Alakazam / Dudunsparce deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Alakazam / Dudunsparce looks like when you open the box

Across the 33 lists we counted, this deck runs 19 to 24 Pokémon, 28 to 35 Trainers and 6 to 8 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Psychic.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « alakazam-dudunsparce ». Every card named in that label turns up in the tables below, which is what makes it a fair name for the deck.

Look at the Energy: 6 to 8 out of 60, when half the 97 decks we track run 10 or more. This one is lean. It lives on cheap attacks and leans on Trainers to find the right Energy at the right moment rather than stockpiling it.

It takes a while to set up. Alakazam is a Stage 2 Pokémon: you put down the baby, you evolve it, and then you evolve it again. Three cards stacked before anything attacks. That is what the hardest-hitting decks cost you, and it is also where they crack — a fast opponent can bury you before the line is standing.

Look at the Trainers: 28 to 35 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 9 to 13 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 13 to 18 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 4 Stadiums, and 57 of the 97 decks we track bring that many or more. Only one Stadium sits on the table at a time: the one you play sends the one already there to the discard pile.

What Tools and Stadiums do — the two Trainer families we skipped here — and why the Energy count says so much: how to read a deck list.

What the cards in this deck's name actually do

Alakazam and Dudunsparce give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Alakazam is in all 33 lists, 3 copies of it. Its Ability is called Psychic Draw, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « Once during your turn, when you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon, you may use this Ability. Draw 3 cards. » Its attack Powerful Hand costs 1 Energy (Psychic) and has no damage number printed next to it. That is why you will not find it in the attacker table lower down, which sorts by printed damage. Everything it does lives in its text: « Place 2 damage counters on your opponent's Active Pokémon for each card in your hand. » Do the arithmetic with us, it is worth it. A damage counter is 10 damage. 2 counters per card means 20 damage for every card you are holding when you swing. Five cards in hand, 100. Eight cards in hand, 160. In this deck your hand is your damage gauge.

Dudunsparce is in all 33 lists, 2 copies of it. Its Ability is called Run Away Draw, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « Once during your turn, you may draw 3 cards. If you drew any cards in this way, shuffle this Pokémon and all attached cards into your deck. »

Now you can see why these cards travel together, and why the deck carries both names. Alakazam hits harder the fuller your hand is. Dudunsparce is there to fill it: that Ability draws you 3 cards. Every card you add to your hand before attacking is 20 more damage on the Pokémon across the table. A player meeting this deck empties their hand setting up the board, then swings holding three cards. A player who knows it holds everything it can and swings with a full hand.

How Alakazam / Dudunsparce actually wins

Alakazam attacks with Powerful Hand, and it needs 1 Psychic Energy attached. It has 140 HP. Its damage box is empty, so the table below, which sorts by printed damage, cannot rank it: its printed text above is where the counting happens.

One Energy to attack is enormous, and it means the attack cost will never be what slows you down. What slows you down here is getting Alakazam up. Once the line is standing you swing every turn with nothing to recharge, and you can start again immediately when your attacker falls.

Energy is not your only clock. Abra has to climb two steps before it becomes Alakazam, and an evolution asleep at the bottom of your deck does you no good at all. The list has that covered. Dawn, which the list runs 3 of, goes into your deck for an evolution.

Good news on mobility: pulling Alakazam back to the Bench costs you 1 Energy attached to it, and that is all. Retreating does not cost you your turn, so you step back and swing anyway. That matters enormously the day your opponent lands something nasty on it.

Not one ex Pokémon in the core, and only 21 of the 97 decks we track are in that position. It is a hidden advantage: every knockout your opponent takes is worth a single Prize, so they need 6, where 3 would do against a deck stuffed with ex cards.

