aroramage |
Nidoking's always been a cool
Pokemon of untapped potential...with unfortunate
printings that have been hit or miss in the TCG.
Here in Evolutions, we get an
independent Nidoking that doesn't rely on Nidoqueen,
which is usually a good sign since neither has gotten an
EX that makes them easy to get into play. That being
said, Nidoking can only really do so much, as his
attacks aren't the strongest. Rumble does 2-for-40 and
keeps the opponent from Retreating their Pokemon while
Tail Swing does 3-for-100 and hits a couple of the
Benched Pokemon for 20 damage.
Rumble won't be able to do much on
its own, unless you wanna get your opponent to expend
resources in the attempt to pull out a Pokemon that's
active, but Tail Swing can bring out a total of 140
damage overall across the field. That's pretty good, all
things considered, even if it is spread out a bit more,
but Tail Swing itself can only 2HKO most Basic
Pokemon-EX and doesn't quite hit the numbers to threaten
the same for Megas without some additional help. On top
of that, Nidoking's only got 150 HP to work with, and he
is weak against any mirror match-ups, meaning he's got
some very specific timing as to when he can bring it all
together.
Course this set also brings out a
BREAK Evolution, which I'll talk about in more detail
tomorrow, but on his own, Nidoking is...okay. He's not
stellar, but he's not absolutely dreadful either. He's a
middle-of-the-road kind of card, and for a few of us,
that's all we need.
Rating
Standard: 2.5/5 (he can be
effective in the right hands)
Expanded: 2/5 (but he's going to
require some investment to bring out the bigger numbers)
Limited: 3/5 (and at that point,
why not just go for something better?)
Arora Notealus: This is probably
the biggest takeaway from the majority of the "reprints"
and "upgrades" to these classic Pokemon here in
Evolutions. Sure, they're much better now than their
original printings would have been in today's game, but
a lot of these only reworked what the Pokemon did to
make it do things better or differently if its original
form wouldn't be improved that much by a simple
adjustment of damage numbers. For instance, the original
Nidoking's attacks were Thrash, which did 3-for-30 with
a coin flip to either do more damage or take damage
himself, and Toxic, a 3-for-20 that upgraded the amount
of Poison damage done. This Nidoking outclasses his
grandpa, but he's only so much these days.
Next Time: NOW LET'S BREAK INTO
WHAT HE'LL BECOME!!
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Otaku |
Nidoking
(XY: Evolutions 45/108) is our subject today.
This is a Psychic Type Pokémon; nearly all Darkness and
Metal Type Pokémon enjoy Psychic Resistance while many
Fighting and Psychic Types suffer Psychic Weakness.
I am unaware of any anti-Psychic Type cards, and there
is a handful of explicit Psychic Type support, with some
of it proving useful. Not a lot of great tricks
that work with [P] Energy but the Psychic Type does have
multiple noteworthy members that if they don’t
overshadow Nidoking, could work well beside it in
a deck. As a Stage 2 without access to more
than the general shortcuts, Nidoking takes a few
turns and cards to hit the field, outperforming only
BREAK Evolutions of a Stage 2 (and possibly of a Stage
1), and Stage 1 Evolutions of Restored Pokémon (and
possibly Restored Pokémon themselves). Its 150 HP
is 10 shy of the maximum we’ve seen printed on a Stage
2, and enough to have solid odds of surviving a hit.
Its Psychic Weakness is dangerous, even more so in
Expanded. The lack of Resistance on Nidoking is
typical; a missed opportunity but even were it present,
it would be a minor benefit. The Retreat Cost of
[CCC] is burdensome enough to warrant dedicating more
than a few slots to alternatives to manually retreating
at full price, including more than one such answer (and
in multiples). Nidoking has two attacks, the
first of which is “Rumble” for [PC]; this attack does 40
damage while preventing the Defending Pokémon from
manually retreating on his or her next turn. The
second is “Tail Swing” for [PPC], doing 100 damage to
the opponent’s Active and 20 to each of his or her
Benched Pokémon. Both attacks have a decent return
in the form of damage plus effects, but not a lot of
synergy with each other beyond staggered Energy costs.
Nidoking
has to come from someplace, and unless we want to rely
on obscure, uncompetitive combos, that means Nidoran♂
and either Nidorino or Rare Candy.
We should also address the other currently legal
versions of Nidoking. I was going to
discuss Nidoqueen but then I realized this
Nidoking doesn’t have any effects dependent upon her
and no currently legal Nidoqueen has an effect
that references him. We have three versions of
Nidoran♂
from which to pick: BW: Plasma Freeze 43/116,
XY: Steam Siege 43/114, and XY: Evolutions
43/108. There are also three We have three options
for Nidorino as well: BW: Plasma Freeze
44/116, XY: Steam Siege 44/114, and XY:
Evolutions 44/108. For other Nidoking
we have BW: Plasma Freeze 58/116 and XY: Steam
Siege 45/114. Yes, all Nidoran♂
are card number 43, all Nidorino are card number
44, and one of the other Nidoking is card number
45, like today’s Nidoking. None have an
Ancient Trait and all but Nidoking (BW: Plasma
Freeze 58/116) are Psychic Type Pokémon with Psychic
Weakness, no Resistance, and have never been reviewed.
