Guzzlord ex and Nihilego (TCG Pocket)

Guzzlord ex and Nihilego
Guzzlord ex and Nihilego Types used Major cards Guzzlord ex, Nihilego, Celesteela Era 2025-present

Guzzlord ex and Nihilego is a Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket deck archetype that has been played since the release of Extradimensional Crisis in 2025. The deck's strategy revolves around using Guzzlord ex's high HP and strong moves to build up and knock out the opponent in the late game, while using Nihilego and Naganadel as early-game attackers to score chip damage and early knockouts with poison damage.

As a relatively self-contained deck with a strong main Pokémon whose cards were mostly available in a single pack, Guzzlord ex saw significant play after the release of Extradimensional Crisis.

Strategy

Guzzlord ex and Nihilego is a deck built around the Ultra Beast support introduced in Extradimensional Crisis. Nihilego is the deck's early-game threat, with its More Poison ability dealing significant chip damage when paired with either its low-cost New Wave attack or by attaching Poison Barb to Guzzlord to take advantage of its natural bulk. Naganadel is also a strong early attacker, dealing more damage than Nihilego and inflicting poison for less Energy at the cost of being a Stage 1. Once the early-game Pokémon is knocked out, Lusamine can recycle its Energy onto Guzzlord ex to build toward its Tyrannical Hole attack, which deals heavy damage to close out the game. If Guzzlord ex has to fight early on, Grindcore offers the potential to stall out aggressive opponents by discarding their attached Energy. Meanwhile, Celesteela gives the deck flexibility by allowing free switches between Ultra Beasts while offering a decent 120 HP to tank hits.

Other Pokémon are generally not played in this archetype, as the Ultra Beast package is very self-contained. Celesteela does not allow switching into non-Ultra Beast Pokémon, and Guzzlord ex requires a lot of Energy and has a prohibitively high Retreat Cost, meaning it cannot easily pivot into other Pokémon without Celesteela, which can be problematic as it only fully comes online in the late game barring lucky coin flips from Grindcore. Some variants also remove Naganadel and Poipole for more consistent opening hands, room on the Bench for a second Nihilego to stack its Ability, and more Trainer cards.

Weaknesses

Because Guzzlord ex's main attack costs a hefty to use, Energy removal and fast aggression can be problematic for the deck to deal with. Nihilego's 70 HP makes it relatively easy to knock out, and Guzzlord ex can have its HP heavily depleted by the time Tyrannical Hole is ready if forced to take damage.

In particular, Guzzlord ex's Grass weakness also makes it vulnerable to strong, aggressive Grass-type threats like Buzzwole ex and Meowscarada. The deck's reliance on poison for early-game damage also means its damage is outpaced by high-damage attacks such as those from Silvally. While Guzzlord ex's Grindcore can help manage early aggression, the dependence on coin flips makes this unreliable.

Key cards

Extradimensional Crisis

• Guzzlord ex - The deck's primary attacker, Guzzlord ex's main draws are its high 170 HP and its Tyrannical Hole, which deals 120 damage for no drawbacks other than its cost of Energy, which is made more achievable by Lusamine. If forced into battle early, its Grindcore attack effectively serves as a reusable Team Rocket Grunt for Energy, chipping away at the opponent while discarding Energy on successful coin flips.
• Nihilego - While it does not directly support Guzzlord ex, Nihilego's Darkness typing and strong early chip damage make it a strong partner for Guzzlord ex in the early game for pressuring weak Basic Pokémon and wearing down enemies into Tyrannical Hole range. Notably, the damage increase from More Poison stacks with two Nihilego in play.
• Celesteela - A strong support Pokémon for Ultra Beast-centric strategies, Celesteela effectively removes all Retreat Costs from Ultra Beasts and allows for flexible pivoting between Pokémon. Its high HP also allows it to tank early damage and then switch into an attacker.
• Lusamine - Recycles Energy from defeated Pokémon to fuel Guzzlord ex's Tyrannical Hole, allowing Nihilego to attack early on while still progressing towards the endgame.
• Naganadel - An attacker that can inflict 40 damage and poison for only Energy with Electro House, Naganadel synergizes with Nihilego to apply early pressure without putting Nihilego at risk.

Celestial Guardians

• Poison Barb - A Pokémon Tool that makes use of Guzzlord ex and Celesteela's high HP to punish attackers by inflicting poison, which synergizes with Nihilego's ability More Poison for additional chip damage.

Typical decklist

The deck list below is meant to represent an average build of the archetype, not specifically constructed for any regional metagame. The number of support and Item cards is highly variable, depending on each play style. This decklist is partially inspired by the Guzzlord ex & Naganadel Deck (Extradimensional Crisis) from the Expert solo battles.

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Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
2×	Poipole
2×	Naganadel
2×	Nihilego
2×	Guzzlord
2×	Celesteela
2×	Poké Ball	Item	—
2×	Poison Barb	Tool
1×	Beastite	Tool
2×	Professor's Research [Professor Oak]	Supp	—
1×	Cyrus	Supp
2×	Lusamine	Supp
Energy used:

Possible tech cards

The following cards can be used in Guzzlord ex decks in place of certain cards included in the above list.

• Beast Wall - Usable to protect against early damage, especially from attacks that inflict chip damage to the Bench. However, this card becomes a dead draw once one of your Pokémon has been knocked out.
• Pokémon Center Lady - Increases Guzzlord ex's staying power to help it outlast opponents. The Special Condition removal is less relevant due to Celesteela being able to remove them as well by switching your active Ultra Beast, but can help maintain tempo.

This article is part of both Project Sidegames and Project TCG, Bulbapedia projects that, together, aim to write comprehensive articles on video games about the TCG.