We have already covered Zapdos, Zoroark, and ReshiZard recently, so going into Madison there is not a whole lot of new info to talk about in that department. The meta we predicted was the meta we saw (with the exception of Shedninja) which means all of those articles are still quite relevant. It’s time to talk rogue!

Most people think of the Tag Team when I say my rogue option for Madison is Gardevoir. On the contrary I strongly believe Gardevoir GX is better in the current meta and a stronger call for the event. Pairing it with Swampert creates a solid Stage 2 engine that runs far better in comparison to other Stage 2 decks while offering an attacker to hit Fire types for Weakness. Triple Acceleration Energy has been a huge buff for the power of this deck because without it Swampert cannot reasonably attack as much of the time, and using only DCE would not allow Gardevoir to hit the right numbers against Tag Team Pokemon with 270 HP.

This is not a rogue deck I quickly made up and decided to post here; I have put in about 40 hours of testing with the deck against top tier archetypes. I started testing this deck last Wednesday as I felt I had already done all the testing I need to do with Zoroark and Zapdos. Instead of investing more time into those decks, I felt like creating a rogue option would be more fun and productive. At about 1 AM on Wednesday night I saw Gardevoir GX in my binder. When I realized it was a way for me to make Swampert work, I was sold. Trade is cool, but Power Draw is awesome!

It is important to note that this is not an easy deck to play. I was throwing games left and right against Hunter Butler before Santa Clara. If you do want to give this deck a shot, then I suggest you approach it with caution because without testing it a lot you probably will not see very strong results.

Meta theory

The primary match ups to cover in this meta are ReshiZard and Zapdos, seeing as those two were the most hyped going into the event and ended up taking all the top four placements. Past that, Shedninja is probably a nice deck to beat (although it might not be hugely popular), Weezing is something you do not want to auto-lose to, and Stall is another deck to at least have an alright match up against.

Gardevoir Swampert seems to fit this meta quite well. For any of the fire decks you can use Swampert, especially with Super Boost Energy, to hit more than enough to OHKO ReshiZard. Gardevoir puts in work against these decks as well since Snorlax Eevee and ReshiZard both usually have four energy attached. Zapdos is not a problem because of how tanky the deck is with multiple Max Potion, high HP attackers, and Twilight to recover the healing. I was concerned about Zapdos initially, but realized that it is not much of a problem for those reasons. Shedninja is very manageable with Twilight to recover resources like Guzma. Weezing is not bad because the deck is evolution-based, while it has Max Potions to heal off out of control damage. Swampert is great against Weezing specifically because it is a evolved Pokemon that is not a GX, which means the Shrines and Weezing’s ability cannot touch it. Stall could be a little tough depending on which version of the deck, but Twilight is there to recover whatever they may deny and Vileplume will do nothing for them.

If you are on board with those claims, it seems pretty clear that Gardevoir is a great meta call. The only problem to resolve at this point would be consistency. This is the hurdle that any Stage 2 has to jump, but with cards like Vulpix, Ninetales GX, and Swampert, we might be able to get there. Don’t they always say you need to run a little hot to win a Regionals?

Here’s my current build:

Gardevoir Swampert

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