Topic: Baton Pass Chain Team Post Ban - limited to 3 users of BP

[Raphetty]

This is my attempt to produce the best Baton Pass chain team with the limitation of 3 users of Baton Pass, due to a recent ban. I started by looking at what looks like the best 6 BP team as posted by the guy who topped the leaderboard with it, thus making the team more popular and ultimately getting the ban. I figured the best BP recipient is probably Clefable, and the last 2 Pokémon are just there for support.

Scolipede (M) @ Mental Herb
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 240 HP / 80 Def / 188 Spd
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Iron Defense
- Protect
- Substitute
- Baton Pass

This Pokémon is directly copied from the original team, it passes Iron Defense, Substitute and speed boosts. It can alternate between Protect and Substitute to get more speed boosts. It is usually best to keep a Substitute up on BP teams to avoid critical hits and status.

Espeon (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 200 HP / 56 Def / 252 SDef
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Stored Power
- Substitute
- Baton Pass

This was was copied over too. It passes CM/Sub and can sweep with Stored Power.

Zapdos @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 228 Def / 28 SAtk
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Charge
- Thunderbolt
- Substitute
- Baton Pass

Also copied over, though I chose to use Charge over Roar since I need to make the most of BP due to having only 3 users of the move.

Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Moonlight
- Stored Power

This is my Baton Pass recipient, it can't BP itself but Moonlight helps keep it healthy, and with enough boosts it should have no problem sweeping and healing any damage. Magic Guard also means it takes no damage from Toxic, Burns, or entry hazards. Calm Mind makes it not so reliant on having boosts passed to it, I've used this set myself on non-BP teams.

Vaporeon (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 192 HP / 252 Def / 64 Spd
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Wish
- Scald
- Roar
- Protect

The 6 BP team included Vaporeon, but this one is different in that it only passes Wish, in order to heal important Pokémon that may have been weakened and allow the team to continue functioning. It has Roar to stop opposing Pokémon from setting up on it.

Mandibuzz (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Overcoat
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Def / 108 SDef / 16 Spd
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Foul Play
- Roost
- Taunt
- Defog

This is my 2nd support Pokémon, mainly for Defog. It has Foul Play to take on physical attackers, and Taunt mainly to stop entry hazard users and utility/setup moves in general.

All suggestions are welcome, I just want to produce the best version of the team.

UPDATE: I've just played this team on Showdown, and so far 1 loss and 5 wins. The loss was my first time playing the team and I was playing badly. I reckon the team is pretty good, and I don't think many people will be prepared for it since the ban. My rating is only 1209 though, so this is not representative of high level play. Here are the replays I managed to save:

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-131789651
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-131795925
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/ou-131804493

I've also found that Vaporeon works quite well as a recipient, able to beat a lot of Pokémon with Scald plus recovery and Roaring out any setup sweepers.

[Richard and Blaziken]

Since BP teams have different counters than normal teams, I'll list what could be problematic. Trick, especially from Pranksters, can be crippling to your whole team.

Rotom-W seems like something to watch out for. It has access to TrickScarf, can Burn or Volt Switch out of Vaporeon and Mandibuzz or anything that hasn't been setup. Life Orb or Choice Specs Latios seems threatening, but Clefable can switch into most things it'll do, especially if it gets an Iron Defense boost from Scolipede.

The team is built very well, but if Espeon / Clefable can't receive the boosts from Scolipede, the team turns into a defensive team without much damage output. Clefable is walled hard by Heatran, who also Roars it out and removes your boosts.

Skarmory can provide Defog support if you would prefer that to Mandibuzz. It'd also allow you to drop Zapdos without fearing Mega Pinsir, and use a better BPer in that spot, like Smeargle, who can pass Ingrain to prevent you from being Roared out. The downside of this is that since this isn't a full BP team, that can leave you locked in with something that isn't too threatening to the opponent, depending on the situation.

All that aside, this looks built solidly. I'm not really a fan of BP, since it's usually stopped too easily if you just put constant pressure on it and predict BPs, but this looks pretty threatening when pulled off correctly. I'd love to battle this with my standard OU team and see how it does.

[Raphetty]

Skarmory can provide Defog support if you would prefer that to Mandibuzz. It'd also allow you to drop Zapdos without fearing Mega Pinsir, and use a better BPer in that spot, like Smeargle, who can pass Ingrain to prevent you from being Roared out. The downside of this is that since this isn't a full BP team, that can leave you locked in with something that isn't too threatening to the opponent, depending on the situation.

I'd be willing to use Skarmory but don't want to use Smeargle for the reason that you mentioned. Instead I would rather use something that can boost Sp.Def like Amnesia Mew. There are so many options for Mew though that it can be hard to make a set. I'm open to suggestions.

[Richard and Blaziken]

For Mew, I'd probably go with something like Amnesia, Nasty Plot, Substitute, Baton Pass. Nasty Plot could be replaced with any plethora of things, but it'd allow you to much more quickly deal out damage, which would put pressure on opponents whose plans are to wall and/or phaze you out.

[Raphetty]

I think I would go with Taunt for dealing with phazers, setup etc. I'll update and test this later.