Have you ever wanted to use Nihilego in battle but had no idea what to do with it? Then look no further as I present to you a fantastic set for the Ultra Beast. Here's a set I use on Nihilego on a regularly basis and it's rarely failed me! Try out the set if you're wanting a solid Rock-type on your team.
COMPETITIVE OVERVIEW
Meet one of Alola's many Ultra Beasts, and my favorite member of them. This odd Pokemon is an interesting one to say the least. A unique typing, good Special Attack, Speed, Special Defense, and HP, along with a solid movepool and great ability in Beast Boost. This Pokemon has plenty of tools to make it a threat to behold on the battlefield. It's Poison/Rock-typing compliment each other well, giving it a good offensive presence by allowing it to hit Grass-, Bug-, Flying-, Fire-, Fairy-, and Ice-types with its STAB moves alone while also giving it useful resistances to Flying-, Normal-, Poison-, Bug-, Fairy-, and Fire-types. On the downside, the typing provides Nihilego with nasty weaknesses to Steel-, Water-, Psychic-, and a painful 4x weakness to Ground-types. While its quite beefy on the special side thanks to a solid Special Defense and high HP stat, its physical defense is quite pitiful and even weak, resisted physical attacks will do a bit of damage towards it. Its movepool provides it with plenty of options, good attacks like Power Gem, Hidden Power, Psychic, Sludge Bomb, Grass Knot, Thunderbolt, and Dazzling Gleam along with useful support moves in Toxic Spikes, Stealth Rock, Light Screen, Reflect, and Trick Room, the Pokemon can be very unpredictable, but on the downside such a wide variety of useful moves can leave one wishing for more moveslots. Often times, Nihilego can only afford to run either an offensive set or a support set, trying to play both at once will cause the Pokemon to struggle. Still, with the right moves and team support, Nihilego can be a deadly Pokemon to face and once the boosts accumulate with Beast Boost, it can be near unstoppable.
Here's a set that could prove to be vital for your own team.
Item: Rockium-Z/Choice Scarf/Choice Specs
Ability: Beast Boost
Nature: Timid (+Speed, -Attack)
EVs: 248 Speed / 180 Special Attack / 80 Sp. Defense
Moves:
- Sludge Wave
- Power Gem
- Grass Knot/Psychic/Toxic Spikes
- Hidden Power Ice (31/31/31/30/31/31)/Hidden Power Fire (31/30/30/30/30/31)
The above set helps Nihilego capitalize on its good Speed and high Special Attack while also allowing to take advantage of its nice coverage and support moves. The given EV spread will guarantee that Nihilego's Speed increase following a successful KO, and with enough boosts, it'll help outspeed a vast majority of the game. Power Gem and Sludge Wave are strong STAB moves that can take out a number of Pokemon as long as they aren't named Chansey or are resistant to them, they also need to be wary of Sludge Wave's chance to poison them. Grass Knot can be used to take out bulky Water-types like Swampert and heavy opponents that would otherwise wall Nihilego, but it's very situational as it can be a very weak move depending on what's going on. Psychic can be used over it to nail opposing Poison- and Fighting-types, but often times, Nihilego's STAB moves will be enough to take them out. It's useful, but like Grass Knot, it depends on the situation. Toxic Spikes is a useful support move that can apply pressure towards the opponent and potentially make way for other sweepers on your team, but this is detrimental due to the number of defoggers and spinners plaguing the metagame. Hidden Power is generally the preferred coverage move as it can help Nihilego surprise an opponent, HP Ice is used to nail Ground-types that would otherwise wall Nihilego to hell and back, potentially allowing it to net a KO while increasing its Beast Boost increases, while HP Fire could be used to nail Steel-types that would otherwise plague Nihilego. Most often, HP Ice is preferred over the latter.
Rockium-Z can give Nihilego a one-time, powerful STAB Rock-type move to nail potential defoggers like Celesteela or Mew, and it could even do big damage towards those who resist it. A Choice Scarf could be used over it to give Nihilego the ability to outspeed nearly the entire unboosted metagame and with Beast Boost, its Speed can reach ridiculously high levels while a Choice Specs can give the Pokemon a needed boost in power, but like the former, it locks the Pokemon into a single move. Psychium-Z can be used in conjunction with Psychic to nail Pokemon like Toxapex, Mega Venusaur, or Gengar which would otherwise be able to comfortably set up on Nihilego. Electrium-Z and Thunder or Thunderbolt can also be used to surprise certain Pokemon like Celesteela, Gyarados, and Manaphy while hitting them super-effectively, but this can be unreliable at times.
