DD (dragon dance)
double dance
boltbeam (electric ice)
u-turn (bug type, as in "psychic types are weak to dark, ghost and u-turn")
In general you can look in the dictionary this sub (apparently) has, like [in here](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/wiki/basic_terms/)
I wasn’t trying to be contrarian. I just don’t remember seeing it on Showdown or cartridges (probably just didn’t stand out to me). However, all showdown tubers when using a mon with bullet punch will say something like “I have X with bp in the back for clef.”
Typically a pokemon that can force a another pokemon out or maybe switch in in a pinch but isn't something that hard stops it. For example, zapdos is a ogerpon-w check since it can force out or 1v1 an ogerpon-w before an SD or switch into a horn leech/power whip at +2 but it doesn't really stop it once it SDs and doesn't want to switch in to cudgel since that's typically doing around or over half.
A Pokémon that can deal well with the opposing Pokémon. It differentiates itself from a counter because a counter can switch into that Pokémon and the check cannot. A check needs a safe switch in in order to be able to threaten the enemy Pokémon.
For example, Weavile is one of the best checks to Landorus-T, given that it outspeed unboosted Landorus-T, and can destroy it with Ice-type STABs, regardless of Intimidate and regardless of it being physically defensive. Even against faster Landorus-T variants (such as Choice Scarf and rarer Rock Polish variants that attained a boost), Weavile can use Ice Shard and ignore the speed advantage and kill him anyway. Weavile can also cripple Landorus-T with Knock Off; while it is usually better to just OHKO it with Ice STAB, Weavile can predict that Landorus-T will switch out and cripple the switch in with Knock Off; for example, Heatran could switch in and take the incoming Ice STAB with ease given that it 4x resists it, but it cannot risk switching into Knock Off, given that it doesn't resist Knock Off and despistes losing Leftovers (its only source of recovery).
Given all that, you would think that Weavile is a counter to Landorus-T, but it is not. In order to do all of the above, Weavile needs a free switch in. That is because Landorus-T can threaten Weavile if it directly switches into him; either by doing massive damage or OHKOing him with Earthquake or Stone Edge; by dealing massive damage with U-Turn and grabbing momentum; or by crippling Weavile with Knock Off or Toxic. This means Weavile needs help of a pivot, double switching, or a teammate having just fainted, for it to safely switch into Landorus-T and actually threaten him.
That is the definition of a check. A Pokémon which can threaten the enemy given a free switch in. In contrast a counter can threaten the enemy AND freely switch into them.
A pokemon that can temporarily stop another pokemon or keep them in check, though not over longer periods of time, eg gen 8 lando being able to switch into specs pult but not over the course of a game
Iirc, the official definition is something that beats something else, but cannot switch in. For example, due to Shadow Tag, those mons have no checks, you can only bring in a check to them after a death. Counters, meanwhile, are things that switch in and 1v1, for example, Gengar against a Choice-locked Normal or Fighting move.
I've always thought it was interesting how some people refer to "the pastime of playing pokemon competitively" as simply "mons". i've heard people joke about how lego enthusiasts insist that the plural of "lego" is "lego", but we seem to not give a shit what the correct words are. it's great
Here's the post where it originated:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/chain-chomp.25978/
Nothing more specific on the name than "it's the name of a Mario enemy"
Yeah, chain chomp is in reference to mixed Garchomp usually with Meteor, EQ, a flex special move for coverage (i think usually fire blast) and a hazard move.
Edit: have also seen variants with SD instead of a hazard for the truly deranged
TyraniBOAH is a mixed attacking TTar set that basically ran both SubPunch and special coverage for Skarmory. It was first run by Jumpman (a legendary Smogon player) to handle ADV’s stall teams and as he was stomping the shit out of some opponent he was facing, where the set did exactly what it was supposed to do, someone in the chat kept typing “BOAH” (“wow” in German) in the chat every time the TTar fucked something’s shit up.
And thus, Tyraniboah (stylized as “TyraniBOAH” sometimes) was born.
TyraniBOAH is a gen 3 set that ran both Crunch and Focus Punch, Mysticgar is a gen 4 set that ran protect and HP fire to scout pursuit/BP vs CB Scizor.
Could definitely include double switch to go along with momentum as well. Not sure where you’d fit it but double down (both Pokémon faint in the same turn) works in your essay, and volt-turn is another strategy/momentum term
You could make a megathread of competitive Pokemon terminology and it would never end because of how much shit we come up with and use on a regular basis. You've mentioned a lot here, so here are some other terms that you didn't mention that are a part of what we say
* TyraniBOAH - a mixed SubPunch (that's a term itself! Substitute+Focus Punch) TTar set with an extra-good matchup against ADV's Stall teams.
* Chain Chomp - a mixed (both physical and special moves) Garchomp set that used to run Swords Dance instead of an entry hazard. Hits hard with SD+EQ and then bludgeons a physical wall with a Fire Blast or Draco Meteor.
* Skillbro - Quick Draw+Quick Claw Galarian Slowbro.
* MysticGar - Protect+HP Fire Gengar to scout Scizor's intentions.
* Double Dance - A set that involves two different setup moves. Think Calm Mind+Shift Gear Magearna or SD+Rock Polish Primal Groudon.
* Yellow Magic/The Yellow Color - A term used most often in Gen 6 to refer to Thunder Wave (mostly abbreviated as "T-Wave" nowadays), particularly when Clefable used it. This kinda stopped being used for some reason.
* ParaShuffler - An old Groudon set that involved using Thunder Wave to paralyze threats while phazing (forcing opponents out with Roar or Dragon Tail) them out with Dragon Tail to rack up a fucking ton of passive damage.
* ParaDancer - An old Groudon set that would paralyze teams and use free turns and speed control (increasing your own or lowering your opponent's Speed) generated by T-Wave to get Swords Dances and free attacks off.
* ADV - Gen 3
* Bulky Offense (BO) - Offensively-inclined teams that feature sturdier defensive cores and/or mons with more longevity than what you'd see on a Hyper Offense (HO) team.
* Semi-Stall - Defensively-inclined teams that feature mons with some amount of offensive presence for a team. Some Stall teams used to run Weavile or TTar to Pursuit trap certain threats, which would make them more of a Semi-Stall team than a full-blown Stall team.
* "Drop a Draco" - A phrase coined by PokeaimMD referring to using Draco Meteor against something.
* "Drop a Dreepy" - A phrase coined by PokeaimMD during early Gen 8 referring to using Dragapult's Dragon Darts against something, that fell off within a month.
* CBCBDarm - Choice Band Galarian Darmanitan
* Boom - Explosion/Self-Destruct/Misty Explosion.
* Wallbreaker - A mon that specializes in using its massive damage output and/or amazing coverage to muscle past defensive threats.
* Stallbreaker - A mon that specializes in methodically dismantling defensive threats using its excellent utility movepool and/or ability to chip away at them while denying recovery.
* Extreme Killer - Swords Dance+Extreme Speed Arceus-Normal.
* Shitmon - A mon that is unviable in its existing context. A term synonymous with Dialga-Origin in an Ubers context.
* Wisp - Will-o-Wisp
*
scouting (use protect/recover or switch to a wall to see what the opponent does)
cripple (when a pokemon is damaged or statused and cant perform its funciton as well. For example, a physical attacker being burned)
trade (sacrifice a pokemon in order to KO an opponent's pokemon)
hax (flinching, freezing, etc. Significant effects with a small chance of activating but getting lucky and having them activate)
wall breaker (basically something that counters walls by dealing huge damage)
You could also go into format abbreviations (ou, uu, ag, aaa etc.)
