Greninja
Greninja is an insanely fun Pokemon to use, with access to protean and a wide array of tricks for its move set. He isn't the strongest Pokemon but with some technique he can run circles around alot of the VGC competition.
Overview
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Pros:
--Very fast Pokémon that will out speed a lot of today's threats.
--Has access to protean, one of the best abilities in game for the offensive game.
--Great move pool to abuse with protean for keeping the opponent guessing.
Cons:
--Not much in the way of damage without help.
--Loses to priority.
--No bulk to speak of at all, you will die to anything in one hit usually.
For We Are Greninja!
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name: Special attacker set
move 1: Hydro Pump
move 2: Ice Beam
move 3 :Dark Pulse
move 4: Protect
ability: Protean
item: Life Orb/ Focus Sash
EV's: 4 HP, 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed,
nature: Timid
Moves
========
--Hydro pump is your preferred move of choice for water. If you do not like the accuracy loss, you can take Scald with the lack of power. Surf is the least preferred, as it may have more power but because it hits both targets surf suffers a power loss, something Greninja can't afford.
--Ice beam is the go to ice move, with blizzard also being a valid move if used in a hail team. This will handle all those mean nasty dragons that may harm the rest of your team if unchecked.
--Dark pulse is your neutral move of choice, with Greninja's speed and high flinch chance you can often beat a Pokémon with luck and a dark pulse flinch.
--The last move is up to choice, Grass Knot takes down a lot of annoying heavy Pokémon like Tyranitar or bulky water Pokémon like Gyarados or Vaporeon. U-Turn is an eject move that lets you get the tiniest amount of damage and Extrasensory being a decent damage psychic move to quickly gain the psychic type or to check a fighting type
Set Details
========
--EVs are self explanatory, maximum Speed and maximum Special Attack for the most oomph, the 4 EVs leftover can go anywhere.
--With Timid you will be out speeding most of the cast with a base 122 Speed
--As for items, the Life Orb is the better of the 3 options for a big damage boost for a 10% life drop, but with Greninja you want to make the game as short as possible. Focus Sash will protect for 1 hit with greninja allowing it to have a chance with its low defences. The Expert Belt can take Life Orb's place if you have the Life Orb on another Pokémon, it will still give you a nice damage boost, but on the neutral game you will feel the hurt of not having the boost.
Usage Tips
========
--This Pokémon is really about super effective hits.
--Greninja has a wide range of coverage moves most of which can be used to your advantage, with protean you can take this to the next level as a guessing game and use them to create immunities (dark pulse turns dark to be immune to psychic type moves, etc)
--In conjunction with the last point, you can trade hydro pump for a different move for coverage, this isn't recommended as you lose he power of hydro pump, but you can fit Greninja in as a full coverage Pokemon
Team Options
========
--You want a damage Pokémon to be beside Greninja more often than not. And any Greninja's best friend involves Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Mawile, or Choice Band Talonflame. This Pokémon fits into any Meta team built on damage, and with excellent cover options, it is always welcome.
--With his wide move pool, Greninja can cover almost any beginner's team, Greninja is an amazing Pokemon to start learning competitive with.
--Greninja can fit in a Hail team quite nicely with access to Blizzard, which with Protean becomes an Ice type and immune to Hail, as well as Blizzard never missing in Hail.
--In terms of team placement just remember, while Greninja can fill a niche on any team, but without super effective hits Greninja is average at best.
Other Options
########
--You can take Mat Block if you want, it's a great move in doubles, just remember it doesn't have priority, so a Bullet Punch, Extreme Speed, or Gale Wings Brave Bird will all get around it. However, due to the fact it protects your partner it is worth more than a mention. You can only use Mat Block on the first turn Greninja is on the battlefield, be it starting or switching in. this means it can be used multiple times on the switch in turns like Fake Out, so you can go that way with a slow Volt Switch or U-Turn from a pokemon on your team.
