Ninjask (Full Revamp)

[Overview]

<p>Ninjask is famous for only one reason: Baton Passing easy stat boosts to teammates. Its massive base 160 Speed and ability to boost its Speed and pass it to a teammate almost effortlessly gives Ninjask a small but valuable niche on OU teams. With Swords Dance, Ninjask can further prepare a sweep by boosting the offensive prowess of a powerful physical teammate. However, the good news ends here. Ninjask's sad bulk, weakness to priority like Mamoswine's Ice Shard, and quadruple weakness to Stealth Rock often hinder it from doing its only job, and if you don't take certain precautions, it becomes dead weight on your team. Its best sets are those that don't run any attacks, so Taunt is a huge problem. Unfortunately, Ninjask cannot use Taunt itself, leaving it vulnerable to phazing moves. Nevertheless, if you are lucky enough to pull off a Swords Dance and a few Speed Boosts, a donation to a powerful physical sweeper like Haxorus, Salamence, or even Marowak will make your opponent wail in pain.</p>

[SET]
name: Baton Pass
move 1: Baton Pass
move 2: Substitute
move 3: Protect
move 4: Swords Dance / Toxic
item: Leftovers / Mental Herb
ability: Speed Boost
nature: Bold
evs: 248 HP / 236 Def / 24 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>This set is not too difficult to use thanks to its ability to boost its Speed without occupying an extra moveslot. This allows you to set up Substitutes or use Protect until you have enough Speed boosts to bail out with Baton Pass. Non-boosting attackers, namely Choice item users, cannot hit Ninjask during this process. If you detect that your opponent is a Choice Scarf user or if it has over base 115 base Speed, simply use Protect to gain the upper hand in Speed. Otherwise, you may alternate between Substitute and Protect in whatever order you desire. If your opponent switches as you put up a new Substitute, you are in an excellent position. You are now free to use Swords Dance, hit your opponent with Toxic to discourage them from setting up alongside Ninjask, or simply Baton Pass out, giving your teammate a free Substitute.</p>

[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]

<p>Since Ninjask has so much Speed to work with, it can invest just enough Speed to outrun positive natured base 115s, like Starmie and Raikou, while putting the remaining EVs into its physical bulk. The given defensive EVs allow Ninjask to survive a Choice Band Scizor's Bullet Punch and Jolly Life Orb Mamoswine's and Weavile's Ice Shard with enough HP to create a Substitute, then Protect and pass the two Speed boosts unscathed. However, a wise Mamoswine user may simply use Icicle Spear to break the Substitute and proceed to KO Ninjask. You may also invest 80 EVs into Ninjask's Speed to outspeed Tornadus-T immediately, but it eats into Ninjask's already limited physical bulk. Mental Herb may be used over Leftovers in order to discourage Deoxys-D from wasting a turn Taunting you. You are then free to pass to Espeon to prevent Deoxys-D from setting up hazards.</p>

<p>Ninjask can serve the role of a quick passer or to instigate a Baton Pass chain. As a quick passer, Ninjask can garner a few Speed boosts and absolutely must find time to Swords Dance, then pass to a powerful physical attacker. Moxie Salamence is perhaps the best receiver, as it can easily dominate with just one or two boosts and further increase its Attack every time it KOes something (which will be often). However, the role of quick pass is usually better handled by Gorebyss or Smeargle, both of which require only one turn of set up.</p>

<p>Ninjask also functions very well on a Baton Pass chain; simply garner a few boosts, then pass to a bulkier teammate to continue setting up. With the donated Speed, your teammates will have an easier time boosting their defenses and offenses, allowing them to make bulky Substitutes of their own. Vaporeon and Scizor are naturally bulky and can boost their Defense with Acid Armor and Iron Defense, respectively. Mr. Mime's ability, Soundproof, blocks Roar and Perish Song, the bane of Baton Pass teams. It can also set up Calm Mind and create specially bulky Substitutes. Smeargle is the only Pokemon capable of passing Ingrain, which prevents Roar, Whirlwind, and Dragon Tail from breaking the chain. Espeon blocks status, Taunt, hazards, Whirlwind, and Roar with Magic Bounce and can set up more Calm Minds and sweep with Stored Power, which becomes massively powerful after the many boosts your team will gather along the way. Marowak is a frightening physical sweeper that has perfect neutral coverage with Bonemerang, Stone Edge, Double-Edge, and Fire Punch, but needs three or even four Speed Boosts to outspeed Choice Scarf users no thanks to its very low base 45 Speed. You may even consider running Battle Armor on Marowak to prevent an unlucky critical hit from your opponent from breaking through all the defense boosts your team will have gathered, but Double-Edge then becomes detrimental.</p>

