You're talking about OU, right? The only viable suicide leads/hazard stacking leads left are Deo-D and Deo-S. Fast Taunt, can guarantee 2 layers of hazards, Magic Coat, T-Wave, Knock Off, Dual Screens... They do a shit ton.
It would need Earthquake at least to make a physical set worth.
Yes, the 3 starters learn their signature move when they evolve at 36 and again at 75. Not sure why, maybe it's in case you missed it the first time.
One does not simply use Wise Glasses and Muscle Band on anything except in-game teams. Expert Belt is usable, I guess but Life Orb is so much superior.
I got rid of Water Shuriken earlier. So they will relearn all of there moves
Greninja's base Special Attack is only 103. Wise Glasses don't give enough of a boost to justify using it. Expert Belt might be okay but Life Orb is generally much more useful.
And also has the benefit of not activating its weakness policy, if the aegislash is carrying one
Think about what Greninja struggles with. Greninja hates things like Chansey and Sylveon, so it appreciates things that can muscle past stall and special walls.
Using Grass Knot over Hydro Pump is definitely fine, but do consider that Hydro Pump is Greninja's most powerful move without drawbacks (besides accuracy of course). You're also letting Heatran wall you and Charizard to an extent. Grass Knot is still fine though and lets you get those water types like Keldeo and Quagsire.
You're losing out on your strongest move if you forego Hydro Pump, so you'll lose some wallbreaking power. On the upside, an interesting target you gain the upper hand on is Mega Gyarados (252 SpA Life Orb Protean Greninja Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Mega Gyarados: 346-408 (104.2 - 122.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO) who otherwise walls Greninja's usual coverage and can set up a DD
Grass Knot is already on standard Greninja, which also runs Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, and Extrasensory. Dark Pulse doesn't get you any KOs that Hydro Pump doesn't (both 2HKO Aegislash), so it's unnecessary.
A 20% chance to flinch given the frailty of Greninja is in no way reliable and is too huge a gamble considering that the entire point of using Greninja is picking off opponents before they get a chance to hit you. Scald is ok to use but again this is more for trying to spread status to potential switch ins but the power of Hydro Pump is often more preferred especially since it allows to more reliable muscle past Heatran, and that in itself is important enough bench mark to consider over Dark Pulse. As noted above Hydro Pump accomplishes the same 2 OHKO on Aegis which is one of the more important ghost types to consider, the others have a dual typing that your other coverage moves already hit.
I have no idea why we're still discussing this. Physical Greninja is, and most likely always will be, inferior to Special Greninja. Also, the Special set isn't "overrated". It's good. It really is. You can do whatever you want to make the "physical set" work, but the Special set will always be a better option.
The thing about physical (and mixed for that matter) is that you have moves with both a lower base power and a lower base attack stat to use them from, and also don't gain any significant coverage from them. This one at first glance is at least a small amount better than most physical sets, as power up punch means that you do possibly hit harder than special greninja(only potentially with acrobatics however, as waterfall = 80*1.5=120, the same as unboosted hydropump). However power up punch itself has very low power and you can only use fling once, doubly crippling your coverage and options. Water shuriken is redundant because its power is always less than waterfall and Greninja is already incredibly fast. If you're absolutely adamant about using this set I'd highly recommend changing it to night slash/acrobatics/waterfall/power up punch with a flying gem.
I see..! Thanks for the help.
Flying gem isn't even in the game so how is this set going to work. Physical Greninja at all just isn't really that good and special Greninja is better.
