Ninjask

[gabezj]

Ninjask​

#259
Bug/Flying

Ninjask, the pokemon in OU last gen just for its excellent baton passing capabilities comes back for another generation. It needs to differentiate its self from other baton passers more than ever now that it has competition beyond just Smeargle in the form of mischievous heart abusers. Also, this is my first thread so if any of you have any suggestions or complaints, feel free to tell me

Stats

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Stats
Hp-61
Atk-90
Def-45
SpAtk-50
SpDef-50
Spd-160

Abilities

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Speed Boost
DW Abitity- Slip Through

Level Up Moves

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Bug Bite
Scratch
Harden
Leech Life
Sand-Attack
Leech Life
Sand-Attack
Fury Swipes
Mind Reader
Double Team
Fury Cutter
Screech
Swords Dance
Slash
Agility
Baton Pass
X-Scissor

TMs & HMs

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Hone Claws
Toxic
Hidden Power
Sunny Day
Hyper Beam
Protect
Frustration
SolarBeam
Return
Dig
Shadow Ball
Double Team
Sandstorm
Aerial Ace
Facade
Rest
Attract
Thief
Sing A Round
False Swipe
Giga Impact
Flash
Swords Dance
Insect Opposition
X-Scissor
Swagger
U-turn
Substitute
Cut

Breeding

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Bug Bite
Bug Buzz
Endure
Desperation
Faint Attack
Gust
Night Slash
Silver Wind

Previous Gen Moves

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Giga Drain
Secret Power
Roost
Captivate
Sleep Talk
Natural Gift
Defog
Air Cutter
Ominous Wind
Snore
Spite
Uproar
Mud Slap
String Shot

Possible Sets

Speed Baton Pass

248HP, 8ATK, 184DEF, 68SPD
Adamant nature
Leftovers/Mental Herb/Focus Sash
Protect
Sub
Baton Pass
X-Scissor

Same as last Gen, protect and sub to gain as many speed boosts as possible with leftovers replenishing your health allowing you to make more subs.

Speed and Attack Baton Pass

176 HP, 252 Atk, 80 Spe
Jolly
Leftovers/Mental Herb/Focus Sash
Swords Dance/Hone Claws
Baton Pass
Substitute
X-Scissor

Same as the other, sub and get boosts to pass out, Hone Claws can be used but it is generally inferior to Swords Dance.

Pinch Berry

240HP, 16ATK, 252DEF
Jolly
Leichi, Salac, Petaya Berry
Subsititue
Baton Pass
Swords Dance
Dig/Aerial Ace


With that EV spread and substitute, swords dance, baton pass, *filler*... he can outspeed everything with a positive 130 nature and under on the first turn. The defensive spread also helps with priority users seeing as priority attacks are usually physical. This means you can survive priority and have 1 sub up to boot, letting you activate any pinch berry you might have. Add Dig, or Aerial Ace as Dig helps stall out Taunt and cause damage to boot or a switch, and Aerial Ace gets STAB.


Contributed by PJ_Graphix


Choice Band

4HP, 252ATK, 252SPD
Adamant
Choice Band
U-Turn
X-Scissor
Aerial Ace/Night Slash
Return/Dig/Desperation

Due to its popularity as a baton passer, a scout/choice band set can work to scout or revenge kill with its great speed.


Ninjask @ Leftovers/Focus Sash
Adamant 252 HP/252 Atk/6 Spe
- Life Gamble
- Baton Pass
- Swords Dance/X-Scissor/Substitute
- Protect/X-Scissor

Mostly a standard BP set with a move that can possibly cripple a Pokemon.With max HP, Ninjask reaches 326 HP.While not enough to directly KO most Pokemon, it will still take a nice chunk out of them.Afterwards, just bring in your counter and finish them off.Possibly getting rid of any phazer they might have (for instance, Skarmory at max health has 334 HP.This would mean a full health Skarmory would be left with 8 HP.) or possibly just a counter to one of your pokes.This is also beneficial since there are a lot more bulky tanks/sweepers going aound and Ninjask is faster than everything so you can get it in before getting hit.

If you don't need to Life Gamble, you can go about your Baton Passing business.The speed of this Ninjask,even with no investment, is 357 before a boost and 535 after one.Protect for speed boosts.Swords Dance if you think you can get one in, and X-Scissor if you want an attack that won't sacrifice Ninjask.

The main problems are many.The chief among them is that Life Gamble needs most of the HP intact.Which is a problem due to Ninjask's SR weakness and the fact he dies or gets severly hurt through almost any priority attack.The fact that Life Gamble doesn't work on Ghosts is another problems.


Contributed by Dragon Rider


Discus these sets or other ones and its viability amongst other options for a baton passer.

