Iono's Bellibolt ex

What Iono's Bellibolt ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 49 lists we counted, this deck runs 14 to 19 Pokémon, 22 to 32 Trainers and 12 to 20 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Lightning.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « iono-bellibolt ». 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: 12 to 20 out of 60, when half the 126 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. Iono's Bellibolt 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: 22 to 32 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 126 decks we track. Inside that, 7 to 13 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 10 to 16 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 4 Stadiums, and 88 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 card in this deck's name actually does

Iono's Bellibolt ex gives this deck its name. Here is what is written on it.

Iono's Bellibolt ex is in all 49 lists, 3 copies of it. Its Ability is called Electric Streamer, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « As often as you like during your turn, you may attach a Basic {L} Energy card from your hand to 1 of your Iono's Pokémon. »

How Iono's Bellibolt ex actually wins

Iono's Bellibolt ex attacks with Thunderous Bolt for 230. It needs 4 Energy, 3 Lightning and 1 Colorless attached, and it has 280 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 Thunderous Bolt decides your first few turns. You only get to attach one Energy a turn, and that attack asks for 4. On your own attachments alone, your first real swing lands on turn 4. Except it charges itself. Iono's Bellibolt ex, which the list runs 3 of, has an Ability called Electric Streamer: it attaches Energy from your hand on top of the one you already play. 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.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Iono's Bellibolt 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.

Iono's Bellibolt ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Iono's Bellibolt 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 Iono's Bellibolt exStage 1	280	Thunderous Bolt	230		Fighting ×2	2
Close Iono's KilowattrelStage 1	120	Mach Bolt	70		Lightning ×2	1
Close Iono's TadbulbBasic	60	Tiny Charge	30		Fighting ×2	2
Close Iono's VoltorbBasic	70	Voltaic Chain	20+		Fighting ×2	1

The core: the 8 cards every list runs

These 8 cards appear in all 49 lists, without a single exception. That is 37 of the 60 slots. The other 23 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 37 slots break down: 6 Trainers, 15 Pokémon, 16 Energy. Pokémon dominate, which is unusual: this deck needs bodies on the board, and it depends on any single attacker less than it looks.

8 of those 8 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Iono's Bellibolt ex (2 to 3), Iono's Kilowattrel (2 to 4) and Iono's Tadbulb (2 to 4), plus 5 more. Add those spreads up and you get 24 copies the 49 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
2–3	Close Iono's Bellibolt ex	JTG 53	Pokémon
2–4	Close Iono's Kilowattrel	JTG 55	Pokémon
2–4	Close Iono's Tadbulb	JTG 52	Pokémon
1–4	Close Iono's Voltorb	JTG 47	Pokémon
2–4	Close Iono's Wattrel	JTG 54	Pokémon
2–4	Close Canari	ASC 185	Trainer
2–4	Close Levincia	JTG 150	Trainer
10–20	Lightning Energy	MEE 4	Energy

The 58 cards that change from list to list

58 cards fight over the 23 slots that are left: 6 above three lists in four, 43 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 98 %, Ultra Ball at 98 % and Boss's Orders at 98 %, plus 3 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Poké Pad, at 55 %: 27 of 49 players took it, 22 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 2 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Stunfisk (12 lists out of 49) and Special Red Card (11 lists out of 49).

