Pokemon Sword and Shield will ban over a dozen Pokemon from online Ranked Battles during Series 6, which begins on September 1st. Game Freak plans to ban 16 of the most-used Pokemon from both Singles and Doubles, massively disrupting the metagame in the process.
The new Pokemon Sword and Shield bans mark a major shift in strategy for developer Game Freak. The studio placed few limits on competitive team-building during Series 1 through 5, even after the Isle of Armor DLC expansion added dozens of new Pokemon. The only bans during Series 1 through 5 were for certain Gigantamax forms, and for some Legendary Pokemon like Mewtwo, Zacian, and Zamazenta. Recent ruleset changes even allowed Legendary Generation V Pokemon Terrakion, Cobalion, and Virizion to participate.
The list of newly-banned Pokemon is as follows: Venusaur, Gyarados, Porygon2, Tyranitar, Torkoal, Hippowdon, Magnezone, Togekiss, Excadrill, Whimsicott, Incineroar, Mimikyu, Rillaboom, Cinderace, Indeedee, and Dragapult.
Some of the banned Pokemon have been popular in Ranked Battles since the games’ release (such as Mimikyu and Gyarados). A few come from the Isle of Armor DLC (such as Porygon2 and Magnezone). Finally, some banned Pokemon were present in the base games, but only became viable after players got access to their Hidden Abilities months after the games’ release (chiefly, Rillaboom and Cinderace).
It remains unclear whether these bans will persist into Series 7 and onward. Since these bans specifically targeted the most-used Pokemon of Series 5, Game Freak may instead ban the most popular Pokemon of Series 6 for the next format. The arrival of the Crown Tundra DLC expansion later this year only adds more uncertainty.
Many players may find the new bans irritating, as much of the metagame revolves around Pokemon that are now missing. This includes Pokemon that Game Freak has actively labeled as “Battle Ready,” such as a recent promotional Porygon2. Given the large number of Pokemon made unavailable in Sword and Shield, removing even more Pokemon from battles only escalates the problem. To make matters worse, almost every default Rental Team available in the Battle Tower uses newly-banned Pokemon. Without such easily-accessible rental teams to take online, this could increase the time investment required to prepare for Ranked Battles.
Still, some fans may be excited about the chance to try out favorite Pokemon that were not viable in previous rulesets. A notable example is Inteleon, one of the games’ starter Pokemon. Fans viewed fellow starters Rillaboom and Cinderace as having much more interesting Hidden Abilities, often leaving Inteleon behind. The new rules may also encourage experimentation with gimmick-based Pokemon like Ditto that survived the shifted rulesets.
Pokemon Sword and Shield are available now on Switch.
Source: pokemon.com
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