Ninja dogs, Ninja Turtles, Canadian Ninjas and now ninja frogs. Well I guess ninja frogs aren’t new either.
Typing: Greninja possesses the rare Water-Dark type, only shared by the Sharpedo line and Crawdaunt. Boasting six resistances and one immunity, Greninja can switch into a lot of attacks, including common Water and Ice attacks. Balancing this is five weaknesses including the ever common Electric and Fighting, so this ninja has to watch out for its opponent’s bags of ninja tricks. It also resists many priority moves, with the only viable ones being Mach Punch, Quick Attack and Extremespeed.
In terms of STABs, Greninja benefits greatly, having no common resist among the pure types. Water is a fantastic stab, allowing Greninja to strike down many hard hitting pokemon, while the neutral coverage of Dark balances out nicely. Frankly, this talk of typing is moot when you consider Greninja’s hidden ability.
Stats: Greninja is built just like you would expect it; frail but fast. A blistering 122 SPD is amazing with few pokemon (namely, Weavile, the base 130 club, Ninjask, Electrode and Deoxys) can claim to be faster. Its defenses are nothing to write home about; a base 72 HP is decent, but both defenses are poor to the point that a sufficiently powerful resisted attack can but the shinobi in a world of hurt. But what about Greninja’s attacking stats? This ninja does not disappoint. Base 95 ATK is definitely usable while Base 103 SATK is better than average, meaning this ninja can deal the hurt. In many ways Greninja resembles Infernape, which is a good thing.
Moves: Greninja’s movepool is great, with several options from both ends of the attacking spectrum. On the physical side of things, in addition to the normal Water and Dark STABs, Rock Slide, Acrobatics, U-Turn and a signature technique in Water Shuriken round out its attacking movepool, with both Rock Slide and U-Turn holding great synergy with Greninja’s speed. In terms of ninjutsu, in addition to Water and Dark Techniques and the standard Ice Beam, Grass Knot and Extrasensory are what Greninja has to rely on. This gives it a fair array of options with a dedicated assault and a huge variety with a mixed one. Water Shuriken is interesting, being a priority multihit move, making it good for Sturdy, Focus Sash, and Substitute users, but the lack of Skill Link really hurts.
From the support side of things, Greninja has several coveted moves, especially Spikes, and Haze. Toxic Spikes, and Substitute are what you expect of the ninja and synergize well with its speed.
Abilities: Greninja must have rigged the ability lottery for the starters. Protean is an amazing ability and makes up for Greninja’s lack of boosting moves and shaky bulk. Protean both guarantees STAB on every move Greninja uses, it also allows Greninja to change its weaknesses and resistances on the fly. What’s that Pikachu, you are going to cook me with Thunderbolt? Here comes Spikes and a Ground type Greninja. This works best when Greninja outspeeds its opponent, which is not too hard to do. Considering when Protean is involved, you can ignore the Typing section.
…Oh yeah, Greninja also has this ability called Torrent. It is decent on Greninja, but its not Protean.
The Verdict: It is the enemy that you can’t see that gets you. The second you enter battle with Greninja, you must pay close attention to its typing and movepool. Prediction or strong neutral hits are key to sending the ninja back into the shadows.
