Greninja ex / Blaziken ex

What Greninja ex / Blaziken ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 24 lists we counted, this deck runs 20 to 29 Pokémon, 18 to 32 Trainers and 8 to 13 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fire and Water.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « greninja-blaziken ». 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: 8 to 13 out of 60, exactly the median of the 126 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. Blaziken 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: 18 to 32 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 126 decks we track. Inside that, 10 to 14 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 6 to 17 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 3 Stadiums, and 119 of the 126 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 cards in this deck's name actually do

Greninja ex and Blaziken ex give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Greninja ex is in all 24 lists, 2 copies of it. Its attack Mirage Barrage costs 3 Energy (Water, Colorless and Colorless) 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: « Discard 2 Energy from this Pokémon. This attack does 120 damage to 2 of your opponent's Pokémon. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.) »

Blaziken ex is in all 24 lists, 2 copies of it. Its Ability is called Seething Spirit, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « Once during your turn, you may attach a Basic Energy card from your discard pile to 1 of your Pokémon. »

How Greninja ex / Blaziken ex actually wins

Blaziken ex attacks with Smolder-sault for 200. It needs 2 Energy, 1 Fire and 1 Colorless attached, and it has 320 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 Smolder-sault 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 it charges itself. Blaziken ex, which the list runs 2 of, has an Ability called Seething Spirit: it digs Energy out of your discard pile and puts it back on one of your Pokémon. 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.

Energy is not your only clock. Torchic has to climb two steps before it becomes Blaziken 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 2 of, goes into your deck for an evolution. Careful, though: only 21 of the 24 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 Blaziken 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.

Blaziken ex, Greninja ex and Meowth ex carry the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when one of them falls. They need 6 to win: 3 well-placed knockouts on those cards 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 Blaziken exStage 2	320	Smolder-sault	200		Water ×2	2
Close Greninja exStage 2	310	Shinobi Blade	170		Psychic ×2	1
Close Meowth exBasic	170	Tuck Tail	60		Fighting ×2	1
Close CombuskenStage 1	100	Double Kick	40×		Water ×2	2

The core: the 9 cards every list runs

These 9 cards appear in all 24 lists, without a single exception. That is 21 of the 60 slots. The other 39 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 21 slots break down: 6 Trainers, 7 Pokémon, 8 Energy. Pokémon dominate, which is unusual: this deck needs bodies on the board, and it depends on any single attacker less than it looks.

7 of those 9 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Blaziken ex (2 to 4), Greninja ex (2 to 4) and Boss's Orders (2 to 3), plus 4 more. Add those spreads up and you get 12 copies the 24 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
2–4	Close Blaziken ex	JTG 24	Pokémon	leaves
2	Close Combusken	DRI 41	Pokémon	stays
2–4	Close Greninja ex	TWM 106	Pokémon	leaves
1	Close Meowth ex	POR 62	Pokémon	stays
2–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
3–6	Water Energy	MEE 3	Energy	stays
1–2	Close Ignition Energy	WHT 86	Energy	stays
1–3	Fire Energy	MEE 2	Energy	stays

The 45 cards that change from list to list

45 cards fight over the 39 slots that are left: 17 above three lists in four, 24 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Froakie at 88 %, Frogadier at 88 % and N's Zoroark ex at 88 %, plus 14 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Mega Greninja ex, at 46 %: 11 of 24 players took it, 13 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Crispin (6 lists out of 24) and Dusknoir (4 lists out of 24).

