Strategy tags

Learns Fake Out and sits at 100+ Speed, so it can flinch a faster-than-average lead before it moves or break a Focus Sash.

Aliases: fakeout-lead, fake-out-lead

Pairs Intimidate with a pivot move (U-turn, Volt Switch, Parting Shot…), dropping the opponent's Attack before pivoting out to bring in a teammate.

Aliases: intimidate-cycle

Has 100+ Speed, a disruption move (Taunt, Thunder Wave, a sleep move…), and a pivot move, using disruption before pivoting out.

Aliases: fast-pivot

A pivot move (U-turn, Flip Turn, Teleport…) on a bulky body (250+ defensive total) or backed by Regenerator / Intimidate, so it can cycle in and out while absorbing damage.

A bulky body (90+ HP, Defense, or Sp. Def) with Follow Me or Rage Powder, pulling attacks away from a fragile partner and absorbing them.

Aliases: bulky-follow-me

Carries both Reflect and Light Screen and can reliably get them up (Prankster, 100+ Speed, or heavy bulk) to halve incoming damage for five turns.

Aliases: dual-screens

Learns Wide Guard or Quick Guard to block the opponent's spread moves or priority for a turn.

Aliases: teamguard

Restores a teammate's HP directly with moves like Life Dew, Heal Pulse, or Pollen Puff — or a sacrifice heal (Healing Wish / Lunar Dance).

Has Prankster, Triage, Quick Draw, or Gale Wings to fire its support or status moves before the opponent can act.

Prankster plus a status pivot move (Parting Shot, Teleport…), so it can escape and bring in a teammate with +1 priority.

Aliases: prankster-pivot

Shed Tail costs the user half its maximum HP to leave behind a Substitute worth a quarter of it, then switches out — the incoming teammate inherits the Substitute and gets a completely free turn to set up behind it. Only four roster entries learn it (Sceptile, Mega Sceptile, Heliolisk, Orthworm), and it fails outright if the user would faint paying the cost. Stat boosts do not transfer; for those see boost-courier.

Throws a spread move (Earthquake, Rock Slide, Heat Wave…) of 75+ BP backed by 100+ in the matching attacking stat, so it can damage both opponents at once.

Has 60 or less Speed and 100+ Attack or Sp. Atk, allowing it to move before faster Pokémon while Trick Room is active.

Aliases: tr-attacker, trroom-attacker, tr-abuser

Carries a boost move (Dragon Dance, Quiver Dance, Shell Smash, Clangorous Soul) that raises an attacking stat it has at 95+.

Raises its own Speed (Agility, Shift Gear, Autotomize, Flame Charge…) and has the offense or base Speed (90+ Atk/SpA, or 95+ Spe) to convert it into a sweep.

Aliases: speed-setup

Sheer Force drops the secondary effects of eligible moves for 1.3× power. Sheer Force-boosted moves also avoid Life Orb recoil.

Aliases: sheer-force

Ignores Substitute, either through Infiltrator or a strong (80+ BP) STAB sound move like Boomburst or Bug Buzz — backed by 90+ in that move's own attacking stat.

Aliases: sub-pierce, sound-attacker

Technician boosts moves of 60 BP or less by 1.5×, turning a weak STAB (Bullet Punch, Mach Punch, Rock Blast…) into a primary damage source.

Aliases: technician

Iron Fist adds 1.2× power to punching moves (Drain Punch, Ice Punch, Mach Punch…).

Aliases: iron-fist

Strong Jaw adds 1.5× power to biting moves (Crunch, Psychic Fangs, Fire Fang…).

Aliases: strong-jaw

Sharpness adds 1.5× power to slicing moves (Sacred Sword, Night Slash, Leaf Blade…).

Aliases: sharpness

Mega Launcher adds 1.5× power to pulse and aura moves (Aura Sphere, Dark Pulse, Water Pulse…).

Aliases: mega-launcher

Adaptability raises the STAB bonus from 1.5× to 2×, so an 80+ BP STAB move receives the full 2× STAB bonus.

Contrary inverts stat changes, so self-lowering moves (Leaf Storm, Draco Meteor, Overheat, Close Combat…) *raise* the stat instead — attack and set up at once.

Belly Drum raises Attack to +6 at the cost of half its HP. It qualifies with 95+ effective Attack (counting Huge Power or Pure Power) plus 70+ Speed or a priority move.

Baton Pass transfers the user's stat boosts to whichever teammate switches in, so the boost outlives the Pokémon that set it up. It qualifies by learning Baton Pass plus a boost worth receiving — a move raising Attack, Sp. Atk or Speed by two or more stages (Swords Dance, Nasty Plot, Shell Smash, Belly Drum, Tail Glow, Shift Gear…), or an Ability that stacks one by itself (Speed Boost, Weak Armor). Defensive setup is left out because a receiver rarely cashes in a passed Cotton Guard. Shed Tail is a separate tag — it passes a Substitute, not stat boosts.

