creativity right now.

To address other issues:

IT STRAIGHT UP LOOSES TO HYPER OFFENCE

yeah that's right. Virtually any faster paced team shuts down bp. For one, most hyper offence teams carry at least 2-3 prio users to beat down any attempt to set up and sweep (for the record, manaphy only resists 2 prios: bullet punch and aqua jet, togekiss resists 1 prio: mach punch) . And second, most every pokemon is offensively oriented even if the opponent baton passes out, you should be able to predict whatever pokemon the are gonna pass to and deal significant amounts of damage.

Ex: Lucario against Scolipede

Oh, they have a manaphy which resists bullet punch, so I can close combat into espeed here and knock it out.

or

Oh, they have a togekiss which resists close combat, so I can meteor mash here into espeed and knock it out.

Point made

Its unpredictability:

Only in 2 ways,

1: teambuilding

2: switching/passing

1: Ok sure, you get some powerful wall breaker like crawdaunt or medicham and you pass speed to it. Great! . . . no one does that lol. In the hundreds of games that I've played, I have yet to see someone exploit baton pass in such a manner. Literally everyone uses the same 3-4 mons (manaphy lucario/conk togekiss) to abuse baton pass. People don't use other pokes cause quite simply, they just aren't that good. Surprise Surprise

2: You have abusers that can switch into a move which they resist and then proceed to set up

Solution: Predict. Its really not that hard to predict. Just try to think what poke they are going to bpass to then attack with a supereffective move, a move that hits them neutrally, or switch to a counter/something that walls it. ITS THAT EASY

A weak argument in general.

Also, manaphy was uber in gen5 cause of endless weather.

It was ou in subsequent gens.

The powercreep is why baton pass was banned in later gens. Pokemon just got more and more powerful. (gen6 megas, gen7 zmoves)

Of course baton pass will be banned here. I can't imagine anyone allowing someone passing speed to a mega-medicham and thinking that's fair and balenced.

PSYCHIC TERRAIN

Imagine a baton pass team thats immune to priority.

Point and Case.

These techs aren't here yet so its still a-ok to run baton pass.

Overall:

Ty for reading this. Sorry for my bad english

If you are losing to baton pass run HO

I doubt everyone who is trying to ban baton pass has actually run it (not kups/glog's standard one) for an extendend period of time. (400 battles +)

If you are really afraid of baton pass you probably haven't played around with it and used various pokes to abuse it. Its ridiculously hard making a new baton pass from scratch and using lesser used pokes like porygon-z or moltres which may seem good on paper, but don't perform as well in game.

Don't quote me, I'm tired of this thread already.

Edited May 3, 2020 by SoggyTeaBag

Stavd · May 3, 2020

i agree with the ban of baton pass...an experienced baton pass player has huge advantage against all other strategies...he can only be countered by consecutive lucky guesses and bad luck (eg miss air slash)...i also agree with the argument, that +1 speed when switching in, makes op pokes like Manaphy, Togekiss, Lucario and Garchomp Uber...And if you haven t guessed correctly, they get one free round to Tail Glow, Nasty Plot or Swords Dance...That gives baton pass users a huge advantage...Also Unaware pokes (Clefable, Quagsire) do not stand a chance against baton pass sweepers like togekiss, manaphy, lucario...The only solution is trick room...

It is the only strategy that can t be countered by one or two pokes (like rain that can be countered by chansey or sassy ferro or gastrodon or mantine, sun that can be countered by garchomp, heatran, sand that can be countered by conkeldurr etc), and requires a specific set up in order to secure your chances and not be completely based on predictions and lucky guesses...

Zytrax · May 3, 2020

Yeah lemme just ban all the threats to my team so when i q, me and everyone else's ladder results are completely skewed.

bann all the threats by banning 1 or 2 pokemon sure XD

Logan · May 4, 2020

I won't comment in context, but next time I will see a sarcastic/disrespectful comment I will just delete it.

Aggs · May 7, 2020

Woops, pressed enter while writing this. This text will be deleted when my post is finished c:

TL;DR Baton Pass is not overpowered for the meta currently. Free Turns, Free Turns, Free Turns.

