Featured Pokemon: Nidoqueen

God save the queen

Greetings trainers!

Perhaps one of the best Pokemon you can easily obtain, Nidoqueen actually makes for quite a solid defender. Nidoking also comes to mind of course, but for reasons I'll explain below, Nidoqueen is superior in most every way imaginable. Also, while Nidoking is cool, Nidoqueen is classy. Like... seriously... she just has this sleek and elegant design that Nidoking tossed away just for some token spikes. The Nido-Pokemon also have great attacks that are resisted by few.

Sleek and elegant design: +1 Nidoqueen

Recommended movesets

Nidoqueen used... anything.
S'all good

Attacking
Bite or Poison Jab + Earthquake or Sludge Wave

Nidoqueen has access to a number of good moves: Bite and Poison Jab make up the quick moves, while Earthquake, Sludge Wave, and Stone Edge are her charge moves. Bite's quick cooldown time makes it great for attacking, but Poison Jab will deal more DPS, and can complement Nidoqueen's Sludge Wave. But really, there's nothing wrong with using Bite for the ability to dodge, or Poison Jab for the extra damage. Both hit Pokemon like Hypno or Exeggutor for good damage, but Nidoqueen's unfortunate Poison-typing leaves her weak to their Psychic-type attacks.

Earthquake is an appreciated and strong charge move that works well with Bite thanks to Bite's quick cooldown. Poison Jab and Sludge Wave complement each other, which lets you double up on the Poison moves against the likes of Clefable and Wigglytuff; though technically Earthquake is still better for this purpose.

Effectively though, all of Nidoqueen's moves are solid, and importantly her quick-moves are great. Nidoking can end up with Fury Cutter and/or Megahorn, which are much less useful.

Better moves: +2 Nidoqueen

Come at me sis

Defending
Poison Jab + Earthquake
(Sludge Wave or Stone Edge are also dece)

On defence, Nidoqueen really shines thanks to Poison Jab's decently high base power. Earthquake makes for the strongest charge move. Sludge Wave and Stone Edge are also useable, but generally inferior; Stone Edge hits Dragonite super effectively instead of being resisted. There's no way to type-counter every possible attacker, but Nidoqueen's diversity in charge moves can keep an opponent guessing. Effectively, if you have Poison Jab, your Nidoqueen is guaranteed to be a decent defender moveset. That said, Earthquake's significantly higher base power makes it stronger than the other options outside of niche situations; for instance, Exeggutor, which resists Ground and is weak to Poison, makes Sludge Wave superior in that instance.

For the record, Nidoking is also solid as far as defensive moves go, since it too wants Poison Jab and just replaces Stone Edge with Megahorn, which hits Exeggutor harder. But since you have Sludge Wave already, it's a bit redundant, and has less utility and lacks STAB.

Base stats

"Nidoqueen strong! Nidoqueen
better than Nidoking!"

Attack: 184

Defence: 190

Stamina: 180

Here's where Nidoqueen really beats out Nidoking. Nidoqueen has very solid stats all over, while Nidoking has middling Defence and Stamina (204/170/162). Nidoking makes up for this with an increased Attack stat, but Nidoqueen has +28 net total stats, which is hard to overcome. Not only that, but Nidoqueen has higher Stamina and Defence, which are both more important for defending; especially the Stamina which is boosted by the HP boost that defending Pokemon receive.

Better overall stats, and allocation of stats: +4 Nidoqueen

Wigglytuff is honestly one of the
most underrated Pokemon.

Popular Pokemon Nidoqueen deals with

As an attacker, Nidoqueen's access to Poison Jab makes her ideal for taking down the likes of Clefable and Wigglytuff (Fairy types). However, Earthquake actually does more damage than Sludge Wave thanks to its higher base power and Nidoqueen getting STAB on both. Sludge Wave is still fine for hitting Fairy Pokemon with, but Earthquake is the superior move overall. Annoyingly, Clefable often have Zen Headbutt, but you resist their Dazzling Gleams which is useful.

Nidoqueen's Ground typing and access to Earthquake make it a uniquely good Pokemon for taking down opposing Electric-types, but things like Jolteon and Electabuzz are never too difficult anyways. Nidoqueen's Poison typing does prevent it from being weak to Grass, which lets Nidoqueen trade relatively evenly with most Pokemon barring Psychic and Water types.

Checks and counters

So about those Psychic and Water types... Vaporeon is a thing? And like... Slowbro... and Exeggutor is good... yeah...

Final say

Go with the winner on the left,
not the loser on the right.

While Nidoqueen DOES have a poor matchup against Vaporeon, its high Stamina and access to Poison Jab help it chip away at any of its checks and counters. For comparison, Arcanine is totalled by Vaporeon because it can't really do much damage while also getting blasted by Hydro Pump. A same-CP Nidoqueen will at least take down 1/3 to 1/2 of Vaporeon's HP depending on the attacking player. Also, Nidoqueen always has a useable moveset, which makes it very easy to obtain a good Nidoqueen. Finally, because Nidoran ♀ is such a common Pokemon, it is very easy to amass Nidoran ♀ candies if you want to power up Nidoqueen. Considering CP is the most important factor in how well a Pokemon holds a gym, Nidoqueen makes a decent consideration for any player without an elite team of Pokemon.

Also, Nidoqueen is straight up better than Nidoking.

If it says anything, I powered up my Poison Jab / Earthquake Nidoqueen, but I waited for one with good IVs. I had also prioritized powering up a number of other Pokemon first.

Cheers,
Let's GO