Archetypes are general labels given to Pokémon representing what they do and what role they play.
"Physical Sweeper" is euphemism for "Screwed by Skarm."
Eh, not really. Some can take it out. But Physical Sweepers are an important class - basically, they pack Physical moves to try to KO as many Pokémon as possible. Some of them contain stat boosting moves to raise their attack, thus making it easier for them to pick off other Pokémon.
Physical Sweepers are divided into many other archetypes, which are basically Physical Sweepers, but they do their duties differently.
Choice Band is a very good item; It multiplies your PHYSICAL Attack by 1.5... The drawback is, the first move you use is the only one you can use. And also, it's completely worthless on Special Attackers. Why? Look at the first sentence in this little paragraph thing. PHYSICAL Attack is all it increases. Don't worry, if you switch out and back in again, you can use a different move. Generally, Choice Banders have 4 Attacking moves on them. There are other things you can do with Choice Band, like CB Subrev/Flail, etc.
Anyway, the point here is to get Flail/Reversal to full power. It's a good tactic, but completely foiled by someone with Quick Attack OR someone that uses a Tyranitar or Hippowdon. Flail/Reversal are two moves that gain power as your HP decreases. The most it can get is 200 base power at 1-4% HP.
But the End/Sub part is how you get it down to that low HP to get a full power Reversal/Flail. Endure (End) lets you survive the next hit, no matter how much damage it does. The most the damage it can do is get you down to one HP, so Reversal/Flail will be at full power. Substitute (Sub) allows you to create these little things calls Substitutes that take out a quarter of your HP to set up. That Sub will remain up until it's destroyed. It has the same Defenses as the user, but how much it can take depends on how much HP you have. It's however much HP was used to make a Substitute, so 25% of your max HP. So how does that help, you ask? Make sure your HP is divisible by 4.25, then use Substitute once. Once that Substitute breaks/you predict that it'll break, use another Sub. You should be at 50% HP right now. Use it again, and you should be around 25% HP. Your berry won't activate yet - Use it once more and you'll be down to 1 HP, so the berry activates and Reversal/Flail is at full power.
You can use this along with Choice Band - Endure the shot/Sub until you get to 1 HP, then switch out. Switch back in soon so you can get a CB Reversal/Flail.
I would like to add the fact that Scizor and Lucario are the only exception to the major Tyranitar and Hippowdon (Sandstorm, in other words) weakness associated with Endrevving; the main reason being that they are part Steel type.
Subpunchers basically rely on Substitute and Focus Punch in tandem. The point is to use Focus Punch on the other Pokémon and make it easier on yourself. Since Focus Punch only hits if you weren't hit that turn, how can you fix this problem? You can learn to actually predict right, or you can use Substitute. How, you ask? Lay down a Sub, try to make the Pokémon slow as possible so you can get the Sub up without any problems. Next turn, you can use Focus Punch. When your Pokémon is tightening it's focus, you can't get attacked unless the opponent uses a Sub-breaker move successfully (explained later.) The Sub will take all the damage, so you won't break your focus and you'll be able to deliver a 150 power Fighting move without any problem.
Also, Sporepunching fits under this, mainly being the act of using Spore and Focus Punch in tandem. You can Punch away while they're asleep, which is the main benefit of doing so. Breloom is the primary user of this tactic.
In other words, Blissey and is evil and put half of them out of a job.
The same as Physical Sweeper, only they rely on Special types. There is only really one version of Special Sweeper, and that's... Well... Special Sweeper. Special Sweepers sometimes have Calm Mind (mainly the Psychic types), and they use that to boost their stats. Only two have Tail Glow (three with Smeargle's Sketch), and one's in NU... with the other in Ubers. However! In Diamond and Pearl, Nasty Plot was introduced which has the same effect, but is available to a lot more Pokémon!
Special Sweepers are stopped dead in their tracks by Blissey, but they can do a hell of a good job taking down Skarmory. Most of them have low Defense, so they pretty much go in, do a quick attack, then go out.