COMPETITIVE OVERVIEW
Meet one of Alola's many Ultra Beasts, and my favorite member of them. This odd Pokemon is an interesting one to say the least. A unique typing, good Special Attack, Speed, Special Defense, and HP, along with a solid movepool and great ability in Beast Boost. This Pokemon has plenty of tools to make it a threat to behold on the battlefield. It's Poison/Rock-typing compliment each other well, giving it a good offensive presence by allowing it to hit Grass-, Bug-, Flying-, Fire-, Fairy-, and Ice-types with its STAB moves alone while also giving it useful resistances to Flying-, Normal-, Poison-, Bug-, Fairy-, and Fire-types. On the downside, the typing provides Nihilego with nasty weaknesses to Steel-, Water-, Psychic-, and a painful 4x weakness to Ground-types. While its quite beefy on the special side thanks to a solid Special Defense and high HP stat, its physical defense is quite pitiful and even weak, resisted physical attacks will do a bit of damage towards it. Its movepool provides it with plenty of options, good attacks like Power Gem, Hidden Power, Psychic, Sludge Bomb, Grass Knot, Thunderbolt, and Dazzling Gleam along with useful support moves in Toxic Spikes, Stealth Rock, Light Screen, Reflect, and Trick Room, the Pokemon can be very unpredictable, but on the downside such a wide variety of useful moves can leave one wishing for more moveslots. Often times, Nihilego can only afford to run either an offensive set or a support set, trying to play both at once will cause the Pokemon to struggle. Still, with the right moves and team support, Nihilego can be a deadly Pokemon to face and once the boosts accumulate with Beast Boost, it can be near unstoppable.
Here's a set that could prove to be vital for your own team.
Item: Rockium-Z/Choice Scarf/Choice Specs
Ability: Beast Boost
Nature: Timid (+Speed, -Attack)
EVs: 248 Speed / 180 Special Attack / 80 Sp. Defense
Moves:
- Sludge Wave
- Power Gem
- Grass Knot/Psychic/Toxic Spikes
- Hidden Power Ice (31/31/31/30/31/31)/Hidden Power Fire (31/30/30/30/30/31)
The above set helps Nihilego capitalize on its good Speed and high Special Attack while also allowing to take advantage of its nice coverage and support moves. The given EV spread will guarantee that Nihilego's Speed increase following a successful KO, and with enough boosts, it'll help outspeed a vast majority of the game. Power Gem and Sludge Wave are strong STAB moves that can take out a number of Pokemon as long as they aren't named Chansey or are resistant to them, they also need to be wary of Sludge Wave's chance to poison them. Grass Knot can be used to take out bulky Water-types like Swampert and heavy opponents that would otherwise wall Nihilego, but it's very situational as it can be a very weak move depending on what's going on. Psychic can be used over it to nail opposing Poison- and Fighting-types, but often times, Nihilego's STAB moves will be enough to take them out. It's useful, but like Grass Knot, it depends on the situation. Toxic Spikes is a useful support move that can apply pressure towards the opponent and potentially make way for other sweepers on your team, but this is detrimental due to the number of defoggers and spinners plaguing the metagame. Hidden Power is generally the preferred coverage move as it can help Nihilego surprise an opponent, HP Ice is used to nail Ground-types that would otherwise wall Nihilego to hell and back, potentially allowing it to net a KO while increasing its Beast Boost increases, while HP Fire could be used to nail Steel-types that would otherwise plague Nihilego. Most often, HP Ice is preferred over the latter.
Rockium-Z can give Nihilego a one-time, powerful STAB Rock-type move to nail potential defoggers like Celesteela or Mew, and it could even do big damage towards those who resist it. A Choice Scarf could be used over it to give Nihilego the ability to outspeed nearly the entire unboosted metagame and with Beast Boost, its Speed can reach ridiculously high levels while a Choice Specs can give the Pokemon a needed boost in power, but like the former, it locks the Pokemon into a single move. Psychium-Z can be used in conjunction with Psychic to nail Pokemon like Toxapex, Mega Venusaur, or Gengar which would otherwise be able to comfortably set up on Nihilego. Electrium-Z and Thunder or Thunderbolt can also be used to surprise certain Pokemon like Celesteela, Gyarados, and Manaphy while hitting them super-effectively, but this can be unreliable at times.
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