The art of competitive battling

Section One - Roles
On every team, there are a few roles for Pokemon, some common ones include:

Lead
Simply the first Pokemon on a team.

~These are usually either offensive (An Anti-Lead), set up hazards (I.E, Stealth Rocks, Spikes, Toxic Spikes), set up weather (I.E, Politoed, Tyranitar, Hippowdon, Ninetales, Abomasnow), or serve some purpose in helping another Pokemon set up by incapitating the opponent's lead (I.E, Through: Hypnosis, Trick, Switcheroo, Taunt, etc.)

Items Appreciated: Varies, but possibly Lum Berry, Focus Sash, or Mental Herb.

Examples:


Sweeper
Offensive Pokemon. Low HP, but high offensive power. Meant to take advantage of set-up moves.

~ These are either Physical Sweepers, Special Sweepers, or Mixed Sweepers. Make sure that your sweeper's stats match up with the type of moves that he knows! For example, Charizard should stick to special moves such as Fire Blast or Flamethrower, as opposed to Fire Punch.

Items Appreciated: Choice Band for Physical Attackers, Choice Specs for Special Attackers, Choice Scarf for slower Attackers, Life Orb as an alternative to Choice Items, and Expert Belt for Pokemon with high Super Effective coverage (I.E, Electrive).

Examples:


Wall
Basically, what it sounds like. Sturdy and meant to take hits.

~ Walls make use of high HP, Defense, and Special Defense. Switch to them if they're able to shrug off an attack that you see coming, they won't mind. Walls appreciate healing moves, such as Recover or Roost, as well as status moves. Walls should usually have at least one decent STAB move to defend themselves as well, or they'll be set-up on by an opposing sweeper.

Items Appreciated: Leftovers, Black Sludge for poison types, possibly Lum Berry.

Examples:


Utility
If you need an odd job, these are the Pokemon you're looking for.

~ Utility Pokemon are basically Pokemon that do extra jobs or offer some form of support for your team that isn't through attacking or defending. This includes baton passers, dual screeners (Set up Reflect and Light Screen to drastically decrease damage your team receives for a few turns), Wish passers (Use Wish, which can be used to heal other Pokemon), and clerics (Use Heal Bell or Aromatherapy to get rid of your teams statuses), as well as other jobs.

Items Appreciated: This really varies on what you're trying to do. Nevertheless; Mental herb, Light Clay, Focus Sash, etc.

Examples:


Bulky Sweepers
Really just a sub-class of Sweepers.

~ Bulky Sweepers have high offense, along with bulk, allowing them to take a hit or two. However, they sacrifice speed for this.

Items Appreciated: Leftovers, Choice Scarf, Life Orb

Examples:

Section Two - Movesets
There are really five main types of moves.

Offensive - They deal damage to the opponent. Should aim for getting super effective hits when possible, though use a neutral move if it will do agreeable damage.

Stat Boosters - Raises your Pokemon's stats, either defensively, offensively, or may increase speed. I recommend you make use of these well, though aim for stat boosters that boost either one stat by two stages, or multiple stats.

Healing - Restore HP. Some are instant use like Recover, while others have a delay, such as Wish. Less commonly used healing moves are passive ones that heal you every turn, such as aqua ring.

Status - Give your opponent a status to weaken them. Burns take away 1/8 of their health every turn, as well cutting their attack in half. Paralysis gives your opponent a chance of not being able to attack, while also cutting their speed in half. Being badly poisoned ala Toxic will take away 1/16 of your health on the first turn, doubling in damage every turn until a switch. Secondary status that aren't visible and fade after switching include: Being Confused, Immobilized by Love, being unable to switch, etc.

Phasers - Force your opponent to switch out, though they'll always go after your opponent has made their move. Includes: Roar, Whirlwind, and Dragon Tail. These are good for when your opponent tries to raise their stats.

Now that you know what types of moves there are, let's see what goes into a moveset. First of all, it's good for sweepers to aim for coverage. For some Pokemon, this may be easy. For example, using a Ghost Move such as Shadow Ball and a Fighting Move such as Focus Blast will allow you to hit every Pokemon in the game without being resisted. Dragon moves will only be resisted by steel. It's not ideal to use redundant moves, such as two fire moves, two grass moves, two water moves, etc. Using movesets like that will end up in your Pokemon being walled, and unable to damage the opponent sufficiently. Try to make your movesets a combination of good neutral-coverage offense, along with the some of the other four types of moves depending on your needs.

