[2015] Greninja [QC 0/3]

[Sebberball]

Overview
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Greninja is an overall balanced pokemon, having great offensive stats in the form of 95/103/122, it can be used as a variety of things, like spikes setter, an all out life orb attacker. For Greninja's Niches, it varies depending on the team, it could either be a late game cleaner, or a early game offensive presence, plus, it has a diverse move-set, having great physical and special attacks within the move pool, it can use a lot of other moves to counter it's threats, since it gets access to the previously mentioned diverse movepool, it could be great, or harming to a team depending on how you use it!


All Out Mixed-Attacker
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name: All Out Mixed-Attacker
move 1: Hydro Pump
move 2: Low Kick
move 3: Gunk Shot
move 4: Dark Pulse/Hidden Power Fire/Hidden Power Grass
ability: Protean
item: Life Orb
evs: 212 SpA / 44 Atk / 252 Spe or 12 SpA / 244 Atk / 252 Spe
nature: Naive/Hasty

Moves
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• Hydro Pump hits most fire and ground types, and takes out a lot of different megas in VGC, such as the Charizards and Camperupt
• Low Kick hits it's 3 biggest threats, Chansey, Blissey, and Porygon-2, it also takes care of one of the biggest offensive threats in VGC 2015, Bisharp.
• Gunk Shot hits Azumarill and other Fairies that counter it such as Sylveon, and previously mentioned Azumarill
• Dark pulse is an offensive filler to take care of different ghost types that can take either Low Kick, Gunk Shot, or even Hydro Pump.
• ALT Move Info: Having access to a STAB Hidden Power Fire allows it to hit Grass Type Choice Scarf Users and fast Bug Types with a quiver dance in use, or just as a move to hit certain grass walls down a peg.
• ALT Move Info #2: Hidden Power Grass is and option for a Rotom-Wash counter.

Set Details
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• Life Orb is mandatory on Greninja, bring out it's already high Offensive Power, and allowing it to get 1HKOs on pokemon it can't without it.
• Protean is more mandatory than Life Orb on greninja, being it's main source of STABs and power behind the Life Orb
• The first EV spread is the former ORAS OU Sweeper set, which can be carried over to VGC 2015 as a nice powerhouse. The second EV spread is for Blissey/Chansey/Porygon-2 Troubles, being able to atleast 2-3hko one of those walls.

Usage Tips
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When using this set, play very offensively, as in attack and predict when needed, and no matter what, the offensive presence will be nice for the team, the wide variety of coverage will be nice when hitting different pokemon and high usage pokemon in VGC, like Mega-Kangaskhan and Landorus-T.

Team Options
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A great team member that goes with Greninja is Mega-Metagross, since Greninja covers a lot of Mega-Metagross's Weaknesses, such as Fire and Ground, Charizard(x/y), Landorus-T, and in some cases Bisharp. Another great teammate is talonflame, Greninja + Birdspam is an amazing core within VGC, hitting alot of threats hard.


Suicide Lead
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name: Suicide Lead
move 1: Spikes
move 2: Toxic Spikes
move 3: Taunt
move 4: Shadow Sneak/U-Turn
ability: Protean
item: Focus Sash
evs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
nature: Jolly

Moves
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• Both Spikes and Toxic Spikes can be used for later damage, with the consistent Spikes damage, and the Toxic Spikes for the Toxic Poison Damage nearing the end of a difficult battle.
• Taunt can be used to stop hazards and the mandatory protect for maybe a second.
• U-turn can be used to switch out of difficult situations, like if there is something with mach punch
• Shadow Sneak can be used as a very quick sash breaker so most sweepers will be gone with little ease as long as they are frail and have a sash

Set Details
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• The EV Spread of 252 / 4 / 252 allows it to live smaller hits, such as a weak knock off, or a water type move like scald.
• Jolly Nature allows it to have speed, but without the lower power to Shadow Sneak or U-turn, depending on the set.
• Focus Sash allows it to get at least 2 sets of spikes up, depending on the matchup

Usage Tips
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When using it, think of it as a throw-away, just there for spikes on the opposing team. it can also be used for luring, so that is a thing to think about.

Team Options
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Now since this is a throwaway pokemon, you can put it on any team, and it will fit and do it's job, with little to no resistances from it doing it's job.


Other Options
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When using greninja, you can alternatively use only toxic spikes and replace spikes with hydro pump or scald. or if you are using a Hidden Power, Grass is the best on Spikes Setter Greninja

Checks & Counters
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**Blissey**: To Greninja, Blissey is the devil, having that amazing special bulk and being able to take hits like hydro pump or dark pulse. Blissey doesn't COMPLETELY wall Greninja, since Greninja got access to Low Kick, so it is mostly a Check in Greninja's case
**Mega Sceptile**: Mega Sceptile has the speed that Greninja hates, it also has the ability to 1hko Greninja, and because the new set doesn't run ice beam anymore, gunk shot is the only unaccurate option, so in Greninja's Case Mega-Sceptile is a Counter
**Mega-Lopunny**: Although not a huge threat in VGC 2015 it still is a huge threat to Greninja. In the same case as Mega-Sceptile Lopunny has the speed that Greninja doesn't have, with Mega-Lopunny hitting 405 speed with max speed and Jolly, it can 1HKO Non-Focus Sash Greninja. But with the same case as Blissey, it is not as much as a threat since Greninja can get Low Kick, effectively causing Lopunny to faint, therefore, it is a hard check.

