It's not surprising to see a majority pro-ban now that the dust is settling, and I hate to say it, but it's well justified. I may not be voting in the upcoming vote to ban or not ban, but I do want to give my own thoughts on Dynamax as well as previous mechanics.
Megas and Z-moves had their issues, but it was possible to balance them out at least, granted both were in different ways as well. Dynamax however, is pretty much what you get when you take the worse aspects of Megas and Z-moves and put them together.
And cause of how long a read my thoughts will be, I'll just keep them to tabs below.
All in all, I'm in the crowd that says without any semblance of doubt: BAN DYNAMAX, it's the only healthy move for the game for singles at this point.
Megas and Z-moves had their issues, but it was possible to balance them out at least, granted both were in different ways as well. Dynamax however, is pretty much what you get when you take the worse aspects of Megas and Z-moves and put them together.
And cause of how long a read my thoughts will be, I'll just keep them to tabs below.
With Mega Evolutions, you could only get them on a select few pokemon and had to make the most of them, with their abilities changing and sometimes their typing. Granted some of the pokemon that got them did NOT deserve to get a mega evolution (Gengar, Blaziken), and some had to be significantly nerfed in generation 7 (Kanghaskhan), but some did end up bringing life to otherwise forgotten and useless Pokemon (Lopunny, Beedrill). While like Dynamax now they were your win condition pretty much in generation 6, you at least knew who was going to, and they had to HOLD AN ITEM (keep that in mind) to be able to Mega Evolve, making it more predictable and easier to prepare for even in team preview.
The main problem ones though are the Primals, due to Groudon and Kyogre not counting for the Mega Slot, and Mega Rayquaza able to freely use an item, so long as it has Dragon Ascent, which is a move it's perfectly okay having since it's a Flying-Type Close Combat pretty much.
The main problem ones though are the Primals, due to Groudon and Kyogre not counting for the Mega Slot, and Mega Rayquaza able to freely use an item, so long as it has Dragon Ascent, which is a move it's perfectly okay having since it's a Flying-Type Close Combat pretty much.
Z-Moves on the other hand, were easily far more balanced and had more thought put into them for the most part. You still NEEDED AN ITEM to be able to use them, but it wasn't restricted to a select few Pokemon. It required simply a move of the same type for an offensive move, upping the power of the move by 80 bp, incentivizing the use of otherwise useless moves and combinations (Solarbeam Heatran or Fly Landorus, or even the move Celebrate), and they were limited to 1 turn as well, meaning a lot of skill went into them, as you needed to know when to use it, and who to use it on. It rewarded players who were skillful enough to save it for the right time, winning the game or turning the game-state around, but it wasn't impossible to come back from. Also contrary to popular belief, it was possible to win without a Z-Move, since you could lose it to a type immunity and not be unable to win then.
Z-moves that boosted were also limited to status moves without any further damage which allowed them to be fully balanced out by the fact you couldn't cheese extra effects from attacking moves. Moves like Parting Shot and boosting moves had various effects that could help you out in battle for 1 time, and were far from unbeatable too, since you could even punish them if they did so prematurely, or you caught them at the right time. They were boosts you had to carefully plan to use, and they didn't pretty much guarantee victory either, so again, it was heavily skill-based.
The problem Z-moves though ignored those clauses, which were two in particular: Kommonium-Z and Eeveeium-Z. Both of these moves granted humongous boosts to teams that could allow pokemon to snowball out of control. However, the saving grace for them were that the teams had to be built around them in both singles and doubles. Regardless, if you didn't have specific ways to counter a Kommo-o or Eevee them, you were screwed, which is why Eeveeium-Z was banned (that and due to Baton Pass shenanigans), and Kommonium-Z was OU at minimum, since the Tapus straight-up stopped it with their fairy-typing and were everywhere.
Z-moves that boosted were also limited to status moves without any further damage which allowed them to be fully balanced out by the fact you couldn't cheese extra effects from attacking moves. Moves like Parting Shot and boosting moves had various effects that could help you out in battle for 1 time, and were far from unbeatable too, since you could even punish them if they did so prematurely, or you caught them at the right time. They were boosts you had to carefully plan to use, and they didn't pretty much guarantee victory either, so again, it was heavily skill-based.
The problem Z-moves though ignored those clauses, which were two in particular: Kommonium-Z and Eeveeium-Z. Both of these moves granted humongous boosts to teams that could allow pokemon to snowball out of control. However, the saving grace for them were that the teams had to be built around them in both singles and doubles. Regardless, if you didn't have specific ways to counter a Kommo-o or Eevee them, you were screwed, which is why Eeveeium-Z was banned (that and due to Baton Pass shenanigans), and Kommonium-Z was OU at minimum, since the Tapus straight-up stopped it with their fairy-typing and were everywhere.
Now we come to Dynamaxing, the generation 8 mechanic. I wasn't kidding when I said that they were the worst parts about Megas and Z-Moves combined into one, as it's glaring where the issues all lie. Firstly, all Pokemon can Dynamax, which is not an issue by itself, but becomes such when you factor in many different problems on top of that. Next the HP stat is doubled and stretched out which makes dealing with the problem Pokemon that much harder by giving it even more bulk than it already had, mostly with how even with a x4 weakness, you cannot guarantee and OHKO like you can against Megas or Z-Moves users. Then despite damaging, the moves also give buffs and debuffs, including weather and terrain control, which is a boon some Pokemon did not need on top of boosted Max Moves, which basically turn the Pokemon's moveset into z-moves, which has led to some Pokemon being able to easily snowball out of control with little skill needed, instead needing more luck to just deal with them, which in unhealthy for the game. Dynamax also frees the pokemon from choice-locked items, on top of them being able to freely use items just increases their brokenness. It makes them powerful enough that 3 turns are just way too long, meaning that Dynamax sweeping is just way too overpowered and is pretty much always your win condition that you HAVE TO HAVE or you just lose, and you just lose if you fail to sweep too, you cannot come back from a failed Dynamax sweep, especially if the opponent does it too.
As for those saying this is not as much of a problem in doubles, there is a couple of problems that have bled over into doubles, though one is much greater in singles. Max moves are very inconsistent in power with some moves being increased by 50 bp and others by 30, strong or weak, which makes them much harder to teambuild for (or would if not for the buffs they give). This inconsistency in bp increases also makes it worse in terms of how broken the mechanic is, as even if it were balanced, it would encourage movesets that force immediate Dynamaxing.
Then there's Gigantamaxing, which is basically Megas but not really. They're similar to Dynamaxing, but STAB moves on the pokemon that can Gigantamax give different effects, such as Grimmsnarl causing a yawn effect. However the fact that they go off of STAB means complex bans won't work, making them impossible to rebalance.
As for those saying this is not as much of a problem in doubles, there is a couple of problems that have bled over into doubles, though one is much greater in singles. Max moves are very inconsistent in power with some moves being increased by 50 bp and others by 30, strong or weak, which makes them much harder to teambuild for (or would if not for the buffs they give). This inconsistency in bp increases also makes it worse in terms of how broken the mechanic is, as even if it were balanced, it would encourage movesets that force immediate Dynamaxing.
Then there's Gigantamaxing, which is basically Megas but not really. They're similar to Dynamaxing, but STAB moves on the pokemon that can Gigantamax give different effects, such as Grimmsnarl causing a yawn effect. However the fact that they go off of STAB means complex bans won't work, making them impossible to rebalance.
All in all, I'm in the crowd that says without any semblance of doubt: BAN DYNAMAX, it's the only healthy move for the game for singles at this point.