Stage-2s in Standard — Finally, the Missing Piece?
The season is done but new online events are popping up each day. There’s no time like the present to be trying stuff you never would have otherwise and having fun with the game! In the past few days I’ve been messing around with Nidoqueen and Porygon-Z, at first for fun but now I’m intrigued by the former.
Before I delve in, I want to say that while I am disappointed there won’t be more sanctioned events this season, I am extremely pleased with this decision and support it completely. There are those among our world population that are not prepared to fight off a pandemic like we’re facing and the protection of our fellow brothers and sisters with those conditions needs to be our priority.
Now for the fun stuff. Stage-2 decks have been “out of the game” for a while now and while messing with Nidoqueen I realized something: Zacian V is great in these decks. Is it the missing piece to make them Tier 1? Probably not, but it makes them viable and these decks are so fun to play that you don’t want to miss this opportunity.
Porygon-Z
Why Porygon-Z? A “Rain Dance” Ability for Special Energy is sick, especially with a Pokemon that can swing for more damage according to the number of Energy on it. Whimsicott-GX is the perfect partner for this deck and Zacian V can attack too if you have attach three Rainbow Energy and/or Aurora Energy. Fluffy Cotton is annoying to deal with and on a coin flip, you gain the prize advantage. Plus, Fairy isn’t a bad type to be in a format where Arceus and Dialga and Palkia-GX is popular. This is more of a for-fun deck but it puts up a fight in any matchup. You’ll live and die by Fluffy Cotton, annoying many opponents in the process. Zacian V giving you some extra draw on your first turn is super important to setting up and improves this deck.
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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