Ash-Greninja vs Protean Greninja?

Question

Yeah.... who is more competetively viable in OU? Also if I should use Protean, Specs or Scarf?

Greninja-Ash (M) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- U-turn

or

Greninja @ Choice Specs / Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid / Modest Nature
- Scald
- Dark Pulse
- Ice Beam
- U-turn

Comments

Protean seems better with a spikes set honestly

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You have to have intense skill for protean Greninjas. But Ash Greninja is pretty easy to master (in my opinion). Honestly,  I think they're both good.

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i recommend battle bond with no you turn since if you faint it wont count so u-turn is pointless

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This question is really kind of hard by Pokebase standards. You might get a better answer by asking here. https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/simple-questions-simple-answers-thread-read-the-op-before-posting-a-thread.3587186/

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It's not particularly hard, just outline the differences between them and what situations they're good in. The only reason I haven't done it is because I'm lazy.

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Well then the people on Smogon are less lazy.

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Yeah, this one is kind of tough to answer. For me, I don't think the answer is "which set is better", rather I believe that both abilities give Greninja interesting playstyles that could spell disaster for an opponent that guesses wrong. Greninja's unpredictability is one of its biggest strengths, and it's moreso what role you want to perform with Greninja, at least in my opinion.

Answer 1

Ash Greninja is better of the sets in the question. Overall Ash Greninja easily competes with most legendaries. You can also give it a Z-Crystal to get Guarentee Ohkos and the guarantee battle bond effect.

Also take off U-Turn. Replace it with Ice beam to get OHKOs on Dragon types easily.
Also you don’t need 2 water type attacks. Replace one of them with Grass knot.

Why would you use U-turn anyways it’s physical category and ur using 252 Spa and 252 speed Ivs.

Comments

No even better, Hydro pump but with water Z crystal. Any Z crystal can , if used correctly, guarantee Ash Greninja a free OHKO and activation of its immense power.

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@sumwun I did, actually. OP also mentioned standard form Greninja on which U-Turn is used 47% of the time, so I think I'm fair enough in saying it's popular.

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The entire point of this is question is about Ash Greninjas moveset. I’m trying to suggest ways to activate its BB.

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If you replace choice specs with Waterium Z, then Greninja is weaker after battle bond activates. The whole purpose of battle bond is to make Greninja stronger, so not using choice specs kind of defeats that purpose.

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Fair enough. I just don’t like locking my Greninja into the selected moves and I feel like it’s kinda hard to activate BB sometimes without Z moves