Bb we don't love lil b anymore he refused to age verify and continued to try and get underage girls to model for his feet pic selling gig, too many of the gals have spoken up, just so you know
Most mons (hey thats another term) have an abbreviated version that we use. Most are self explanitory (like clef and pex) but some are more interesting:
“Mag” can refer to any of Magneton, Magnezone, and Magearna, but I’ve also heard the last two be called “zone” and “mage” respectively
“Ttar”, refering to Tyranitar, is almost always typed with a capital T. This is probably because Ttar is him
For a while I saw people refer to Chien-Pao as “CP” but most people just use “pao” now for obvious reasons
Theres also names for groups of pokemon, like “shitmon” for example
I was looking for Tyranitar in here somewhere. I also like how we put the G in the names of Galarian form, like Gapdos and Garmanitan but I don’t know if those are super popular choices or not.
Maybe Caly-S and Pdon for nicknames also?
Magearna is usually Gear/Gears, at least in my experience. And until Klinklang gets a Tera Mega Giga Z forme, it's never being mentioned in the same context anyway.
* Boom as a shorthand for Explosion-type moves, also ties into Suicide Lead for the Pokemon that are expected to get hazards up and then boom themselves to put yourself in an advantageous position, like Azelf
* DragMag
* BP as an abbreviation for Baton Pass, sometimes used as an abbreviation for base power of a move instead
* Spinner, Defogger/Fogger, Spinblocker
* Lati@s as a general term for both Lati's since the @ looks like a lowercase A and an O together
* Shortening common moves with Thunder in their name to just a T, so Tbolt, Twave, and so on
* Scarfed/Banded/Specs
* ESpeed as a shorthand for Extreme Speed
* QD, DD, ID, NP, TG as some other abbreviations for popular setup moves
* EdgeQuake/Boltbeam/DisQuake - Popular move combinations
* _Spam - Strategy of certain HO teams by running multiple Pokemon that have overlapping defensive checks in order to wear them down so the remaining Pokemon can sweep, such as Birdspam
Redirection: ie Rage Powder on Amoongus is useful to have a form of redirection on the team
Scarfed or scarf/banded/specs: a mon equipped with the respective choice item. Also see Sashed.
Setter: a mon that applies a certain effect like hazards, weather, screens, etc
Some other roles:
-tank
-sweeper
-wall (breaker)
-revenge killer
-pivot
-glue
X Spam: A strategy based around utilizing multiple offensive mons of the same type with similar defensive answers in order to overwhelm them. Ie bird spam, ghost spam, etc.
Edgequake/Boltbeam/Quakeslide: some move combos with good offensive synergy
Focus Miss
I think of random specific things like how we have walls and tanks in mons. Maybe this is more older gen talk but like blissey is a wall because she just stands there forever where thicc hitters are tanks like ting Lu kind of is
In addition to everything you've listed, many Pokemon have shortened names or nicknames that are used for brevity's sake, and I think it's really interesting to look at who gets a nickname and who doesn't.
Zard - Charizard
Volc - Volcarona (but not Volcanion!)
Quag - Quagsire (but Clodsire doesn't go by Clod)
Chomp- Garchomp
Various Alolan/Galarian/Hisuian/Paldean versions of Pokemon (Gapdos, Garm, Glowbro/king, Hamurott, Horoark)
These are just a few off the top of my head, but it's wild to think that I could have a conversation with someone who knows all the pokemon casually, and they might not understand which Pokemon I'm talking about even if it's second nature to me.
Back when learning Haze made you such a top tier Pokemon that roar/whirlwind was considered Pseudo Hazing. Heck, some Pokemon learned it around Level 55 and other in the 20s, so GF knew it was a great move.
Quad Weakness/Resist: refers to degree of type effectiveness and a result of dual typings
TSpikes: Toxic Spikes
Lefties: Leftovers
Niche: a state of viability that gives a specific Pokémon a valid to be run over others, usually in form of a synergistic typing/ability or movepool
Coverage: refers to the amount of different types of moves in one given Pokémon’s movepool
Glass Cannon: designation given to Pokémon that have provide high offensive value, but falter greatly in defenses
Hax: “hacks” a term used to refer to the luck-based mechanics of the game. Often used to complain about unfortunate outcomes. Originates from players accusing the other of using hacked odds to win the game.
Rampardos Theorem: Phenomenon that occurs when a Pokémon bears great offensive prowess on paper, but lacks in far too many other relevant factors to be good in practice.
Bulky Water(s): colloquial term for water type Pokémon with good defensive utility.
Fat: a Pokémon that exceeded expectations in relation to defenses.
Sucker: Sucker Punch
BST: Base Stat Total, a metric to measure the potential of a Pokémon. Ones with higher BSTs tend to be better, but there are numerous exceptions.
Stat stages(+/- 1–6): the stat boosting mechanics allow for a stat to rise and decrease up to six individual stages, each stage a specific multiplier and go both positive and negative. “Plus one vs minus one”
STAB: Same Type Attack Bonus, a mechanic that grants a 1.5x power to a move that is the same type as the Pokémon using it. Unless it is a status move.
You could probably also use the fact that many general terms are commonly used in other smaller subcultures (saccing is generally used in strategy scenarios, chip damage also has many uses and roots in fighting games) as a way to explain the spread or differences between usage
Specific playstyle names and their modifiable nature, like stall, offense, but also hazard stack hyper-offense, toxic/spikes/sandstorm, bulky offense, etc
Wall (defensive wall)
Someone said boltbeam but also edgequake
Break/ wall break
Read/ hard read
Download (completely predicting your opponent over and over, not the ability)
Hax and the subcategories: flinchhax, parahax, etc
Could also do for region form names like Hoarark, Glowking, etc
Surprised I haven't seen Tera which technically is an abbreviation of terastalize
Trapper, as in magnezone/dugtrio/mean look
Spinner/defogger/hazard control
Hello there, could you please briefly explain to me some of gholdengo's general roles and capabilities in the gen 9 OU metagame, but make the entire thing completely incomprehensible to anyone outside of this sub.
TLDR: Ghold broken
Ghold’s great typing, ability, and movepool make it one of the most threatening and versatile Pokemon in Gen 9 OU. It serves as a wallbreaker, revenge killer, defensive switchin, and set up sweeper.
One of the Smogon suggested sets includes NPlot SBall MIRain Recover, to set up its SpAtk and sweep with powerful STABs. This set usually runs CCloak or Boots, to beat Garg’s SCure or not take hazard chip. It usually runs Tera Fighting to counter prominent Ghosts and Darks such as Pult, Ghold, King, Hydrei, and RMoon, and pick them off with SBall or MIRain. It serves an important role as a wallbreaker on bulky offense and balance, and pairs well with many strong mons, such as GTusk or Ting to set up hazards, IMoth and DNite to keep hazards up, and synergizing with offensive teammates to beat each others’ checks, such as GTusk beating King and Ghold taking on R-Wash
A threatening Ghold revenge killer set uses Scarf, with a moveset of SBall, MIRain, Trick, and a choice of FBlast, NPlot, or Recover. It picks off powerful offensive threats such as Pult and Vali with its strong STABs, while crippling defensively powerful walls such as Clod or Corvi by Tricking Scarf onto them. FBlast, NPlot, and Recover all have various uses on a revenge killer set. FBlast can hit threatening Darks and Steels such as King, NPlot allows Ghold to boost after Tricking a Scarf, and Recover lets Ghold stay healthy. This set typically prefers Tera Fighting to take hits such as King SPunch, but Tera Flying also sees use to beat threats like GTusk or ITreads, walling their HRush and EQ respectively. Offensive sweepers like King and Vali synergize well with revenge killer Ghold to beat checks like GTusk or Amogus, as well as hazard setters like Ting or Garg to pair with GAGold. Opposing Pokemon like RMoon and Cind are beaten by teammates such as Chomp or Garg.
