In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line)

by **Champion Blackwolf** Mon Aug 22, 2016 5:07 am

[img]

In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line) Shedin10

[/img]

Nincada is a Gen 3 Pokemon, available on Route 116 only. It has an original bug/ground typing, being the only one along with Wormadam-Sandy. It belongs to a three Pokemon evolution group where everyone has a different typing, kinda rare even if the Eeveelutions take the cake. Nincada is rather important but not in battle. When you catch a Nincada, it's either to fill the Pokedex or to feed the birds. It's a very weak one, with a 266 base stat total, for a set of 31/45/90/30/30/40. It may have a good defense but that doesn't help at all with the HP and weaknesses it has (water, ice, fire, flying). Its abilities are ridiculous: Run Away (no competitive use) and Compound Eyes (raises accuracy of its moves by 30%). In Nincada's movepool, only Fury Swipes, Toxic and Swagger have less than 95% accuracy, making the ability almost useless. You won't get anything out of it in this form.

Comparing it to its evolved forms: if you have an empty slot in your team (and a Pokeball) Nincada evolves in two Pokemon at the same time, in Ninjask and Shedinja. In both cases, the base attack and defense are swapped. Special stats remain ridiculously weak (still 30/30 for Shedinja and 50/50 for Ninjask). Ninjask's base HP go up to 61, barely decent. But, it has amazing speed, with a base of 160, and has been the second fastest Pokemon since its release (behind Deoxys-Speed), making its base stat total jump to 456, speed helping a lot. It gets better abilities, such as Speed Boost (it introduced it), raising its speed by one stage every turn, and Infiltrator, bypassing Substitute, screens, Mist and Safeguard with every move. Ninjask isn't worth much alone, but Speed Boost made it one of the best Baton Pass users, until Scolipede took over.

[img] In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line) Shedin11

In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line) Shedin11

[/img]
Shedinja is one of a kind. It's more of a shed than an evolved form: Ninjask gets out of Nincada and Shedinja remains as the haunted empty shell. Shedinja's stats are very close to Nincada's: same speed, SpA and SpD, swapped attack and defense. What about the HP? Well, Shedinja is coded to have only ONE, making it possible to kill it in one punch without even being bald. Shedinja is like an offensive Nincada, yet extremely fragile. The fact that it has so high defensive stats besides the 1HP is just because Shedinja is what's left of Nincada after evolving, that's why other stats didn't increase or lower. For survival, Shedinja has the unique ability Wonder Guard: it only takes damage from weaknesses. Water? No damage. Dragon? Nope. Fairy? Try again. Steel? Come at me Mega-Scizor. But, Shedinja has five weaknesses (fire, rock, flying, ghost, dark), and dies from Toxic, Will-o-Wisp, Stealth Rock, Sandstorm, Iron Barbs, Rocky Helmet… And with 1 HP, even a lvl 100 Shedinja would get OHKO by Peck from a burned, -6 atk, 0EV 0IV negative nature lvl 1 Togepi. But, first a focus sash enables it to remain relevant, second with Wonder Guard and decent attack Shedinja is able to beat certain Pokemon, and some people are shocked when I tell them which.

How to play them?

[img] In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line) Nincad10

In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line) Nincad10

[/img]
Nincada: LC tier. Unless you've lost a bet, don't even play it, you will just waste a slot in your team. As I found nothing to make it somewhat decent I looked for a Smogon set, and guess what: they had none, yet they have one for Magikarp. And when Magikarp has more decent sets than you, well those are bad news. By default, the Champion of my very first league (where I still was when I wrote this article in French) found something: Compound Eyes with eviolite, try to last by blinding your foes with Flash, after two uses you can go for Toxic (with Compound Eyes you'll never miss it), then Bug Bite in case the opponent has an interesting berry (even if they're all overshadowed by berry juice) and Aerial Ace for coverage. This is really a default set that won't lead you far, and you're unlikely to get one kill (even if I succeeded on two occasions). You need a lot of luck to setup and if the opponent has, let's see, a Riolu with Prankster + Copycat and uses Aerial Ace agaisnt Nincada you can't save it. Unless you absolutely want it, don't play that Pokemon.

[img] In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line) Ninjas10

In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line) Ninjas10

[/img]
Ninjask: PU tier. The fastest Pokemon allowed in main tiers is PU, and so are other Pokemon well-placed on the ladder of their stats: Regice, second in SpD, is PU; Wailord, fourth in HP, is PU. But that also was an advantage because Ninjask could turn a Pokemon into a true beast in any tier, just like I showed you with Excadrill. Sadly with the Baton Pass clause its main set is as obsolete as BrotherNero is said to be. Anyway give it leftovers and Speed Boost. Watch out for Stealth Rock, Ninjask will hate it if you don't. Go for Protect and gain one turn of Speed Boost, then alternate it with Substitute until the best moment to pass speed through Baton Pass. With leftovers you can even use more Substitutes. I really don't like the concept of Substitute but that's the only thing left to get a proper Baton Pass nowadays. For the fourth move, I'd choose X-Scissor because if Ninjask happens to be the last Pokemon left in your team, without an offensive move it's going to be stuck. 248 HP 252+ Speed 8 Atk.