Stat Boosts
You may have seen moves such as Swords Dance, or Calm Mind before, but never really knew what they did. Well, here's the explanation:

Stages
You may have noticed that some moves simply say that they've increased a stat. This means that this stat is now 50% higher than it was originally. These boosts will automatically be reset upon switching out, however (Unless you make use of Baton Pass). If you've ever seen a move that says your Pokemon's stat has been sharply increased, then its stat has been doubled.

+1 Stage = 1.5 times the original stat.
+2 Stages = 2 times the original.
+3 Stages = 2.5 times the original.
+4 Stages = 3 times the original.
+5 Stages = 3.5 times the original.
+6 Stages = 4 time the original.

*NOTE: Six stages is the highest you can boost a stat by.

Stats are effected by EV training, IVs, as well as Natures.

Examples of commonly used Stat Boosters: Swords Dance (+2 Attack Stages), Agility (+2 Speed Stages), Dragon Dance (+1 Attack/Speed Stages), Calm Mind (+1 Special Attack/Special Defense Stages)

Section Three - Synergy

Quote :

syn·er·gy noun \ˈsi-nər-jē\
plural syn·er·gies
Combined action or operation

--Meriam Webster


Offensive Synergy
Offensively, Synergy is how many of the types that a combination of Pokemon can deal with. For example, a team of all Fire Types will obviously have trouble defeating Water and Ground type Pokemon.

Notable pairs include:
[Salazone] Salamence draws out your opponent's steel type Pokemon, expecting to resist a dragon-type move. Instead, you switch to Magnezone with Magnet Pull, which prevents their steel-type from switching out. After Magnezone kills the opposing steel-type, Salamence should have no trouble with using the Dragon multi-turn move Outrage.
[Double Dragon] Using a physical Dragon and a Special Dragon, taking advantage of Dragon's ability to hit 15 out of 17 types neutrally and 1 type super effectively. Together, able to break specialized walls and sweep.

Defensive Synergy
Now, this is where synergy really shines. Defensive synergy is having groups of Pokemon in your team that resist each other's weaknesses, and can be switched in when you predict a dangerous move. For example, having a Ghost Type pair with a Normal type is pretty good defensive synergy. When the Ghost type is expecting to be hit with a Ghost type move, you can switch to the Normal type. When the normal type is expected to be hit with a fighting move, switch back to the ghost. Defensive synergy is the key to taking minimal overall damage to your team.

Notable groups:
[Fire-Water-Grass] This defensive core will be able to at least never take super-effective hits when used correctly.
[Celebi & Heatran] Celebi and Heatran resist each other's weakness, or take them neutrally. Able to switch between the two and counter the attacker well when used correctly.
[Ferrothorn & Jellicent] The two of them resist almost all types, meaning that smart switches will stop the opponent's attacks dead in their tracks. They share no weaknesses either.
[SkarmCressBliss] The idea is that since Blissey takes nothing from Special Attacks, Skarmory takes nothing from Physical Attacks, and Cress is a mixed wall, they're very sturdy and protect your team.

Section Four - Prediction
Prediction takes advantage of defensive synergy.


Using prediction is a matter of guessing what your opponent is aiming for, and foiling it. For example, if your opponent has a Charizard, and you have a Venasaur out, the reasonable thing for your opponent to do would be to use a fire attack. Instead of leaving your slower Venasaur in and hoping he lives, you could instead switch out to your Blastoise, and then force your opponent's Charizard out. Even if he doesn't switch out, then you're able to take it down anyway.

If you predict that your opponent is about to switch, then the use of the move Pursuit could be useful, dealing base 100 dark-type damage to the Pokemon on their way out.

Similarly, if you predict that the opponent will use a non-attacking move and your Pokemon is faster, then Taunt will stop them from using it.

In the end, prediction is vital to winning, but don't overthink your predictions. Most times, it's better to be safe then sorry. Predicting that your opponent will predict your prediction is a very risky playstyle, unless you've gathered that they do so from the choices that they've made.

Section Five - Priority
Priority is a very important part of the game. For the most part, most moves by default have +0 priority, and whoever is faster will move first.
However, with priority, the move with the highest priority will go first. Thus, it's helpful for helping slower Pokemon gain the upper-hand.


Negative priority
~Most that will force the opponent out, the Punching phase of Focus Punch

+0 Priority
~The majority of moves in the game.

+1 Priority
~Mach Punch, Bullet Punch, Ice Shard, Quick Attack, Sucker Punch, Shadow Sneak, Aqua Jet, Fake Out, Vacuum Wave

+2
~Extreme Speed

+3
~Protect

+7 Priority
~Switching out your Pokemon

*NOTE: Priority still works normally under Trick Room conditions, and will continue to go first.