There are many reasons why Game Freak’s iconic series Pokémon has increased its popularity. From the cute designs of newer Pokémon, the aim to collect every creature and fill the Pokédex, and the increasingly competitive nature of Pokémon battling, Pokémon has become one of the strongest gaming brands in the industry. With each new generation of games comes a noticeable amount of new creatures to collect, new items and attacks to use, and even new battle types and mechanics that change the way Pokémon is played. One of the most unique aspects of Pokémon compared to other more traditional RPGs are Pokémon battles. The competitive nature of Pokémon battles puts the series in a class of i🍒ts own, becoming a traditional RPG that has very strong multiplayer value, something you rarely see in the single player focused genre.
Pokémon battles have become a deep and sophisticated form of competition among players. With different Pokémon types, as well as different type of attacks, abilities, and hold items, there are a plethora of strategies and themes that can be created with your team of 6 Pokémon. However, most Legendary and Mythical Pokémon are banned, either officially by Nintendo or through various Pokémon battling communities, usually because their base stats are too high or in the case of Mythical Pokémon, are supposedly very rare to own. Some of these Pokémon aren’t that powerful and shouldn’t be banned. Additionally, there are plenty of overused Pokémon that tend to single-handedly dictate how a match goes. Here we will explore Pokémon that should and shouldn’t be banned in competitive play. So let’s get battle focused and see what Pokémon are worthy for competitive bat🍸tling.
20 Needs To Be Banned: Mega Charizard Y 💧
One of the Pokémon that is rightfully banned is the Legendary Pokémon Groudon. In addition to Groud🐷on’s high base stats, one of its biggest advantages is being able ꦅto initiate its ability Drought as soon as it enters the battle. Mega Charizard Y has the same exact ability once Charizard mega evolves.
Additionally it gains a boost in stats, putting it n꧃ot much lower than Groudon. Charizard’s moveset can take great advantage of the extra sunlight effect with weather and typing boosts to Fire type attacks. Additionally, Charizard could also learn Solarbeam. This gives Mega Charizard Y a very powerful attack💯, one that wouldn’t even need to charge due to the sunlight, which could be useful against Pokémon with type advantages such as Water and Rock.
19 Shouldn’t Be Banned: Ash-Greninja ꧙
Ash-Greninja is a special Greninja that could only have been obtained through the Pokémon Sun and Moon demo. As such, a Pokémon that is hard t🍃o obtain is officially banned by Game Freak. Ash-Greninja can only be activated with the ability Battle Bond, which essentially mega-evolves Greninja after knocking out a Pokémon.
Ash-Greninja receives a considerable boost in stats as well as the mওove Water Shuriken.
One disadvantage to having a Battle Bond Greninja is that it won’t have any other ability to take advantage of such as Protean, a type changing ability. Additionally🔯, most competitive battles are usually three or four Pokémon per trainer, so it can limit its usage. While it’s powerful, it shouldn’t be banned from competitive play.
18 ൲ Needs To Be Banned: Tyranitar
Tyranitar has always been among the most powerful Pokémon in competitive battling. Similar to Mega Charizard Y’s drought, ꦜT♔yranitar can summon sandstorms instantly when it enters battle. That makes an already impressive Pokémon even stronger for it to withstand special attacks better.
Even an Aura Sphere with a 4X type 💞effectiveness may not knock Tyranitar out in one hit.
If that isn’t enough, Tyranitar can also mega evolve, becoming even stronger. Additionally, it could also have moves like Dragon Dance, which could make it virtually unstoppable in just about every area. Imagine a double battle pairing with a Pokémon with sand veil, noticeably Garchomp, which is equally as ജpowerful.
17 Shouldn’t Be Banned: All Deoxys Forms Except Attack ﷺ
Deoxys is a Legendary Pokémon in the 3rd generation that, in most games, cannot be obtained in-game. Therefore, it is officially banned from competitive play. Regardless, most users of Deoxys would make sense of that as this transforming Pokémon can be truly lethal in Attack Form. In that form, it’s attack and special attack stats are among the highest of 🔜any Pokémon, and with very good speed as well it makes it the most ideal sweeper there is.
However, the other forms of Deoxys, including Normal, Defense, and Speed forms, are not as insane. Normal form is basically a weaker version of Attack foꦓrm, Defense is essentially Wobbuffet, but w𒀰ith an actual move pool, and Speed is very balanced in every statistic except speed obviously.
