Pokémon Sword and Shield Ranked Battle Series 6 ruleset bans Incineroar, Togekiss and more

After opening up the gates to a wealth of Pokémon following the Isle of Armor expansion, it seems competitive Pokémon is set for a major shake-up in Ranked Series 6. 

The previous series saw the introduction of the ‘Battle Ready Mark’ - a new system to ensure your Pokémon are competitively viable and stripped of any illegal moves, in a similar vein to the Galar Mark. 

The biggest shift in Series 6 (via serebii.net) however is the growth in banned Pokémon, pulled from the top 10 most used Pokémon from Series 5 in July over Singles and Doubles. 

This means many of the big hitters have been excluded completely. You can check out the full banned list below. 

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Togekiss has been handed a swift ban (Picture: Nintendo)

Banned Pokémon in Series 6

• Venosaur
• Gyarados
• Porygon2
• Tyranitar
• Torkoal
• Hippowdon
• Magnezone
• Togekiss
• Excadrill
• Whimsicott
• Incineroar
• Mimikyu 
• Rillaboom
• Cinderace
• Indeedee
• Dragapult
• Mewtwo
• Mew
• Celebi
• Jirachi
• Reshiram
• Zekrom
• Kyurem
• Keldeo
• Cosmog
• Cosmoem
• Solgaleo
• Lunala
• Necrozma
• Megearna
• Marshadow
• Zeraora
• Meltan
• Melmetal
• Zacian
• Zamazenta
• Eternatus
• Zarude

While many who have perhaps assembled teams around these Pokémon may be irritated to start afresh, it offers an exciting new challenge for those wanting to discover new tactics.

The rest of the rules are practically identical to Series 5, which you can check out below, including allowed Gigantamax forms.

Pokémon Ranked Battle Series 6 ruleset

• Battle Time: 20 minutes
• Your Time: 7 minutes
• Team preview: 90 seconds
• Turn time: 45 seconds
• Match length: No limit
• Pokémon Limits 
  Singles: Team of 3 to 6 Pokémon
  Doubles: Team of 4 to 6 Pokémon from level 1 to 100, then set to level 50. 

Urshifu Gigantamax is still in contention (Picture: Nintendo) 

Allowed Gigantamax Pokémon

• Charizard
• Blastoise
• Pikachu
• Butterfree
• Meowth
• Machamp
• Gengar
• Urshifu
• Duraludon
• Copperajah
• Alcremie
• Grimmsnarl
• Hatterene
• Centiskorch
• Toxtricity
• Sandaconda
• Appletun
• Flapple
• Coalossal
• Drednaw
• Orbeetle
• Kingler
• Lapras
• Eevee
• Snorlax
• Garbodor
• Inteleon
• Corviknight

The Pokémon Ranked Battle Series 6 ruleset starts from 1st September 4pm UTC to 30th September 11.59pm UTC.