[SMOGON] [UU] Nidoqueen - Offensive Support (Wallbreaker/Hazard Setter)

[croissant]

Type: Ground/Poison
Weaknesses: Ground (X2), Water (X2), Psychic (X2), Ice (X2)
Resistances: Fighting (X0,5), Bug (X0,5), Fairy (X0,5), Rock (X0,5), Poison (X0,25), Electric (X0)
Abilities: Poison Point - Rivalry - Sheer Force (Hidden Ability)
Poison Point: The opponent has a 30% chance of being induced with Poison when using an attack, that requires physical contact, against this Pokémon.
Rivalry: Attack & Special Attack is increased by 25% if the foe is of the same gender; Attack & Special Attack is decreased by 25% if the foe is of the opposite gender.
Hidden Ability: Sheer Force: Moves with a secondary effect are increased in power by 33% but lose their secondary effect.

Base stats: 90 HP / 92 Attack / 87 Defense / 75 Special Attack / 85 Special Defense / 76 Speed
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The set: Offensive Hazard Setter/Wallbreaker



Nidoqueen @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 180 HP / 252 SpA / 76 Spe
Modest Nature
- Earth Power
- Ice Beam
- Stealth Rock
- Sludge Wave/Thunderbolt/Toxic Spikes

This set uses Nidoqueen's decent Special Attack and her colourful movepool that includes a plethora of moves that are boosted by Sheer Force, including the famous BoltBeam combo, as well as good support moves in Stealth Rock and Toxic Spikes. Life Orb is also the perfect item for this set as Sheer Force negates the Life Orb recoil damage on boosted moves. The EVs provided allows her to outspeed the standard CroCune set with being as powerful as possible and keeping a fair amount of bulk, but you can also run 216 Speed EVs to outspeed defensive Arcanine and Adamant Honchkrow. The 3 most important moves here are Earth Power, which is a good STAB move that is boosted by Sheer Force, Ice Beam, which hits Grass and Flying types who resists Ground type attacks, and Stealth Rock, which wears down the opposing team during the whole battle. For the last moveslot, it's up to you; Sludge Wave is a powerful secondary STAB move, Thunderbolt gives Nidoqueen excellent coverage paired with Ice Beam, and Toxic Spikes is for stacking hazards and furthermore weakening opposing Pokémon when they switch.

Calcs

Offensive:

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoqueen Earth Power vs. 248 HP / 0 SpD Arcanine: 455-538 (118.7 - 140.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoqueen Sludge Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Florges: 276-328 (76.6 - 91.1%) -- 25% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoqueen Sludge Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Sylveon: 320-377 (81.2 - 95.6%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock Good Partners

252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoqueen Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Suicune: 224-265 (55.4 - 65.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery

Defensive

252 Atk Sheer Force Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 180 HP / 0 Def Nidoqueen: 303-357 (82.7 - 97.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Mega Sceptile Leaf Storm vs. 180 HP / 0 SpD Nidoqueen: 264-312 (72.1 - 85.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252 SpA Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 180 HP / 0 SpD Nidoqueen: 237-280 (64.7 - 76.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

252+ SpA Slowking Scald vs. 180 HP / 0 SpD Nidoqueen: 272-324 (74.3 - 88.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Good Partners

-Machamp and Conkeldurr are both excellent partners, because they are excellents physical wallbreakers who can deal with the special walls that Nidoqueen struggles with while not having to worry about Fairy types. Assault Vest/Guts Conkeldurr gets a special mention since it can switch to Calm Mind-boosted Suicune and absorb the burn.
-Both Choice Scarf and mixed wallbreaker Hydreigon sets have good synergy with Nidoqueen, being able to get past threats like Krookodile. It also loves the fact that Nidoqueen can get past Fairy types.
-Pokémon that can pass Wishes, such as Umbreon, help Nidoqueen not being worn down too quickly.

Threats:

-While Nidoqueen can 2HKO a lot of bulky Water types, if they get a free switch, they can threaten Nidoqueen immediately by simply attacking or, in the case of Suicune and Slowking, setting up Calm Mind.

-Fast Ground Types, Ice types and Psychic types can be very dangerous because of her lack of speed.

-Nidoqueen struggles against very specially defensive Pokémon like Umbreon.

[croissant]

(Sep 11, 2016, 04:08 PM)naitre Wrote: Great write up on a very underappreciated Pokemon and tier! Nidoking and Nidoqueen are two of my favorites from Gen 1 and I hate having seen them fallen from grace in the latest metas. People really overlook them too easily.

Agreed. But Nidoking has been getting some usage in OU recently. I should do that for the next build actually!