The attackers in the deck's core, with their best attack, its cost and their Weakness

Pokémon	HP	Attack	Damage	Cost	Weakness	Retreat
Close AlakazamStage 2	140	Powerful HandPlace 2 damage counters on your opponent's Active Pokémon for each card in your hand.	—	Psychic	Darkness ×2	1
Close DudunsparceStage 1	140	Land Crush	90	Colorless + Colorless + Colorless	Fighting ×2	3
Close KadabraStage 1	80	Super Psy Bolt	30	Psychic	Darkness ×2	1
Close AbraBasic	50	Teleportation Attack	10	Psychic	Darkness ×2	1

The core: the 13 cards every list runs

These 13 cards appear in all 33 lists, without a single exception. That is 40 of the 60 slots. The other 20 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 40 slots break down: 22 Trainers, 13 Pokémon, 5 Energy. Trainers outweigh everything else put together, which is the mark of a deck that goes and fetches its cards rather than waiting to draw them.

12 of those 13 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Abra (2 to 4), Kadabra (3 to 4) and Alakazam (3 to 4), plus 9 more. Add those spreads up and you get 17 copies the 33 lists do not agree on, inside the core itself.

What "3 to 4" means in the copies column, what the "TWM 130" code under each name is for, and why we count dozens of lists instead of one: how to read a deck list.

The cards present in every list counted, with the number of copies

Copies	Card	Printing	Kind	Rotation
2–4	Close Abra	MEG 54	Pokémon	stays
3–4	Close Kadabra	MEG 55	Pokémon	stays
3–4	Close Alakazam	MEG 56	Pokémon	stays
2–3	Close Dudunsparce	TEF 129	Pokémon	leaves
3–4	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
3–4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
2–4	Close Rare Candy	MEG 125	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Dawn	PFL 87	Trainer	stays
2–4	Close Hilda	WHT 84	Trainer	stays
1	Close Sacred Ash	DRI 168	Trainer	stays
2–4	Close Telepathic Psychic Energy	POR 88	Energy	stays
1–3	Psychic Energy	MEE 5	Energy	stays

The 38 cards that change from list to list

38 cards fight over the 20 slots that are left: 8 above three lists in four, 19 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Fezandipiti ex at 97 %, Shaymin at 97 % and Enriching Energy at 94 %, plus 5 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Psyduck, at 52 %: 17 of 33 players took it, 16 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Lucky Helmet (8 lists out of 33) and Wondrous Patch (8 lists out of 33).

Why a card at 45 % is not a bad card, and what order to buy all this in: how to read a deck list.

The cards some lists run and others don't, most common first

Lists running it	Card	Copies	Printing	Kind
97 %32/33	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
97 %32/33	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
94 %31/33	Close Enriching Energy	1	SSP 191	Energy
91 %30/33	Close Dunsparce	1–3	JTG 120	Pokémon
91 %30/33	Close Lana's Aid	1	TWM 155	Trainer
88 %29/33	Close Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
82 %27/33	Close Enhanced Hammer	1–2	TWM 148	Trainer
79 %26/33	Close Battle Cage	1–4	PFL 85	Trainer
73 %24/33	Close Pikipek	1–2	PBL 66	Pokémon
73 %24/33	Close Toucannon	1–2	PBL 68	Pokémon
55 %18/33	Close Genesect	1–2	SFA 40	Pokémon
55 %18/33	Close Handheld Fan	1–3	TWM 150	Trainer
55 %18/33	Close Air Balloon	1–2	ASC 181	Trainer
52 %17/33	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
52 %17/33	Close Trumbeak	1	PBL 67	Pokémon
42 %14/33	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
36 %12/33	Close Nighttime Mine	1–4	ASC 197	Trainer
27 %9/33	Close Dunsparce	1–3	TEF 128	Pokémon
27 %9/33	Close Eri	1	TEF 146	Trainer
24 %8/33	Close Lucky Helmet	1–2	TWM 158	Trainer
24 %8/33	Close Wondrous Patch	1	PFL 94	Trainer
18 %6/33	Close Dedenne	1	SSP 87	Pokémon
18 %6/33	Close Fan Rotom	1–2	SCR 118	Pokémon
15 %5/33	Close Elgyem	1	BLK 40	Pokémon
15 %5/33	Close Gwynn	1–2	PBL 78	Trainer
6 %2/33	Close Abra	1–2	TWM 80	Pokémon
6 %2/33	Close Alakazam	1	TWM 82	Pokémon
6 %2/33	Close Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
6 %2/33	Close Legacy Energy	1	TWM 167	Energy
3 %1/33	Close Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
3 %1/33	Close Togekiss	1	SSP 72	Pokémon
3 %1/33	Close Togepi	1	SSP 70	Pokémon
3 %1/33	Close Crushing Hammer	4	POR 71	Trainer
3 %1/33	Close Rust Syndicate Grunt	2	PBL 81	Trainer
3 %1/33	Close Lillie's Determination	1	MEG 119	Trainer
3 %1/33	Close Prism Tower	1	CRI 80	Trainer
3 %1/33	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1	DRI 176	Trainer
3 %1/33	Close Mist Energy	1	TEF 161	Energy

