Gen 6 UU/OU Wallbreaker
Nidoking is my all-time favorite Pokemon in the entire franchise. I can't play through Fire Red / Leaf Green without it. With it being such a great addition to my playthrough teams I had always assumed it had to be amazing competitively. Sadly, Nidoking isn't given the arsenal to keep up with many top tier threats like Mega Metagross, Landorus-T, etc. That being said, in the right hands, it can be an extremely big threat in hundreds of situations when played correctly. It is often a very prediction reliant Pokemon so it works well with those who have a fair amount of competitive experience. I've been using Nidoking competitively ever since I started the competitive scene and I believe this set to be the most effective for Generation 6. I've found that it works somewhat similarly in some of the newer titles, but with a shifting meta game the results may vary.
Nidoking (M) @ Life Orb / Leftovers
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature / Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Poison Jab
- Ice Punch
- Sucker Punch / Fire Punch / Thunder Punch / Substitute
This is a physical Nidoking moveset that utilizes the buff to the Attack stat that it received from Generation 6 onward. Most commonly, you will see people use a special Nidoking set due to the fact that its special movepool takes advantage of its ability Sheer Force better than most of it's physical movepool. Since this is the more common variant for this Pokemon I have found that, at times, using a physical set may catch an opponent off guard. A special wall with frail physical defense does NOT want to switch into a Poison Jab. With that little explanation out of the way, let's go over the moveset.
Earthquake
Unfortunately, Nidoking lacks a great physical ground-type move that gets a boost from Sheer Force. This is part of the reason people opt for special Nidoking who uses a boosted Earth Power. Despite that, Earthquake sits at a base power of 100 which is still fair enough to punch some holes into the other team. More often than not, you'll be using Poison Jab as your go-to stab option either way. Earthquake scares off common threats such as Heatran, Magnezone, and it even threatens Metagross if it hasn't Mega Evolved yet.
Poison Jab
As mentioned before, this is your go-to stab move. Poison Jab is nearly guaranteed to drop off a target that is weak to poison, and put a sizable dent into neutral targets. This move is a terror for Clefable. Only once or twice have I seen a fully invested physically defensive Clefable live from a Poison Jab; even at full HP! Jab also causes problems for Breloom if it hasn't put up a substitute yet.
Ice Punch
This is a very important move for Nidoking mainly due to the threat of Landorus-T, Garchomp and Gliscor. The way you decide to use Ice Punch will vary based on the sets being used, so if possible you may want to try and figure that out first with a few switches. All of these threats, most commonly Lando-T, feel very comfortable switching into Poison Jab due to the fact that they take absolutely pitiful amounts of damage from it. While this may seem like a weakness at first, you can exploit this over confidence with Ice Punch. Even after an Intimidate drop, Ice Punch (Life Orb) will commonly OHKO all before mentioned threats with the exception of Lando-T and Gliscor if they are max HP/Def. Without the drop from Intimidate, both are OHKO'd. How to prevent the drop will be mentioned later.
- Sucker Punch
- Fire Punch
- Thunder Punch
- Substitute
Your last move slot has a lot of room for preference. I believe Ice Punch is not interchangeable due to the important threats it can check. The other punches, however, can be selected to fit the needs of the rest of your team. Sucker Punch is very useful for handling fast psychic-types such as Alakazam, Latias and Latios, Mega Metagross, Azelf, etc. It's also great for finishing off other quick low health threats. Fire Punch has quite a bit of use in OU as well. It deals massive damage to Ferrothorn, Scizor, and although it may not deal huge heaps of damage to Skarmory, it's a decent move to deal a bit of damage and put some pressure on it. Thunder Punch has slightly less use than some of the other options, but still has it's occasional uses. It can put some decent sized dents into bulky water types and may catch flying-types neutral to Ice Punch off guard. Examples of this may include Talonflame, Skarmory, and Gyarados. Lastly, we have Substitute. As mentioned before, there is an option you may use to avoid the drop from Intimidate users such as Landorus-T. Substitute! This may take a bit of prediction to use properly as Landorus could switch in as you go for a Substitute and give you a drop anyway, but I can say it's worked well for me a number of times. However, if you can't escape intimidate, no worries! Congratulations! You have protection from Substitute now! You may not OHKO your intended target but you'll still be unleashing a heavy load of damage onto them if they decide to stay. Substitute works very well for those without a great sense of prediction since it gives you a bit of a safety net if you make the wrong move. This is also where (Leftovers) comes into play. While you can use Leftovers without Substitute, I highly recommend using it exclusively with this move included. You'll be losing a fair amount of HP every time you set up a Substitute so Leftovers is almost a must. You may be sacrificing a bit of damage output, but I promise that it's worth it.
Conclusion
As it has been mentioned multiple times already, Nidoking is a very prediction reliant Pokemon. Whether you use an Adamant nature or a Jolly nature is up to you. Adamant is usually my go-to since you're not out speeding too many important threats with a Jolly nature. No need to give up power if you don't need to! When in the hands of an experienced player it can become a monstrous threat. Give this set a try and practice your prediction making as you use it. In the end, you may find that Nidoking has become one of your new favorite Pokemon just as he is mine! Overall, Nidoking is an incredibly fun Pokemon to use and I think you'll enjoy experimenting with him. Hope this helps everyone!
