It hurts me to put a ban on a new mechanic at the beginning of the gen. From day 1 I was very vocal in that we should not rush into banning something that could be the signature aspect of the generation. However, after reviewing through the lens of someone who valued a healthy metagame instead of a new one, I realize this is the proper decision moving forward. Dynamax simply has no defensive counterplay in LC that I can justify keeping it in the metagame. While it might be possible to stall out turns or use blatantly unorthodox sets and unviable options to keep a Dynamaxed mon in check, the defensive which other tiers might possess to keep this mechanic simply does not exist at the current moment. Opting to remove problematic mons that abused Dynamax was also a viable option that we could have chosen, but I believe that the number of things that we would have needed to ban could have potentially rolled into the double digits, thus removing the identity of LC.



Dynamaxing does everything an LC mon would ever want. Considering that several LC mons already start with +1 defenses, providing them with an option to double their HP after setting up, giving them a Z-move-like wall-breaking option that potentially doubles as a stat booster, field-effect, or weather is simply too much to provide to one Pokemon. You can play in this god-mode state for three turns in any game of your choice. Your opponent now constantly needs to play on the backfoot if this option is chosen, which makes LC, not into a game of skill but a game of momentum. If you're the first one to lose momentum, you could potentially lose the game without much of your own comeback mechanic. On top of that, Dynamaxing defensively or on reflex to your opponent is simply unviable as an option. The mechanic is so much more offensively biased than it is defensively, considering there is no way to alter your defensive stats while Dynamaxed and the only thing that you can do to stall turns is max guard, which essentially means you cannot take advantage of the free boosts and wall-breaking ability. With all things considered, and in the hopes of not repeating everyone on the council, removing Dynamax will be a net positive for LC and will contribute to a better metagame.