Nidoqueen RR, a very sought after card especially during the RR Pre-release, became the topic of discussion to be included in many decks. It’s Poké Body, Maternal Comfort, removes 1 damage counter from each of your Pokémon, between turns.
Nidoqueen has become a favorite tech in many people’s decks. Such a favorite that many people have retorted to teching in Dialga G LV.X to stop Nidoqueen’s body from working. Since it has 120 hp, bench sniping it will be hard to do unless heavy damage can be applied. Healing in between turns is amazing, if your active Pokémon took heavy damage, it can be retreated to the bench and receive small healing as time goes by, and also gives your main attackers more of a “tank” ability. And most people play Pokémon with low Retreat Cost so running to the safety of the bench can help heal those battle wounds. Pokémon with fairly low hp can last longer and deal heavier damage before getting KO’d or even saved by retreating to the bench. Also, Nidoqueen puts a stop to a lot of decks that spread damage around, for all of your Pokémon have already healed 20 damage by the time your turn rolls around again. Basically, there are no clauses, the Body goes into effect the moment Nidoqueen is played and from then on, until it is KO’d or Body Locked by Dialga G LV.X.
There are only 2 problems that I see with Nidoqueen. Nidoqueen is a stage 2 Pokémon so Rare Candies are needed. Also, Nidoqueen has a 3 energy Retreat Cost, so in the unfortunate event your Nidoqueen is pulled out, unless you have a switch or a warp point, your Nidoqueen is going to stay there for a while. However, she is a fairly decent attacker, 40 damage for 1 psychic energy can help you at least damage the opponent while stalling/tanking and healing yourself. Ruthless Tail costs 3 energy, but with the majority of bench filling decks out there, an upper energy can help Nidoqueen do heavy damage for 2 if you are lagging behind. I would most likely play either a 2-1-2 line or a 1-0-1 line in any deck that uses Rare Candy. A majority of decks use Broken Time-Space, so either using yours or your opponents, chances are you wont use all your Rare Candies and drawing into them may pose as a bother. Nidoqueen can be best used in almost any deck that uses stage 2 Pokémon, the most popular being teamed with Gengar for the “Mother Gengar” variant and also in Flygon, which removes the 3 Retreat Cost problem.
Nidoqueen… is it a good Pokémon to have? I definitely think so. The stop of spread and tanking ability will make plenty of Pokémon much stronger. And as with the Dialga G techs, while trying to set that up, they have wasted at least 2 turns to get that Dialga out there and working. In that time you could draw a prize or two.
I’m a big fan of the Nidoqueen tech. Try it out if you like and let us know what you think!
Thanks again for the article Qua! Nice analysis and I am definitely looking forward to receiving more material from you. :)
I do wanna say though that I think Dialga G LV.X isn’t really that hard to get out, but it does take small investment in resources to get it in play. If you use Nidoqueen with Flygon LV.X however, you can snipe the Dialga so Nidoqueen practically can’t be shut off in that deck.
I think Nidoqueen is an awesome card, it really makes you think twice about using a spread deck.
P.S. I am leaving for NYC in 10 mins and won’t be back until Sunday night, so I’ll see everyone then!
Nidoqueen is rediculous and is the only reason gengar still works. It offers a solid hitter and anti-anti-fainting spell. :/
Disagree. The only Gengar list that did anything at all during Nationals this year didn’t run Nidoqueen, but Starmie.
Really? The rising rivals Starmie? What was the strategy?
this one
Wow, a way around Unown G…
X_X Nats was WON by genqueen…lol at least in seniors. Starmie is a decent card as well, offering good sniping and anti-mirrior, but honestly, queen is probably the more consistant play (although it being a stage 2, it offers longativity and a stable attacker).
First off brian, I don’t think that consistency is the word you’re looking for, because by the very definition of the word, a Stage One is immediately more “consistent” than a stage two. Perhaps “reliability”?
Anyways, this is pretty ageist, but the Masters division is the only thing I would ever consider as far as what did well/didn’t for a few generalized reasons:
-Smarter players.
-Richer players. More money = more deck options…A fact of life.
-More advanced metagame as a result of the previous two generalizations.
I say this knowing that there are exceptions – in fact, two of the top eight from U.S. Nats (seniors) go to my league!
…But in the Masters Division, the only Gengar that did anything was Matt L.’s Gengar/Starmie. A friend of mine claimed that he only made it so far because of “luck,” but I’ve actually tested it, and it’s by far the best way to play Gengar right now. It’s not like Queen doesn’t have a place in it, but almost no straight Gengar/Queens made it into Top 128 of the U.S. National Championship (Masters), and even fewer made it into the top 32.
Nidoqueen, as awesome as it is, isn’t enough to help a deck win a major event in an advanced metagame; that is, Gengar’s vulnerability as a deck is not dealt with by just slipping it in.
Also, a majority of Masters division have been playing for a long time…
Juniors and Seniors division usually run decks without many techs, I don’t think they understand that concept yet. I see Machamp and Scizor/Cherrim ROCKING Junior and Senior divisions.
Awesome post Kettler.
I never really thought about that before, that Masters players have more money at their disposal than Junior or Senior players, thus they have more deck options. That’s very interesting and makes a lot of sense!
Comparing age divisions is really like comparing apples and oranges. Sure there may be a few standout players in the 2 younger divisions, but as a whole they are much weaker and that totally skews results.
I don’t agree with any of your points.
-Smarter players: Yes there are alot of smart players in masters, but that usually comes from years of experience of playing this game and being good in math. However, there are plenty for little kids who are good at math (not that great in probabily obviously but good enough to realize you have a long shot to hit that 1 card out of 20 left in the deck) and have 4+ years under thier belt, mostly in seniors…though its funny that the winner is actually a rookie. X_X
-Come on. Spoiled kid vs. in debt college kid. lol Usually masters have greater access to cards via friends but there is always those kids who have the parents willing to spend far more than any of us can afford.
-I obviously disagree with this because the other two points are pretty weak. However usually the masters format is more diverse because of extreeme deck testing and taking more chances. Of course, this means that an archtype has less standard loses to worry about, meaning its path to the championship is usually harder in the lower divisions vs. masters, unless there is a bundle of the “rouge” deck (can’t really call it rouge when everybody seems to know about it) and it really beats the archtype.
The only real reason that gengar didn’t do so well in masters is because luxray/anything beats the utter crap out of gengar. I honestly don’t see the synergy in gengar/starmie (just like theres basically no synergy between luxray and infernape). It actually sounds like most of these decks were just tossed together with solid cards. In any case, now that the deck is out in the open, I see gengar being far more prepared with luxape and playing either a thicker queen line, more warp points/warp energy, BTS, ect. I don’t expect gengar to win worlds in masters at all, just like I never expected it to win nats, but that’s because people in masters have realized earlier on that gengar isn’t that great of a card and only the power really keeps it afloat.
Nice post Brian, I think it’s great that if you don’t agree with something you explain your view on the subject. It’s awesome to see some interesting discussion going on here already. :)
Very good analysis Qua. Maybe the SV Drifblim will make her a little more vulnerable on the Bench as it will be able to apply weakness with its Shadow Ball attack. Two turns and she’s KOed.
[P][C][C] Shadow Ball: Choose one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon. This attack does 40 damage to that Pokemon. Apply Weakness and Resistance.
Thank you :) Wow that Drifblim sounds pretty good…you can’t even protect yourself with Unown G…
Great point Dave. :)
Very good analysis Qua. Maybe the SV Drifblim will make her a little more vulnerable on the Bench as it will be able to apply weakness with its Shadow Ball attack. Two turns and she’s KOed.
[P][C][C] Shadow Ball: Choose one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon. This attack does 40 damage to that Pokemon. Apply Weakness and Resistance.
Thank you :) Wow that Drifblim sounds pretty good…you can’t even protect yourself with Unown G…
Great point Dave. :)
Thanks again for the article Qua! Nice analysis and I am definitely looking forward to receiving more material from you. :)
I do wanna say though that I think Dialga G LV.X isn’t really that hard to get out, but it does take small investment in resources to get it in play. If you use Nidoqueen with Flygon LV.X however, you can snipe the Dialga so Nidoqueen practically can’t be shut off in that deck.
I think Nidoqueen is an awesome card, it really makes you think twice about using a spread deck.
P.S. I am leaving for NYC in 10 mins and won’t be back until Sunday night, so I’ll see everyone then!
Nidoqueen is rediculous and is the only reason gengar still works. It offers a solid hitter and anti-anti-fainting spell. :/
Disagree. The only Gengar list that did anything at all during Nationals this year didn’t run Nidoqueen, but Starmie.
Really? The rising rivals Starmie? What was the strategy?
this one
Wow, a way around Unown G…
X_X Nats was WON by genqueen…lol at least in seniors. Starmie is a decent card as well, offering good sniping and anti-mirrior, but honestly, queen is probably the more consistant play (although it being a stage 2, it offers longativity and a stable attacker).
First off brian, I don’t think that consistency is the word you’re looking for, because by the very definition of the word, a Stage One is immediately more “consistent” than a stage two. Perhaps “reliability”?
