With Pokémon Scarlet and Violet being retired for a mates weeks now, Pokémon players are rapidly learning the ins and outs of each and each Pokémon. The competitory community, successful particular, is speedy to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of caller Pokémon and their moves. And 1 of those communities, Smogon University, has already eliminated 4 overpowered Pokémon from its competitory community.

Smogon is simply a assemblage with forums and matchmaking for competitory battles; it’s got a fig of antithetic formats for a assortment of Pokémon games, including Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. It’s a immense assemblage with thousands of progressive battlers, and its astir fashionable format is called OverUsed, oregon OU. It’s not an authoritative competitory community, and it’s unaffiliated with the Pokémon Video Game Championship (VCG), which is tally by The Pokémon Company. Smogon’s rules use lone to their community, not authoritative Pokémon events. (Additionally, astir of Smogon’s rulesets are for singles matches, portion the VGC format uses treble battles exclusively.)

Rules and Pokémon tier levels are managed by a radical of 9 assembly members who are peculiarly skilled astatine Pokémon battles — for a Pokémon to beryllium banned, 7 retired of 9 members person to ballot successful favour of a ban. Why prohibition a Pokémon from a competitory community? Well, these Pokémon would rapidly overpower the meta, making the format overmuch little amusive oregon fair. And if you do privation to usage these Pokémon, you’re invited to determination implicit to different (less popular) format.

The archetypal 2 Pokémon to beryllium banned were Flutter Mane, a Paradox Pokémon, and Houndstone, the Greavard evolution, as GameRant reported. Flutter Mane, for one, is simply a Pokémon that’s hard to lucifer — it’s got almighty advantages arsenic a fairy/ghost Pokémon, on with immense peculiar onslaught and velocity stats, Smogon wrote. Houndstone, connected the different hand, isn’t particularly overpowered, but a azygous determination is — Last Respects. The determination gains spot arsenic different Pokémon faint, giving it a monolithic blast of powerfulness if it’s the past Pokémon standing, oregon adjacent to it. This is simply a bigger woody successful azygous battles successful the OU tier than successful VGC’s treble battles, since singles teams person six Pokémon — doubles teams lone person four, truthful Last Respects tin bash much harm successful singles. Smogon considered banning conscionable the move, but Houndstone is presently the lone monster successful Scarlet and Violet that tin usage it; if that changes, this ruling may, too.

Image: Game Freak/The Pokémon Company, Nintendo via Polygon

On Friday, Smogon’s assembly voted to prohibition 2 much Pokémon: Palafin and Iron Bundle. Palafin is the adorable dolphin Pokémon with a ace almighty quality called Zero to Hero, which turns the dolphin into a superhero, basically. Like Houndstone, Palafin looks comparatively harmless, but the Zero to Hero quality is what takes it implicit the edge. Councilmembers called it “far excessively powerful, demanding, and low-cost.” As Smogon’s assembly explained, successful its Hero form, Palafin has a basal stat full of 650; for context, this is higher than that of Mega Charizard arsenic good arsenic immoderate fashionable legendary Pokémon successful the competitory scene, similar Cresselia, Thundurus, and Landorus. Only a fistful of Pokémon, astir of them legendary, person higher basal stat totals, and astir of those person likewise not been allowed successful Smogon’s OU tiers.

Iron Bundle, the Delibird-like Paradox Pokémon, was the adjacent to get cut, owed to its exceptional violative abilities that are excessively hard to support against, though it was the lone 1 of the 4 banned Pokémon whose banning was not unanimous. The group’s gone successful extent connected why each of these creatures was banned connected the Smogon forums.

At that time, Smogon’s assembly voted connected a fewer different Pokémon, too, similar Cyclizar, Chien-Pao, and Annihilape. As the OU metagame changes, the assembly volition apt analyse these and much Pokémon again. After all, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are inactive successful the aboriginal days, and there’s a batch much to discover.

But look, here’s the thing: If you’re conscionable playing with your friends, usage these Pokémon to perfectly wreck them. No rules there!

[Disclosure: Kallie Plagge worked for Nintendo arsenic a localization writer and exertion from April 2021 to March 2022 for the games Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Dragalia Lost, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Mario Kart Tour. This affiliation volition beryllium disclosed successful immoderate contented that relates to Nintendo-published games, and she volition not screen immoderate games she straight worked on.]