ASSUME SCOLIPEDE IS THE BATON PASSER UNLESS OTHERWISE MENTIONED

Baton Pass as an archetype thrives on attempting to force the opponent into giving you free turns, and turning those free turns into advantage, such as a Speed Boosted Togekiss or Manaphy. The receiver is determined based on both teams, and which is more likely to actually end the game. Togekiss and Manaphy pair well, as they accomplish similar things while also covering for each other. Both are fairly bulky SPATK setup mons that can beat Chansey and Blissey 1v1 due to the nature of their resilience to status, through Heal Bell and Hydration respectively. Manaphy is better for taking on teams that have more Flying resists and good Steel Priority, namely Heatran, Magnezone, and Scizor, whereas Togekiss is better at taking down the bulky Grasses and Water Immunities for Manaphy. Along with a Rocks Setter and good breakers, you get an Offensive team meant to capitalize on passive play, and meant to steamroll through slower games.

However, there are quite a few flaws to a Baton Pass team built this way. For starters, if Baton Pass is against a faster-paced team, such as Volt-Turn offense or H.O., then Baton Pass realistically has no opportunity to start the train going, because there are almost never free turns. In PRO, there is no Substitute, which is the beholder of taking advantage of free turns, which forces the Baton Pass user to actually play the game, rather than twiddling their thumbs and pressing buttons in an un-interactive way. Protect is also not coded correctly, in the sense that you cannot Protect again after failing to Protect due to a switch, which gives away the free Speed that Baton Passers just love, although this is more than compensated by the Volt-Turn +1 Speed. Also in PRO, ANY NON-SPEED STAT LOWERING EFFECT WILL EFFECTIVELY SHUT DOWN SPEED PASSING. This is easily accessible, ranging from Intimidate, to Defog, or any drop from moves such as Shadow Ball, Moonblast, Play Rough, Earth Power, the rarer Energy Ball, and so on(These moves were listed first as they were the moves that came to mind if the Baton Passer was forced into a position to be swapped in). These moves, alongside the option of Haze, Roar, Whirlwind, and Dragon Tail, make any time spent getting Speed and Attack/Spatk boosts utterly wasted. Lastly, due to the common weaknesses of Rock and Electric between the main 3-centric baton core of Scoli/Mana/Toge, forcing another member of their team to take unfavorable damage on the Pass will severely hinder their ability to dissemble your own team.

Just a little tidbit for other Passers:

Espeon tl;dr Just hit it lol

Espeon is so frail that attacking it before it can Calm Mind is just imperative. Doing anything else is essentially throwing, there isn't an easier way to put it. Bold Espeon is too slow to the point that slower threats such as Dragonite, Chandelure, and other Pokemon around that speed or faster, never allow it to get free turns. Timid is nearly the embodiment of paper, so if you sneeze on it, it'll surely faint. A Focus Sash cannot save Espeon from the Pursuit Trappers, as it fails to OHKO any of them with realistic moves (HP Fighting for Weavile and Bisharp), and will always be 2HKO regardless (OHKO in Tyranitar Case thanks to Sand). Rotom-Wash using Volt Switch into any Pursuit Trapper is the doom of Espeon. Rotom is almost always top 10 usage at worst, and with the rise of Muk-Alolan or the existing Weavile, this scenario is more than likely to turn the game to 5v6.

Potential Offense before a Baton Pass or Calm Mind:

[spoiler=Timid SPATK/SPEED Espeon]252 SpA Espeon Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Weavile: 200-236 (71.1 - 83.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Espeon Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Greninja: 258-304 (90.5 - 106.6%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO

252 SpA Espeon Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Garchomp: 200-236 (56 - 66.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Espeon Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Ferrothorn: 172-204 (48.8 - 57.9%) -- 45.3% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (Running HP Fire means you will always lose to Gengar if you are not running Focus Sash)

252 SpA Espeon Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Ferrothorn: 232-276 (65.9 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

[spoiler=Bold HP/DEF Espeon]0 SpA Espeon Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Weavile: 166-196 (59 - 69.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 SpA Espeon Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Greninja: 214-252 (75 - 88.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 SpA Espeon Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Garchomp: 166-196 (46.4 - 54.9%) -- 64.5% chance to 2HKO

