fleurdyleurse's notes

notes:

Pokemon-specific rules:

- capitalize "Base Power" always.
- Bulletproof blocks "ball and bomb moves", not "projectile moves" or "ballistic moves"
- Z-Move, not Z-move; Z-Crystal, not Z-crystal
- "opponent" refers to the person you are playing against; use "foe," "target," or "enemy" (or their plural forms) when referring to the opposing Pokemon
- "you" refers to the battler; do not use "you" to refer to a Pokemon.
- Rotom and Deoxys formes, not forms. this applies for all other formes e.g. Gourgeist formes (formes have different dex info, whereas the difference between forms is merely aesthetic). similarly, "base forme," NOT "base form"
- also, truncate forme names (Rotom-W, not Rotom-Wash). the sole exception to this is Ash-Greninja.
- Hoopa's regular forme is "Hoopa", whilst its Unbound forme is "Hoopa-U"
- there is no such thing as "Rapid Spinner"; it is either "Rapid Spin user" or "spinner."
- an OHKO, not a OHKO.
- Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Leftovers, Safety Goggles, Scope Lens, Black Glasses, Wide Lens, and Zoom Lens should be referred to as singular objects. this means no "Leftovers allow...", but "Leftovers allows"
- x's STAB moves/attacks, not x's STABs.
- OU = OverUsed, UU = UnderUsed, RU = RarelyUsed, NU = NeverUsed. PU doesn't stand for anything.
- Use "Uber" when referring to the Uber tier; use "Ubers" when referring to the Ubers metagame. (e.g., Mawilite was banned to Uber, though Mega Mawile isn't very effective in Ubers.")
- refer to generations as RBY, GSC, ADV, DPP, BW, XY, or SM (or USM), not anything else
- plural of "Pokemon" is "Pokemon," plural of any Pokemon is the same as the singular
- base 100 Special Attack, not 100 base Special Attack.
- SubCM, but not SubBU
- "Substitute + Calm Mind Mewtwo can be threatening"; "Substitute and Calm Mind allow Mewtwo," but not "Substitute and Calm Mind Mewtwo can be threatening" or "Substitute + Calm Mind allow Mewtwo"; that is, Substitute + Calm Mind is a set and Substitute and Calm Mind are two moves joined by a conjunction.
- "Dragons, Fairies, Ghosts, etc." are not allowed: use "Dragon-types, Fairy-types, Ghost-types, etc."
- something like "Steel resists Ice, Bug, Grass,..." is acceptable.
- no Landorus-I, Thundurus-I, or Tornadus-I (it is Landorus, Thundurus, and Tornadus). similarly, Landorus-T, Thundurus-T, and Tornadus-T, not Landorus-Therian, Thundurus-Therian, or Tornadus-Therian.
- Pokemon are not "killed"; they are "faint" or "KOed."
- "KOs" for the noun; "KOes" for the verb (the "e" makes the difference)
- never refer to Pokemon as "he" or "she". also, do not use "who" to refer to a pokemon (whose is okay, though, since it's used as a possessive. do not replace whose with which [which is not a possessive!])
- EVs and IVs should always be referred to in the plural (i.e. 252 EVs ARE; 30 IVs LOWER)
- status effects (paralysis, sleep, etc.) and pseudo-status effects (confusion, etc) are not capitalized
- clauses (Sleep Clause, Item Clause, etc.) are fully capitalized.
- "Ho-Oh," not "Ho-oh."
- "Doubles OU / DOU" is used to talk about the DOU metagame; however, if talking about the doubles battle format only, then it is called "doubles".
- all attacks that are combined with a dash are fully capitalized (i.e., X-Scissor, not X-scissor). the only exceptions to this are V-create and U-turn