Possibly the only sub-archetype for Special Sweeper. The primary focus of this is to use Sunny Day and Solarbeam in tandem or Thunder and Rain Dance. Sunny Day and Solarbeam is known as "Sunnybeaming" where Thunder and Rain Dance is "Thunderdancing." You can also build a team around one weather effect, so you can manipulate that weather effect for better use. There's also TSS, which is Toxic, Spikes, Sandstorm. Basically, a Sandstorm team with Spikes and Toxic. Generally, Tyranitar leads this team.
Choice Specs is basically the Special equivalent of Choice Band; as a matter of fact, I don't need to clarify on this issue. Go to Choice Band and replace "Physical" with "Special" and vice-versa, and there's a full explanation.
Skarmbliss counter. Yay.
They use both Special and Physical moves to sweep other Pokémon, at the same time. They generally use Brave/Quiet natures in RSE, due to most being rather bulky and not needing the speed. Hasty/Naive in DP as the metagame is moreso "Outspeed or be outsped and KO'd". Mixed Sweepers can be divided into only one other archetype - Subpuncher. It also fits under Physical Sweeper. Subpunchers sometimes tend to use Mixed attacks, so that's why it belongs under here as well.
And for the Subpuncher description, see the Physical Sweeper version of it - the same applies here as well.
Choice Scarf is a pretty good item; it multiplies Speed by 1.5, though the first attack you use is the only one you can use until you switch it or lose the Choice Scarf (through means of Trick or a similar move). The main point is to give those that have average or bad Speed scores, on top of amazing Attack scores and low/average Defenses (Rampardos and Medicham, to name a few examples) a boost in Speed to get the first strike in as well as do heavy damage in the process.
A Pokémon that uses moves like Roar and Whirlwind to rid the enemy of their Sub and stat boosts. There are other things Roar/Whirlwind do, but that's not part of the archetype I'm explaining.
A Hazer is generally slow (except Crobat) and they use the move Haze. Duh. But Haze eliminates all stat boosts in the current game. Both yours and your opponent's. It's recommended on slow Pokémon since you need the Pokémon you're up against to make a move so you can Haze that before the next turn.
It's not complicated to learn, and there are many things that can go under here. You can use a move and pass that effect onto another Pokémon. The moves you use include Substitute, any stat boosting move, Mean Look, and if your opponent Leech Seeds you (I've seen this happen...) General referred to as BP, though. How it works is that it passes any stat alterations, Subs you have up, Mean Look/Spider Web/whatever, and Leech Seed if that's in effect. It lets your switch your Pokémon, and the one that you switch to gets all that.
But there's also another archetype that fits under here...
Basically, using the following moves then switching, is Pseudopassing:
- Safeguard (Prevents all status on your side for 5 turns)
- Reflect (Physical Attacks do less damage to your Pokémon for 5 turns)
- Light Screen (Same as above, only with Special Attacks)
- Wish (The Pokémon that appears on your side the next turn gets half it's max HP back)
- Future Sight (In two turns, the opponent takes damage no matter what type they are)
- Doom Desire (Same as above)
Generally, Reflect, Light Screen, and Wish are Pseudo Passed. You don't need Baton Pass for this, though, since it stays until the effect wears off, NOT if you switch out.
Please note, Safeguard does not effect the Sleeping effect to Rest, so don't even think about it. Also note that Brick Break breaks Reflect and Light Screen.
The sub-archetype of Pseudopassing. Utility Pokémon shouldn't be expected to attack with something other than Rapid Spin. They're very useful, though, and contain such moves as Rapid Spin, Haze, and one of the Pseudo moves (Light Screen and Reflect, basically).
Annoyers use whatever moves they've got to annoy the opponent. Annoyers have moves like Leech Seed, Toxic, Rest, Recover, Substitute, etc. And it's so fun to use one. Annoyer sets vary from Pokémon to Pokémon. For example, Ludicolo as an annoyer is going to have Leech Seed/Substitute/Ice Beam/Surf or something, and Milotic is going to have Recover/Toxic/Ice Beam/Surf or something. See?
