"Banning Cosmog and Cosmoem is probably just a case of "ban the entire family". A lore reason, if not a game design reason."
Lore is 100% irrelevant to competitive Pokémon. Lore only matters in storyline casual play-throughs.
"Mythicals are, by and large, event only. Banning them evens the playing field, since if it turns out a mythical is great it puts people who couldn't get the event at a disadvantage."
The problems with this argument are that, one, Game Freak is slowly but surely ending the trend of mythicals being event-only. Mew and Jirachi are now often given out to players that have specific save data from other games, Magearna could be obtained in-game in gen 7 by simply scanning a QR code, which can be found online, Deoxys can be obtained in Pokémon Omega Ruby and Sapphire through the storyline, Melmetal can be obtained by simply playing Pokémon GO and transferring a Pokémon from GO to HOME, Keldeo can be found in the Crown Tundra in Pokémon Sword and Shield DLC, and Arceus can be obtained through the storyline of Pokémon Legends: Arecus. With that, they could allow mythicals in competitions that could be obtained easier such as via storyline or save data at the very least. Two, even if you don't get the chance to obtain them, mythicals are still relatively easy to trade for. In fact, that's how I obtained most of my mythical Pokémon and I have almost all of them.
"Pseudo Legendaries, on the other hand, are relatively easy to find, and often have their own fair share of disadvantages that evens the playing field.
- Dragonite, Salamence, Garchomp (as well as their megas) are quad weak to Ice, which is relatively common offensively
- Tyranitar is quad weak to Fighting (which isn't uncommon either) and forces you to use Sand, so you can't just slap it into any team
- Hydreigon and Kommo-o are quad weak to Fairy (which is very much common)
- Goodra is just kinda meh in general
All that's left is Metagross (which isn't used a lot) and Dragapult which is broken, yeah, but not centralizingly broken like Zacian-Crowned or Kyogre-Primal are in VGC (which is pretty much the only meta GameFreak cares about)."
The thing is, ironically, pretty much every non-legendary and/or mythical Pokémon with a base 600 stat total is broken in some form or fashion, save a few. Dragonite has Multiscale, which halves damage at full HP, allowing Dragonite to easily set up with Dragon Dance and sweep, Salamance has Intimidate, which is a great ability, especially in Doubles, is a deadly sweeper, special or physical, even more so physically with Moxie. In any game that would allow Mega Evolution, Salamance only gets better. Tyranitar is probably the best Sand setter in the game and is so tanky during Dynamax that it could often survive its double weakness to Fighting at least once, and would only get better in games that allow Mega Evolution, Metagross probably isn't broken now because it doesn't have much going for it in today's competitive game, but in games that allow Mega Evolution, Mega Metagross is a monster in all formats, Dragapult is broken because it has so much going for it, where it is one of the fastest Pokémon of all time, has good coverage options, can be used effectively as both a physical or special sweeper, and can attack through screens and Substitute with its Infiltrator ability. The only ones that truly aren't broken are Hydreigon, Kommo-o, and Goodra. Hydreigon used to be extremely broken, but existence of Fairy types alone completely murdered Hydreigon's chances of being good again, which is crazy. Kommo-o is just a victim of existing in the wrong times, otherwise it would be broken as well because of its powerful signature moves alone and perhaps the best stat-boosting move in the game, Clangorous Soul. However, Clangorous Soul paired with Psych Up in Doubles is actually a pretty decent but gimmicky combo for boosts, but it's not exactly game breaking enough to be considered broken. The only way Goodra truly shines is defensively, mostly in Singles as a specially bulky attacker and as a switch in to powder moves with Sap Sipper. Overall though, I could easily say that most "pseudo-legendary" Pokémon are better than most mythical Pokémon. Thus, there is no real reason to ban most of them.
"Or, they're just going with the simpler route. "If we think any form of this Pokémon could be broken, ban all forms".
Saves time and making one Pokemon unavailable is less worse than finding out that that form is also problematic for some other reason and now you have to ban something a lot of people were using.
People in general are more upset when they lose an option they thought they had, than when they just never get the option to begin with."
I still don't think that's a good reason to ban those forms. It doesn't make any sense to ban a Pokémon simply because they assume that it
could be broken. Landorus-T is perhaps the most broken Pokémon in competitive Pokémon and it's a minor legendary that has never been banned. Thus, they clearly don't care about what's becomes broken. Evidently, the only reason the other Pokémon are banned is because they have high base stat totals. It wouldn't make any sense to ban a 600 base-stat-total Pokémon when several others are legal with the same stat total, or a 500 base-stat-total Pokémon that is pretty much the average stat total for all fully-evolved Pokémon.
"I think it's important to keep in mind that Game Freak, by and large, doesn't care about Singles due to a variety of reasons (at most, they only care about Singles in the context of the main campaign). If Game Freak is thinking of a meta for balance reasons, that meta is VGC Doubles and if the Pokemon suffer or break other metas they don't really care.
And Regigigas is doing pretty well in VGC Doubles, so as far as Game Freak is concerned, Regigigas is a perfectly usable Pokemon."
The only way to truly utilize Regigigas effectively in the VCG is with a Neutralizing Gas Weezing, which can easily be countered by getting rid of Weezing. That's not a difficult feat by any means, especially in Doubles because of double teaming, which is why it's barely used. I wouldn't count that as doing well. Instead, I could call that way too niche or gimmicky even because it's definitely something that people would attempt just to see Regigigas do well, but it definitely won't win much against the meta, which is why it doesn't last. Regigigas is only used less than 1% of the time in the VCG Doubles meta, and there is a reason for that. Soon as Weezing faints, Slow Start kicks right in, becomes super weak, and could easily be double-teamed by the opposing player. It also won't be able to stall effectively for Slow Start because of the fast-paced nature of Doubles.
Yes, I understand that Doubles is more important because the Pokémon World Championships are double battles. However, not every competitive player cares about VCG Doubles. Single battling is still the most popular way to play competitive Pokémon, whether on Game Freak's servers or unofficially in other places such as Pokémon Showdown. Game Freak also hosts official Singles competitions as well, which I have competed in many myself. Game Freak also still hosts their ranked battle seasons for Singles (and Doubles) in Pokémon Sword and Shield every month, which statistically has a bigger player-base than the Doubles despite the VCG centering around Doubles. In that sense, it wouldn't hurt for Game Freak to make certain Pokémon more functional in all formats to appease every type of competitive player. Personally, I believe that competitive Pokémon should have official world championship games for both Singles and Doubles.
