Behold the Nerfoqueen, who exists so that
Nidoking (
BW: Plasma Freeze 58/116) looks like a half serious attempt at setting up a competitive dual Stage 2 deck... but it is really just the card team trying to "punk" us, I am afraid.
Nidoqueen is a Stage 2 Pokémon, which means she can (at the earliest) hit the field on your second turn (and that requires
Rare Candy) and will ultimately require two turns to set-up (three if not using
Rare Candy) and three cards (either
Nidorina or
Rare Candy). Some Stage 2 Pokémon are worthwhile, but they have to bring
a lot, and are often Bench-sitters.
In a format where big, Basic Pokémon are dominant, this is a huge hurdle to overcome. Being a Psychic-Type isn't overly useful right now; you can hit
Mewtwo EX,
Deoxys EX, and
Gothitelle for double damage, but as we'll see, it isn't much of an attacker and is a bit too fragile for that trade to work well. The one piece of Psychic-Type support I am aware of is
Gardevoir, but it hasn't had much success so there might as well be none. It would be better just based on Type-matching if
Nidoqueen represented her other Type, Fighting (Ground).
130 HP for a Stage 2 is low; this is very dangerous in the current format. Now, HP scores are in a weird place because frankly, they have never been adapted in a sensible, consistent manner from the source material (the video games). I mean, Pokémon can have between 1 and and about 700 HP and aren't restricted to rounding off to the nearest 10, but the largest we get in the TCG is
Wailord at 200 HP. So 130 HP for something involving so much investment ends up being pathetic, even if (based on HP scores Stage 2 Pokémon are being printed with) it was meant to just be "low average". 10 more wouldn't make a huge difference, but it would make a difference and checking Nidoqueen's video game stats, she has at least slightly above average HP, Defense, and Special Defense; what happened?
Her Psychic Weakness is part of why she won't trade hits all that well with most played Psychic-Type Pokémon; a Psychic-Type Pokémon that hits for 70 scores a OHKO after said Weakness, or 60 with Poison damage. While terrifying in the current metagame, the most logical Weakness for
Nidoqueen, based on its video game counterpart, would be Water as in said video games Nidoqueen takes double damage from both Ice and Water attacks. The video game Psychic-Type does hit for double damage, but that Type was combined with Ghost- and Poison-Types for the TCG; the former does normal damage and the latter only 1/4 damage! Similarly, the Ground-Type hits for double damage but Fighting and Rock (the other two-thirds of the TCG Fighting-Type) hit for only half damage.
Lack of Resistance is annoying; it wouldn't make a huge amount of difference, but any Resistance is better than none. Again looking at the video games, which the TCG is supposed to be an adaptation of, Nidoqueen there are flat out Immune to damage from Electric (TCG Lightning-Type) attacks, take half damage from Fighting and Rock (which with the Ground-Type that hits for double damage, makes up the TCG Fighting-Type), half-damage from Bug (half of the TCG Grass-Type), and a quarter damage from other Poison-Types (a third of the TCG Psychic-Type).
Nidoqueen has a Retreat Cost of :colorless::colorless::colorless:; not easy to pay but you really should be packing an alternative or aid to retreating anyway due to most decks either scoring OHKOs or leaving you Poisoned or under the influence of another attack effect that retreating/changing out your Active shake. :colorless: or a free Retreat Cost would be better, but not :colorless::colorless: as the heavier cost allows
Heavy Ball to snag
Nidoqueen.
Her first attack actually isn't too bad until you consider her second and the most likely use for this card, partnering with
Nidoking.
psychic::colorless
for 50 points of damage plus Poison, a decent return except if the deck has any other Energy acceleration handy that works with
Nidoqueen, you can just jump to the second attack. Even a
Double Colorless Energy and previously attached
sychic: Energy will suffice. The second attack isn't good, but it isn't terrible; 60 points of damage plus two coin tosses that yield an extra 30 points of damage per "heads" flipped. That means a quarter of the time (double "tails") the attack is very underpowered (but still ends up doing at least as much damage as the first attack), a quarter of the time (double "heads") you get a great return of 120 points of damage for three Energy, and the remaining half of the time you get a solid 90 points of damage for three Energy.
So... what was the point of running through this card again? To show how
Nidoqueen fails
Nidoking. He needs a good Bench-sitter;
Nidoking can hit hard and fast so long as you can swarm
Nidoqueen, plus he usually has better Type matching as he is a Fighting-Type. So giving her two attacks isn't very helpful, where as even a token Ability would could be. She doesn't get any benefits from
Nidoking herself, making the relationship feel lopsided. If she lacked that, just having enough HP to survive one hit somewhat reliably, so that you could drop a
Switch (or the like) to get her back to the Bench and then
Nidoking avoided taking that hit would make her useful.
Instead she gets low HP and two so-so attacks. Her being made this way weakens
Nidoking. This is further compounded by how depressing both Evolution lines are in the lower Stages; wouldn't it be great if the lower Stages were geared towards aiding in set-up? Enjoy using her in Limited, because that is probably the only place she can do well.
Unlimited: 1/10
Modified: 3/10
Limited: 7/10
