Flygon ex

What Flygon ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 15 lists we counted, this deck runs 14 to 25 Pokémon, 28 to 36 Trainers and 5 to 15 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fighting.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « flygon-ex-ssp ». 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, « SSP », is a set code: Surging Sparks. They spell it out because several cards share that name, and this deck plays that particular printing.

Look at the Energy: 5 to 15 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. Flygon 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: 28 to 36 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 12 to 21 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

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

Flygon ex is in all 15 lists, 3 copies of it. Its attack Sonic Peridot costs 3 Energy (Water, Fighting and Metal) 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 100 damage to each of your opponent's Pokémon ex and Pokémon V. This attack's damage isn't affected by Weakness or Resistance. »

How Flygon ex actually wins

Flygon ex attacks with Reversing Storm for 130. It needs 1 Fighting Energy attached, and it has 310 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: "You may switch this Pokémon with 1 of your Benched 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 Flygon 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. Trapinch has to climb two steps before it becomes Flygon ex, and an evolution asleep at the bottom of your deck does you no good at all. The list has that covered. Hilda, which the list runs 4 of, goes into your deck for an evolution. Careful, though: only 13 of the 15 lists bring it, so it is a choice, and players are still arguing about it.

Good news on mobility: pulling Flygon 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.

Flygon ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Flygon 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 Flygon exStage 2	310	Reversing Storm	130		Grass ×2	1

The core: the 5 cards every list runs

These 5 cards appear in all 15 lists, without a single exception. That is 16 of the 60 slots. The other 44 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 16 slots break down: 13 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.

5 of those 5 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Flygon ex (2 to 3), Lillie's Determination (1 to 4) and Rare Candy (2 to 4), plus 2 more. Add those spreads up and you get 10 copies the 15 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
2–3	Close Flygon ex	SSP 106	Pokémon	leaves
1–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
2–4	Close Rare Candy	MEG 125	Trainer	stays
1–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
2–4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays

The 85 cards that change from list to list

85 cards fight over the 44 slots that are left: 8 above three lists in four, 56 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Buddy-Buddy Poffin at 93 %, Vibrava at 87 % and Hilda at 87 %, plus 5 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Dark Bell, at 53 %: 8 of 15 players took it, 7 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 4 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Noctowl (3 lists out of 15) and Hoothoot (3 lists out of 15).