Anyways, this is pretty ageist, but the Masters division is the only thing I would ever consider as far as what did well/didn’t for a few generalized reasons:
-Smarter players.
-Richer players. More money = more deck options…A fact of life.
-More advanced metagame as a result of the previous two generalizations.
I say this knowing that there are exceptions – in fact, two of the top eight from U.S. Nats (seniors) go to my league!
…But in the Masters Division, the only Gengar that did anything was Matt L.’s Gengar/Starmie. A friend of mine claimed that he only made it so far because of “luck,” but I’ve actually tested it, and it’s by far the best way to play Gengar right now. It’s not like Queen doesn’t have a place in it, but almost no straight Gengar/Queens made it into Top 128 of the U.S. National Championship (Masters), and even fewer made it into the top 32.
Nidoqueen, as awesome as it is, isn’t enough to help a deck win a major event in an advanced metagame; that is, Gengar’s vulnerability as a deck is not dealt with by just slipping it in.
Also, a majority of Masters division have been playing for a long time…
Juniors and Seniors division usually run decks without many techs, I don’t think they understand that concept yet. I see Machamp and Scizor/Cherrim ROCKING Junior and Senior divisions.
Awesome post Kettler.
I never really thought about that before, that Masters players have more money at their disposal than Junior or Senior players, thus they have more deck options. That’s very interesting and makes a lot of sense!
Comparing age divisions is really like comparing apples and oranges. Sure there may be a few standout players in the 2 younger divisions, but as a whole they are much weaker and that totally skews results.
I don’t agree with any of your points.
-Smarter players: Yes there are alot of smart players in masters, but that usually comes from years of experience of playing this game and being good in math. However, there are plenty for little kids who are good at math (not that great in probabily obviously but good enough to realize you have a long shot to hit that 1 card out of 20 left in the deck) and have 4+ years under thier belt, mostly in seniors…though its funny that the winner is actually a rookie. X_X
-Come on. Spoiled kid vs. in debt college kid. lol Usually masters have greater access to cards via friends but there is always those kids who have the parents willing to spend far more than any of us can afford.
-I obviously disagree with this because the other two points are pretty weak. However usually the masters format is more diverse because of extreeme deck testing and taking more chances. Of course, this means that an archtype has less standard loses to worry about, meaning its path to the championship is usually harder in the lower divisions vs. masters, unless there is a bundle of the “rouge” deck (can’t really call it rouge when everybody seems to know about it) and it really beats the archtype.
The only real reason that gengar didn’t do so well in masters is because luxray/anything beats the utter crap out of gengar. I honestly don’t see the synergy in gengar/starmie (just like theres basically no synergy between luxray and infernape). It actually sounds like most of these decks were just tossed together with solid cards. In any case, now that the deck is out in the open, I see gengar being far more prepared with luxape and playing either a thicker queen line, more warp points/warp energy, BTS, ect. I don’t expect gengar to win worlds in masters at all, just like I never expected it to win nats, but that’s because people in masters have realized earlier on that gengar isn’t that great of a card and only the power really keeps it afloat.
Nice post Brian, I think it’s great that if you don’t agree with something you explain your view on the subject. It’s awesome to see some interesting discussion going on here already. :)
The card is very ridiculous. In a deck where the main attacker has free retreat, it can be a life saver.
EXCELLENT point about Drifblim, Dave, that makes me see Drifblim in a whole new way. The evasion of retreating to the bench and recovering makes Drifblim very enticing to play.
Nice article Qua!
Sometimes I even find myself attacking with Mega Punch. P for 40 damage is pretty good.
Yeah, this is a pretty great card. I have to admit I didn’t see the greatness it in at first, but it’s grown on me. The first attack is fantastic, and it has a decent weakness/resistance and a pretty high HP. The ability to heal is obviously the biggest draw, and as someone else said, it’s keeping Gengar alive.
And yeah, GREAT point about Drifblim Dave!
Yeah, this is a pretty great card. I have to admit I didn’t see the greatness it in at first, but it’s grown on me. The first attack is fantastic, and it has a decent weakness/resistance and a pretty high HP. The ability to heal is obviously the biggest draw, and as someone else said, it’s keeping Gengar alive.
And yeah, GREAT point about Drifblim Dave!
Oh yeah, forgot about his attacks.
The second attack is pretty much the best attack in the format right now, barring energy cost, considering almost everyone plays with a huge bench these days. Every time I see an opponent’s Nidoqueen with 2 energy, I’m on the edge of my seat at that 100 damage of doom sitting on the bench.
The card is very ridiculous. In a deck where the main attacker has free retreat, it can be a life saver.
