Mega Lopunny ex / Dusknoir deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Mega Lopunny ex / Dusknoir looks like when you open the box

Across the 41 lists we counted, this deck runs 18 to 26 Pokémon, 29 to 37 Trainers and 4 to 7 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Psychic.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « lopunny-dusknoir ». 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: 4 to 7 out of 60, when half the 97 decks we track run 10 or more. This one is lean. It lives on cheap attacks and leans on Trainers to find the right Energy at the right moment rather than stockpiling it.

It takes a while to set up. Dusknoir 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 37 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 10 to 16 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 11 to 19 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 cards in this deck's name actually do

Mega Lopunny ex and Dusknoir give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Mega Lopunny ex is in all 41 lists, 2 copies of it.

Dusknoir is in all 41 lists, 4 copies of it. Its Ability is called Cursed Blast, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « Once during your turn, you may put 13 damage counters on 1 of your opponent's Pokémon. If you use this Ability, this Pokémon is Knocked Out. »

How Mega Lopunny ex / Dusknoir actually wins

Mega Lopunny ex attacks with Spiky Hopper for 160. It needs 2 Colorless Energy attached, and it has 330 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: "This attack's damage isn't affected by any effects on your opponent's Active Pokémon."

The cost of Spiky Hopper 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. We have not found anything in this list that attaches Energy faster than that, so plan on holding out for a turn before you swing. Those turns still get played: you fill your Bench, you build your lines, and you keep something back to rebuild with when your attacker falls.

Energy is not your only clock. Duskull has to climb two steps before it becomes Dusknoir, 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.

Good news on mobility: pulling Mega Lopunny 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.

Mega Lopunny ex is a Mega Evolution ex, and that is the most expensive rule in the game: your opponent takes 3 Prize cards instead of one the turn it goes down. They need 6 to win the game, so 2 well-placed knockouts on that card beat you, where it would take 6 knockouts 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 Mega Lopunny exStage 1	330	Spiky Hopper	160	Colorless + Colorless	Fighting ×2	1
Close DusknoirStage 2	160	Shadow Bind	150	Psychic + Psychic + Colorless	Darkness ×2	3
Close DusclopsStage 1	90	Will-O-Wisp	50	Psychic + Psychic	Darkness ×2	2
Close DuskullBasic	60	Mumble	30	Psychic + Psychic	Darkness ×2	1

The core: the 10 cards every list runs

These 10 cards appear in all 41 lists, without a single exception. That is 32 of the 60 slots. The other 28 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 32 slots break down: 18 Trainers, 14 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.

8 of those 10 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Dusknoir (2 to 4), Duskull (2 to 4) and Buneary (2 to 3), plus 5 more. Add those spreads up and you get 12 copies the 41 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 Dusknoir	PRE 37	Pokémon	leaves
2–4	Close Duskull	PRE 35	Pokémon	leaves
2–3	Close Buneary	PFL 83	Pokémon	stays
2	Close Dusclops	PRE 36	Pokémon	leaves
2–3	Close Mega Lopunny ex	PFL 84	Pokémon	stays
3–4	Close Hilda	WHT 84	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
2–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
1–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays

The 44 cards that change from list to list

44 cards fight over the 28 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: Rare Candy at 95 %, Switch at 95 % and Bronzong at 93 %, plus 10 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Nighttime Mine, at 44 %: 18 of 41 players took it, 23 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Salvatore (10 lists out of 41) and Special Red Card (8 lists out of 41).

