VGC 2020 Role Compendium

[Jio]

Thread idea borrowed from TPP here

This thread is intended to help beginner and even veteran VGC players in finding Pokemon that could fill certain roles for their team or even identifying what roles a Pokemon could have on opposing teams. All of the Pokemon listed are some of the more viable users in each category, but if a strong enough case is made for a Pokemon not listed then it can be added. Also, Dynamax is a bit of a weird category to add because Dynamax naturally makes a wide variety of Pokemon more viable but if there's enough defense for it it can be added.

Field Effects

Sun:

Chlorophyll:

Solar Power:

Rain:

Swift Swim:

Hail:

Slush Rush:

SandStorm:

Sand Rush:

Tailwind:

Trick Room:

Trick Room Sweeper:

Electric Terrain: (Setter)

(Abuser)

Grassy Terrain: (Setter)

Misty Terrain: (Setter)

Psychic Terrain: (Setter)

(Abuser)

Gigantamax:

Utility
Follow Me:

Rage Powder:

Storm Drain:

Lightning Rod:

Helping Hand:

Fake Tears:

Immune to Redirection:

(Propeller Tail)

(Stalwart)

Safeguard:

Prankster:

Beat Up:

(Inner Focus)

Beat Up Recipients:

Fake Out:

Wide Guard:

Defiant:

Competitive:

Priority Attacks: (Mach Punch)

(ExtremeSpeed)

(Ice Shard)

(Quick Attack)

(Aqua Jet)

(Grassy Glide)

(Sucker Punch)

Unique Speed Control: (Icy Wind)

(Quash)

(After You)

Imprison (+ Trick Room):

Boosting
Swords Dance:

Dragon Dance:

Nasty Plot:

Shell Smash:

Belly Drum:

Quiver Dance:

Coaching:

Weakness Policy:

Choice Band:

Choice Specs:

Choice Scarf:

Damage Reduction
Dual Screens:

Intimidate:

Charm:

Snarl:

Parting Shot:

Status
Sleep: (Sleep Powder)

(Hypnosis)

(Yawn)

Burn:

Paralysis: (Thunder Wave)

(Nuzzle)

 

[Vengeance417]

Unless Clefairy's currently filling a niche that I'm not aware of, its Friend Guard ability, the main reason it was used in earlier formats, is currently unreleased. I'm not 100% sure I'd list it yet until Friend Guard is received via Home.

 

[ChrystalFalchion]

Very nice, as someone who's going to be entering VGC for the first time ever this year, this is extremely helpful.

Reckon it's worth adding Hitmontop to Intimidate? Like Scrafty it also has Fake Out, but it's faster and slightly more powerful than Scrafty, and also has Wide Guard, so I'd say it has a niche over the yobbo.

Also, I think it could be worth mentioning Drampa in Trick Room sweepers - it hits like a truck, it can deny weather with Cloud Nine or get ridiculously powerful with Berserk. Low Speed, massive Special Attack and a wide movepool (including STAB spread Hyper Voice). Being a special attacker that doesn't need to boost to hit hard gives it a niche over Snorlax on such teams.

 

[Jio]

Unless Clefairy's currently filling a niche that I'm not aware of, its Friend Guard ability, the main reason it was used in earlier formats, is currently unreleased. I'm not 100% sure I'd list it yet until Friend Guard is received via Home.

Didn't know this so I'll remove it for now and add it back when Home is released, thanks!

Very nice, as someone who's going to be entering VGC for the first time ever this year, this is extremely helpful.

Reckon it's worth adding Hitmontop to Intimidate? Like Scrafty it also has Fake Out, but it's faster and slightly more powerful than Scrafty, and also has Wide Guard, so I'd say it has a niche over the yobbo.

Also, I think it could be worth mentioning Drampa in Trick Room sweepers - it hits like a truck, it can deny weather with Cloud Nine or get ridiculously powerful with Berserk. Low Speed, massive Special Attack and a wide movepool (including STAB spread Hyper Voice). Being a special attacker that doesn't need to boost to hit hard gives it a niche over Snorlax on such teams.