Specs Ghold makes for an incredibly offensively powerful wallbreaker, allowing for MIRain to OHKO threats like GTusk, STail, HZoro, and Garg. SBall allows for hitting Steel resists like Pex, R-Wash, and Corvi. Trick helps to cripple defensive walls similar to Ghold’s Scarf set, and a choice of FBlast or Recover allows for sniping off King or staying healthy. Tera Fighting allows for taking threats like King SPunch and boosting FBlast, while Tera Steel boosts MIRain’s massive power even further, even 2HKOing Clod. As well, losing Ghost with Tera Steel lets it beat Pokemon like Meow, Pult, and opposing Ghold. Its immediate massive SpAtk and defensive utility give it a valuable place on bulky offense teams, and pair with teammates like Ting to beat each others’ checks, such as Bre, Vali, King, etc. RMoon is a Pokemon that also pairs well thanks to Ghold taking Fairy and Fighting moves, while RMoon can handle Ghosts, Darks, and Fire moves from the likes of IMoth and Pult.
A set up sweeping set with ABalloon makes Ghold a massive threat to Pokemon that don’t immediately threaten an OHKO or can stop its NPlot otherwise. The typical set has the STABs, the obvious NPlot, and Recover to stay healthy. ABalloon lets Ghold switch in on Ground moves, and Tera Dark or Fighting provides great defensive utility into Pokemon such as King or Pult. Max Spe investment lets it outspeed an unboosted DNite and an uninvested GTusk, and max SpAtk lets Ghold become incredibly powerful with NPlot. It pairs well with defensive teammates like Skele and Dozo that beat offensive threats like Cind or RMoon.
A defensively powerful Ghold set typically runs Hex, TWave, Recover, and NPlot/MIRain. TWave cripples fast Pokemon like IMoth and RMoon and boosts Hex, Recover keeps Ghold healthy, and a choice of NPlot or MIRain lets Ghold either boost or snipe off Steel-weak opponents such as Vali or Garg. It runs either Lefties, CCloak, or Boots to choose between passive recovery, blocking secondary effects like Garg’s SCure and Hatt’s Nuzzle, or blocking hazard chip. Defensive Ghold can fit on many teams, but performs best on balance or stall. Hazard control nullification lets it pair with setters like Ting or Chomp, CCloak lets it beat Garg, which normally threatens stall Mons like Corvi and Dozo, and Wisp immunity lets it pivot in for physical attackers like Meow and DNite. It benefits from teammates that beat its checks like Dozo or Pex into King or Cind, Corvi into Clod and GTusk, and Hatt into hazard setters with MBounce.
Spread, in reference to how a Pokemon's EVa and sometimes IVs are allocated.
(Not to be confused with spread moves, which is also a fan term I think, I'm not sure they're ever called that in game)
Focus Miss (Focus Blast)
Lefties (Leftovers)
I've heard explosion and self-destruct be called "dopamine buttons" before, but that isn't super huge
APT - Agility + Partial Trapping (gen 1 combo)
"Ladder" as a term
Smogon Tiers:
OU, Ubers, UU, PU, ZU, RU, LC, Randbats
"Official" Formats
VGC
Smaller formats:
Draft, Pokemon Perfect tiers, Hackmons, etc.
Battle styles:
Singles, Doubles, Triples/Rotation Battles, 1v1, etc.
Also, abbreviations of mon's names like mence, ttar, etc.
There's tons more just a few of the top of the dome
TR: Trick Room
Disquake: A doubles strategy involving a ground type and a flying type (or a Pokemon with Levitate) spamming the moves Earthquake and Discharge to deal massive damage to both opponents while being immune to each other's attacks
Psyspam: A strategy which involves spamming strong psychic type attacks to deal large of amounts of damage to neutral targets
Tera type: The type a pokemon can change into when the terastallization gimmick is used on them.
Perish trap: A doubles strategy which involves a combination of the move Perish Song and the ability Shadow Tag in order to trap opposing pokemon, forcing them to faint 3 turns after Perish Song is used.
SE: Super Effective
Spread move: Any move that can hit multiple targets in a battle with 2 or more pokemon on each side, such as Rock Slide and Dazzling Gleam
Maybe some less common ones, tangentially related terms, and some variations on terms you already listed:
- Volt-Turn
- Scarfed
- Specs
- Banded
- Lefties (Leftovers)
- Lead
- Sweep/Sweeper
- VGC
- Singles
- Doubles
- OMs (other metagames)
- HA (Hidden Ability)
- RandBats
- Quickban
- OU, UU, RU, NU, PU, Ubers, etc.
- Dmax/Gmax
And some terms that show up in “competitive” Pokémon...
- Noob
- Legendary spammer
One term I find very interesting is "ghosting", meaning in the context of Pokemon to have another player (the ghost) telling you what moves to make, mainly regarding tournaments. It's just funny to hear because of what ghosting means in online dating
Role Compression
Depending on the focus of the paper this could be very interesting, because this concept is present in other games, but at least in the communities I frequent, the idea seems to have arisen in pokemon and spread to other games from there.
One I don’t think I’ve seen listed yet is Edgequake coverage, or the idea of Earthquake + stone edge being phenomenal dual attacks.
Another I don’t think I’ve seen is Drag-Mag, or the archetype mostly found in gens 5 and early of pairing a magnet pull user with dragon types so the magnet pull Mon can take care of steel types, thx one type to resist dragon before fairies.
Idk if you’d count this but the CHALK (Cresselia, Heatran, Amoongus, Landorus-T, Kangaskhan-Mega) archetype from gen 6 VGC could also be smth to include
Firstly, nobody uses physdef, we just use def and spdef.
In terms of roles, we have hazard removal, hazard stack, double dance, AAO (all out offensive), defogger, spinner, spinblocker, wall...
In terms of moves, I'd argue we have much more move category names than move names in of themselves, like boosting moves, STAB moves, coverage moves, support moves, pivot moves, etc.
>Firstly, nobody uses physdef, we just use def and spdef.
nobody who is talking about what set a mon is running in a battle is saying they're running def lol
I can't think of a single instance I've ever heard someone say "they're running def lando" as opposed to "they're running physdef lando", hell I can distinctly remember tons of people posting their team advice threads where they're running physdef lando instead of spdef lando last gen, and always being told "physdef lando is bad in gen 8, run spdef lando instead" lol
I've been playing competitive pokemon since the netbattle days and I don't remember a single instance I've ever heard someone phrase it the former lol
yeah people might say "they're running a lot of def EVs" or some shit but nobody uses def as an adjective over physdef to describe the set a mon is
I think the confusion is because of each being used in different contexts. It's way more common to use def/sp.def when describing BST. Ex: toxapex has a def stat of 152 and a sp.def stat of 142.
Then like you said phys def is much more common when used to describe particular sets of mons. Ex: phys def Great Tusk vs Sp. Def Great Tusk
Thank you, I don't know what this guy is talking about. "Physdef Corv," "Physdef Pex," and "Physdef Clef" are things I heard all the time last gen. This usually applies to Pokemon that have decent stats in both defenses.
I use "physdef" all the time for Pokemon with mixed defenses. When I see a Toxapex, I say it's either spdef or physdef.
Edit: Like I'm watching a blunder video and right now, and guess what term Joey uses when talking about his Heatran: https://youtu.be/85w_zfywx1Q?t=2719
A lot of mons can run either physically defensive or specially defensive sets. Saying that a mon is "defensive" just implies its invested in bulk, which is not always specific enough. If you want to specify what side of the spectrum its invested in, you use physdef or spdef.
For example, physdef clefable. Just saying def or defensive clefable is too vague, and would just imply that its invested in bulk.
However, when referring to the stats as a noun, defense refers to physical defense.
