Monotype
On Nov 23 2019, the Monotype council voted 7-0 to
BAN Damp Rock and Smooth Rock from Monotype
Reasoning:
In Smooth Rock's case, it smooths over Hippowdon's lack of pivoting options and means Excadrill is not pressured to switch into attacks at all because it has more than enough time to eventually find its way into play. In addition, once it is in play, Excadrill has far too many turns of sand to sweep or set up against the opponent. In fact, Excadrill can happily switch out and sometimes switch back in before sand has to be reset by Hippowdon. Given how much momentum is lost by Hippowdon, this is a huge win for Ground teams against offense. The combined effect of both alleviating pressure put on the sand team by removing the onus to take risks to get Excadrill in quickly along with applying significantly more pressure on the opponent by giving Excadrill more turns to sweep means Smooth Rock is currently too good for Monotype.
For Damp Rock, Swift Swim sweepers are arguably better than ever. Barraskewda has fantastic coverage and is extremely fast even outside of rain, giving rain even more consistency than before and patching up the loss of Greninja's revenge killing. Seismitoad is still running around firing off ridiculously powerful Hydro Pumps, pairing extremely nicely with Barraskewda, and it even gets Stealth Rock, which you have much more time to set up when you have 8 turns of rain instead of 5. It isn't just Swift Swim sweepers that make Damp Rock too good, though. The great 1.5x damage boost to Water-type moves during such an extended period turns many Pokemon into wallbreakers. One great example is Dracovish, whose Fishious Rend goes from 85 BP to 170 BP when going first to 255 due to STAB to 382.5 in rain to 573.75 with Strong Jaw. When combining the effectiveness of Swift Swim sweepers and rain-boosted attacks, 8 turns is simply too long in Monotype.
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On Dec 15 2019, the Monotype council voted 7-0 to
BAN Moody from Monotype
Reasoning:
With the nerf to Moody in SS removing its ability to boost evasion, Smogon decided to retest Moody by unbanning it for the new generation, as the historical reasons to ban Moody in Smeargle, evasion, and Baton Pass were all invalidated. However, it has become clear quite quickly that Moody remains uncompetitive in Monotype even if it isn't as broken as it once was. Even though it cannot get free evasion boosts anymore, it now has a 1/5 chance to boost Speed, which is a powerful way to improve consistency with Substitute giving extra turns to boost further. For many teams, stopping Moody users is a matter of getting lucky enough against its Moody boosts before it gets out of control, since Moody is very much a snowbally ability. The more Defense, Special Defense, and Speed boosts a Moody user gets, the more difficult it becomes to stop. When the Moody strategy turns the game into a question of whether the user gets the right boosts at the right times, that is a clear indication that it is uncompetitive.
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On Dec 15 2019, the Monotype council voted 7-0 to
BAN Dynamax from Monotype
Reasoning:
Dynamax is too unpredictable and too powerful of a mechanic to allow in Monotype. It is unpredictable because any Pokemon can activate it at any time to use almost any move, which poses too much of a burden upon both players to make plays when many turns are essentially 50/50s. Power-wise, a third of the Max Moves are demonstrably broken and the remaining are still incredibly valuable. In addition, the bulk it brings to sweepers makes them all incredibly consistent. Due to the nature of Monotype and Same Type Clause, there is a legitimate chance that banning individual Pokemon is a self-perpetuating cycle, as the strongest Pokemon are always those who can Dynamax most effectively, and the teambuilder restriction makes it much more difficult to try to mitigate threats. Dynamax was a very complex problem, so the council's full justification can be found in
our announcement thread.
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On Mar 30 2020, the Monotype community voted 33-6 to
BAN Melmetal from Monotype in a
public suspect vote.
Reasoning:
Melmetal boasts the third highest Attack stat in the tier and a physical bulk that puts even fully defensive Toxapex to shame. Its enormous HP offsets its rather poor Special Defense, enabling it to survive hits from even the tier's strongest wallbreakers including Choice Specs Keldeo's Hydro Pump. While mono typing is ironically subpar most of the time in Monotype, Melmetal being immune to poison means it has no fear of Toxic Spikes or Toxic from a wall. Even though its Speed is irredeemable, its bulk makes it very difficult to 2HKO even with multiple Pokemon working together, and most defensive Pokemon will hardly even scratch Melmetal, giving it many opportunities to fire off its powerful attacks.
The
full discussion may be found in the Monotype forum.
