I get the feeling that Ash-Greninja kind of outclasses the rest of A+. Don't get me wrong, Greninja has its shortcomings, and Celesteela, Koko, Lele and Chomper are all very good; I think there is a clear division here.
Battle Bond Greninja is what I would consider an outrageous Pokemon. It's restrictive to teambuilding and outrageously powerful in the right situations, whereas the other A+ Pokemon are not nearly as much so. Yes Greninja is going to be stopped cold by the likes Toxapex or Ferrothorn on balance teams, but with just a bit of lure support, or just a good matchup Ash-Greninja has little trouble consistently outspeeding and 1 shotting everything. Water is just such a great offensive typing due to Hydro Pump's great power and the lack of available immunities to it. Topped off by Water Shuriken being super strong priority in a frankly priority starved metagame, Battle Bond Greninja has that sort of "ridiculous" quality where it can just turn matches on their head and blow teams apart given the right match up.
By my estimation none of the rest of the A+ rank really has this quality. Lele is stupidly strong, but it is quite slow for an offensive mon, and giving it a scarf means that it needs quite a fair bit of team support at eliminating steel-types. You either have to predict the metagross/magearna switch in and hit it super effectively or do little damage, this makes it a lot easier to handle than the S-rank Pokemon I wish to compare it to. Garchomp is very versatile and has a lot of merits, but again it doesn't have that outrageous pop to it. Yeah it can wallbreak, scarf and SR, but all of these sets are specialized, and dont just carry a match by themselves. Koko is often too restricted by the opponent's Ground- and Grass-types to do more than U-turn a lot in the early game, and then in the lategame the opponent's scarfer will prevent it from cleaning. Yes a great and fast attacker, but having to wrestle with immunities puts it at a lesser power than Ash-Greninja.
So yes there is my piece on Battle Bond Greninja. It has to struggle with less flaws and has a more restrictive effect on team building compared to the rest of A+. For these reasons I believe it belongs in the S-rank
Honestly, I see the thing more on the ladder than I do Protean. People use it that much for a good reason I think.
Well, it does having around 20% usage, which is huge (not like Lando 50%, but Lando lol).
Honestly i agree. People also started to use 3attacks, life orb and taunt which actually help stallbreaking too. As you said, it's pretty much the cleaner in OU unless there is Psychic terrain up.
Water-Shuriken specs is hitting hard as Talonflame in gen6.
252 SpA Choice Specs Greninja-Ash Water Shuriken (20 BP) (3 hits) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Mew: 171-201 (42.3 - 49.7%)
252 Atk Sharp Beak Gale Wings Talonflame Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mew: 171-202 (42.3 - 50%)
Without
stealth Rocks weakness. without recoil. Sure, Flying is a better offensive type, but water is a very very good one too. Unlike talonflame, it's other attacks pack a mighty punch too, and it's blazing fast as well. Add Rain and it's going to 2hko or 1hko with hydro pump unless it's a pink blob the entire tier.
Ash-Gren is a mix between a cleaner and a wallbreaker. and the whole niche of "oh shit i can't let it transform" makes the opposing guy to switch around and let more things to take huge damage in return. if it does transform, it can change the match entirely.
Because how Fini is everywhere, she's getting pressured even more. the lack of recovery isn't going to help her blocking the transformation forever. in rain teams? even less of a chance.
Beside specially defensive Toxapex and AV Tang (and of course the pink blobs), most pokemons aren't going to enjoy Dark Pulse/Hydro punp forever. Gastrodon need to be specially defensive, and then it's just going to die to physical attacks very soon. Fini is pressured by too much threats she's supposed to block, and with hazzards support and knocking off her Lefties she's not going to last. Bulu is going to be 2hko'd after rocks and a little damage from recoil. Ferro can't switch forever as well, and is a huge bait for Charizard X/Volcarona (which are good teammates for Ash-Gren)
If there was a S- tier, i think it should have gone there, but there isn't. it does need more support than the S tier, but as Ash Borer said, it's better than all of the A+ tier.
So yeah, I agree about Ash-Greninja going to
S as well. or just make S- like in ubers lol