Appendix:Metagame terminology
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- 00ber: A pokemon (usually Legendary) with unfairly high stats and usually a large and diverse movepool. Also spelled "uber" and "oober".
- Annoyer: Created with annoyance in mind, these sets will force you to rip out your hair. Moves like Thunder Wave, Confuse Ray, and Attract come to mind although Torment and Protect is also an example of a valid annoyer combo. A Staller can also be an annoyer.
- Baton Passer: A moveset with Baton Pass and at least one stat-boosting move or Psych Up, Mean Look, Substitute, or Wish. Designed to raise one or more stats for a few turns, then pass off to another pokemon who can use them better. Stat boosts are countered by a Hazer.
- Boltbeam: A combination of Thunderbolt and Ice Beam on the same set that is resisted only by Magneton, Volt Absorb Lanturn, and Shedinja.
- CalmCune: A Suicune with Calm Mind and Rest. A very powerful and OU pokemon.
- Choice Bander: A moveset with nothing but physical attacks and the hold item Choice Band. Requires alot of switching and is countered by Spikers.
- Cleric: A moveset with Heal Bell or Aromatherapy on it. Works well with the Natural Cure abilitiy and Pseudo Passing moves.
- Counter: A moveset built with the defeat of another in mind. For example, a "Skarmbliss" counter would have an effective means of dealing with both Skarmory and Blissey, usually a fire/electric attack for skarm and a Focus Punch for Blissey. Tyraniboah and McIceGar are examples of specific counters.
- Curselax: A moveset that uses Curse and Rest on an already slow pokemon to ignore the Speed penalty. Although Snorlax is the most common (hence the name), it can also appear on other pokemon (provided they aren't Ghosts). An exception to the "already slow" rule was Curselugia in GSC.
- Double Rester: A combination of Double Team and Rest quite common back in the GSC days. Almost obsolete now thanks to Aerial Ace.
- Dragon Dancer: Any pokemon that makes use of Dragon Dance. Usually fast physical sweepers.
- Endureversal/flail: A moveset designed to Endure down to one HP, then Reversal or Flail for massive damage. Often holding Salac Berries.
- Fishy: A moveset with two 1HKO moves, Sleep Talk, and Rest. Its name is a derivative of "Fissure".
- Flinchax: A moveset with a paralysis-inducing move to negate speed, and a flinch move such as Bite, Headbutt, Rock Slide, or Extrasensory. It relys on chance to repeatedly flinch the foe until it faints. As an added bonus, the paralysis will kick in 25% of the time, preventing the foe from getting an attack in edgewise. Dunsparce is the most feared flinchaxor, because its Serene Grace increases the flinch chance to 60%.
- Hax: Something that relys more on chance than reliability or strategy. For example, Horn Drill is a hax move. Items such as Focus Band, Brightpowder, and Scope Lens are hax items. This most common use of "hax" is in the term "flinchax".
- Hazer: A moveset with Haze on it. Like the Spiker, it can have any combination of moves beside Haze on it. Fast pokemon and those with high defenses make good hazers.
- HP: Usually used as an abbreviation for "Hit Points", but often refers to the move "Hidden Power". For example, HP (water)" refers to a Hidden Power that is the Water type.
- McIceGar: A moveset for Gengar with many variations. Usually used to describe the Subpunching Gengar with Thunderbolt and Ice Punch, but moves such as Psychic, Shadow Ball, and Sludge Bomb are sometimes included.
- OU: Overused. Refers to commonly used pokemon such as Skarmory and Blissey.
- Pinch Berry: Any one of the following: Liechi, Ganlon, Salac, Petaya, Apicot, Lansat, or Starf. These berries raise a specific stat when the holder's HP falls below 1/3 (or in a pinch, hence the name).
- Pseudo Passer: A moveset with Wish, Safeguard, Light Screen, or Reflect on it. Reflect and Light Screen are countered by Brick Break.
- Pseudo-Pseudo hazer: A moveset with a move like Yawn, Leech Seed, or a stat-reducing move like Charm. Doesn't actually force the opponent to switch but penalizes them if they don't.
