Hi everyone dead9 here with a rundown of my greninja-based HO team. I decided to use greninja because water shuriken is a pretty cool move and I thought it'd be fun to build a subliechi set around it. It peaked in the top 10 at 2536 with a 27-4 record (proof http://i.imgur.com/EJvK2KU.png), which isn't particularly impressive because nobody has any idea what they're doing right now but that's ok I'm still proud of myself.
Since this team was to be built around greninja I started off the team with greninja. I threw on rotom-w to lure out and wear down water resists like ferrothorn and gastrodon. Scizor was picked out next since he and rotom-w are best buddies and resist most of each other's weaknesses, plus he helps to lure out and wear down more bulky waters and physical walls like rotom-w, gyarados, and skarm. I needed a stealth rocker so I went with suicide lead skarm. The extra bit of damage from spikes helps a lot for wearing teams down. Next up was gyarados-m to lure out more water resists. I had scarf politoed in this slot for a while since he could set up rain for greninja, rotom-w, and scizor but I found that 5 turns of rain wasn't really worth it. Finally I picked up alakazam to revenge kill anything giving me issues.
MANGEKYOU IN THE EYES
ONLY SEE BLOOD WHEN A NINJA CRIES
Greninja @ Liechi Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
IVs: 26 HP
- Water Shuriken
- Waterfall
- Night Slash
- Substitute
As a master ninja greninja uses his genjutsu substitute to lower his hp into torrent/liechi range. With his mangekyou water shurikens he can sweep through scarf and priority pokemon. After he hits 25% HP, liechi berry and torrent both activate, so on top of his water STAB he has a 3.375x multiplier on all his water moves. This means water shuriken is effectively a 152 BP priority move (~50 BP per hit) and waterfall is a 270 BP move with flinch chance. Night slash for additional coverage on certain pokes (starmie, latios, and also weakened ferrothorns). I considered rain dance over night slash for extra bonus damage (5x damage on all water moves), but it's too hard to get a free turn to rain dance. 26 HP IVs so that his HP is a multiple of 8. That means 2 switches into stealth rocks does 25% damage exactly, and one sub does 25% damage exactly, so I can activate liechi after 3 subs. The lowered HP doesn't really make a difference because at 25% he'll die to anything that breathes at him the wrong way anyway. Jolly over adamant mainly to outspeed starmie, latios, latias, and adamant talonflame. I considered adamant but I think outspeeding those pokemon is more important. The rest of my team is set up to weaken their team enough that greninja can sweep. Greninja is my main win condition and doubles as a revenge killer.
I WILL NOT DIE HERE!
DESTINED TO DISCOVER THE TRUE MEANING BEHIND EVERYTHING!
DESTINED TO TAKE CONTROL OF EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD!
Rotom-Wash @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 36 SAtk / 220 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Rest
Rotom-w snakes through matches with his volt switch. With chesto resto rotom-w can pull an orochimaru and come back from the dead for round two after being fatally wounded. Usually I lead with skarm, but rotom-w is a nice backup if I expect a bad matchup for skarm (like aerodactyl or whatever). It also lets me eat a spore or a sleep powder, and in some cases it lets me to fake a choiced set and surprise hydro pump or will-o-wisp their mamoswine or something. 0 Atk IVs so I don't hurt myself in my confusion, though that's not really a big deal most of the time. This thing also destroys the currently extremely popular talonflame and aegislash so that's nice. I've been considering a bulkier EV spread since this thing has to check so many pokemon for me but then I get outsped by breloom and speedier scizors and I don't know if that's worth it.
I WORK HARD AND I NEVER GIVE UP!
THAT IS MY GIFT
THAT IS MY NINJA WAY!
Scizor @ Metal Coat
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 76 Spd / 180 HP
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Roost
Like rock lee scizor wins games through his never-give-up attitude. Even after breaking his physical body he can open his inner gates with roost to continue fighting. He uses his iron fists and taijutsu mastery to punch through the opposing team. Generally scizor fakes a band early on, and later comes in, roosts off damage and/or swords for the sweep. He can set up on a lot of targets, and lures out bulky waters like rotom-w so greninja can later sweep. U-turn also allows him to wear down physical walls. Also a lot of players switch setup bait like aegislash and gliscor into scizor expecting the u-turn or bullet punch, which means free swords and roosts. Scizor functions as a lure, revenge killer, and secondary win condition. 76 Spd EVs to outspeed wobbuffet, almost all ttar, skarm, and anything else under base 70 speed.
YO! IM JIRAIYA!
YOU CAN SEND ME A LOVE LETTER LATER <3
Skarmory @ Custap Berry
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 Atk
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Brave Bird
Jiraiya skarmory sacrifices his life for the team. Like a true team player, he always lays down his ninjutsu stealth rocks and often gets a layer or two of spikes up as well. He can rasengan brave bird to kill both himself and his opponent after sturdy activates to prevent spinning. Maximum speed to outspeed opposing leads and maximum attack for maximum power. Taunt prevents slower leads from setting up rocks or whatever else. I can usually prevent spinning for a long time, or set up a swords or dd on the spin.
