Ninjask (GP 2/2)

[Overview]

<p>Say "Hello" to Ninjask, an oddball of sorts. What used to be the resident Baton Passer in OU is now in the NU tier, where it can perform best. Ninjask is the fastest Pokemon in the entire NU tier, boasting an insane base 160 Speed. Its main selling point, however, is its ability, Speed Boost, which gives it +1 Speed at the end of every turn. However, it isn't all fun and games for Ninjask. Even in NU it faces Taunt and Encore, especially from the two Prankster users in the tier. With a base 90 Attack, Ninjask can try to keep an offensive presence, but it utterly fails with its poor movepool. Baton Passing also means Ninjask needs some bulk, but it doesn't have any. With 61 / 45 / 50 Defenses, it will be severely injured, if not OHKOed, by most priority.</p>

[SET]
name: Baton Pass
move 1: Baton Pass
move 2: Swords Dance/Protect
move 3: Substitute
move 4: X-Scissor
item: Leftovers
nature: Jolly
evs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>This is Ninjask's best and only set. The purpose of this set is to obtain 6 Speed boosts and Baton Pass out. Substitute is necessary to help stall and protect the recipient as well as protecting you from status. X-Scissor stops you from being Taunt bait and takes down Cottonee, which would otherwise Taunt you and start SubSeeding your team. Ninjask is best used as a lead, but if you must switch in, try to come in on a locked in Ground-, Grass-, or Fighting-type attack, which gives you free turns to set up. Swords Dance is what guarantees a sweep for your recipient, but Protect can easily be used in its place so you can net 6 speed boosts more easily. It also protects you from Fake Out and faster Taunters.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>The curse of the Bug/Flying typing strikes Ninjask especially hard; its crippling Stealth Rock weakness means that Ninjask really appreciates Rapid Spin support. However, all the viable spinners in NU are weak to Stealth Rock themselves. It is also possible to run a Wish Passer like Alolomola instead of a spinner. Wish is a less reliable option, but it allows Ninjask to come in again and again to pass Speed boosts to several teammates. The EVs listed give Ninjask 325 HP for 3 Stealth Rock switch-ins and maximize its Defense, while the nature gives it enough Speed to outpace Swellow. You can choose to run 160 Speed EVs with a Jolly nature to outspeed Electrode, but Ninjask can outspeed it after a single Speed boost anyway.</p>

<p>As for your recipient, you want to pick a Pokemon that is a slow but powerful attacker and can take a hit or two receiving the boosts. Such examples are Emboar, Armaldo, Marowak, Torterra, Braviary, Relicanth, and Pinsir, all of which can easily tear through half the NU metagame with +6 Speed and can survive priority attacks.</p>

[Other Options]

<p>Ninjask is a one-trick-pony. It has some options outside of the Baton Pass set, but none are really viable. A Choice Band set seems possible, since everyone is expecting a Baton Pass set. However, with Ninjask's offensive movepool, such a set will be deadweight, having to use attacks such as Aerial Ace and Dig. Another choice is a more offensively inclined BP set. In NU, however, such a set would be deadweight with all the Steel-types. Roost is another viable option, as with it you can come in more than once to Baton Pass. The problem with Roost is that you likely will not be surviving long enough to use Roost. You can also choose to pass Hone Claws boosts instead of Swords Dance boosts, but it sets up a lot slower than Swords Dance.</p>

[Checks and Counters]

<p>Faster Taunt and Encore users really ruin Ninjask's day. Electrode outspeeds if Ninjask is not running max speed, but Ninjask can get a Speed boost with Protect to outspeed Electrode. Murkrow gets a special mention for having Prankster, which it can use to Taunt Ninjask before it can do anything. Multi-hit moves break Ninjask's Substitutes; examples of this are Golem and Gigalith's Rock Blast. User of Roar, such as Flareon, also ruin its Baton Passing ability. As mentioned before, Stealth Rock will take off half of Ninjask's health, and with all good NU spinners being weak to SR themselves, once it's up, Ninjask only has one shot at Baton Passing. Remember, Ninjask's main selling point is its speed. Find a way to get past that, and you've countered Ninjask.</p>

[Dream World]
<p>Worthless is an understatement when it comes to Ninjask's Dream World Ability, Infiltrator. Ninjask passes Speed boosts. It does nothing else.</p>
 

