-Moves that call other moves. Assist, Copycat and Nature Power are on the banlist already, but you’re missing Mirror Move, Sleep Talk, Me First, and Metronome. (...actually, leave Metronome in, it’d be funny and I don’t see it doing real harm.)
-Mimic and Sketch. I don’t exactly know how these would work, but I think Pokémon with those trademarks might be able to have their Ability slot filled by an attacking move, which is (I assume) the reason you banned Assist, Copycat and Nature Power in the first place.
-Skill Swap and Role Play would probably be fun to mess around with. Skill Swap is especially useful because your opponent gets stuck with a trademark that does nothing.
-Imprison might also be neat to mess around with, especially on something like Lando-T to absolutely shut down opposing Lando-T.
-You forgot King’s Shield on the banlist. Aegislash is already banned, of course (though considering this meta revolves around replacing Abilities, it’s at a severe disadvantage and should probably be unbanned), but Smeargle isn’t.
-I don’t know if the Evasion Clause covers trademarked moves, but if it doesn’t, I’d suggest a ban on Double Team and Minimize as trademarks. Yes, they only activate once, but considering that basically everything in the game can trademark Double Team and hold Bright Powder, I can see a very dark path this meta could go down.
-Acupressure, or as I call it in this meta, Boneless Moody. It gives a random +2 on switch-in. Definitely not banworthy given that it’s random and only happens once, so you have to switch back out if the boost isn’t one you need, but it’s still worth noting.
-Chansey. Not only can it use Heal Bell or Aromatherapy to heal the whole team whenever it switches, or automatically set up healing for a teammate with Wish to become the Ultimate Cleric, it can also trademark Charm. Ever wish Chansey got Intimidate? Well, what about
two Intimidates?
-Weather moves. So many more Pokémon can become weather setters now. Some notable examples include Swampert, who can Mega Evolve for an instant Speed boost; Palossand, which can use Shore Up much more effectively; and Garchomp, which can also Mega Evolve for a Sand Force boost.
-Probably not terrain moves. Nothing that can get Electric Terrain is better with it than Tapu Koko—the only things that come close are Xurkitree, on which Tail Glow is mandatory, or Magnezone, which is useful for Magnet Pull or Magnet Rise but not much else. Misty Terrain is bad and should never be used, especially in this meta, where it’s a worse version of Safeguard, which is itself inferior to Heal Bell (yes, Misty Terrain halves the power of Dragon moves, but literally nobody has ever used it for that purpose). Psychic Terrain has... oh crap, Alakazam can set up Psychic Terrain and then Mega Evolve to get
another Ability. That’s scary. As for Grassy Terrain, there are some decent Pokémon that get it, like Tangrowth and Serperior, but they benefit much more from their native Abilities (Tangrowth would probably rather go for Synthesis though).
-Trick. You get to swap items with your opponent as soon as you switch in, leading to what I’m certain will be hilarious moments.
-Encore. Switching in a mon with Encore trademarked will lock your opponent into whatever their last move was, regardless of what they selected on the current turn. So if your opponent used a move that your Encore user resists or is unaffected by, you’ll be able to force a switch nearly every time. This makes Encore probably the best stallbreaking trademark in the meta, tied with Taunt.
-Trick Room abusers. All the existing Trick Room setters become a lot better now that they can automatically set up Trick Room (only one per team, though, so any backup Trick Room setters will have to carry it as an actual move). This lets Pokémon like Crabominable (no seriously, try it sometime), Rhyperior and
especially Alolan Marowak come in and clean up with more ease than ever before.
-If you really want to meme, Clamperl. Automatic Shell Smash on switch-in plus doubled Sp. Atk from DeepSeaTooth lets it hit about as hard specially as Swords Dance Alolan Marowak does physically. Keep in mind that Clamperl’s base Speed and defenses are abysmal and this will almost never work, but it’s just fun to think about. (Seriously, Game Freak, just let Clamperl’s evolutions use the items already.)
-I am
very scared of Hoopa-U. Instead of the worthless Magician, it has its choice of Nasty Plot, Calm Mind, Taunt, Toxic, Thunder Wave, Trick Room, Substitute, screens, Gravity, Laser Focus, and more. And it still has its base 160 Attack and 170 Sp. Atk.
-Volcarona. It can discard Flame Body and Swarm, neither of which are very useful, for Quiver Dance, Roost, Sunny Day, Defog (don’t actually switch Volcarona in on hazards, this is a joke), Will-o’-Wisp, Tailwind, Morning Sun if you’re running a sun team, or even a screen if you don’t take yourself too seriously.
-Ribombee. Its main use, of course, would be as a Sticky Web setter, replacing one of its basically useless Abilities with a very rare and extremely useful entry hazard. Alternatively, you could hearken back to the old days of CAP and take a page out of Syclant’s book by equipping Powder. This will act a lot like Mountaineer, except instead of protecting against Rock moves on switch-in, it’ll protect against Fire moves (and do damage to the opponent as a bonus). This makes Ribombee (well, Powder users in general, Ribombee’s just the only usable one) possibly the best switch-in to Fire in the whole metagame. You could also use Quiver Dance to try and be a less-scary Volcarona. The silliest option Ribombee has, though, is trademarking Speed Swap, which will utterly ruin Trick Room users and anything with 125 base Speed or more.
-Keldeo. It doesn’t stand out as much as some of the others on this list, but Keldeo benefits immensely from being able to get rid of that deadweight Justified garbage and use something like Calm Mind instead. (On a related note, why do people use Keldeo? Its best setup move is Calm Mind, its Speed tier is just shy of being good, it doesn’t get Ice Beam and has to rely on Icy Wind for coverage, and its Ability is useless in the standard meta. The only real reason I can see to use it is Secret Sword. Is that really a good enough gimmick to keep Keldeo out of UU all on its own? Someone please provide me with an actual answer, I’m legitimately confused as to why Keldeo is still in OU.)
-Zapdos. Instead of burning the opponent’s PP faster (which has basically no real effect) or sometimes paralyzing them if they make contact (which just doesn’t really happen), Zapdos provides amazing support for all sorts of teams with its difficult-to-deal-with defensive properties. It can spread paralysis around with Thunder Wave (or poison with Toxic, but so can everything else), remove hazards with Defog, heal with Roost (also known as Regenerator 2), set up a screen, set up rain for Thunder or even sun for Heat Wave, set up Tailwind, force switch-outs with Metal Sound (hmm, that sounds familiar), and probably do other things that I can’t think of at the moment. All that is good enough on its own, and combining it with Volt Switch gives you one of the most useful support Pokémon in the meta, with good defenses and offenses to boot. Zapdos is probably one of the most versatile Pokémon in Trademarked.
-Mew. Mew is probably the single most versatile Pokémon here. It can do any one of the following, among other things:
- Set up with Bulk Up, Calm Mind, Swords Dance, Nasty Plot, Hone Claws, Barrier, Amnesia, Rock Polish or Iron Defense
- Use Confide as a special Intimidate
- Lower opponents’ Speed with String Shot
- Inflict status with Toxic, Thunder Wave or Will-o’-Wisp
- Clear hazards with Defog
- Set up screens—not just Reflect or Light Screen, but Aurora Veil as well
- Set up any weather
- Set up Trick Room
- Set up Tailwind
- Set up Stealth Rock
- Cure the team’s status conditions with Heal Bell
- Heal with Roost, Soft-Boiled or Synthesis
- Remove the opponent’s Ability with Skill Swap, Gastro Acid or Worry Seed
- Use Spite to lower the opponent’s PP by 4 whenever it comes in
- Deny the opponent items using Embargo or Magic Room
- Deny the opponent moves with Taunt or Torment
- Mess around with RNG using Flash or Swagger
- Mess around with defenses using Wonder Room
- Make itself immune to Ground with Magnet Rise
- Make its opponent immune to Ground with Telekinesis
- Make nobody immune to Ground with Gravity
- Copy the opponent’s Ability with Role Play
- Copy the opponent’s stat changes with Psych Up
- Copy the opponent’s type with Reflect Type
- Copy the whole opponent with Transform
And the only thing it loses is Synchronize, which isn’t a good Ability by anyone’s standards.
And it has the stats to make use of all of those options.
And it can U-Turn or Volt Switch out after doing any of them. Do you see where I’m coming from here? Mew is easily at least A-tier, probably S-tier on the viability rankings.
-Level 1 Pokémon with Power Split, Guard Split, Pain Split, or Speed Swap. Power Split, Guard Split and Pain Split will effectively halve the opponent’s offenses, defenses or HP respectively, and Speed Swap will make your opponent slower than literally everything else. It’s a terrible idea that hardly ever works, but I could say the same about every other strategy that uses Level 1 Pokémon, and besides, it’s hilarious.