The most common Alakazam / Dudunsparce list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 40 slots come from the core, the cards all 33 lists run. The remaining 20 come from the table just above, working down it: the cards the most players chose, each at its most common copy count, until the total lands on 60.

This list is nobody's list in particular. It takes, slot by slot, what the most people played, under the guardrails a judge would hold you to: never more than four copies of a card, and one ACE SPEC. Behind the core it took 14 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 23 Pokémon, 31 Trainers and 6 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 33 lists we counted are all from players who came in the top twenty of their tournament. Nobody publishes the lists of the players who lost. So what you have in front of you is what the players finishing near the top bring most often.

The text under the table is the one the game expects: copy it, paste it into the deck manager, and the list builds itself.

There is no price total on this page. The readings we have are Cardmarket's, in euros, and the shop link further down sends you to TCGplayer, which quotes in dollars. Putting a euro figure next to a dollar shop would be one currency too many. The French and German pages carry the total.

Why we only read lists from players who came in the top twenty of their tournament, and what that changes about every percentage on this page: how to read a deck list.

Pokémon: 23
4 Abra MEG 54
4 Kadabra MEG 55
3 Alakazam MEG 56
2 Dudunsparce TEF 129
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
1 Shaymin DRI 10
2 Dunsparce JTG 120
2 Pikipek PBL 66
2 Toucannon PBL 68
1 Genesect SFA 40
1 Psyduck ASC 39

Trainer: 31
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Poké Pad POR 81
4 Rare Candy MEG 125
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
3 Dawn PFL 87
3 Hilda WHT 84
1 Sacred Ash DRI 168
1 Lana's Aid TWM 155
1 Night Stretcher ASC 196
1 Enhanced Hammer TWM 148
3 Battle Cage PFL 85
2 Handheld Fan TWM 150
1 Air Balloon ASC 181

Energy: 6
4 Telepathic Psychic Energy POR 88
1 Psychic Energy MEE 5
1 Enriching Energy SSP 191

Total Cards: 60

Which decks beat Alakazam / Dudunsparce at tournaments

Here is how Alakazam / Dudunsparce did against every other deck at tournaments. Real games, real players sitting across the table from each other, and the platform those tournaments run on counts them one by one. All of them were played after Pitch Black became legal for tournaments, and we read the table on 5 September 2026.

The format matters more than people think. When the next set lands, decks get rebuilt around the new cards, and a matchup that leaned one way can swing the other. What you are reading holds for today's format.

We start with the opponent that gives you the most trouble, because that is where the work is before your next tournament. The further down the list you go, the better it goes for you.

Always look at the number of games next to the score. Six wins out of ten happens on its own, even with a middling deck: it is the same as flipping six heads in ten tries. Six hundred out of a thousand, and luck has nothing to do with it. Below 100 games we show nothing at all, because at that count half the matchups look like they lean one way when they lean nowhere.

Against Dragapult ex: over 949 games, 347 won and 581 lost. 21 ended with no winner.

Against Dhelmise: over 471 games, 176 won and 288 lost. 7 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex: over 710 games, 282 won and 414 lost. 14 ended with no winner.

Against Team Rocket's Honchkrow: over 135 games, 49 won and 81 lost. 5 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Dusknoir: over 656 games, 272 won and 369 lost. 15 ended with no winner.

