Nihilego – Extradimensional Crisis
Date Reviewed: June 3, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
The 4th best card of Extradimensional Crisis is Nihilego (A3a 042, 103)! It is a Darkness-Type, Ultra Beast, Basic Pokémon with 70 HP, (F) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, the Ability “More Poison”, and the attack “New Wave”. More Poison causes your opponent’s Active Pokémon to take +10 damage from Poison during the Pokémon Checkup. New Wave costs (D)(C) and does 30 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokémon, while also poisoning it. Nihilego is available at the ♦♦♦ and 🜲 rarities.
The Darkness-Type has no true support. The closest it comes to it would be Darkrai ex (A2 110, 187, 202; P-A 042), given its Ability rewards you for running (D) Energy. There is an anti-Darkness card: Hawlucha (A3 132). So far, I don’t believe it has proven worthwhile, but it’s also something that is easy to miss. As for exploiting (D) Weakness, it can come in handy. It enables technical OHKOs1 of 60-70 HP targets, and helps reduces the amount of turns for lengthier KOs.
Nihilego is an Ultra Beast, giving it access to Ultra Beast support2. While Nihilego can make use of all of it, it isn’t dependent on it. There are no anti-Ultra Beast effects. Being a Basic is still the best: minimal deck space and time requirements to hit the field. It also means access to Basic support3, though Poké Ball is probably the only piece that matters. There are anti-Basic effects, but the only one that has seen recent, successful play is Repel.
70 HP isn’t much, but it’s enough to avoid being especially fragile. Some donk combos can score 70 in a single turn, but usually not reliably. (F) Weakness is a concern, because it enables supporting (F) Type attackers an easier OHKO. If your opponent can Bench two Lucario (A2 092, 170), even a 10 damage attack will become 70! The (C) Retreat Cost of Nihilego is very good. It won’t matter as much if you run it alongside Celesteela, but when you aren’t it means paying to retreat should rarely be an issue.
In case the actual wording wasn’t clear, More Poison increases the Poison your opponent’s Poisoned, Active Pokémon takes during the Pokémon Checkup. I haven’t been able to confirm it in game, but if you have two instances of More Poison in play, the wording indicates they would stack. Meaning, +20 to the Poison damage your opponent’s Active takes between turns. This also adds to attacks like “Toxic”, found on Toxicroak (A2a 052). It’s Poison already does 20 instead of 10; More Poison can raise it to +10, or with two Nihilego in play, +20 (40 during each Pokémon Checkup)!
New Wave is less impressive, but still adequate. For a Basic Pokémon, doing 50 damage for two Energy is solid; while New Wave doesn’t do that much base damage, once you factor in the Poison and +10 to that Poison from More Poison, it becomes an effective 50 damage. That becomes 70 damage if the Poisoned Pokémon cannot shake the Poison or take out Nihilego.
Where is Nihilego showing up? Some – but not all – Darkrai ex/Giratina ex (A2b 035, 083, 096) decks are including it, along with Poison Barb (A3 146). With More Poison, Poison Barb can now tie Rocky Helmet (A2 148) if your not being attacked by Arceus ex (A2a 071, 086, 095, 096), or by something protected by the effects of either Comfey (A3 080, 168) or Lum Berry (A2 149). If your opponent can’t shake the Poison by the end of their own turn, that’s another 20 damage…
…then there’s Oricorio (A3 066, 165). Nihilego will not OHKO Oricorio, whether we’re talking outright or technically via attack damage plus Poison damage. It makes attacking into Poison Barb more punishing for the little yellow bird. The deck can already use Darkrai ex’s “Nightmare Aura” to get some more damage on Oricorio. It won’t always be worth the effort or the risk, but you can create a OHKO combo with New Wave, More Poison, and Nightmare Aura… but it’ll take two Energy on Nihilego and a third on Darkrai ex.
The next deck to discuss are Guzzlord ex (A3a 043, 079, 086)/Nihilego decks. Its the same as with Darkrai ex, except no bonus damage from Dark Aura. You’re still running Poison Barb, though, and often Celesteela. Via it’s “Grindcore” attack, Guzzlord ex can do a little damage while maybe discarding Energy cards from the opponent’s Active. Currently, this deck has a 53 Count, 1.83% Share, and 50.19% Win Rate.5
Third is something that perhaps should just be classified as a variant of the previous deck: Guzzlord ex/Naganadel (A3a 045). Naganadel is a Stage 1 Ultra Beast with an attack for (D) that does 40 damage and Poisons. Beyond that, we’re still running Nihilego and Celesteela. While having an extra, poisonous attacker is very helpful, it does mean the deck has less room for Trainers. It also hasn’t been performing as well: a 31 Count, 1.07% Share with a 53.69% Win Rate. Yes, that last score is better, but due to the low Count could be artificially inflating it’s performance.
There are even more decks using Nihilego, but they’re even more niche than Guzzlord ex/Naganadel. Meaning, even lower Counts, and sometimes lower Win Rates. Just about any deck that already incorporates Poison should at least consider Nihilego. I’m not holding my breath, but I am hoping it could help the long-struggling “Venoshock” decks6. There are also other strategies that have synergy with Poison as well, like those that prevent an opponent’s Active from retreating.
Rating: 3.5/5
While still not a mind-blowing card, Nihilego is forcing players to double- and triple-check how much damage they can risk taking from being Poisoned… because it changes that calculation! It’s not a must-run, but even the early results easily earn it a place in this countdown. Long term, it’s possible we’ll get more anti-Special Condition (or even just anti-Poison) effects, but its also possible we’ll get better Poison-effects to combine with Nihilego. It’s something you’ll need to remember from now on.
1New Wave’s base damage is 30. Weakness increases it to 50. New Wave’s Poison adds 10 more during the Pokémon Checkup. More Poison adds another +10, effectively OHKOing up to 70 HP, (D) Weak targets.
2Beast Wall (A3a 063), Beastite (A3a 066), Celesteela (A3a 062, 075), and Lusamine (069, 83).
3Celestic Town Elder (A2a 073, 088), Combee (A2 017, 157), Fishing Net (A3 143) Poké Ball (P-A 005; A2b 111) and Shaymin (A2a 069, 081).
4Araquanid (A3 053), Pokémon Flute (A1a 064), Repel (A3a 064) and Victreebel (A1 020).
5As I had to skip it due to space concerns, the Darkrai ex/Giratina ex deck’s numbers are a 236 Count, 8.16% Share, and 51.67% Win Rate.
6Muk (A1 175), Paldean Clodsire ex (A2b 048, 085, 093), Sandalit (A1a 015, 071), and Scolipede (A1a 055) all have the attack Venoshock, which does extra damage if the Defending Pokémon is Poisoned. Absol (A3 112) has a similar attack – “Unseen Claw” – which does extra damage if the Defending Pokémon is affected by any Special Condition.
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