Potential Defense before a Baton Pass or Calm Mind:

[spoiler=Timid SPATK/SPEED Espeon]252 Atk Life Orb Protean Greninja U-turn vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Espeon: 361-429 (133.2 - 158.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Life Orb Greninja Hydro Pump vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Espeon: 208-246 (76.7 - 90.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Life Orb Greninja Dark Pulse vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Espeon: 304-359 (112.1 - 132.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

0 Atk Ferrothorn Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Espeon: 200-236 (73.8 - 87%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

0 Atk Ferrothorn Gyro Ball (143 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Espeon: 220-261 (81.1 - 96.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Garchomp Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Espeon: 247-292 (91.1 - 107.7%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Choice Band Weavile Pursuit vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Espeon: 278-330 (102.5 - 121.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 SpA Gengar Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Espeon: 272-324 (100.3 - 119.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO

[spoiler=Bold HP/DEF Espeon]252 Atk Life Orb Protean Greninja U-turn vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Espeon: 237-281 (70.9 - 84.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Life Orb Greninja Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Espeon: 304-359 (91 - 107.4%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Choice Band Weavile Pursuit vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Espeon: 186-218 (55.6 - 65.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 Atk Life Orb Garchomp Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Espeon: 208-247 (62.2 - 73.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery

252 SpA Heatran Magma Storm vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Espeon: 169-201 (50.5 - 60.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery and trapping damage

It just gets eaten alive, without enough offensive pressure to always get the kill, without Focus Sash as Timid. I kind of find it depressing that Espeon doesn't even OHKO a Greninja with a -SpDef Nature as Bold, but that's not the point here. What's the counterplay to an Espeon in a match up of the likes of Chansey or MG Clefable, where they are not able to put out that kind of pressure immediately? In the case of Chansey, there's almost nothing you can do, to be honest. Chansey is a Pokemon that gives heaps of free turns more often than not, and setup Pokemon always take advantage of Chansey, Espeon is no different. It's similar to the MG Clef case, due to Magic Bounce blocking status moves targeting the Opponent. MG Clef's best option is to go into a teammate that can pressure the Espeon. This is, however, considering ALL of Espeon's options. An Espeon with Stored Power will beat an Unaware Clef with enough boosts, but early on Espeon will not threaten Chansey or Blissey enough. With a low base HP, Timid Espeon just doesn't have the time to pummel over the SpDef giants:

+2 252 SpA Espeon Stored Power (100 BP) vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 208-246 (29.5 - 34.9%) -- 13.6% chance to 3HKO (Alongside +2 Spdef that comes with calm mind)

Espeon has to be used towards the end of mid-game to warrant any real threat, if any at all. It's just not good.

Literally any other Current Baton Passer:

It's pretty much the same as Espeon, whereas if you don't give free turns, they will not get the momentum they need to snowball. Aside from Togekiss and Mew, all of the other passers lack any offense whatsoever on their own. Just hit them with decent moves or taunt them. Please. Don't give them free turns, and you will be in a much better spot.

I've pretty much repeated the same thing quite a bit by now: Do not give free turns. What does this exactly mean? Giving away a free turn is doing something that does not apply pressure on the opponent that turn, such as healing, switching, or using a status move, and it going unpunished. Depending on the situation, these moves may go punished. However, these options may allow your opponent to do the same thing. The severity of the punishment is what truly decides whether a turn is free or not. A couple of example situations:

[spoiler=Examples]Player 1 - Player 2

Gliscor vs Rotom-Wash - Gliscor is Swapped Out for Ferrothorn, and Rotom-Wash Defogs away Stealth Rocks and Spikes.

This situation is essentially a free turn for both players, however, this creates an extra free turn for Player 1, as Rotom-Wash(without HP Fire or Wisp) cannot punish Ferrothorn directly. I would say that Player 1 won out of that exchange.

Player 1 - Player 2

Scolipede vs Rotom-Wash(Specs) - Scolipede uses Baton Pass, and switches in Garchomp, and Rotom-Wash Hydro Pumped, landing the hit.