BELIEVE IT!
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 168 Spd / 252 Atk / 88 HP
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang
- Earthquake
Gyarados switches into mega nine tailed fox form to cleave teams apart. I built this team around greninja, but like naruto, gyarados is the hero of this team. He rarely sweeps but he sets up the sweep for everyone else. If he stays in non-mega form he can eat u-turns and close combats to set up (especially with intimidate), and switching to mega form lets him eat a volt switch or tbolt. With 168 speed EVs and a positive nature gyarados outspeeds base 130s (aka jolteon) after a dragon dance. Attack is maxed out for maximum damage, and the rest is dumped into HP for easier setup. Water/ice/ground is very good coverage, especially with mold breaker, which lets him hit levitate pokes with EQ. For example, gyarados OHKOs rotom-w at +1, which is obviously very nice. Gyarados punches holes in the opposing team and/or weakens their water resists.
THE ONLY ONE BRINGING DOWN VENGEANCE...
IS ME
Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Like shikamaru, alakazam uses his massive intellect to pick at my enemy's weaknesses. With his genjutsu magic guard focus sash he's guaranteed at least one hit, and with careful deliberation he can ohko any opposing pokemon with his ninjutsu. He rarely does much more than revenge kill one or two pokemon, but that's what he's there for. He can also eat predicted will-o-wisps, leech seeds, and toxics with his genjutsu mastery. My entire team is very squishy, so I often have to save alakazam for specific pokemon. 2 Atk IVs for maximum power HP Ice and to reduce confusion damage. Psychic over psyshock because blissey and volcarona aren't major concerns for my team and I need to ohko conkeldurr. I might swap hp ice to psyshock for the ohko on jolteon after rocks + spikes though.
The biggest issues for the team are mega-luke, mega-gengar, and fast electric pokemon. Specs jolteon for example sweeps my entire team after scizor/rotom-w are weakened with thunderbolt, so I have to save alakazam against him. Mega-luke sweeps through scizor since close combat OHKOs. Often I have to sac scizor to weaken jolteon/luke with a bullet punch so alakazam can revenge kill them more reliably.
Players who are careful with their physical walls aka skarm are also hard to deal with. Most other walls I can wear down but skarm just roosts off damage and walls most of my team. I assume quagsire would be impossible to deal with as well but luckily he's not very popular.
Anyways that's the team and it's doing well at the moment, but I don't know how well it'll work when the metagame settles a little more. Comments, suggestions, rates, etc are appreciated!
Since this team was to be built around greninja I started off the team with greninja. I threw on rotom-w to lure out and wear down water resists like ferrothorn and gastrodon. Scizor was picked out next since he and rotom-w are best buddies and resist most of each other's weaknesses, plus he helps to lure out and wear down more bulky waters and physical walls like rotom-w, gyarados, and skarm. I needed a stealth rocker so I went with suicide lead skarm. The extra bit of damage from spikes helps a lot for wearing teams down. Next up was gyarados-m to lure out more water resists. I had scarf politoed in this slot for a while since he could set up rain for greninja, rotom-w, and scizor but I found that 5 turns of rain wasn't really worth it. Finally I picked up alakazam to revenge kill anything giving me issues.
MANGEKYOU IN THE EYES
ONLY SEE BLOOD WHEN A NINJA CRIES
Greninja @ Liechi Berry
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Jolly Nature
IVs: 26 HP
- Water Shuriken
- Waterfall
- Night Slash
- Substitute
As a master ninja greninja uses his genjutsu substitute to lower his hp into torrent/liechi range. With his mangekyou water shurikens he can sweep through scarf and priority pokemon. After he hits 25% HP, liechi berry and torrent both activate, so on top of his water STAB he has a 3.375x multiplier on all his water moves. This means water shuriken is effectively a 152 BP priority move (~50 BP per hit) and waterfall is a 270 BP move with flinch chance. Night slash for additional coverage on certain pokes (starmie, latios, and also weakened ferrothorns). I considered rain dance over night slash for extra bonus damage (5x damage on all water moves), but it's too hard to get a free turn to rain dance. 26 HP IVs so that his HP is a multiple of 8. That means 2 switches into stealth rocks does 25% damage exactly, and one sub does 25% damage exactly, so I can activate liechi after 3 subs. The lowered HP doesn't really make a difference because at 25% he'll die to anything that breathes at him the wrong way anyway. Jolly over adamant mainly to outspeed starmie, latios, latias, and adamant talonflame. I considered adamant but I think outspeeding those pokemon is more important. The rest of my team is set up to weaken their team enough that greninja can sweep. Greninja is my main win condition and doubles as a revenge killer.
I WILL NOT DIE HERE!
DESTINED TO DISCOVER THE TRUE MEANING BEHIND EVERYTHING!
DESTINED TO TAKE CONTROL OF EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD!
