Cinccino ex

What Cinccino ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 70 lists we counted, this deck runs 14 to 22 Pokémon, 19 to 29 Trainers and 10 to 25 Energy. Its attacks do not ask for any particular type of Energy.

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: 10 to 25 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. Cinccino 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: 19 to 29 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 125 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 4 to 17 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 4 Stadiums, and 87 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.

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 70 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

Cinccino ex attacks with Energized Slap. It needs 1 Colorless Energy attached, and it has 240 HP. Watch the damage box: "40×" is not a total. Here is what the card prints, word for word: "This attack does 40 damage for each Energy attached to this Pokémon."

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 Cinccino 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. Minccino has to climb a step before it becomes Cinccino ex, 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. Careful, though: only 68 of the 70 lists bring it, so it is a choice, and players are still arguing about it.

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: 65 of the 70 lists bring it for exactly that.

Good news on mobility: pulling Cinccino 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.

Cinccino ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Cinccino 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 Cinccino exStage 1	240	Energized Slap	40×		Fighting ×2	1

The core: the 2 cards every list runs

These 2 cards appear in all 70 lists, without a single exception. That is 7 of the 60 slots. The other 53 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 7 slots break down: 4 Trainers, 3 Pokémon, 0 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.

2 of those 2 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Cinccino ex (2 to 3) and Team Rocket's Petrel (1 to 4). Add those spreads up and you get 4 copies the 70 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
2–3	Close Cinccino ex	CRI 73	Pokémon
1–4	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	DRI 176	Trainer

The 75 cards that change from list to list

75 cards fight over the 53 slots that are left: 14 above three lists in four, 59 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Boss's Orders at 99 %, Metang at 97 % and Genesect ex at 97 %, plus 11 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Special Red Card, at 67 %: 47 of 70 players took it, 23 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Shaymin (14 lists out of 70) and Meowth ex (11 lists out of 70).