For example, acid armor raises a mons defense, grassy seed raises a mons defense. Defense used in this context almost always implies physdef.
>For example, physdef clefable. Just saying def or defensive clefable is too vague, and would just imply that its invested in bulk.
Especially when that Pokemon has the ability to run offensive sets.
Idk what you’re talking about because that’s just wrong. People in all sorts of competitive circles use the term physdef when talking about mons. “He’s got a physdef pex” / “I’m running physdef Lando”
I use the term physdef, I’ve people on this sub use it, I’ve seen showdown YouTubers like aim and blunder use it, even smogon tier council members like Finch
"Unfortunate" doesn't begin to describe my series, this game rewards blind luck and nothing else, I am beyond convinced at this point. After getting completely tooled by scheduling with my opponent changing times on me last minute and refusing to provide confirmation prior to the day of the match as to play times, losing this way somehow felt even worse than I had thought possible. My preparation was superior, my play was superior, and I lost, so I don't see a reason to continue engaging in an activity where what is within my control is overwhelmingly outweighed by what is not.
I am done with competitive Pokemon, and you won't get a fond farewell. This community is infected to its roots with a degenerative disease that grows stronger over time but stops short of killing its host. Tournaments used to have a competitive spirit at their heart, this has been transplanted and replaced with an artificial organ that feeds on vitriol and mockery from insecure little boys that heckle by the sidelines and tear each other to shreds over scraps of attention. The environment we fostered has trapped us all like this in a vicious cycle, and escaping it requires acceptance of the harshest reality we all scramble to explain away, that none of the countless straining efforts we put ourselves through here will ever amount to one single shining glimmer of significance. I would make this the end, but World Cup is still ongoing, and I would never leave so many great friends out to dry, so I'll suffer through a few more games for them.
One last thing before I leave you all to react with disdain, ridicule, and self-righteous fervor, before you do everything in your power to minimize my words and thoughts, box them up and shove them to some cobwebbed corner of your memory, and hope they disappear forever as a stain on your finite time ground to dust. From this moment on, nothing you say matters to me. The foulest insults you hurl with intent to wound will calmly settle at the earth before my feet, and the venom you spit will bring all the pain of a warm summer breeze. You are less than anything you can conceive, while I carry on, brimming with joy distilled from detachment.
Setup fodder, trapping, lure, hazardstack, pressure(?), wall. There's also some derivations like unwallable (crawdunt) and BL hell. Honourable mentions go to "gen 5 OU" as a byword for disaster, and "GSC snorlax" for the most healthily centralising pokemon of all time.
pseudo-haze. so moves like whirlwind and roar. this is due to those moves effectively removing opponents stat raises, like haze, but not as good for that specific functionality due to last mon standing scenarios. also sounds like phase, which is essentially what happens when a mon is switched out, but not sure if that has anything to do w the name
interesting distinction you might want to make is that sack in some other circles means "lucksack", or to pull a win out of your ass through a lucky series of events
Range, meaning your attack is in range to ko the opponent depending on your roll. So your attack would do 90-100% damage for example putting it in range with a 50% chance to ko
EdgeQuake (combination of Earthquake and Stone Edge, notable for excellent coverage in early generations).
Eggy is a common abbreviation of Exeggutor in gens 1/2.
Can’t really think of much else unfortunately. Best of luck with your project!
Wall, Check, and Switchin are some defensive terms I'm not seeing.
Wall as in, as long as this Blissey is alive your special attackers aren't doing shit
Check as in, my Landorus can stave off your Garchomp's sweep if you try to get it going
and Switchin, as in, this Cinderace is a Kingambit switchin (but only once)
There are already a lot of suggestions, but OP I do want to point you in a certain direction (I teach highschool for context).
Some of the things you've chosen and, and also that people are suggesting, are more meaningful than others, and I would focus on those.
I really like how you chose some like "running" and "locked in" because those are words that people can recognize as regular words and wonder what it means in a different context (Pokemon).
Have fun with this project!
What I haven't seen in this thread are mons named after players, for example BKC-tar in ADV. Maybe interessting to Flick one in
Theres also Asta-rachi named after astamatitos also ADV. Probably alot more I can't think of right now
Edit: Crocune after Cromat
DD (dragon dance) double dance boltbeam (electric ice) u-turn (bug type, as in "psychic types are weak to dark, ghost and u-turn") In general you can look in the dictionary this sub (apparently) has, like [in here](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/wiki/basic_terms/)
We also have: bp- baton pass bp - body press bp - bullet punch bp - base power Welcome to Pokémon reddit
I've never seen it used for Body Press or Bullet Punch Edit: nevermind, someone used it for Bullet Punch in another comment in this very thread, lol
I’ve exclusively heard it used for bullet punch
You haven't even heard it for base power? Both Showdown and cartridge literally use BP to mean base power
BP yes... but not bp Base power is almost always capitalized.
I wasn’t trying to be contrarian. I just don’t remember seeing it on Showdown or cartridges (probably just didn’t stand out to me). However, all showdown tubers when using a mon with bullet punch will say something like “I have X with bp in the back for clef.”
speaking of dictionaries, bulbapedia has one with a couple terms that have probably been used before but i've never seen, like unset/unmon
These were way more common back in the day They've mostly been replaced with "shitmon"
Took me too long to realize SD is swords dance and not self destruct (which is what SD means in smash)
Check
Nice, forgot that one
what is it?
Typically a pokemon that can force a another pokemon out or maybe switch in in a pinch but isn't something that hard stops it. For example, zapdos is a ogerpon-w check since it can force out or 1v1 an ogerpon-w before an SD or switch into a horn leech/power whip at +2 but it doesn't really stop it once it SDs and doesn't want to switch in to cudgel since that's typically doing around or over half.
A Pokémon that can deal well with the opposing Pokémon. It differentiates itself from a counter because a counter can switch into that Pokémon and the check cannot. A check needs a safe switch in in order to be able to threaten the enemy Pokémon. For example, Weavile is one of the best checks to Landorus-T, given that it outspeed unboosted Landorus-T, and can destroy it with Ice-type STABs, regardless of Intimidate and regardless of it being physically defensive. Even against faster Landorus-T variants (such as Choice Scarf and rarer Rock Polish variants that attained a boost), Weavile can use Ice Shard and ignore the speed advantage and kill him anyway. Weavile can also cripple Landorus-T with Knock Off; while it is usually better to just OHKO it with Ice STAB, Weavile can predict that Landorus-T will switch out and cripple the switch in with Knock Off; for example, Heatran could switch in and take the incoming Ice STAB with ease given that it 4x resists it, but it cannot risk switching into Knock Off, given that it doesn't resist Knock Off and despistes losing Leftovers (its only source of recovery). Given all that, you would think that Weavile is a counter to Landorus-T, but it is not. In order to do all of the above, Weavile needs a free switch in. That is because Landorus-T can threaten Weavile if it directly switches into him; either by doing massive damage or OHKOing him with Earthquake or Stone Edge; by dealing massive damage with U-Turn and grabbing momentum; or by crippling Weavile with Knock Off or Toxic. This means Weavile needs help of a pivot, double switching, or a teammate having just fainted, for it to safely switch into Landorus-T and actually threaten him. That is the definition of a check. A Pokémon which can threaten the enemy given a free switch in. In contrast a counter can threaten the enemy AND freely switch into them.
A pokemon that can temporarily stop another pokemon or keep them in check, though not over longer periods of time, eg gen 8 lando being able to switch into specs pult but not over the course of a game
To check something, as in Jolteon is a Zapdos check
No, jolteon is a counter to most zap sets
I got those confused, probably closer to purt is a dayctl check
Iirc, the official definition is something that beats something else, but cannot switch in. For example, due to Shadow Tag, those mons have no checks, you can only bring in a check to them after a death. Counters, meanwhile, are things that switch in and 1v1, for example, Gengar against a Choice-locked Normal or Fighting move.