Against Festival Lead: over 607 games, 259 won and 338 lost. 10 ended with no winner.

Against Crustle: over 131 games, 57 won and 72 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass: over 431 games, 215 won and 208 lost. 8 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Lucario ex: over 239 games, 119 won and 116 lost. 4 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama: over 187 games, 97 won and 88 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against N's Zoroark ex: over 555 games, 320 won and 229 lost. 6 ended with no winner.

Against Beedrill ex: over 127 games, 69 won and 54 lost. 4 ended with no winner.

Against Latias ex / Mega Kangaskhan ex: over 185 games, 104 won and 77 lost. 4 ended with no winner.

Against Cynthia's Garchomp ex: over 143 games, 81 won and 60 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Raging Bolt ex: over 265 games, 156 won and 102 lost. 7 ended with no winner.

Against Toucannon: over 238 games, 140 won and 92 lost. 6 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Greninja ex: over 134 games, 78 won and 55 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex: over 168 games, 104 won and 63 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against Slowking: over 663 games, 443 won and 207 lost. 13 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Chandelure ex: over 104 games, 65 won and 39 lost.

Against Mega Excadrill ex: over 750 games, 559 won and 185 lost. 6 ended with no winner.

What Alakazam / Dudunsparce costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 51 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 13 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

All 33 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 31 took Enriching Energy and 2 took Legacy Energy. You are allowed ONE ACE SPEC card in your whole deck, so a single copy covers it whatever it costs. New to this deck? Take Enriching Energy and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 2 of the 13 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Dudunsparce and Buddy-Buddy Poffin. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 6 of the 40 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Alakazam / Dudunsparce struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Darkness and Fighting, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 24 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: N's Zoroark ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass and Mega Lucario ex, plus 21 more decks. The table below takes them one at a time, and those are the lists you practise against first before an event.

This table counts one thing, Weakness, and that comes to 24 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 73 do not attack into yours, and this table says nothing about them. You will still run into them.

Going the other way, your attackers are Psychic, and 6 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Mega Lucario ex, Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama and Greninja ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

When an attack does nothing at all

There are two ways to hurt the Pokémon across the table, and the game does not treat them the same. An attack with a number printed next to it deals damage. An attack with no number, whose text just says "place 2 damage counters", does what the rules call an effect. That matters, because a handful of Pokémon have an Ability that prevents the effects of your opponent's attacks, and their card spells it out in brackets: damage is not an effect.

The other way round, this deck attacks with counters too: Alakazam with Powerful Hand. Those attacks have no damage number printed next to them at all. In front of a Pokémon that shuts off effects, they place nothing. Zero.

Of the decks we track, 7 play a Pokémon like that, and they are in the table below. The day you see one come across the table, stop counting on your counters. You need an attack with a real number written on it. You have one: Land Crush, on Dudunsparce, for 90.

Questions people ask

What is the Alakazam / Dudunsparce deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 33 tournament lists harvested between 11 August 2026 and 1 September 2026, 13 cards turn up in every single one, 40 slots out of 60. The remaining 20 change from player to player, with 38 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

How many lists is this counted on, and where do they come from?

33 lists, played across 33 different tournaments, harvested between 11 August 2026 and 1 September 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 33 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Alakazam / Dudunsparce?

With the whole core: 13 cards, 40 slots. Inside it, buy the 22 Trainer slots and the 5 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 13 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Fezandipiti ex at 97 % and Shaymin at 97 %.

What beats Alakazam / Dudunsparce?

Its attackers are Weak to Darkness and Fighting, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 24 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: N's Zoroark ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, Mega Lucario ex and Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, among others.

Will Alakazam / Dudunsparce survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 2 core cards out of 13 carry the letter H, starting with Dudunsparce and Buddy-Buddy Poffin.

Are a lot of people playing Alakazam / Dudunsparce?

We have read 33 lists of it, which puts it 34th of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 2,374 entries for it, 5.82 % of the field, across all its players. That figure is theirs.

These pages are about the same corner of the game. If you came away from this one still wondering about something, start with one of them.