For reference sake, the review of Nidoking (BW:
Plasma Freeze 58/116) can be read
here;
Baby Mario and Ness reviewed it, and I think they mostly
get it right, save Ness was a bit generous in scoring,
and I would have been as well since I remember the days
when backing a Nidoking with four Nidoqueen
(or vice versa) wasn’t only viable but made for a top
deck. History however has proven this Nidoking
has yet to live up to even a slightly below average
score.
All Nidoran♂
are Basic Pokémon with 60 HP, Retreat Cost [C], and no
Abilities. BW: Plasma Freeze 43/116 is only
legal for Expanded play, and its lone attack is “Hit
Back” for [P], doing 30 damage but only if Nidoran♂
has damage counters on itself. XY: Steam Siege
43/114 is the only Nidoran♂
with two attacks, which are “Come Along” for [C] and
“Peck” for [PC]. Come Along allows you to search
your deck for and Bench a Nidoran♀
while Peck does a flat 20 damage. XY: Evolutions
43/108 can use “ Stab” for [P] to flip two coins, good
for 10 damage per “heads”. All Nidorino are
Stage 1 Pokémon with no Abilities and two attacks. BW:
Plasma Freeze 44/116 is only legal for Expanded play
and has 90 HP with a Retreat Cost of [CCC]. Its
first attack is “Double Kick” for [PC], which has you
flip two coins and does 30 damage per heads. For
[CCC] it can use “Horn Attack” to do 50 damage. XY:
Steam Siege 44/114 has 80 HP with a Retreat Cost of
[CC]. Its first attack is Peck, surprisingly still
priced at [PC] and doing 20 damage. Its second
attack is “Nido Press” at a cost of [PPC], doing 40
damage and if you have a Nidorina in play it does
an additional 40 (for 80 total). XY: Evolutions
44/108 has 90 HP with a Retreat Cost of [CC]. Its
first attack is Horn Attack, but this version costs [P]
and does 20 damage. Its second attack is “Fury
Attack” for [CCC] and has you flip three coins, good for
30 damage per “heads”. None of these are
particularly good; use whichever Nidoran♂
you want unless you are trying to make a
Nidoqueen and Nidoking deck, in which case I
guess Nidoran♂
(XY: Steam Siege 43/114) is ever so slightly
better due to its Come Along attack. For
Nidorino, XY: Evolutions 44/108 has the
better HP with the better Retreat Cost, so use it (and
Rare Candy).
All Nidoking are Stage 2 Pokémon. The
Expanded only BW: Plasma Freeze 58/116 is a
Fighting Type with 140 HP, Water Weakness, Lightning
Resistance, Retreat Cost [CCC], and has two attacks.
The first attack is “Lovestrike” which costs [CC] and
does 20 damage plus 40 per Nidoqueen on your
Bench. For [FCCC] it can use “Horn Drill” to do 90
damage. Unlike Beedrill (XY: Evolutions
7/108 which we reviewed last week
here,
there is no Evolution acceleration for Nidoqueen.
You can try to use Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick to
get this Nidoking into play without
Evolving, but to get Lovestrike hitting for a decent
amount worth the hassle, you’re talking about Benching
at least two Nidoqueen (preferably three or
four). Like with Beedrill, you gain all the
issues of swarming a Stage 2, plus you’re running a
second Stage 2 line. None of the currently legal
Nidoqueen benefit this Nidoking other
than fueling Lovestrike. I mentioned using
Nidoran♂
(XY: Steam Siege 43/114) if you were going to run
Nidoking alongside Nidoqueen; this is me
clarifying that if you use this Nidoking with a
Nidoqueen, you’re shooting for a “fun” deck.
Horn Drill is just flat out overpriced, so there goes
the idea of including it as a single to exploit Fighting
Weakness.
Nidoking
(XY: Steam Siege 45/114) has the same 150 HP of
today’s Nidoking but with a Retreat Cost of
[CCCC]. Its “King’s Palace” Ability gives a +20
boost to the damage done by attacks from your
Nidoqueen, before applying Weakness or
Resistance. The wording means it should stack with
other copies of itself; two Nidoking with King’s
Palace means a total bonus of +40, three means a total
bonus of +60, and four means a total bonus of +80.
This Nidoking can use the attack “Power Lariat”
for [PPC] to do 60 damage plus 30 per Evolution Pokémon
on your bench. If you go all out with Sky Field
in play and have eight Evolution Pokémon on your Bench,
that’s a massive 300 damage. Even if Parallel
City comes along and caps your Bench size at three,
as long as all are Evolution Pokémon Power Lariat can
swing for 150. A normal Bench of five Pokémon
allows for the effect of Power Lariat to raise its
damage to 210. Seems like some decent numbers, and
it is… however you either have a bunch of “filler”
Evolutions on your Bench that are easy to put into play,
you go the Nidoqueen route which means either of
them can hit hard but your deck is going to be a
mess, or you take some of the best Stage 1 Pokémon and
ignore King’s Palace, focusing on Power Lariat.