My mind slipped and I just forgot Hitmontop had Intimidate, but I'll definitely add it there. I can also see your case for Drampa so I will add that as well

 

[Ehmcee]

Meowstic hasn't optained prankster yet this gen (unless ps has it marked wrong), so probably keep that one off until home as well.

 

[opw_Blade]

Could you please include Defiant / Competitive mons?

 

[Jio]

Updated with most of the new additions from Pokemon Home as well as new categories. Please let me know if i missed anything crucial

 

[Vengeance417]

Updated with most of the new additions from Pokemon Home as well as new categories. Please let me know if i missed anything crucial

You’ll also want to add the new Gigantamax forms: Lapras, Alcremie, Coalossal, Hatterene, Kingler, Orbeetle, Appletun, Flapple, Toxtricity, and Grimmsnarl. Centiskorch’s has been available for a while, too, but it’s unlisted.

 

[RebornFX]

Awesome list! I just have a few suggestions (any mons I list are in no particular order for the most part and the lists are not exhaustive):

Make the text in Boosting readable haha

Weakness Policy - Add Tyranitar, G-Max Lapras and G-Max Coalossal (a bit gimmicky but it's had some success and is fairly popular on the ladder) and Excadrill (people have started using bulky D-Max drill with SD and WP)

Choice Band - Add Dracovish

Dual Screens - Add G-Max Lapras

Trick Room Sweepers - Add Mudsdale and Appletun. Also perhaps add Tyranitar? Many teams are running a Trick Room mode with something like Gothitelle where Ttar is the main sweeper

Create a section for Damage Reduction. Put Dual Screens and Intimidate in there and add the following sub categories:
Prankster Charm - Whimsicott, Liepard, Meowstic
Snarl - Incineroar, Arcanine,
Parting Shot - Incineroar, Torracat
Will-o-wisp - Arcanine, Dusclops, Incineroar, Rotom, Sableye, Jellicent, Mimikyu, Torracat

Add Torracat (being used as a sort of cross between Arcanine and Incineroar) to Fake Out, Intimidate (and if you take my other suggestions, Parting Shot and Will-o-wisp)

Add a Sleep section - Sleep Powder: Venusaur, Butterfree, Roserade - Hypnosis: Milotic (on Coil sets) - Dark Void: Nothing lol thank god

Add a Priority section - Some examples are Conkeldurr (Mach Punch), Lucario (Extremespeed + Bullet Punch), Arcanine (Extremespeed), can't really think of many other viable and not super team specific priority users at the moment

You could also add a separate section for common alternative speed control users, e.g Max Airstream users like G-Max Togekiss, Grimmsnarl for Prankster Twave/Scary Face, Icy Wind users like Milotic, Lapras, Clefairy, etc, maybe After You from Clefairy in trick room and Quash from Sableye.

 

[Vengeance417]

Add a Sleep section - Sleep Powder: Venusaur, Butterfree, Roserade - Hypnosis: Milotic (on Coil sets) - Dark Void: Nothing lol thank god

I'd also through Yawn in there. Togekiss and Sylveon are the most notable users, and Meowstic, Gastrodon, Torkoal, and even support Blastoise are also known to use it sometimes.

 

[Jio]

Added a whole bunch of changes including from the previous two posts. Made a separate category for Status effects and put all the priority and speed control segments under the utility category. Thank for the help! Let me know if i missed anything

 

[Vengeance417]

For priority attacks, I'd throw in a Quick Attack section for Sylveon. Granted, it's not the strongest priority out there for obvious reasons, but it's a very common move on Sylveon (a whopping 75% usage rate on Pikalytics as of right now) used to pick off weakened opponents, and with Pixilate, it gains STAB and a small power boost. It can also proc Weakness Policy on Fairy-weak Dynamax sweepers.

This also sounds like an odd choice, but I'd throw Inteleon into the Ice Shard category, as well. It's primarily used to proc Weakness Policy onto Ice-weak Dynamax Pokemon like Togekiss, Dragapult, and Goodra, and considering Inteleon doesn't gain STAB from it, it's one of the weakest Ice Shards in the game meaning it's not dishing out too much damage to your sweeper.

 

[Pyritie]

bisharp should be added to the defiant section

also the text on the bottom sections is white for some reason

 

[Vengeance417]

Silvally, Alolan Persian, and Obstagoon have Parting Shot and should go into that section.