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 %39/41	Close Rare Candy	3–4	MEG 125	Trainer
95 %39/41	Close Switch	2–4	MEG 130	Trainer
93 %38/41	Close Bronzong	2	TEF 69	Pokémon
93 %38/41	Close Bronzor	2	TEF 68	Pokémon
93 %38/41	Close Mega Kangaskhan ex	2–3	MEG 104	Pokémon
93 %38/41	Close Latias ex	1–2	SSP 76	Pokémon
93 %38/41	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1–3	TEF 145	Trainer
93 %38/41	Close Telepathic Psychic Energy	4	POR 88	Energy
93 %38/41	Close Enriching Energy	1	SSP 191	Energy
90 %37/41	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
90 %37/41	Close Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
85 %35/41	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
80 %33/41	Close Flutter Mane	1	TEF 78	Pokémon
44 %18/41	Close Nighttime Mine	1–3	ASC 197	Trainer
41 %17/41	Close Jamming Tower	1	TWM 153	Trainer
24 %10/41	Close Salvatore	1	TEF 160	Trainer
20 %8/41	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
12 %5/41	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
10 %4/41	Close Air Balloon	1–3	ASC 181	Trainer
10 %4/41	Close Festival Grounds	1–2	TWM 149	Trainer
10 %4/41	Close Wally's Compassion	1–4	MEG 132	Trainer
10 %4/41	Psychic Energy	1	MEE 5	Energy
7 %3/41	Close Gwynn	1–3	PBL 78	Trainer
7 %3/41	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	2–4	TEF 144	Trainer
7 %3/41	Close Sacred Ash	1	DRI 168	Trainer
7 %3/41	Close Mist Energy	2–4	TEF 161	Energy
7 %3/41	Close Spiky Energy	1–2	JTG 159	Energy
5 %2/41	Close Dudunsparce	3	TEF 129	Pokémon
5 %2/41	Close Dunsparce	2–3	JTG 120	Pokémon
5 %2/41	Close Fan Rotom	1–2	SCR 118	Pokémon
5 %2/41	Close Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
5 %2/41	Close Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
5 %2/41	Close Pokégear 3.0	1–3	SVI 186	Trainer
5 %2/41	Close Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
2 %1/41	Close Dunsparce	1	TEF 128	Pokémon
2 %1/41	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
2 %1/41	Close Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
2 %1/41	Close Black Belt's Training	2	JTG 143	Trainer
2 %1/41	Close Gravity Mountain	2	SSP 177	Trainer
2 %1/41	Close Surfer	2	SSP 187	Trainer
2 %1/41	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	2	DRI 176	Trainer
2 %1/41	Close Maximum Belt	1	TEF 154	Trainer
2 %1/41	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
2 %1/41	Fire Energy	2	MEE 2	Energy

The most common Mega Lopunny ex / Dusknoir list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 32 slots come from the core, the cards all 41 lists run. The remaining 28 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 14 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 24 Pokémon, 31 Trainers and 5 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 41 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: 24
4 Dusknoir PRE 37
4 Duskull PRE 35
2 Buneary PFL 83
2 Dusclops PRE 36
2 Mega Lopunny ex PFL 84
2 Bronzong TEF 69
2 Bronzor TEF 68
2 Mega Kangaskhan ex MEG 104
1 Latias ex SSP 76
1 Meowth ex POR 62
1 Budew ASC 16
1 Flutter Mane TEF 78

Trainer: 31
4 Hilda WHT 84
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Poké Pad POR 81
4 Ultra Ball MEG 131
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
4 Rare Candy MEG 125
4 Switch MEG 130
3 Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking TEF 145
1 Night Stretcher ASC 196
1 Nighttime Mine ASC 197

Energy: 5
4 Telepathic Psychic Energy POR 88
1 Enriching Energy SSP 191

Total Cards: 60

Which decks beat Mega Lopunny ex / Dusknoir at tournaments

Here is how Mega Lopunny ex / Dusknoir did against every other deck at tournaments. Real games, real players sitting across the table from each other, and the platform those tournaments run on counts them one by one. All of them were played after Pitch Black became legal for tournaments, and we read the table on 5 September 2026.

The format matters more than people think. When the next set lands, decks get rebuilt around the new cards, and a matchup that leaned one way can swing the other. What you are reading holds for today's format.

We start with the opponent that gives you the most trouble, because that is where the work is before your next tournament. The further down the list you go, the better it goes for you.

Always look at the number of games next to the score. Six wins out of ten happens on its own, even with a middling deck: it is the same as flipping six heads in ten tries. Six hundred out of a thousand, and luck has nothing to do with it. Below 100 games we show nothing at all, because at that count half the matchups look like they lean one way when they lean nowhere.

Against Dragapult ex: over 104 games, 45 won and 58 lost. One ended with no winner.

What Mega Lopunny ex / Dusknoir costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 54 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 10 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

All 41 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 38 took Enriching Energy, 2 took Prime Catcher and 1 took Maximum Belt. 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. 3 of the 10 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Dusknoir, Duskull and Dusclops. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 10 of the 32 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Mega Lopunny ex / Dusknoir 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, and 6 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Mega Lucario ex, Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama and Greninja ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Mega Lopunny ex / Dusknoir deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 41 tournament lists harvested between 16 August 2026 and 1 September 2026, 10 cards turn up in every single one, 32 slots out of 60. The remaining 28 change from player to player, with 44 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

41 lists, played across 35 different tournaments, harvested between 16 August 2026 and 1 September 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 41 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Mega Lopunny ex / Dusknoir?

With the whole core: 10 cards, 32 slots. Inside it, buy the 18 Trainer slots and the 0 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 14 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Rare Candy at 95 % and Switch at 95 %.

What beats Mega Lopunny ex / Dusknoir?

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 Mega Lopunny ex / Dusknoir survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 3 core cards out of 10 carry the letter H, starting with Dusknoir, Duskull and Dusclops.

Are a lot of people playing Mega Lopunny ex / Dusknoir?

We have read 41 lists of it, which puts it 10th of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 281 entries for it, 0.69 % 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.