This situation just turned sour for Player 1, as they were expecting a Volt Switch from Rotom-Wash. They attempted to make the most of their turn, by trying to get in Garchomp without taking damage. This also wastes the turn or turns spent adding Speed Boosts, as now Garchomp is susceptible to a Priority Attack, if it didn't die to Hydro Pump already. Player 2 won the exchange.

And, to top it all off, I will add 3 replays, 2 from the most recent Ladder Tournament, and one from the 24th Ladder Tournament(Started in Sept. 2019), which showcases exactly what happens when Baton Pass is given free turns, with a short analysis of the turns given away for free, and what could've been done to prevent it.

Replay 1: Volbeat Baton Pass.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-1095421229

[spoiler=Analysis]

Stall vs Baton Pass is a terrible match up for stall no matter how you look at it. Baton needs to run stallbreakers such as Heal Bell Plot Roost Togekiss, or Rain Dance Manaphy, to have a shot at getting through an evenly-skilled player, and these stallbreakers do their jobs well. This game shows why giving away free turns so easily is a loss for stall.

Turn 1: Chansey vs Dugtrio - Chansey is Switched to Amoonguss, Dugtrio gets up Rocks.

It's Stall vs Baton Pass, and the suicide lead is gonna get up rocks. There isn't much you can do to stop the rocks here. Swapping out was the most poor decision here in my opinion, as at least trading Stealth Rocks means the Stall Player can start racking up damage as the Baton Player switches. Giving any type of offensive team free SR with no contesting is a huge problem already. Baton 1 - 0 Stall

Turn 2: Amoonguss vs Dugtrio - Dugtrio uses Earthquake, Amoonguss uses Spore.

The Dugtrio has absolutely 0 reason to switch out, as it getting spored is best case scenario, meaning Amoonguss cannot spore anything else. Giga Drain(assuming it has it) would've been the best decision by far, as it would mitigate the Earthquake impact immediately. The turn doesn't have immediate impact, but is crucial for the long-term. Baton 2 - 0 Stall

Turn 3: Amoonguss vs Dugtrio - Dugtrio is Switched to Volbeat, Amoonguss uses HP Ice.

If the Stall Player had used Giga Drain the previous turn, I would not think that the HP Ice play would not have been as bad, as it does more to the potential Volbeat than Giga Drain would. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Based on the damage, we can assume the Volbeat is some +Spdef nature. Damage on Volbeat is crucial, so if the Baton Pass is thwarted, then Volbeat cannot attempt a huge push again. Baton 3 - 0 Stall

Turn 4: Amoonguss vs Volbeat - Amoonguss is Switched to Zapdos, Volbeat uses Tail Glow.

NO! No no no no no! You cannot ever do this. This is the most free turn that Volbeat could have gotten. Based on this play, and this play alone, I know the Stall Player is inexperienced with stall. That switch-out means this Amoonguss does not have Clear Smog, which is essential on a team that is weak to MG Clefable with Toxic. The score for the Baton - Stall does not matter, as no amount of points can measure how much momentum is gained here.

Turn 5: Zapdos vs Volbeat - Volbeat uses Tail Glow, Zapdos uses Heat Wave.

Finally, the Volbeat gets hit for real, but at this point it's too little too late. It's at +6 now, and is ready to Baton Pass.

Turn 6: Zapdos vs Volbeat - Zapdos is switched to Chansey, Volbeat Baton Passes to Nidoking.

Once again, even at this position, YOU CANNOT SWITCH LIKE THIS, YOU GIVE A FREE TURN AND LOSE HARDER. Going for any damage at all is necessary, or otherwise you will get swept. In 6 turns, the Stall Player has attacked twice. That's 4 turns of freedom within 6 turns, and a team given 4 turns of freedom in that short amount of time should essentially win the game on the spot. And that is what happened.

Turn 7: Chansey vs Nidoking - Nidoking uses Focus Blast and misses, Chansey uses Stealth Rocks.

