Clauses and banlist

The following rules, that govern the BW Overused tier, have been established by Smogon.

Clauses

• Species Clause : each Pokémon in the team must have a unique Pokedex number. It is for example impossible to use Rotom-Wash and Rotom-Heat in the same team because they both are 479th in the national Pokedex.
• Sleep Clause : sleep inducing moves are forbidden.
• Evasion Clause : moves (Double Team and Minimize), abilities (Sand Veil and Snow Cloak) and items (Bright Powder and Lax Incense) that boost evasion are forbidden.
• OHKO Clause : Fissure, Guillotine, Horn Drill and Sheer Cold are forbidden.
• Endless Battle Clause : if players find themselves in an infinite battle situation, the match ends on a tie. An example of this is when Slowbro is played with Leppa Berry and Recycle, Slack Off, Block and Heal Pulse. Thus, one can prevent the target from being switched out thanks to Block, heal it with Heal Pulse while never running out of PP with the combination of Leppa Berry and Recycle.
• Baton Pass Clause : there can be no form of stats boosting in combination with Baton Pass.

Banlist

Forbidden Pokémon

• Arceus
• Blaziken
• Deoxys
• Deoxys Attack
• Deoxys Defense
• Deoxys Speed
• Cloyster
• Darkrai
• Dialga
• Genesect
• Giratina
• Giratina Origin
• Groudon
• Ho-oh
• Kyogre
• Kyurem White
• Landorus Incarnate
• Lugia
• Manaphy
• Mewtwo
• Palkia
• Rayquaza
• Shaymin Sky
• Thundurus Incarnate
• Tornadus Therian
• Zekrom

Forbidden items

• Gems
• King's Rock
• Soul Dew

Forbidden abilities

• Sand Rush - doubles the Pokémon's Speed stat under sandstorm.
• Drizzle + Swift Swim - makes the rain fall + doubles the Pokémon's Speed stat under rain.
• Drought + Chlorophyll - triggers a harsh sunlight + doubles the Pokémon's Speed stat under harsh sunlight.
• Arena Trap - prevents opposing Pokémon from being switched out unless it is a Flying-type or Ghost-type Pokémon or has the ability Levitate.
• Shadow Tag - prevents opposing Pokémon from being switched out unless it is a Ghost-type Pokémon.
• Moody - randomnly boosts a user's stat by 2 stages and lowers another by 1 stage at the end of each turn (included accuracy and evasion).

Forbidden moves

• Assist - randomnly uses a move known by a teammate.
• Swagger - boosts the target's Attack stat by 2 stages and confuses it.
• Sleep inducing moves : Yawn, Sing, Lovely Kiss, Hypnosis, Spore, Sleep Powder, Grass Whistle and Dark Void.

Banlist history

Click here to display the banlist history since the game's release: