Blaziken / N's Zoroark ex deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Blaziken / N's Zoroark ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 25 lists we counted, this deck runs 21 to 22 Pokémon, 30 to 32 Trainers and 7 to 8 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fire, Darkness and Psychic.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « blaziken-zoroark ». 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: 7 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. Blaziken 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: 30 to 32 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 9 to 11 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 17 to 18 Items you can play all of in the same turn.

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

Blaziken and N's Zoroark ex give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Blaziken is in all 25 lists, 1 copy of it.

N's Zoroark ex is in all 25 lists, 2 copies of it. Its Ability is called Trade, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « You must discard a card from your hand in order to use this Ability. Once during your turn, you may draw 2 cards. » Its attack Night Joker costs 2 Energy (Darkness and Darkness) 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: « Choose 1 of your Benched N's Pokémon's attacks and use it as this attack. »

How Blaziken / N's Zoroark ex actually wins

N's Zoroark ex attacks with Night Joker, and it needs 2 Darkness Energy attached. It has 280 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.

The cost of Night Joker decides your first few turns. You only get to attach one Energy a turn, and that attack asks for 2. On your own attachments alone, your first real swing lands on turn 2. Except you are not on your own. Blaziken ex, which the list runs 3 of, has an Ability called Seething Spirit: it digs Energy out of your discard pile and puts it back on one of your Pokémon. An Ability costs you nothing: not your attack, not your card for the turn. That is where this deck buys its turns, and it is the first thing to look for in your opening hand.

Energy is not your only clock. Torchic has to climb two steps before it becomes Blaziken, 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 2 of, goes into your deck for an evolution.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull N's Zoroark ex back to the Bench you have to discard 2 Energy attached to it. Retreating does not cost you your turn, you can step back and still swing right after. What it costs you is the 2 Energy you spent 2 turns attaching, and you start that climb again from nothing. Pack a card that moves it for free, or send it up knowing it stays up.

Blaziken ex, N's Zoroark ex, Fezandipiti ex and Lillie's Clefairy ex carry the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when one of them falls. They need 6 to win: 3 well-placed knockouts on those cards 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 N's Zoroark exStage 1	280	Night JokerChoose 1 of your Benched N's Pokémon's attacks and use it as this attack.	—	Darkness + Darkness	Grass ×2	2
Close Blaziken exStage 2	320	Smolder-sault	200	Fire + Colorless	Water ×2	2
Close BlazikenStage 2	170	Inferno Kick Flurry	120	Fire + Fire + Colorless	Water ×2	2
Close MunkidoriBasic	110	Mind Bend	60	Psychic + Colorless	Darkness ×2	1

The core: the 26 cards every list runs

These 26 cards appear in all 25 lists, without a single exception. That is 57 of the 60 slots. The other 3 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 57 slots break down: 30 Trainers, 19 Pokémon, 8 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.

9 of those 26 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Blaziken ex (2 to 3), N's Zorua (2 to 3) and Tatsugiri (1 to 2), plus 6 more. Add those spreads up and you get 10 copies the 25 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
2–3	Close Blaziken ex	JTG 24	Pokémon	leaves
3	Close Torchic	DRI 40	Pokémon	stays
2	Close Combusken	DRI 41	Pokémon	stays
2	Close N's Zoroark ex	JTG 98	Pokémon	stays
2–3	Close N's Zorua	JTG 97	Pokémon	stays
1–2	Close Tatsugiri	TWM 131	Pokémon	leaves
1	Close Blaziken	DRI 42	Pokémon	stays
1	Close Fezandipiti ex	ASC 142	Pokémon	leaves
1	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	JTG 56	Pokémon	stays
1	Close Moltres	PFL 14	Pokémon	stays
1–2	Close Munkidori	TWM 95	Pokémon	leaves
3–4	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
4	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
3	Close Rare Candy	MEG 125	Trainer	stays
3	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
2	Close Hilda	WHT 84	Trainer	stays
2	Close Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
1–2	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	DRI 180	Trainer	stays
1	Close Air Balloon	ASC 181	Trainer	stays
1	Close Switch	MEG 130	Trainer	stays
1	Close Unfair Stamp	TWM 165	Trainer	leaves
2–4	Darkness Energy	MEE 7	Energy	stays
3–4	Fire Energy	MEE 2	Energy	stays
1	Psychic Energy	MEE 5	Energy	stays

The 9 cards that change from list to list

9 cards fight over the 3 slots that are left: 2 above three lists in four, 5 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Pecharunt at 84 % and Special Red Card at 84 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through N's Reshiram, at 72 %: 18 of 25 players took it, 7 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Team Rocket's Petrel (5 lists out of 25) and N's Zekrom (2 lists out of 25).

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
84 %21/25	Close Pecharunt	1	SVP 149	Pokémon
84 %21/25	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
72 %18/25	Close N's Reshiram	1	JTG 116	Pokémon
28 %7/25	Close Chi-Yu	1	MEG 31	Pokémon
20 %5/25	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1	DRI 176	Trainer
8 %2/25	Close N's Zekrom	1	ASC 155	Pokémon
8 %2/25	Close Pecharunt ex	1	SFA 39	Pokémon
8 %2/25	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
8 %2/25	Close Yveltal	1	MEG 88	Pokémon

The most common Blaziken / N's Zoroark ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 57 slots come from the core, the cards all 25 lists run. The remaining 3 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 3 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 21 Pokémon, 31 Trainers and 8 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 25 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: 21
3 Blaziken ex JTG 24
3 Torchic DRI 40
2 Combusken DRI 41
2 N's Zoroark ex JTG 98
2 N's Zorua JTG 97
2 Tatsugiri TWM 131
1 Blaziken DRI 42
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
1 Lillie's Clefairy ex JTG 56
1 Moltres PFL 14
1 Munkidori TWM 95
1 Pecharunt SVP 149
1 N's Reshiram JTG 116

Trainer: 31
4 Boss's Orders MEG 114
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
3 Poké Pad POR 81
3 Rare Candy MEG 125
3 Ultra Ball MEG 131
2 Hilda WHT 84
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
2 Team Rocket's Watchtower DRI 180
1 Air Balloon ASC 181
1 Switch MEG 130
1 Unfair Stamp TWM 165
1 Special Red Card CRI 82

Energy: 8
4 Darkness Energy MEE 7
3 Fire Energy MEE 2
1 Psychic Energy MEE 5

Total Cards: 60

What Blaziken / N's Zoroark ex costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 35 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 26 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

Add Unfair Stamp: all 25 players picked the same one. You are allowed ONE ACE SPEC card in your whole deck, so a single copy covers it whatever it costs.

Then there is time. 7 of the 26 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Blaziken ex, Tatsugiri, Fezandipiti ex and Munkidori, plus 3 more. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 14 of the 57 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Blaziken / N's Zoroark ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Grass, Water and Darkness, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 49 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Festival Lead (Seaking), N's Zoroark ex and Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, plus 46 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 49 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 48 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 Fire, Darkness and Psychic, and 59 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Mega Excadrill ex, Festival Lead and Alakazam / Dudunsparce, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Blaziken / N's Zoroark ex deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 25 tournament lists harvested between 11 August 2026 and 28 August 2026, 26 cards turn up in every single one, 57 slots out of 60. The remaining 3 change from player to player, with 9 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

25 lists, played across 20 different tournaments, harvested between 11 August 2026 and 28 August 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 25 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Blaziken / N's Zoroark ex?

With the whole core: 26 cards, 57 slots. Inside it, buy the 30 Trainer slots and the 8 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 19 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Pecharunt at 84 % and Special Red Card at 84 %.

What beats Blaziken / N's Zoroark ex?

Its attackers are Weak to Grass, Water and Darkness, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 49 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Festival Lead, N's Zoroark ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass and Raging Bolt ex, among others.

Will Blaziken / N's Zoroark ex survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 7 core cards out of 26 carry the letter H, starting with Blaziken ex, Tatsugiri, Fezandipiti ex and Munkidori, plus 3 more.

Are a lot of people playing Blaziken / N's Zoroark ex?

We have read 25 lists of it, which puts it 62nd of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 136 entries for it, 0.33 % 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.