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

What Alakazam / Dusknoir looks like when you open the box

Across the 46 lists we counted, this deck runs 21 to 26 Pokémon, 29 to 34 Trainers and 5 to 6 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Psychic.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « alakazam-dusknoir ». 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: 5 to 6 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: 29 to 34 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 8 to 13 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 15 to 22 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 3 Stadiums, and 91 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 Dusknoir give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Alakazam is in all 46 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.

Dusknoir is in all 46 lists, 2 copies of it. Its Ability is called Cursed Blast, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « Once during your turn, you may put 13 damage counters on 1 of your opponent's Pokémon. If you use this Ability, this Pokémon is Knocked Out. »

How Alakazam / Dusknoir 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. Hilda, which the list runs 4 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 DusknoirStage 2	160	Shadow Bind	150	Psychic + Psychic + Colorless	Darkness ×2	3
Close DusclopsStage 1	90	Will-O-Wisp	50	Psychic + Psychic	Darkness ×2	2
Close DuskullBasic	60	Mumble	30	Psychic + Psychic	Darkness ×2	1

The core: the 17 cards every list runs

These 17 cards appear in all 46 lists, without a single exception. That is 48 of the 60 slots. The other 12 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 48 slots break down: 26 Trainers, 17 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 17 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Duskull (3 to 4), Abra (2 to 4) and Dusclops (2 to 4), plus 9 more. Add those spreads up and you get 16 copies the 46 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
3–4	Close Duskull	PRE 35	Pokémon	leaves
4	Close Kadabra	MEG 55	Pokémon	stays
3	Close Alakazam	MEG 56	Pokémon	stays
2–4	Close Abra	MEG 54	Pokémon	stays
2–4	Close Dusclops	PRE 36	Pokémon	leaves
2	Close Dusknoir	PRE 37	Pokémon	leaves
2–4	Close Gwynn	PBL 78	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Hilda	WHT 84	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Rare Candy	MEG 125	Trainer	stays
2–4	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
2–3	Close Dawn	PFL 87	Trainer	stays
2	Close Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
1–2	Close Special Red Card	CRI 82	Trainer	stays
1–2	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
4	Close Telepathic Psychic Energy	POR 88	Energy	stays
1–2	Psychic Energy	MEE 5	Energy	stays

The 20 cards that change from list to list

20 cards fight over the 12 slots that are left: 8 above three lists in four, 12 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Budew at 98 %, Fezandipiti ex at 98 % and Strange Timepiece at 98 %, plus 5 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Abra, at 83 %: 38 of 46 players took it, 8 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 2 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Enhanced Hammer (5 lists out of 46) and Flutter Mane (3 lists out of 46).

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
98 %45/46	Close Budew	1–2	ASC 16	Pokémon
98 %45/46	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
98 %45/46	Close Strange Timepiece	2–3	MEG 128	Trainer
98 %45/46	Close Sacred Ash	1	DRI 168	Trainer
96 %44/46	Close Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
96 %44/46	Close Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
93 %43/46	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
83 %38/46	Close Abra	1–2	TWM 80	Pokémon
11 %5/46	Close Enhanced Hammer	1–2	TWM 148	Trainer
7 %3/46	Close Flutter Mane	1	TEF 78	Pokémon
7 %3/46	Close Eri	1	TEF 146	Trainer
2 %1/46	Close Genesect	2	SFA 40	Pokémon
2 %1/46	Close Chien-Pao	1	SSP 56	Pokémon
2 %1/46	Close Lucky Helmet	3	TWM 158	Trainer
2 %1/46	Close Nighttime Mine	2	ASC 197	Trainer
2 %1/46	Close Jamming Tower	1	TWM 153	Trainer
2 %1/46	Close Lana's Aid	1	TWM 155	Trainer
2 %1/46	Close Lumiose City	1	POR 77	Trainer
2 %1/46	Close Neutralization Zone	1	SFA 60	Trainer
2 %1/46	Close Legacy Energy	1	TWM 167	Energy

The most common Alakazam / Dusknoir list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 48 slots come from the core, the cards all 46 lists run. The remaining 12 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 8 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 24 Pokémon, 31 Trainers and 5 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 46 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: 24
4 Duskull PRE 35
4 Kadabra MEG 55
3 Alakazam MEG 56
2 Abra MEG 54
2 Dusclops PRE 36
2 Dusknoir PRE 37
2 Budew ASC 16
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
1 Patrat CRI 70
1 Shaymin DRI 10
2 Abra TWM 80

Trainer: 31
4 Gwynn PBL 78
4 Hilda WHT 84
4 Poké Pad POR 81
4 Rare Candy MEG 125
3 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
2 Dawn PFL 87
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
2 Special Red Card CRI 82
1 Boss's Orders MEG 114
3 Strange Timepiece MEG 128
1 Sacred Ash DRI 168
1 Prime Catcher TEF 157

Energy: 5
4 Telepathic Psychic Energy POR 88
1 Psychic Energy MEE 5

Total Cards: 60

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

You need 37 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 17 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

All 46 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 44 took Prime Catcher, 1 took Legacy Energy and 1 took Neutralization Zone. 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 Prime Catcher and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 5 of the 17 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Duskull, Dusclops, Dusknoir and Buddy-Buddy Poffin, plus 1 more. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 13 of the 48 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Alakazam / Dusknoir struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Darkness, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 13 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: N's Zoroark ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass and Team Rocket's Honchkrow, plus 10 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 13 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 84 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: Shadow Bind, on Dusknoir, for 150.

Questions people ask

What is the Alakazam / Dusknoir deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 46 tournament lists harvested between 31 August 2026 and 5 September 2026, 17 cards turn up in every single one, 48 slots out of 60. The remaining 12 change from player to player, with 20 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

46 lists, played across 15 different tournaments, harvested between 31 August 2026 and 5 September 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 46 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

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

With the whole core: 17 cards, 48 slots. Inside it, buy the 26 Trainer slots and the 5 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 17 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Budew at 98 % and Fezandipiti ex at 98 %.

What beats Alakazam / Dusknoir?

Its attackers are Weak to Darkness, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 13 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: N's Zoroark ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, Team Rocket's Honchkrow and Mega Absol ex, among others.

Will Alakazam / Dusknoir survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 5 core cards out of 17 carry the letter H, starting with Duskull, Dusclops, Dusknoir and Buddy-Buddy Poffin, plus 1 more.

Are a lot of people playing Alakazam / Dusknoir?

We have read 46 lists of it, which puts it 5th of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 109 entries for it, 0.27 % 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.