Look, I cannot believe that games similar to this are deemed as Baton Pass being broken. Of course a +6 Nidoking is broken, it took 3 turns to setup. But when players, who are suppose to be at the higher end of skill in PRO, cannot deal with a Baton Team in a meaningful way, there really is no one to blame besides the player base's willingness to improve. You can say that at this point, it wouldn't matter what the Chansey goes for, and it may be because of a tilt factor. But this game is just one example of a free win for Baton Pass, because the opponent does not challenge it.

Replay 2: Togekiss Baton Pass.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7anythinggoes-979595157

To Be Continued

Edited May 8, 2020 by Aggs

Glogs · May 8, 2020

I'll try to go over a few misconceptions I've seen in this thread and try to give my take on them. I also feel like this is the place to share my disappointment with how the ban was handled.

First of all, we can agree that the Speed Boost bug empowers Baton Pass. However, wanting Baton Pass banned because of a bugged ability seems like the wrong way to go about it.

I would elaborate more here, but I'd essentially end up repeating myself, so I'll save it for the conclusion instead.

There's a lot of "Showdown this" and "Showdown that" which, given the circumstances, isn't completely unreasonable.

I see people mentioning the thread that got Baton Pass banned in Gen 7 OU and when reading it, I wonder if they did. I wonder if they watched the replays linked. If you did, I assume you would've noticed a few common factors, namely Dugtrio with Arena Trap and Scolipede having access to Substitute + a properly working Baton Pass.

All that just means, that we're comparing a "complete" metagame with that of PRO's. We're comparing working mechanics to those of PRO. We're comparing Pokémon like Necrozma and Magearna with the likes of Togekiss and Manaphy. We're not accurately taking into consideration the lack of Substitute and the presence of Arena Trap Dugtrio. Maybe this is a good time to mention that the Dugtrio run on those teams was run with Memento in order to cripple the opponent and give Scolipede a more or less free Substitute.

Adding a little onto the previous paragraph, I feel it's important to stress that PRO should not strive to become the Smogon/Showdown metagame. If that's the direction we're heading in, there's no reason to not just play on Showdown to begin with. Shoutout to Qeight for mentioning that and finally adding some stats to the discussion, but more about that later.

As a final note to that, the quote beneath hits right in the feels.

I had the PvP Council in mind because I wanted to give players what they wanted but most people don't even know what they want or PvP, people who backhanded complain in Admins DMs or on PRO Discord are the ones who haven't played the game in months. It saddens me that those people even have a voice, they shouldn't. They don't play but ask for bans when majority of the people don't play it. It is a shame.

Yes, Manaphy is a controversial Pokémon and so is Togekiss (with scarf too). It removes a lot of skill expression when you're continously flinched down without being able to do much. Togekiss is inherently uncompetitive, I think we can all agree.

Is it so different from other sweepers though? Bisharp restricts teambuilding as well. Lucario too? Volcarona? You need answers for a lot of different setup Pokémon in order not to lose in Team Preview. When I'm teambuilding, I'm much more scared of getting swept by Bisharp and Lucario than I am scared of Manaphy. Regardless of my own preference, you need checks or counters for certain offensive mons. If you don't have a counter or hard check for these threats, you must be able to generate enough offensive pressure to prevent them from setting up in the first place, regardless of Baton Pass.

I actually quite like that one of my questions was used for the post. Shoutout to the guy who passed it on, you know who you are.

For those unfamiliar with it, here we are: "What does the opponent do while Scolipede passes Speed?". I think it's a great question, cause the same can be asked about a bunch of different set up mons. Bisharp SD? Lucario SD? Volcarona QD? Togekiss NP? Manaphy TG?

The argument: "Just press protect and get 1 free turn on something Scolipede is good into" (as I'm reading it) really doesn't make sense. Protect is not coded correctly, so while we're on a thread of a bugged move, it may interest you to know that the move Protect is a lot stronger on Showdown than it is on PRO. If you Protect and the opponent switches out, it fails every time (I've never seen it work anyways, and I've played a lot of stall in my time on PRO). This bug inherently makes it a lot weaker to press Protect on the initial turn you come in, as Protect does not limit the switches the opponent can make in any way shape or form, which means it should never be "free".