 

[Aurorusite]

No mention of Ice Beam?? Guess what: Ice Beam is Greninja's best move, and 3/4 of them has it, and for good reason. STAB Ice Beam is really rare in VGC, so its very good for Greninja. Also, why mention blissey everywhere? Blissey is mostly poopy gimmick in VGC. Same with Chansey. I also want to know the point of 2nd set. In case you didnt know, no moderately decent VGC player uses entry hazards and for good reason: they suck in this meta, as VGC battles typically are pretty fast, stall stinks here and there isnt too much switching. Ur counters that u listed are pretty weird, too. For Example, i think there should be speed control and priority listed as counters, as greninja doesnt want to get outsped. Sceptile and Lopunny arent too common in VGC, either. If Greninja runs sash and/or Sceptile is modest, it is not check or counter. I dont want to be rude, but it honeslty feels that you havent played much at VGC-meta. Mentioning entry hazards, using OU spreads (like you mentioned) and mentioning things like Blissey makes this analysis look more like for Smogon tiers (OU mostly, but greninja is banned from OU, right?) than for VGC tier. There is still lots of many other things, but those were main ones.

Sorry if i sounded rude, i just wanted to help

 

[Sebberball]

No mention of Ice Beam?? Guess what: Ice Beam is Greninja's best move, and 3/4 of them has it, and for good reason. STAB Ice Beam is really rare in VGC, so its very good for Greninja. Also, why mention blissey everywhere? Blissey is mostly poopy gimmick in VGC. Same with Chansey. I also want to know the point of 2nd set. In case you didnt know, no moderately decent VGC player uses them, for good reason, they suck, as VGC battles typically are pretty fast. Ur counters that u listed are pretty weird, too. For Example, i think there should be speed control and priority listed as counters, as greninja doesnt want to get outsped. Sceptile and Lopunny arent too common in VGC, either. If Greninja runs sash and/or Sceptile is modest, it is not check or counter. I dont want to be rude, but it honeslty feels that you havent played much at VGC-meta. Mentioning entry hazards, using OU spreads (like you mentioned) and mentioning things like Blissey makes this analysis look more like for Smogon tiers (OU mostly, but greninja is banned from OU, right?) than for VGC tier. There is still lots of many other things, but those were main ones.

Sorry if i sounded rude, i just wanted to help

you did not sound rude, blissey is eggcellent, and i mentioned it because it is a wall towards greninja, and ill give a mention to ice beam :). and the reason i included thos ethree is because alot of things can only CHECK greninja, not counter them, and i have played VGC, mostly in IRL tournaments not really much on PS! or smogon. but i do play VGC and have a imo pretty medium sized understanding, and plus, this is my first analysis... so it must be shitty... XD

 

[Sebberball]

HAH double post on my own post! inception.

anyways, if there is anything i should add or take away, just say, im open to suggestions! and im reasonable sometimes...

 

[Aurorusite]

Like i said, im not QC, but i am pretty sure that 2nd set should be removed straight away. I honestly would remove mentions about egg blobs and maybe P2 (not sure). Dont add these changes what i have under, as QC member might disagree with some of my points

All Out Mixed-Attacker
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name: All Out Mixed-Attacker
move 1: Ice Beam
move 2: Dark Pulse / Scald / Hydro Pump / Grass Knot
move 3: Gunk Shot / Low Kick / Rock Slide
move 4: Protect
ability: Protean
item: Life Orb / Focus Sash
evs: 252 SpA / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
nature: Naive / Hasty

I feel like Ice Beam is must, and protect is kinda cool too. 2nd slot is another special coverage move, and 3rd slot is physical coverage. greninja kinda has massive 4MSS which is why i have so many slashes here. I added Scald and Grass Knot. Scald is more accurate than Hydro and has burn chance, while Grass Knot is better than HP Grass outside of hitting Rotom-W, as it is 100BP against Milotic/Suicune as opposed to HP Grass's base 60, which is kinda cool. I also have Sash here, because Ninja is so frail. You could also mention that EVs can be modified in some ways, such as running more Atk if you want to have better chance to KO kanga or something.

In OO, i would mention Taunt, Shadow Sneak, U-Turn, Blizzard (if used in team that has hail), HP Grass (if Rotom truly bothers you, i think its usable to mention), HP Fire. idk how useful Water Shuriken is, but it would be one thing to mention, too. Scarf is sometimes used for ridiculous speed and be ultimate check to Landorus, i am however unsure should it be mentioned in OO, but as it is 3rd or 4th most common item on Greninja, it is maybe good to mention. also expert belt is usable option if you have LO or sash already on something else, and if you want more power without recoil from every attack. Mat Block is cool on paper, but if greninja gets outsped, it is garbage. it also doesnt block any priority, status or fake out, so yea

 

[tofucocoa]

this doesn't look like a vgc analysis at all and more like a OU analysis (and isn't greninja banned there?). try again when you've actually played the metagame.

QC Rejected 1/2

e: also, if you really want to write an analysis, you can try your hand at writing up a skeleton that's already passed QC.