The Pokemon Dictionary

1. Generations
2. Styles of Play
3. Commonly Used Roles
4. General Movesets
5. Competitive Abbreviations and Commonly Used Terms
6. Move and Item Abbreviations
7. Specific Sets and Pokémon Combinations

Generations

In competitive play, the cartridge games are segregated into generations, or groups of games with similar game mechanics. Generations generally correspond to Nintendo's handhelds and are named after the initial two games released on the platform.

Here are the currently recognized generations:

R/B (also known as RBY)

The games Red, Green, Blue and Yellow make up the first generation. The first generation is defined by its heavy centralization around a few Pokémon, due to the small number of available Pokémon and unbalanced mechanics. The generation was largely Speed oriented, which lead to the popularity of paralysis-inflicting moves, such as Thunder Wave and Body Slam. RBY also had many glitches that may be implemented in a battling simulator.

G/S (also known as GSC)

Gold / Silver / Crystal is the second generation, most notable for its splitting of the Special stat into Special Attack and Special Defense, in addition to adding two new types of Pokémon: Steel and Dark. The generation also introduced items, such as Leftovers, which helped promote the slow pace and defensively oriented nature it is famous for. Despite the stall-ish nature of the game, stallbreaking tactics can still be effective.

R/S (also known as Advance, ADV, and RSE)

The games Ruby / Sapphire / Emerald / FireRed / LeafGreen make up the third generation; it introduced abilities, natures, revamped the IV system, and made stat experience into Effort Values. The introduction of items, such as Choice Band, led to more varied strategies. Introduction of many new Pokémon also made it more difficult to cover every threat. The metagame never truly stabilized despite the heavy usage of certain key Pokémon, such as Blissey, Skarmory, Tyranitar, Celebi, and Swampert.

D/P (also known as DPP and DPPt)

Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum make up the current generation and it is famous for changing attacking mechanics so that physical and special moves were differentiated individually rather than by their type. It introduced a particularly large number of quality Pokémon by giving many lackluster Pokémon new evolutions, while introducing many new attacks that gave many Pokémon from previous generations a chance to shine. This large number of Pokémon to choose from also meant that there were too many threats to prepare for, making it impossible to counter everything your opponent attempts to do. Team advantage also became more significant, with many players gaining advantages before the battle even begins.

Styles of Play

Offense

Offensive teams rely on outspeeding and outdamaging the opponent directly. Players using this style of play will often utilize hard-hitting Pokémon and use resistances and immunities to switch into attacks as opposed to defined walls to take hits. Tactics include: lures to eliminate counters, using stat boosters, and utilizing a quick Stealth Rock in order to facilitate kills. The suicide lead is an expansion of the quick Stealth Rock concept and is often used by offensive teams. A suicide lead is essentially a Pokémon in the lead position whose role is to stop the opponent from setting up Stealth Rock and at the same time set up its own Stealth Rock, such as Aerodactyl and Azelf.

Stall

Stall teams are based off of residual damage. This damage can come in many forms, including: sandstorm, hail, Toxic Spikes, Spikes, and Stealth Rock. The majority of Pokémon on a team like this will have good defenses and contribute to the overall goal of indirectly fainting the opponent's team. Tactics include using Ghosts to block Rapid Spin (a move which can eliminate entry hazards), setting up entry hazards as fast as possible, and using Pseudo-Hazing (Phazing) moves, such as Perish Song, Whirlwind, and Roar.

Balance

This type of team does not rely on any single type of Pokémon. Generally speaking, balanced teams have a couple of sweepers, backed up by a number of walls and/or tanks. Most teams of this type will utilize a form or two of entry hazards. The most successful balanced teams often revolve around a certain threat, while the other teammates seek to help guarantee a sweep by the said threat.

Commonly Used Roles

All of the definitions of the commonly used roles are listed below, along with an example to gain a better understanding of the definition.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Phazer / Pseudo-hazer / Shuffler

A Pokémon who uses moves that may force the opponent to switch, such as Roar, Whirlwind, Perish Song, and Yawn.

Perish Song Celebi 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.

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 Lucario is a very prominent physical sweeper. Having access to Close Combat, Crunch, Ice Punch, and ExtremeSpeed, it is capable of sweeping an entire unprepared team with ease after one Swords Dance boost.

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.

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.

Rapid Spinner / Spinner

A Pokémon who uses Rapid Spin to remove entry hazards.

Boasting a high Speed stat and powerful attacks, Starmie is considered as the best offensive Rapid Spinner in the game. No Ghost-type (the only type of Pokémon that ignores Rapid Spin) will enjoy taking a hard-hitting Hydro Pump.

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 Flygon.

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.

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.

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.

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, Stealth Rock, Explosion, and high offensive and Speed stats, Azelf is by far the most commonly used and successful suicide lead.

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.

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.

Bronzong is a very potent tank. With Gyro Ball, Explosion, and massive defenses, it can hit enemies hard and take many hits effectively over the course of a match.

Wall

A Pokémon intended to take either physical or special attacks extremely effectively and consistently over the course of a battle.

Skarmory's enormous physical Defense makes it one of the most sturdy physical wall in the game. It also has access to Spikes, Roost, and Whirlwind, three moves that Skarmory has many opportunities to use.

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 Infernape's ideally placed stats and STABs almost specifically designed to tear down many of the most common walls in the game, he makes for an excellent wallbreaker.