[img] In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line) Shedin12

In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line) Shedin12

[/img]
Shedinja: PU tier. Totally justified given how many counters there are. But as those counters are everywhere, you can basically play Shedinja everywhere under the same conditions. Get a focus sash so it can take one hit, even from a Mold Breaker user. It isn't rare to see Shedinja beat an opponent, and sometimes the ace of the opposing team. For the ghost STAB you have Phantom Force (power 135), hits in two turns and bypasses protecting moves. For bug STAB you have X-Scissor, 120. Third move, priority. Some people run Shadow Sneak for STAB but as I already run Phantom Force I get Sucker Punch instead for coverage (as well as the opportunity to hit normal types with priority) and more power. Combined with Phantom Force Shedinja can beat a Pokemon or hurt it badly. If you think you can't beat the opposing Pokemon with those moves, you can complete your set with Will-o-Wisp. I don't find that move fair and don't like it at all, but on Shedinja there's not much else to do. Shedinja is the only Pokemon I allow myself to run with Will-o-Wisp. But there still are alternatives: you can run Swords Dance instead of Will-o-Wisp in case you get time to use it then hit twice. Other players are rather reckless since they give it a weakness policy instead of focus sash, and complete their set with Endure, to take a weakness and then boost Shedinja's attack. Well, that can work too. Now for the EV, well, it's rather easy. HP, defense and special defense are useless, and special attack is too low, which leaves only attack and speed. Max them out with EVs and give a positive nature to the attack because you need it way more than speed.
252+ Atk, 252 Vit.

Now's the time to tell you what I actually do with a Shedinja: I sometimes play it in Ubers. Yes you read that correctly. When Xerneas doesn't have the proper Hidden Power, it can't touch Shedinja (I beat one this way), and the same goes for Primal-Kyogre: if it doesn't have Ancient Power, the proper Hidden Power or Toxic, it can't touch Shedinja. Since the release of ORAS, my Shedinja has never lost to a Primal-Kyogre. People either don't think there is someone crazy enough to bring a Shedinja to an Uber battle or just neglect it while making their sets, and that's why I've never seen a Kyogre with the proper moves. Always Origin Pulse, Thunder, Ice Beam and other moves that didn't have any effect. I even remember the time my Shedinja beat a Mega-Rayquaza (before it got banned): I used Will-o-Wisp while the opponent made the huge mistake of setting up Dragon Dance Then I hit with Shadow Force after taking a Dragon Ascent (focus sash saved me). After being damaged by Phantom Force at -1 defense and three turns of burn, it fell before my Sucker Punch. And if you think that's impressive… This is to go even further beyond! http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/origin-ubers-282598 I admit that my opponent's team was missing some key moves (such as Dark Void) but still, making someone ragequit in Ubers with a Shedinja is something you don't see everyday (and as this is Ubers, I can use Mega-Scizor without remorse). Anyway, always remember to have a check in your team (or even three just in case), and never waste time with setup, kill it ASAP.

If Ninjask defines Baton Pass, Shedinja is the biggest troll in Pokemon. You either get trolled by how many weaknesses it has, or the opponent has no check and YOU troll them. Shedinja remain a dangerous Pokemon and is not to be underestimated. Ever.

By Champion Blackwolf. I do not own the pictures. Next topic: Charizard.

by **Woyaojinkela** Mon Aug 22, 2016 9:16 am

Good article n_n Nice trolling using shedinja Very Happy

. Can honestly make people rage like crazy. Impressive battle XD. As for ninjask, i kind of disagree the main role being baton pass in PU. I see it more as a revenge killer with choice band and infilirater. 90 attack is decent in PU and it's faster then anything none scarf in PU. It is true that the only thing it does in higher tiers are baton pass tho.

by **Champion Blackwolf** Mon Aug 22, 2016 6:27 pm

Banded base 90? Hm, not sure, there's Avalugg. Anyway I'd sure rely on more power in PU, let's say I'd use Ninjask as a Baton Passer and give speed to, um, Rampardos? I also do that in NU (via Combusken though) but Rampardos is still PU Wink

by **Woyaojinkela** Mon Aug 22, 2016 10:07 pm

floatzel has 85 special attack stat and yet it is a top threat and the most used set is the special attacker set. So i'm pretty sure 90 isn't bad. It is walled by avalugg but that's like saying tyranitar sux in ou because it is walled by hippowdon. Baton passing to rampardos can sweep a team easily, it's just that rampardos can't take much attack so ninjask can't find much opportunity to baton pass the speed to it.

by **Champion Blackwolf** Sat Aug 27, 2016 9:04 pm

My Tyranitar can actually beat Hippowdon unless the latter doesn't have Earthquake, no spoilers Wink

by Sponsored content

In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line)

In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line)

Re: In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line)

Re: In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line)

Re: In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line)

Re: In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line)

Re: In the moonlight n°24: The Weak, the Fast and the Spooky (Shedinja line)