Destined Rivals
Team Rocket's Nidoking ex
Versions of this card
Check the number and illustration against the card you are looking for.
What the card itself says
Everything below is written on the card itself: how much health it has, what it fears, and what its attacks cost.
- HP
- 330
- Type
- Darkness
- Stage
- Stage 2
- Retreat cost
- 3
- Weakness
- ×2
- Regulation mark
- I
Its attacks
Tainted Horn
100Your opponent's Active Pokémon is now Poisoned. During Pokémon Checkup, put 8 damage counters on that Pokémon instead of 1.
Kingly Impact
240What to make of it
Have a look at what it does well, then at what will get in your way. After that you'll know whether it belongs in your deck.
WHAT IT HAS GOING FOR IT
- 330 HP. Only 1 cards in Destined Rivals carry more.
- Kingly Impact hits for 240 on 4 Energy. Nothing in Destined Rivals hits harder for that price.
- rocket-nidoking-ex runs it in 22 of the 22 lists we have read, seen across 20 different tournaments.
- Mark I. The next rotation takes mark H away, so this one stays tournament legal.
WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR
- Retreat cost 3. Once it is out front, it stays there. Pack something that moves it another way, or you will burn whole turns discarding Energy.
- It is an ex card. The turn it goes down your opponent takes 2 Prizes instead of one, and games do turn on exactly that.
- It is a Stage 2. You have to come through Team Rocket's Nidorino to get here, or find a Rare Candy to skip the middle step.
- Weakness Fighting ×2. Against a Fighting Pokémon, apply that to the damage it takes — it climbs fast. Of the 3,299 tournament lists we have read, 760 run at least one Pokémon of that type.
Who plays it
These decks really played this card at a tournament. We spot it by the little set code printed at the bottom, the one players copy onto their list — two cards sometimes share a name, the code never lies.
| Deck | Lists | Tournaments | Printing listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| rocket-nidoking-ex | 22 of 22 | 20 | DRI 119 |
When it came out
Destined Rivals landed here on 30 May 2025.
In Japan these cards were already in shops on 18 April 2025, under the code SV10. That is 42 days ahead of us.
The other cards of this Pokémon
Two cards of the same Pokémon can be worth wildly different amounts — it depends on the set, the rarity and the artwork. We put all 23 Nidoking cards on one page, priciest first.