Beedrill ex deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Beedrill ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 27 lists we counted, this deck runs 19 to 26 Pokémon, 29 to 36 Trainers and 5 to 6 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Grass.

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

The bit they tack on the end, « CRI », is a set code: Chaos Rising. They spell it out because several cards share that name, and this deck plays that particular printing.

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. Beedrill ex 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 36 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 8 to 12 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 14 to 20 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.

How Beedrill ex actually wins

Beedrill ex attacks with Rumbling Bees. It needs 1 Grass Energy attached, and it has 310 HP. Watch the damage box: "110×" is not a total. Here is what the card prints, word for word: "This attack does 110 damage for each of your Beedrill and Beedrill ex in play."

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 Beedrill ex 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. Weedle has to climb two steps before it becomes Beedrill ex, 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 2 of, goes into your deck for an evolution. Careful, though: only 15 of the 27 lists bring it, so it is a choice, and players are still arguing about it.

Good news on mobility: pulling Beedrill ex 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.

Beedrill ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Beedrill ex falls. They need 6 to win: 3 well-placed knockouts on that card beat you, where it would take 6 anywhere else on your Bench.

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

Pokémon	HP	Attack	Damage	Cost	Weakness	Retreat
Close Beedrill exStage 2	310	Rumbling Bees	110×	Grass	Fire ×2	1
Close DudunsparceStage 1	140	Land Crush	90	Colorless + Colorless + Colorless	Fighting ×2	3
Close WeedleBasic	50	Surprise Attack	30	Grass	Fire ×2	1
Close KakunaStage 1	80	Hang Down	20	Grass	Fire ×2	3

The core: the 11 cards every list runs

These 11 cards appear in all 27 lists, without a single exception. That is 43 of the 60 slots. The other 17 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 43 slots break down: 22 Trainers, 15 Pokémon, 6 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.

6 of those 11 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Dudunsparce (2 to 3), Buddy-Buddy Poffin (2 to 4) and Bug Catching Set (3 to 4), plus 3 more. Add those spreads up and you get 10 copies the 27 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
4	Close Beedrill ex	CRI 3	Pokémon	stays
4	Close Kakuna	CRI 2	Pokémon	stays
4	Close Weedle	CRI 1	Pokémon	stays
2–3	Close Dudunsparce	TEF 129	Pokémon	leaves
2–4	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
3–4	Close Bug Catching Set	TWM 143	Trainer	leaves
4	Close Forest of Vitality	MEG 117	Trainer	stays
2–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
3–6	Grass Energy	MEE 1	Energy	stays

The 41 cards that change from list to list

41 cards fight over the 17 slots that are left: 8 above three lists in four, 25 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Special Red Card at 96 %, Fan Rotom at 93 % and Fezandipiti ex at 93 %, plus 5 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Unfair Stamp, at 52 %: 14 of 27 players took it, 13 put something else there. It is an ACE SPEC card, and you are allowed exactly one in your whole deck. The players who passed on it did not leave the slot empty: they put a different ACE SPEC there. Right at the bottom of the table, Rellor (6 lists out of 27) and Colress's Tenacity (5 lists out of 27).

