Explaining Banned & Broken Pokémon

Pokemon that are either banned or broken

Footage:

Thank you to my wonderful members!

Poké Amino: TheAuraGuardian

#Pokemon #Smogon #Pokemonvgc

Something something fair use something something

[KlementtM]

So, today we learned that Pokémon are banned for their potential to:
- Completely break the game’s balance
- Say the N word

[ThisAintGood.]

Rage Fist doesn’t work like that, it increases in power when you get hit, not when you use it multiple times

[luisgarcia]

You can kinda tell that Aura has been working on this video for a while because he mentions Cyclizar being banned in Singles. That's actually been changed and now Cyclizar has been allowed back into OU while the move Shed Tail has been banned instead.

[grunkleg.]

Things not included in this video:
- Every generation starts with the box legendaries in the Uber tier, and everything else down in OU before the lower tiers form. Some banned Legendary, Mythicals, and Ultra Beasts not mentioned in the video include...
--- Landorus-Incarnate for being really hard to beat with its Sheer Force sets.
--- Hoopa-Unbound in Gen 6, wallbreaker extrodinaire.
--- Genesect for how difficult it is to beat every viable set it has. Download boosted STAB U-turn off a good attack stat will never be bad.
--- Magearna in Gen 8 for very similar reasons to Genesect. Could basically beat anything in OU with the right set.
--- Marshadow for its very optimized stats and strong Ghost/Fighting STAB combo.
--- Chi-Yu for being able to click the delete button on anything in the game.
--- Chien-Pao for being able to click the delete button on a bit less than Chi-Yu, but he's also really fast.
--- Pheromosa for being a Bug/Fighting Deoxys with U-turn.
--- Dark Urshifu for its vicious Wicked Blow + Close Combat + Sucker Punch combo.
--- Spectrier for its great offensive stats and Grim Neigh helping to support a bulkier set-up Substitute Will-O-Wisp set that beat the Normal and Dark types that were supposed to win vs it. IIRC you could even get away with running Dark Pulse over Shadow Ball so that nothing was immune, though your 5 other teammates were always options to deal with Normal-types too.
--- Aura Break Zygarde 50%, who really took advantage of how good a move Thousand Arrows is alongside great bulk and other great moves like Glare, Coil, Extreme Speed, and Substitute
--- Regular Kyurem in Gen 8, who got a bunch of great options like Freeze-Dry, Dragon Dance, Icicle Spear, and Heavy-Duty Boots that really let it bully whoever it wanted.
--- Naganadel for Nasty Plot/Draco Meteor/Sludge Wave/Fire Blast with Beast Boost Speed increases taking no prisoners. Even dominant without Dragonium Z in Gen 8.

- No mention of Megas except Mega Ray oddly enough. Some of the problem children were...
--- Mega Lucario, because Adaptibility with those stats means nothing is safe
--- Mega Kangaskhan because Parental Bond. Nerfing the Ability doesn't matter when Power-Up Punch gets you to +2 and Seismic Toss always deals 200 damage.
--- Mega Salamence, because on top of its incredible stats, they gave it powerful Flying STAB with Aerilate
--- Mega Gengar. If its staggering Sp. Atk and Speed wasn't enough, Shadow Tag.
--- Mega Metagross in Gen 7. Barely manageable and highly contentious in Gen 6 due to balanced yet incredibly high stats alongside good moves usually backed by Tough Claws, Megas instantly gaining their new Speed in Gen 7 combined with Mega Meta loving Terrains was too much to handle.
--- Mega Mawile in Gen 6, due to just how much damage it could do, alongside priority Sucker Punch, top tier defensive typing, and moveset versatility.
--- Mega Sableye in Gen 6 for being a giant enabler of suffocating defensive stats when combining good defensive typing, good defensive stats, good defensive moves, and Magic Bounce shutting down common answers to defensive play.

- It's not just Zacian-Crowned that got banned to AG. Base Zacian was also way too strong for Ubers. Intrepid Sword is still really good on the base form, and it can hold a non-Rusted Sword item.

- Cinderace was banned in Gen 8 for very similar reasons to Greninja in Gen 6. Except this guy had a lot more high power physical moves and was a better U-turn abuser due to its higher Attack stat.

- Galarian Darmanitan, or Garmanitan, or Garm, for 140 base Attack backed behind Choice Band the Ability. Give it Icicle Crash, U-turn, two more high power physical moves, and Band/Scarf, and you're probably gonna win.

- Rage Fist gets stronger every time you get hit, not every time you use the move.

- Cyclizar is currently unbanned. It's Shed Tail that's now banned.

- Certain Abilities have been banned from 6v6 singles.
--- Moody is banned due to how uncompetitive it is. Just sit there and hope you get good boosts. So OP, even Bidoof was a problem in Ubers with Moody. The nerf to Moody in Gen 8 that prevented it from affecting accuracy and evasion still wasn't enough to make it competitive.
--- Evasion clause often bans Snow Cloak / Sand Veil. A few notable effects of this: Garchomp was finally allowed in Gen 5 OU once this clause was created, and Alolan Sandshrew is infamously banned from Gen 8 NU due to having no legal Abilities. (Slush Rush was banned in that tier due to the dominance of hail teams).
--- Shadow Tag and Arena Trap are hella banned in most 6v6 formats (Dugtrio in Gen 3 OU and Diglett / Trapinch in Little Cup being major exceptions). Switching is such an integral part of compstitive Pokemon, especially 6v6, that preventing a switch so easily is an incredibly powerful boon. Magnet Pull is allowed since it only traps a single type.