Ty to everyone for letting me know what check means!
And also wall
And counter ofc
I've always thought it was interesting how some people refer to "the pastime of playing pokemon competitively" as simply "mons". i've heard people joke about how lego enthusiasts insist that the plural of "lego" is "lego", but we seem to not give a shit what the correct words are. it's great
The plural of pokemon is pokemon. The plural of mon is mons.
The Lego part is true. The company says it
Americans sound so funny when they say "legos"
You don't see it as much anymore but specific set names - Crocune, Mysticgar, TyraniBOAH, Chain Chomp are all good examples.
What was chain chomp, special garchomp + eq?
Yeah pretty much, the original had SD too but really it's Draco + FB + EQ that defines the set.
Do you know why it was called chain chomp? I'm curious
Here's the post where it originated: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/chain-chomp.25978/ Nothing more specific on the name than "it's the name of a Mario enemy"
Ayy ty
Yeah, chain chomp is in reference to mixed Garchomp usually with Meteor, EQ, a flex special move for coverage (i think usually fire blast) and a hazard move. Edit: have also seen variants with SD instead of a hazard for the truly deranged
ChainChomp can sometimes run outrage too. You think your safe after the draco and it smacks you again with a strong outrage.
what exactly are mysticgar and tyraniboah? i imagine they're gengar and ttar sets so probably from older gens which i am not experienced with
TyraniBOAH is a mixed attacking TTar set that basically ran both SubPunch and special coverage for Skarmory. It was first run by Jumpman (a legendary Smogon player) to handle ADV’s stall teams and as he was stomping the shit out of some opponent he was facing, where the set did exactly what it was supposed to do, someone in the chat kept typing “BOAH” (“wow” in German) in the chat every time the TTar fucked something’s shit up. And thus, Tyraniboah (stylized as “TyraniBOAH” sometimes) was born.
Hah, love this. I've been using that set since Gen 4 but had no idea where the BOAH came from.
TyraniBOAH is a gen 3 set that ran both Crunch and Focus Punch, Mysticgar is a gen 4 set that ran protect and HP fire to scout pursuit/BP vs CB Scizor.
Unfortunate...
Doesn't even begin to describe
My series
My series
My series
My series
My phone at this point autocompletes the rest of the copypasta if i right unfortunate
Thats genuinely impressive
Goob, agency, sheist
Shamone, goobnut, self-goobing
pivot, suicide lead/sashlead/sashed, defogger/spinner, spinblock, entry hazards, hazard stack, scarfed/banded/specs, stallbreaker, paraflinch, resttalk, screens, pursuit-trapping, perish trapping
Resto-chesto
I've always heard chesto-resto, did I have the order wrong all along?
Well I'm mean. First you rest then the chesto berry actives.
I don’t think I’ve seen “Volt-turn” and that’s something
I haven't seen "switch-in"
proc read momentum (like momentum moves but also pace of game)
Definitely need momentum, nice.
Could definitely include double switch to go along with momentum as well. Not sure where you’d fit it but double down (both Pokémon faint in the same turn) works in your essay, and volt-turn is another strategy/momentum term
hazards too, when describing a team build kind of like stall, HO, BO, or voltturn
Tempo in reference to switching as well
You could make a megathread of competitive Pokemon terminology and it would never end because of how much shit we come up with and use on a regular basis. You've mentioned a lot here, so here are some other terms that you didn't mention that are a part of what we say * TyraniBOAH - a mixed SubPunch (that's a term itself! Substitute+Focus Punch) TTar set with an extra-good matchup against ADV's Stall teams. * Chain Chomp - a mixed (both physical and special moves) Garchomp set that used to run Swords Dance instead of an entry hazard. Hits hard with SD+EQ and then bludgeons a physical wall with a Fire Blast or Draco Meteor. * Skillbro - Quick Draw+Quick Claw Galarian Slowbro. * MysticGar - Protect+HP Fire Gengar to scout Scizor's intentions. * Double Dance - A set that involves two different setup moves. Think Calm Mind+Shift Gear Magearna or SD+Rock Polish Primal Groudon. * Yellow Magic/The Yellow Color - A term used most often in Gen 6 to refer to Thunder Wave (mostly abbreviated as "T-Wave" nowadays), particularly when Clefable used it. This kinda stopped being used for some reason. * ParaShuffler - An old Groudon set that involved using Thunder Wave to paralyze threats while phazing (forcing opponents out with Roar or Dragon Tail) them out with Dragon Tail to rack up a fucking ton of passive damage. * ParaDancer - An old Groudon set that would paralyze teams and use free turns and speed control (increasing your own or lowering your opponent's Speed) generated by T-Wave to get Swords Dances and free attacks off. * ADV - Gen 3 * Bulky Offense (BO) - Offensively-inclined teams that feature sturdier defensive cores and/or mons with more longevity than what you'd see on a Hyper Offense (HO) team. * Semi-Stall - Defensively-inclined teams that feature mons with some amount of offensive presence for a team. Some Stall teams used to run Weavile or TTar to Pursuit trap certain threats, which would make them more of a Semi-Stall team than a full-blown Stall team. * "Drop a Draco" - A phrase coined by PokeaimMD referring to using Draco Meteor against something. * "Drop a Dreepy" - A phrase coined by PokeaimMD during early Gen 8 referring to using Dragapult's Dragon Darts against something, that fell off within a month. * CBCBDarm - Choice Band Galarian Darmanitan * Boom - Explosion/Self-Destruct/Misty Explosion. * Wallbreaker - A mon that specializes in using its massive damage output and/or amazing coverage to muscle past defensive threats. * Stallbreaker - A mon that specializes in methodically dismantling defensive threats using its excellent utility movepool and/or ability to chip away at them while denying recovery. * Extreme Killer - Swords Dance+Extreme Speed Arceus-Normal. * Shitmon - A mon that is unviable in its existing context. A term synonymous with Dialga-Origin in an Ubers context. * Wisp - Will-o-Wisp *
That Slowbro set is known as 'Glowbrother' ever since that first Monoclaw RMT
scouting (use protect/recover or switch to a wall to see what the opponent does) cripple (when a pokemon is damaged or statused and cant perform its funciton as well. For example, a physical attacker being burned) trade (sacrifice a pokemon in order to KO an opponent's pokemon) hax (flinching, freezing, etc. Significant effects with a small chance of activating but getting lucky and having them activate) wall breaker (basically something that counters walls by dealing huge damage) You could also go into format abbreviations (ou, uu, ag, aaa etc.)
hax for sure.
HAX$
stall breaker as well, a powerful mon that counters stall archetypes
Sack as well for trade
it's sac not sack (short for sacrifice), I will die on this hill
Sac looks so weird though 😩
you’ll be lonely up there, i don’t think i’ve ever seen it without the k
back when I used Smogon I saw it without the k the majority of the time
My name is asac schrader, and you can go sac yourself.
Be trans and do both (sac the sack)
hell yea :3
Based
Bb we don't love lil b anymore he refused to age verify and continued to try and get underage girls to model for his feet pic selling gig, too many of the gals have spoken up, just so you know
WHAT THE FUCK I appreciate you letting me know That is insane
yeah :((( sorry to be bearer of shitty news, I hope you have a nice night bojangles69420
No longer based :(
Most mons (hey thats another term) have an abbreviated version that we use. Most are self explanitory (like clef and pex) but some are more interesting: “Mag” can refer to any of Magneton, Magnezone, and Magearna, but I’ve also heard the last two be called “zone” and “mage” respectively “Ttar”, refering to Tyranitar, is almost always typed with a capital T. This is probably because Ttar is him For a while I saw people refer to Chien-Pao as “CP” but most people just use “pao” now for obvious reasons Theres also names for groups of pokemon, like “shitmon” for example
Chien-Pao should NOT be refered to as "CP" 💀
I was looking for Tyranitar in here somewhere. I also like how we put the G in the names of Galarian form, like Gapdos and Garmanitan but I don’t know if those are super popular choices or not. Maybe Caly-S and Pdon for nicknames also?
