>>53187476because the meta of older generations doesn't just stop evolving when a new one comes out. people still play them and they evolve over time, albeit slowly.
clefable's rise to prominence in DP OU is a great example of this: its ubiquity in gen 6 made people realize that it was actually really fucking good even without the fairy type.
basically, baton pass teams gained popularity in gen 6 and over time that popularity spilled over to previous gens, causing them to be overrun with baton pass spam.
despite baton pass having less tools at its disposal, it still proved to be too much for gens 4 and 5. gen 5 in particular had already put baton pass through the wringer in the past, due to smashpass, scolipass, and quiverpass.
even gen 3 saw significant changes, with mr. mime actually getting banned for its ability to block the vast majority of phazing.