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
93 %14/15	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	3–4	TEF 144	Trainer
87 %13/15	Close Vibrava	1–2	SSP 105	Pokémon
87 %13/15	Close Hilda	1–4	WHT 84	Trainer
87 %13/15	Close Air Balloon	1–3	ASC 181	Trainer
87 %13/15	Close Ultra Ball	1–3	MEG 131	Trainer
80 %12/15	Close Trapinch	1–4	PFL 51	Pokémon
80 %12/15	Close Fan Rotom	1–2	SCR 118	Pokémon
80 %12/15	Close Rocky Fighting Energy	1–4	POR 87	Energy
73 %11/15	Close Premium Power Pro	1–4	MEG 124	Trainer
67 %10/15	Close Dudunsparce	2–3	TEF 129	Pokémon
67 %10/15	Close Dunsparce	2–3	TEF 128	Pokémon
67 %10/15	Close Battle Cage	1–3	PFL 85	Trainer
60 %9/15	Close Kecleon	1–2	SSP 150	Pokémon
60 %9/15	Close Dunsparce	1	JTG 120	Pokémon
53 %8/15	Close Dark Bell	3–4	PBL 75	Trainer
53 %8/15	Close Enriching Energy	1	SSP 191	Energy
47 %7/15	Fighting Energy	2–6	MEE 14	Energy
40 %6/15	Close Night Stretcher	2–4	ASC 196	Trainer
40 %6/15	Close Crispin	1–4	SCR 133	Trainer
40 %6/15	Water Energy	1–6	MEE 11	Energy
33 %5/15	Close Trapinch	1–3	SSP 104	Pokémon
33 %5/15	Close Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex	1–2	TWM 112	Pokémon
33 %5/15	Close Dawn	1–3	PFL 87	Trainer
33 %5/15	Close Fighting Gong	1–4	MEG 116	Trainer
33 %5/15	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
33 %5/15	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–2	DRI 176	Trainer
27 %4/15	Close Acerola's Mischief	1	MEG 113	Trainer
27 %4/15	Close Maximum Belt	1	TEF 154	Trainer
27 %4/15	Metal Energy	1–3	MEE 16	Energy
20 %3/15	Close Noctowl	3	SCR 115	Pokémon
20 %3/15	Close Hoothoot	2–3	SCR 114	Pokémon
20 %3/15	Close Sylveon	2	PRE 40	Pokémon
20 %3/15	Close Chien-Pao	1	SSP 56	Pokémon
20 %3/15	Close Eevee	1–2	SSP 143	Pokémon
20 %3/15	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
20 %3/15	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1–3	DRI 180	Trainer
20 %3/15	Close Area Zero Underdepths	2–3	SCR 131	Trainer
20 %3/15	Close Tera Orb	1–3	SSP 189	Trainer
20 %3/15	Close Tremendous Bomb	1	PBL 82	Trainer
13 %2/15	Close Bastiodon	1	PBL 62	Pokémon
13 %2/15	Close Feebas	1	SSP 41	Pokémon
13 %2/15	Close Hoothoot	1	TEF 126	Pokémon
13 %2/15	Close Milotic ex	1	SSP 42	Pokémon
13 %2/15	Close Pikipek	1	PBL 66	Pokémon
13 %2/15	Close Toucannon	1	PBL 68	Pokémon
13 %2/15	Close Switch	1–3	MEG 130	Trainer
13 %2/15	Close Antique Armor Fossil	1	PBL 72	Trainer
13 %2/15	Close AZ's Tranquility	1	CRI 76	Trainer
13 %2/15	Close Bubbly Water Energy	1	CRI 84	Energy
13 %2/15	Close Magnetic Metal Energy	1	CRI 85	Energy
13 %2/15	Close Mist Energy	1	TEF 161	Energy
7 %1/15	Close Lapras ex	4	SCR 32	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Sandygast	4	TWM 91	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Palossand ex	3	SSP 91	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Snorunt	3	ASC 46	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Lunatone	2	MEG 74	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Mega Froslass ex	2	ASC 47	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Solrock	2	MEG 75	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Archeops	1	WHT 51	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Eevee	1	TWM 135	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Eevee	1	SCR 113	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Ethan's Sudowoodo	1	DRI 93	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Flutter Mane	1	TEF 78	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Latias ex	1	SSP 76	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Mew ex	1	30C 66	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Tatsugiri	1	TWM 131	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Team Rocket's Articuno	1	DRI 51	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Vibrava	1	PFL 52	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Close Jumbo Ice Cream	2	PFL 91	Trainer
7 %1/15	Close Antique Plume Fossil	1	WHT 79	Trainer
7 %1/15	Close Energy Switch	1	MEG 115	Trainer
7 %1/15	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
7 %1/15	Close Kieran	1	TWM 154	Trainer
7 %1/15	Close Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
7 %1/15	Close Sparkling Crystal	1	SCR 142	Trainer
7 %1/15	Close Surfer	1	SSP 187	Trainer
7 %1/15	Close Tarragon	1	POR 85	Trainer
7 %1/15	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
7 %1/15	Close Wally's Compassion	1	MEG 132	Trainer
7 %1/15	Psychic Energy	3	MEE 5	Energy
7 %1/15	Close Neo Upper Energy	1	TEF 162	Energy

The most common Flygon ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 16 slots come from the core, the cards all 15 lists run. The remaining 44 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, 34 Trainers and 7 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 15 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: 19
3 Flygon ex SSP 106
2 Vibrava SSP 105
4 Trapinch PFL 51
2 Fan Rotom SCR 118
3 Dudunsparce TEF 129
2 Dunsparce TEF 128
2 Kecleon SSP 150
1 Dunsparce JTG 120

Trainer: 34
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Rare Candy MEG 125
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Poké Pad POR 81
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Hilda WHT 84
2 Air Balloon ASC 181
1 Ultra Ball MEG 131
4 Premium Power Pro MEG 124
2 Battle Cage PFL 85
4 Dark Bell PBL 75

Energy: 7
4 Rocky Fighting Energy POR 87
1 Enriching Energy SSP 191
2 Fighting Energy

Total Cards: 60

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

You need 90 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 5 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

All 15 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 8 took Enriching Energy, 4 took Maximum Belt and 1 took Neo Upper Energy. The flex table shows you all 5. 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 Enriching Energy and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 1 of the 5 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Flygon ex. The core table marks it. In copies, that is 3 of the 16 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Flygon ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Grass, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 21 of the 125 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex, Festival Lead (Thwackey) and Crustle, plus 18 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 21 decks out of the 125 we track. The other 104 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 Fighting, and 41 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Dragapult ex, Latias ex / Mega Kangaskhan ex and Slowking, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.