Ethan's Magcargo

What Ethan's Magcargo looks like when you open the box

Across the 37 lists we counted, this deck runs 14 to 22 Pokémon, 27 to 34 Trainers and 9 to 14 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fire.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « ethan-magcargo ». 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: 9 to 14 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. Ethan's Magcargo 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: 27 to 34 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 125 decks we track. Inside that, 11 to 15 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 11 to 18 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.

What the card in this deck's name actually does

Ethan's Magcargo gives this deck its name. Here is what is written on it.

Ethan's Magcargo is in all 37 lists, 3 copies of it. Its Ability is called Melt Away, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « If this Pokémon has no Energy attached, it has no Retreat Cost. »

How Ethan's Magcargo actually wins

Ethan's Ho-Oh ex attacks with Shining Feathers for 160. It needs 4 Fire Energy attached, and it has 230 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: "Heal 50 damage from each of your Pokémon."

The cost of Shining Feathers decides your first few turns. You only get to attach one Energy a turn, and that attack asks for 4. On your own attachments alone, your first real swing lands on turn 4. Except it charges itself. Ethan's Ho-Oh ex, which the list runs 3 of, has an Ability called Golden Flame: it attaches Energy from your hand on top of the one you already play. 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.

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.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Ethan's Ho-Oh 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.

Ethan's Ho-Oh ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Ethan's Ho-Oh 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 Ethan's Ho-Oh exBasic	230	Shining Feathers	160		Water ×2	2
Close Ethan's MagcargoStage 1	130	Lava Burst	70×		Water ×2	3
Close Ethan's SlugmaBasic	80	Steady Firebreathing	20		Water ×2	2

The core: the 4 cards every list runs

These 4 cards appear in all 37 lists, without a single exception. That is 11 of the 60 slots. The other 49 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 11 slots break down: 2 Trainers, 9 Pokémon, 0 Energy. Pokémon dominate, which is unusual: this deck needs bodies on the board, and it depends on any single attacker less than it looks.

4 of those 4 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Ethan's Ho-Oh ex (2 to 4), Ethan's Magcargo (2 to 4) and Ethan's Slugma (3 to 4), plus 1 more. Add those spreads up and you get 6 copies the 37 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
2–4	Close Ethan's Ho-Oh ex	DRI 39	Pokémon
2–4	Close Ethan's Magcargo	DRI 36	Pokémon
3–4	Close Ethan's Slugma	DRI 35	Pokémon
1–2	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer

The 60 cards that change from list to list

60 cards fight over the 49 slots that are left: 8 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: Ethan's Adventure at 97 %, Fire Energy at 97 % and Lillie's Determination at 86 %, plus 5 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Mega Kangaskhan ex, at 51 %: 19 of 37 players took it, 18 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 2 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Meowth ex (9 lists out of 37) and Max Rod (8 lists out of 37).

