Swords Dance or Hone Claws on Baton Pass Hawlucha?

Question

I am currently using a baton passing team in the battle tower in sword, and my power raising member is Hawlucha. The team is:

Jolteon (the speed raiser)
Agility
Baton Pass
Discharge
Shadow Ball

Hawlucha (the power raiser)
Hone Claws/Swords Dance
Baton Pass
High Jump Kick
Acrobatics

Haxorus (the main weapon)
Dragon Claw
Brick Break
Poison Jab
Earthquake

I was going to use hone claws and iron tail on Haxorus instead of poison jab, but then I found out that baton pass doesn’t pass on increase in accuracy. So should I use hone claws so that Hawlucha doesn’t hurt itself from high jump kick or swords dance to baton Pass into Haxorus faster?

Answer 1

Typically, I'd go for Swords Dance on Hawlucha, especially if you plan on baton passing to a Pokemon with most moves being 100% accurate already, such as your Haxorus set. If you were running additional inaccurate moves like Stone Edge, then I'd be tempted to run Hone Claws.

It is worth noting that because your Pokemon are often going to be faster than your opponent and you're not running Substitute, Dual Screens or any other protection, they all run into the risk of being KOed or statused after being switched in via Baton Pass, which can screw up your chain set-up. Hope you considered this while building your team. Anyway, because of this risk, I'd say either go big or go home. In other words, Swords Dance over Hone Claws.

By the way where did you hear that Baton Pass doesn't pass on accuracy boosts? Because I was under the impression that ALL stat boosts get passed on.

Comments

It says on this site that only boosts from attack, defence, special attack, special defence and speed get passed on. From my experiences, there are very few trainers in the battle tower that use status conditions, and most of the ones that do are in the doubles format, for which I have a much more balanced team. Anyway, thanks for answering!

Answer 2

Hone Claws

The increase in accuracy is necessary if you want High Jump Kick on Hawlucha. If you miss with High Jump Kick, you will lose 1/2 your HP, which will almost certainly lead to Hawlucha being knocked out. Even though the accuracy isn't passed on, it is better than taking your chances and possibly losing Hawlucha for nothing. Now, this is if you want Hawlucha to attack. If the only reason you have Hawlucha is to pass on stats, then Swords Dance is better. However, I assume you will occasionally attack with Hawlucha, so the accuracy increase is better. Also, Haxorus with +1 attack is still a killer.