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
96 %26/27	Close Special Red Card	1–2	CRI 82	Trainer
93 %25/27	Close Fan Rotom	1–2	SCR 118	Pokémon
93 %25/27	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
93 %25/27	Close Ultra Ball	2–3	MEG 131	Trainer
85 %23/27	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
81 %22/27	Close Sacred Ash	1	DRI 168	Trainer
78 %21/27	Close Dunsparce	1–4	TEF 128	Pokémon
78 %21/27	Close Dunsparce	1–4	JTG 120	Pokémon
56 %15/27	Close Dawn	1–4	PFL 87	Trainer
56 %15/27	Close Redeemable Ticket	1	JTG 156	Trainer
52 %14/27	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
48 %13/27	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
44 %12/27	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1–2	TEF 145	Trainer
44 %12/27	Close Night Stretcher	1–3	ASC 196	Trainer
41 %11/27	Close Max Rod	1	PRE 116	Trainer
26 %7/27	Close Rabsca	1	TEF 24	Pokémon
22 %6/27	Close Rellor	1	TEF 23	Pokémon
19 %5/27	Close Colress's Tenacity	1	SFA 57	Trainer
15 %4/27	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
7 %2/27	Close Celebi	1–4	MEG 12	Pokémon
7 %2/27	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
7 %2/27	Close Gwynn	3–4	PBL 78	Trainer
7 %2/27	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–4	DRI 176	Trainer
7 %2/27	Close Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Arboliva ex	2	DRI 23	Pokémon
4 %1/27	Close Dolliv	2	DRI 22	Pokémon
4 %1/27	Close Smoliv	2	DRI 21	Pokémon
4 %1/27	Close Genesect	1	SFA 40	Pokémon
4 %1/27	Close Mow Rotom	1	SCR 8	Pokémon
4 %1/27	Close Rellor	1	DRI 24	Pokémon
4 %1/27	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
4 %1/27	Close Dusk Ball	4	SSP 175	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Air Balloon	2	ASC 181	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Hilda	2	WHT 84	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close AZ's Tranquility	1	CRI 76	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Black Belt's Training	1	JTG 143	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Hyper Aroma	1	TWM 152	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Kieran	1	TWM 154	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Lana's Aid	1	TWM 155	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Growing Grass Energy	2	POR 86	Energy

The most common Beedrill ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 43 slots come from the core, the cards all 27 lists run. The remaining 17 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 12 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 22 Pokémon, 32 Trainers and 6 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 27 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: 22
4 Beedrill ex CRI 3
4 Kakuna CRI 2
4 Weedle CRI 1
3 Dudunsparce TEF 129
1 Fan Rotom SCR 118
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
1 Meowth ex POR 62
3 Dunsparce TEF 128
1 Dunsparce JTG 120

Trainer: 32
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Bug Catching Set TWM 143
4 Forest of Vitality MEG 117
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Poké Pad POR 81
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
3 Ultra Ball MEG 131
1 Sacred Ash DRI 168
2 Dawn PFL 87
1 Redeemable Ticket JTG 156
1 Unfair Stamp TWM 165
1 Judge POR 76

Energy: 6
6 Grass Energy MEE 1

Total Cards: 60

Which decks beat Beedrill ex at tournaments

Here is how Beedrill ex 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 Mega Excadrill ex: over 159 games, 57 won and 101 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex: over 121 games, 43 won and 78 lost.

Against Dragapult ex: over 146 games, 58 won and 88 lost.

Against Alakazam / Dudunsparce: over 127 games, 54 won and 69 lost. 4 ended with no winner.

Against Slowking: over 106 games, 45 won and 61 lost.

Against Festival Lead: over 111 games, 50 won and 58 lost. 3 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Dusknoir: over 111 games, 60 won and 49 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

What Beedrill ex costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 52 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 11 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

All 27 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 14 took Unfair Stamp, 11 took Max Rod and 1 took Hyper Aroma. The flex table shows you all 4. 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 Unfair Stamp and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 3 of the 11 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Dudunsparce, Buddy-Buddy Poffin and Bug Catching Set. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 11 of the 43 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Beedrill ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fire and Fighting, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 20 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, Mega Lucario ex and Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, plus 17 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 20 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 77 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 Grass, and 18 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: N's Zoroark ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass and Mega Lucario ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Beedrill ex deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 27 tournament lists harvested between 11 August 2026 and 5 September 2026, 11 cards turn up in every single one, 43 slots out of 60. The remaining 17 change from player to player, with 41 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

27 lists, played across 26 different tournaments, harvested between 11 August 2026 and 5 September 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 27 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Beedrill ex?

With the whole core: 11 cards, 43 slots. Inside it, buy the 22 Trainer slots and the 6 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 15 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Special Red Card at 96 % and Fan Rotom at 93 %.

What beats Beedrill ex?

Its attackers are Weak to Fire and Fighting, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 20 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, Mega Lucario ex, Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama and Cynthia's Garchomp ex, among others.

Will Beedrill ex survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 3 core cards out of 11 carry the letter H, starting with Dudunsparce, Buddy-Buddy Poffin and Bug Catching Set.

Are a lot of people playing Beedrill ex?

We have read 27 lists of it, which puts it 57th of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 437 entries for it, 1.07 % 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.