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
97 %36/37	Close Ethan's Adventure	2–4	DRI 165	Trainer
97 %36/37	Fire Energy	9–14	MEE 2	Energy
86 %32/37	Close Lillie's Determination	2–4	MEG 119	Trainer
86 %32/37	Close Ultra Ball	1–4	MEG 131	Trainer
84 %31/37	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
84 %31/37	Close Energy Retrieval	2–4	SVI 171	Trainer
84 %31/37	Close Night Stretcher	2–3	ASC 196	Trainer
84 %31/37	Close Switch	1–2	MEG 130	Trainer
68 %25/37	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
65 %24/37	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–4	DRI 176	Trainer
65 %24/37	Close Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
59 %22/37	Close Latias ex	1–2	SSP 76	Pokémon
59 %22/37	Close Ethan's Pinsir	1	DRI 1	Pokémon
59 %22/37	Close Poké Pad	2–4	POR 81	Trainer
54 %20/37	Close Pokégear 3.0	1–3	SVI 186	Trainer
51 %19/37	Close Mega Kangaskhan ex	1–2	MEG 104	Pokémon
51 %19/37	Close Energy Search	1–2	POR 72	Trainer
51 %19/37	Close Lana's Aid	1–2	TWM 155	Trainer
46 %17/37	Close Firebreather	1–3	PFL 89	Trainer
41 %15/37	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	4	DRI 178	Trainer
41 %15/37	Close Team Rocket's Factory	3	DRI 173	Trainer
38 %14/37	Close Ethan's Cyndaquil	1–2	DRI 32	Pokémon
38 %14/37	Close Ethan's Quilava	1–2	DRI 33	Pokémon
38 %14/37	Close Ethan's Typhlosion	1–2	DRI 34	Pokémon
35 %13/37	Close Energy Recycler	1–3	DRI 164	Trainer
32 %12/37	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
32 %12/37	Close Battle Cage	1–3	PFL 85	Trainer
30 %11/37	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
30 %11/37	Close Brave Bangle	1–2	WHT 80	Trainer
24 %9/37	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
22 %8/37	Close Max Rod	1	PRE 116	Trainer
19 %7/37	Close Judge	2	POR 76	Trainer
16 %6/37	Close Ethan's Pichu	1–3	DRI 71	Pokémon
16 %6/37	Close Chi-Yu	1	MEG 31	Pokémon
16 %6/37	Close Air Balloon	1–2	ASC 181	Trainer
16 %6/37	Close Sacred Ash	1	DRI 168	Trainer
14 %5/37	Close Carmine	4	TWM 145	Trainer
14 %5/37	Close Lumiose City	2	POR 77	Trainer
14 %5/37	Close Gravity Mountain	1	SSP 177	Trainer
11 %4/37	Close Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
8 %3/37	Close Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
8 %3/37	Close Blowtorch	1–2	PFL 86	Trainer
5 %2/37	Close Tatsugiri	1	TWM 131	Pokémon
5 %2/37	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	2–4	TEF 144	Trainer
5 %2/37	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1–2	SFA 64	Trainer
5 %2/37	Close Kieran	1	TWM 154	Trainer
5 %2/37	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
5 %2/37	Close Nitro Fire Energy	1–2	CRI 86	Energy
3 %1/37	Close Delphox	3	CRI 13	Pokémon
3 %1/37	Close Fennekin	3	CRI 11	Pokémon
3 %1/37	Close Braixen	2	CRI 12	Pokémon
3 %1/37	Close Dudunsparce	2	TEF 129	Pokémon
3 %1/37	Close Dunsparce	2	TEF 128	Pokémon
3 %1/37	Close Ethan's Sudowoodo	2	DRI 93	Pokémon
3 %1/37	Close Heatmor	1	WHT 19	Pokémon
3 %1/37	Close Dawn	1	PFL 87	Trainer
3 %1/37	Close Jamming Tower	1	TWM 153	Trainer
3 %1/37	Close Rare Candy	1	MEG 125	Trainer
3 %1/37	Close Surfer	1	SSP 187	Trainer
3 %1/37	Water Energy	12	MEE 3	Energy

The most common Ethan's Magcargo list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 11 slots come from the core, the cards all 37 lists run. The remaining 49 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 20 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 17 Pokémon, 31 Trainers and 12 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 37 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 Ethan's Ho-Oh ex DRI 39
3 Ethan's Magcargo DRI 36
3 Ethan's Slugma DRI 35
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
2 Latias ex SSP 76
1 Ethan's Pinsir DRI 1
2 Mega Kangaskhan ex MEG 104
2 Ethan's Cyndaquil DRI 32

Trainer: 31
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
3 Ethan's Adventure DRI 165
2 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
1 Ultra Ball MEG 131
4 Energy Retrieval SVI 171
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
2 Switch MEG 130
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
4 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
1 Precious Trolley SSP 185
3 Poké Pad POR 81
2 Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186
1 Energy Search POR 72
1 Lana's Aid TWM 155
2 Firebreather PFL 89

Energy: 12
12 Fire Energy MEE 2

Total Cards: 60

How many different cards Ethan's Magcargo needs, and how long it will last

You need 64 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 4 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

36 of these 37 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 24 took Precious Trolley, 8 took Max Rod and 4 took Prime Catcher. 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 4 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation. This deck walks through the change whole.

What Ethan's Magcargo struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Water, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 20 of the 125 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Latias ex / Mega Kangaskhan ex (Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex), Mega Greninja ex and Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, 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 125 we track. The other 105 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 29 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Slowking, Mega Excadrill ex and Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.