 

[voodoo pimp]

Isn't it pretty much entirely outclassed by Blaziken now? Same niche, but much better typing and meaningful offensive capability.

 

[gabezj]

But speed boost blaziken cant have baton pass.

 

[boyofrito]

Yea it can

 

[gabezj]

i thought that you needed a female torchic for speed boost and baton pass to be legal since its an egg move and that those torchic havent been released?

 

[Mazaki Anzu]

Ninjask has higher base speed though. He has easier time baton passing since Blaziken its OK speed at best after 1 speed boost

 

[TLK]

No mention of Death Gambit Ninjask?

It can really wreck Pokemon that would normally try and whirlwind him away. Max HP Skarmory will be left at about 8 HP by Death Gambit Max HP Ninjask, while the likes of Swampert and Gyarados will be left with less than 25%. He makes a decent anti-lead with it, although Scarf-Victini is probably better due to higher HP (although Ninjask has the element of surprise to it).

Mischevious Heart users still suck for Ninjask.

 

[TM13IceBeam]

Honestly Blaziken is better off at sweeping than Baton Passing. The one thing that Blaziken can do that Ninjask can't is passing defense boosts in the form of Bulk Up. (Although that said, which Pokemon actually benefits from being passed a defense boost...?)

 

[Alchemator]

Yea it can

No. Pokemon Online allows the combination, but it's actually impossible to get a Blaziken with both Baton Pass and Speed Boost. Baton Pass is an Egg Move, but all DW Torchic are male.

 

[TM13IceBeam]

Pokemon Online doesn't have everything legal programmed in correctly, hence you still see bullshit like Level 1 Donphans with Shell Bell Endeavour even though the legal ones are at least Level 5(Pomeg glitch) and are illegal with Ice Shard.

 

[gabezj]

I assume that PO will eventually fix this and therefore we should begin to analyse other options for baton pass. I think Ninjask is not outclassed by pokemon such as volbeat because, while it does not have Mischievous Heart, it is very fast and can get faster with speed boost. Also it can pass attack boosts as well as speed boosts which others cant, it can gain boosts while protecting or Subing and it can get a three stage boost spread between two stats that other baton passers cannot boost.

 

[TM13IceBeam]

Ninjask is currently the only legal Pokemon that can baton pass Attack AND Speed boosts with just one moveslot for boosting. (Unless someone gets a female DW Torchic that is...)

 

[Darkamber8828]

Ninjask is currently the only legal Pokemon that can baton pass Attack AND Speed boosts with just one moveslot for boosting. (Unless someone gets a female DW Torchic that is...)

Shell Break Gorebyss, Shell Break Huntail, Shell Break Smeargle, Dragon Dance Smeargle, Gear Change Smeargle.

Anyway, Ninjask gained nothing and therefore will continue to suck. The end.

 

[cosmicexplorer]

Ninjask is just bad. Its Pikachu-esque defenses and only passable Attack, coupled with its terrible STAB, means that the only way it's going to get any sort of setup is with Baton Pass teams, which is quite difficult to pull off, and its lack of Taunt makes it incredibly vulnerable to phazing.

 

[TM13IceBeam]

oh wow goddamnit I fail XD

Ninjask is still broken to be used in UU though. Ridiculously good speed, not to mention all the MH users with Taunt are likely OU material(except Lepardas). Ninjask passing boosts Atk/Spd boosts to a sweeper means that you need Lepardas just to avoid your UU team getting steamrolled.

Likely speaking Ninjask will probably end up in BL. With Shell Break and Gear Change Smeargle is a better user of Baton Pass.

(Really wish Smeargle got Mischievous Heart though, it will definitely be really useful.)

 

[AlphaSpade]

Ninjask is currently the only legal Pokemon that can baton pass Attack AND Speed boosts with just one moveslot for boosting. (Unless someone gets a female DW Torchic that is...)

http://livedoor.2.blogimg.jp/koby_akid/imgs/0/0/008b8382.png

Whatever happened to this?

 

[TM13IceBeam]

What thy freek? I thought all the dudes in the research thread reported male Torchic and Croagunk? Unless that thing isn't hacked its solid proof that we can start SB Blazikens with Baton Pass.

 

[Monozu]

http://livedoor.2.blogimg.jp/koby_akid/imgs/0/0/008b8382.png

Whatever happened to this?

That one was obtained with the modification of external devices I believe. I don't think Torchics came with Blast Burn/Eruption from the dream world.