AccidentalGreed

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A word of advice: do not write up your analyses before they get officially QC approved, otherwise you may have wasted lots of time writing something that may have to be changed dramatically. For example, we could advocate the addition of an offensive Baton Pass set (as seen in RU) in addition to the one you have right now (it looks like a "Dedicated Baton Pass" set to me).
 

tennisace

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Yeah this needs a serious rework. Check out all the other skeletons in this forum and PM me a new OP, and I'll unlock this.
 
well, ya don't have items listed, so look into that please (though I would assume Lefties in the first set, LO/Lum in second). Also, I'd slash in X-Scissor or Aerial Ace somewhere on the first set, or at least mention in AC. Also, mention Roost in the OO, it really isn't valid enough for AC imo, but it should at least get a mention
 
what are you hitting with AA that X-scissor isn't

why do we need to outrun electrode when after 1 protect you outrun him anyway

and can we just pour the 160 evs into attack anyway since ninjask isn't going to be surviving anything, unless the bulk allows him to survive something you should just dump them all into defense and leave it
 
rule of thumb: defensive BP jask can sub up on any special attacks (since speed + 4x resist to vaccum wave means it only fears physical priority), so unless there's some specific attack that 60 SDef EVs prevents a sub from breaking, those EVs are better left in Def.
Also, 252 HP EVs + 4x weak to rock = bad HP number for SR.

Putting that together:
The first set's EV spread should be 248 HP / 164 Def / 96 Spe Jolly
 
@Maestro: Fixed the EVs.
@TM13IceBeam: Slashed Substitute onto the Offensive BP set. I suppose AA hits bugs and X-Scissor doesn't.
 

breh

強いだね
screw electrode nobody uses it and if anybody does, ninjask is not getting you past rain dance teams.

IMO use 248 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SpD Jolly. Outspeeds Swellow (which is actually relevant) and the rest is self explanatory. Don't know if a defensive or offensive spread is better, pick whichever you like more (if you choose the former, obviously replace the Attack with Def or SpD and put the remaining 8 EVs in the other stat).

Don't use AA; it's bad and weak.
 
this might be radical, but i think we should just lump the entire baton pass sets into one. ninjask is really that one-dimensional: it can't do anything outside of BP. moveset-wise there's literally no difference, x-scissor simply allows jask to be a somewhat-legit offensive presence, while protect allows it to nab extra speed boosts. i seriously don't see the difference between the two especially considering the redundancy of AA
 
also, if you mention choiced Grass you may also want to mention choiced fighting/ground although these 2 are rare anyway (the biggest instance you'll probably see is scarf sawk's CC)
 
Protect should be slashed with Swords Dance, not X-scissor, his only attack. Most of the time, you aren't going to be able to pass SD boosts, just Speed boosts. Ninjask needs some form of attack so it isn't complete Taunt bait (i.e. useless)
 

tennisace

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Protect really shouldn't be slashed at all, Substitute is better most of the time. Just mention it in AC.



Looks good otherwise.
 
Tennis, Protect helps you avoid Taunt on that first turn so you can at least pass one Speed Boost if needed, so I think it warrants a slash
 

tennisace

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Aside from Prankster Murkrow, what outspeeds min Speed Ninjask? Also, what leads commonly carry Taunt because for some reason I never see any.
 

jrrrrrrr

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Nothing uses Taunt in NU so that argument is moot. Murkrow is NU in NU, only in 2.4% of battles. And if I was a Murkrow user I would just Haze or Whirlwind instead of Taunting you anyways, as neutral +2 X-Scissor would hurt (Super Effective if I tried to Roost).

Protect is more useful for scouting things like Rock Blast vs Stone Edge vs Roar on Rhydon, rather than scouting for Taunt. I'd personally slash it with X-Scissor instead of Substitute but with Mesprit as #1 most used that probably won't make it. Either way Protect is a great option for Ninjask and needs to be there.

You should list more specific counters. Anything with Roar does a great job, especially Rhydon and Flareon. Rhydon is also notable for having Rock Blast. Klingklang boosts its Speed faster than you and has a good multihit move to destroy you through a sub. In addition to "phazing", actual hazing does a great job of countering it too. Things like Murkrow, Weezing and Wartortle (who is more popular in the tier than Tauros).

Not much else this mon can do though...
 

jake

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Electrode and Persian will both outspeed min Speed Ninjask and can Taunt it (though the Persian user will probably be stupid enough to Fake Out first). You also still need to make note of the Roar users that jrrrrrrr mentioned, because they all definitely are a fullstop to whatever Ninjask wants to do.

When that gets done, you've got a QC APPROVED 3/3
 

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