Flareon ex

What Flareon ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 6 lists we counted, this deck runs 17 to 24 Pokémon, 23 to 33 Trainers and 9 to 20 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fire, Water and Lightning.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « flareon-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: 9 to 20 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 sets up fast. Flareon 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: 23 to 33 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 119 decks we track. Inside that, 9 to 16 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 8 to 19 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 3 Stadiums, and 111 of the 119 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.

How Flareon ex actually wins

Flareon ex attacks with Carnelian for 280. It needs 3 Energy, 1 Fire, 1 Water and 1 Lightning attached, and it has 270 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 attack."

The cost of Carnelian 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 3 of, looks at the top of your deck and attaches the Energy it finds there. Flareon ex 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.

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

Flareon ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Flareon 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 Flareon exStage 1	270	Carnelian	280		Water ×2	2
Close EeveeBasic	50	Reckless Charge	30		Fighting ×2	1

The core: the 5 cards every list runs

These 5 cards appear in all 6 lists, without a single exception. That is 13 of the 60 slots. The other 47 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 13 slots break down: 6 Trainers, 4 Pokémon, 3 Energy. Nothing stands out in that split. What sets this deck apart is how thick its core is: 13 of the 60 slots are the same for everybody, when half the 119 decks we track fix 30 or more. This one leaves more room than most, and two players can build it very differently.

4 of those 5 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Flareon ex (2 to 3), Buddy-Buddy Poffin (1 to 4) and Boss's Orders (2 to 3), plus 1 more. Add those spreads up and you get 10 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	Close Eevee	SSP 143	Pokémon	leaves
2–3	Close Flareon ex	PRE 14	Pokémon	leaves
1–4	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
2–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
3–8	Fire Energy	MEE 2	Energy	stays

The 73 cards that change from list to list

73 cards fight over the 47 slots that are left: 5 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: Lillie's Determination at 83 %, Poké Pad at 83 % and Crispin at 83 %, plus 2 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Eevee ex, at 50 %: 3 of 6 players took it, 3 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 3 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Dratini (1 list out of 6) and Deino (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 Lillie's Determination	1–4	MEG 119	Trainer
83 %5/6	Close Poké Pad	2–4	POR 81	Trainer
83 %5/6	Close Crispin	3–4	SCR 133	Trainer
83 %5/6	Close Night Stretcher	2	ASC 196	Trainer
83 %5/6	Close Sparkling Crystal	1	SCR 142	Trainer
67 %4/6	Close Hoothoot	2–3	SCR 114	Pokémon
67 %4/6	Close Noctowl	2	SCR 115	Pokémon
67 %4/6	Close Fan Rotom	1–2	SCR 118	Pokémon
67 %4/6	Close Leafeon ex	1–2	PRE 6	Pokémon
67 %4/6	Close Ultra Ball	2–3	MEG 131	Trainer
67 %4/6	Close Cyrano	1–2	SSP 170	Trainer
67 %4/6	Water Energy	1–4	MEE 3	Energy
67 %4/6	Psychic Energy	1–3	MEE 5	Energy
50 %3/6	Close Eevee ex	1–3	PRE 75	Pokémon
50 %3/6	Close Sylveon ex	1	SSP 86	Pokémon
50 %3/6	Close Area Zero Underdepths	2–3	SCR 131	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Tera Orb	2–3	SSP 189	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Briar	1	SCR 132	Trainer
50 %3/6	Grass Energy	1–8	MEE 1	Energy
50 %3/6	Lightning Energy	2–6	MEE 4	Energy
50 %3/6	Darkness Energy	2–5	MEE 7	Energy
33 %2/6	Close Dudunsparce	1–2	TEF 129	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Dunsparce	1–2	JTG 120	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Jolteon ex	1	PRE 30	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Latias ex	1	SSP 76	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Hilda	1–4	WHT 84	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Air Balloon	1–2	ASC 181	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Glass Trumpet	1–2	SCR 135	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Rare Candy	1–2	MEG 125	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Switch	1–2	MEG 130	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–2	DRI 176	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Dratini	4	ASC 150	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Deino	3	SSP 117	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close N's Zoroark ex	3	JTG 98	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close N's Zorua	3	JTG 97	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Tynamo	3	ASC 59	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Dragonair	2	ASC 151	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Eelektrik	2	ASC 60	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Hydreigon ex	2	SSP 119	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Mega Dragonite ex	2	ASC 152	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Munkidori	2	TWM 95	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Zweilous	2	SSP 118	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Cottonee	1	WHT 4	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Crustle	1	DRI 12	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Dwebble	1	BLK 51	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Eevee	1	SFA 50	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Emolga	1	BLK 29	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Joltik	1	SCR 50	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Mega Audino ex	1	ASC 172	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close N's Reshiram	1	JTG 116	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close N's Zekrom	1	ASC 155	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Stunfisk	1	ASC 62	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Teal Mask Ogerpon ex	1	TWM 25	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Umbreon ex	1	PRE 60	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Whimsicott ex	1	WHT 5	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Yveltal	1	MEG 88	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Backtrack Badge	2	PBL 74	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Bug Catching Set	2	TWM 143	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	2	TEF 145	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Energy Switch	2	MEG 115	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close N's Castle	2	JTG 152	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close N's PP Up	2	JTG 153	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Pokégear 3.0	2	SVI 186	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Black Belt's Training	1	JTG 143	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Energy Recycler	1	DRI 164	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
17 %1/6	Metal Energy	2	MEE 8	Energy

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

You need 78 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 5 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: 5 took Sparkling Crystal and 1 took Hero's Cape. 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 Sparkling Crystal and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 3 of the 5 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Eevee, Flareon ex and Buddy-Buddy Poffin. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 8 of the 13 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Flareon ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Water and Fighting, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 37 of the 119 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Festival Lead (Seaking), Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass and Mega Lucario ex, plus 34 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 37 decks out of the 119 we track. The other 82 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, Water and Lightning, 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.