Iron Thorns ex

What Iron Thorns ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 32 lists we counted, this deck runs 4 to 11 Pokémon, 37 to 43 Trainers and 11 to 16 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Lightning.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « iron-thorns-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: 11 to 16 out of 60, when half the 132 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.

Nothing here needs evolving — everything that attacks is a Basic Pokémon. Put it down, charge it, swing. That is as fast as the game gets, and it makes those turns where you draw nothing far less painful.

Look at the Trainers: 37 to 43 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 132 decks we track. Inside that, 13 to 18 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 15 to 21 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 4 Stadiums, and 91 of the 132 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

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

Iron Thorns ex is in all 32 lists, 4 copies of it. Its Ability is called Initialization, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « As long as this Pokémon is in the Active Spot, Pokémon with a Rule Box in play (both yours and your opponent's) have no Abilities, except for Future Pokémon. (Pokémon ex, Pokémon V, etc. have Rule Boxes.) »

How Iron Thorns ex actually wins

Iron Thorns ex attacks with Volt Cyclone for 140. It needs 3 Energy, 1 Lightning and 2 Colorless attached, and it has 230 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: "Move an Energy from this Pokémon to 1 of your Benched Pokémon."

The cost of Volt Cyclone 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. 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 Iron Thorns ex back to the Bench you have to discard 4 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 4 Energy you spent 4 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.

Iron Thorns ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Iron Thorns 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 Iron Thorns exBasic	230	Volt Cyclone	140		Fighting ×2	4

The core: the 6 cards every list runs

These 6 cards appear in all 32 lists, without a single exception. That is 20 of the 60 slots. The other 40 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 20 slots break down: 11 Trainers, 4 Pokémon, 5 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.

6 of those 6 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Iron Thorns ex (3 to 4), Crushing Hammer (3 to 4) and Crispin (2 to 4), plus 3 more. Add those spreads up and you get 14 copies the 32 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
3–4	Close Iron Thorns ex	TWM 77	Pokémon	leaves
3–4	Close Crushing Hammer	POR 71	Trainer	stays
2–4	Close Crispin	SCR 133	Trainer	leaves
2–4	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
1–4	Close Handheld Fan	TWM 150	Trainer	leaves
3–8	Lightning Energy	MEE 4	Energy	stays

The 50 cards that change from list to list

50 cards fight over the 40 slots that are left: 13 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: Voltaic Lightning Energy at 97 %, Lillie's Determination at 88 % and Bastiodon at 84 %, plus 10 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Judge, at 41 %: 13 of 32 players took it, 19 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Eri (8 lists out of 32) and Colress's Tenacity (7 lists out of 32).

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
97 %31/32	Close Voltaic Lightning Energy	2–4	PBL 84	Energy
88 %28/32	Close Lillie's Determination	3–4	MEG 119	Trainer
84 %27/32	Close Bastiodon	2–4	PBL 62	Pokémon
84 %27/32	Close Antique Armor Fossil	3–4	PBL 72	Trainer
84 %27/32	Close Poké Pad	2–4	POR 81	Trainer
84 %27/32	Close Fossil Quarry	2–4	PBL 76	Trainer
84 %27/32	Close Rare Candy	2–3	MEG 125	Trainer
84 %27/32	Metal Energy	3–5	MEE 8	Energy
84 %27/32	Close Magnetic Metal Energy	1–2	CRI 85	Energy
81 %26/32	Close Shieldon	2–3	PBL 61	Pokémon
81 %26/32	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–4	DRI 176	Trainer
81 %26/32	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1–2	SFA 64	Trainer
78 %25/32	Close Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
69 %22/32	Close AZ's Tranquility	1–2	CRI 76	Trainer
63 %20/32	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	2–4	DRI 178	Trainer
41 %13/32	Close Judge	1–4	POR 76	Trainer
34 %11/32	Close Switch	1–4	MEG 130	Trainer
31 %10/32	Close Enhanced Hammer	1–3	TWM 148	Trainer
28 %9/32	Close Nighttime Mine	1–3	ASC 197	Trainer
28 %9/32	Close Pokégear 3.0	1–4	SVI 186	Trainer
28 %9/32	Close Mist Energy	1–3	TEF 161	Energy
25 %8/32	Close Eri	1–2	TEF 146	Trainer
22 %7/32	Close Colress's Tenacity	1–2	SFA 57	Trainer
19 %6/32	Close Ultra Ball	1–2	MEG 131	Trainer
19 %6/32	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
16 %5/32	Close Pokémon Catcher	3	POR 82	Trainer
16 %5/32	Fire Energy	1–3	MEE 2	Energy
13 %4/32	Close Harlequin	1–2	WHT 83	Trainer
13 %4/32	Close Energy Recycler	1	DRI 164	Trainer
13 %4/32	Close Hilda	1–3	WHT 84	Trainer
13 %4/32	Close Lucian	1	TWM 157	Trainer
13 %4/32	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
13 %4/32	Grass Energy	1	MEE 1	Energy
13 %4/32	Psychic Energy	1	MEE 5	Energy
9 %3/32	Close Legacy Energy	1	TWM 167	Energy
6 %2/32	Close Battle Cage	1–2	PFL 85	Trainer
6 %2/32	Close Night Stretcher	1	ASC 196	Trainer
6 %2/32	Water Energy	1	MEE 11	Energy
3 %1/32	Close Relicanth	1	TEF 84	Pokémon
3 %1/32	Close Blowtorch	3	PFL 86	Trainer
3 %1/32	Close Jumbo Ice Cream	3	PFL 91	Trainer
3 %1/32	Close Brock's Scouting	2	JTG 146	Trainer
3 %1/32	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	2	DRI 180	Trainer
3 %1/32	Close Energy Search	1	POR 72	Trainer
3 %1/32	Close Hand Trimmer	1	TEF 150	Trainer
3 %1/32	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
3 %1/32	Close Iris's Fighting Spirit	1	JTG 149	Trainer
3 %1/32	Close Miracle Headset	1	SSP 183	Trainer
3 %1/32	Close Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
3 %1/32	Close Team Rocket's Factory	1	DRI 173	Trainer

The most common Iron Thorns ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 20 slots come from the core, the cards all 32 lists run. The remaining 40 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 16 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 10 Pokémon, 38 Trainers and 12 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 32 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: 10
4 Iron Thorns ex TWM 77
3 Bastiodon PBL 62
3 Shieldon PBL 61

Trainer: 38
4 Crushing Hammer POR 71
3 Crispin SCR 133
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Handheld Fan TWM 150
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Antique Armor Fossil PBL 72
4 Poké Pad POR 81
3 Fossil Quarry PBL 76
2 Rare Candy MEG 125
4 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
1 Xerosic's Machinations SFA 64
1 Secret Box TWM 163
1 AZ's Tranquility CRI 76
2 Team Rocket's Transceiver DRI 178
1 Judge POR 76

Energy: 12
5 Lightning Energy MEE 4
2 Voltaic Lightning Energy PBL 84
4 Metal Energy MEE 8
1 Magnetic Metal Energy CRI 85

Total Cards: 60

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

You need 56 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 6 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

31 of these 32 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 25 took Secret Box, 3 took Legacy Energy and 1 took Hero's Cape. 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 Secret Box and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 3 of the 6 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Iron Thorns ex, Crispin and Handheld Fan. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 9 of the 20 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Iron Thorns ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fighting, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 13 of the 132 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, Cynthia's Garchomp ex and Mega Lucario ex, plus 10 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 13 decks out of the 132 we track. The other 119 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 24 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.