Welcome to the next edition of what to expect at the 2005 Pokemon World Championships in San Diego, Cali.  Last time we looked at a Turn 2 deck with Medicham-ex which has the ability to shut down non-ex Poke-Powers and keep a nice lock on your opponent.  This week we are going to take a look at possibly the fastest and most popular deck (depending on where you live) of Zap-Turn-dos.   Some people also refer to this deck as Luck-dos. 

Remember when I mentioned before that Medicham-ex shuts off all non-ex Poke-Powers'  Well this has no effect on Zapdos-ex Poke-Power - Legendary Ascent since Zapdos is an ex.  Zapdos-ex can swoop in to play from your hand to your bench switching your active Pokemon to the bench for Zapdos and then moving any number of basic Lightning energy attached to any of your Pokemon and then attaching them to Zapdos-ex.  Keep in mind that if your bench is full that you cannot pull this off so make sure that you only have 5 or less Pokemon on your bench.  This combo is typically performed on Turn 2 after a Turn 1 attack of Gather Energy from Elekid or Recharge from Voltorb or Electrike.  So then you swoop and switch the 2 energies and then attach 1 energy from your hand and commence the 2^nd turn beatdown of either 50 or 70 damage from Electron Crush.  Just remember in order to deal out the 70 damage you will have to discard 1 L energy attached to Zapdos-ex.  Yes it is that simple and this is one reason why Zapdos has seen a lot of play.  Let's take a look at some of the trainers to accomplish this amazing feat on Turn 2:

Dual Ball lets you flip 2 coins and for each heads search your deck for a Basic Pokemon and put them into your hand.  My personal advice for this is to not use Dual Ball until you are completely ready to play the Zapdos.  Reason being is that Rocket's Admin. is a very popular card to destroy hands and all you need is to successfully flip heads on Dual Ball and get the Zappys only to have your opponent to Admin. you and there goes the Zappys back to your deck.    As you will see we are also playing our own Rocket's Admin. and the reason for this is twofold:  When you still have 6 prizes left this will net you a new 6 cards and hopefully that energy you need and secondly to wreck your opponent's hand and deck.  I don't recommend to play Rocket's Admin though when your opponent has a 1-4 card hand and has 6 prizes left.  Not only does this give your opponent an increase hand size but also it gives them a chance to draw what they needed. 

Some Zappy players run Lanette's and I have 2 in my deck.  This is a good card to use in a pinch when the Dual Balls don't work.  Although you are gaining essentially just 1 Pokemon since this deck runs all Electric type Pokemon, it guarantees you that Zappy-ex.  For draw power this deck uses 4 TV Reporter and 4 Prof. Oak's Research.  These are guarantee draw power as the TV Reporter will net you 3 cards as opposed to using Steven's Advice when facing Turn 2 that will mainly have only 1 Pokemon out on the field.  Also the Oak's Research is a guarantee 5 cards with the only drawback of shuffling cards back into your deck.  If you play the deck right you shouldn't have more than 4 cards in your hand to shuffle back in so that essentially will net you 5 cards. 

We are maxing out on Pokemon Reversal and Super Scoop Up at 4/4. As many of you know their counterparts in Limited, Gust of Wind and Scoop Up are truly broken cards that can change the game when used.   In Modified they are flip reliant, but nonetheless if you can manage to roll or flip that heads at a crucial time in the game, it can swing in your favor.   Pokemon Reversal is pretty straight forward just target what they are building on the bench or if it is Lightning weak go for the prize.  Super Scoop Up takes some thinking when to use it but mainly if your opponent has a Desert Ruins in play and is damaging your Zapdos or to get the active Zapdos out of the active and Swoop it back down.  Just remember that the energies also return to your hand so make sure that there are at least 2 Lightning attached to your bench prior to using it.  Super Scoop Up can also come in handy when your bench is full and you need to use Legendary Ascent to get Zappy into play just attempt a Super Scoop Up on say a Voltorb to get Zappy on your bench. 

4 ' Zapdos-ex
4 ' Electrike (Recharge)
2 ' Manectric D'
4 ' Voltorb HL (Recharge)
1 ' Electrode-ex
2 ' Elekid SS (Gather Energy)

Trainers:  27
4 ' Dual Ball
4 ' TV Reporter
4 ' Prof. Oak's Research
4 ' Super Scoop Up
4 ' Pokemon Reversal
3 ' Battle Frontier
2 ' Rocket's Admin.
2 ' Lanette's Net Search