Pokemon Rants

Why Greninja is Awesome

Ash-GreninjaGirl

Charkid467

Just as there are bad starters in every generation, there's also one that stands out amongst all the others. In gen 6, that starter is Greninja...Froakie? Greninja? Well, for the purpose of this list, we're going to be talking specifically about Greninja. I will note, however, that I do love the entire Froakie line. Anyway, without further ado, here are the top five reasons why Greninja is an amazing Pokemon.

5. Speed

At 122, Greninja has the highest base speed stat of all the starter Pokemon from every generation (though Sceptile does come close at 120). This works well when the Pokemon you're battling and Greninja both have moves with a type advantage against each other since there aren't a whole lot of bug, electric, grass, fighting, or fairy Pokemon that are faster than Greninja. So when you battle Korrina's gym, if you have a Greninja by then like I did, just teach it Aerial Ace and watch the magic unfold.

4:Moveset

Greninja has a great variety of moves. This helps it a lot in battle. It gets access to moves like ice beam and ariel ace, which cover its bug and grass weakness. It also gets gunk shot and extrasensory, covering its fairy and fighting weakness. It doesn't really get anything for its electric weakness though but it does get coverage for most of its weakness. Along with coverage moves are really strong moves that go great with its typing. Like surf, hydro pump, scald for its water type. And it gets water full of you want a psychical water move. For its dark type it gets nightslash which is a good move and dark pulse if you want a special move. Not only does Greninja have good attaching moves, it also gets access to moves like Taunt, Toxic spikes, etc. I know I've kinda mentioned this before but Greninja has a great variety of special and psychical moves so you can use Greninja as both a psychical attacker and special attacker.

3. Protean

If the speed and moveset weren't good enough, Greninja also gets the hidden ability Protean. Protean is an ability that changes the user's typing to match that of the move it uses. So let's say you're battling a fighting-type, and you use Aerial Ace but it isn't quite enough to knock it out. With Protean, this is no longer a problem because Greninja will now be a flying-type, meaning that the fighting-type moves will lose their effectiveness. Not to mention Protean gives STAB on every move, which is never something to complain about.

2: Game Performance

In Pokémon X and Y Greninja does great if not the best out of the three starters throughout the game. It does good against the gym leaders, doing good against Viola, having an advantage against Grant and Olympia, and it has the speed and move set to handle Korrina, Valerie, and Wulfric. He does however struggle against Clemont but other than that he's pretty good against gym leaders. Greninja is also great taking on team flare, having access to Extrasensory to deal with poison types and the move surf can take out any of their Pokémon that doesn't resist water. Against the elite four it does great against Malva, resists Siebold's water types, not that good against Wikstrom, and pretty good against Drasna. When you get to Diantha, Greninja does great against most of her team, like Tyrantrum, Goodra, Gorgiest, Hawlucha, and Auros. It does struggle a bit with Mega Gardevoir but it already does great against most of her team so it's alright.

1. Ash-Greninja (Note: both Char and I will do this one)

Honestly, there's no way we could have made this list without bringing up Ash-Greninja. We were first introduced to Ash-Greninja in the anime, where we got to see Ash and Greninja learn to activate the bond phenomenon. Personally, I loved the fact that it took Ash and Greninja so long to perfect their Ash-Greninja form. It made way for some great character development for both of them, and honestly it wouldn't have seemed as real if they just figured it out right from the start. We got to see Greninja go from an adorable little Froakie to a powerhouse of a Greninja. I'm still a little disappointed that Greninja lost the league and then got left in Kalos, but...eh, that's a story for another time.

Greninja itself never really amazed me. I thought it was cool but I didn't think much of it. Then Ash Greninja showed up and that REALLY amazed me. It looks awesome, even though its design is pretty simple, just having a shuriken on its back and what looks like a Greninja version of Ash's hat. But Greninja manages to make it look so good. As if it wasn't great already, the anime manages to make Ash Greninja look even more awesome.  Whenever Ash sent out his Ash Greninja our in battle it would always give us an intense and exiting battle. Honestly if GameFreak had never decided to make Ash Greninja, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be as popular as it is now.