[Other Options]

<p>Flash can be used over Swords Dance to give Ninjask more opportunities to set up, either by making your opponent's attacks miss or by forcing a switch. Hone Claws is an option over Swords Dance to enable your recipient to use less accurate moves like Stone Edge, but the immediate power of Swords Dance is much more valuable in almost every situation. Ninjask is also the fastest user of Final Gambit, but it cannot afford to revenge kill as Stealth Rock makes it useless. Final Gambit can be used in the lead position, but Ninjask has better things to do. Roost can be used to regain 50% of Ninjask's health, making up for Stealth Rock and Substitute damage, but if Ninjask is lucky enough to get an extra turn to itself, Swords Dance is much more productive, since Ninjask will not be staying on the field very long. Whatever you do, do not try an offensive set. Its two STAB moves, X-Scissor and Aerial Ace, are too weak to do much damage and its best coverage move is Dig. A better idea is to let Ninjask do the grunt work and your teammate do the sweeping.</p>

[Checks and Counters]

<p>Ninjask may be a pesk, but there are numerous ways to defeat it. Stealth Rock is the first that comes to mind, stripping away half of Ninjask's health and limiting the number of times it can switch back in. Haze, while incredibly rare, is the most effective stop to Baton Pass. Perish Song is more deadly, as the only relevant Pokemon which is immune to it is Mr. Mime; not even Espeon's trusty Magic Bounce can block it. Politoed uses either move best and supports its own team with Drizzle. Whirlwind and Roar are the most common phazing moves, but they can be bounced back by Espeon. Double boosters like Agility Thundurus-T, Shell Smash Cloyster, and Rock Polish Genesect, Landorus, and Terrakion can reach maximum Speed in just three turns and don't mind setting up alongside Ninjask. Terrakion can use Taunt as well, granting it an extra turn to use Rock Polish, while forcing Ninjask to switch out. Cloyster in particular not only boosts more quickly than Ninjask, but can also use Icicle Spear to break its Substitutes. Volcarona can boost alongside Ninjask and puts immediate pressure on it, affording it no time to set up Swords Dance, but must be wary of Toxic. Any Taunt user, namely Deoxys-D and the rare Sableye, can stop Ninjask's fun if it lacks Mental Herb.</p>

Multi-hit moves from Pokemon like Mamo and Cloyster are also worth mentioning.
Also probably worth mentioning is using Ninjask in the lead slot to avoid Stealth Rock issues but seeing as I haven't played Baton Pass a lot I'm not entirely sure what the best way to use it is?

With full Baton Pass I'd rather lead with Smeargle and put something to sleep, but Ninjask as a lead is great to to apply immediate pressure. Your opponent leads with Breloom? Ignore Spore, take very little from Low Sweep or Bullet Seed (I'll probably add some calcs later to make the physically defensive spread more convincing). That's just one example but I used it specifically because Breloom leads are very annoying.

edit: added in multihit to checks and counters, thanks Woodchuck.

I think you should make a distinction between a quick passing Ninjask vs Ninjask used to set up dedicated baton pass chains. Ninjask used to start off dedicated baton pass chains forgo the slot that uses Swords Dance and Hone Claws for an anti-setup move like Toxic or even (-.-) Flash. I would also like to note that a quick passing Ninjask with Swords Dance faces stiff competition from SmashPass Gorybyss. In my opinion you should remove Hone Claws. I don't think Ninjask is going to be able to stay in long enough to effectively able to garner enough boost for the receiver to sweep (it should at least get up to +2).

No mention of mental herb to block taunt/encore? Anyway the best team that features ninjask is probably this team here: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3473245
Ninjask's use on baton pass teams is something no other pokemon can provide. This obviously deserves to be mentioned. This team was so popular(30 Luvdiscs!) that in October's usage statistics, Ninjak is in OU range. BTW this is the team one should be using if one wants to get suspect requirements quickly.
Espeon/Scizor/Mr. Mime needs to be mentioned. Espeon can reflect roar/whirlwind. Mr.Mime is immune to perish song. Scizor can block Dragon Tail's phazing effect if a substitute is passed to it(Scizor can later pass to someone else or boost further).

