Hey reader! Madison Regionals is coming up very soon and I wanted to update you all with my current lists for my top picks. This article goes over my exact lists for ZoroPersian, Granbull, Nidoqueen Meganium, and Zapdos.

Why Granbull?

The main issue Granbull has run into in the past was a terrible PikaRom match up, which is still present to a degree. The difference now is that PikaRom is predicted to see far less play than in the past (as it should). This opens up an opportunity for Granbull to come back into the meta. Over the last few sets there have been many new cards released that give the deck a boost. Stealthy Hood gets you out of the Muk problem, Viridian is a god send for Granbull, and Red’s Challenge adds a new level of consistency. Doing 160 damage every turn with a 130 HP one-prize Pokemon starting on your second turn is inherently strong. The main reason Granbull could not have seen success more recently was because of PikaRom’s ability to Tag Bolt knocking out two Granbull at once. The deck easily could have been played at Santa Clara if players realized it was a strong option.

Why Nidoqueen Meganium?

Players have been working hard to figure out what should be done to circumvent the problem of running out of energy in Nidoqueen Meganium. Against two or three prize attacker decks you can certainly get all your prizes before running out of energy, but against Zapdos and other one-prize decks, the five energy will not be enough (1 Super Boost & 4 Triple Acceleration). Methods that I have seen are: playing Welder, using Resource Management Oranguru, and simply relying solely on the five energy. In this piece you will see that I have taken a different route entirely that I believe suites the deck more than the other options. The deck feel like a Rubix Cube at first where you get close to fixing one problem while creating others in the process. After hours of testing Stage 2 decks like this one and Gardevoir, I feel I have solved the cube.

ZoroPersian and Zapdos need no explanation. I have been interested in these for months. Zapdos is looking like a less power option at the moment with a lot of Weezing hype, but it still remains in my top four.

Let’s start with Nidoqueen Meganium since it is the deck that many of you are most excited about.

Meganium Nidoqueen

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