Uhh I get that. I didn't ask what the benefit of Baton pass was in general. Take a look at other recent posts, or at least the one I quoted... we are talking about Medicham vs Aegislash, and the other user suggests using Baton Pass to help against Aegislash.
You are supposed to use it when you think Aegi is coming. Plus if you don't have Fire Punch you can't beat it.
Drain Punch is pointless because if you're taking damage with Mega Medicham's defenses, you're usually dead. It's also not strong enough to one-shot things that are hit neutrally by it while Medicham's High Jump Kick is the strongest non-boosted attack in the game.
I know, I really shouldn't be here, but I still am Cx
Well, it has lived a couple of draco meteors sometimes... can't remember from what though... maybe mega garchomp iirc?
While HJK does hit harder, it's honestly not all that often that Medicham is OHKO'd. With 60/85/85 defenses, he can usually take a hit or two, as long as they're not especially strong, and Drain Punch fixes that up nicely.
To add onto that, fake out+bullet punch can really mess up frail sweepers that rely on their focus sash, such as Alakazam, weavile, and the odd gengar/greninja, while also working as an efficient anti lead.
Gengar is immune to Fake Out and Greninja will resist Bullet Punch if it used Hydro Pump before or if it just got in and hasn't attacked yet (and it WILL OHKO you). Also, you're wasting precious coverage by running both at the same time.
Lmao I calced against Togekiss.
If by free you mean your opponent gets a free switch in, yeah, its not a good option. You really can't finish off anything unless you switch in to something that's already weak, since you can't attack then finish with Fake Out.
There's an obvious difference. Obviously a guaranteed MEvo at any point is useful. You can pull off your evolution under basically any circumstances which is extremely useful, and you get very useful extra chip damage as well that can actually let you chip off sweepers in various scenarios, potentially saving you games (has for me before). You don't have to use Fake Out every time you come in, but is a versatile move that can be used in multiple scenarios. Bullet Punch is complete and utter ass. Fake Out was supported by basically the entire QC for the analysis for a reason.
With that logic, Protect is an equally good move, since it also guarantees mega and allows you to scout out your opponent's moveset as well.
Out of those moves, Sub is the only one worth using. Protect is obviously worse because it doesn't do damage, that's just stupid. You're undervaluing that chip damage immensely. I've won games using Megacham and lost games facing it because Fake Out could clutch KOs and stop sweeps for me. It also gives you a prediction-free option in any scenario, and with the extra damage it does help wear foes out. You ignore an offensive matchup where stuff like doing 30-35% to threats that don't resist it, or even 40ish% if you run Adamant, can be very significant in both threatening the opponent and knocking off faster foes. Bullet Punch does not have the guaranteed MEvo, flinch, and added priority of Fake Out that make it so useful, and is resisted by Keldeo and Thundurus - two very prominent threats. It really does nothing at all. Oh and Drain Punch is silly, it misses a lot of that great wallbreaking capability which is just ehh overall, and Drain Punch + HJK is lol. Baton Pass just seems inferior to running Sub and smashing the new thing that comes in. I see Sub, Fake Out, and maybe an extra punch as viable options for the last slot.
I'm not actually advocating Protect, lol, I'm saying that the free mega argument applies to that as well, plus it has other applications (also not doing Bullet Punch any more, @ Karxrida has already shown that's not a good option either).
Medicham only gains 20 base speed. There is a very narrow class of Pokemon within that range of 80-100 base Speed. Even narrower a class that actually runs max speed, and even narrower a class of OU pokemon. I hate to be redundant, but that class gets even more narrow when you limit it to Pokemon that are actually running max speed (eliminate some zapdos, most gliscor, most rotom) and stand to ohko medicham (eliminate the rest of gliscor, rotom, and all physical lucario)
I would like to point out that standard Rotom-W will always live a High Jump Kick, Fake Out + High Jump Kick is not a guaranteed 2HKO (but it comes ridiculously close), and Volt Switch will always break your Sub.
Medicham isn't made out to be a revenge killer; it's a wallbreaker.