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 %69/70	Close Boss's Orders	1–4	MEG 114	Trainer
97 %68/70	Close Metang	3–4	TEF 114	Pokémon
97 %68/70	Close Genesect ex	1–2	BLK 67	Pokémon
97 %68/70	Close Lillie's Determination	1–4	MEG 119	Trainer
97 %68/70	Close Ultra Ball	1–4	MEG 131	Trainer
97 %68/70	Close Energy Recycler	1–2	DRI 164	Trainer
97 %68/70	Close Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
97 %68/70	Metal Energy	15–24	MEE 8	Energy
94 %66/70	Close Metagross	1–2	CRI 61	Pokémon
93 %65/70	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	2–4	DRI 178	Trainer
89 %62/70	Close Minccino	1–3	CRI 72	Pokémon
84 %59/70	Close Beldum	3–4	CRI 59	Pokémon
84 %59/70	Close Battle Cage	1–4	PFL 85	Trainer
81 %57/70	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	1–4	TEF 144	Trainer
67 %47/70	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
30 %21/70	Close Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
20 %14/70	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
16 %11/70	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
16 %11/70	Close Mist Energy	1–4	TEF 161	Energy
14 %10/70	Close Team Rocket's Factory	1–2	DRI 173	Trainer
13 %9/70	Close Beldum	4	TEF 113	Pokémon
13 %9/70	Close Gravity Mountain	1	SSP 177	Trainer
10 %7/70	Close Minccino	3–4	TEF 136	Pokémon
10 %7/70	Close Jumbo Ice Cream	1–3	PFL 91	Trainer
9 %6/70	Close Pokégear 3.0	1–2	SVI 186	Trainer
7 %5/70	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
7 %5/70	Close Hilda	1–3	WHT 84	Trainer
7 %5/70	Close Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
6 %4/70	Close Mega Skarmory ex	1	POR 55	Pokémon
6 %4/70	Close Judge	1–2	POR 76	Trainer
6 %4/70	Close Poké Pad	1–4	POR 81	Trainer
4 %3/70	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
4 %3/70	Close Crushing Hammer	2–4	POR 71	Trainer
4 %3/70	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
4 %3/70	Close Ignition Energy	1–3	WHT 86	Energy
3 %2/70	Close Minccino	2–4	BLK 75	Pokémon
3 %2/70	Close Dudunsparce	2	TEF 129	Pokémon
3 %2/70	Close Dunsparce	2	JTG 120	Pokémon
3 %2/70	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
3 %2/70	Close Dialga	1	MEG 95	Pokémon
3 %2/70	Close Brock's Scouting	2–3	JTG 146	Trainer
3 %2/70	Close Switch	1–2	MEG 130	Trainer
3 %2/70	Close Brave Bangle	1	WHT 80	Trainer
3 %2/70	Close Redeemable Ticket	1	JTG 156	Trainer
3 %2/70	Close Sacred Ash	1	DRI 168	Trainer
3 %2/70	Grass Energy	5–8	MEE 9	Energy
1 %1/70	Close Crustle	3	DRI 12	Pokémon
1 %1/70	Close Dwebble	3	DRI 11	Pokémon
1 %1/70	Close Bastiodon	2	PBL 62	Pokémon
1 %1/70	Close Bayleef	2	MEG 9	Pokémon
1 %1/70	Close Chikorita	2	ASC 8	Pokémon
1 %1/70	Close Empoleon ex	2	PFL 70	Pokémon
1 %1/70	Close Meganium	2	MEG 10	Pokémon
1 %1/70	Close Piplup	2	PFL 27	Pokémon
1 %1/70	Close Shieldon	2	PBL 61	Pokémon
1 %1/70	Close Yanma	2	DRI 2	Pokémon
1 %1/70	Close Yanmega ex	2	DRI 3	Pokémon
1 %1/70	Close Dunsparce	1	TEF 128	Pokémon
1 %1/70	Close Minior	1	30C 124	Pokémon
1 %1/70	Close Steven's Skarmory	1	DRI 142	Pokémon
1 %1/70	Close Bug Catching Set	4	TWM 143	Trainer
1 %1/70	Close Cyrano	4	SSP 170	Trainer
1 %1/70	Close Fossil Quarry	3	PBL 76	Trainer
1 %1/70	Close Antique Armor Fossil	2	PBL 72	Trainer
1 %1/70	Close Crispin	2	SCR 133	Trainer
1 %1/70	Close Dawn	2	PFL 87	Trainer
1 %1/70	Close Forest of Vitality	2	MEG 117	Trainer
1 %1/70	Close Handheld Fan	2	TWM 150	Trainer
1 %1/70	Close Levincia	2	JTG 150	Trainer
1 %1/70	Close Rare Candy	2	MEG 125	Trainer
1 %1/70	Close Backtrack Badge	1	PBL 74	Trainer
1 %1/70	Close Dusk Ball	1	SSP 175	Trainer
1 %1/70	Close Scramble Switch	1	SSP 186	Trainer
1 %1/70	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
1 %1/70	Lightning Energy	4	MEE 12	Energy

The most common Cinccino ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 7 slots come from the core, the cards all 70 lists run. The remaining 53 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 15 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 70 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: 17
3 Cinccino ex CRI 73
4 Metang TEF 114
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
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
2 Ultra Ball MEG 131
1 Energy Recycler DRI 164
1 Precious Trolley SSP 185
4 Team Rocket's Transceiver DRI 178
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

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

You need 77 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 2 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

All 70 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 68 took Precious Trolley, 1 took Scramble Switch and 1 took Unfair Stamp. 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 Precious Trolley and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time, and the answer is a good one: not one of the 2 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation. This deck walks through the change whole.

What Cinccino ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fighting, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 14 of the 125 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, Cynthia's Garchomp ex and Mega Lucario ex, plus 11 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 14 decks out of the 125 we track. The other 111 do not attack into yours, and this table says nothing about them. You will still run into them.

Going the other way, none of the 125 decks we track have an attacker Weak to your types. So you are not going to win trades on Weakness — you will have to win them on raw damage.