General Movesets

BoltBeam

Thunderbolt and Ice Beam. Any meshing of Electric- and Ice-type coverage is generally referred to as pseudo-BoltBeam coverage.

ChestoRest

Using a Chesto Berry and Rest in tandem to wake up instantly after using Rest.

EdgeQuake

Stone Edge and Earthquake. Any meshing of Rock- and Ground-type coverage is generally referred to as pseudo-EdgeQuake coverage.

EndFlail

Endure and Flail.

EndRev

Endure and Reversal.

EndSalac

Endure and a Salac Berry.

Paraflinch

Utilizing both paralysis and flinches to keep an enemy Pokémon from being able to attack.

Parafusion

Utilizing both paralysis and confusion to keep an enemy Pokémon from being able to attack.

RestTalk

Rest and Sleep Talk.

SubCM

Substitute and Calm Mind.

SubPunch

Substitute and Focus Punch.

SubRoost

Substitute and Roost.

SubSalac / SubLiechi / SubPetaya

Substitute and either a Salac Berry, Liechi Berry, or Petaya Berry, respectively.

SubSeed

Substitute and Leech Seed.

SubSplit

Substitute and Pain Split.

Competitive Abbreviations and Commonly Used Terms

This section is a series of abbreviations and commonly used terms related to the competitive metagames or competitive Pokémon in general. Set or Pokémon related abbreviations are below. All of the definitions of the commonly used terms and abbreviations are listed below, along with an example of how they are used to gain a better understanding of the definition.

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 odd 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, 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.

Move and Item Abbreviations

This section is a series of abbreviations for moves and items in competitive Pokémon. Move abbreviations that relate to groups of moves when talked about together are listed in the Competitive Abbreviations section above.

AA

Aerial Ace.

BB

Brick Break or Brave Bird.

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.

EQ

Earthquake.

EP

Earth Power.

ES

ExtremeSpeed.

FB

Fire Blast or Focus Blast.

FP

Focus Punch.

FT

Flamethrower.

GK

Grass Knot.

HP

Hidden Power.

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

Rapid Spin.

Scarf

Choice Scarf.

SD

Swords Dance.

SE

Stone Edge.

SP

Sucker Punch or Superpower.

Specs

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.

Specific Sets and Pokémon Combinations

Specific Set names that are unique and do not conform with the typical competitive Pokémon roles are listed here. Common Pokémon combinations that are frequently referred to together are listed here as well.

AgiliGross

Metagross with Agility.

BellyZard

Charizard with Belly Drum.

Britscor

A typical stallbreaker Gliscor paired with Tyranitar and generally annoying to take down due to Sand Veil abuse and reliable healing. The set is named after a British user that won many matches with it during a Smogon Tour.

BulkyGyara

Gyarados with defensive EVs. It's aimed to take hits to set up Dragon Dance easier.

CeleTran

Celebi and Heatran being used together as a defensive core. Celebi is resistant to Heatran's Water-, Ground-, and Fighting-type weaknesses. Heatran is resistant to Celebi's Dark-, Ice-, Bug-, Ghost-, and Flying-type weaknesses and is immune to its Fire-type weakness.

CroCune

Suicune with Surf, Calm Mind, Rest, and Sleep Talk. It's called "CroCune" because the user Cromat was the one who popularized it.

CurseLax

Snorlax with Curse.

GyaraJolt / GyaraVire

Gyarados and Jolteon / Electivire being used together as an offensive core. Jolteon switches into Gyarados's Electric-type weakness to recover 25% of its health, thanks to Volt Absorb, while Electivire gains a +1 Speed boost from Motor Drive. Gyarados switches into Ground attacks aimed at the Electric-type.

Lati@s

Latias and Latios collectively.

MixPert

Swampert that takes advantage of his respectable mixed offenses to prevent common Pokémon from setting up as he sets up. This set is found as a lead much of the time.

MixMence

Either of two mixed Salamence movesets with Life Orb. Classic MixMence is Rash with Draco Meteor, Fire Blast, Brick Break, and Roost and New MixMence is Naive with Draco Meteor, Earthquake, Flamethrower, and Outrage.

MixVire

An Electivire that takes advantage of his powerful mixed sweeping stats in order to be very difficult to wall.

RegiBro

Registeel and Slowbro being used together as a defensive core. Registeel is resistant to Slowbro's Ghost-, Dark-, Bug-, and Grass-type weaknesses and takes Electric-type attacks relatively well. Slowbro takes Registeel's Fire- and Fighting-type weaknesses and takes Ground-type attacks relatively well.

SkarmBliss

Skarmory and Blissey being used together as a defensive core. Skarmory takes the physical attacks that Blissey can't take. Blissey takes the special attacks Skarmory can't take.

StallRein

Walrein using Substitute and Protect under hail to stall for up to 32 turns. Also uses Leftovers and its ability, Ice Body, to fully replenish the HP lost from Substitute over two turns.

TechniTop

Hitmontop with the ability, Technician, and a set with low Base Powered priority moves, such as Bullet Punch, Fake Out, and Mach Punch.

Tinkerbell

Celebi that mixes its offensive and defensive talents into one set that is both difficult to KO and difficult to take repeated attacks from.

TormenTran

Heatran with Torment and moves that waste turns, such as Substitute and Protect.

Tyraniboah

Tyranitar with Substitute, Focus Punch, Crunch / Dark Pulse, and Thunderbolt / Flamethrower / Ice Beam.