Flygon ex deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Flygon ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 10 lists we counted, this deck runs 14 to 20 Pokémon, 29 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, exactly the median of the 97 decks we track. It draws neither too much nor too little, so this is not where its games are won or lost.

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: 29 to 36 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 10 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 3 Stadiums, and 91 of the 97 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 10 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 9 of the 10 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	Fighting	Grass ×2	1

The core: the 5 cards every list runs

These 5 cards appear in all 10 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 (3 to 4) and Rare Candy (3 to 4), plus 2 more. Add those spreads up and you get 5 copies the 10 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
3–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Rare Candy	MEG 125	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays

The 49 cards that change from list to list

49 cards fight over the 44 slots that are left: 16 above three lists in four, 29 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Trapinch at 90 %, Vibrava at 90 % and Buddy-Buddy Poffin at 90 %, plus 13 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Acerola's Mischief, at 40 %: 4 of 10 players took it, 6 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Bastiodon (2 lists out of 10) and Crispin (2 lists out of 10).

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
90 %9/10	Close Trapinch	2–4	PFL 51	Pokémon
90 %9/10	Close Vibrava	1–2	SSP 105	Pokémon
90 %9/10	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	4	TEF 144	Trainer
90 %9/10	Close Hilda	2–4	WHT 84	Trainer
90 %9/10	Close Ultra Ball	1–2	MEG 131	Trainer
80 %8/10	Close Dudunsparce	3	TEF 129	Pokémon
80 %8/10	Close Dunsparce	2	TEF 128	Pokémon
80 %8/10	Close Fan Rotom	1–2	SCR 118	Pokémon
80 %8/10	Close Kecleon	2	SSP 150	Pokémon
80 %8/10	Close Dunsparce	1	JTG 120	Pokémon
80 %8/10	Close Dark Bell	3–4	PBL 75	Trainer
80 %8/10	Close Premium Power Pro	4	MEG 124	Trainer
80 %8/10	Close Air Balloon	2	ASC 181	Trainer
80 %8/10	Close Battle Cage	2–3	PFL 85	Trainer
80 %8/10	Close Rocky Fighting Energy	4	POR 87	Energy
80 %8/10	Close Enriching Energy	1	SSP 191	Energy
40 %4/10	Close Acerola's Mischief	1	MEG 113	Trainer
40 %4/10	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
40 %4/10	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–2	DRI 176	Trainer
30 %3/10	Close Tremendous Bomb	1	PBL 82	Trainer
20 %2/10	Close Bastiodon	1	PBL 62	Pokémon
20 %2/10	Close Crispin	2–4	SCR 133	Trainer
20 %2/10	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1–3	DRI 180	Trainer
20 %2/10	Close Antique Armor Fossil	1	PBL 72	Trainer
20 %2/10	Fighting Energy	3–6	MEE 6	Energy
20 %2/10	Water Energy	3–6	MEE 3	Energy
20 %2/10	Metal Energy	2–3	MEE 8	Energy
20 %2/10	Close Magnetic Metal Energy	1	CRI 85	Energy
20 %2/10	Close Mist Energy	1	TEF 161	Energy
10 %1/10	Close Lapras ex	4	SCR 32	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Close Sandygast	4	TWM 91	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Close Palossand ex	3	SSP 91	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Close Snorunt	3	ASC 46	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Close Trapinch	3	SSP 104	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Close Lunatone	2	MEG 74	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Close Mega Froslass ex	2	ASC 47	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Close Solrock	2	MEG 75	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Close Archeops	1	WHT 51	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Close Ethan's Sudowoodo	1	DRI 93	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Close Fighting Gong	4	MEG 116	Trainer
10 %1/10	Close Night Stretcher	4	ASC 196	Trainer
10 %1/10	Close Switch	3	MEG 130	Trainer
10 %1/10	Close Tera Orb	3	SSP 189	Trainer
10 %1/10	Close Antique Plume Fossil	1	WHT 79	Trainer
10 %1/10	Close Sparkling Crystal	1	SCR 142	Trainer
10 %1/10	Close Tarragon	1	POR 85	Trainer
10 %1/10	Close Wally's Compassion	1	MEG 132	Trainer
10 %1/10	Psychic Energy	3	MEE 5	Energy
10 %1/10	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 10 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 18 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 19 Pokémon, 36 Trainers and 5 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 10 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.

There is no price total on this page. The readings we have are Cardmarket's, in euros, and the shop link further down sends you to TCGplayer, which quotes in dollars. Putting a euro figure next to a dollar shop would be one currency too many. The French and German pages carry the total.

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
4 Trapinch PFL 51
2 Vibrava SSP 105
3 Dudunsparce TEF 129
2 Dunsparce TEF 128
2 Fan Rotom SCR 118
2 Kecleon SSP 150
1 Dunsparce JTG 120

Trainer: 36
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
1 Ultra Ball MEG 131
4 Dark Bell PBL 75
4 Premium Power Pro MEG 124
2 Air Balloon ASC 181
2 Battle Cage PFL 85
1 Acerola's Mischief MEG 113
1 Special Red Card CRI 82

Energy: 5
4 Rocky Fighting Energy POR 87
1 Enriching Energy SSP 191

Total Cards: 60

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

You need 54 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 10 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 8 took Enriching Energy, 1 took Neo Upper Energy and 1 took Sparkling Crystal. 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. 19 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Festival Lead (Thwackey), Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex and Cynthia's Garchomp ex (Cynthia's Roserade), plus 16 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 19 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 78 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 34 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Dragapult ex, Alakazam / Dudunsparce and Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Flygon ex deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 10 tournament lists harvested between 16 August 2026 and 31 August 2026, 5 cards turn up in every single one, 16 slots out of 60. The remaining 44 change from player to player, with 49 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

How many lists is this counted on, and where do they come from?

10 lists, played across 10 different tournaments, harvested between 16 August 2026 and 31 August 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 10 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Flygon ex?

With the whole core: 5 cards, 16 slots. Inside it, buy the 13 Trainer slots and the 0 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 3 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Trapinch at 90 % and Vibrava at 90 %.

What beats Flygon ex?

Its attackers are Weak to Grass, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 19 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Festival Lead, Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex, Cynthia's Garchomp ex and Beedrill ex, among others.

Will Flygon ex survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 1 core cards out of 5 carry the letter H, starting with Flygon ex.

Are a lot of people playing Flygon ex?

We have read 10 lists of it, which puts it 92nd of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 10 entries for it, 0.02 % of the field, across all its players. That figure is theirs.

These pages are about the same corner of the game. If you came away from this one still wondering about something, start with one of them.