Baton Pass is broken. Actually it's in my top ten list most BROKEN pokemon moves
10. Wish/Softboiled
9. V-Create
8. Protect/Substitute
7. Taunt
6. Stealth Rock
5. Volt Switch/U-turn
4. Shell Smash
3. Baton Pass <---- that right there, ladies and gents. Baton pass is so far, one of the broken moves we see day-to-day
2. Spore/Dark Void
1. Rock Slide/Air Slash/Headbutt aided with Paralysis and Serene Grace
Be it a mixed attacker(smeargle shell smash), physical (scolipede sword's dance), or special attacker(Masquerain quiver dance/TailGlow ThunderWave Volbeat) Baton Pass is a deal you can't deny. There are a lot of gimmicks with it, it's for you to explore and exploit. Baton Pass chaining HOWEVER, is hard to pull off. But with the right prediction, you might bring an underpowered pokemon STRAIGHT to ubers.
"But Mavee... What about the Prankster/Speed Taunters?" Nope. A good Baton Pass Chainer can render your taunt USELESS, and use an offensive move to damage your prankster/speed-taunt to oblivion, or switch to an ally if no offensive move is available. This could be either a good move, or bad move. Seing your opponent switch could have you room for setup. The viable Prankster/Speed TAUNT is very predictable. And absolutely 99.9% of the trainers that read this, don't run a team with ALL pokemon equipped with taunt just to counter the BP chains. We run only ONE, or... Nothing at ALL.
"But Mavee, what about PHAZING?" Now, this is an effective strategy... If done early, and at the right time, this could render your opponent switching strategies to kill your phazer down. Beware, though, PHAZING is a large gamble on your part when the enemy had switched the trigger for the maun sweeper.
"Mavee, what about UNAWARE?" Could be a good solution too(Train your Quagsires everyone) with the meta focused on Sword's Dancing, Dragon Dancing and Priority, and bringing a Pokemon with Unaware is a good investment. HOWEVER, an UNAWARE pokemon can be worn down with various status problems our Baton Pass chainers are capable of doing. Not mentioning a wide array of pokemon capable of learning baton pass the pokedex has to offer.
"Mavee... Let's bring KIRBY I mean... Erhmm... DITTO and wreck the house DOWN!" Okay, Ditto is an answer to overpowered sweepers. Not only you can have the possibility of having two Mega evolutions in a team, but you can counter the main sweeper in a BP Chain. Not only you can tie in speed, but also the chance of using your opponent's pokemon as your own. Now let's grind the BP Chains, shall we?
Pros:
+ Very benificial if done correctly and successfully
+ Can upgrade mega evolutions to "UBER evolutions" if ya know what I am saying
+ Damage from opposing pokemon can be distributed evenly from chainer-to-chainer
+ Can be played with mind games
+ Sweepers will just worry about getting their STABs and Coverage. No setup moves needed for em, in a BP Chain team.
+ Very hard to stop if opponent relies on sheer sweeping power
Cons:
- Mostly, must be executed early on. It's more of a high risk-high reward
- The Chain is like this. Imagine you are building a house. If your opponent answers the backbone of your Chain, you have to start all over again, like a house with it's foundation removed
- Very hard to execute
- Opponent has a space to set up
- Chaining baton pass success rate is inversely proportional to the number of pokemon on your team. The more pokemon fallen, the less options you have later on
- Entry Hazards can be a nuisance
- Predictable as the game progresses. Using the same pokemon as the chain progresses can be used as a tool against you
- By chaining, we mean having two or more pokemon in the team able to baton pass. Opponent shuts them down, you lose the pokemon too
- Hard to alternate strategies, mostly, straightforward Baton Spaming
- If the opponent nails your carrier sweeper down... Mostly GG(Sweeper can be owned with Priority and Sash. Can also be SPORED to be shut down if vulnerable)
Overall, BP can be stopped, unlike the sash-spore(Breloom, I'm looking at you. Only taunt can stop you xD). But we should be prepared for it. Be wary of the chains. If this continues on-and-on, there will come a time where baton pass could be limited or be BANNED. If it would be limited, i suggest of cutting it down to ONE. Not only it is viable to use, it won't be that much abusable as it was. I don't know why baton pass, a move existing so long, would still be bugging us today. Truly, BP chaining is BROKEN, but doesn't mean it cannot be stopped.