Oh hey thread revival. Might as well give my updated thoughts on the issue.
By today's standards Lax is clearly overcentralizing, therefore borked. By yesterday's, though, he can be played around, doesn't violate some sort of honor code, and isn't a super cheesy box legend or anything, therefore not borked. The issue here is rooted in this old v. new dichotomy: I have trouble reconciling that Snorlax is so centralizing yet still legal, but another viewpoint says he's obviously super good but doesn't make the game legitimately unplayable, so just leave well enough alone.
To resolve this dichotomy in thinking about rule changes for older gens, we must look to some other criterion: that of prudence. Because GSC is an older gen with perhaps too few battles to ensure a good objective decision, prudence suggests the latter (inaction) is the most appropriate course to take. So this applies not only to Lax remaining legal, it also applies to:
- The Celebi ban, which was more contentious at the time, but it's a conventional sort of ban on a Mew-esque legend that has been in the books for quite a while.
- HP legends being legal, which were unbanned in the first place by overstepping the prudence bound, but considering it was both a strange rule (i.e., not banning a mon, but banning a move on a mon) and not fully embraced in GSC's heyday, it really wasn't so big a deal.
- NYPC mons being legal, which may seem like a totally arbitrary ban of perfectly good moves if you didn't play when they were still being released, but you might actually care about if you did play at that time.
You know what, seriously, 100%, no joke should be banned ASAP, though? Spore-Spider Web-Baton Pass Smeargle. Sleep Trap in general is pretty dishonorable but I'd say it's contentious to ban that outright because most pure Sleep Trappers are countered hard by common sleep talkers. The main problem is that Jynx/Misdreavus/Gengar could use either Sleep Trap or Perish Trap, and because Sleep Talkers and Phazers are more or less mutually exclusive, you might incur a few BS surprise kills here and there. However, it's actually fairly easy to counter them once you know their set, and it's pretty risky to use the non-standard sets (sleep trap for the ghosts, perish trap for Jynx) because they tend to be pretty weak if you don't blindside your opponent, so it's hard to make a super strong case for banning Sleep Trap.
However, with Smeargle, even if you see it coming, the only way to ensure that you avoid insta-losing a Pokemon is using two of 3 fast Encore users: Alakazam, Raichu, and Jumpluff. All of them are gimmicks at best, and you need 2 of them because Spider Web out-PPs Encore 2-to-1, and no other Encore users outspeed Smeargle. You could also try to Sleep it, but the accuracy is iffy and if you sleep the wrong thing, there goes your Smeargle counter. The only problem is that Smeargle is super-weak, but considering that it's faster than like half of GSC I would imagine that despite the nonexistent bulk, anyone with half-decent prediction skills would get plenty of opportunities to abuse that Smeargle set. I mean, Marowak is frail but still good, Smeargle is basically taking it one step further and instantly KOing things without needing any prior positioning. Plus, come on, it's totally not honorable at all, and it fits the type of rule that would have been made back in the day, as dishonorable strategies had much more ban-weight in older days than just really strong mons.