EPTSince this team was to be built around greninja I obviously started off the team with greninja. I threw on rotom-w to lure out 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 more bulky waters like rotom-w and jellicent. I needed a stealth rocker and I don't have a spinblocker so I decided to use 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 as well 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.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/K86OqV7.png)
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, and latias. I considered adamant but I think outspeeding those three 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.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/9yPsT1r.png)
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. Rotom-w is the best lead in the game; he doesn't really have any bad lead matchups, unless your opponent opens with like gastrodon or something crazy. 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.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0EJ3zFa.png)
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 allows him to bait out physical walls. For example, u-turn/volt switching back and forth between rotom-w and scizor allows him to wear down skarm switchins. Sometimes you can swords, then u-turn out when they switch in a bulky water (eg rotom-w) expecting the bullet punch. 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.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/s7UdQNs.png)
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 tries to get a few layer 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. A common opening against my skarm is rotom-w volt switch into spinner, which puts me within brave bird suicide range so I can sac himprevent the spin, and switch into something to either KO the spinner (greninja on starmie, rotom-w on donphan, etc) or set up for free. Gyarados in particular can set up on most of the common spinners.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/8zXALfQ.png)
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. Like naruto, gyarados is a team player and the main character of this team. He rarely sweeps but he sets up everything for all the other pokemon. If you stay in non-mega form you can eat u-turns and close combats to set up (especially with intimidate), and switching to mega form lets you 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.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/MX9gntD.png)
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 his 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. The biggest issues for the team are mega-luke, mega-gengar, and jolteon. Specs jolteon sweeps my entire team after scizor/rotom-w are weakened with thunderbolt, so I have to save alakazam against him. 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. 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. Psychic/shadowball/focusblast has perfect coverage, but I'm running HP Ice as well to OHKO the ever-common ground/flying and dragon/flying pokemon.
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. Feel free to make suggestions but I don't know if I'll be playing this team any time in the near future; this team's mostly retired since I've played so many games on it (on top of my 27-4 run I played probably another ~50 games testing different pokes and different sets). Enjoy!
Pokemon is fun guys