I hope I helped.

EDIT: Change the evs to the one listed in the team above. It allows Ninjask to survive a Scizor's Bullet Punch(strongest non-super effective priority in OU) and put up a substitute after the damage. Outspeeding Tornadus-T initially isnt important since you will be faster after protect.

You may also want to mention partners that scare out pokemon trying to set up on Ninjask. Also mention that the reciever can use red card to phaze the set-up sweeper as the sweeper breaks the reciever's substitute.

That EV spread is the same as the one on-site but your BP calculation is particularly convincing and I guess not outrunning Tornadus-T and Scarf Toed immediately is fine. I'll change it to that spread. I'll slash Mental Herb next to Leftovers since Deoxys-D is common enough to warrant it and although Encore is rare, it usually pops up at the worst times possible. Thanks Ani.

As if we don't have enough fools fucking up the ladder with this thing, do we really need an OU analysis to encourage more people to use it

Need Stealth Rock in Counters, big time.

Not part of qc, but you should mention haze in counters, too. It fucks up the entire archetype of baton pass and there's NOTHING they can do about it except ko the haze user, but that's hard because all of them are bulky and have recovery.

Viable users are politoad, milotic, dragonite(eh), vaporeon, cofagrigus, and xatu.

Edit: Btw, put the biggest emphasis on xatu, milotic, and vaporeon because out all of the viable users, they have the most longevity due to having reliable recovery(roost,recover,wish/rest) and being immune to status(xatu b/c of magic bounce, milotic if running rest-talk, and vaporeon if it has hydration under rain or is using heal bell.).

sand attack deserves a mention imo. I've found it to be much better than an attacking move

Sand Attack is in OO since the opponent can just switch out (as opposed to trying to break you which is usually a fruitless endeavor anyway)... If anyone thinks Sand Attack would be an option over Protect or X-Scissor, let me know and I'll gladly change it. I also slashed Toxic after Swords Dance.

I think what I will do is stressed that this set can be used in two different ways: as a quick pass machine (SD w/ Leftovers), or baton pass chain (Toxic w/ Mental Herb), and point out the advantages of each move to that play style. Anyway, thanks for your insight guys, I think all bases are covered and that this is ready for QC!

[qc]1/3[/qc]

Looks good

Overview: The lack of Taunt should be mentioned - it's what makes Ninjask so dependent on teammates to pull off a successful BP.

Set Comments: Honestly, remove X-Scissor. Ninjask has no time throwing weak attacks, lol. I'd slash Flash instead, since it forces the opponent to miss / switch, which means an extra Speed boost with an intact Sub!

~ Elaborate on the general tactics of Ninjask. For example, note that most recipients, especially slow ones, appreciate 3-4 Speed boosts, so Ninjask should aim for those numbers for a successful pass.

~ Vary Ninjask's moves: Alternating Substitute + Protect will be predictable and exploited. Throwing up subs consecutively can throw the opponent off-guard and let Ninjask end that turn with a Substitute. Be wary of Ninjask's health, though

AC Mention: Address that the Spe EVs allow it to outpace base Speed 115 mons like Starmie unboosted.

~ Specify that Ninjask can survive an Ice Shard and set up a Substitute against a Jolly LO Mamoswine, since it's not guaranteed for Adamant Mamoswine.

~ Add that Soundproof blocks Perish Song, which ruins BP chains or put the BP recipient sweeper on a very short timer. Mr. Mime also has Encore, which is an amazing utility move after gaining some Speed boosts

~ Mention X-Scissor here as a weak attack option

Other Option: You can add Roost I guess, lol

Added all of those. This is going to be bugmaniacbob length lol.

you implemented all the changes I suggested and then some, so...



QC Approved 2/3

also don't include Sand-Attack, Flash is superior because it has 5 more base PP

You forgot the tidbit on Ninjask's lack of Taunt in Overview.

I'd slash Flash instead, since it forces the opponent to miss / switch, which means an extra Speed boost with an intact Sub!

Click to expand...

You don't necessarily need to slash it in, but at least mention the perks in using Flash, not just the cons.

[qc](3/3)[/qc]

amcheck

Thanks Woodchuck! Applied all the changes.
[gp]1/2[/gp]

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[gp]2/2[/gp]

Good work NixHex, your analysis is very descriptive & easy to read.