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

What Cinccino ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 28 lists we counted, this deck runs 16 to 19 Pokémon, 19 to 24 Trainers and 17 to 24 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Metal.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « cinccino-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: 17 to 24 out of 60, when half the 97 decks we track run 10 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 takes a while to set up. Metagross 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: 19 to 24 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 8 to 11 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 7 to 14 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 card in this deck's name actually does

Cinccino ex gives this deck its name. Here is what is written on it.

Cinccino ex is in all 28 lists, 3 copies of it. Its Ability is called Smooth Coat, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « If any damage is done to this Pokémon by attacks, flip a coin. If heads, prevent that damage. »

How Cinccino ex actually wins

Genesect ex attacks with Protect Charge for 150. It needs 3 Energy, 2 Metal and 1 Colorless attached, and it has 220 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: "During your opponent's next turn, this Pokémon takes 30 less damage from attacks (after applying Weakness and Resistance)."

The cost of Protect Charge 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. Except you are not on your own. Metang, which the list runs 4 of, has an Ability called Metal Maker: it looks at the top of your deck and attaches the Energy it finds there. 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. Beldum has to climb two steps before it becomes Metagross, and an evolution asleep at the bottom of your deck does you no good at all. The list has that covered. Genesect ex, which the list runs 2 of, has an Ability called Metallic Signal: it goes into your deck for an evolution.

There is another trick in this list, and the whole of it happens in one turn. Team Rocket's Petrel goes into your deck for a Trainer card and puts it in your hand. Precious Trolley is one, and it puts as many Basic Pokémon as you like onto your Bench in one go. A full Bench on turn one is what decides the game in a deck with lines to build. One rule to know: Precious Trolley is an ACE SPEC card. You are allowed just ONE ACE SPEC in your whole deck, so a second copy is never coming, and taking this one means giving up every other. One detail that matters: Team Rocket's Petrel is a Supporter, so that turn you play no other Supporter. Items all still go through. And if Team Rocket's Petrel will not show up, Team Rocket's Transceiver goes and gets it: every list brings it for exactly that.

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

Cinccino ex and Genesect 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 Genesect exBasic	220	Protect Charge	150	Metal + Metal + Colorless	Fire ×2	2
Close MetagrossStage 2	180	Metallic Hammer	150+	Metal + Metal + Metal + Colorless	Fire ×2	3
Close MetangStage 1	100	Beam	60	Metal + Colorless + Colorless	Fire ×2	2
Close Cinccino exStage 1	240	Energized Slap	40×	Colorless	Fighting ×2	1

The core: the 11 cards every list runs

These 11 cards appear in all 28 lists, without a single exception. That is 45 of the 60 slots. The other 15 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 45 slots break down: 14 Trainers, 10 Pokémon, 21 Energy. Nothing stands out in that split. What sets this deck apart is how thick its core is: 45 of the 60 slots are the same for everybody, when half the 97 decks we track fix 34 or fewer. Fewer choices left to you than usual, and fewer ways to get them wrong.

8 of those 11 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Metang (3 to 4), Genesect ex (1 to 2) and Metagross (1 to 2), plus 5 more. Add those spreads up and you get 16 copies the 28 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 Metang	TEF 114	Pokémon	leaves
3	Close Cinccino ex	CRI 73	Pokémon	stays
1–2	Close Genesect ex	BLK 67	Pokémon	stays
1–2	Close Metagross	CRI 61	Pokémon	stays
4	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	DRI 176	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	DRI 178	Trainer	stays
2–4	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
1–2	Close Energy Recycler	DRI 164	Trainer	stays
1	Close Precious Trolley	SSP 185	Trainer	leaves
16–24	Metal Energy	MEE 8	Energy	stays

The 23 cards that change from list to list

23 cards fight over the 15 slots that are left: 5 above three lists in four, 17 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Minccino at 93 %, Lillie's Determination at 93 % and Battle Cage at 93 %, plus 2 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Special Red Card, at 57 %: 16 of 28 players took it, 12 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Beldum (4 lists out of 28) and Shaymin (4 lists out of 28).

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
93 %26/28	Close Minccino	3	CRI 72	Pokémon
93 %26/28	Close Lillie's Determination	2–4	MEG 119	Trainer
93 %26/28	Close Battle Cage	1–3	PFL 85	Trainer
86 %24/28	Close Beldum	3–4	CRI 59	Pokémon
79 %22/28	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	1	TEF 144	Trainer
57 %16/28	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
14 %4/28	Close Beldum	4	TEF 113	Pokémon
14 %4/28	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
14 %4/28	Close Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
11 %3/28	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
11 %3/28	Close Team Rocket's Factory	1–2	DRI 173	Trainer
7 %2/28	Close Minccino	3–4	TEF 136	Pokémon
4 %1/28	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
4 %1/28	Close Mega Skarmory ex	1	POR 55	Pokémon
4 %1/28	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
4 %1/28	Close Hilda	3	WHT 84	Trainer
4 %1/28	Close Pokégear 3.0	2	SVI 186	Trainer
4 %1/28	Close Backtrack Badge	1	PBL 74	Trainer
4 %1/28	Close Dusk Ball	1	SSP 175	Trainer
4 %1/28	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
4 %1/28	Close Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
4 %1/28	Close Ignition Energy	3	WHT 86	Energy
4 %1/28	Close Mist Energy	1	TEF 161	Energy

The most common Cinccino ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 45 slots come from the core, the cards all 28 lists run. The remaining 15 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 6 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 17 Pokémon, 22 Trainers and 21 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 28 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: 17
4 Metang TEF 114
3 Cinccino ex CRI 73
2 Genesect ex BLK 67
1 Metagross CRI 61
3 Minccino CRI 72
4 Beldum CRI 59

Trainer: 22
4 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
4 Team Rocket's Transceiver DRI 178
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Ultra Ball MEG 131
1 Energy Recycler DRI 164
1 Precious Trolley SSP 185
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
2 Battle Cage PFL 85
1 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
1 Special Red Card CRI 82

Energy: 21
21 Metal Energy MEE 8

Total Cards: 60

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

You need 34 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.

Add Precious Trolley: all 28 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. 2 of the 11 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Metang and Precious Trolley. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 5 of the 45 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Cinccino 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 Metal, and 12 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, Dhelmise and Mega Starmie ex / Froslass, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Cinccino ex deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 28 tournament lists harvested between 11 August 2026 and 3 September 2026, 11 cards turn up in every single one, 45 slots out of 60. The remaining 15 change from player to player, with 23 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

28 lists, played across 23 different tournaments, harvested between 11 August 2026 and 3 September 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 28 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

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

With the whole core: 11 cards, 45 slots. Inside it, buy the 14 Trainer slots and the 21 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 10 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Minccino at 93 % and Lillie's Determination at 93 %.

What beats Cinccino 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 Cinccino ex survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 2 core cards out of 11 carry the letter H, starting with Metang and Precious Trolley.

Are a lot of people playing Cinccino ex?

We have read 28 lists of it, which puts it 50th of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 165 entries for it, 0.4 % 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.