- Pseudo Hazer (PHazer): A moveset with either Whirlwind or Roar, intended to force a stat-boosted pokemon out of the ring. A Shuffler can also be a PHazer.
- Shuffler(Para/Pyro/Toxi): A moveset with either Roar or Whirlwind and Toxic, Thunder Wave, Will-O-Wisp, or lesser status attack. Works by inflicting a status condition, then PHazing and repeating. Often used in tandem with a Spiker for best results. Countered by a Cleric.
- Skarmbliss: A stall team with both Skarmory and Blissey on it, designed to abuse the high defense of Skarmory and the high special defense of Blissey.
- Spiker: A moveset that includes the move Spikes. Since that's the only requirement, there are many variations to spiker movesets. Good ones utilize Roar and Toxic or Rapid Spin.
- Sponge: Not really a moveset but a pokemon with a very high defensive stat. Used to block attacks of that kind (i.e. Special Sponge). Synonymous with Wall.
- STAB: Same-type attack bonus. Refers to the 1.5 multiplier a pokemon gets when using an attack that matches its own type.
- Staller: Much like the Tank, this moveset lives to inflict the status condition then usually stalls with either Protect or (rarely) with Fly, Dive, or Dig. Although Toxic is the standard you can also have a *Pyrostaller (with Will-O-Wisp). Countered by a Cleric.
- Subpuncher: A moveset with Substitute and Focus Punch, created to avoid the flinch chance from Focus Punch.
- Sunnybeamer: A moveset with Sunny Day, Solarbeam, and a fire attack. Often used on pokemon with the Chlorophyll ability and the moves Synthesis, Morning Sun, or Moonlight.
- Sweeper: A moveset designed with the object of quickly KO'ing or "sweeping" an opponent's team. Specializes in mostly direct attacks with stat-boosting moves also common. It is characterized by high speed and offensive stats. Comes in three varieties - physical, special, and mixed. Usually countered by a tank.
- Tank: A moveset with the object of stalling until the opponent faints, usually from Toxic. Moves that raise defenses, recover HP, and inflict status conditions on the opponent are good choices for a tank.
- Thunderdancer: A moveset with Rain Dance, Thunder, and a water attack. Pokemon with the Volt Absorb and Water Absorb ability are preferred, due to their immunity to enemy Surfs and Thunders.
- Trapper: A set designed with the purpose of trapping a pokemon for one reason or another. Moves such as Mean Look and Spider Web are standard trappers but moves such as Wrap and Fire Spin are also sometimes used. Might be used in tandem with Toxic or Curse (ghost variety) to sap the opponent' health or Perish Song for a quick KO. Certain abilities (Shadow Tag, Magnet Pull, and Arena Trap) trap automatically.
- Trickbander: A moveset that employs Trick and the held item Choice Band to incapacitate any opponent that doesn't use physical attacks (most likely a Tank/Annoyer/Special Sweeper). Trick switches items with the opponent, so they lose their valuable held item and get a restrictive one.
- Trickbracer: Similar to the Trickbander, a Trickbracer gives the opponent the Macho Brace instead - an item that reduces speed. It will stop most sweepers in their tracks due to the reduction of their speed that is so crucial.
- Tyraniboah: A moveset specifically for Tyranitar (but also viable on others) with the Subpuncher combo and the boltbeam combo. It is also an example of very advanced battling techniques on both sides, as it requires you to predict that your opponent will predict your next attack and switch to something resistant to it. An example of this would be if your opponent has a Salamence in play and expects you to use Ice Beam and thus switches to a Starmie. Predicting the switch, you actually selected Thunderbolt/Crunch and pwn Starmie on the switch-in.
- UU: Underused. Seldom-seen pokemon with weaker stat totals than the metagame norm.
- Wall: Not really a moveset but a pokemon with a very high defensive stat. Used to block attacks of that kind (i.e. Physical Wall). Synonymous with Sponge.