Aliases: baton-pass-setup, baton-pass

Taunt or Encore to stop the Trick Room setter, or its own Imprison + Trick Room to lock the mode out entirely.

Aliases: anti-tr, anti-trickroom

Carries Haze or Clear Smog to wipe boosts, Taunt or Encore to deny the setup move, or the Unaware ability to ignore boosts outright — stopping a sweeper before it accumulates boosts.

Haze or Clear Smog to erase every stat change on the field, undoing an opponent's setup in a single move.

Aliases: clear-stats

Can't be flinched by Fake Out — a Ghost-type, Inner Focus / Shield Dust, or a priority-blocking ability — so it can still act that turn.

Protects the team from status with a move (Safeguard, Misty Terrain, Heal Bell / Aromatherapy) or a status-proof ability (Purifying Salt, Good as Gold…).

Breaks Reflect and Light Screen with Brick Break, Psychic Fangs, or Defog.

Dazzling, Queenly Majesty, or Armor Tail makes the whole team immune to priority moves like Fake Out and Sucker Punch.

Aliases: anti-prio

Magic Bounce reflects Taunt, entry hazards, Spore, and other status right back at the opponent.

Carries a dependable burning move like Will-O-Wisp to halve a physical attacker's damage for the rest of the game.

Carries a dependable paralysis move like Thunder Wave to quarter a fast threat's Speed and add full-paralysis chances.

Carries a high-accuracy sleep move (Spore, Sleep Powder…) to prevent the target from acting while asleep.

Carries a dependable poisoning move (Toxic, Poison Powder…) for steady chip that wears down walls.

Cancels weather with Cloud Nine / Air Lock, or overwrites the opponent's with its own weather ability or move (Drought, Drizzle, Sunny Day…).

Sets a terrain — a surge ability (Electric / Grassy / Misty / Psychic Surge) or the terrain move — to power up moves, block status, or shut off priority.

Uses a sun benefit that matches a 90+ offensive stat: Chlorophyll with either offense, Solar Power with Sp. Atk, or Flower Gift with Attack.

Swift Swim with 90+ Attack or Sp. Atk doubles its Speed under rain, letting it outspeed more opponents while rain is active.

Sand Rush or Sand Force with 90+ Attack or Sp. Atk — doubles Speed (or boosts Rock/Ground/Steel power) in a sandstorm.

Slush Rush with 90+ Attack or Sp. Atk doubles its Speed while it's snowing.

Leaf Guard or Harvest on a bulky body (200+ defensive total) — status immunity and berry recycling while the sun is up.

Dry Skin, Rain Dish, or Hydration on a bulky body — passive healing (and status cleansing) every turn it rains.

Sand Veil on a bulky body — immune to sandstorm chip and 1.25× evasion while the sand blows.

Ice Body or Snow Cloak on a bulky body — passive healing or extra evasion while it's snowing.

Learns Gravity, which raises every move's accuracy ×1.67 and grounds airborne foes — improving the accuracy of low-accuracy moves and enabling Ground moves for five turns.

Aliases: gravity

Carries moves with 55–85% accuracy (Hypnosis, Blizzard, Thunder, Focus Blast…) that become more accurate while Gravity is active.

Aliases: gravity-abuse, gravity-user

A physical attacker (90+ Atk — the stat Intimidate actually drops) whose ability ignores stat drops — Clear Body, White Smoke, Full Metal Body, Hyper Cutter… — so Intimidate can't weaken it.

Intimidate activates Defiant / Guard Dog for +2 Attack or Competitive for +2 Sp. Atk; the matching offensive stat must be 90+.

Unburden doubles this Pokémon's Speed once its held item is consumed or knocked off; it also has 90+ Attack or Sp. Atk.

A Dark-type — immune to Prankster-boosted status — that also disrupts (Taunt / Encore, Fake Out, or a pivot move).

A bulky body (160+ HP+Def) with a contact-punishing ability (Rough Skin, Iron Barbs, Flame Body, Static…) that can damage or inflict status on attackers that make contact.

Aliases: contact-punish, punishes-contact

Stops the opponent from switching — via Shadow Tag / Arena Trap / Magnet Pull or a trapping move (Mean Look, Block, Jaw Lock…).

A bulky body (250+ defensive total) with repeatable self-recovery (Recover, Roost, Slack Off…).

High bulk (270+ total) with a Protect-family move and residual damage from Toxic, Will-O-Wisp, or Leech Seed.

Sets entry hazards — Stealth Rock, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, or Sticky Web — to chip or slow everything that switches in.

Clears entry hazards from its own side with Rapid Spin, Defog, Mortal Spin, or Tidy Up.

Fast (100+ Speed) Electrify turns a foe's move Electric — so with a Ground-type or Electric-immune partner out, that converted move does nothing to the partner.

Aliases: electrify