Sorry if the concept of Pseudo Trap Passing is old.
I think that most people here know about Trap Passing. Now, as it stands, most people only think about the standard Mean Look/Spider-Web + Baton Pass Combo. In the entire game, there are 4 Pokemon who can learn this combination:
Umbreon
Absol
Ariados
Smeargle
And Umbreon is usually the most successful as it has the defenses to pull it off. Smeargle and Absol have trouble consistently pulling it off without a Focus Sash, which tend to get screwed over by Stealth Rock/Spikes and Sandstorm/Hail, since they rely on their speed to pull it off, and 75 Base Speed just wont cut it most of the time. And Ariados just fails at life.
Trap Passing can turn into one most devastating combos in the game, as if you switch to a Pokemon that can stat-upper and the opponent can't really do anything to hurt you back, you could potentially sweep his entire team.
The problem is that most people tend to be able to see Trap Passing coming from a mile away and make sure they can counter it whenever they see an Umbreon. However, there are other ways to Trap and Pass.
There are other moves in the game besides Mean Look that can trap an opponent. Wrap, Fire Spin, Whirlpool, Clamp, Sand Tomb, and Magma Storm all have a trapping effect on the opponent that can be Baton Passed. Now, this makes the Pokemon that can use a combination of those moves and Baton Pass a lot more interesting. Now, these trapping effects may only last 2-5 turns, However, 2-5 turns can be more than enough time to wreak havoc on your opponent, such as pulling off a Bellyzard Combo or getting a couple Swords Dances in with Garchomp or getting bunch of Dragon Dances in with Dragonite and Salamence, the like. AND the time in which the Pokemon is trapped can be extended with Grip Claw, if that's what you want to try and do.
Here are some Pokemon that can Psuedo Trap Pass:
Flareon: Fire Spin
Huntail: Clamp/Whirlpool (go with Clamp, it's stronger and more accurate)
Gorebyss: See Huntail.
Gliscor: Sand Tomb
Blaziken: Fire Spin
Floatzel: Whirlpool.
Now, out of those, we can again judge who's good and who's not.
Now, as with most things Flareon tries to do, Flareon again, fails. There is absolutely no reason to attempt to try and Trap Pass with Flareon over Umbreon. It's Defensive typing is inferior to Umbreon's, its defensive stats are inferior to Umbreon, AND it has the exact same base speed. The only thing Flareon's really got with Trap Passing is the element of surprise because nobody would be stupid enough to Trap Pass with Flareon... at least not in OU anyway. Don't know much about the UU metagame, but this might possibly help Flareon a bit in UU.
Huntail and Gorebyss, on the other hand, are a bit more interesting. Both learn Iron Defense to up their defenses, though Gorebyss also learns Amnesia to help with the lower Special Defense, so it's probably the better of the two to use if you're trying to Trap Pass (and you can pass those defense boosts as well).
Gliscor's probably as good a candidate as any. It has a much better physical defensive typing than Umbreon does, it can Baton Pass a myriad of other Stat-ups, it has a reliable Recovery move, it can Taunt to prevent PHazing, and it's fast enough on its own.
Blaziken's one that's really hard to judge. Blaziken's defenses aren't horrible, but they're not very good, and the fire typing hurts, so Blaziken's most likely going to have to rely on its speed. It's faster than Smeargle and Absol, but 80 base speed still isn't that great, and, once again, Gliscor is faster. In fact, probably the only reason to use Blaziken is if you're paranoid of fliers since they're immune to Sand Tomb. Blaziken's probably better off just using stat-ups and just attacking/Baton Passing since just doesn't really have much on Absol and Smeargle outside of 5 more Base Speed. In other words, Blaziken has better things to do than Trap Pass.
Floatzel, on the other hand, is the fastest Trap Passer in the game, and speed really comes in handy in situations in which you want to try and Baton Pass. Switch Floatzel in against a Pokemon that really wont want to stay in against it, Whirlpool on the switch, and Pass, and if there isn't Stealth Rock or anything in play, it can stand to take a hit with a Focus Sash handy. However, the problem is that the Bulk Up set is probably just as good, if not better, in a lot of situations.
However, I'm sure there are several ways that these possible shortcomings can be circumvented. I just wanted to throw out this idea that might help evolve the metagame. In other words, this topic was to just point out that there are 6 other Pokemon outside the 4 standard Mean Look/Spider Web passers that can pass a trapping effect.
'course, I do realize there's also another risk when attempting Pseudo Trap Passing, and it's the iffy accuracy that 70% is. However, this can be circumvented in a Gravity team or using Wide Lens helps a bit. Mainly, i just wanted to explain my idea and encourage new ways of thinking, as well as see if anyone else could help me expand on these ideas, to think of better ways of exploiting this idea and things like that.
Switching is one of the most important elements of battling, because it allows for a variety of options to open up, and what has always fascinated me is the ability to stop the opponent from restricting and closing off many of his options, and idea restricting your opponent to the 4 of the Pokemon's moves has always been interesting to me. At the moment, there are 3 ways to combat switching, and they are Pursuit, Arena Trap, and Trap Passing, and I guess with this, Pseudo Trap Passing can be added as well. I guess this topic should have been named: "Anti-Switching: A Study" instead, because what I mainly want to try and do is explore the ability to combat switching, and thereby combating your opponent's ability to have many options at his disposal.
Also, I wanted to know if anyone could think of anyone else besides these 10 that can pass a trapping effect.
