Feraligatr

What Feraligatr looks like when you open the box

Across the 16 lists we counted, this deck runs 16 to 23 Pokémon, 28 to 34 Trainers and 7 to 12 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Water and Psychic.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « feraligatr-tef ». Every card named in that label turns up in the tables below, which is what makes it a fair name for the deck.

The bit they tack on the end, « TEF », is a set code: Temporal Forces. They spell it out because several cards share that name, and this deck plays that particular printing.

Look at the Energy: 7 to 12 out of 60, when half the 125 decks we track run 11 or more. This one is lean. It lives on cheap attacks and leans on Trainers to find the right Energy at the right moment rather than stockpiling it.

It takes a while to set up. Feraligatr 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: 28 to 34 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 125 decks we track. Inside that, 10 to 16 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 11 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.

What the card in this deck's name actually does

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

Feraligatr is in all 16 lists, 3 copies of it. Its Ability is called Torrential Heart, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « Once during your turn, you may put 5 damage counters on this Pokémon. If you do, during this turn, attacks used by this Pokémon do 120 more damage to your opponent's Active Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance). »

How Feraligatr actually wins

Feraligatr attacks with Giant Wave for 160. It needs 2 Water Energy attached, and it has 180 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 Giant Wave."

The cost of Giant Wave decides your first few turns. You only get to attach one Energy a turn, and that attack asks for 2. On your own attachments alone, your first real swing lands on turn 2. 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. 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. Totodile has to climb two steps before it becomes Feraligatr, and an evolution asleep at the bottom of your deck does you no good at all. The list has that covered. Hilda, a single copy in the list, goes into your deck for an evolution. Careful, though: only 13 of the 16 lists bring it, so it is a choice, and players are still arguing about it.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Feraligatr back to the Bench you have to discard 3 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 3 Energy you spent 3 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.

Not one ex Pokémon in the core, and only 26 of the 125 decks we track are in that position. It is a hidden advantage: every knockout your opponent takes is worth a single Prize, so they need 6, where 3 would do against a deck stuffed with ex cards.

The attackers in the deck's core, with their best attack, its cost and their Weakness

Pokémon	HP	Attack	Damage	Cost	Weakness	Retreat
Close FeraligatrStage 2	180	Giant Wave	160		Lightning ×2	3
Close MunkidoriBasic	110	Mind Bend	60		Darkness ×2	1
Close TotodileBasic	70	Big Bite	10		Lightning ×2	1

The core: the 9 cards every list runs

These 9 cards appear in all 16 lists, without a single exception. That is 33 of the 60 slots. The other 27 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 33 slots break down: 13 Trainers, 10 Pokémon, 10 Energy. Nothing stands out in that split. What sets this deck apart is how thick its core is: 33 of the 60 slots are the same for everybody, when half the 125 decks we track fix 26 or fewer. Fewer choices left to you than usual, and fewer ways to get them wrong.

9 of those 9 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Totodile (3 to 4), Feraligatr (2 to 3) and Munkidori (2 to 3), plus 6 more. Add those spreads up and you get 17 copies the 16 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 Totodile	TEF 39	Pokémon	leaves
2–3	Close Feraligatr	TEF 41	Pokémon	leaves
2–3	Close Munkidori	TWM 95	Pokémon	leaves
3–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
1–4	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
1–4	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
3–7	Water Energy	MEE 3	Energy	stays
2–4	Darkness Energy	MEE 7	Energy	stays

The 61 cards that change from list to list

61 cards fight over the 27 slots that are left: 7 above three lists in four, 38 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Crispin at 94 %, Night Stretcher at 94 % and Croconaw at 88 %, plus 4 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Meowth ex, at 50 %: 8 of 16 players took it, 8 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Hoothoot (4 lists out of 16) and Noctowl (4 lists out of 16).

