Alas poor
Nidoking, R&D seems to fancy you and
Nidoqueen as star-crossed lovers; when one of your pairing shows promise, the other seems to be deadweight.
Nidoking is a not overly impressive Stage 2 Pokémon:
- Fighting-Type (good)
- 140 HP (acceptable)
- Water Weakness (terrible)
- Lightning Resistance (slightly good)
- :colorless::colorless::colorless: Retreat Cost (acceptable: high, but Heavy Ball can target)
- No Ability (Bad sign, but theoretically acceptable)
The first attack holds a lot of promise: Lovestrike requires just
colorless::colorless
to hit for 20 plus 40 per
Nidoqueen you have in play. This is bad when you can't get any bonus damage, but a single
Nidoqueen results in a solid return, two is just a little low to be a deck's focus, but three or four are fantastic... sort of; this format makes it very difficult to get Stage 2 Pokémon into play, so unless
Nidoqueen,
Nidorino,
Nidorina,
Nidoran ♂, or
Nidoran ♀ aid significantly in set-up or somehow improve the "combo", this might be underpowered. Still, if you manage four
Nidoqueen then Lovestrike can OHKO Pokémon-EX.
Its second attack is overpriced but only a little: four Energy really needs to score at least 100 points of damage, but 90 for
fighting::colorless::colorless::colorless
can tap a few different kinds of Energy acceleration as well as hitting hard enough to 2HKO most things. If the first attack wasn't likely the reason for playing this card, and this wasn't a Pokémon known for Poison damage, I'd consider this barely acceptable, but it definitely falls short. A
Nidoking not inflicting Poison, let alone multiple Poison in this format is a missed opportunity.
So... the
Nidoqueen and lower Stages of both Pokémon lack good set-up effects, especially Abilities. A
Nidoqueen with an Ability that stacked would have been very useful indeed. Sad thing, as this could have made for a double Stage 2 deck that actually was competitive.