I think that most people here know about Trap Passing. Now, as it stands, most people only think about the standard Mean Look/Spider-Web + Baton Pass Combo. In the entire game, there are 4 Pokemon who can learn this combination:
Umbreon
Absol
Ariados
Smeargle
And Umbreon is usually the most successful as it has the defenses to pull it off. Smeargle and Absol have trouble consistently pulling it off without a Focus Sash, which tend to get screwed over by Stealth Rock/Spikes and Sandstorm/Hail, since they rely on their speed to pull it off, and 75 Base Speed just wont cut it most of the time. And Ariados just fails at life.
Trap Passing can turn into one most devastating combos in the game, as if you switch to a Pokemon that can stat-upper and the opponent can't really do anything to hurt you back, you could potentially sweep his entire team.
The problem is that most people tend to be able to see Trap Passing coming from a mile away and make sure they can counter it whenever they see an Umbreon. However, there are other ways to Trap and Pass.
There are other moves in the game besides Mean Look that can trap an opponent. Wrap, Fire Spin, Whirlpool, Clamp, Sand Tomb, and Magma Storm all have a trapping effect on the opponent that can be Baton Passed. Now, this makes the Pokemon that can use a combination of those moves and Baton Pass a lot more interesting. Now, these trapping effects may only last 2-5 turns, However, 2-5 turns can be more than enough time to wreak havoc on your opponent, such as pulling off a Bellyzard Combo or getting a couple Swords Dances in with Garchomp or getting bunch of Dragon Dances in with Dragonite and Salamence, the like. AND the time in which the Pokemon is trapped can be extended with Grip Claw, if that's what you want to try and do.
Here are some Pokemon that can Psuedo Trap Pass:
Flareon: Fire Spin
Huntail: Clamp/Whirlpool (go with Clamp, it's stronger and more accurate)
Gorebyss: See Huntail.
Gliscor: Sand Tomb
Blaziken: Fire Spin
Floatzel: Whirlpool.
Now, out of those, we can again judge who's good and who's not.
Now, as with most things Flareon tries to do, Flareon again, fails. There is absolutely no reason to attempt to try and Trap Pass with Flareon over Umbreon. It's Defensive typing is inferior to Umbreon's, its defensive stats are inferior to Umbreon, AND it has the exact same base speed. The only thing Flareon's really got with Trap Passing is the element of surprise because nobody would be stupid enough to Trap Pass with Flareon... at least not in OU anyway. Don't know much about the UU metagame, but this might possibly help Flareon a bit in UU.
Huntail and Gorebyss, on the other hand, are a bit more interesting. Both learn Iron Defense to up their defenses, though Gorebyss also learns Amnesia to help with the lower Special Defense, so it's probably the better of the two to use if you're trying to Trap Pass (and you can pass those defense boosts as well).
Gliscor's probably as good a candidate as any. It has a much better physical defensive typing than Umbreon does, it can Baton Pass a myriad of other Stat-ups, it has a reliable Recovery move, it can Taunt to prevent PHazing, and it's fast enough on its own.
Blaziken's one that's really hard to judge. Blaziken's defenses aren't horrible, but they're not very good, and the fire typing hurts, so Blaziken's most likely going to have to rely on its speed. It's faster than Smeargle and Absol, but 80 base speed still isn't that great, and, once again, Gliscor is faster. In fact, probably the only reason to use Blaziken is if you're paranoid of fliers since they're immune to Sand Tomb. Blaziken's probably better off just using stat-ups and just attacking/Baton Passing since just doesn't really have much on Absol and Smeargle outside of 5 more Base Speed. In other words, Blaziken has better things to do than Trap Pass.
Floatzel, on the other hand, is the fastest Trap Passer in the game, and speed really comes in handy in situations in which you want to try and Baton Pass. Switch Floatzel in against a Pokemon that really wont want to stay in against it, Whirlpool on the switch, and Pass, and if there isn't Stealth Rock or anything in play, it can stand to take a hit with a Focus Sash handy. However, the problem is that the Bulk Up set is probably just as good, if not better, in a lot of situations.
However, I'm sure there are several ways that these possible shortcomings can be circumvented. I just wanted to throw out this idea that might help evolve the metagame. In other words, this topic was to just point out that there are 6 other Pokemon outside the 4 standard Mean Look/Spider Web passers that can pass a trapping effect.
'course, I do realize there's also another risk when attempting Pseudo Trap Passing, and it's the iffy accuracy that 70% is. However, this can be circumvented in a Gravity team or using Wide Lens helps a bit. Mainly, i just wanted to explain my idea and encourage new ways of thinking, as well as see if anyone else could help me expand on these ideas, to think of better ways of exploiting this idea and things like that.
Switching is one of the most important elements of battling, because it allows for a variety of options to open up, and what has always fascinated me is the ability to stop the opponent from restricting and closing off many of his options, and idea restricting your opponent to the 4 of the Pokemon's moves has always been interesting to me. At the moment, there are 3 ways to combat switching, and they are Pursuit, Arena Trap, and Trap Passing, and I guess with this, Pseudo Trap Passing can be added as well. I guess this topic should have been named: "Anti-Switching: A Study" instead, because what I mainly want to try and do is explore the ability to combat switching, and thereby combating your opponent's ability to have many options at his disposal.
Also, I wanted to know if anyone could think of anyone else besides these 10 that can pass a trapping effect.
