Imprison, Camouflage and Baton Pass

[Kinoko_Otoko]

I'm looking at training a Pokemon specifically to use for catching Mewtwo in FRLG (and possibly HGSS). I've already used a Gardevoir with Imprison, Safeguard, Hypnosis and Thunderbolt, which at precisely level 72, tends to take Mewtwo down to less than 10% health with exactly two attacks. With Imprison and Safeguard, I can sleep him to my heart's content.

But this isn't perfect. I can still crit him to death, and I'm still throwing balls when he has more than 1 HP left.

So, I need to know whether Imprison is passed with Baton Pass. This way I can train a Pokemon with Safeguard and False Swipe, and Pass to him from a Smeargle with Imprison. Could theoretically do Recover too, but that's cutting Mewtwo's available move PP perilously low.

...

I wasn't sure where to post this. I couldn't find a stickied general question thread in either of the moveset help forums. I almost posted it in In-Game Movesets, but decided I would probably have to experiment myself. I'm posting it anyway because I figure I might get lucky and someone already knows, and because I figure people will find it intriguing.

I wish there was a Pokemon other than Smeargle that could do Imprison and Baton Pass, but apparently there's only Munna from Gen 5... which doesn't help me get Mewtwo.

...

On a related note, Breloom is almost a perfect FSer, but due to its typing (grass and fighting) a majority of legendaries have a type advantage over it.

So. Does anyone know if moves that change the user's type (like Camouflage) will pass with Baton Pass? Depending on the Pokemon in question, that could reduce damage taken by as much as 8 times, before defense buffs.

 

[Sydian]

In-game movesets would have been a better choice...or the simple Q&A thread here. Should change the name to General Questions or something, since they don't have to be simple by any means.[/b]

-insert Seed bby lock here-

 

[Sydian]

Reopening for lack of a better place.

Unlocked.

 

[Samoo]

It won't work, if I can remember, as Baton-Pass passes on Increased/Decreased Stat gains.

Move locks aren't really in that area, so I'm afraid it won't exactly work :/

 

[Amore]

Well, that's wrong.

It passes status, Substitute, Mean Look and a fair few others. However, I'm not sure which ones.

Bulbapedia on Baton Pass

So, try that link.

 

[Sydian]

Looking at that Bulba page, I figure that if Baton Pass can carry things like Ingrain and Aqua Ring, it should carry Imprison, however the only thing that concerns me about that is when a Pokemon uses Imprison, it's stopping the opponent from using any of the moves that they might have the same of. So when you Baton Pass after using Imprison, the Pokemon that comes in has a different moveset than the Baton Passer. So I'm kinda thinking it probably doesn't pass it, but don't quote me on that.

 

[Kinoko_Otoko]

Well, I'm assuming the Imprison effect is lost when you switch Pokemon, which would mean that it's not an effect cast on the target, which would mean it's an effect cast on the user. The only other possibility is that it's an effect like Safeguard or Mist, but in that case I would expect it to persist after switching Pokemon anyway, which would eliminate the need for Baton Pass.

If it is an effect cast on the user, Baton pass should maintain it. I expect that the effect would be as if the new Pokemon had cast Imprison itself, so the Imprison effect uses the new Pokemon's moveset instead of the caster's. This would be similar to how a Substitute's type changes when you Baton Pass it.; the Substitute doesn't actually have a type, it just references the type of the Pokemon being substituted for. Likewise I expect Imprison doesn't make a list of moves that it's blocking, but instead checks against the user's moveset when the opponent tries to attack.

I suspect Camouflage, Conversion and Conversion2 don't pass, however, because they affect a Pokemon's type. Whether it's passed would depend on whether the change is a buff that causes attacks to ignore the Pokemon's native type, or whether it actually causes a temporary change in the Pokemon's type. In the latter case it would behave similarly to Mimic, which I'm pretty certain is not passed.

I'll eventually try this out... I'm probably going to play through LG again soon, and even if I don't I've heard you can catch Mewtwo in HG. If it works, it might even make catching Rayquaza w/o a MB practical (although I doubt it).