Competitive Dictionary

[Tbird]

UPDATED: 14 May 2011
- Pokemon sets are now consistent with the descriptions accompanying them
- Slightly better format

Mostly taken from Smogon
Roles:

Spoiler

-Aromatherapist / Cleric
A Pokémon who uses Aromatherapy or Heal Bell to cure itself and its team of status.
With Blissey’s fantastic Special Defense and HP stats, she has many opportunities to help her team out with Aromatherapy.

Ex:

Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Def / 224 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Softboiled
- Aromatherapy
- Toxic/ Thunderwave
- Protect/ Ice Beam/ Flamethrower

-Attacking Lead
A Pokémon in the lead position who attacks immediately and generally does not do any setting up whatsoever.
Machamp is the most reliable and terrifying attacking lead in the metagame particularly due to DynamicPunch's confusion.

Ex:

Machamp (M) @ Lum Berry
Trait: No Guard
EVs: 240 HP / 252 Atk / 16 Spd
Adamant Nature
- DynamicPunch
- Payback
- Bullet Punch
- Substitute / Stone Edge

-Glass Cannon
A Pokémon who has high offensive power but is very defensively frail.
Gengar's high base 130 Special Attack, yet pathetic defensive stats, make it a prominent specially-oriented glass cannon.

EX:

Gengar (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Protect
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball

-Lure
A lure is a pokemon designed to "bait" to bait the opponent into sending in a pokemon. The point is to remove the lured pokemon to free allow a member of your team set up easier.

EX: Gliscor / Scizor Lure

Jirachi @ Expert Belt
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spd
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
- Iron Head
- Fire Punch
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- U-turn

-Mixed Sweeper
A sweeper who uses both physical and special offensive moves to do damage. Mixed sweepers are referred to with the Mix prefix.
Infernape’s ability to use both physical and special attacks (referred to as MixApe) in one set makes it one of the most common and effective mixed sweepers available.

EX:

Infernape (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Blaze
EVs: 64 Atk / 252 SAtk / 192 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Close Combat
- Fire Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice] / Nasty Plot
- Grass Knot / Nasty Plot

-Phazer / Pseudo-hazer / Shuffler
A Pokémon who uses moves that may force the opponent to switch, such as Roar, Whirlwind, Perish Song, and Yawn.
Skarmory is commonly seen on stall-oriented teams in order to eliminate set-up sweepers that can cause a severe amount of trouble to its team using Whirlwind to blow its foes away.

EX:

Skarmory (M) @ Leftovers / Shed Shell
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Brave Bird / Drill Peck
- Spikes / Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind
- Roost

-Physical Sweeper
A Pokémon who uses physically offensive moves to do damage and bring down an opponent's team. Many carry Attack boosting moves, like Swords Dance or Dragon Dance.
Swords Dance Terrakion is a very prominent physical sweeper. Having access to Close Combat, Stone Edge and Earthquake, it is capable of sweeping an entire unprepared team with ease after one Swords Dance and/or Rock Polish boost.

Ex:

Terrakion @ Life Orb
Trait: Justified
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Swords Dance / Taunt
- Rock Polish
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge

-Pseudo Passer / Dual Screener
A Pokémon who uses moves like Reflect, Light Screen, and Wish with the intent of passing them to another Pokémon.
Bronzong’s great bulkiness, typing, and access to Explosion make it one of the most durable and reliable of dual screeners to choose from.

Ex:

Bronzong @ Light Clay
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 152 Atk / 8 Def / 96 SpD
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Reflect
- Light Screen
- Gyro Ball / Earthquake
- Explosion*

Note: Explosion got nerfed in Gen V

-Spinblocker
A Ghost-type Pokémon who is used to stop the opponent from using Rapid Spin successfully.
Rotom-A is the most common spinblocker, thanks to its excellent typing, movepool, and stats.*

EX:

Rotom-H @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 168 Def / 88 Spe
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt / Discharge
- Shadow Ball / Hidden Power [Fighting]
- Overheat
- Will-O-Wisp / Reflect

Note: As of Gen V, Rotom-A are no longer part Ghost typing.

-Rapid Spinner / Spinner
A Pokémon who uses Rapid Spin to remove entry hazards.
Having decent defences, access to Intimidate, or Technician priority attacks, Hitmontop functions as a great spinner who can also check prominent threats in the metagame. He also has access to Foresight to negate Ghost Pokemon from blocking his Rapid Spin.

Ex:

Hitmontop (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Technician
EVs: 240 HP / 248 Atk / 20 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Fake Out
- Mach Punch
- Rapid Spin
- Sucker Punch

-Revenge Killer / Trapper
A Pokémon whose main purpose on a team is to revenge kill or trap certain threats, usually those who your team lacks a solid defense against. Generally characterized by high Speed and frailty.
Mamoswine’s access to Ice Shard allows it to be known as a very effective revenge killer to Ice weak targets such as Salamence and Flygon.