Rotom-Wash @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 36 SAtk / 220 Spd
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hydro Pump
- Volt Switch
- Will-O-Wisp
- Rest
Rotom-w snakes through matches with his volt switch. With chesto resto rotom-w can pull an orochimaru and come back from the dead for round two after being fatally wounded. Usually I lead with skarm, but rotom-w is a nice backup if I expect a bad matchup for skarm (like aerodactyl or whatever). It also lets me eat a spore or a sleep powder, and in some cases it lets me to fake a choiced set and surprise hydro pump or will-o-wisp their mamoswine or something. 0 Atk IVs so I don't hurt myself in my confusion, though that's not really a big deal most of the time. This thing also destroys the currently extremely popular talonflame and aegislash so that's nice. I've been considering a bulkier EV spread since this thing has to check so many pokemon for me but then I get outsped by breloom and speedier scizors and I don't know if that's worth it.
I WORK HARD AND I NEVER GIVE UP!
THAT IS MY GIFT
THAT IS MY NINJA WAY!
Scizor @ Metal Coat
Ability: Technician
EVs: 252 Atk / 76 Spd / 180 HP
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- U-turn
- Roost
Like rock lee scizor wins games through his never-give-up attitude. Even after breaking his physical body he can open his inner gates with roost to continue fighting. He uses his iron fists and taijutsu mastery to punch through the opposing team. Generally scizor fakes a band early on, and later comes in, roosts off damage and/or swords for the sweep. He can set up on a lot of targets, and lures out bulky waters like rotom-w so greninja can later sweep. U-turn also allows him to wear down physical walls. Also a lot of players switch setup bait like aegislash and gliscor into scizor expecting the u-turn or bullet punch, which means free swords and roosts. Scizor functions as a lure, revenge killer, and secondary win condition. 76 Spd EVs to outspeed wobbuffet, almost all ttar, skarm, and anything else under base 70 speed.
YO! IM JIRAIYA!
YOU CAN SEND ME A LOVE LETTER LATER <3
Skarmory @ Custap Berry
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Spd / 252 Atk
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Taunt
- Brave Bird
Jiraiya skarmory sacrifices his life for the team. Like a true team player, he always lays down his ninjutsu stealth rocks and often gets a layer or two of spikes up as well. He can rasengan brave bird to kill both himself and his opponent after sturdy activates to prevent spinning. Maximum speed to outspeed opposing leads and maximum attack for maximum power. Taunt prevents slower leads from setting up rocks or whatever else. I can usually prevent spinning for a long time, or set up a swords or dd on the spin.
BELIEVE IT!
Gyarados @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 168 Spd / 252 Atk / 88 HP
Jolly Nature
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang
- Earthquake
Gyarados switches into mega nine tailed fox form to cleave teams apart. I built this team around greninja, but like naruto, gyarados is the hero of this team. He rarely sweeps but he sets up the sweep for everyone else. If he stays in non-mega form he can eat u-turns and close combats to set up (especially with intimidate), and switching to mega form lets him eat a volt switch or tbolt. With 168 speed EVs and a positive nature gyarados outspeeds base 130s (aka jolteon) after a dragon dance. Attack is maxed out for maximum damage, and the rest is dumped into HP for easier setup. Water/ice/ground is very good coverage, especially with mold breaker, which lets him hit levitate pokes with EQ. For example, gyarados OHKOs rotom-w at +1, which is obviously very nice. Gyarados punches holes in the opposing team and/or weakens their water resists.
THE ONLY ONE BRINGING DOWN VENGEANCE...
IS ME
Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 Def
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]
Like shikamaru, alakazam uses his massive intellect to pick at my enemy's weaknesses. With his genjutsu magic guard focus sash he's guaranteed at least one hit, and with careful deliberation he can ohko any opposing pokemon with his ninjutsu. He rarely does much more than revenge kill one or two pokemon, but that's what he's there for. He can also eat predicted will-o-wisps, leech seeds, and toxics with his genjutsu mastery. My entire team is very squishy, so I often have to save alakazam for specific pokemon. 2 Atk IVs for maximum power HP Ice and to reduce confusion damage. Psychic over psyshock because blissey and volcarona aren't major concerns for my team and I need to ohko conkeldurr. I might swap hp ice to psyshock for the ohko on jolteon after rocks + spikes though.
The biggest issues for the team are mega-luke, mega-gengar, and fast electric pokemon. Specs jolteon for example sweeps my entire team after scizor/rotom-w are weakened with thunderbolt, so I have to save alakazam against him. Mega-luke sweeps through scizor since close combat OHKOs. Often I have to sac scizor to weaken jolteon/luke with a bullet punch so alakazam can revenge kill them more reliably.
Players who are careful with their physical walls aka skarm are also hard to deal with. Most other walls I can wear down but skarm just roosts off damage and walls most of my team. I assume quagsire would be impossible to deal with as well but luckily he's not very popular.
Anyways that's the team and it's doing well at the moment, but I don't know how well it'll work when the metagame settles a little more. Comments, suggestions, rates, etc are appreciated!