16 Neꦅeds To Be Banned: Chansey With Evolꦑite Stone
When the Evolite Stone wa෴s introduced, it breathed new life in former popular Pokémon like Scyther, who originally did not have an evolution until Scizor. The Evolite Stone powers up the defense and special defense stats of Pokémon who are capable of evolving. Imagine if the Evolite Stone were used on an HP tank like Chansey.
Chansey will easily benefit the most as it has very high special defense and one of the highest base stats in HP. The Evolite Stone 🌠will only take a🐽 special defense wall, and make it even more indestructible. With potential moves like Minimize and Softboiled, the Evolite Stone will make Chansey a horribly annoying Pokémon to deal with in battles.
15 🐲 🧸 Shouldn’t Be Banned: Most Cover Art Legendary Pokémon
Most Legendary Pokémon have been banned from competitive play because they’re the most powerful Pokémon. These are referencing Legendary Pokémon that appear as cover art for their respective generations such as Lugia, Zekrom, and Xerneas. 💎However, over the last few generations, we have been introduced to new mechanics that can make certain Pokémon more powerful. Some non-Legendary Pokémon can become nearly as powerful as any cover art Legendary Pokémon through Mega Evolution.
Most Legendaries are either Psychic or Dragon types, leaving 𒉰them with common weaknesses. Additionally, with the addition of Fairy types, the Dragons can become very vulnerable. However not all Pokémon should be unbanned, there are still others su💯ch as Arceus, Kyogre, Rayquaza, and more who should remain banned no matter what.
14 Needs To Be Banned: Alolan Ninet𒐪ails 🎶
One of the Pokémon that received an Alolan form in Pokémon Sun and Moon was Nine𒐪tails. Alolan Ninetails is an Ice/Fairy type as opposed to its fire type relative. Additionally, Alolan Ninetails’ ability is Snow Cloak, which increases its evasion during hailstorms.
The strategy with Alolan Ninetails is still relatively similar, a special defensive Pokémon that has speed and some special attack. However, there is one move that Alolan Ninetails can learn that the original can’t, a move called Aurora Veil. Aurora Veil acts as both Reflect and Light Screen combined as long as hail is present. In addition to Ninetails’ alre🔴ady impressive stats as well as the Snow Cloak ability, Alolan Ninetails becomes a very powerful tank.
13 🥂 Shouldn’t Be Banned: Phione
Phione is a very unique Pokémon in that it is the only Mythical Pokémon that can only be obtained by breeding with Manaphy. Obviously, as the circumstances of owning it are very unique, it is banned from competitive play. However, Phione has the lowest base stat total of every Mythical and Legend𝓡ary Pokémon by far.
Additionally, its move pool is🐠 extremely limited. Only a handful of potential moves it can learn would actually be useful in competitive play. The only use it could have is being paired in a rain dance team where it can take advantage of its ability Hydration.
12 ꦰ Needs To Be Banned: Mega Kangaꦰskhan
Kangaskhan was a pretty solid Pokémon back in the day. It had a lot of power, great HP, and is deceptively quick, all with a decent move pool as well. Over time though, it lost much of its popularity, likely due to it being a normal type Pokémon. Then comﷺes Mega Kangaskhan, bringing a little sidekick into the action.
Mega Kangaskhan receives a great boost in its stats, but what makes it vastly different is the new ability it gains, Parental Bond. This ability will add a second move to whatever you use. It does do 25% of the full damage, but any secondary effects remain the same. This is very lethal if you u෴tilize moves like Power-Up Punch, Drain Punch, or Headbutt.
11 🤡 Shouldn’t Be Banned: Mega Blaziken
Blaziken was one of the fan favorite starters of the 3rd g🍷eneration. It possessed great speed with a lot of power and a fantastic move pool. Then there is Mega Blaziken, which has the ability Speed Boost, ♏increasing its speed after every turn. While this does turn Blaziken into a textbook sweeper, it has a good amount of speed as is.
Having on🐲e more speed point is no different than having 100, so while Blaziken’s speed stat increases, it won’t matter much after a couple turns. With the type combinations that it has, Mega Blaziken is weak against many commonly used types. As long as you have a Pokémon that can take a hit, Mega Blaziken isn’t too broken for competitive play.