Fake Tears should also gain a mention, probably in the Utility section. It's a common strategy to combo Fake Tears SpDef drops with a Special Attacking Dynamax Pokemon. A lot of Pokemon have access to it, but some of the more common users include Whimsicott, Liepard, Grimmsnarl, Alcremie, Kantonian and Alolan Ninetales, Alolan Persian, and Meowstic (M).

 

[pulsar512b]

Silvally, Alolan Persian, and Obstagoon have Parting Shot and should go into that section.

Fake Tears should also gain a mention, probably in the Utility section. It's a common strategy to combo Fake Tears SpDef drops with a Special Attacking Dynamax Pokemon. A lot of Pokemon have access to it, but some of the more common users include Whimsicott, Liepard, Grimmsnarl, Alcremie, Kantonian and Alolan Ninetales, Alolan Persian, and Meowstic (M).

I've also heard of regular ninetales using it, although I don't think it's quite caught on. Probs still worth mentioning.

 

[Vengeance417]

I've also heard of regular ninetales using it, although I don't think it's quite caught on. Probs still worth mentioning.

Silvally, Alolan Persian, and Obstagoon have Parting Shot and should go into that section.

Fake Tears should also gain a mention, probably in the Utility section. It's a common strategy to combo Fake Tears SpDef drops with a Special Attacking Dynamax Pokemon. A lot of Pokemon have access to it, but some of the more common users include Whimsicott, Liepard, Grimmsnarl, Alcremie, Kantonian and Alolan Ninetales, Alolan Persian, and Meowstic (M).

Kantonian is regular, which is what I probably should have just said lmao

Aqua Jet should be added to priority attacks, too. In this meta, it's mainly used to proc Weakness Policy and/or Steam Engine on Coalossal. Main users are Blastoise, Primarina, and Inteleon.

 

[Abbp]

I like this list but there is a notable exception of Greedent from the belly drum/trick room sweepers section. Granted he isn't very popular but I think that's mostly because he is considered an inferior Snorlax. On the contrary I believe he is a valid alternative for these reasons:

More physical bulk
More recovery after a berry
And most importantly is slower than the lax himself so he wins that matchup

Food for thought

 

[Jio]

Sorry for being a bit tardy but all suggestions are updated. Thanks a lot everyone!

 

[Troe123]

Is trick room + imprison a viable category?

 

[DreamPrince]

Is trick room + imprison a viable category?

Yes. Several top players have used Imprison + TR Chandelure/Indeedee-M to shut Trick Room.

I’d nominate Kommo for Boosting with Clangorous Soul

 

[Troe123]

Yes. Several top players have used Imprison + TR Chandelure/Indeedee-M to shut Trick Room.

I’d nominate Kommo for Boosting with Clangorous Soul

Thanks for the reply and I apologize if my original comment was not clear.

I meant would it be viable to add common trick room + imprison Pokemon in the main list under utility or some other category. Possible common Pokemon could be Chandelure, Indeedee-M, Jellicent, Gothitelle, and maybe Gardevoir. Of course, this suggestion/list could be critiqued.

 

[Jio]

I can add an Imprison category, sure

 

[Katy]

to Rage Powder
to Hail & Swords Dance
to Tailwind
& perhaps to Sand Rush
to Choice Specs
to Swords Dance & Choice Band
to Dual Screens
to Priority (Grassy Glide)

 

[AustinXX555]

Rain

Swift Swim

Thunder Wave

Beat Up Recipients

Imprison + Trick Room (Female Indeedee can't learn Trick Room)

Snarl

Gigantamax

Sucker Punch

Belly Drum

Trick Room

Aqua Jet

Lightning Rod

Slush Rush (also why is A-Sandslash in Hail when it doesn't get Snow Warning?)

Intimidate
These changes should put it up to date for Series 5

Hello is there a Dicktionarie that explain the Meaning of These Roles thankyou.

The meaning of the roles is to show people the role that each pokemon plays in VGC, and they can help you out for team building purposes. Say for an example you want a Tailwind setter on your team. Then you'd go in the Tailwind section and see which of those pokemon would fit best on your team.

 

[Jio]

All changes were made, thank you!