EX:

Mamoswine (M) @ Choice Band / Life Orb
Trait: Snow Cloak
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Stone Edge
- Superpower / Icicle Crash


-Special Sweeper
A Pokémon who uses specially offensive moves to do damage and bring down an opponent's team. Many carry Special Attack boosting moves, like Nasty Plot or Calm Mind.
Porygon-Z's access to Nasty Plot and power-increasing abilities give it excellent special sweeping capabilities. Its STAB Tri Attack and other powerful attacks, such as Thunderbolt and Ice Beam, are ridiculously powerful when boosted, ripping entire unprepared teams to shreds.

EX:

Porygon-Z @ Life Orb
Trait: Adaptability
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Nasty Plot
- Tri Attack
- Dark Pulse
- Hidden Power [Fighting]

-Stallbreaker
A Pokémon that immediately threatens stall not for breaking down walls, rather for preventing the Pokémon commonly found on those teams from executing their standard strategies and thus hindering or entirely shutting down the team's defensive core.
Gliscor has all of the necessary tools to be an effective stallbreaker, in particular Taunt, Roost, high Speed, select immunities, and an excellent STAB type.

EX:

Gliscor (M) @ Toxic Orb
Trait: Poison Heal
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Def / 216 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Fling
- Protect
- Earthquake
- Acrobatics

-Status Absorber
A Pokémon who can avoid, remove, or use to its advantage one or more status effects, usually by using the RestTalk combination or specific abilities.
Heracross is a very common Pokémon that takes advantage of status, most notably poison or burn. Teams that have problems with sleep leads often carry sleep absorbers with Rest and Sleep Talk.

EX:

Heracross (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Guts
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Megahorn
- Close Combat
- Stone Edge
- Toxic / Night Slash / Sleep Talk

-Suicide Lead
A lead Pokémon, who usually pack low defenses, that tries to set up entry hazards quickly and prevent opponents from doing the same, usually by Taunt, before dying.
With access to Taunt, the fastest Stealth Rock and high offensive and Speed stats, Aerodactyl is by far a very commonly used and successful suicide lead.

EX:

Aerodactyl (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock
- Taunt
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake

-Supporter
A Pokémon who uses non-offensive moves which benefit the team.
Cresselia has various supportive options in her movepool that can be helpful for her team. Some of these include: Thunder Wave, Toxic, Reflect, Light Screen, and Lunar Dance.


Cresselia (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Leftovers
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
~ Reflect
~ Moonlight / Rest
~ Ice Beam
~ Thunder Wave / Psychic

-Tank
A Pokémon intended to take either physical or special attacks and hit back, but does not have to do so consistently over the entire course of a match.
Porygon2 is a very potent tank. With Eviolite boosting its defenses and being able to Trace Intimidates, it can hit enemies hard and take many hits effectively over the course of a match and restore lost HP with the reliable Recover.

EX:

Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Trait: Trace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Trick Room / Thunder Wave / Tri Atack
- Recover
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt

-Wall
A Pokémon intended to take either physical or special attacks extremely effectively and consistently over the course of a battle.
Ferrothorn's great defences and typing makes it a very good wall in the game. It also has access to Spikes and Leech Seed, two moves that Ferrothorn has many opportunities to use.

EX:

Ferrothorn (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Stealth Rock / Spikes
- Leech Seed / Spikes
- Thunder Wave / Gyro Ball
- Power Whip

-Wallbreaker
An offensively oriented Pokémon meant specifically for crushing walls rather than sweeping. This is usually done with extra powerful offensive stats and commonly use both physical and special moves in their moveset.
With Dragonite's well placed stats and moves almost specifically designed to tear down many of the most common walls in the game, it makes for an excellent wallbreaker. It also has access to priority Extremespeed to finish off weakened foes.

EX:

Dragonite (M) @ Life Orb
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 SAtk / 4 Spd
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- ExtremeSpeed
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Superpower

Commonly used terms

Spoiler

Auto-Weather
-A Pokémon whose ability creates a weather effect, such as sand, rain, hail, or sun, when they are brought into play.
Tyranitar's ability, Sand Stream, allows it to set up an auto-weather effect in the form of a sandstorm.

-BP
Base Power of a move.
Dragonite's Outrage has a BP of 120.

-BST
Refers to the total number of a Pokémon's base stats.
Celebi has a BST of 600.

-Dual Screens
Refers to Light Screen and Reflect together.
Azelf is very effective at setting up dual screens with its high Speed stat and escape move in Explosion.

