Implemented DPP Baton Pass v2

[BIHI]

3 years ago, the DPP Council decided to ban Baton Pass in DPP OU. Two Baton Pass archetypes had become problematic, one based around Ninjask and para spreaders and a more common archetype based around Gliscor. Although both of these archetypes weren't overpowered, they introduced a very unhealthy dynamic into the tier as this kind of team would automatically win or lose most of the matches depending on the match up. While there was counterplay available, they were excessively restrictive and emphasized the cheesy nature of the strategy. The rise of the Ninjask teams happened during DPP Cup at the time and the DPP Council took the most extreme and efficient decision to preserve the integrity of the tier during its most important solo tournament.

While this ban was absolutely necessary it came with collateral damage as it deprived Jolteon, Vaporeon and Celebi of a solid pivoting option making them weaker in a tier in which they had already trouble finding their place. That is why we decided to revisit the ban to allow the use of DryPassing (and SubPassing) while keeping the uncompetitive aspect of Baton Pass (StatPassing and TrapPassing) out of the way. The following restriction has been added:

Baton Pass is now banned in combination with any Move, Item, or Ability that can raise stats and with any Trapping Move.

Here's the full list of moves/items/abilities illegal with Baton Pass:

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Moves:
Acid Armor
Acupressure
Agility
Amnesia
Ancient Power
Assist
Barrier
Belly Drum
Block
Bulk Up
Calm Mind
Charge
Charge Beam
Cosmic Power
Curse
Defend Order
Defense Curl
Dragon Dance
Focus Energy
Growth
Guard Swap
Harden
Heart Swap
Howl
Iron Defense
Ingrain
Mean Look
Meteor Mash
Meditate
Metal Claw
Nasty Plot
Ominous Wind
Power Trick
Psych Up
Rage
Rock Polish
Sharpen
Silver Wind
Skull Bash
Spider Web
Steel Wing
Stockpile
Swords Dance
Tail Glow
Withdraw

Items:
Apicot Berry
Ganlon Berry
Liechi Berry
Petaya Berry
Salac Berry
Starf Berry

Abilities:
Speed Boost (Ninjask)

Tagging Marty and Kris to implement.

 

[Laurel]

I’ve never heard of Joleteon but I’m glad that I can use it now that Baton Pass is free.

 

[Eeveeto]

I get the Ingrain + BP combination (recipient is immune to Roar/WW), but what are the reasons for Aqua Ring + BP Ban? I think we can objectively conclude that while not really comparable, Aqua Ring passing is worse that Substitute passing (also learned by way less Mons than Substitute, you can easily see it coming).

 

[UltiMario]

Echoing the above a bit, but do want to mention that Ingrain at least falls into the current rules description via being a trapping move (albeit a self-trapping one) but Aqua Ring doesn't raise stats or trap a Pokemon.

That currently leaves us with the ban actually being BP + any Move, Item, or Ability that can raise stats, with any move that traps, and Aqua Ring. Either Aqua Ring should be removed from the pool, or be amended to the rule. It's semantics, but something describing the ban will likely need to be described in resources for official pages like DP OU, so it kind of matters for when it's being added to those resources.

 

[Star]

Including Aqua Ring was a mistake, I think just falsely believed it was equivalent to Ingrain.

Marty Kris please don't include Aqua Ring when you implement this, I've also removed it from the OP

 

[imperfectluck]

To be honest as an old school player this seems ridiculously convoluted and I would far prefer a blanket Baton Pass ban. I won my trophy with Jolteon and Celebi on my team just fine without Baton Pass!

 

[BIHI]

Focus Energy has been added to the list of restricted moves.

Kris Marty