>>52588479The game starts out at the most restrictive and opens up slowly with time. We've seen this with every gen
>first year- regional dex>second year- nat dex (maybe sequel game came out)>third year- restricted formatbut gen 8 VGC was more hands on with it from a semi-monthly basis.
>started out regional dexes with only so many pokemon Gmax pokemon gorms allowed>home came and they added some natdex pokemon and allowed more gmaxes with time>Isle of Armor dropped and they added those pokemon>crowned tundra dropped and they added those pokemon with a 1 restricted format>opened up to a 2 restricted formatIn the middle they had a special banlist banning the top 5 or so pokemon from Battlespot singles and doubles, no particular balance reason but just to shake up the format. They also had the very last season on cart ladder open up to mythical pokemon along with unlimited restricteds on a team, something they never had done before, but because this was after worlds and no tournaments were taking place, there was no real events to do that mythical format in.
So they dont do it for balance as much as a tour de pokedex of different formats and powerlevels. This is arguably not arbitrary or haphazard as the banned pokemon usually are related to their legend status/BST and region/pokedex relationship.