The last option seems like the most plausible deck,
however it still will be cramped for space and even
in Expanded - where you can use Dimension Valley
to drop the cost of Power Lariat - you’re probably not
going to get a reliable enough Power Lariat out of the
deal to make it worthwhile.
Wait, we have multiple cards referencing Nidoqueen
and even a card each referencing Nidoran♀
and Nidorina… why aren’t I covering them? I
am going to be blunt; as much as my obsessive tendencies
makes me want to include them, this review is going to
be long enough as is and nothing about any legal
version of them changes what I said above as they don’t
help any Nidoking or receive enough help from
Nidoking to make the two a competitive deck. A
fun deck? Sure. Not a competitive deck,
however. Now why am I not discussing Nidoking
BREAK? Because I scheduled it for
tomorrow’s review
as this one was already going to be massive. The
short version is that I don’t think it
will make today’s Nidoking (XY: Evolutions
45/108), but it might help it a little even though it
means you’re effectively running a Stage 3 Pokémon (more
than I can say for the other Nidoking). So
should you use Nidoking (XY: Evolutions
45/108) in Expanded or Standard play? Probably
not, but you can try. Tricks like Dimension
Valley give the deck better support in Expanded
but it faces more threats that can easily score a
OHKO against it, so I think it evens out for Expanded
and Standard. If you can keep Nidoking
around long enough to use Tail Swing twice while Bench
damage isn’t being blocked, nothing is being healed, and
your opponent isn’t able to stagger their play of new
Pokémon, its actually quite formidable. That isn’t
hugely impressive; I did just give three separate
conditions and you cannot run counters to ensure all
three. Nidoking should shine in Limited play, at
least, where its stats and effects are far more useful,
as are its lower Stages.
So now we take a moment to look at the inspiration for
not only Nidoking (XY: Evolutions 45/108),
but Nidoran♂
(XY: Evolutions 43/108) and Nidorino (XY:
Evolutions 44/108). I speak of Nidoran♂
(Base Set 55/102; Base Set 2 83/130;
Legendary Collection 83/110), Nidorino (Base
Set 37/102; Base Set 2 54/130; Legendary
Collection 56/110), and Nidoking (Base Set
11/102; Base Set 2 11/130; Legendary
Collection 31/110). All of these are Grass
Type Pokémon, because when the game first released and
until the release of Diamond & Pearl, video game
Poison Types were lumped in with the Grass Type instead
of the Psychic Type. They all remain Psychic Weak
and lack Resistance like their Poison Type inspired
counterparts, and all just have attacks and no
old-school equivalents to Abilities, Ancient Traits, or
any other specialty mechanics. Nidoran♂
(Base Set 55/102; Base Set 2 83/130;
Legendary Collection 83/110) only had 40 HP, but
still had a Retreat Cost of [C] and a single attack.
The attack was “Horn Hazard” for [G], though, and it was
“tails fails” but did 30 damage. For a very short
period it was actually used to exploit Grass Weakness in
certain decks!
Nidorino
(Base Set 37/102; Base Set 2 54/130;
Legendary Collection 56/110) only had 60 HP but also
got away with a Retreat Cost of [C]. Its attacks
were the familiar Double Kick and Horn Drill, though
they are familiar because they are attacks that are used
in other places, including other cards already mentioned
in this review. Its Double Kick required [GCC] to
flip two coins good for 30 damage per “heads”, while its
Horn Drill required [GGCC] to do 50 damage. Nidoking
(Base Set 11/102; Base Set 2 11/130;
Legendary Collection 31/110) had 90 HP with a
Retreat Cost of [CCC]. The other two had HP scores
at least close to in proportion to their modern
counterparts, but Nidoking only does that if we
compare it with specialty mechanics (like being a
Pokémon-EX) that don’t have an old school counterpart.
Good for it that it finally got big. The attack on
this version were “Thrash” and “Toxic”, the former
requiring [GCC] and the latter [GGG]. Thrash did
30 with a coin flip; “heads” meant +10 damage to the
Defending Pokémon, while “tails” meant 10 damage to
itself. Toxic did 20 damage, plus “double
Poisoned” the Defending Pokémon so that it took twice
the usual Poison damage between turns. These
attacks were pretty bad; I think the designers expected
Nidoking to have a bigger role they overestimated
its usefulness for exploiting Grass Weakness, as well as
the usefulness of Special Conditions and Stage 2 Pokémon
in general. I get why their modern counterparts
share so little with the originals.
Ratings
Standard:
1.75/5
Expanded:
1.75/5
Limited:
3.75/5
Summary:
Nidoking has many good pieces to it, but the
combination of being a Stage 2 with the easily exploited
Psychic Weakness really takes it down a peg. That
kind of baggage meant it had to be rather exceptional to
justify competitive usage.
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