Greninja
Type:
Stats: 72 / 95 / 67 / 103 / 71 / 122
Abilites: Torrent, Protean,
Useful Stab Moves:
- Dark Pulse
- Hydro Pump
- Surf
- Liquidation
Potential Coverage Moves:
- Extrasensory
- Grass Knot
- Gunk Shot
- Ice Beam
- Low Kick
- Sludge Wave
Pivoting:
- Flip Turn
- U-turn
Priority Moves:
- Shadow Sneak
- Water Shuriken
Utility:
- Spikes
- Toxic Spikes
- Taunt
Setup
- Swords Dance
Potential Good Items:
(no specs or life orb)Pros:
+ Strong offenses on the physical and special side with good offensive typing, allowing it to use mix sets or full physical/special sets to be a potent mon and snatch suprise KO's
+ Good coverage as protean allows greninja to have stab so water types wanting to resist its water stab being hit hard with stab grass knot and fairy/dark types being hit hard with stab gunk shot/low kick allowing for suprise KO's
+ Good speed tier allowing it to most of the metagame baring some faster pokemon like dragapult, weavile, meoscarada and certain megas
+ Battle Bond is a super scary potential wincon that the opposing player must be wary around to not let a mon get KO'd by greninja
Cons:
- Below average bulk makes it quite frail and unable to tank more than one hit which leads it to be easily revenge killed through faster mons or priority forcing it to switch out or die
- Protean only activates once per switchin, if mega greninja uses a different move than isnt stab, it will no longer have stab on its water/dark attacks which can make it easier to wall or pivot around, if it wants stab on one of its other moves it has to switch out
- Investing in mixed sets can leave it wanting power on some occasions alongside its decent but middling 95 attack and 103 special attack leading to greninja being easily walled or pivoted around on either attacking side
Answers:
Checks:
Bulky Grass Types:
These all can withstand greninjas water stab and can tank dark pulse quite well but they can succumb to its coverage such as ice beam for the likes of hydrapple and mega chesnaught as well as serperior, gunk shot for mega meganium and extrasensory for the case of mega venusaur
Bulky Waters:
Same case with the bulky grass types, azumarill takes massive damage from gunk shot and grass knot with vaporeon having to use wish for recovery making it exploitable while rotom, primarina and hisuian samurott having no reliable recovery. Toxapex is a solid check but gets chunked by extrasensory.
Bulky Dragons:
/
Can take greninjas hits solidly but can take massive damage from ice beam and for goodra-hisui's case low kick
Bulky Fairy Types:
These mons can take dark pulses and can stomach greninjas water stab, however clefable and hatterene get nuked by gunk shot whilst tinkaton has no reliable recovery, they however still force greninja out.
Revenge Killers:
Revenge killers that can outspeed greninja such as meowscarada and dragapult are solid at forcing greninja out as well as strong priority such as from kingambit which can also stomach any one hit from greninja
Suicide Lead:
Greninja @ Focus Sash
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Hydro Pump/Ice Beam
- Shadow Sneak/Toxic Spikes
Greninjas high speed as well as its water stab allow it to become an decent anti-lead against hazard setters such as lead glimmora and also chunking magic bouncers such as mega sableye as well as having stab protean ice beam to hit tank hazard garchomp hard. Toxic spikes are used to punish non-poison structured teams further racking hazard damage while also acting as a blanket fairy resist which can be strong against mons such as clefable and azumarill. Having spikes allow it to become an electric immune improving its matchup into rotom wash. Having taunt prevents opposing hazards coming up or using any status move such as thunder wave or more importantly defog which would remove the hazards greninja has set up. Shadow Sneak can help prevent rapid spin from mons such as excadrill.
Special Protean:
Greninja @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Gunk Shot
- Extrasensory/Ice Beam
- Spikes/U-turn
No life orb or specs in champions hurts greninjas wallbreaking sets, however an expert belt set allows greninja to hit fairy types such as clefable and mega meganium hard with gunk shot as well as the possibility of extresensory for mega venusaur and toxapex or ice beam for mons like garchomp and kommo-o as well as grass types like serperior. Spikes and u-turn allows greninja to rack up extra passive damage and help it wallbreak more effectively or use u-turn for added pivoting.
Choice Scarf:
Greninja @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Rock Slide
- Ice Beam
- U-turn
- Hydro Pump
A niche set, but it allows greninja to get the jump on faster mons such as meowscarada and dragapult with its protean stab ice beam. It provides almost unparralled speed control, however other more stronger sets are present that make this set more niche. Rock Slide allows the suprise ko on volcarona and mega charizard y with u-turn for pivoting as well as getting the ko on pokemon with plus speed such as +1 speed garchomp.
Swords Dance:
Greninja @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Gunk Shot
- Liquidation
- Shadow Sneak
Super cheesy set but it could work on super specific hyper offense builds that need to bait in special walls, gunk shot for fairy types with shadow sneak for added priority and a normal resist to rapid spin and extreme speed which can prevent hazards being removed.
Greninja @ Focus Sash
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Hydro Pump/Ice Beam
- Shadow Sneak/Toxic Spikes
Greninjas high speed as well as its water stab allow it to become an decent anti-lead against hazard setters such as lead glimmora and also chunking magic bouncers such as mega sableye as well as having stab protean ice beam to hit tank hazard garchomp hard. Toxic spikes are used to punish non-poison structured teams further racking hazard damage while also acting as a blanket fairy resist which can be strong against mons such as clefable and azumarill. Having spikes allow it to become an electric immune improving its matchup into rotom wash. Having taunt prevents opposing hazards coming up or using any status move such as thunder wave or more importantly defog which would remove the hazards greninja has set up. Shadow Sneak can help prevent rapid spin from mons such as excadrill.
Special Protean:
Greninja @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Gunk Shot
- Extrasensory/Ice Beam
- Spikes/U-turn
No life orb or specs in champions hurts greninjas wallbreaking sets, however an expert belt set allows greninja to hit fairy types such as clefable and mega meganium hard with gunk shot as well as the possibility of extresensory for mega venusaur and toxapex or ice beam for mons like garchomp and kommo-o as well as grass types like serperior. Spikes and u-turn allows greninja to rack up extra passive damage and help it wallbreak more effectively or use u-turn for added pivoting.
Choice Scarf:
Greninja @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Rock Slide
- Ice Beam
- U-turn
- Hydro Pump
A niche set, but it allows greninja to get the jump on faster mons such as meowscarada and dragapult with its protean stab ice beam. It provides almost unparralled speed control, however other more stronger sets are present that make this set more niche. Rock Slide allows the suprise ko on volcarona and mega charizard y with u-turn for pivoting as well as getting the ko on pokemon with plus speed such as +1 speed garchomp.
Swords Dance:
Greninja @ Expert Belt
Ability: Protean
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Gunk Shot
- Liquidation
- Shadow Sneak
Super cheesy set but it could work on super specific hyper offense builds that need to bait in special walls, gunk shot for fairy types with shadow sneak for added priority and a normal resist to rapid spin and extreme speed which can prevent hazards being removed.
Teammates:
-Strong pivots such as chilly reception from
/
as well as u-turn from the likes of 
and 
can give it free switch in due to its extreme opportunites without taking damage as and can bring in physical attackers with / setting future sight so fighting types that switch in are punished-Hazard support from the likes of
allow greninja switchins to be chipped down-Breakers and sweepers that allow greninja to clean late game and share similar checks such as
as an example-Breakers and sweepers such as
and 
appreciate greninja chipping down fairy types with gunk shot allowing them to clean up late game.
Last edited: