Joltik deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Joltik looks like when you open the box

Across the 22 lists we counted, this deck runs 13 to 20 Pokémon, 25 to 33 Trainers and 12 to 15 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Psychic, Grass, Lightning and Metal.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « joltik-box ». The cards we can recognise in that label are Joltik. The bit « box » does not point at any one card in the list, so we leave it out of the name rather than make up a meaning.

Look at the Energy: 12 to 15 out of 60, when half the 97 decks we track run 10 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: 25 to 33 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 11 to 17 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 8 to 16 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

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

Joltik is in all 22 lists, 2 copies of it. Its attack Jolting Charge costs 1 Energy (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: « Search your deck for up to 2 Basic {G} Energy cards and up to 2 Basic {L} Energy cards and attach them to your Pokémon in any way you like. Then, shuffle your deck. »

How Joltik actually wins

Joltik attacks with Jolting Charge, and it needs 1 Colorless Energy attached. It has 30 HP. Its damage box is empty, so the table below, which sorts by printed damage, cannot rank it: its printed text above is where the counting happens.

One Energy to attack is enormous. You can swing the turn after you set up, and you can do it again straight away when your attacker falls. Decks like that forgive a lot of bad draws.

There is another trick in this list, and the whole of it happens in one turn. Team Rocket's Petrel goes into your deck for a Trainer card and puts it in your hand. Precious Trolley is one, and it puts as many Basic Pokémon as you like onto your Bench in one go. A full Bench on turn one is what decides the game: every Pokémon you put down is one more attacker, ready to take over when the one in front goes down. One rule to know: Precious Trolley is an ACE SPEC card. You are allowed just ONE ACE SPEC in your whole deck, so a second copy is never coming, and taking this one means giving up every other. One detail that matters: Team Rocket's Petrel is a Supporter, so that turn you play no other Supporter. Items all still go through.

Good news on mobility: pulling Joltik 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.

Latias ex and Pikachu 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 JoltikBasic	30	Jolting ChargeSearch your deck for up to 2 Basic {G} Energy cards and up to 2 Basic {L} Energy cards and attach them to your Pokémon in any way you like. Then, shuffle your deck.	—	Colorless	Fighting ×2	1
Close Pikachu exBasic	200	Topaz Bolt	300	Grass + Lightning + Metal	Fighting ×2	1
Close Latias exBasic	210	Eon Blade	200	Psychic + Psychic + Colorless	Darkness ×2	2

The core: the 9 cards every list runs

These 9 cards appear in all 22 lists, without a single exception. That is 23 of the 60 slots. The other 37 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 23 slots break down: 9 Trainers, 6 Pokémon, 8 Energy. Nothing stands out in that split. What sets this deck apart is how thick its core is: 23 of the 60 slots are the same for everybody, when half the 97 decks we track fix 34 or more. This one leaves more room than most, and two players can build it very differently.

8 of those 9 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Joltik (2 to 4), Latias ex (1 to 2) and Pikachu ex (1 to 3), plus 5 more. Add those spreads up and you get 18 copies the 22 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 Joltik	SCR 50	Pokémon	leaves
1–2	Close Latias ex	SSP 76	Pokémon	leaves
1–3	Close Pikachu ex	SSP 57	Pokémon	leaves
2–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
2–4	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
1–3	Close Light Ball	ASC 191	Trainer	stays
1	Close Special Red Card	CRI 82	Trainer	stays
3–7	Grass Energy	MEE 1	Energy	stays
4–7	Lightning Energy	MEE 4	Energy	stays

The 70 cards that change from list to list

70 cards fight over the 37 slots that are left: 10 above three lists in four, 39 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Fezandipiti ex at 95 %, Crispin at 95 % and Night Stretcher at 95 %, plus 7 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex, at 50 %: 11 of 22 players took it, 11 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex (5 lists out of 22) and Bianca's Devotion (5 lists out of 22).

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
95 %21/22	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
95 %21/22	Close Crispin	2–4	SCR 133	Trainer
95 %21/22	Close Night Stretcher	1–3	ASC 196	Trainer
95 %21/22	Metal Energy	2–4	MEE 8	Energy
86 %19/22	Close Galvantula	1–2	SFA 2	Pokémon
86 %19/22	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	2–4	DRI 176	Trainer
86 %19/22	Close Area Zero Underdepths	1–2	SCR 131	Trainer
86 %19/22	Close Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
82 %18/22	Close Meowth ex	1–3	POR 62	Pokémon
77 %17/22	Close Mega Kangaskhan ex	1–2	MEG 104	Pokémon
73 %16/22	Close Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex	1–2	TWM 64	Pokémon
73 %16/22	Water Energy	1–2	MEE 3	Energy
64 %14/22	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1–2	JTG 56	Pokémon
64 %14/22	Psychic Energy	1–2	MEE 5	Energy
59 %13/22	Close Lillie's Determination	1–4	MEG 119	Trainer
59 %13/22	Close Brock's Scouting	1	JTG 146	Trainer
59 %13/22	Close Energy Search	1–2	POR 72	Trainer
55 %12/22	Close Switch	1–3	MEG 130	Trainer
50 %11/22	Close Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
50 %11/22	Close Iron Leaves ex	1	TEF 25	Pokémon
41 %9/22	Close Battle Cage	1–2	PFL 85	Trainer
41 %9/22	Close Energy Recycler	1	DRI 164	Trainer
41 %9/22	Close Gravity Mountain	1–2	SSP 177	Trainer
36 %8/22	Close Chien-Pao	1	SSP 56	Pokémon
36 %8/22	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	1–3	DRI 178	Trainer
32 %7/22	Close Galvantula ex	1	SCR 51	Pokémon
32 %7/22	Close Terapagos ex	1	SCR 128	Pokémon
32 %7/22	Close Energy Switch	1	MEG 115	Trainer
27 %6/22	Close Magnemite	1–2	MEG 45	Pokémon
27 %6/22	Close Magneton	1–2	SSP 59	Pokémon
27 %6/22	Close Pokégear 3.0	1–4	SVI 186	Trainer
23 %5/22	Close Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex	1	TWM 112	Pokémon
23 %5/22	Close Bianca's Devotion	1	TEF 142	Trainer
23 %5/22	Fighting Energy	1	MEE 6	Energy
18 %4/22	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
18 %4/22	Close Team Rocket's Articuno	1	DRI 51	Pokémon
18 %4/22	Close Team Rocket's Kangaskhan ex	1	ASC 162	Pokémon
18 %4/22	Close Judge	2	POR 76	Trainer
18 %4/22	Close Poké Pad	1–2	POR 81	Trainer
18 %4/22	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
14 %3/22	Close Eelektrik	2	ASC 60	Pokémon
14 %3/22	Close Mega Zeraora ex	2	PBL 27	Pokémon
14 %3/22	Close Tynamo	2	ASC 59	Pokémon
14 %3/22	Close Canari	3	ASC 185	Trainer
14 %3/22	Close Hilda	1	WHT 84	Trainer
14 %3/22	Close Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
14 %3/22	Close Voltaic Lightning Energy	4	PBL 84	Energy
9 %2/22	Close Iron Crown ex	1	TEF 81	Pokémon
9 %2/22	Close Glass Trumpet	1–2	SCR 135	Trainer
9 %2/22	Close Black Belt's Training	1	JTG 143	Trainer
9 %2/22	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1	TEF 145	Trainer
9 %2/22	Close Colress's Tenacity	1	SFA 57	Trainer
9 %2/22	Close Cyrano	1	SSP 170	Trainer
5 %1/22	Close Blissey ex	2	TWM 134	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Close Chansey	2	TWM 133	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Close Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Close Acerola's Mischief	2	MEG 113	Trainer
5 %1/22	Close Crushing Hammer	2	POR 71	Trainer
5 %1/22	Close Lively Stadium	2	SSP 180	Trainer
5 %1/22	Close Team Rocket's Factory	2	DRI 173	Trainer
5 %1/22	Close Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
5 %1/22	Close Backtrack Badge	1	PBL 74	Trainer
5 %1/22	Close Briar	1	SCR 132	Trainer
5 %1/22	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	1	TEF 144	Trainer
5 %1/22	Close Clemont's Quick Wit	1	SSP 167	Trainer
5 %1/22	Close Handheld Fan	1	TWM 150	Trainer
5 %1/22	Close Lillie's Pearl	1	JTG 151	Trainer
5 %1/22	Close Pokémon Center Lady	1	MEG 123	Trainer
5 %1/22	Close Wondrous Patch	1	PFL 94	Trainer

The most common Joltik list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 23 slots come from the core, the cards all 22 lists run. The remaining 37 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 22 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 16 Pokémon, 30 Trainers and 14 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 22 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: 16
2 Joltik SCR 50
2 Latias ex SSP 76
2 Pikachu ex SSP 57
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
1 Galvantula SFA 2
2 Meowth ex POR 62
1 Mega Kangaskhan ex MEG 104
2 Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex TWM 64
1 Lillie's Clefairy ex JTG 56
1 Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex TWM 141
1 Iron Leaves ex TEF 25

Trainer: 30
4 Ultra Ball MEG 131
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
1 Light Ball ASC 191
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
4 Crispin SCR 133
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
4 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
2 Area Zero Underdepths SCR 131
1 Precious Trolley SSP 185
3 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
1 Brock's Scouting JTG 146
1 Energy Search POR 72
1 Switch MEG 130
1 Battle Cage PFL 85
1 Energy Recycler DRI 164

Energy: 14
4 Grass Energy MEE 1
4 Lightning Energy MEE 4
2 Metal Energy MEE 8
2 Water Energy MEE 3
2 Psychic Energy MEE 5

Total Cards: 60

What Joltik costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 79 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 9 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

All 22 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 19 took Precious Trolley and 3 took Prime Catcher. 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 Precious Trolley and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 3 of the 9 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Joltik, Latias ex and Pikachu ex. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 6 of the 23 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Joltik struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fighting and Darkness, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 24 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: N's Zoroark ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass and Mega Lucario ex, plus 21 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 24 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 73 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 Psychic, Grass, Lightning and Metal, and 30 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Festival Lead, Toucannon and Raging Bolt ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Joltik deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 22 tournament lists harvested between 16 August 2026 and 30 August 2026, 9 cards turn up in every single one, 23 slots out of 60. The remaining 37 change from player to player, with 70 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

22 lists, played across 20 different tournaments, harvested between 16 August 2026 and 30 August 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 22 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Joltik?

With the whole core: 9 cards, 23 slots. Inside it, buy the 9 Trainer slots and the 8 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 6 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Fezandipiti ex at 95 % and Crispin at 95 %.

What beats Joltik?

Its attackers are Weak to Fighting and Darkness, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 24 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: N's Zoroark ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, Mega Lucario ex and Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, among others.

Will Joltik survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 3 core cards out of 9 carry the letter H, starting with Joltik, Latias ex and Pikachu ex.

Are a lot of people playing Joltik?

We have read 22 lists of it, which puts it 72nd of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 25 entries for it, 0.06 % 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.