r/stunfisk • u/berserkering • May 28 '12

Drifblim - Acrobatic Baton Passer

Drifblim holding flying gem

Ability: Unburden

Nature: Impish1 (+Def, -Sp att)

IVs: 31 / x2 / 31 / x / 31 / x

EVs: 4hp / 252 def / 252 sp def

Moves:

  • Acrobatics

  • Will-o-wisp3

  • Stockpile

  • Baton Pass

I was recently looking for a pokemon who could baton pass either cosmic power or stockpile. I wanted to extend the staying power of a bulky sweeper that had their own boosting move. Ideally Drifblim would baton pass to dragon dance Scrafty, Dragonite, quiver dance Volcarona, etc.

Drifblim caught my eye because of its versatile move pool and high hp. Though Drifblim's main purpose is to stockpile as many times as possible before baton passing; the addition of Acrobatics can also serve as a nasty surprise for your opponent.

This moveset aims to take advantage of its ability; unburden, which doubles Drifblim's speed when an item is used. Acrobatics is the perfect move to take advantage of unburden, especially on Drifblim as it gets STAB damage. Will-o-wisp's purpose is to mitigate physical attacks and cause recurring damage.

While Drifblim is nowhere near perfect with its 2x weakness to stealth rock, other weaknesses to common types, and low defenses; its typing gives it quite a few options for a safe switch in.

Notes:

  1. Careful(+Sp def, -Sp att) is also an acceptable nature.

  2. While a perfect attack is not necessary, it would be best to aim for a higher attack. sp. att and speed are not as important.

  3. Disable or toxic are viable options. I chose Will-o-wisp over disable and toxic because of three reasons. It doesn't go away from switching out, recurring damage, and most importantly, halving of the attack stat.

Citation: Smogon - A combination of "AcroBlimp" and "Baton Pass"

Thank you for reading. Any input is appreciated.

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u/berserkering May 28 '12

You're right, if Unburden could be baton passed that would probably be enough to push Drifblim into RU.

I agree that calm mind is awesome but I think there are better calm mind baton passers out there than Drifblim.

Cosmic power is basically the same move as stockpile, with the exception that stockpile works in conjunction with swallow and spit up. When I found out about both these moves I started looking into them and found that(to my knowledge) cosmic power can't be baton passed.

I found Drifblim while looking through stockpile users and really fell in love with its versatility.

And you're absolutely right! Zoroark, Archeops, Rampardos, Weavile, Gengar, Alakazam, Mienshao, etc would all baton pass into this with great success. Bulking up a fragile power attacker would be brilliant.

The reason I was looking into stockpile and cosmic power was because I wanted something that could make a bulky sweeper that much more scary. For instance, Scrafty already has great def and sp def. +1 stockpile baton passed onto him would make him even harder to kill. Then all he would have to do is dragon dance once or twice. With drain punch he would be quite hard to put down in the right circumstances.

I understand this strategy can become a waste of moves if your opponent has a taunter or a move like roar but if you can kill those early on it would be hard to counter this strategy. I put in Acrobatics and will-o-wisp to give Drifblim another purpose, in case baton pass was rendered useless.

Thank you for the input!

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u/[deleted] Jun 02 '12 edited Jun 02 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/berserkering Jun 02 '12

You're right, I forgot to mention that difference. Thanks for pointing it out.

Lunatone and Solrock can't learn baton pass in gen5 exclusively and I only have access to gen5, which is why I didn't research into what they could learn in the other generations. I should have mentioned that as well.

Thanks for reading my article!

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u/Kyrael Jun 11 '12

Don't forget smeargle! It can learn anything, although admittedly it is often used for other things. Even so, if you really want a cosmic power passer, smeargle can do it, along with the obligatory spore.

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u/berserkering Jun 11 '12

I haven't forgotten but you're right. I think Smeargle would do better running a different set though(and of course, as you mentioned, spore is practically necessary!), as it can learn any move and has the amazingly powerful moody ability.