Pokemon TCG Pocket: Best Nihilego Deck

The ever-evolving expansions of Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket keep players on their toes, with each new set shaking up competitive strategies and creating new synergies or Ace Pokemon within the meta. Whether you’re climbing the PvP ladder or just looking for a strong composition for grinding out in-game challenges or event rewards, ensuring you have a solid deck build and strategy can make all the difference.

An intriguing card introduced in recent expansions is Nihilego, which has unique capabilities of boosting the effects of Poison. This means Nihilego thrives as a support Pokemon in lineups that focus on inflicting pesky status effects, such as Poisons, on the enemy’s Active Pokemon. For those interested in building a deck that maximizes this Ultra Beast’s potential, the following guide breaks down one of the most effective Nihilego decks currently performing in the Pokemon TCG Pocket meta.

Related

Pokemon TCG Pocket: Best Gholdengo Deck

Pokemon TCG Pocket players who are looking to craft the perfect Gholdengo deck can discover some of the best options in this guide.

Best Nihilego Deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket, Explained

Nihilego is an interesting card to build around when it comes to deck creation. It has lower HP at the 70 mark, but it is considered a basic Pokemon, so it can be used as early as turn 1 to help set up poisons and disrupt the enemy from the get-go. The More Poison Ability causes the enemy’s Active Pokemon to take +10 damage from Poison, and the New Wave attack can deal 30 damage and inflict the Poison status each turn, at the simple cost of 2 Energy being equipped.

Guzzlord ex works perfectly alongside Nihilego as a more aggressive offensive card and primary Ace Pokemon. It is a basic Pokemon, which comes in very handy for ex cards to enable them to play as soon as possible. Guzzlord comes paired with 170 hp, and the Grindcore move deals 30 damage plus can disarm Energies from the opponent’s Active Pokemon based on successful coin flips, therefore disrupting the enemy even further. Lastly, Guzzlord also has the Tyrannical Hole move for 4 Energies equipped, dishing out a whopping 120 damage per turn, which is enough to knock out even some ex cards in a single hit.

Celesteela utilizes the secondary support Pokemon role and single-handedly enables your strategy and flow between Nihilego and Guzzlord, so you will want to get this one on the bench ASAP. Specifically, value comes in the Ultra Thrusters ability, which enables you to switch out one of your Active Ultra Beasts with a Benched one once per turn. Essentially, you can inflict your poisons with Nihilego, and then swap into Guzzlord for the killing blow. In a pinch, swapping into Celesteela can also work for an early-mid game knockout if Guzzlord is not yet ready, as it does have a 4 Energy cost attack that deals 100 damage on a successful coin flip, though 0 at a fail, so it’s a lucky shot.

The remainder of the deck is filled with Supporter/Item cards to help enable this strategy. Poison Barb pairs well with the poison approach of this deck, especially via Nihilego’s ability to bump up that damage. By placing it on Celesteela or Guzzlord, you can inflict poisons when they take damage, which helps keep the poison active while Nihilego is switched out. Lusamine can help in swiftly setting up Guzzlord ex by attaching extra Energies from your Discard Pile, preparing for that deadly 120-damage attack as early as possible. Mars and Cyrus are used to further disrupt your opponent, and Pokemon Center Lady helps promote the uptime of your key Pokemon through a small heal.

Nihilego Deck Build