- "(Mega) Pokemon" is perfectly acceptable when both the base forme and Mega forme are viable in the metagame (i.e., no (Mega) Pinsir); however, just having the Pokemon name without "(Mega)" is preferred.
- when referring to a Hidden Power, do not say "HP Type," "Hidden Power [Type]," or "HP [Type]"
- Refrigerate, not Refridgerate; Aerilate, not Aerialate; Pixilate, not Pixalate/Pixelate
- don't capitalize weather (e.g., sand, rain, sun, hail). only the moves "Sandstorm" and "Hail" can be capitalized here.
- in Doubles, "Follow Me/Rage Power" can be referred to as "redirection" and "attack control."
- whether you put a "the" before "sun"/"rain"/"sand"/"hail" depends on context: if the weather is part of a strategy, then put a "the" before the weather, but if it's just a battlefield change or not the center of the sentence, there should not be a "the"
- "paraflinching," "parashuffler," and "parashuffling" are approved terms.
- capitalize Substitute when referring to the move; for example, "Abomasnow's Substitute," not "Abomasnow's substitute." of course, if you mean "a substitute for Abomasnow," "substitute" should not be capitalized
- "revenge kill" and "revenge KO" are very interchangeable, but try to stick to one; in general, "revenge kill" is preferred, though
- don't refer to Latias and Latios together as Lati@s.
- don't capitalize "nature" when you refer to something like "Timid nature" (i.e., Jolly nature, NOT Jolly Nature)
- in Set Details, it is Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed; the only exception to this is in EVs. in EVs, it is Atk / Def / SpA / SpD / Spe
- "Pursuit trapping," not "Pursuit-trapping"
- "Pursuit trap" means "KOing or threatening to KO a Pokemon that is likely to switch out with Pursuit".
- "Flying-type spam," not "bird spam," "BirdSpam," or "birdspam."
- don't use "(move)er" or "(ability)er"; use "(move) user" or "(ability) user." only exception is "Defog," where you can use "Defogger."
- Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre; not Groudon-Primal and Kyogre-Primal
- "Mega Stone" is always capitalized
- "hazard setter" is never capitalized
- "Speed tier," not "speed tier," because it's basically a shortened form of "base Speed tier"
- do not use "Knocking Off"; there are numerous alternatives to it, such as "using Knock Off," "losing its item," and "getting hit by Knock Off"
- in Doubles/VGC, hitting a single foe with both Pokemon is known as "double targeting," not "double-targeting" (no hyphen)
- as an extension of the double target rule, "double-switching" and "dry-switching" are incorrect: the correct terms are "double switching" and "dry switching" respectively
- x / y / z bulk, not defenses: HP is not included as a defense stat
- playstyles are always "balance", "stall", "offense", etc. -- that means you usually say "break stall", but "with a balance team"
- take a look at http://www.smogon.com/bw/articles/bw_pokemon_dictionary for terms like cleric, glass cannon, etc.
- "hidden ability", not "Hidden Ability"
- it's "single-type (Pokemon)" and "dual-type (Pokemon)", not "single type" and "dual type" (usual compound adjective rules apply)
- Sivally-type / Arceus-type, excluding normal-typed formes of both (also, Arceus-type and -type is fine (Arceus-Steel and -Dark)
- Alolan Exeggutor is the right way to write it (Alolan x). Alolan formes, not forms.
- no Dragons / Fairies
- base xs is okay (base 100s, base 90s) to refer to a Pokemon with a base Speed of "x".
- for set names, All-out Attacker, not All-Out Attacker

