Garbodor or Nidoking?

[XandeRToXic]

Alright guys, I have a question for you.

I am currently making a Poison team and want to focus on getting the poison status and capitalizing on it. I have a Nidoking w/ Roar, Toxic Spikes, Brick Break, and Earthquake and I was thinking of having him be my starter. Getting off the Toxic Spikes and roaring in another Pokemon to get things going. Should I throw Garbodor on my team, with Toxic Spikes and anything else that Poisons, so I have more of a chance of capitalizing on the Poison? Or should I just have Nidoking and focus more on high attack and high speed Poison Pokemon? All feedback is much appreciated! Thanks!

 

[PlatinumDude]

Building a team that revolves around poison is somewhat ineffective because of the Steels running around. Nidoking is more suited for offensive roles, unlike Nidoqueen, who has higher defenses. Garbodor's so-so stats make it outclassed in a lot of roles.

Viable setters for Toxic Spikes include Nidoqueen, Weezing, Drapion, Dragalge, Scolipede and Tentacruel. Choose between two of them, replacing Nidoking and Garbodor. Fill in the last 4 slots with whatever you need, and we can continue from here:

Nidoqueen:
-Toxic Spikes
-Earth Power
-Fire Blast/Ice Beam/Sludge Bomb
-Dragon Tail/Roar
Nature: Relaxed/Bold
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SDef
Item: Black Sludge
Ability: Sheer Force

Weezing:
-Toxic Spikes
-Sludge Bomb
-Pain Split/Flamethrower
-Haze/Taunt
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SDef
Item: Black Sludge

Drapion:
-Toxic Spikes
-Knock Off
-Taunt
-Whirlwind/Roar
Nature: Careful
EVs: 248 HP/244 SDef/16 Spe
Item: Black Sludge
Ability: Battle Armor

Dragalge:
-Toxic Spikes
-Sludge Bomb
-Dragon Tail
-Focus Blast/Dragon Pulse
Nature: Sassy
EVs: 252 HP/40 Def/216 SDef
Item: Black Sludge
Ability: Poison Touch

Scolipede:
-Megahorn
-Spikes/Toxic Spikes
-Swords Dance/Toxic Spikes
-Earthquake/Rock Slide/Baton Pass
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spe
Item: Focus Sash/Mental Herb
Ability: Speed Boost

Tentacruel:
-Scald
-Sludge Bomb
-Rapid Spin
-Toxic/Toxic Spikes/Knock Off
Nature: Bold
EVs: 252 HP/224 Def/32 Spe
Item: Black Sludge
Ability: Liquid Ooze

 

[Azire]

As already mentioned I believe Nidoqueen to be a much better lead due to the higher Defenses. It would also work well if you still want to use Nidoking on the team as you could go more offense with him. King is best suited in an offensive role, I much prefer the Special Attacker to a Physical on King as well. The set I normally use:

Nidoking:
-Earth Power
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Flamethrower
6 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
Ability: Sheer Force
Item: Life Orb

Now if you use Nidoqueen you can change the movesets around to not have the same coverage moves on both of them. No purpose having both with Ice Beam or Flamethrower. Other good options would be Venoshock as it's STAB on Nidoking, goes off his SAtk and the power doubles on a Poisoned enemy. Since this is a Poison team where you're spreading it as much as possible it could prove to be very useful. Surf is another option for a Water Type attack that both Nido learn. I would probably use it on Queen myself as King is full up.

Perhaps movesets like these keeping the spreads listed above,

Queen:
-Toxic Spikes
-Earth Power
-Surf
-Dragon Tail / Roar

King:
-Venoshock
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Flamethrower

 

[PlatinumDude]

As already mentioned I believe Nidoqueen to be a much better lead due to the higher Defenses. It would also work well if you still want to use Nidoking on the team as you could go more offense with him. King is best suited in an offensive role, I much prefer the Special Attacker to a Physical on King as well. The set I normally use:

Nidoking:
-Earth Power
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Flamethrower
6 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
Ability: Sheer Force
Item: Life Orb

Now if you use Nidoqueen you can change the movesets around to not have the same coverage moves on both of them. No purpose having both with Ice Beam or Flamethrower. Other good options would be Venoshock as it's STAB on Nidoking, goes off his SAtk and the power doubles on a Poisoned enemy. Since this is a Poison team where you're spreading it as much as possible it could prove to be very useful. Surf is another option for a Water Type attack that both Nido learn. I would probably use it on Queen myself as King is full up.

