Glossary & Abbreviations

Only the non-obvious and format-specific terms. Assumes you know the basics (EVs, IVs, STAB, status, hazards, priority).

Format-specific (NatDex OU)

• Tera Shift — Terapagos’s ability (auto form-change to Terapagos-Terastal on switch-in). See Appendix: The Tera Ban.
• Good as Gold (GaG) — Gholdengo’s ability: immune to status-category moves aimed at it (Defog, Toxic, WoW, Encore, Taunt, Spore). Damaging moves still hit — Nuzzle bypasses it.
• Corkscrew Crash — the Z-output of Steelium-Z + Make It Rain (Gholdengo’s lure). Never a chosen move.
• Mega slot / single-Mega economy — one Mega per team; the strong Megas compete for the one slot, so picking one is an opportunity cost.
• Booster line — speed/attack benchmark for Paradox mons running Booster Energy (×1.5 Speed or ×1.3 to the highest non-Speed stat (Atk/Def/SpA/SpD) on switch-in).
• 412 wall — Zamazenta’s max+ Speed (base 138). The key fast benchmark: outspeed it or lose the speed war to it.

Archetypes

• Offense — ~4-5 attackers + momentum, ≤1 bulky pivot/removal slot; wins by maintaining pressure and tempo. The reader’s target build. Not BO, not HO.
• Bulky Offense (BO) — 2-3 genuinely defensive pieces + breakers; trades tempo for resilience. The format’s dominant archetype.
• Hyper Offense (HO) — suicide lead + hazards + 4-5 stacked setup sweepers; ~zero defensive backbone; race-or-die.
• Balance — even split of offense and defense; grinds via pivots, chip, and a wincon.
• Stall / Semi-stall — 5-6 walls + win via hazards/status/PP; semi-stall keeps one offensive breaker.
• Hazard stack — running multiple hazard layers (SR + Spikes ± T-Spikes) + denial (Gholdengo) to make switching lethal.

Roles

• Glue — a mon that holds the team together by covering many threats in one slot (Alomomola, Landorus-T, Great Tusk).
• Pivot — brings a teammate in safely via a switching move (U-turn / Volt Switch / Flip Turn / Teleport / Chilly Reception) or just by being a safe switch.
• VoltTurn — momentum chains built on Volt Switch + U-turn (pivot offense’s engine).
• Breaker / wallbreaker — an attacker built to punch through defensive cores rather than to revenge or clean.
• Cleaner — a (often priority/boosting) mon that sweeps once the opposing checks are weakened (Kingambit, Dragonite).
• Sweeper — sets up (SD/DD/CM/QD) and wins by snowballing.
• Lure — a set disguised to bait and remove a specific check (e.g. Steelium-Z Gholdengo luring Blissey/special walls).
• Revenge killer — Scarf/priority user that KOs a threat after it’s already on the field.
• Two breakers sharing no checks — the core offense-building idea: pair two wallbreakers such that nothing on the opposing team safely walls both, so something always gets broken.

Play / building shorthand

• Tempo / momentum — keeping the initiative so the opponent is always reacting; offense’s lifeblood.
• Chip — incidental damage (hazards, Rocky Helmet, sand, prior hits) that brings a wall into KO range.
• Anti-removal — keeping your hazards up by blocking the opponent’s spin/Defog (Gholdengo, Ghost-types).
• Spinblock — using a Ghost-type to deny Rapid Spin.
• FS — Future Sight (delayed special hit two turns later; the doubling-up engine).
• Boots / HDB — Heavy-Duty Boots (ignores hazards on switch-in; lets frail mons pivot freely).
• Regen — Regenerator (heals 1/3 on switch; why pivot-walls must be broken, not chipped out).
• OHKO / 2HKO — one-/two-hit KO. Every such claim in this guide is recomputed before printing.
• PP stall — winning by exhausting a key move’s PP (stall tactic).
• EoT — end of turn (residual: weather, status, Leftovers, etc.).

Common abbreviations

SR = Stealth Rock · TSpikes = Toxic Spikes · SD = Swords Dance · DD = Dragon Dance · CM = Calm Mind · NP = Nasty Plot · QD = Quiver Dance · ID = Iron Defense · BP = base power (or Body Press in context) · WoW = Will-O-Wisp · CB = Choice Band · Specs = Choice Specs · Scarf = Choice Scarf · AV = Assault Vest · LO = Life Orb · Lefties = Leftovers · VR = Viability Ranking · BO = Bulky Offense · HO = Hyper Offense.