To clarify how it's different than it is on Showdown:

On Showdown Protect works 100% of the time the second time it is used if the opponent switched out on the initial turn.

Yes, there's several "abusers" that can receive speed boosts and do well with them. Is that so different from how hyper-offensive teams have more than one threat?

In the end, both are about momentum. If you lose momentum with either, you're likely out of the game unless your opponent just wants you to win. The most commonly used Baton Pass team could in many ways be interpreted as another variation of the hyper-offense archetype.

Baton Pass aims to capitalize on the opponents mistakes and will do so aggresively (if played correctly). For the sake of the post, I'll say that players of equal skill will not make mistakes for the Baton Pass player to capitalize on, which is where the teams are much weaker and unable to do much on their own initiative. The only reason Baton Pass has seen any form of success on the ranked ladder thus far, seems to have been because the team was built to not require speed boosts to function in the first place.

Anything I've seen apart from that have been "meme-ish" teams in the ladder tournament that the opponents were just ill-prepared for.

While there's a point in saying: "the real problem with this move is that it opens to tens or even hundreds of different vulnerabilities.", it sort of seems beside the main point.

You don't quick ban something that has already been explored in the meta-game because of its potential.

There's a few things that got banned because of their potentials, namely legends such as Shaymin-Sky and Darkrai.

Baton Pass is not in a similar situation, it has already been in the meta for a year and we've seen the meta adapt accordingly. We're seeing more priority moves and better answers to the common Baton Pass threats. We're seeing players being able to play against it better, now that they understand how the teams go about punishing mistakes.

If it isn't apparent as of yet, I don't believe Baton Pass should be banned.

If the comparison is made with the Smogon metagame, the move is just so much weaker than it is on Showdown. There's no Substitute, Protect doesn't work correctly and there's a lack of stronger abusers.

If we had data from last year around this time, I'm sure we'd see a quite significant change in some of the most used Pokémon, without having seen many new Pokémon being added to the game and ending up there (bar alolan-muk?). Point is, the meta shifts and players adapt to new threats accordingly. I don't think there has been a game-breaking Baton Pass team yet. The closest we've come is probably a player reaching rank 1 with it on Silver in 2019 (which would be me).

Having to revisit this topic in a few months if a player builds something that is gamebreaking is not a bad thing and it is definitely not a reason to ban it now.

There's no doubt in my mind that this move should be banned later, but I'll refer to the "it is definitely not a reason to ban it now".

That's about it for my thoughts on Baton Pass, so if that's all you were here for, feel free not to read any further.

I'd like to focus on the "how the ban was handled part" for the next segment.

------------------------------------

As Qeight already pointed out, the decision was made within the staff "PvP council". Logan said he'd take all responsibility for the ban, so I assume it's not toxic to mention him directly. I feel as if the decision was heavily influenced by one group of players and not so much by players who takes an opposite stand to it.

I had the pleasure of being consulted the day after the ban took place, which ended up meaning nothing for the outcome of this initially.

The way this temporary rule change was made is not a sustainable way of conducting rule changes and it has to change going forward.

While conferring with Logan the day after the ban, it was made clear that there was no protocol to be followed (which I was aware of, given the circumstances).

For me, it just begs the question: "Why not make a protocol first?". Baton Pass has been around for a long time now and it doesn't seem like an issue that can't be dealt with more appropriately than this.

Even if Baton Pass is deemed to be ban-worthy at this given time, I think the least we could do is create a proper protocol and run it through it before any final decision is made.

About a year ago, a few players and myself made a draft of how a PvP council could function. View that here.

It also answers a few common questions for those who are unfamiliar with how things are usually banned on Smogon.

Obviously, we don't have to follow their procedures, just as we don't have to follow their metagame.

We never ended up pushing the idea out there and I doubt many staff members ended up seeing the post, as it was also around this time Qeight announced the official post with questions. I never got around to posting on that one, I don't think.

TLDR of this section; If we have at least a modicum of respect for protocol and the playerbase as a whole, I think we enforce a do-over to avoid what I would call bad decisions becoming bad habits.