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
94 %15/16	Close Crispin	1–4	SCR 133	Trainer
94 %15/16	Close Night Stretcher	1–3	ASC 196	Trainer
88 %14/16	Close Croconaw	2–4	TEF 40	Pokémon
81 %13/16	Close Relicanth	1–2	TEF 84	Pokémon
81 %13/16	Close Air Balloon	1–3	ASC 181	Trainer
81 %13/16	Close Hilda	1–3	WHT 84	Trainer
75 %12/16	Close Lana's Aid	1–2	TWM 155	Trainer
69 %11/16	Close Mega Feraligatr ex	1	ASC 43	Pokémon
69 %11/16	Close Pokégear 3.0	2–4	SVI 186	Trainer
69 %11/16	Close Rare Candy	1–4	MEG 125	Trainer
63 %10/16	Close Dawn	1–3	PFL 87	Trainer
63 %10/16	Close Ultra Ball	1–4	MEG 131	Trainer
56 %9/16	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
56 %9/16	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
50 %8/16	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
50 %8/16	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
44 %7/16	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
44 %7/16	Close Surfing Beach	1–3	MEG 129	Trainer
38 %6/16	Close Grand Tree	1	SCR 136	Trainer
31 %5/16	Close Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex	1–2	TWM 112	Pokémon
31 %5/16	Close Dudunsparce	1–4	TEF 129	Pokémon
31 %5/16	Close Dunsparce	1–4	JTG 120	Pokémon
31 %5/16	Close Neo Upper Energy	1	TEF 162	Energy
25 %4/16	Close Hoothoot	2	SCR 114	Pokémon
25 %4/16	Close Noctowl	2	SCR 115	Pokémon
25 %4/16	Close Area Zero Underdepths	2	SCR 131	Trainer
25 %4/16	Close Fighting Gong	1	MEG 116	Trainer
25 %4/16	Close Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
19 %3/16	Close Croconaw	1–3	ASC 42	Pokémon
19 %3/16	Close Bubbly Water Energy	1	CRI 84	Energy
13 %2/16	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
13 %2/16	Close Tatsugiri	1	TWM 131	Pokémon
13 %2/16	Close Colress's Tenacity	1–2	SFA 57	Trainer
13 %2/16	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–2	DRI 176	Trainer
13 %2/16	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
13 %2/16	Close Risky Ruins	1	MEG 127	Trainer
13 %2/16	Close Prism Energy	1	ASC 216	Energy
6 %1/16	Close Feebas	2	SSP 41	Pokémon
6 %1/16	Close Maractus	2	JTG 8	Pokémon
6 %1/16	Close Mega Starmie ex	2	POR 21	Pokémon
6 %1/16	Close Milotic ex	2	SSP 42	Pokémon
6 %1/16	Close Staryu	2	POR 20	Pokémon
6 %1/16	Close Dunsparce	1	TEF 128	Pokémon
6 %1/16	Close Fan Rotom	1	SCR 118	Pokémon
6 %1/16	Close Fezandipiti	1	TWM 96	Pokémon
6 %1/16	Close Pecharunt ex	1	SFA 39	Pokémon
6 %1/16	Close Team Rocket's Articuno	1	DRI 51	Pokémon
6 %1/16	Close Yveltal	1	MEG 88	Pokémon
6 %1/16	Close Brave Bangle	2	WHT 80	Trainer
6 %1/16	Close Carmine	2	TWM 145	Trainer
6 %1/16	Close Gravity Mountain	2	SSP 177	Trainer
6 %1/16	Close Lumiose City	2	POR 77	Trainer
6 %1/16	Close Pokémon Catcher	2	POR 82	Trainer
6 %1/16	Close Great Haul Net	1	CRI 78	Trainer
6 %1/16	Close Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
6 %1/16	Close Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
6 %1/16	Close Rosa's Encouragement	1	POR 84	Trainer
6 %1/16	Close Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
6 %1/16	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
6 %1/16	Close Wally's Compassion	1	MEG 132	Trainer
6 %1/16	Close Legacy Energy	1	TWM 167	Energy

The most common Feraligatr list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 33 slots come from the core, the cards all 16 lists run. The remaining 27 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 17 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 19 Pokémon, 31 Trainers and 10 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 16 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.

One thing to fix before you play: there is no ACE SPEC card in these 60. Players split that slot so many ways that none of their cards climbed high enough to get in, and 16 of the 16 lists carry one. Take Grand Tree, the most chosen, and drop a card from the bottom of the table to make room.

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: 19
4 Totodile TEF 39
3 Feraligatr TEF 41
3 Munkidori TWM 95
3 Croconaw TEF 40
1 Relicanth TEF 84
1 Mega Feraligatr ex ASC 43
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
1 Shaymin DRI 10
1 Meowth ex POR 62
1 Budew ASC 16

Trainer: 31
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Poké Pad POR 81
3 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Crispin SCR 133
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
2 Air Balloon ASC 181
1 Hilda WHT 84
2 Lana's Aid TWM 155
2 Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186
2 Rare Candy MEG 125
2 Dawn PFL 87
2 Ultra Ball MEG 131
1 Special Red Card CRI 82

Energy: 10
7 Water Energy MEE 3
3 Darkness Energy MEE 7

Total Cards: 60

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

You need 70 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 9 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

All 16 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 6 took Grand Tree, 5 took Neo Upper Energy and 1 took Legacy Energy. The flex table shows you all 7. 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 Grand Tree and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 4 of the 9 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Totodile, Feraligatr, Munkidori and Buddy-Buddy Poffin. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 13 of the 33 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Feraligatr struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Lightning and Darkness, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 28 of the 125 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: N's Zoroark ex, Mega Sharpedo ex / Toxtricity and Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, plus 25 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 28 decks out of the 125 we track. The other 97 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 Water and Psychic, and 18 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex and Mega Lucario ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.