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On May 24 2020, the Monotype community voted 27-16 to
BAN Kyurem-B from Monotype in a
public suspect vote.
Reasoning:
Upon its arrival with Pokemon Home in SS Monotype, Kyurem-B has shown to be a tremendous threat as a result of it getting new moves to take advantage of. With moves like Dragon Dance, Icicle Spear and Freeze Dry, Kyurem-B is now better than before compared to SM. Dragon Dance and Icicle Spear now allow it to run an entirely physical set, turning it into a strong Dragon Dance sweeper that many types struggle to handle, not to mention that Icicle Spear + Fusion Bolt hitting the vast majority of the entire metagame. Several effective sets have surfaced: Substitute allows Kyurem-B to avoid status from common defensive Pokemon like Toxapex and Galarian Corsola while forcing Aegislash to change to Blade form to beat it, Freeze Shock paired with Power Herb means Kyurem-B can take out bulkier Pokemon such as Hatterene, Tyranitar, Snorlax, and Ferrothorn easier. Other sets like Roost are less common but also have merit.
Kyurem-B's great bulk plays a huge role as a setup sweeper as well. 125 HP backed up by 100/90 defenses means that it comfortably sets up in a variety of scenarios, while common revenge killers in the Monotype metagame have trouble beating it especially with support. On either type, Kyurem-B has access to capable partners to help it sweep. On Ice, Alolan Ninetales sets up Aurora Veil in one turn, and on Dragon, Kyurem-B can be paired with a screens setter like Duraludon or even Dragapult. Aurora Veil and screens support make Kyurem-B extremely bulky which means that common revenge killers like Choice Scarf Gengar, Alolan Raichu under Electric Terrain, Excadrill under sand, Choice Scarf Flygon, and Choice Scarf Ditto struggle to beat Kyurem-B, allowing it to set up another Dragon Dance to outspeed the vast majority of the metagame or just beat them on the spot.
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On June 20 2020, the Monotype council voted 6-2 to
BAN Magearna from Monotype
Reasoning:
Magearna, while losing the ability to snowball through teams as easily with Zmoves, gained access to stored power and draining kiss, giving it another way for it to snowball through teams with all sorts of set up moves available. Compared to SM, SS Monotype is a more offensive metagame which means Magearna oftentimes doesn't need Z moves to power through to get its first kill and start snowballing using Soul Heart. On fairy, you are able to pair Magearna with webs, allowing it to bypass it's mediocre speed stat which is further augmented with shift gear. Along with this, both steel and fairy also have access to spikes, allowing them to stack hazards, making it easier for Magearna to get its first ko and begin its sweep. It's most common set of Calm Mind, Shift Gear, Draining Kiss, and Stored Power allowed it to sweep a large variety of teams. Aided with the availability of klefki setting screens on both types, Magearna has the ability to set up vs Pokemon that are super effective against it. With recovery in Draining Kiss, it becomes a nightmare to beat. With Magearna alone invalidating types such as dragon, dark, and making others supremely difficult such as poison, electric, and water among others, we find it is centralizing enough to warrant a ban.
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On July 5 2020, the Monotype council voted 6-2 to
BAN Urshifu-Rapid Strike Style from Monotype
Reasoning: Due to its great offensive stats, STAB combo and U-turn pivoting, Urshifu-Rapid Strike Style has been a huge threat in the Monotype metagame that is capable of running multiple sets, particularly Choice Band and Choice Scarf. On top of all this, its access to Surging Strikes and its ability in Unseen Fist combined with its other traits pushes it over the top. Surging Strikes's ability to always land in a critical hit takes advantage of Urshifu-Rapid Strike Style's great power to break through Pokemon with Defense boosts like Corviknight and Zeraora as well as screens, while Unseen Fist makes it unscoutable in front of Protect users like Ferrothorn and Aegislash, both restricting its counterplay even further. Of course, it is important to mention Water's great team support as one of the best types in the current metagame. With teammates like Pelipper boosting the already powerful Surging Strikes using Drizzle, Slowking and Slowbro's extremely reliable pivoting using Teleport and ability to damage checks in Toxapex, Amoonguss and Vileplume with Future Sight, and Araquanid to slow down the opposition using Sticky Web, Urshifu-Rapid Strike Style finds many opportunities to wallbreak effectively in many matchups across the board. Due to its already incredible wallbreaking potential, its signature move and ability limiting its counterplay, and its amazing team support, the Monotype council has deemed Urshifu-Rapid Strike Style as unhealthy.