Weavile, Keldeo, Annihilape, Hoopa-U, Shaymin-Sky, Light Clay, and Heal Bell* are now banned/restricted! Regigigas is now freed!
This will be our last major banwave unless something extremely problematic arises, in which case we will go down the survey path. Heal Bell is restricted, everything else is banned.

Weavile shouldn't need much explanation. Hone Claws Triple Axel with that much speed is incredibly difficult to switch into, and the main counterplay in Rocky Helmet is easily removed via Knock Off. The only viable switchins are also far and few between, with Dondozo and Toxapex only fitting on specific team structures, Sinistcha needing to use Tera Water, and Corviknight needing either Tera Water or major recovery support to not lose on the spot. Knock Off also meant that Spikes users like Meowscarada, the Ogerpon formes, and Deoxys-S paired phenomenally. This also doesn't include Tera Ice, which could just 2HKO IDef Corviknight. Weavile is also the main reason why other physically defensive walls with removal weren't used - you need an extra layer of security for very few benefits that Corviknight doesn't provide.

So good luck switching into Choice Specs Calm Mind Hydro Pump in Rain from Keldeo, because you also need to keep in mind Secret Sword. The only actual switch-ins were Light Screen Fezandipiti and the Slowkings, Tera Ghost Blissey, and niche Sunny Day users like Zapdos. Everything else was just KOed. As we are trying to cut down on the strain in the builder, this obviously needs to go.

Probably the most controversial Pokemon since day 1, Annihilape capitalized on the existence of Wish and Rest + Heal Bell to great effect while using Taunt + Rage Fist to permanently make progress incredibly quickly with minimal counterplay. While these have both now gone, it cannot be understated just how potent Rage Fist + Taunt is, as this combination is what makes Annihilape unhealthy, NOT Rage Fist alone. Not many things handle Annihilape long-term, often requiring recovery move users like Sinistcha and Gouging Fire accompanied with Terastallization to handle. We also technically saw Tera Ghost Imprison Smeargle as an answer, but that's not really real and there are better "true" answers than that anyway like Hisuian Zoroark.

Oh boy, this one. Hoopa-U is very funny if you don't a Recovery trademark user that matches well into it, which is to say most teams. Tera Dark Hyperspace Fury + Thunderbolt + Psychic Noise pressures 99% of the tier in combination with Scary Face, and its already incredible pairing with Screens and Alomomola make it really easy to use and get in with high HP to start firing off attacks and making instant progress. It's also worth noting that Dark-types are generally poor switch-ins thanks to the high usage of Fighting-type moves on Hoopa-U, mainly Drain Punch but Focus Blast and Brick Break are potent too.

This one was tough for us to agree on, as we weren't sure whether to hit Shaymin or Growth. However, we concluded on banning just Shaymin as there aren't any other major Growth users. Growth Shaymin on Sun cannot be understated, as Roaring Moon is easily blown up by Dazzling Gleam and the Poison Light Screen users are both not fans of Earth Power. Tera Fire is also incredibly terrifying for Corviknight to face, although this set is overwhelmingly weak to Stealth Rock. While this is the most answerable of the sets, Seed Flare causes just enough issues for us to hit Growth Skymin. If Growth ever is banned, though, Skymin will come back.

Yeah so turns out the Screens vs IDef/Amnesia debate is thrown out the water when Light Clay is around, as you just get the best of both worlds - that is teammates get a significant bulk boost and the bulk boost lasts long enough to allow the main Trademark user to keep walling things for long periods of time. This obviously isn't exactly healthy and the number of complaints about screens aren't ignorable with Light Clay around. We also hope that the removal of Light Clay will make recovery Trademarks a lot more manageable, as there is now a significant downside to not running something that supplements bulk instead.


Heal bell is by far the weirdest ban here, but its reason for banning is twofold. Firstly, status moves are no longer legal as Trademarks, meaning that regular status moves are simply punished for being used. This is obviously quite unfair as it removes a very consistent way of making progress versus bulkier teams, especially since Trademarks have infinite PP. The second is a rising strategy in high level play that is a bit too good - Rest spam + Heal Bell. Many Pokemon are balanced in Trademarked by not having recovery, either that being thanks to their incredible bulk, their amazing utility, or a combination of the two. Two major examples here are Ting-Lu and the now-banned Annihilape, where the former has access to Spikes + manual Stealth Rock + Whirlwind to force permanent hazard progress into Defog Corviknight teams, especially in combination with Gholdengo or Imprison Decidueye, and then supplement its HP with Rest, while Annihilape can fire off powerful attacks after tanking multiple hits to then use Rest without proper cost. The number of Pokemon that can do this is more than acceptable and contributes to making the meta a lot unhealthier than should be, so Heal Bell has gotten the boot. Yes we know that Chansey also gets the move, but hitting Blissey is illogical when Chansey can do generally the exact same thing.

so yeah we learned this thing cant do anything lmao its freed. whats it gonna do, use gravity? lol
Shaymin Sky dhelmise implement pls ty
I do want to say finally that there WILL be more to come for Trademarked in the near future, I do not want to let the current interest this meta has go to waste. Yes, I and the rest of the council are aware that there were requests for a survey, but we were already in talks of what to remove and why far before there were calls for one. Finally, thank you all again so so very much for the interest this past month, it cannot be stated just how insane 109,000 games in a month is. That's almost 10% of how many OU games there were, 20% of how many NatDex games there were, and
57% of how many Ubers games there were. We hope you guys enjoyed playing the meta last month despite the many roadblocks and issues the meta had all month long, and will stay enjoying the format and its developments to come.