As of today, using more than 3 Pokemon with the move Baton Pass on the same team is banned. While I myself rarely struggled with these teams, I recognize how completely broken and unhealthy they are for the metagame. So, let's discuss this decision, and the impact it will have on the metagame.
I think we will see Clefable, Quagsire, Smeargle, Sylveon, and Vaporeon dropping from OU in the coming months. Espeon and Clefable still have a chance, especially Espeon, as it's not completely reliant on BP to be useful, but the rest of them are either OU because they're good in BP, or they're good for being an emergency stop to BP (Even though neither Quagsire nor Clefable actually stopped BP well at all).
I think this is great for the metagame. Scolipede will still be an awesome Baton Passer, Espeon still has Magic Bounce, and BP is still a viable strategy, but full team BP is something we really did not need in the metagame. Still waiting on the Pinsirite ban, and I'm still waiting to hear a single valid argument about why Latios is OU.
What do you think about this? What do you expect will rise and fall in usage with this new ban? Do you think the metagame will stabilize, or do things still need to be dealt with in order to achieve a balanced metagame?
It will be interesting to figure out how to build the team after the ban. Sylveon is one Pokémon that could remove Baton Pass and just be used as a recipient, since it already runs Stored Power and Hyper Voice, and can replace BP with Substitute.
EDIT: Replacing Sylveon with Magic Guard Clefable might be a better choice, since it also gets Stored Power, plus a recovery move.
Just a quick update here, effective July 9th the Baton Pass nerf has been further restricted to one Pokemon, preventing Baton Pass chains from existing. The reason for this is likely due to Scolipede being the best Baton Passer in the game, coupled with things like Espeon, Smeargle and Clefable, able to still form functioning and deadly Baton Pass chains.
I'm pretty happy with this nerf. Since the ban was implemented I'd talked with RubyRobin about how I still felt that Baton Pass was broken in many ways, and this will prevent that from being an issue. What about you guys?
So it's only two Pokémon with Baton Pass per team now, then? Excellent.
I was a little sick of being wrecked by such teams, even when packing Roar / Whirlwind or Dragon Tail.
Oh wow just one is even better xD
Nah, only one Pokemon is allowed to have Baton Pass on a team now, allowing things like SmashPass and such, while putting s full stop to BP chains
Well, since Baton Pass is entirely legal in UU and below, do you think there is a viable UU Baton Pass chain team?