Gen 8 is blatantly focused on Hyper Offense, and crushing teams has never been easier with such a powerful mechanic. While Shell Smash and the like will sweep teams that get unlucky, the thing with that is it's only restricted to a few Pokemon. You know when the Omastar switches in it's probably Shell Smash, and there does exist options to deal with it that aren't using your own Shell Smash sweeper. Dynamax is a new level of power. Anything that switches in with the right move can stomp the game and win pretty quickly. Your counterplay is limited in comparison to a traditional setup sweeper, as you're now relegated to fishing through your team to find a Substitute/immunity. If you don't have one, that's tough luck. You could defensively Dynamax but that screws you out of your own autowin, if you have one. And that implies you have something that can effectively Dynamax defensively. But here's the problem with doing so. Lets say it goes like this:
Player A gets lucky and rolls a Gyarados with Max Airstream and Max Geyser, and uses their Dynamax after switching it in on something it can threaten out. Player B is left with very limited options, but say they get lucky and have something to switch in on. Here's how this can play out.
- Player B switches to something with Water Absorb on a correctly predicted Max Geyser. Gyarados still has 2 turns of Dynamax with double their max HP and can just use Max Airstream twice to kill the wall, because 170 BP +1 speed is dumb.
- If Player B chooses to Dynamax defensively and Max Guard, Gyarados has 1 more turn to use Max Airstream, which probably won't kill, but that's still a guaranteed +1 speed (coinflip on max guard isn't really worth the risk) and the opponent's Dynamax close to wasted.
- Of course, this is all contingent on actually getting a Water Absorb mon and predicting the correct move.
- Player B has Substitute. Player A still has Max Airstream, which will likely break the sub.
- Player B switches into an Electric type to attempt to eliminate the threat with a 4x Electric weakness.
- Player A Max Airstreams on the switch and now outruns and eliminates the counter, proceeding to get +2 speed and +1 attack and rolls the game.
- Player B comes in on a Max Geyser and can outrun the Gyarados for 1 turn. Gyarados has the potential to lose to it without them Dynamaxing, but the double HP makes it unreliable unless it's something like Zekrom. In which case Player B has to Dynamax to get rid of the problem.
- This creates a slippery slope where now Player B has a looming threat and Player A might not have any options to get rid of it, thus creating its own problem.
- Of course, this is all contingent on actually getting an Electric type and predicting properly.
And I know what pro-keep is going to say. "This is complexity! I mean just look at all these options! There's layers here! Like an ogre! Or an onion!" Yeah! Look at all the options where you get rolled for not having the perfect option! And remember, everything in this scenario is contingent on
pure randomness to work. If Player B didn't get any of the counters listed above they lose. Replace Gyarados with any number of potential 6-0s and you get similar results; you either have the counter and still have to predict properly or you burn turns and lose. Or you Dynamax and then they lose. How do you properly prepare for any number of random sweepers when you don't even know what you're getting? You don't.
I think that if this ban doesn't happen, a different system could be utilized. Ubers recently agreed Dynamax was a problem, but didn't want to fully restrict the mechanic. Instead they opted for a banlist where certain Ubers are restricted from Dynamaxing, as well as Ditto. This allows the mechanic to be preserved for Pokemon where the consequences aren't an automatic Necrozma-DM 6-0, or a Ditto countering a Xerneas for a clean reverse sweep. The power level of certain Dynamax Pokemon of the highest power level is unhealthy and problematic, and I would suggest implementing that rule if a full ban does not go through. Sure fighting a team that rolled Mewtwo and Zekrom will always be skewed, but if they can't Dynamax those guys, you at least get to have a fighting chance.
Random Battles can remain fun. By all means. But Dynamaxing causes problems beyond being fun, and should at the very least be restricted.