Weezing is back.
Out of all the new Ultra Beast cards, Nihilego is the one I was most excited for. Poison decks got the ultimate support. With 70 HP, New Wave will deal 30 damage and poison its target for 2 energy. So we got an ok HP stat and attack alongside an incredible ability. More Poison will enhance the amount of damage the opposing active pokemon takes from poison status by 10. At the end of each turn, the opponent’s pokemon will take 20 damage from poison instead of 10, effectively doubling the damage. But wait there’s more, if 2 Nihilegos are on the board, their abilities will stack, increasing the poison damage up to 30 per turn. This is an outstanding buff for poison archetypes, Nihilego single handedly elevates poison decks to a brand new level, hard punishing players who refuse to retreat, costing huge momentum to those who give in.
The card pool has grown to a point where there are many potential team mates available for Nihilego, yet I decided to call upon the OG poisoner, still one of my favourite cards in the game: Genetic Apex Weezing. And I’m glad I did.
Today’s deck is the most powerful poison list I’ve played to date. We combine Nihilego with Weezing and one copy of Darkrai EX. Here’s why I chose Weezing. Weezing is still the only pokemon who can reliably poison without attacking, thanks to Nihilego we can apply legitimate pressure to the opposing active pokemon without necessarily having to invest energy onto Weezing. This matters when you add Darkrai to the mix, as we have an easier time enabling Nightmare Aura pings, combining our enhanced poison damage with Darkrai’s ability allows us to wear the opposing team down as we focus on a more defensive approach. As long as the enemy doesn’t one hit KO Weezing, Koga can completely nullify their damage build up, while also allowing us to bring Darkrai in for a heavy hit.
Weezing’s HP stat is not what it used to be, which is why a full set of giant cape is absolutely key. Enhancing Weezing’s HP to 130 allows us to survive all kinds of high end attacks, barely. Though Weezing is doing most of the poisoning here, we still run one copy of poison barb, which is very important as a way to punish early attacks onto a Nihilego lead and trigger poison early on a pivot. With Nihilego that one extra turn of poison can truly make a difference.
Nihilego’s support has had a massive impact. Use Koga to undo your opponent’s attack, and let the residual damage stack. Weezing is back.
