Ceruledge ex

What Ceruledge ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 94 lists we counted, this deck runs 12 to 17 Pokémon, 23 to 29 Trainers and 18 to 23 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fighting, Fire, Psychic and Metal.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « ceruledge-ex ». 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: 18 to 23 out of 60, when half the 125 decks we track run 11 or fewer. This one carries more than most, and you feel it at the table — it wants to load up a big Pokémon and swing hard, even if that means drawing a spare Energy now and then.

It sets up fast. Ceruledge ex is a Stage 1 Pokémon: a Basic, one evolution on top, and you are attacking. Two cards instead of three. You lose fewer turns building, and you rebuild much more easily when an early knockout lands on you.

Look at the Trainers: 23 to 29 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 125 decks we track. Inside that, 7 to 12 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 10 to 20 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 3 Stadiums, and 118 of the 125 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 Ceruledge ex actually wins

Ceruledge ex attacks with Raging Amethyst for 280. It needs 3 Energy, 1 Fire, 1 Psychic and 1 Metal attached, and it has 270 HP. And the number is not everything the card says. There is one more line printed under the attack, and it is the one everybody skips: "Discard all Energy from this Pokémon."

The cost of Raging Amethyst decides your first few turns. You only get to attach one Energy a turn, and that attack asks for 3. On your own attachments alone, your first real swing lands on turn 3. We have not found anything in this list that attaches Energy faster than that, so plan on holding out for 2 turns before you swing. Those turns still get played: you fill your Bench, you build your lines, and you keep something back to rebuild with when your attacker falls.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Ceruledge 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.

Ceruledge ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Ceruledge 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 Ceruledge exStage 1	270	Raging Amethyst	280		Water ×2	2
Close SolrockBasic	110	Cosmic Beam	70		Grass ×2	1
Close LunatoneBasic	110	Power Gem	50		Grass ×2	1

The core: the 6 cards every list runs

These 6 cards appear in all 94 lists, without a single exception. That is 31 of the 60 slots. The other 29 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 31 slots break down: 4 Trainers, 7 Pokémon, 20 Energy. Pokémon dominate, which is unusual: this deck needs bodies on the board, and it depends on any single attacker less than it looks.

5 of those 6 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Ceruledge ex (2 to 4), Solrock (1 to 3) and Ultra Ball (2 to 4), plus 2 more. Add those spreads up and you get 19 copies the 94 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 Ceruledge ex	SSP 36	Pokémon	leaves
2	Close Lunatone	MEG 74	Pokémon	stays
1–3	Close Solrock	MEG 75	Pokémon	stays
2–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
10–16	Fighting Energy	MEE 14	Energy	stays
3–10	Fire Energy	MEE 10	Energy	stays

The 62 cards that change from list to list

62 cards fight over the 29 slots that are left: 8 above three lists in four, 46 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Fighting Gong at 99 %, Night Stretcher at 99 % and Poké Pad at 98 %, plus 5 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Fezandipiti ex, at 46 %: 43 of 94 players took it, 51 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Armarouge (22 lists out of 94) and Special Red Card (18 lists out of 94).

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
99 %93/94	Close Fighting Gong	2–4	MEG 116	Trainer
99 %93/94	Close Night Stretcher	2–4	ASC 196	Trainer
98 %92/94	Close Poké Pad	1–4	POR 81	Trainer
97 %91/94	Close Boss's Orders	1–4	MEG 114	Trainer
96 %90/94	Close Carmine	2–4	TWM 145	Trainer
89 %84/94	Close Drilbur	1–3	TEF 85	Pokémon
82 %77/94	Close Charcadet	1–4	SSP 32	Pokémon
76 %71/94	Close Brilliant Blender	1	SSP 164	Trainer
69 %65/94	Close Explorer's Guidance	1–4	TEF 147	Trainer
65 %61/94	Close Prism Tower	1–3	CRI 80	Trainer
46 %43/94	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
41 %39/94	Close Mist Energy	1–4	TEF 161	Energy
38 %36/94	Close Lillie's Determination	1–4	MEG 119	Trainer
36 %34/94	Close Pokémon Catcher	3–4	POR 82	Trainer
36 %34/94	Close Briar	1	SCR 132	Trainer
29 %27/94	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
23 %22/94	Close Armarouge	1	PBL 12	Pokémon
19 %18/94	Close Special Red Card	1–2	CRI 82	Trainer
19 %18/94	Close Legacy Energy	1	TWM 167	Energy
18 %17/94	Close Charcadet	1–4	PFL 19	Pokémon
15 %14/94	Close Charcadet	1–4	PBL 11	Pokémon
15 %14/94	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
14 %13/94	Close Naveen	1–4	POR 79	Trainer
13 %12/94	Close Switch	1–2	MEG 130	Trainer
11 %10/94	Close Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
10 %9/94	Close Charcadet	1–4	SSP 33	Pokémon
10 %9/94	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
9 %8/94	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
6 %6/94	Close Chi-Yu	1	MEG 31	Pokémon
5 %5/94	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	1–3	TEF 144	Trainer
5 %5/94	Close Blowtorch	1	PFL 86	Trainer
4 %4/94	Close Buneary	1	PFL 83	Pokémon
4 %4/94	Close Mega Lopunny ex	1	PFL 84	Pokémon
4 %4/94	Close Battle Cage	1	PFL 85	Trainer
4 %4/94	Close Jamming Tower	1–2	TWM 153	Trainer
4 %4/94	Close Kieran	1	TWM 154	Trainer
3 %3/94	Close Ceruledge	1	SSP 35	Pokémon
3 %3/94	Close Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex	1	TWM 112	Pokémon
3 %3/94	Close Sacred Ash	1	DRI 168	Trainer
3 %3/94	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
3 %3/94	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
2 %2/94	Close Mew ex	1–2	30C 66	Pokémon
2 %2/94	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
2 %2/94	Close Victini	1	BLK 12	Pokémon
2 %2/94	Close Crispin	1	SCR 133	Trainer
2 %2/94	Close Lucian	1	TWM 157	Trainer
1 %1/94	Close Dudunsparce	2	TEF 129	Pokémon
1 %1/94	Close Dunsparce	2	JTG 120	Pokémon
1 %1/94	Close Ethan's Sudowoodo	1	DRI 93	Pokémon
1 %1/94	Close Heatran	1	PBL 7	Pokémon
1 %1/94	Close Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
1 %1/94	Close Pokégear 3.0	4	SVI 186	Trainer
1 %1/94	Close Area Zero Underdepths	2	SCR 131	Trainer
1 %1/94	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	2	DRI 176	Trainer
1 %1/94	Close Transformation Tome	2	CRI 83	Trainer
1 %1/94	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
1 %1/94	Close Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
1 %1/94	Close Redeemable Ticket	1	JTG 156	Trainer
1 %1/94	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1	DRI 180	Trainer
1 %1/94	Metal Energy	2	MEE 16	Energy
1 %1/94	Close Nitro Fire Energy	2	CRI 86	Energy
1 %1/94	Psychic Energy	2	MEE 13	Energy

The most common Ceruledge ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 31 slots come from the core, the cards all 94 lists run. The remaining 29 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 13 Pokémon, 26 Trainers and 21 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 94 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.

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: 13
3 Ceruledge ex SSP 36
2 Lunatone MEG 74
2 Solrock MEG 75
1 Drilbur TEF 85
4 Charcadet SSP 32
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142

Trainer: 26
4 Ultra Ball MEG 131
4 Fighting Gong MEG 116
3 Night Stretcher ASC 196
3 Poké Pad POR 81
1 Boss's Orders MEG 114
4 Carmine TWM 145
1 Brilliant Blender SSP 164
4 Explorer's Guidance TEF 147
2 Prism Tower CRI 80

Energy: 21
14 Fighting Energy
6 Fire Energy
1 Mist Energy TEF 161

Total Cards: 60

How many different cards Ceruledge ex needs, and how long it will last

You need 68 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 6 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

All 94 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 71 took Brilliant Blender, 18 took Legacy Energy and 3 took Unfair Stamp. The flex table shows you all 5. 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 Brilliant Blender and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 1 of the 6 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Ceruledge ex. The core table marks it. In copies, that is 3 of the 31 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Ceruledge ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Water and Grass, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 39 of the 125 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Latias ex / Mega Kangaskhan ex (Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex), Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex and Festival Lead (Thwackey), plus 36 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 39 decks out of the 125 we track. The other 86 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 Fighting, Fire, Psychic and Metal, and 65 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Dragapult ex, Latias ex / Mega Kangaskhan ex and Slowking, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.