Smogon may soon suspect Dynamax

[Lanstar]

I'm not sure if this the right place to post this, but for those wondering about the competitive landscape in Sword and Shield:

Game Freak definitely designed Dynamax for double battles - and it is pretty diverse in strategies to use in that format. However, for 6 v 6 singles that Smogon revolves their meta around, it's a very bleak picture: Pretty soon, they will do a suspect test of the mechanic itself, and possibly ban it in their standard metagame.

Kind of wild, considering it is the big mechanic in this generation... What are your thoughts on this?

 

[SharKing]

Dynamax itself doesn't look that offensive at first glance, since it just makes the Pokémon big, doesn't change Abilities or anything, and the only stat change is doubled HP, which is admittedly significant, but hardly game-breaking for just three turns (or less if the big 'mon switches out).

However, what really breaks the mechanic is the overpowered Max Moves. Some people complained about Z-Moves last gen, but those were one-time use, and most of them (there were some notable exceptions) didn't grant bonus effects for free afterward. Compare that to Max Moves, which you get three uses out of when you Dynamax, and not only are all of them powerful, but they also grant effects that can consolidate an unstoppable sweep even after Dynamax wears off - moves like Max Knuckle and Max Airstream grant free stat boosts, Max Flare and Max Geyser change the weather, and Max Lightning, Max Overgrowth, and Max Mindstorm change the terrain.

There are two other elements that subtly make Dynamax even more overpowered than it needed to be. One, it doesn't require you to sacrifice your held item (unlike Mega Evolution and, again, Z-Moves), so you can even boost those OP moves with Life Orb and such. Yes, it nullifies items like Choice Scarf, but that gives those Pokémon the freedom to suddenly Dynamax and go wild. And that's the other point: literally anything can Dynamax. Not even Team Preview can help you suss out the opponent's Dynamax 'mon before it becomes a problem, because they can Dynamax anything on their team at any point, and there's really no preparing for that.

In case you haven't figured it out, I personally believe that Dynamax is unhealthy for the singles metagame. It was obviously designed just for Doubles (VGC) and Max Raids, and it shows.


(Funnily enough, while Dynamax is broken, the actual form-changing version, Gigantamax, is really just a gimmick for the most part. The only actual difference it has from Dynamax is the exclusive G-Max Moves, but most of these are downgrades from the regular Max Moves - Charizard's G-Max Wildfire and Centiscorch's G-Max Centiferno are both inferior to Max Flare, Toxtricity would much rather have Max Lightning than G-Max Stun Shock, etc.)



EDIT TO AVOID DOUBLE-POSTING: Welp, much to nobody's surprise, Dynamax is about to be suspected.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Banning an entire generation's mechanic is just further proof that Smogon is irrelevant. Snowflakes that can't adapt so they have to literally ban the new mechanic and continue playing Gen 6/7 meta. They'll never be as good as Battle Stadium formats or VGC formats. It's a waste to even discuss it. Just let Smogon fade into obscurity and die lol.

It’s pretty clear that they’ve put a lot of thought into it so it’d be better if you had suitable arguments against pages worth of justifications, examples, and statements given by the entire council before calling them "Snowflakes", since their case is pretty well thought out.

Announcement - Dynamax is banned from OU - Explanation & Information

The OU council recognizes that Smogon is a large institution within the realm of competitive Pokemon battling. Additionally, we understand that banning a core mechanic such as Dynamaxing will have a substantial impact on the competitive landscape of this generation throughout our metagames and...

www.smogon.com

Just going "they’re snowflakes for disagreeing with me" doesn’t come off as an educated argument when faced with pages and pages of extremely well thought out, civil posts by multiple people who provide suitable explanations for what they think and why do they think so.

Smogon and Showdown are really good services imo, specially since Showdown's free and allows people to play around is Th any format.

 

[Silktree]

Banning an entire generation's mechanic is just further proof that Smogon is irrelevant. Snowflakes that can't adapt so they have to literally ban the new mechanic and continue playing Gen 6/7 meta. They'll never be as good as Battle Stadium formats or VGC formats. It's a waste to even discuss it. Just let Smogon fade into obscurity and die lol.

It's closer to the Generation V (or maybe IV) metagame since there are no gimmicks at all. And I'd say that people should be allowed to play however they like (in a simulator and on their own server, no less) without this kind of hostility.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

It's closer to the Generation V (or maybe IV) metagame since there are no gimmicks at all. And I'd say that people should be allowed to play however they like (in a simulator and on their own server, no less) without this kind of hostility.

Specially since there are plenty of formats with Dynamax available as well on showdown. Even the games themselves do not allow a trainer to use Dynamax outside of gym battles.

 

[EmpoleonProd]

Specially since there are plenty of formats with Dynamax available as well on showdown. Even the games themselves do not allow a trainer to use Dynamax outside of gym battles.

That's interesting considering I've used Dynamax at:

the Wild Area

the Battle Tower

the Battle Stadium

Considering all online battling takes place in the Battle Stadium, it's very clear that Gamefreak meant for Dynamax to have a place in online ranked battling.