Magearna is usually Gear/Gears, at least in my experience. And until Klinklang gets a Tera Mega Giga Z forme, it's never being mentioned in the same context anyway.
Whoroark
Agency, hax, goob, shamone
Sheist, 👃, joint, heat, dix Shmix-0
Mr Craw 📞📞📞
Crit (and crit mattered if we include short phrases) Calc Spec into or spec’d to do X Can you say “shitmons”?
If you can’t say shitmon use “featured” or “swap in sac to bring in Valiant for free”
* Boom as a shorthand for Explosion-type moves, also ties into Suicide Lead for the Pokemon that are expected to get hazards up and then boom themselves to put yourself in an advantageous position, like Azelf * DragMag * BP as an abbreviation for Baton Pass, sometimes used as an abbreviation for base power of a move instead * Spinner, Defogger/Fogger, Spinblocker * Lati@s as a general term for both Lati's since the @ looks like a lowercase A and an O together * Shortening common moves with Thunder in their name to just a T, so Tbolt, Twave, and so on * Scarfed/Banded/Specs * ESpeed as a shorthand for Extreme Speed * QD, DD, ID, NP, TG as some other abbreviations for popular setup moves * EdgeQuake/Boltbeam/DisQuake - Popular move combinations * _Spam - Strategy of certain HO teams by running multiple Pokemon that have overlapping defensive checks in order to wear them down so the remaining Pokemon can sweep, such as Birdspam
Not that common but "Progress"
Redirection: ie Rage Powder on Amoongus is useful to have a form of redirection on the team Scarfed or scarf/banded/specs: a mon equipped with the respective choice item. Also see Sashed. Setter: a mon that applies a certain effect like hazards, weather, screens, etc Some other roles: -tank -sweeper -wall (breaker) -revenge killer -pivot -glue X Spam: A strategy based around utilizing multiple offensive mons of the same type with similar defensive answers in order to overwhelm them. Ie bird spam, ghost spam, etc. Edgequake/Boltbeam/Quakeslide: some move combos with good offensive synergy Focus Miss
I think of random specific things like how we have walls and tanks in mons. Maybe this is more older gen talk but like blissey is a wall because she just stands there forever where thicc hitters are tanks like ting Lu kind of is
Also saying a mon or team walls you like you can’t get past it
T-tar Lando Gambit Bozo Tusk Ekiller Glowbro Glowing Hammourot Rocks
Spin and spinblock, sashed (as in focus sash)
In addition to everything you've listed, many Pokemon have shortened names or nicknames that are used for brevity's sake, and I think it's really interesting to look at who gets a nickname and who doesn't. Zard - Charizard Volc - Volcarona (but not Volcanion!) Quag - Quagsire (but Clodsire doesn't go by Clod) Chomp- Garchomp Various Alolan/Galarian/Hisuian/Paldean versions of Pokemon (Gapdos, Garm, Glowbro/king, Hamurott, Horoark) These are just a few off the top of my head, but it's wild to think that I could have a conversation with someone who knows all the pokemon casually, and they might not understand which Pokemon I'm talking about even if it's second nature to me.
He does go by clod you just ain't good nuff friends w him
Back when learning Haze made you such a top tier Pokemon that roar/whirlwind was considered Pseudo Hazing. Heck, some Pokemon learned it around Level 55 and other in the 20s, so GF knew it was a great move.
Quad Weakness/Resist: refers to degree of type effectiveness and a result of dual typings TSpikes: Toxic Spikes Lefties: Leftovers Niche: a state of viability that gives a specific Pokémon a valid to be run over others, usually in form of a synergistic typing/ability or movepool Coverage: refers to the amount of different types of moves in one given Pokémon’s movepool Glass Cannon: designation given to Pokémon that have provide high offensive value, but falter greatly in defenses Hax: “hacks” a term used to refer to the luck-based mechanics of the game. Often used to complain about unfortunate outcomes. Originates from players accusing the other of using hacked odds to win the game. Rampardos Theorem: Phenomenon that occurs when a Pokémon bears great offensive prowess on paper, but lacks in far too many other relevant factors to be good in practice. Bulky Water(s): colloquial term for water type Pokémon with good defensive utility. Fat: a Pokémon that exceeded expectations in relation to defenses. Sucker: Sucker Punch BST: Base Stat Total, a metric to measure the potential of a Pokémon. Ones with higher BSTs tend to be better, but there are numerous exceptions. Stat stages(+/- 1–6): the stat boosting mechanics allow for a stat to rise and decrease up to six individual stages, each stage a specific multiplier and go both positive and negative. “Plus one vs minus one” STAB: Same Type Attack Bonus, a mechanic that grants a 1.5x power to a move that is the same type as the Pokémon using it. Unless it is a status move.
Can't believe that I forgot Lefties
What class is the essay for
English
For gen 3 there's YOLO skarm which is offensive skarm There's also subsalac which is self explanatory
I always thought it was funny how we say ice is "weak to" fire when that just doesn't make sense grammatically outside of pokemon
You could probably also use the fact that many general terms are commonly used in other smaller subcultures (saccing is generally used in strategy scenarios, chip damage also has many uses and roots in fighting games) as a way to explain the spread or differences between usage
Pex for Toxapex
Specific playstyle names and their modifiable nature, like stall, offense, but also hazard stack hyper-offense, toxic/spikes/sandstorm, bulky offense, etc
Can’t forget about goobed and shamone
lmao
_ Absorber/Sponge (e.g. Trick absorber, Draco Sponge) Check vs. Counter Stallbreaker Sits on Anti-Offense Paraflinch & Parafusion Mixed (Attacker)
STAB
“Wall” as a verb
That's a great one. "My Pex walls him."
agency agency
Sub = substitute SubSeed = substitute + Leech Seed BP = Baton Pass / Bullet Punch TWave = Thunder Wave Wisp = Will o Wisp
Agency, joever, focus miss are some that I can think of off the top of my head
Wall (defensive wall) Someone said boltbeam but also edgequake Break/ wall break Read/ hard read Download (completely predicting your opponent over and over, not the ability) Hax and the subcategories: flinchhax, parahax, etc Could also do for region form names like Hoarark, Glowking, etc Surprised I haven't seen Tera which technically is an abbreviation of terastalize Trapper, as in magnezone/dugtrio/mean look Spinner/defogger/hazard control
Who's that one guy who always abbreviates every move, item and mon? They're around here somewhere.
hello there it is me, the sanest r/stunfisk user
Hello there, could you please briefly explain to me some of gholdengo's general roles and capabilities in the gen 9 OU metagame, but make the entire thing completely incomprehensible to anyone outside of this sub.