--Taunt is a valid move but can cost you a turn that you don't want to use, only have Taunt if you don't have another Pokémon that can learn Taunt, but it is always valid and can be a great choice. Just remember a Greninja that is not attacking is an open Greninja so have something to protect it.
--Hidden Power Fire or Grass is the last viable move for slot 4, Hidden Power Grass is better than grass knot because of Rotom-W popularity
--Other than that aim for super effective hits, and a teammate that can finish a more bulky Pokémon off that Greninja will not kill in one hit.
--The Expert Belt can take Life Orb's place if you have the Life Orb on another Pokémon, it will still give you a nice damage boost, but on the neutral game you will feel the hurt of not having the boost.
Checks & Counters
########
--Rotom-W can pretty much take everything Greninja can throw at it and use Greninja's lack of bulk to pretty much, kill it off, in the same respect you are going to out speed it and hope to god for a Dark Pulse flinch. It is going to take at least two hits so Life Orb will take you down considerably just for this Pokémon. Grass knot will only be base power 20 so it will not do much.
--Choice Band Talonflame with Gale Wings is always going to K.O. Greninja in one hit with Brave Bird, although if Talonflame does not go for you then it will die to one Hydro Pump.
Focus Sash will counter Talonflame at full health as 1 hydro pump will kill Talonflame
--Mega Kangaskhan will usually devastate Greninja, since it can will survive an attack or 2. and has the attack to damage greninja heavily and kill in 1 turn due to parental bond. although greninja can get in some nice chip damage on it
--Mega Mawile hard counters due to typing and nice defenses, Play Rough will K.O in 1 hit even if not super effective
--Fighting types are pretty solid against Greninja, like Conkeldurr, Scrafty, and even Lucario. They can usually take a hit and retaliate back with a KO or threaten with priority.
--Drain abilities like Storm Drain although rare are something to watch out for, if you suspect something has Storm Drain don't even think about using Hydro Pump, it will only help your opponent out. the only time to use Hydro Pump in this situation is to scout the ability out
Greninja is an insanely fun Pokemon to use, with access to protean and a wide array of tricks for its move set. He isn't the strongest Pokemon but with some technique he can run circles around alot of the VGC competition.
Overview
########
Pros:
--Very fast Pokémon that will out speed a lot of today's threats.
--Has access to protean, one of the best abilities in game for the offensive game.
--Great move pool to abuse with protean for keeping the opponent guessing.
Cons:
--Not much in the way of damage without help.
--Loses to priority.
--No bulk to speak of at all, you will die to anything in one hit usually.
For We Are Greninja!
########
name: Special attacker set
move 1: Hydro Pump
move 2: Ice Beam
move 3 :Dark Pulse
move 4: Protect
ability: Protean
item: Life Orb/ Focus Sash
EV's: 4 HP, 252 Special Attack, 252 Speed,
nature: Timid
Moves
========
--Hydro pump is your preferred move of choice for water. If you do not like the accuracy loss, you can take Scald with the lack of power. Surf is the least preferred, as it may have more power but because it hits both targets surf suffers a power loss, something Greninja can't afford.
--Ice beam is the go to ice move, with blizzard also being a valid move if used in a hail team. This will handle all those mean nasty dragons that may harm the rest of your team if unchecked.
--Dark pulse is your neutral move of choice, with Greninja's speed and high flinch chance you can often beat a Pokémon with luck and a dark pulse flinch.
--The last move is up to choice, Grass Knot takes down a lot of annoying heavy Pokémon like Tyranitar or bulky water Pokémon like Gyarados or Vaporeon. U-Turn is an eject move that lets you get the tiniest amount of damage and Extrasensory being a decent damage psychic move to quickly gain the psychic type or to check a fighting type
Set Details
========
--EVs are self explanatory, maximum Speed and maximum Special Attack for the most oomph, the 4 EVs leftover can go anywhere.
