What I meant was not talking about story, I was talking about playability. Every ninja has their own unique moveset by the time you get to MKT where they all appear. In MKT, Noob's Disabler make's your character unable to contact hits, or block, it's probably the least effective containment, since it's not really by definition containing the character in a duration of frames where they cannot control their movement, but it does make getting a succession of hits for free without any risk. It was probably their way of balancing the most broken move ever.
Here's a run down on all all the pure basics for the ninjas.
Scorpion: Spear, teleport punch, forward teleport punch, air throw, small low damage ground combos. His containment properties: Spear pulls you towards him, if you jump they become lucid. The most damage you can get off it is in the corner, roundhouse, then quickly tap forward + Run + HK for 3 hits 36%.
Sub-zero: Freeze, slide (very fast), ground freeze, medium damage ground combos, one launcher combo with decent basic follow up damage. Two containment properties, freeze stops the opponent in a fixed point on the screen, where you have a multitude of different options for doing damage, and the other, opponent moves away from you slowly but still allowing for good damage, both allowing jumping as a possibility.
Reptile: Slow Forceball, Fast Forceball, Acid Spit, Slide (slow), Elbow Dash, Invisibilty, twice the moves than that of pretty much every other character, and probably the most playability depth, or at least rivaling Ermac. The invis sets him apart from all the other Ninjas moreso than any other move. Low damage ground combos, with a limited launcher. His containment properties make you flip in the air towards him, setting up somewhat OK damage for beginners and very good damage for more advanced players, using his elbow dash as a vehicle for damage.
Smoke: Spear, teleport punch, air throw. Ground combos are small and low damage, but he has 2 launcher combos that set up huge juggling damage even for beginners. He is a little, to a lot faster than everyone else as well. Air throw+ launcher combo+containment within combos+speed+teleport punch=top tier.
Ermac: Telekinetic lift, disappearing teleport punch, fireball. Low to medium damage ground combos. Containment properties, invisible collision box, and the containment duration makes your opponent stutter in air, slam onto the ground and bounce towards Ermac similar to the forceball, with a limited length of range, but about as much height as Kabal spin, making it really deadly anytime someone jumps at you from over 3/4 screen distance, setting up well over 50% for beginners and up to 75% for more advanced players, because the lift doesn't enable damage protection.
Rain: Rainball, Lightening Bolt, Ridiculous Roundhouse. All three are in a sense containment moves, and by connecting any one of them you can start his infinite. Even via ground combo, which are medium to high damage, and this is why he is so broken. The infinite itself is not particularly easy to pull off on every character, but the principle of the matter is in question. The lightening bolt makes you bounce off the ground straight up, allowing his rainball to connect, why allows you to control where your opponent is in the air for a short time, and his third, the roundhouse, knocks you across the screen to the other side, coupled with a HP juggle to another roundhouse and some good timing, you have an infinite.
Noob Saibot: Disabler, teleport slam, clone grab. Ground combos are medium damage. Pretty much again all three are containment moves, however the only one that allows for a surefire combo is the teleport slam, which makes your opponent bounce next to you allowing for a few hits. The Disabler makes your opponent unable to do damage or make you sell hits, block, throw, or do specials, but they can still move around to avoid Noob's attacks. The clone grab has a very weird arch to the descent of the character and pretty much nothing can come of this move that is worth a damn.
Matt