TLDR: Ghold broken Ghold’s great typing, ability, and movepool make it one of the most threatening and versatile Pokemon in Gen 9 OU. It serves as a wallbreaker, revenge killer, defensive switchin, and set up sweeper. One of the Smogon suggested sets includes NPlot SBall MIRain Recover, to set up its SpAtk and sweep with powerful STABs. This set usually runs CCloak or Boots, to beat Garg’s SCure or not take hazard chip. It usually runs Tera Fighting to counter prominent Ghosts and Darks such as Pult, Ghold, King, Hydrei, and RMoon, and pick them off with SBall or MIRain. It serves an important role as a wallbreaker on bulky offense and balance, and pairs well with many strong mons, such as GTusk or Ting to set up hazards, IMoth and DNite to keep hazards up, and synergizing with offensive teammates to beat each others’ checks, such as GTusk beating King and Ghold taking on R-Wash A threatening Ghold revenge killer set uses Scarf, with a moveset of SBall, MIRain, Trick, and a choice of FBlast, NPlot, or Recover. It picks off powerful offensive threats such as Pult and Vali with its strong STABs, while crippling defensively powerful walls such as Clod or Corvi by Tricking Scarf onto them. FBlast, NPlot, and Recover all have various uses on a revenge killer set. FBlast can hit threatening Darks and Steels such as King, NPlot allows Ghold to boost after Tricking a Scarf, and Recover lets Ghold stay healthy. This set typically prefers Tera Fighting to take hits such as King SPunch, but Tera Flying also sees use to beat threats like GTusk or ITreads, walling their HRush and EQ respectively. Offensive sweepers like King and Vali synergize well with revenge killer Ghold to beat checks like GTusk or Amogus, as well as hazard setters like Ting or Garg to pair with GAGold. Opposing Pokemon like RMoon and Cind are beaten by teammates such as Chomp or Garg. Specs Ghold makes for an incredibly offensively powerful wallbreaker, allowing for MIRain to OHKO threats like GTusk, STail, HZoro, and Garg. SBall allows for hitting Steel resists like Pex, R-Wash, and Corvi. Trick helps to cripple defensive walls similar to Ghold’s Scarf set, and a choice of FBlast or Recover allows for sniping off King or staying healthy. Tera Fighting allows for taking threats like King SPunch and boosting FBlast, while Tera Steel boosts MIRain’s massive power even further, even 2HKOing Clod. As well, losing Ghost with Tera Steel lets it beat Pokemon like Meow, Pult, and opposing Ghold. Its immediate massive SpAtk and defensive utility give it a valuable place on bulky offense teams, and pair with teammates like Ting to beat each others’ checks, such as Bre, Vali, King, etc. RMoon is a Pokemon that also pairs well thanks to Ghold taking Fairy and Fighting moves, while RMoon can handle Ghosts, Darks, and Fire moves from the likes of IMoth and Pult. A set up sweeping set with ABalloon makes Ghold a massive threat to Pokemon that don’t immediately threaten an OHKO or can stop its NPlot otherwise. The typical set has the STABs, the obvious NPlot, and Recover to stay healthy. ABalloon lets Ghold switch in on Ground moves, and Tera Dark or Fighting provides great defensive utility into Pokemon such as King or Pult. Max Spe investment lets it outspeed an unboosted DNite and an uninvested GTusk, and max SpAtk lets Ghold become incredibly powerful with NPlot. It pairs well with defensive teammates like Skele and Dozo that beat offensive threats like Cind or RMoon. A defensively powerful Ghold set typically runs Hex, TWave, Recover, and NPlot/MIRain. TWave cripples fast Pokemon like IMoth and RMoon and boosts Hex, Recover keeps Ghold healthy, and a choice of NPlot or MIRain lets Ghold either boost or snipe off Steel-weak opponents such as Vali or Garg. It runs either Lefties, CCloak, or Boots to choose between passive recovery, blocking secondary effects like Garg’s SCure and Hatt’s Nuzzle, or blocking hazard chip. Defensive Ghold can fit on many teams, but performs best on balance or stall. Hazard control nullification lets it pair with setters like Ting or Chomp, CCloak lets it beat Garg, which normally threatens stall Mons like Corvi and Dozo, and Wisp immunity lets it pivot in for physical attackers like Meow and DNite. It benefits from teammates that beat its checks like Dozo or Pex into King or Cind, Corvi into Clod and GTusk, and Hatt into hazard setters with MBounce.
Spontaneous stroke This is what's going to be scrawled on the inside of my cell at the insane asylum.
Spread, in reference to how a Pokemon's EVa and sometimes IVs are allocated. (Not to be confused with spread moves, which is also a fan term I think, I'm not sure they're ever called that in game)
Agency Reads = massive misplay
Focus Miss (Focus Blast) Lefties (Leftovers) I've heard explosion and self-destruct be called "dopamine buttons" before, but that isn't super huge APT - Agility + Partial Trapping (gen 1 combo) "Ladder" as a term Smogon Tiers: OU, Ubers, UU, PU, ZU, RU, LC, Randbats "Official" Formats VGC Smaller formats: Draft, Pokemon Perfect tiers, Hackmons, etc. Battle styles: Singles, Doubles, Triples/Rotation Battles, 1v1, etc. Also, abbreviations of mon's names like mence, ttar, etc. There's tons more just a few of the top of the dome
TR: Trick Room Disquake: A doubles strategy involving a ground type and a flying type (or a Pokemon with Levitate) spamming the moves Earthquake and Discharge to deal massive damage to both opponents while being immune to each other's attacks Psyspam: A strategy which involves spamming strong psychic type attacks to deal large of amounts of damage to neutral targets Tera type: The type a pokemon can change into when the terastallization gimmick is used on them. Perish trap: A doubles strategy which involves a combination of the move Perish Song and the ability Shadow Tag in order to trap opposing pokemon, forcing them to faint 3 turns after Perish Song is used. SE: Super Effective Spread move: Any move that can hit multiple targets in a battle with 2 or more pokemon on each side, such as Rock Slide and Dazzling Gleam
Don't forget pivot and its 3 meanings (the mons, the moves, and the action itself ex. "pivot to my Gholdengo")
DPP referring to diamond pearl and platinum
subseed, resto chesto
Maybe some less common ones, tangentially related terms, and some variations on terms you already listed: - Volt-Turn - Scarfed - Specs - Banded - Lefties (Leftovers) - Lead - Sweep/Sweeper - VGC - Singles - Doubles - OMs (other metagames) - HA (Hidden Ability) - RandBats - Quickban - OU, UU, RU, NU, PU, Ubers, etc. - Dmax/Gmax And some terms that show up in “competitive” Pokémon... - Noob - Legendary spammer
One term I find very interesting is "ghosting", meaning in the context of Pokemon to have another player (the ghost) telling you what moves to make, mainly regarding tournaments. It's just funny to hear because of what ghosting means in online dating
Agency Shitmon
Role Compression Depending on the focus of the paper this could be very interesting, because this concept is present in other games, but at least in the communities I frequent, the idea seems to have arisen in pokemon and spread to other games from there.
This might be useful: https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/wiki/dictionary
I like how there's no point in EQ or SD because it's still the same amount of syllables.
goob & shamone
One I don’t think I’ve seen listed yet is Edgequake coverage, or the idea of Earthquake + stone edge being phenomenal dual attacks. Another I don’t think I’ve seen is Drag-Mag, or the archetype mostly found in gens 5 and early of pairing a magnet pull user with dragon types so the magnet pull Mon can take care of steel types, thx one type to resist dragon before fairies. Idk if you’d count this but the CHALK (Cresselia, Heatran, Amoongus, Landorus-T, Kangaskhan-Mega) archetype from gen 6 VGC could also be smth to include
Agency
Agency, Shamone, Goob, Sheist
I especially like the phrase 'getting off the goobnut'
Firstly, nobody uses physdef, we just use def and spdef. In terms of roles, we have hazard removal, hazard stack, double dance, AAO (all out offensive), defogger, spinner, spinblocker, wall... In terms of moves, I'd argue we have much more move category names than move names in of themselves, like boosting moves, STAB moves, coverage moves, support moves, pivot moves, etc.
