[sfgiantsfanmike]

Nidoqueen-High Tier

Availability: Early game, available right after first gym on Route 3; however, it's 14% encounter in LeafGreen but only 1% in Firered. You should have her evolved into Nidorina before Cerulean and when you do you can use the Moon Stone you found in Mount Moon to get her to her final form before the second gym.

Stats: Above Average. No standout stat but she has well rounded stats. Speed may be a problem late game but she has enough where it should only be a problem against naturally very fast pokemon

Typing: Poison/Ground. Actually not a horrible combination. It leaves her with 5 weaknesses if I remember correctly but also several immunity's and resistances that come in handy, most noteably a resistance to fighting and immunity's to all electric attacks and the poison status.

Movepool: Vast. She learns more TM/HM moves than she doesn't learn by a lot and gets a few key moves, most notably Body Slam at level 22 or 23. She has a higher Attack than Special Attack but learns more damaging Special Attacks. I suggest a final move list something like: Surf/Earthquake/Thunderbolt/Ice Beam. Feel free to play around with it, she has many combinations.

Major Battles:
*Vs Brock: Not available yet. Game Freak trolled me on this one, as the Nido's were my go to Brock killers in R/B/Y but whatever.

*Vs Misty: Disadvantage. She can lay waste to everything around Cerulean by the mere fact that she's fully evolved at this point, or can/should be, so even with a type disadvantage she can merely outs peed and overpower most opponents. Not so with Misty, though, as her Starmie is fully evolved and will out speed and hits pretty hard.

*Vs Lt. Surge: Advantage. Surge and company tend to have special attacking electric types that are pushovers on the physical side. Nidoqueen is immune to their primary attacks and if you taught her Dig she has a STAB super effective move to utilize against them. But even with just Body Slam, and if you used her in the SS Anne she more likely will be that level, that should do the trick very well.

*Vs Erica: Neutral. Her type combo removes her weakness to grass but she doesn't necessarily have an advantage with her offensive typing, either. Still can do a great deal of damage here but other 'mon can do better.

Vs. Koga: Advantage. Okay, she has somewhat of an advantage here in the 'poison' gym; however, you have to watch out for those Hypno's (Drowzee's should get OHKO'd without a chance to damage in return). She's immune to being poisoned, which is great in this gym, and can wield Dig against any of the grounded poison types. Against Koga himself I believe she only has the clear cut advantage against Muk, as Weezing and Koffing levitate, but she still has the power to plow through most of them.

*Vs Sabrina: Disadvantage. She can actually hold her own in the gym due to the Gastly and Haunter population but Sabrina owns her.

*Vs Karate King: Advantage. Not really a huge battle story line wise but she can take out her frustration about Sabrina owning her here and claim your 'Hitmon' of choice.

*Vs Blaine: Advantage. She should walk through the gym trainers like nothing, unless you really want to skip the trainers by answering the questions which makes that point moot. Blaine is a match up of power vs power: She has the offensive advantage but no resistance to the powerful fire attacks being launched her way. If she's leveled on par she should have little trouble barring crits.

*Vs Giovanni: Advantage. Lots of rock, ground and fighting types in this gym, she should either resist their damage and make short work of them or out speed and be taking advantage of the 2/4x weakness to water on lots of those pokemon. Or possibly taking advantage on the other end with EQ (is it available by then?) or dig.

* Vs Lorelei: Disadvantage. Even if you gave it Thunderbolt like I suggested above it will still struggle here. It may be able to out speed and OHKO some of those 'mon but still not a good idea to have her out there with her weakness to water/ice.

* Vs Bruno: Advantage. He mainly uses fighting types, with a few Onix sprinkled in the first time around, so she has a defensive advantage here and should be able to handle him with no problem.

*Vs Agatha: Neutral. If she had gravity she runs through this team like a hot knife through butter but she still has a defensive advantage against all those poison types. Still, other 'mon can get through her faster and with less hassle.

*Vs Lance: Neutral. This could be an advantage if you taught her Ice Beam. She can definitely hold her own and more here, fearing only the Dragonite. This one is all about whether or not you invested the TM in her.

*Vs Blue: Neutral? From the third meeting until before Lance she should handle most of his pokemon with ease, especially that third meeting when he doesn't have any fully evolved 'mon. The Championship match? The only 2 pokemon that will cause problems should be Alakazam and Exxegutter, with Blastoise being a potential problem. Gyarados presents a defensive disadvantage that you can overcome with the right move set, as his Special Attack is rather... weak but is best left to another 'mon.

Additional Comments: All in all I think the Queen is one of the best for a playthrough. She does have her short comings, from not being available as easily early in Firered to 2 gyms posing problems for her and being reliant on TM/HM support but she more than makes up for it if you invest in her.