Choice Banded Nidoking is one of the most dangerous Pokémon in the UU environment. As with a lot of Choice Banders, depending on your and your opponent's prediction skills you could be totally messing something up or doing nothing to them at all. Earthquake should take care of Quagsire and other Water friends in 2 or 3 hits, Megahorn kills Solrock and Lunatone and puts quite a big hurting into Meganium, and Rock Slide is for Fliers like Fearow and Scyther. Sludge Bomb may seem handy for STAB, and Ice Beam catches Gligar.
A great anti-wall Pokémon in standard play. This set takes care of almost any defensive Pokémon besides Waters, in addition to a few offensive threats as well. Megahorn will nearly always OHKO Celebi unless they have nearly max Defense, and does more than enough damage to Starmie and Claydol as well. Earthquake messes up Metagross and will be your main bet for denting Waters if you're using Fire Blast. Ice Beam beats Donphan, Salamence, and does good damage to Grasses like Breloom and Sceptile as well if you don't want to risk Megahorn. Thunderbolt is for Waters and especially Gyarados, but Fire Blast has more power and kills Forretress and Steelix. With both, you will 2HKO Skarmory. Generally Thunderbolt offers more versatility.
This set hits at for least neutral damage on everything in the game except Shedinja, but it's severely limited in effectiveness because of lack of STAB. Once your opponent finds out this set in standard, Metagross, Swampert, and to a lesser extent Zapdos will easily be walling you, and you cannot do much to Blissey, Snorlax or Regice without a Substitute up either. STAB Earthquake usually does more damage than Focus Punch anyway. Substitute can be replaced for Fire Blast if you don't mind having to predict Focus Punch better.
The best UU set for Nidoking. One of the greatest threats to Nidoking is Gligar, and Ice Beam takes care of him. Shadow Ball takes care of Misdreavus, Megahorn beats Grass and Psychic Pokémon, and Earthquake gets STAB. The absence of Thunderbolt allows for a better EV distribution; Water Pokémon for the most part will take more damage from STAB Earthquake than non-STAB Thunderbolt. Give this one max Speed—it's essential for taking on Gligar that want to switch in on your Earthquake. Other OptionsNidoking can use Counter on Choice Banders like Fearow, on walls like Solrock or even on Grounds like Quagsire and Sandslash. It does work nicely, but Nidoking is usually better off at attacking straight up. Double Kick is a novelty move, but it should be mentioned that Nidoking pretty much destroys Tyraniboah with it by resisting Focus Punch, being immune to Thunderbolt, and being able to do damage to Tyranitar behind the Substitute. Toxic and Thief can help in wearing down opponents, but once again Nidoking is better off ramming things instead of stalling them out. Thunder does more damage to Waters than Thunderbolt if it hits and it has a high Paralysis chance, but in the long run Thunderbolt's accuracy is better. If you're using Nidoking in standard and you need a pseudo-hazer really badly, he can Roar away Scizor, Ninjask, and to a lesser extent Zapdos and Jolteon (if they don't have Hidden Power Ice). Roar can help you in UU against UU Baton Passers, but those are rare. Hidden Power Grass is fun on Nidoking to hit Swampert and Quagsire for a surprise. Rest and Sleep Talk are always a nice option on Pokémon that can take a hit or two. Nidoking can absorb a Sleep from a Grass-type nicely and then surprise them with Sludge Bomb, but it does hurt his great versatility. Protect is nice to scout for Earthquakes, Explosions, and Choice Banded moves, and helps for Leftovers recovery. Substitute, in combination with a powerful Special move like Fire Blast or Thunder, can help Nidoking dispose of Weezing. EVsIf you're using Counter on Nidoking, more defensive EVs are suggested. With 88 HP and 28 Defense EVs, you can survive a Gligar Earthquake (as long as he doesn't have an Adamant nature). Nidoking needs 200 Special Attack (the stat, not the amount of EVs) to OHKO Gligar. If you're using a -Special Attack nature (Adamant, for example), you need 68 EVs to reach that. However, without that, Nidoking already has 206 Special Attack, so there's no need to stack it any more. Generally you'll want to focus on Attack to put a little strength behind his Earthquakes, while his Special moves should be designed to kill specific threats like Skarmory and Gligar. OpinionA great movepool that makes him usable in standard and beyond excellent in UU. There's very few surefire counters for Nidoking, especially in the UU environment. He can always surprise you and kill one of the key elements of your team. However, he can be rather hard to bring in due to his common weaknesses to Surf and Earthquake, and will always have a problem taking down sturdy Water-types. CountersIn standard, Suicune and Milotic can switch in on anything except a Choice Banded Earthquake (even a Thunderbolt) and shrug it off, and they can dispose of Nidoking with Surf. The same goes to Swampert, except he doesn't even feel Thunderbolt, however he cannot switch into Hidden Power Grass, and he does nice damage with Earthquake as well. Weezing makes an all-around good counter since he resists Sludge Bomb and Megahorn, takes very little damage from Rock Slide thanks to high Defense and is immune to Earthquake. It can Will-O-Wisp Nidoking and wear him down further with Sludge Bomb, using Pain Split to restore HP. However, if Nidoking uses Substitute, Will-O-Wisp won't work and it will be harder to wear him down, especially if he's using Fire Blast or Thunder. Flygon can come in on Earthquake, Rock Slide, Sludge Bomb, or Thunderbolt, and can OHKO Nidoking with STAB Earthquake. He takes HUGE damage from Ice Beam or Choice Banded Megahorns though. Claydol is more apt at taking Ice Beams, but is slower and will die even sooner to Megahorn. Donphan's high Defense makes him ideal to take on physical sets, however Ice Beam will do around 50% damage usually, so he will be knocked out later on. Skarmory can wall Nidoking and get Spikes in as long as Nidoking isn't using a Fire or Electric move. The same goes for Forretress—the lack of Earthquake immunity is compensated for by possessing Earthquake to kill Nidoking in two hits. Forretress also takes Electric moves slightly better. Celebi can kill Nidoking straight on with Psychic, but Choice Band Megahorn OHKOs it, and non-Choice Band Megahorn or Sludge Bomb is always a 2HKO, so better switch it in on one of his other moves. In UU, your options are limited. Quagsire, Whiscash, Politoed, Poliwrath, Walrein, and Blastoise work as counters in the same way as the Waters from standard: they do not like Choice Band Earthquakes, and Quagsire and Whiscash do not like Hidden Power Grass, but they take the hits from any of his other moves rather well. Poliwrath, Whiscash, and Quagsire may be better off using Earthquake instead of Surf or Hydro Pump to counter Nidoking. Solrock and Lunatone should beware of Megahorn or Shadow Ball, and Grounds like Sandslash and Gligar cannot take Ice Beam, but if these moves are not present they are great counters. |
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