
Nidoking (M)
Ability: None
- Thief
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Thunder / Fire Blast
Nidoking is one of the most dangerous mixed sweepers and most common leads in GSC. Thanks to its solid Speed tier, decent stats overall, Electric and Toxic immunity, strong STAB attack in Earthquake, and access to the excellent "BoltBeam" coverage of an Ice- and Electric-type attack, Nidoking has made itself a very common pick for offensively oriented teams. Lovely Kiss is the old standard choice for the remaining slot, which is still as good as ever, but in recent years it has gotten strong competition from Thief, which aims to remove Leftovers from Sleep Talk users that check Nidoking and, coupled with Spikes support, drastically reduces their durability. Thunder is generally preferred over Thunderbolt, as the latter lacks the power to potentially 3HKO Vaporeon and Suicune or 2HKO Starmie and has a lower paralysis chance. Fire Blast is an alternative over Thunder to threaten Heracross, which otherwise is one of the hardest counters to Nidoking, 2HKO Exeggutor or Steelix, and punish an opponent who is greedy enough to stay in with their Forretress, but this comes at the expense of being able to effectively pressure Water-types.
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