Perhaps movesets like these keeping the spreads listed above,

Queen:
-Toxic Spikes
-Earth Power
-Surf
-Dragon Tail / Roar

King:
-Venoshock
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt
-Flamethrower

I don't like the idea of Venoshock, even in dedicated Poison teams because besides the obvious Steel immunity, it's horribly weak when the opponent isn't poisoned, which can be the case for Fliers/Levitators switching in while Toxic Spikes are active.

 

[Azire]

I don't like the idea of Venoshock, even in dedicated Poison teams because besides the obvious Steel immunity, it's horribly weak when the opponent isn't poisoned, which can be the case for Fliers/Levitators switching in while Toxic Spikes are active.

I was thinking that even with Toxic Spikes you are bound to still run Toxic on a Poison team for such things as Fliers and Levitators. Meanwhile your Steel are taken care of by other attacks. Anything resistant to to Bolt/Beam/Flame combo can be deal with by another Pokémon. There are only two in a team of six and their combined coverage may not be perfect it is great and I personally feel running Venoshock is worth it.

I mean really how many Steel are resistant to Bolt/Beam/Flame? That combo is hardly resisted and while Earth Power is nice too it's already on another Pokémon.

 

[XandeRToXic]

Ok so I revised my team a little bit, so it's not all poison.
I haven't figured out any movesets yet, but I'm working on that part.

-Nidoking (poison-ground)
-Toxicroak (poison-fighting)
-Tentacruel (poison-water)
-Skuntank (poison-dark)
-Venusaur (poison-grass)
-Gengar (poison-ghost)

Still focusing on poison, but also being able to cover what I'm weak to.

 

[PlatinumDude]

Ok so I revised my team a little bit, so it's not all poison.
I haven't figured out any movesets yet, but I'm working on that part.

-Nidoking (poison-ground)
-Toxicroak (poison-fighting)
-Tentacruel (poison-water)
-Skuntank (poison-dark)
-Venusaur (poison-grass)
-Gengar (poison-ghost)

Still focusing on poison, but also being able to cover what I'm weak to.

As I mentioned before, poisoning all the opponents in the team is an unreliable strategy.

Regarding movesets:

Nidoking is well-known for being one of the best Sheer Force abusers ever made:
-Earth Power
-Sludge Bomb/Sludge Wave
-Ice Beam
-Thunderbolt/Flamethrower
Nature: Modest/Timid
EVs: 4 HP/252 SAtk/252 Spe
Item: Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force

Toxicroak has taken a fall from grace in the new generation because of the rain nerf. It's kind of mediocre outside of rain:
-Swords Dance
-Drain Punch
-Poison Jab
-Sucker Punch
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Item: Life Orb/Black Sludge
Ability: Dry Skin

Tentacruel: see the Tentacruel set I posted.

Skuntank isn't that good of a Pokemon because its main role, Pursuit trapping, is better done by other Pokemon. I'd replace it with Drapion because it has the defenses to make better use of its typing. See one of my last posts for the ideal Drapion set.

Venusaur is only good in its Mega form outside of Sun teams:
-Giga Drain
-Sludge Bomb
-Earthquake/Leech Seed
-Synthesis
Nature: Relaxed/Bold
EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/4 SDef
Item: Venusaurite

or
-Giga Drain/Leech Seed
-Sludge Bomb
-Hidden Power (Fire)
-Synthesis
Nature: Modest
EVs: 252 HP/4 Def/252 SAtk
Item: Venusaurite

Gengar should use either one of these sets to take advantage of its role as a speedy special attacker:
-Shadow Ball
-Sludge Bomb/Thunderbolt
-Focus Blast
-Destiny Bond
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP/252 SAtk/252 Spe
Item: Life Orb/Focus Sash

or
-Substitute
-Shadow Ball
-Focus Blast/Pain Split
-Disable/Will-o-Wisp/Focus Blast
Nature: Timid
EVs: 4 HP/252 SAtk/252 Spe
Item: Black Sludge/Life Orb