word definitions / prose!

- "mind game(s)", not "mindgame(s)".
- "playerbase" is one word, not two ("player base"), just like "userbase"
- "playstyle", not "play-style" or "play style"
- "suicide lead" is acceptable terminology
- don't use "abuse" (in analyses). try "take advantage of" or "utilize" (Kingdra is able to take advantage of the rain)
- "status" is acceptable as a verb
- "burned," not "burnt." "burnt" is british english (smogon uses american).
- "spam" as a verb, "spamming," and "spammable" as an adjective are acceptable to mean, respectively, "repeatedly use," "repeatedly using," and "able to be repeatedly used."
- "switch-in" is a noun; "switch in" is a verb; "switch into" describes the action of switching directly into a Pokemon (Aggron can switch into Muk with ease) instead of saying (Aggron can switch in to Muk), which looks weird; "switch in," as in "free switch in" refers to the act of a Pokemon coming into battle with no downsides. no "switches" because it looks awkward.
- "setup" is an adjective (setup bait, setup move) that is different from set-up; the other adjective is "set-up". "A set-up Pokemon" means a Pokemon that has set up (e.g., a set-up Mega Kangaskhan is extremely powerful, being able to sweep with great ease.). "set up" is a verb (...allows Mewtwo to set up with ease). setup is the noun for "the act of setting up" (easier setup for Mewtwo)
- "resist" cannot be used as a noun; instead, use "Pokemon that resists x-type moves" or "x-resistant Pokemon" (the latter is generally preferred because it's more concise)
- "put something to sleep," not "sleep something"
- and/or is not spaced out.
- 1v1 is not spaced out.
- watch out for ambiguity in text and correct it whenever possible. for example, "Pokemon that struggle with bulky Water-types such as Excadrill, Landorus, and Garchomp enjoy being paired with Zapdos, as it has no trouble dealing large damage to Water-types with its STAB-boosted Thunderbolt. In return, they can handle the Rock-types that pose a problem for Zapdos with their Ground-type STAB moves." is incorrect, as it implies that Rock-types threaten Zapdos with their Ground-type STAB moves, which is obviously untrue. something along the lines of "Pokemon that struggle with bulky Water-types such as Excadrill, Landorus, and Garchomp enjoy being paired with Zapdos, as it has no trouble dealing large damage to Water-types with its STAB-boosted Thunderbolt. In return, they can handle Rock-types, which pose a problem for Zapdos, with their Ground-type STAB moves." is better.
- avoid repetitiveness (e.g., Beautifly has a few other options. Beautifly has support options such as..." the second instance of Beautifly should be changed to "it.")
- be concise: "Calm Mind is the crux of the set, as it enables Duosion to boost its already stellar Special Attack alongside its mediocre Special Defense."; as Calm Mind is the name of the set, it is evident that Calm Mind is the most important move on the set; as such, "is the crux of the set, as it" should be completely removed.
- avoid certain clichéd phrases/words, such as "gets roasted by Fire-types," "the crux of this set," "physical/special side of the spectrum," "at the dawn of the generation," "with impunity," "with the advent of" -- most of them don't add anything meaning-wise to the text (fluff) and so should be removed. note, however, that simply being "cliché" is never a reason to remove anything.
- don't make unnecessary subjective changes (maintain the author's voice!): refer to http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/on-making-subjective-gp-changes.3514221/ for Ender's excellent guide on this.
- do not use "infamous" to mean "famous" or "good". "infamous" means "despicable," so no "infamous BoltBeam combination" or anything like that. there is nothing despicable about the BoltBeam combination.
- do not use "faint" or "flinch" as verbs by themselves; they are intransitive
- don't use "straight up" when you mean anything other than "truthfully" or "cool"; instead, change it to something like "easily" or "with ease" depending on the context
- don't say "Scizor's Superpower lures in Heatran": the lure is the bait, not the KOing move e.e (in this case, Superpower). it makes more sense to say "Scizor lures in Heatran and KOes it with Superpower." this goes for all parallel structures: the and is a conjuction, so make sure to break the two parts apart and see if they make sense
- don't use "splashable" in analyses. for the record it's supposed to mean "easy to fit on a team/Pokemon", as in "Landorus-T is an extremely splashable Pokemon thanks to its high Defense and Attack."
- do not put "X is a Y" as in "Fire Blast is the STAB move of choice" unless like there are two options: flamethrower and fire blast -- in which case "Fire Blast is the STAB move of choice to hit most targets, though Flamethrower can be used for its greater reliability" can also work
- "pressurizing" vs "pressuring": pressurizing implies adding pressure within a sealed container, like pumping air into a tire, whereas pressuring has a less specific application (Charmeleon is pressuring, not pressurizing).
- don't use "Choice Banded / Scarfed / Specsed"; it's terribly informal and in all cases either "Choiced", "Choice-locked", or "holding/carrying a Choice Band/Scarf/Specs" works in place
- parafusion is accepted to mean "a strategy attempting to prevent a foe from moving via a combination of paralysis and confusion"
- "matchup" and "match-up" are both acceptable and interchangeable, but, as usual, consistency of usage of the two terms is encouraged. (don't use "match up")
- for sentences structures like "either... or...", "neither... nor...", and "not only... but also...", make sure that the sentences are parallel (you can think of this as sentence symmetry; something that comes after either must also come after or, and, in the same vein, something that comes before either cannot come after or). for example, "it's best to either bring it in freely after a teammate is KOed or Volt Switch or U-turn into it" is correct, but not "it's best to either bring it in freely after a teammate is KOed, or to Volt Switch or U-turn into it."--the latter has a "to" after the "or" when there's already a "to" before the "either"
- for Spikes and Toxic Spikes, when referring to two/one layer, just put "a single layer of Spikes/Toxic Spikes" or "two/three layers"
- "outslow" is generally only used in the context of Trick Room where you want to be slower than your foe to outspeed it, but "underspeed" should be used in other contexts
-  it's "Perish trap", not "Perish Trap"; same for "Perish trappers" (and Pursuit trap)
- don't use "nuke". it's too casual for analyses
- the capitalization of "speed" has a technical contextuality: if you are referring to the Speed stat like in "Its high Speed allows it to set up a Substitute easily", then capitalize it; however, if you are referring to a Pokemon's general quickness on the battlefield, like its momentum shifting and inherent speed, then don't capitalize it.
- fluff (something that doesn't add info) is bad; remove at sight.
- watch out for wrong formatting; correct it whenever necessary.
- "try to do something," not "try and do something"

