Cinderace ex

What Cinderace ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 6 lists we counted, this deck runs 19 to 22 Pokémon, 23 to 32 Trainers and 8 to 17 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fire.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « cinderace-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: 8 to 17 out of 60, when half the 119 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 takes a while to set up. Cinderace 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: 23 to 32 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 119 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 10 to 20 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 card in this deck's name actually does

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

Cinderace ex is in all 6 lists, 2 copies of it. Its attack Garnet Volley costs 3 Energy (Fire, Fighting 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: « This attack does 180 damage to 1 of your opponent's Pokémon. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.) »

How Cinderace ex actually wins

Cinderace ex attacks with Flare Strike for 280. It needs 3 Energy, 1 Fire and 2 Colorless attached, and it has 320 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 next turn, this Pokémon can't use Flare Strike."

The cost of Flare Strike 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. Crispin, which the list runs 2 of, looks at the top of your deck and attaches the Energy it finds there. Cinderace does the same job. That is where this deck buys its turns, and it is the first thing to look for in your opening hand.

Good news on mobility: Cinderace ex retreats for free. You get it back to the Bench without discarding a single Energy, and you can still attack in the same turn. An attacker that comes and goes like that walks out of almost any mess.

Cinderace ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Cinderace 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 Cinderace exStage 2	320	Flare Strike	280		Water ×2	0

The core: the 7 cards every list runs

These 7 cards appear in all 6 lists, without a single exception. That is 30 of the 60 slots. The other 30 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 30 slots break down: 12 Trainers, 2 Pokémon, 16 Energy. Nothing stands out in that split. What sets this deck apart is how thick its core is: 30 of the 60 slots are the same for everybody, which is exactly the median across the 119 decks we track.

7 of those 7 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Cinderace ex (2 to 4), Lillie's Determination (1 to 4) and Poké Pad (1 to 4), plus 4 more. Add those spreads up and you get 20 copies the 6 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 Cinderace ex	SCR 28	Pokémon	leaves
1–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
1–4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Rare Candy	MEG 125	Trainer	stays
2–10	Fire Energy	MEE 2	Energy	stays
2–3	Darkness Energy	MEE 7	Energy	stays
1–3	Fighting Energy	MEE 6	Energy	stays

The 61 cards that change from list to list

61 cards fight over the 30 slots that are left: 3 above three lists in four, 31 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Raboot at 83 %, Scorbunny at 83 % and Fezandipiti ex at 83 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Cinderace, at 50 %: 3 of 6 players took it, 3 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 4 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Froakie (1 list out of 6) and Blaziken ex (1 list out of 6).

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
83 %5/6	Close Raboot	1–4	MEG 27	Pokémon
83 %5/6	Close Scorbunny	1–4	SCR 26	Pokémon
83 %5/6	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
67 %4/6	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	4	TEF 144	Trainer
67 %4/6	Close Ultra Ball	1–4	MEG 131	Trainer
67 %4/6	Close Boss's Orders	1–3	MEG 114	Trainer
67 %4/6	Close Crispin	1–2	SCR 133	Trainer
67 %4/6	Close Night Stretcher	2	ASC 196	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Cinderace	3–4	MEG 28	Pokémon
50 %3/6	Close Scorbunny	1–3	MEG 26	Pokémon
50 %3/6	Close Munkidori	1–2	TWM 95	Pokémon
50 %3/6	Close Meowth ex	1–2	POR 62	Pokémon
50 %3/6	Close Black Belt's Training	1–3	JTG 143	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Neo Upper Energy	1	TEF 162	Energy
33 %2/6	Close Terapagos	2–3	SSP 161	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Dudunsparce	1–2	TEF 129	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Dusknoir	1–2	PRE 37	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Duskull	2	PRE 35	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Dusclops	1	PRE 36	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Drayton	2–4	SSP 174	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Dawn	1–3	PFL 87	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Hilda	1–2	WHT 84	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Lucky Helmet	2	TWM 158	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Blowtorch	1	PFL 86	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Energy Recycler	1	DRI 164	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1	DRI 180	Trainer
33 %2/6	Water Energy	1–4	MEE 3	Energy
17 %1/6	Close Froakie	4	CRI 20	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Blaziken ex	3	JTG 24	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Dunsparce	3	JTG 120	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Frogadier	3	CRI 21	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Torchic	3	DRI 40	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Combusken	2	DRI 41	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex	2	TWM 112	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Greninja ex	2	TWM 106	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Mega Greninja ex	2	CRI 22	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Raboot	2	SCR 27	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Dunsparce	1	TEF 128	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Pecharunt	1	SVP 149	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Terapagos ex	1	SCR 128	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex	1	TWM 64	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Pokégear 3.0	3	SVI 186	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Salvatore	3	TEF 160	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Area Zero Underdepths	2	SCR 131	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Morty's Conviction	2	TEF 155	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Briar	1	SCR 132	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Brock's Scouting	1	JTG 146	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Lacey	1	SCR 139	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Rosa's Encouragement	1	POR 84	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Sparkling Crystal	1	SCR 142	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
17 %1/6	Psychic Energy	2	MEE 5	Energy
17 %1/6	Close Ignition Energy	1	WHT 86	Energy
17 %1/6	Close Legacy Energy	1	TWM 167	Energy

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

You need 68 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 7 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

All 6 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 3 took Neo Upper Energy, 1 took Legacy Energy and 1 took Secret Box. 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 Neo Upper Energy and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 1 of the 7 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Cinderace ex. The core table marks it. In copies, that is 2 of the 30 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Cinderace ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Water, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 24 of the 119 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Festival Lead (Seaking), Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass and Raging Bolt ex (Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex), plus 21 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 24 decks out of the 119 we track. The other 95 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, and 30 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Mega Excadrill ex, Slowking and Festival Lead, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.