EXCELLENT point about Drifblim, Dave, that makes me see Drifblim in a whole new way. The evasion of retreating to the bench and recovering makes Drifblim very enticing to play.
Nice article Qua!
Sometimes I even find myself attacking with Mega Punch. P for 40 damage is pretty good.
Oh yeah, forgot about his attacks.
The second attack is pretty much the best attack in the format right now, barring energy cost, considering almost everyone plays with a huge bench these days. Every time I see an opponent’s Nidoqueen with 2 energy, I’m on the edge of my seat at that 100 damage of doom sitting on the bench.
Nidoqueen is definitely a force to be reckoned with- especially against spread decks. Any deck that likes to put damage around on the bench (like kingdra, dusknoir, gallade, infernape sp, etc) HATES nidoqueen, and it really isn’t too hard to get out, assuming you run rare candies.
Even as a tech it works well, but a great card overall. Don’t forget about a monarch deck (nidoking/queen) and its merits in that decks as well. It works as both a bench tech and a backup attacker, and it deserves a spot in any deck that can fit it in.
I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why everyone abbreviates Rising Rivals as (RI) instead of (RR).
Anyhow, great tech in most Stage 2 decks, and not a bad attacker if you have to use her as an attacker.
I think it’s to differentiate from some team rocket set way back when… something like rocket returns or something. RR looks better though :v
I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why everyone abbreviates Rising Rivals as (RI) instead of (RR).
Anyhow, great tech in most Stage 2 decks, and not a bad attacker if you have to use her as an attacker.
I think it’s to differentiate from some team rocket set way back when… something like rocket returns or something. RR looks better though :v
Pros address it as RI, I guess.
Nidoqueen is definitely a force to be reckoned with- especially against spread decks. Any deck that likes to put damage around on the bench (like kingdra, dusknoir, gallade, infernape sp, etc) HATES nidoqueen, and it really isn’t too hard to get out, assuming you run rare candies.
Even as a tech it works well, but a great card overall. Don’t forget about a monarch deck (nidoking/queen) and its merits in that decks as well. It works as both a bench tech and a backup attacker, and it deserves a spot in any deck that can fit it in.
Pros address it as RI, I guess.
This is the only site that I’ve heard refer to it as RI, actually. Maybe I’m out of the loop though.
This is the only site that I’ve heard refer to it as RI, actually. Maybe I’m out of the loop though.
Haha I apologize for that if I have ever said RI. The reason people say RI in lieu of RR is that on Apprentice, whomever made the patch abbreviated the set Rising Rivals with “RI” because Team Rocket Returns already was assigned “RR”. So I often have RI in my head, but the correct abbreviation is RR.
Haha, I had it originally as RR as can be seen in the title, but I changed it when I read RI somewhere here. I guess I didn’t look so deeply to change them all, now the article looks all messy haha
Haha I apologize for that if I have ever said RI. The reason people say RI in lieu of RR is that on Apprentice, whomever made the patch abbreviated the set Rising Rivals with “RI” because Team Rocket Returns already was assigned “RR”. So I often have RI in my head, but the correct abbreviation is RR.
Haha, I had it originally as RR as can be seen in the title, but I changed it when I read RI somewhere here. I guess I didn’t look so deeply to change them all, now the article looks all messy haha
Actually, it’s true that richer people have an upper hand in cardss, smarter players will end up winning most of the time and win extra cards in tourneys
Actually, it’s true that richer people have an upper hand in cardss, smarter players will end up winning most of the time and win extra cards in tourneys
i don’t have to read everyone of your posts to at least come to a good conclusion…
The only way that one kid made it to top eight was the sheer numbers theory. A bunch of gengar decks were played in his flight (which i was not in) and one made it in. Gengar was a bad choice for nationals even though it was hard to play around. I do understand your points though “all the queen lists did bad?” Quite frankly all gengars did bad. Do you honestly see yourself running gengar without nidoqueen???? Most players are aware of uxie’s attacks and flash bite too to counter it’s power.
i don’t have to read everyone of your posts to at least come to a good conclusion…
The only way that one kid made it to top eight was the sheer numbers theory. A bunch of gengar decks were played in his flight (which i was not in) and one made it in. Gengar was a bad choice for nationals even though it was hard to play around. I do understand your points though “all the queen lists did bad?” Quite frankly all gengars did bad. Do you honestly see yourself running gengar without nidoqueen???? Most players are aware of uxie’s attacks and flash bite too to counter it’s power.
It sounds like you’re generating issues yourself by looking for to solve this difficulty instead of seeking at why their is a issue inside the Initial place. thanks !!! incredibly extremely helpful post!