Baton Pass Advice Needed... (Rejuvenation)

[Squire Penguin]

Hey, all! I'm pretty new here, but I hope I'm in the right place to be asking this. Haha.

I'm on Terajuma Shore, and in the area where you fight the water-type gym leader so that you can progress I got bored and decided I would pick up a Carvanha and make it into a Sharpedo. It's pretty awesome; the attack IVs were great, it also has speed boost, it's low physical defense even has a little help from the IVs as well. My only complaint is that its naughty nature makes its already bad special defense worse, in my opinion. All in all, though I think it would be a fantastic sweeper as long as I make sure it lasts long enough.

That's where Mawile comes in. Recently, it learned Iron Defense and Baton Pass. It's worked amazingly while grinding, especially whenever my hard-hitting Sharpedo just so happened to need to be switched in safely. I found out that Mawile can get Stockpile soon, and now I'm wondering what to do. I would prefer to have at least one of them since either one would complement my other team members too (they're all fairly balanced so I'm not too worried about them, plus I'd prefer that Mawile have more than just one move for attacking). It all kind of falls on my favorite little shark that I would prefer to use for a while.

Should I (1) not bother, just continue to keep Sharpedo away from strong special attackers and continue to Baton Pass with Iron Defense as I see fit or (2) replace iron defense with stockpile and have a more balanced setup?

Edited May 5, 2016 by Squire Penguin

[Ironbound]

Let me give you a sincere piece of advice: Do not bulk Sharpedo.

Seriously, that thing has some of the worst defenses of any evolved Pokemon. 40/40 bulk is pathetic. I'm surprised you're actually bothering to set up Iron Defenses and pass to Sharpedo; it's quite honestly as counterintuitive as passing Swords Dances to a Shuckle.

Naughty is a good nature on Sharpedo, as it increases its most important stat while having a negligible side effect. It even keeps its SpAtk usable, so it can do some damage with special moves/utility moves like Surf. It's also better to have a Spdef negative nature than a PhysDef one, since Sharpedo might hope to live a resisted Aqua Jet or a weak Quick Attack while it gets its speed boosts.

I honestly think you should use Sharpedo as a suicidal, all-out attacker and late-game Sweeper towards the end of difficult battles, where it can clean things up before getting killed. Mawile can be put to better use with Sheer Force Iron Head and Play Rough as a wallbreaker, to pave the way for Sharpedo. If anything, better to try and pass Swords Dance to Sharpedo, and not Defense boosts. Sharpedo should not be attempting to take a hit anyways, be it from physical or special attackers. It is the definition of a Glass Cannon.

[Squire Penguin]

Let me give you a sincere piece of advice: Do not bulk Sharpedo.

Seriously, that thing has some of the worst defenses of any evolved Pokemon. 40/40 bulk is pathetic. I'm surprised you're actually nothing to set up Iron Defenses and pass to Sharpedo; it's quite honestly as counterintuitive as passing Swords Dances to a Shuckle.

Naughty is a good nature on Sharpedo, as it increases its most important stat while having a negligible side effect. It even keeps its SpAtk usable, so it can do some damage with special moves/utility moves like Surf. It's also better to have a Spdef negative nature than a PhysDef one, since Sharpedo might hope to live a resisted Aqua Jet or a weak Quick Attack while it gets its speed boosts.

I honestly think you should use Sharpedo as a suicidal, all-out attacker and late-game Sweeper towards the end of difficult battles, where it can clean things up before getting killed. Mawile can be put to better use with Sheer Force Iron Head and Play Rough as a wallbreaker, to pave the way for Sharpedo. If anything, better to try and pass Swords Dance to Sharpedo, and not Defense boosts. Sharpedo should not be attempting to take a hit anyways, be it from physical or special attackers. It is the definition of a Glass Cannon.

Fair points. It would be kind of a pain to worry about defense at all, given how abyssal it is on both of those fronts. I just felt like experimenting.

Maybe some of my other team members will benefit from what I have until I can get my hands on Swords Dance. Thanks!

[Ironbound]

No issues, friend! Maybe you can use an offensive mawile instead, too. It now learns Sucker Punch, Iron Head and Play Rough naturally, all by level 49 at most, so it already has 3/4 of its best moves with Sheer Force boosting both STABs. You might find it more effective to just lunch holes with Mawile and then clean up with Sharpedo, at least until you get Swords Dance to actually use Baton Pass well.