A sub-archetype of Annoyer. The point of this is to predict a non-damage move then use Trick on it, while you're holding Choice Band. In that sense, they're locked to that one move while you can just stat up away or kill them. Alakazam uses a tactic like this to KO Bliss.
Sponge / Wall
Eerily similar. Take a look at the facts.
Sponge absorbs stuff. They usually use this move called Substitute where you activate transformer mode and he absorbs stuff for you (hey, I'm laying down the FACTS). They might also have some moves like Calm Mind or a Defence boosting. Kinda like the lactatic sequence of sponges (...right). Another notable thing about sponges is they can't do both. They can absorb physical attacks, or special, but not both. They're not masters of both trades. Your sponge wouldn't be able to cope if it was being brainwashed! They have many weaknesses and problems, unlike other technical classifications. If you want an example of a sponge, try Grumpig with Substitute and Calm Mind (also raises offensive effectiveness), Skarmory (sometimes runs substitute according to this new standard thing) and Cloyster. and some other stuff. You might also wanna check Imperial Leather - oh the luxury!
Now, a wall is a different thing. A sponge isn't the same thing as a wall. A wall is a big, big thing that can't be crushed. If you try to crush a wall, you faint. If you try to crush a sponge, you don't. So a wall is a HARD LANKY THING. Walls are good on both sides of the defense. So you're looking at hardy things that take attacks. A wall could also be a bulky water - it's a similar concept.
A tank is another one of those defensive monsters. However, this time, it's slightly different and also has the kind of 'annoyance' element to it. Tanks use a status move, at least one offensive move, tons of resistances, and generally work well as last Pokémon. Oh, and a recovery move. So a tank is a defensive annoyer. Look at Claydol, Weezing, Dusclops/noir and Bronzong for examples.
They spike the opponent. A Pokémon that relies on using Spikes to help prevent the opponent from switching. Spikes damage whatever Pokémon switches in, as soon as it switches in. Poison Spikes give the poison status Pokémon switching in. Flying types and Levitators don't get affected by Spikes, and Poison Spikes are absorbed by Poison types. There can be three layers of Spikes at most, two layers of Poison Spikes (of which the second causes Toxic-like Poison) and one Stealth Rock Spikes damage increases from 6.25% to 25% depending on how many layers of spikes are out. Stealth Rock causes damage to Pokémon switching in depending on their weakness to the Rock type. A Pokémon that is 4x weak to Rock (i.e. both of its types are weak to Rock) would take 50% damage on switch-in. Likewise, 2x takes 25%, then 1x (Neutral) 12.5%, etc.
Ubers are basically stat Tier 1 and 2 pokes (In other words, their base stat total is 670 or 680), with the exception of Slaking. Lati@s is also considered Uber due to amazing statistics and Soul Dew. In the Uber metagame, Ubers are allowed, hence the term "Uber metagame." If you want to know what's an Uber, take a look at the Tier List. The Uber metagame allows ANY Pokemon in it.
Overused Pokémon (OU)
Overused is also known as the "Standard" metagame. Anything except Ubers are allowed in this metagame.
Underused Pokémon (UU)
Um, they're used A LOT. [/sarcasm]
Underused Pokémon aren't necessarily bad, but they're just used less often since there's always something better. In some cases, some of the less used Pokémon were put in the OU pile because the stats are way too high to be put into the UU metagame. Typhlosion and Arcanine are prime examples of this. The metagame contains NU and UU Pokémon.
Never-used Pokémon (NU)
This metagame is odd because not many good Pokémon are in it, and whatever's in here that's somewhat decent is always outshadowed by someone higher. The Tier list contains the worser Pokémon in the metagame. Just about any pre-evo as well as those listed in the NU Tier List is allowed.
Page written by Lord Raven.
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