Best of regards,

Heroofthestreet · May 8, 2020

Woops, pressed enter while writing this. This text will be deleted when my post is finished c:

TL;DR Baton Pass is not overpowered for the meta currently. Free Turns, Free Turns, Free Turns.

ASSUME SCOLIPEDE IS THE BATON PASSER UNLESS OTHERWISE MENTIONED

Baton Pass as an archetype thrives on attempting to force the opponent into giving you free turns, and turning those free turns into advantage, such as a Speed Boosted Togekiss or Manaphy. The receiver is determined based on both teams, and which is more likely to actually end the game. Togekiss and Manaphy pair well, as they accomplish similar things while also covering for each other. Both are fairly bulky SPATK setup mons that can beat Chansey and Blissey 1v1 due to the nature of their resilience to status, through Heal Bell and Hydration respectively. Manaphy is better for taking on teams that have more Flying resists and good Steel Priority, namely Heatran, Magnezone, and Scizor, whereas Togekiss is better at taking down the bulky Grasses and Water Immunities for Manaphy. Along with a Rocks Setter and good breakers, you get an Offensive team meant to capitalize on passive play, and meant to steamroll through slower games.

However, there are quite a few flaws to a Baton Pass team built this way. For starters, if Baton Pass is against a faster-paced team, such as Volt-Turn offense or H.O., then Baton Pass realistically has no opportunity to start the train going, because there are almost never free turns. In PRO, there is no Substitute, which is the beholder of taking advantage of free turns, which forces the Baton Pass user to actually play the game, rather than twiddling their thumbs and pressing buttons in an un-interactive way. Protect is also not coded correctly, in the sense that you cannot Protect again after failing to Protect due to a switch, which gives away the free Speed that Baton Passers just love, although this is more than compensated by the Volt-Turn +1 Speed. Also in PRO, ANY NON-SPEED STAT LOWERING EFFECT WILL EFFECTIVELY SHUT DOWN SPEED PASSING. This is easily accessible, ranging from Intimidate, to Defog, or any drop from moves such as Shadow Ball, Moonblast, Play Rough, Earth Power, the rarer Energy Ball, and so on(These moves were listed first as they were the moves that came to mind if the Baton Passer was forced into a position to be swapped in). These moves, alongside the option of Haze, Roar, Whirlwind, and Dragon Tail, make any time spent getting Speed and Attack/Spatk boosts utterly wasted. Lastly, due to the common weaknesses of Rock and Electric between the main 3-centric baton core of Scoli/Mana/Toge, forcing another member of their team to take unfavorable damage on the Pass will severely hinder their ability to dissemble your own team.

Just a little tidbit for other Passers:
Espeon tl;dr Just hit it lol

Espeon is so frail that attacking it before it can Calm Mind is just imperative. Doing anything else is essentially throwing, there isn't an easier way to put it. Bold Espeon is too slow to the point that slower threats such as Dragonite, Chandelure, and other Pokemon around that speed or faster, never allow it to get free turns. Timid is nearly the embodiment of paper, so if you sneeze on it, it'll surely faint. A Focus Sash cannot save Espeon from the Pursuit Trappers, as it fails to OHKO any of them with realistic moves (HP Fighting for Weavile and Bisharp), and will always be 2HKO regardless (OHKO in Tyranitar Case thanks to Sand). Rotom-Wash using Volt Switch into any Pursuit Trapper is the doom of Espeon. Rotom is almost always top 10 usage at worst, and with the rise of Muk-Alolan or the existing Weavile, this scenario is more than likely to turn the game to 5v6.

Potential Offense before a Baton Pass or Calm Mind:
[spoiler=Timid SPATK/SPEED Espeon]252 SpA Espeon Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Weavile: 200-236 (71.1 - 83.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Espeon Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Greninja: 258-304 (90.5 - 106.6%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Espeon Dazzling Gleam vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Garchomp: 200-236 (56 - 66.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Espeon Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Ferrothorn: 172-204 (48.8 - 57.9%) -- 45.3% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery (Running HP Fire means you will always lose to Gengar if you are not running Focus Sash)
252 SpA Espeon Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Ferrothorn: 232-276 (65.9 - 78.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery