I myself have qualified for suspect testing multiple times in the past, and I can say I'm happy to have done so in order to make the game balanced, and overall just more of an enjoyable experience. It's a great opportunity to be involved with the future of the metagame, and I encourage those who are confident in their abilities to give it a go. Then, you'll be able to cast a vote on the forums on the current suspects we ther you think they should be banned to the Uber tier or not. However, perhaps partially to spice things up while waiting for Pokemon Bank, Smogon recently decided to announce the first round of OU suspect testing! For those unaware on how the process works, you must attain a rating of 1700 minimum on the OU Suspect Tier AND OU Tier on Pokemon Showdown. The current OU meta is a great step forward from the Gen 5 weather wars, but seeing Aegislash and Talonflame on basically every team becomes dull after a while.
Sure laddering is fun and all, but you don't really gain the real Pokemon experience playing a simulator all of the time, and this is coming from someone who takes pride in their success on the ladder! Most of my time with Pokemon has been dedicated to the recently revealed UU Beta tier(it's amazingly fun, article coming soon on that), as OU has become quite stale and uninteresting for me. With the delayed release of Pokemon Bank and Poke Transporter, a lot of peoples interests have faded in the competitive Pokemon scene. I’m curious to hear people’s thoughts and whether you think it’s enough of a nerf to be unbanned by Smogon, or if it’s perhaps too much of a nerf to never see usage.Hello again Trainers! I know it's been quite a while since my last article, but I'm sure I can be easily forgiven. One issue I see is that this completely neuters dry passing, so I feel like a concession could be made to add a new move called Hand Off (available to every Pokémon with Baton Pass) that functions like old Baton Pass but does not pass stats or volatile status conditions. Since Power Herb would also prevent them from holding items to recover HP, these Pokémon would not be nearly as simple of a set up for Baton Pass teams anymore. Speed Boost will be changed to now only proc when the Pokémon causes another to faint à la Moxie. The ability to send in Scolipede, Blaziken, or Ninjask, use Protect and Substitute to get multiple Speed increases while also getting HP back from Leftovers/Black Sludge, and then pass to whatever is far too easy and non-interactive. There is an elephant in the room to address though, and that’s Speed Boost. The lowered PP from 40 to 5 will hardly make a difference, but it prevents the move aiding in PP stall. This nerfs chains because each Pokémon with Baton Pass will either have to give up their item slot or use an additional turn on set up. Without Power Herb, this gives the opponent an additional turn to react to their opponent’s set up whether that be by sending in a counter, taunting, hazing, getting the KO, etc. Even then they only have one chance to set it up that way, requiring more careful play to pull it off. Firstly, a Pokémon must give up its item slot if it wants to maintain Baton Pass’ old functionality. If the user falls for Taunt while charging, the move will fail on the next turn. Power Herb allows this move to be used in one turn. So with all of that out of the way, here’s my proposed change:īaton Pass | Type: Normal | Power: - | Accuracy: - | Category: Status | PP: 5 | Description: The user charges the move on the first turn, displaying the message " is preparing to switch out!" On the second turn, the user will use Baton Pass as normal. For example, if we said the move fails when when attempting to pass Speed, if a Pokémon used Rock Tomb against your Contrary Spinda, it suddenly wouldn’t be able to Baton Pass, and that does not feel like the way the rule was supposed to function. Rules like this are bandaid fixes that don’t address the core issue and serve to make the move complex, weirdly specific, and have unintended side effects.
So the question is how to change the move to require more skill to employ effectively, make it less overwhelming, and give the opponent more counter play options.Īn additional stipulation is that it would be preferable to forego any balance change that includes an exception that would prevent the move from activating when used.
A simple solution would be just to say “make it only dry pass,” but that negates the core appeal of the move and its potential strategies for some players. Many people would agree that Baton Pass allows for play styles that can feel frustrating and limiting to play against, and that there’s a simple flowchart to using it that can make getting wins with it too easy.