- Arceus in Gen 4 was banned from Ubers. Primary reason being people didn't like its effect on the tier and no one knew what else to do with it.

- Freeze Clause and Sleep Clause originated from the Stadium games.

- Freeze Clause is still a thing in the Gen 2 games. Only having a 10% thaw chance in those games is a long time to be a sitting duck, meanwhile the team on the offensive could really pressure a few of freezes, considering Gen 2's slow pace.

- Semi-invincibility clause just straight up bans Dig and Fly. A glitch exists in RBY where if a Pokemon using Dig/Fly gets fully paralyzed during the semi-invincible turn, the semi-invulnerability sticks.

- Tradebacks are actually a niche format in the Gen 1 games. Notable beneficiaries of Tradebacks include Amnesia Persian and Amnesia Hypno who also gets the elemental punches.

- Most Pokemon from Incineroar to Serperior were never actually banned.

[StrangerForever]

I actually have a funny story about Blaziken. My little cousin’s favorite color is red, so he would pick Fire starters early on (only exception was Froakie, but that’s because he loves frogs). We were debating the Legendary/Mythical status of Deoxys as of ORAS, and I mentioned how it was banned, then mentioned how Blaziken was banned. He starts crying because he thinks he can’t use his Blaziken anymore in his game. It takes about twenty minutes for me to realize he thought his Blaziken wasn’t allowed to be used in his actual play through. I then explained, laughing, “I meant in a tournament setting.” He calmed down after that, and we had a good laugh about it.

[ragingpotato]

It brings me joy that he mentioned Pokémon Unite and the Zacian issue, the devs refuse to nerf it and this sword dog has caused so many players to quit cause of how busted it is

[epicponedge]

Wobbuffet was not banned in Gen 3 OU because of Counter/Mirror Coat, it was banned because of Shadow Tag. In Gen 3, no Pokémon could flee from Shadow Tag (Ghost Types, or Mons with Shed Shell or another trapping ability can now). If two Wobbuffet face each other while holding Leftovers, the game softlocks as neither can kill the other with Struggle and Lefties out heals the recoil (doing 1/4 damage dealt as recoil in gen 3).

[General_C]

When you think about it, Aegislash effectively had a 720 base stat total considering how easy it was to swap between forms. Thank CHRIST it was banned in the 3DS era.

[c.-.jordan]

14:31 - In stadium if you were frozen you would stay frozen forever.

Freeze was far worse than sleep.

[rontheauraknight]

You forgot to mention that Regular Zacian is also AG, not just Crowned.

Also Dondozo is quite good in Singles due to unaware huge bulk, curse talk, and Terastalizing


Another Mon to mention in the Dondozo section is Flamigo. There’s an well known strategy of having Tatsugiri die in Dondozos mouth after enduring and toxic orb activating, give Don the boost then Flamigo comes out and gets the boost due to its ability Costar which copies ally boosts

[EukalyptusDerana]

I like how you also acknowledge Zacian in Pokemon Unite too. Not only Zacian is powerful on its own, but there's Comfey to make things worse by keeping Zacian alive

[demi-femme]

Something to note is that Arceus was banned from DPP Ubers after Rayquaza invented AG. This is notable because Arceus was stuck running 100 EVs in every stat due to how EVs worked in Gen. 4.

[TheOneTrueGesta]

I'm honestly surprised that you never brought up Miraidon in this video with how insanely busted it is.

[cds]

Not really into competitive that much, but I do like to know things like these! Great video!

[THE_COLOR_CHANNEL]

It seems like a lot of the banned Pokémon are more recent generations

Great video ❤

[KirbyMario_]

Not mentioned in this video is that although the Legends of Galar (the wolves) were, at the time, unavailable in Scarlet and Violet, they both had their stats nerfed in this game, thanks to how broken Zacian was in Gen 8. -10 Attack on both Hero of Many Battles formes and Crowned Shield, -20 Attack on Crowned Sword, and -5 Defense and Special Defense on Crowned Shield. In addition to this, the abilities Intrepid Sword and Dauntless Shield were changed to only activate the first time that the Pokémon enters battle.

[infamousinferno]

Don't let this video distract you from the fact that Pokémon Showdown getting rid of the National Dex Anything Goes tier means Mega Rayquaza won't exist ever again until we recieve it in another game.

[dimetrodon]

Chatter's power was also based on the volume of the sound you recorded on it, making it less predictable. This may also contribute to it being banned. If Chatter recorded the volume of a sound, but still only used the default noise in game, it might still have been banned.

Another example of a combination of unpredicatble stats and "being offensive" resulting in a ban is Miis in Super Smash Bros. In Smash 4, a Mii fighter's weight (which determines how far they fly when launched at any given percent) was determined by the body size of the Mii when it was created in the Wii or 3Ds Mii creator. This is the true reason they were banned, although many people believed it was because you could make them look offensive. In Ultimate, all Miis weigh the same, so despite them potentially looking like dictators, religious figures, hate symbols, offensive caricatures, or human anatomy, the were still playable online.

[whatgsaid]

I did an all-dog run for Violet and Houndstone was my ace for exactly the reason you mentioned. I rarely got down to my last mon, but when I did, it was OVER.

[chilln]

I know you were probably making the script for this video when it happened, but Cyclizar isn’t banned anymore. Orthworn started abusing Shed Tail after Cyclizar got banned, so the move itself was banned recently, and Cyclizar was unbanned in the same decision as that was what made it broken

For semi-invincibility clause, you explained it in a weird way. Dig and Fly are just banned altogether because a glitch lets you keep the invulnerability if you get fully paralyzed while in that phase