 

[PJ_Graphix]

Here is something ive found from experience. Ninjask works best, or at least very effectively, with a Jolly Nature, 16 Speed, 252 Speed and 240 HP.

with that ev spread and substitute, swords dance, baton pass, *filler*... he can outspeed everything with a positive 130 nature and under on the first turn. the chances for a pokemon leading with higher than 130 are slim, such as the occasional deoxys on pokemon online....

other than that, ninjask will outspeed. the defensive spread also helps with priority users seeing as priority attacks are usually physical. this means you can survive that pesky bullet punch from metagross and have 1 sub up to boot, letting you activate any pinch berry you might have.

i always use this ninjask and pair it with leichi, ganlon or starf berry depending on my reciever's needs. just a ltitle insight for you all. if you use it, remember, this is PJ_Graphix's Ninjask. i usually pair it with Dig, or Aerial Ace as Dig helps stall out Taunt and cause damage to boot or a switch, and Aerial Ace gets stab on things like blaziken.

 

[AriadosPerson]

All leadPass sets need Mental Herb so as to not be entirely screwed over by Mischievious Heart Taunt.

 

[cosmicexplorer]

Here is something ive found from experience. Ninjask works best, or at least very effectively, with a Jolly Nature, 16 Speed, 252 Speed and 240 HP.

with that ev spread and substitute, swords dance, baton pass, *filler*... he can outspeed everything with a positive 130 nature and under on the first turn. the chances for a pokemon leading with higher than 130 are slim, such as the occasional deoxys on pokemon online....

other than that, ninjask will outspeed. the defensive spread also helps with priority users seeing as priority attacks are usually physical. this means you can survive that pesky bullet punch from metagross and have 1 sub up to boot, letting you activate any pinch berry you might have.

i always use this ninjask and pair it with leichi, ganlon or starf berry depending on my reciever's needs. just a ltitle insight for you all. if you use it, remember, this is PJ_Graphix's Ninjask. i usually pair it with Dig, or Aerial Ace as Dig helps stall out Taunt and cause damage to boot or a switch, and Aerial Ace gets stab on things like blaziken.

Ganlon and Starf berries are completely useless; Defense is a pointless stat to boost, and Starf could easily boost a completely random stat, and is more likely to do so than to boost Attack or Speed. The spreads mentioned in the Ninjask analysis are far more useful than the one you gave, which has a total of 268 EVs in speed. I don't think that's possible. Why would anyone use "your" set anyway? And for that matter, why is it "yours," and not anyone else's?

All leadPass sets need Mental Herb so as to not be entirely screwed over by Mischievious Heart Taunt.

Focus Sash versions need that protection, and the best that a Mental Herb Ninjask can do against a Mischievous Heart Taunt is pass +1 Speed by Protecting, then Baton Passing as Taunt hits and is removed by Mental Herb. Pretty useless, but it could work against a non-Mischievous Heart lead, allowing Ninjask to SD up and pass +2/+2, although it'll probably be OHKOed in the meantime without the protection of Substitute or a Focus Sash.

 

[Steamroll]

I believe he meant for the 16 EV's to go to the Attack stat... You can try your luck with Aerial Ace and Dig, but good luck getting it to last more than two turns.

Ninjask is only good for a quick scout, baton passing a speed boost, and then it's just dead weight. It didn't get anything special in the new generation and with mischevious heart being abused it's even more useless.

 

[LeviLamprey]

@Cosmic Explorer: Starf Berry is not useless, being appreciated by most mixed sweepers. Exploud, a Pokemon that has trouble functioning outside BP chains, already gets Speed and Attack from Ninjask. The potential for a Sp. Atk boost or a defensive boost to remedy its low base defenses is something it won't pass up.
EDIT: Also, many people add possessive references to sets when they think them up, or even if they don't. If it's a set on your Ninjask that you thought of, it's your set on your Pokemon. If you didn't think it up, it's still your set being on your Pokemon. If a set is popular, it gets a name. If it isn't, it's easier to say 'my set' than 'The Ice Beam/Rock Slide/Cheer Up/Substitute set'.

 

[breh]

All leadPass sets need Mental Herb so as to not be entirely screwed over by Mischievious Heart Taunt.

Mischevous Heart pokemon suck so Mental Herb is useless except in the (currently unestablished) lower tiers IMO.

then again that's probably where n00bjask will end up huh?

 

[LeviLamprey]

Breludicolo, based on a couple of other posts I've seen, I can safely say you HATE Mischievous Heart! Taunt is a real threat to BPers, especially Ninjask who needs to get the hell out of there before it gets OHKOed. Mental herb is justifiable. Who wants Sableye/Murkrow/Erufuun stopping Ninjask. if it doesn't switch, Erufuun can then use Cotton Guard, Leech Seed, Stun Spore, whatever takes its fancy, maybe even Gale (o_0). Sableye can WoW etc. and has an Attack power that is enough to take out Jask. Murkrow can nullify Attack boosts with Featherdance etc. You get the picture. Ninjask hates Taunt and Mischievous Heart really is a reason to run Mental Herb.