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
88 %21/24	Close Froakie	3	CRI 20	Pokémon
88 %21/24	Close Frogadier	2	CRI 21	Pokémon
88 %21/24	Close N's Zoroark ex	2	JTG 98	Pokémon
88 %21/24	Close N's Zorua	2	JTG 97	Pokémon
88 %21/24	Close Torchic	2–3	DRI 40	Pokémon
88 %21/24	Close Budew	1–2	ASC 16	Pokémon
88 %21/24	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	4	TEF 144	Trainer
88 %21/24	Close Colress's Tenacity	2–4	SFA 57	Trainer
88 %21/24	Close Lillie's Determination	3–4	MEG 119	Trainer
88 %21/24	Close Poké Pad	2–3	POR 81	Trainer
88 %21/24	Close Rare Candy	2–3	MEG 125	Trainer
88 %21/24	Close Hilda	2–3	WHT 84	Trainer
88 %21/24	Close Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
88 %21/24	Close Grand Tree	1	SCR 136	Trainer
88 %21/24	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
83 %20/24	Close Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
83 %20/24	Close Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
46 %11/24	Close Mega Greninja ex	1	CRI 22	Pokémon
29 %7/24	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
29 %7/24	Darkness Energy	2–3	MEE 7	Energy
29 %7/24	Psychic Energy	1	MEE 5	Energy
25 %6/24	Close Crispin	1–4	SCR 133	Trainer
17 %4/24	Close Dusknoir	1–3	PRE 37	Pokémon
17 %4/24	Close N's Reshiram	1	JTG 116	Pokémon
17 %4/24	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1	DRI 180	Trainer
13 %3/24	Close Aurorus	4	POR 24	Pokémon
13 %3/24	Close Cinderace	4	MEG 28	Pokémon
13 %3/24	Close Tatsugiri ex	3–4	SSP 142	Pokémon
13 %3/24	Close Frogadier	2	TWM 57	Pokémon
13 %3/24	Close Pecharunt	1	SVP 149	Pokémon
13 %3/24	Close Carmine	3–4	TWM 145	Trainer
13 %3/24	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
13 %3/24	Close Prism Tower	1	CRI 80	Trainer
13 %3/24	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1	DRI 176	Trainer
8 %2/24	Close Chi-Yu	1	MEG 31	Pokémon
8 %2/24	Close Team Rocket's Articuno	1	DRI 51	Pokémon
4 %1/24	Close Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex	1	TWM 112	Pokémon
4 %1/24	Close Dusclops	1	PRE 36	Pokémon
4 %1/24	Close Duskull	1	PRE 35	Pokémon
4 %1/24	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
4 %1/24	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
4 %1/24	Close Dawn	1	PFL 87	Trainer
4 %1/24	Close Jamming Tower	1	TWM 153	Trainer
4 %1/24	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
4 %1/24	Fighting Energy	1	MEE 6	Energy

The most common Greninja ex / Blaziken ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 21 slots come from the core, the cards all 24 lists run. The remaining 39 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 20 Pokémon, 32 Trainers and 8 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 24 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: 20
2 Blaziken ex JTG 24
2 Combusken DRI 41
2 Greninja ex TWM 106
1 Meowth ex POR 62
3 Froakie CRI 20
2 Frogadier CRI 21
2 N's Zoroark ex JTG 98
2 N's Zorua JTG 97
2 Torchic DRI 40
1 Budew ASC 16
1 Mega Greninja ex CRI 22

Trainer: 32
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
3 Ultra Ball MEG 131
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Colress's Tenacity SFA 57
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
3 Poké Pad POR 81
3 Rare Candy MEG 125
2 Hilda WHT 84
1 Air Balloon ASC 181
1 Grand Tree SCR 136
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
1 Switch MEG 130

Energy: 8
5 Water Energy MEE 3
2 Ignition Energy WHT 86
1 Fire Energy MEE 2

Total Cards: 60

How many different cards Greninja ex / Blaziken ex needs, and how long it will last

You need 54 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 24 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 21 took Grand Tree and 3 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 Grand Tree and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 2 of the 9 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Blaziken ex and Greninja ex. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 4 of the 21 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Greninja ex / Blaziken ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Water, Psychic and Fighting, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 55 of the 126 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Latias ex / Mega Kangaskhan ex, N's Zoroark ex (Munkidori) and Slowking (Latias ex), plus 52 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 55 decks out of the 126 we track. The other 71 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 Water, and 64 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.