Competitive Pokémon History - Ninjask Quiz

Answer: 160

The only Pokémon who outsped Ninjask at all was Deoxys-Speed form, with a 180 for its speed stat. With the Choice Scarf item not coming into existence yet, the only way a Pokémon could move before Ninjask would be if it used a move to boost its speed first, or if it used a priority move.

This meant Ninjask could mitigate its own poor bulk, as it would just about always be able to move before the opponent and could either finish off a low HP Pokémon, put up a Substitute first to see what their reaction to its presence would be, or use Baton Pass if it was in a really bad matchup and simply needed to flee the field.

Answer: Speed Boost

Speed Boost provides a +1 to the user's speed at the end of every turn. With the use of Protect, Ninjask could now find a way to outspeed the opponent even if they had already used a speed boosting move on a prior turn. If tasked to be a revenge killer, this ability made Ninjask more consistent at performing in this role. That said, overdoing it on Protect usage could become predictable, which could prompt the opponent to use a speed boosting move to maintain their speed advantage, so the Ninjask player did have to be a bit clever about how to use this ability.

Answer: Baton Pass

With Speed Boost, access to Swords Dance, Substitute and the real breadwinner in Baton Pass, Ninjask was an extremely deadly enabler whose presence could quite conceivably win games in a mere three to four turns. With Speed Boost passively boosting its speed, Ninjask could boost with Swords Dance, possibly throw up a Substitute, and hand those tools off to a Pokémon like Salamence, Metagross or Tyranitar to blast the opponent's team using Baton Pass.

This strategy remained deadly in Ubers, as the recipients of Ninjask's boosts would now be powerful legendary Pokémon and heavy hitters such as Rayquaza, Groudon or Ho-Oh. Because of this, Ninjask only competed with Smeargle for the distinction of being the best setup Pokémon in the game.

Answer: Baton Pass Clause

Because Baton Pass based teams were found to eventually be too overwhelming to be reasonably balanced in standard play, this clause made it so that trainers were not allowed to Baton Pass multiple types of boosts, such as both a speed and an attack boost. Ninjask was no longer allowed to pass Swords Dance boosts due to the fact that its ability automatically meant it would be passing speed boosts.

This meant it was now no longer worth the trouble of including it on most teams, as a prospective trainer would hope to get more out of a team slot than a Pokémon who could do nothing of value other than pass something else a speed boost or two. Because of this, Ninjask became totally useless and not worth using at all in standard play.

Answer: Literally anything with a phasing move

Lugia, Groudon, Giratina, Dialga, Skarmory and Arceus were the most common users of phasing moves, such as Roar and Whirlwind. Because of the high base stats of most Ubers inhabitants, almost all of them had the bulk to easily take hits from Ninjask itself, and this especially applies to the aforementioned phasers.

Therefore, they could switch into it easily and use a phasing move to stop it dead in the water. Baton Passing boosts to a recipient would be meaningless, because the Pokémon intended to make use of Ninjask's boosts, such as Rayquaza, would simply be immediately forced off the field and lose those boosts.

Unfortunately, lacking a way to beat these phasers, Ninjask users would immediately be on the back foot if the opponent ended up having one of them. Due to the lack of team preview, the Ninjask user would either have to hold off on deploying it right out of the gate until the opposing team had been thoroughly scouted, or would have to simply take the risk of the opponent having one of them.

Answer: Infiltrator

Infiltrator allows the user to ignore Reflect, Light Screen, Substitute and, in the seventh generation and onward, Aurora Veil. Due to Ninjask's state in the meta at the time of obtaining this ability, Infiltrator was initially useless. However, in future generations, this ability would begin to see use on it.

Answer: Final Gambit

Final Gambit causes the user to immediately sacrifice itself. It's target will take damage equal to the number of hit points the user had left at the time of using the move. With Ninjask's awful base 61 HP, this was not exactly guaranteeing a trade when Ninjask used the move.

Much like Infiltrator, Final Gambit was not useful to Ninjask just yet in the fifth generation, though it would fill a niche in future generations for it.

Answer: PartiallyUsed

Ninjask was not completely and utterly hopeless despite the removal of its main niche of, at the time, over ten years. Predictably, it suffered a huge hit in terms of general viability, but it settled into PU surprisingly nicely. It's new niche was abusing its monstrously high speed stat to become an adept revenge killer, out speeding and eliminating problematic sweepers who could otherwise end the game on the spot.

Answer: Groundinium Z

Ninjask would pair Groundinium Z with Dig to grant it one time access to the nuking move Tectonic Rage. Due to the Z Move, Dig turned into Tectonic Rage would hit immediately on the first turn, rather than be the two turn move Dig typically would be otherwise.

Historically, breaking Steel and Rock types has been practically impossible for Ninjask. However, with Tectonic Rage and a Swords Dance boost, the only PU threat who could take a hit reliably from Ninjask was the absurdly bulky Regirock, and even Regirock had to stay in near perfect health to survive a Swords Dance boosted super effective Tectonic Rage from Ninjask. Anything else would just get bowled over, provided they were weak to the move.

This, as the question stated, broadened the scope of Pokémon Ninjask could threaten, allowing it to stay afloat in PU despite the enormous power creep Z Moves provided.

Answer: Yes

Ninjask was promptly rewarded for winning this lottery, as it was promoted to be natively a member of the NeverUsed tier, up from being in PU the two generations prior. Despite losing Z Moves and no longer being able to really threaten Rock or Steel types, Ninjask settled in to a fine niche as a threatening Swords Dance sweeper here. Newfound access to Acrobatics or, should the user desire it, the tandem of Dual Wingbeat and Heavy Duty Boots either provided Ninjask with more power or more reliability and durability, respectively, to make it much better than it had been the previous two generations.