Competitive Pokémon History - Shedinja Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. One of the biggest things which jumps off the page about Shedinja's stats would have to be its hilariously low HP stat. What is Shedinja's HP stat?

Answer: 1

Having but a single hit point which cannot in anyway be raised, Shedinja would be OHKOed by literally anything capable of dealing damage to it. Obviously, this means it can't exactly be played particularly recklessly.

2. While Shedinja's laughable HP stat would suggest it has no business even being used in casual, much less competitive play, its ability has something to say about that. Being the only Pokémon to ever be in possession of this ability up through the eighth generation, what was Shedinja's ability?

Answer: Wonder Guard

Wonder Guard grants the user an immunity to all direct damage dealing moves which do not hit for super effective damage. This means that, while Shedinja would crumple instantly to a level 1 Charmander's Ember, it completely stonewalls otherwise terrifyingly strong attacks, such as a full HP Kyogre's Water Spout or a Mewtwo's Psychic. Definitely an enigmatic dynamic for a Pokémon to have.

3. Unfortunately, while Shedinja's ability seems to fully mask its horrible HP stat at first glance, there is one work around that theoretically any Pokémon could be able to exploit at any time. Which method of the following will ignore Shedinja's ability?

Answer: Passive damage

Passive damage, such as Toxic poison, Spikes damage or weather damage, ignores Wonder Guard and will immediately KO Shedinja unless it has a Focus Sash, in which case it would be KOed on the very next turn. Because of this, Pokémon like Kyogre whose trainer severely despises Shedinja might equip Toxic for the sole purpose of stopping Shedinja from hard countering it. Because of this, Shedinja users must be extremely careful as they approach a Pokémon who, on paper, doesn't seem to have a way of damaging it. Proper, tedious scouting ahead of time is a necessity to avoid instantly losing Shedinja to a surprise Toxic.

4. Amusingly enough, Shedinja had absolutely zero chance in its debut generation of standard play. However, it was much deadlier and more consistent in Ubers. Down in standard play, its fragile life was constantly in danger because of the presence of an extremely common counter whose very existence ruled out the possibility of using Shedinja here. Who was this?

Answer: Tyranitar

Not only do both of Tyranitar's STAB typings bypass Wonder Guard due to hitting Shedinja super effectively, but it doesn't even need to attack Shedinja to immediately KO it. It's ability, Sand Stream, summons a permanent sandstorm that will instantly KO Shedinja at the end of the turn which Tyranitar switches in on. Because manual weather was a genuinely poor strategy, most teams did not bother with it. Thus, once Tyranitar hit the field, its sandstorm just about always remained in play for the entire game. This means that, even if T Tar wasn't on the field, Shedinja would instantly faint at the end of its very first turn of use with sandstorm up, and would fail to accomplish a single notable thing as a result.

Thankfully, in Ubers, Shedinja could be partnered with Kyogre or Groudon whose abilities remove sandstorm. Plus, Tyranitar wasn't nearly as common to begin with, meaning Shedinja could, funnily enough, breathe a little bit more easily in Ubers than in standard play.

5. Fourth generation Shedinja dropped to UU, and was no longer worth trying out in Ubers or standard play. Here, the gameplan was typically to try and use its attack stat and bizarre defensive profile to sweep. This was made doable by Shedinja's workable attack stat. What was it?

Answer: 90

90 in attack isn't crushing Pokémon like bugs, but this bug here could use Swords Dance along with the ability to stonewall something to sweep. If Pokémon who could hit it super effectively or inflict passive damage onto it were gone, the game was firmly over and Shedinja had a guaranteed sweep. Sadly, doing this was definitely easier said than done, and Shedinja had to basically be gift wrapped and kept in hiding until the user was 100% sure such threats were gone before sending Shedinja in.

6. Shedinja gained access to a new move in the fifth generation, which gave it the ability to appear in the middle of a match instead of being required to wait until the end to see use. What move gave it this utility?

Answer: Baton Pass

Baton Pass makes a lot of logical sense on Shedinja. If Shedinja is sent out against a Pokémon who cannot hurt it, it makes sense that the opponent would switch that Pokémon out. It also makes sense that whatever was switching in would be in possession of at least one move that could KO Shedinja.

The strategy was to bring Shedinja in against a helpless opposing Pokémon, then immediately use Baton Pass. This would help to scout the opponent's response to Shedinja, and use that information to plan out how to deal with the opponent's response.

This could also help Shedinja potentially Baton Pass Swords Dance boosts to an ally, in the event that the opponent simply had too many countermeasures for a sweep to be achievable for Shedinja itself.

7. Thanks to team preview introduced in the fifth generation, Shedinja could not be kept hidden and used to surprise an opponent. Because of this, two Pokémon in fifth generation NU emerged as completely and utterly mandatory teammates for Shedinja, if it had any chance of succeeding at all in whatever role it was tasked with. What two Pokémon were these?

Answer: Natu and Wartortle

Xatu and Blastoise were banned from NU, leaving the job to their pre evolved forms. Natu's Magic Bounce ability would reflect entry hazards back at the opponent, while Wartortle's access to Rapid Spin meant it could remove entry hazards which Natu was unable to block. Entry hazard damage ignores Focus Sash as well as Wonder Guard, meaning Shedinja would immediately get KOed by entry hazards, and it was susceptible to all of them.

Therefore, heavy pushback against countermeasures was absolutely compulsory- the opponent would make sure to try and aggressively set them up once they realized the Shedinja user had a Shedinja, so the ability to deal with them equally aggressively was mandatory.

8. Unfortunately for Shedinja, the fifth generation also buffed an ability which would now allow users to completely counter Shedinja at all times. What new ability hindered Shedinja in this way?

Answer: Mold Breaker

Mold Breaker allows its user to ignore the effects of the opponent's ability. This means that a Mold Breaker user can immediately KO Shedinja with anything other than a Normal type attack. Because of Shedinja's underwhelming immediate power, Mold Breaker users typically possess the ability to switch right into it and deal with it easily. Thus, they are full counters and must be taken down before trying to use Shedinja.

9. The power creep laden seventh generation witnessed Shedinja fall by the wayside completely, as it was no longer worth providing such an extreme amount of support for. This was mainly due to the fact that a new threat appeared in PartiallyUsed, who required similar support but was vastly superior statistically, causing Shedinja to sink into obscurity. What threat outclassed Shedinja like this?

Answer: Scyther

With the other options being banned from PU, Scyther was the culprit here. Scyther hit harder, was much faster, and didn't get KOed instantly by passive damage or anything which hit it super effectively. Scyther was extremely weak to Stealth Rock and required a teammate or two who could remove it, which was also the case for Shedinja. Scyther, however, could use its much better stat profile to threaten the opponent far more than Shedinja ever could. Thus, Shedinja dropped to Untiered and generally did not see much usage in PU play.

10. The eighth generation's "DexIt" cut down on the number of Pokémon allowed into Galar competitive play practically in half. Was Shedinja one of the Pokémon initially excluded from the Galar region?

Answer: No

Fortunately, Shedinja was available right from the get go. It's dynamic and the risk in using it were virtually the same, but with a lesser pool of competition, it was used much more than the seventh generation.

Source: Author cavalier87

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor kyleisalive before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Competitive Pokémon History - Shedinja Quiz

One of the most unique Pokémon ever created, we have Shedinja! Let's see if you can achieve a good score on the Poke Wonder here about it on the competitive scene, from generations 3-8!

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