--With Timid you will be out speeding most of the cast with a base 122 Speed
--As for items, the Life Orb is the better of the 3 options for a big damage boost for a 10% life drop, but with Greninja you want to make the game as short as possible. Focus Sash will protect for 1 hit with greninja allowing it to have a chance with its low defences. The Expert Belt can take Life Orb's place if you have the Life Orb on another Pokémon, it will still give you a nice damage boost, but on the neutral game you will feel the hurt of not having the boost.
Usage Tips
========
--This Pokémon is really about super effective hits.
--Greninja has a wide range of coverage moves most of which can be used to your advantage, with protean you can take this to the next level as a guessing game and use them to create immunities (dark pulse turns dark to be immune to psychic type moves, etc)
--In conjunction with the last point, you can trade hydro pump for a different move for coverage, this isn't recommended as you lose he power of hydro pump, but you can fit Greninja in as a full coverage Pokemon
Team Options
========
--You want a damage Pokémon to be beside Greninja more often than not. And any Greninja's best friend involves Mega Kangaskhan, Mega Mawile, or Choice Band Talonflame. This Pokémon fits into any Meta team built on damage, and with excellent cover options, it is always welcome.
--With his wide move pool, Greninja can cover almost any beginner's team, Greninja is an amazing Pokemon to start learning competitive with.
--Greninja can fit in a Hail team quite nicely with access to Blizzard, which with Protean becomes an Ice type and immune to Hail, as well as Blizzard never missing in Hail.
--In terms of team placement just remember, while Greninja can fill a niche on any team, but without super effective hits Greninja is average at best.
Other Options
########
--You can take Mat Block if you want, it's a great move in doubles, just remember it doesn't have priority, so a Bullet Punch, Extreme Speed, or Gale Wings Brave Bird will all get around it. However, due to the fact it protects your partner it is worth more than a mention. You can only use Mat Block on the first turn Greninja is on the battlefield, be it starting or switching in. this means it can be used multiple times on the switch in turns like Fake Out, so you can go that way with a slow Volt Switch or U-Turn from a pokemon on your team.
--Taunt is a valid move but can cost you a turn that you don't want to use, only have Taunt if you don't have another Pokémon that can learn Taunt, but it is always valid and can be a great choice. Just remember a Greninja that is not attacking is an open Greninja so have something to protect it.
--Hidden Power Fire or Grass is the last viable move for slot 4, Hidden Power Grass is better than grass knot because of Rotom-W popularity
--Other than that aim for super effective hits, and a teammate that can finish a more bulky Pokémon off that Greninja will not kill in one hit.
--The Expert Belt can take Life Orb's place if you have the Life Orb on another Pokémon, it will still give you a nice damage boost, but on the neutral game you will feel the hurt of not having the boost.
Checks & Counters
########
--Rotom-W can pretty much take everything Greninja can throw at it and use Greninja's lack of bulk to pretty much, kill it off, in the same respect you are going to out speed it and hope to god for a Dark Pulse flinch. It is going to take at least two hits so Life Orb will take you down considerably just for this Pokémon. Grass knot will only be base power 20 so it will not do much.
--Choice Band Talonflame with Gale Wings is always going to K.O. Greninja in one hit with Brave Bird, although if Talonflame does not go for you then it will die to one Hydro Pump.
Focus Sash will counter Talonflame at full health as 1 hydro pump will kill Talonflame
--Mega Kangaskhan will usually devastate Greninja, since it can will survive an attack or 2. and has the attack to damage greninja heavily and kill in 1 turn due to parental bond. although greninja can get in some nice chip damage on it
--Mega Mawile hard counters due to typing and nice defenses, Play Rough will K.O in 1 hit even if not super effective
--Fighting types are pretty solid against Greninja, like Conkeldurr, Scrafty, and even Lucario. They can usually take a hit and retaliate back with a KO or threaten with priority.
--Drain abilities like Storm Drain although rare are something to watch out for, if you suspect something has Storm Drain don't even think about using Hydro Pump, it will only help your opponent out. the only time to use Hydro Pump in this situation is to scout the ability out
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