commas:

- comma before "as" if you mean "because"
e.g., "Charmander should not be used in OU, as it has many common weaknesses."
- since is okay as "because", but put a comma before it. if there's ambiguity between "ever since" or "because" (e.g. Since the wolves attacked the village, the villagers have been living in fear), clarify it or change since for another word
- 'which' clauses are always put between commas, while 'that' clauses are never put between commas
- "so" should always be preceded by a comma, unless "so" means "so that."
- "but," like "and," should only have a comma before it if "but" begins an independent clause. refer to http://www.grammarly.com/handbook/punctuation/comma/23/comma-before-but/ for more info
- always remember your serial commas -- "x, y, and z", not "x, y and z".
- use commas before "as well as" only when there is ambiguity in a sentence or when creating a clause. if not, there is no need for commas before "as well as."
- while: if you mean "at the same time" when you say "while" then don't put a comma before it; if you mean "whereas" then put a comma before it
- other comma rules can be found at the superb resource here: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/01/

other grammar:

- when in doubt of whether to use a semicolon or not, break the sentence apart (i.e., This apple is good; it has many vitamins in it. = This apple is good. It has many vitamins in it.) and see if it still makes sense. if not, use a comma or make a new sentence.
- you generally don't need to change "like" or "such as" to one or the other. "like" means "similar to" but is also used to list; "such as" is used to list but also has some kind of "similar to" (the difference is that "like" is used for comparison, while "such as" for inclusion, so if the author says "Pokemon such as Zapdos but not including Zapdos" change it to like). the difference is between , such as, and the other two. ", such as," is used for listing ONLY, which means you cannot say "Pokemon, such as Kyurem, are weak to Rock." that should be changed to "like" or "such as"
- "which" vs "that." if removing the words that follow "that/which" changes the meaning of the sentence, use "that"; if not, "which" is okay: refer to http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/which-versus-that-0 for more info
- xs' = all of xs, xs's = one of xs (Latios's (latios as a concept -- one concept) base 110 Speed, Latios's (a single latios) Life Orb) vs plurals.
- compound adjectives must be combined with hyphens (e.g., Timid-natured base 100 Speed Pokemon, NOT Timid natured base 100 Speed Pokemon). if the compound adjective comes before the noun, it should be hyphenated; if it comes after, no hyphen is needed. see here for more info: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/how-to-use-a-hyphen?page=all
- "Pokemon which / that" is correct, not "Pokemon who"; however, it's "Pokemon whose x", not "Pokemon which x" bc "which" isn't a possessive
- "as such" is not a substitute for "therefore" or "hence". rather, such must refer to a previous noun or noun phrase. as a test, ask "as what?" for example, "Gengar is a Ghost-type; as such, it can easily defeat Psychic-types." is correct, but "Gengar has a high Speed stat; as such, it can outspeed many Pokemon." is not
- if you have something that's a reason instead of a cause, use because instead of "as" or "since"; this is because "i hid myself because i was afraid" vs. "he is not a nice guy, because he yells at people for no reason"--in the first case, the "because" clause is essential information, whereas in the second case, "he is not a nice guy" is all you want to convey" ~tdp
- "x or y" is singular, while "x and y" is plural; thus, "A Pokemon such as Flygon or Kingdra" / "Pokemon such as Flygon and Kingdra"