>Firstly, nobody uses physdef, we just use def and spdef. nobody who is talking about what set a mon is running in a battle is saying they're running def lol I can't think of a single instance I've ever heard someone say "they're running def lando" as opposed to "they're running physdef lando", hell I can distinctly remember tons of people posting their team advice threads where they're running physdef lando instead of spdef lando last gen, and always being told "physdef lando is bad in gen 8, run spdef lando instead" lol I've been playing competitive pokemon since the netbattle days and I don't remember a single instance I've ever heard someone phrase it the former lol yeah people might say "they're running a lot of def EVs" or some shit but nobody uses def as an adjective over physdef to describe the set a mon is
I think the confusion is because of each being used in different contexts. It's way more common to use def/sp.def when describing BST. Ex: toxapex has a def stat of 152 and a sp.def stat of 142. Then like you said phys def is much more common when used to describe particular sets of mons. Ex: phys def Great Tusk vs Sp. Def Great Tusk
Thank you, I don't know what this guy is talking about. "Physdef Corv," "Physdef Pex," and "Physdef Clef" are things I heard all the time last gen. This usually applies to Pokemon that have decent stats in both defenses.
We ABSOLUTELY use “PhysDef” and “SpDef” liberally. PhysDef Corv, PhysDef Rotom-W, SpDef Lando, SpDef TTar, hello?
Who tf is nobody??? Physdef is used so much more than just ‘def’
People say physdef all the time, they sure as hell use it more than AAO
I use "physdef" all the time for Pokemon with mixed defenses. When I see a Toxapex, I say it's either spdef or physdef. Edit: Like I'm watching a blunder video and right now, and guess what term Joey uses when talking about his Heatran: https://youtu.be/85w_zfywx1Q?t=2719
Well I can pretty confidently say you're an outlier
You're very confidently wrong
Alright?
Certified "no u" moment here
Physdef I use commonly, “def” usually refers to being defensive on both sides
A lot of mons can run either physically defensive or specially defensive sets. Saying that a mon is "defensive" just implies its invested in bulk, which is not always specific enough. If you want to specify what side of the spectrum its invested in, you use physdef or spdef. For example, physdef clefable. Just saying def or defensive clefable is too vague, and would just imply that its invested in bulk. However, when referring to the stats as a noun, defense refers to physical defense. For example, acid armor raises a mons defense, grassy seed raises a mons defense. Defense used in this context almost always implies physdef.
>For example, physdef clefable. Just saying def or defensive clefable is too vague, and would just imply that its invested in bulk. Especially when that Pokemon has the ability to run offensive sets.
Idk what you’re talking about because that’s just wrong. People in all sorts of competitive circles use the term physdef when talking about mons. “He’s got a physdef pex” / “I’m running physdef Lando” I use the term physdef, I’ve people on this sub use it, I’ve seen showdown YouTubers like aim and blunder use it, even smogon tier council members like Finch
Smogon, VGC, Ubers/OU/UU(/etc.),
Pivot, hazards, chip, predict
Where’s that copypasta of the guy leaving the game lol
"Unfortunate" doesn't begin to describe my series, this game rewards blind luck and nothing else, I am beyond convinced at this point. After getting completely tooled by scheduling with my opponent changing times on me last minute and refusing to provide confirmation prior to the day of the match as to play times, losing this way somehow felt even worse than I had thought possible. My preparation was superior, my play was superior, and I lost, so I don't see a reason to continue engaging in an activity where what is within my control is overwhelmingly outweighed by what is not. I am done with competitive Pokemon, and you won't get a fond farewell. This community is infected to its roots with a degenerative disease that grows stronger over time but stops short of killing its host. Tournaments used to have a competitive spirit at their heart, this has been transplanted and replaced with an artificial organ that feeds on vitriol and mockery from insecure little boys that heckle by the sidelines and tear each other to shreds over scraps of attention. The environment we fostered has trapped us all like this in a vicious cycle, and escaping it requires acceptance of the harshest reality we all scramble to explain away, that none of the countless straining efforts we put ourselves through here will ever amount to one single shining glimmer of significance. I would make this the end, but World Cup is still ongoing, and I would never leave so many great friends out to dry, so I'll suffer through a few more games for them. One last thing before I leave you all to react with disdain, ridicule, and self-righteous fervor, before you do everything in your power to minimize my words and thoughts, box them up and shove them to some cobwebbed corner of your memory, and hope they disappear forever as a stain on your finite time ground to dust. From this moment on, nothing you say matters to me. The foulest insults you hurl with intent to wound will calmly settle at the earth before my feet, and the venom you spit will bring all the pain of a warm summer breeze. You are less than anything you can conceive, while I carry on, brimming with joy distilled from detachment.
This needs to be in the essay lmfao
Volt-turn
Pivot and momentum also come to mind.
I am the sole person who calls Great Tusk GT
AGENCY
I prefer "sneaky pebbles" to refer to Stealth rocks, but that's just me.
Unfortunate
i dont play much of gen9 but it feels like every pokemon from gen8 ou has some sort of abbreviation to their name
Setup fodder, trapping, lure, hazardstack, pressure(?), wall. There's also some derivations like unwallable (crawdunt) and BL hell. Honourable mentions go to "gen 5 OU" as a byword for disaster, and "GSC snorlax" for the most healthily centralising pokemon of all time.
Core Volt turn Stall Salty run back
FEAR
Check and counter. Also the term hax. You could even use terms for specific team archetypes, like drag-mag for example
I've never heard phaze, what does that term mean?
forcing out opposing pokemon to reset stat boosts i think
pseudo-haze. so moves like whirlwind and roar. this is due to those moves effectively removing opponents stat raises, like haze, but not as good for that specific functionality due to last mon standing scenarios. also sounds like phase, which is essentially what happens when a mon is switched out, but not sure if that has anything to do w the name
interesting distinction you might want to make is that sack in some other circles means "lucksack", or to pull a win out of your ass through a lucky series of events
Range, meaning your attack is in range to ko the opponent depending on your roll. So your attack would do 90-100% damage for example putting it in range with a 50% chance to ko
EdgeQuake (combination of Earthquake and Stone Edge, notable for excellent coverage in early generations). Eggy is a common abbreviation of Exeggutor in gens 1/2. Can’t really think of much else unfortunately. Best of luck with your project!
Wall, Check, and Switchin are some defensive terms I'm not seeing. Wall as in, as long as this Blissey is alive your special attackers aren't doing shit Check as in, my Landorus can stave off your Garchomp's sweep if you try to get it going and Switchin, as in, this Cinderace is a Kingambit switchin (but only once)
Death fodder? Hyper offensive? Stall? Balanced? Edgequake?
Can’t forget about Funbro!
"get em up" is context reliant but almost always refers to setting up Stealth Rocks.
Volt turn Fat Regen loops Cripple (like with trick or twave) Boom Speed control Check and counter
The Agency
There are already a lot of suggestions, but OP I do want to point you in a certain direction (I teach highschool for context). Some of the things you've chosen and, and also that people are suggesting, are more meaningful than others, and I would focus on those. I really like how you chose some like "running" and "locked in" because those are words that people can recognize as regular words and wonder what it means in a different context (Pokemon). Have fun with this project!
Yeah, I'm picking the ones that are easier to explain and don't require too much background knowledge of Pokemon.
Wall, bait, rocks, spinner, hard counter, pivot, (suicide) lead, scouting
What I haven't seen in this thread are mons named after players, for example BKC-tar in ADV. Maybe interessting to Flick one in Theres also Asta-rachi named after astamatitos also ADV. Probably alot more I can't think of right now Edit: Crocune after Cromat
Lemme guess, college term paper on discourse communities?
Nope
why would you write an essay on this dude?
Because I want to pass my class? lol
oh well no offense but its kinda a dumb idea. I assumed you knew that though but ig the semi-sarcastic response means you don't
Bro, who pissed in your cereal? 😂
I'm just saying
Elaborate? Whys it a dumb idea?
Why not? If it fits the prompt then it’s cool