-Entry Hazards
Any of the attacks which deal damage as a Pokémon switches in - Stealth Rock, Spikes, and Toxic Spikes.
Forretress can set up all three forms of entry hazards.

-EVs
Effort Values.
The maximum amount of EVs a Pokémon can have in total is 510.

-FP
Full paralysis. While it can refer to several moves, it is often used to refer to being unable to move due to paralysis.
Suicune was able to keep setting up because Jirachi FPed.

-Hax
An event which has a low probability of happening which critically affects the outcome of a match. Also referred to as luck in general.
Togekiss' ability, Serene Grace, increases its chance at causing hax to the opponent.

-IVs
Individual Values.
The highest number of IVs a Pokémon can have in one stat is 31.

-LC
Little Cup, a competitive metagame that only allows the usage of Pokémon that are in their most basic form. More information can be found here.
Dratini is an excellent LC sweeper because of his high Attack stat and access to Dragon Dance.

-NFE
Not Fully Evolved, a Pokémon that is not in its final evolution stage.
Chansey is one of the few viable NFE Pokémon that is used in UU.

-NVE
Not Very Effective, a move that does lower damage due to a Pokémon's resistances.
Ice Beam is NVE against Vaporeon.

-OHKO
Short for "One-Hit Knockout", though it can also refer to moves that KO the opponent in one hit, such as Sheer Cold and Horn Drill.
Magnezone can OHKO Gyarados with Thunderbolt.

-Pinch Berry
A stat-boosting Berry that activates when the holder falls below 25% health. Often used in conjunction with Substitute, as Substituting three times activates the Berry if you have an even HP stat.
The most common Pinch Berries are: Salac (boosts Speed), Petaya (boosts Special Attack), and Liechi (boosts Attack).

-Priority
Any attack which will make the user always move first, unless the opposing Pokémon has a higher Speed stat and uses a priority move as well.
Sucker Punch and ExtremeSpeed are two of the strongest priority moves in the game.

-Residual Damage
Damage taken by a Pokémon without having been attacked directly, whether by recoil (Life Orb or otherwise), weather (hail or sandstorm), status effects (poison or burn), and/or entry hazards.
One of Salamence's biggest problems is dealing with the amount of residual damage it is vulnerable to.

-Revenge Kill / Revenge KO
KOing an opposing Pokémon immediately after one of your own Pokémon has fainted, therefore avoiding the risk of switching into an attack.
Jolteon revenge killed Gyarados after it KOed Heatran.

-SS
Sandstorm, usually induced by Sand Stream.

-STAB
Same Type Attack Bonus, which increases the power of a direct attack by 50% if the one of the user's types is the same as the attack's type.
Rotom-A's STAB Thunderbolt and Shadow Ball nearly provide perfect type coverage.

Abbreviations

Spoiler

AA
Aerial Ace.

BB
Brick Break or Brave Bird.

Boltbeam
A moveset consisting of Thunderbolt + Ice Beam.

BP
Bullet Punch or Baton Pass.

CB / Band
Choice Band.

CC
Close Combat or Cross Chop.

CM
Calm Mind.

DD
Dragon Dance.

DM
Draco Meteor.

DP
DynamicPunch or Dragon Pulse.

EP
Earth Power.

EQ
Earthquake.

ES
ExtremeSpeed.

FB
Fire Blast or Focus Blast.

FP
Focus Punch.

FT
Flamethrower.

GK
Grass Knot.

HP
Hidden Power or Hit Points.

IB
Ice Beam.

Lefties
Leftovers.

LK
Low Kick or Lovely Kiss.

LO
Life Orb.

LS
Light Screen.

MM
Meteor Mash.

NP
Nasty Plot.

Para
Paralysis.

QA
Quick Attack.

RD
Rain Dance.

RP
Rock Polish.

RS / Spin
Rapid Spin.

Scarf
Choice Scarf.

SD
Swords Dance.

SE
Stone Edge or Super Effective damage.

SP
Sucker Punch or Superpower.

Specs / Spex
Choice Specs.

SR
Stealth Rock.

STalk
Sleep Talk.

SToss
Seismic Toss.

Sub
Substitute.

TBolt
Thunderbolt.

TR
Trick Room.

TSpikes / TS
Toxic Spikes.

TWave
Thunder Wave.

WoW / Wisp
Will-O-Wisp.

WW
Whirlwind.

[wraith89]

Thanks for the guide Tbird. This is greatly needed for people new to competitive battling.

~ Stickied.

[Tbird]

Added sets Feel free to pretty it up for me wraithy boy ;D

[Deathstar]

Thanks, this is really helpful to me, I am just starting to do competitive battles

[Skevengal]

Cool. It's put together nicely.