As many of you have seen, November stats have been released for SM Pokebank OU. While these stats are very tentative at best and don't represent anything close to a real tier shift, it can give us some idea of where usage stands. Therefore, I have made some major adjustments to the banlist. Please note, these adjustments will not go into effect until Round 3 - all Round 2 games are to use the current banlist.
First, Hippowdon, Mandibuzz, Nihilego and Zapdos all have enough usage to be considered OU, and therefore will be banned from this tour from Round 3 onward.
Second, several Pokemon that we thought might be OU by usage, specifically Azumarill, Gliscor, Keldeo, Tornadus-T, Weavile and Zygarde-10% were actually UU by usage based on these stats, and will be unbanned from this tour from Round 3 onward (unless we decide to ban them during a future round for balance).
Third, we have looked at many of the other Pokemon UU by usage, such as Thundurus-I and Thundurus-T, Kyurem-B, Volcanion, Dragonite, etc. The majority of these Pokemon will remain banned for reasons of "balance" (the tour is still pretty ridiculous, but we don't need to add in Kyurem-B, Thundy and Dnite to make things even worse). However, we have decided to unban Terrakion and Volcanion from the tour from Round 3 onward.
That means that, once Round 2 concludes, the banlist will be as follows:
Banned Pokemon
Bisharp, Breloom, Buzzwole, Celesteela, Chansey, Clefable, Diggersby, Dragonite, Dugtrio, Excadrill, Ferrothorn, Garchomp, Genesect, Greninja, Greninja-Ash, Hawlucha, Heatran, Hippowdon, Hoopa-Unbound, Kartana, Kingdra, Kyurem-Black, Landorus-I, Landorus-T, Latios, Magearna, Magnezone, Manaphy, Mandibuzz, Mantine, Marowak-Alola, Mimikyu, Nihilego, Pelipper, Pheremosa, Porygon-Z, Rotom-Wash, Scolipede, Serperior, Skarmory, Tapu Bulu, Tapu Fini, Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, Thundurus-I, Thundurus-T, Toxapex, Tyranitar, Volcarona, Xurkitree, Zapdos, Zygarde
Banned Abilities
Drizzle, Drought
Banned Items
Alakazite, Charizardite-X, Charizardite-Y, Gyaradosite, Latiasite, Metagrossite, Pinsirite, Sablenite, Scizorite, Slowbronite, Venusaurite
Banned Moves
Swagger, Z-Flash
Enjoy the rest of the tour!