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
98 %48/49	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	2–4	TEF 144	Trainer
98 %48/49	Close Ultra Ball	2–4	MEG 131	Trainer
98 %48/49	Close Boss's Orders	2–3	MEG 114	Trainer
94 %46/49	Close Lillie's Determination	2–4	MEG 119	Trainer
86 %42/49	Close Energy Retrieval	1–4	SVI 171	Trainer
76 %37/49	Close Night Stretcher	1–4	ASC 196	Trainer
67 %33/49	Close Voltaic Lightning Energy	1–4	PBL 84	Energy
59 %29/49	Close Judge	1–2	POR 76	Trainer
55 %27/49	Close Poké Pad	2–4	POR 81	Trainer
45 %22/49	Close Mega Zeraora ex	1–2	PBL 27	Pokémon
43 %21/49	Close Scramble Switch	1	SSP 186	Trainer
37 %18/49	Close Air Balloon	1–2	ASC 181	Trainer
33 %16/49	Close Max Rod	1	PRE 116	Trainer
33 %16/49	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–2	DRI 176	Trainer
31 %15/49	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
24 %12/49	Close Stunfisk	1	ASC 62	Pokémon
22 %11/49	Close Special Red Card	1–2	CRI 82	Trainer
18 %9/49	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
16 %8/49	Close Pokégear 3.0	1–4	SVI 186	Trainer
16 %8/49	Close Energy Recycler	1–2	DRI 164	Trainer
14 %7/49	Close Clemont's Quick Wit	1	SSP 167	Trainer
14 %7/49	Close Lana's Aid	1–2	TWM 155	Trainer
12 %6/49	Close Zeraora	1	DRI 78	Pokémon
12 %6/49	Close Brave Bangle	1–2	WHT 80	Trainer
12 %6/49	Close Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
12 %6/49	Close Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
8 %4/49	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
8 %4/49	Close N's Plan	1–2	BLK 83	Trainer
8 %4/49	Close Hilda	1	WHT 84	Trainer
8 %4/49	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
6 %3/49	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
6 %3/49	Close Iono's Electrode	1	JTG 48	Pokémon
6 %3/49	Close Transformation Tome	4	CRI 83	Trainer
6 %3/49	Close Energy Search	1–2	POR 72	Trainer
6 %3/49	Close Lucian	1–2	TWM 157	Trainer
6 %3/49	Close Sacred Ash	1	DRI 168	Trainer
4 %2/49	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
4 %2/49	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
4 %2/49	Close Tatsugiri	1	TWM 131	Pokémon
4 %2/49	Close Zekrom ex	1	BLK 34	Pokémon
4 %2/49	Close Carmine	2–3	TWM 145	Trainer
4 %2/49	Close Handheld Fan	1–2	TWM 150	Trainer
4 %2/49	Close Harlequin	1–2	WHT 83	Trainer
4 %2/49	Close Gwynn	1	PBL 78	Trainer
4 %2/49	Close Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
2 %1/49	Close Electrike	2	MEG 49	Pokémon
2 %1/49	Close Manectric	1	PBL 24	Pokémon
2 %1/49	Close Mega Manectric ex	1	MEG 50	Pokémon
2 %1/49	Close Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
2 %1/49	Close Explorer's Guidance	4	TEF 147	Trainer
2 %1/49	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	3	TEF 145	Trainer
2 %1/49	Close Battle Cage	1	PFL 85	Trainer
2 %1/49	Close Black Belt's Training	1	JTG 143	Trainer
2 %1/49	Close Gladion's Final Battle	1	PBL 77	Trainer
2 %1/49	Close Hyper Aroma	1	TWM 152	Trainer
2 %1/49	Close Larry's Skill	1	PRE 115	Trainer
2 %1/49	Close Survival Brace	1	TWM 164	Trainer
2 %1/49	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer

The most common Iono's Bellibolt ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 37 slots come from the core, the cards all 49 lists run. The remaining 23 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 9 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 15 Pokémon, 27 Trainers and 18 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 49 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 48 of the 49 lists carry one. Take Scramble Switch, 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: 15
3 Iono's Bellibolt ex JTG 53
3 Iono's Kilowattrel JTG 55
3 Iono's Tadbulb JTG 52
3 Iono's Voltorb JTG 47
3 Iono's Wattrel JTG 54

Trainer: 27
3 Canari ASC 185
3 Levincia JTG 150
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
3 Ultra Ball MEG 131
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
3 Energy Retrieval SVI 171
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
1 Judge POR 76
2 Poké Pad POR 81

Energy: 18
16 Lightning Energy MEE 4
2 Voltaic Lightning Energy PBL 84

Total Cards: 60

How many different cards Iono's Bellibolt ex needs, and how long it will last

You need 66 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 8 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

48 of these 49 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 21 took Scramble Switch, 16 took Max Rod and 6 took Secret Box. 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 Scramble Switch and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time, and the answer is a good one: not one of the 8 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation. This deck walks through the change whole.

What Iono's Bellibolt ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fighting and Lightning, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 21 of the 126 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, Cynthia's Garchomp ex and Mega Lucario ex, 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 126 we track. The other 105 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 Lightning, and 20 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Latias ex / Mega Kangaskhan ex, Mega Greninja ex and Team Rocket's Honchkrow, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.