Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama looks like when you open the box

Across the 44 lists we counted, this deck runs 15 to 19 Pokémon, 31 to 34 Trainers and 10 to 12 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fighting.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « lucario-hariyama ». 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: 10 to 12 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.

It sets up fast. Hariyama 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: 31 to 34 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 8 to 13 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 57 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 Lucario ex and Hariyama give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Mega Lucario ex is in all 44 lists, 3 copies of it.

Hariyama is in all 44 lists, 2 copies of it. Its Ability is called Heave-Ho Catcher, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « Once during your turn, when you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon, you may use this Ability. Switch in 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon to the Active Spot. »

How Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama actually wins

Mega Lucario ex attacks with Mega Brave for 270. It needs 2 Fighting Energy attached, and it has 340 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 use Mega Brave."

The cost of Mega Brave 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. Mega Lucario ex, which the list runs 3 of, has an attack called Aura Jab that digs Energy out of your discard pile and puts it back on one of your Pokémon. That attack takes your attack for the turn, so count it as a setup turn. That is how this deck gets itself charged.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Mega Lucario 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.

Mega Lucario 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 Lucario exStage 1	340	Mega Brave	270	Fighting + Fighting	Psychic ×2	2
Close HariyamaStage 1	150	Wild Press	210	Fighting + Fighting + Fighting	Psychic ×2	3
Close SolrockBasic	110	Cosmic Beam	70	Fighting	Grass ×2	1
Close LunatoneBasic	110	Power Gem	50	Fighting + Fighting	Grass ×2	1

The core: the 15 cards every list runs

These 15 cards appear in all 44 lists, without a single exception. That is 53 of the 60 slots. The other 7 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 53 slots break down: 27 Trainers, 15 Pokémon, 11 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.

11 of those 15 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Riolu (3 to 4), Solrock (2 to 3) and Lunatone (2 to 3), plus 8 more. Add those spreads up and you get 21 copies the 44 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	Close Mega Lucario ex	MEG 77	Pokémon	stays
3–4	Close Riolu	MEG 76	Pokémon	stays
2–3	Close Solrock	MEG 75	Pokémon	stays
2	Close Hariyama	MEG 73	Pokémon	stays
2–3	Close Lunatone	MEG 74	Pokémon	stays
2–3	Close Makuhita	MEG 72	Pokémon	stays
4	Close Fighting Gong	MEG 116	Trainer	stays
4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
1–4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Premium Power Pro	MEG 124	Trainer	stays
1–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
1–3	Close Gravity Mountain	SSP 177	Trainer	leaves
1–3	Close Air Balloon	ASC 181	Trainer	stays
1–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
8–12	Fighting Energy	MEE 6	Energy	stays

The 39 cards that change from list to list

39 cards fight over the 7 slots that are left: 4 above three lists in four, 32 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Judge at 98 %, Wally's Compassion at 98 % and Meowth ex at 95 %, plus 1 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Unfair Stamp, at 64 %: 28 of 44 players took it, 16 put something else there. It is an ACE SPEC card, and you are allowed exactly one in your whole deck. The players who passed on it did not leave the slot empty: they put a different ACE SPEC there. Right at the bottom of the table, Night Stretcher (9 lists out of 44) and Maximum Belt (8 lists out of 44).

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 %43/44	Close Judge	1–2	POR 76	Trainer
98 %43/44	Close Wally's Compassion	1–2	MEG 132	Trainer
95 %42/44	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
82 %36/44	Close Switch	1–2	MEG 130	Trainer
73 %32/44	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1	DRI 176	Trainer
64 %28/44	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
30 %13/44	Close Rocky Fighting Energy	1–3	POR 87	Energy
20 %9/44	Close Night Stretcher	1–3	ASC 196	Trainer
18 %8/44	Close Maximum Belt	1	TEF 154	Trainer
16 %7/44	Close Black Belt's Training	1	JTG 143	Trainer
16 %7/44	Close Special Red Card	1–2	CRI 82	Trainer
14 %6/44	Close Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
11 %5/44	Close Kieran	1	TWM 154	Trainer
11 %5/44	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1	DRI 180	Trainer
9 %4/44	Close Mega Zygarde ex	1	POR 47	Pokémon
9 %4/44	Close Accompanying Flute	1	TWM 142	Trainer
9 %4/44	Close Battle Cage	1–2	PFL 85	Trainer
9 %4/44	Close Core Memory	1	POR 70	Trainer
9 %4/44	Close Energy Search	1	POR 72	Trainer
9 %4/44	Close Mega Signal	1	MEG 121	Trainer
7 %3/44	Close Okidogi	1	ASC 122	Pokémon
5 %2/44	Close Pecharunt	2	SVP 149	Pokémon
5 %2/44	Close Carmine	1–2	TWM 145	Trainer
5 %2/44	Close Crispin	1	SCR 133	Trainer
5 %2/44	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
5 %2/44	Close Hilda	1	WHT 84	Trainer
5 %2/44	Darkness Energy	2	MEE 7	Energy
2 %1/44	Close Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex	1	TWM 112	Pokémon
2 %1/44	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
2 %1/44	Close Flutter Mane	1	TEF 78	Pokémon
2 %1/44	Close Genesect	1	SFA 40	Pokémon
2 %1/44	Close Hitmontop	1	ASC 102	Pokémon
2 %1/44	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
2 %1/44	Close Crushing Hammer	4	POR 71	Trainer
2 %1/44	Close Payapa Berry	2	SCR 141	Trainer
2 %1/44	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1	TEF 145	Trainer
2 %1/44	Close Tarragon	1	POR 85	Trainer
2 %1/44	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
2 %1/44	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer

The most common Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 53 slots come from the core, the cards all 44 lists run. The remaining 7 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 6 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 16 Pokémon, 33 Trainers and 11 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 44 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
3 Mega Lucario ex MEG 77
3 Riolu MEG 76
3 Solrock MEG 75
2 Hariyama MEG 73
2 Lunatone MEG 74
2 Makuhita MEG 72
1 Meowth ex POR 62

Trainer: 33
4 Fighting Gong MEG 116
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Poké Pad POR 81
4 Premium Power Pro MEG 124
4 Ultra Ball MEG 131
3 Gravity Mountain SSP 177
2 Air Balloon ASC 181
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Judge POR 76
1 Wally's Compassion MEG 132
1 Switch MEG 130
1 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
1 Unfair Stamp TWM 165

Energy: 11
11 Fighting Energy MEE 6

Total Cards: 60

Which decks beat Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama at tournaments

Here is how Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama 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 Dhelmise: over 131 games, 23 won and 106 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Slowking: over 191 games, 53 won and 135 lost. 3 ended with no winner.

Against Festival Lead: over 171 games, 64 won and 104 lost. 3 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex: over 282 games, 125 won and 151 lost. 6 ended with no winner.

Against Alakazam / Dudunsparce: over 187 games, 88 won and 97 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Dusknoir: over 179 games, 86 won and 91 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex: over 196 games, 100 won and 95 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against N's Zoroark ex: over 190 games, 99 won and 89 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass: over 124 games, 63 won and 61 lost.

Against Mega Excadrill ex: over 285 games, 163 won and 122 lost.

What Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 54 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 15 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

All 44 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 28 took Unfair Stamp, 8 took Maximum Belt and 6 took Secret Box. The flex table shows you all 4. 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 Unfair Stamp and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 1 of the 15 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Gravity Mountain. The core table marks it. In copies, that is 3 of the 53 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Psychic and Grass, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 48 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Festival Lead (Thwackey), Alakazam / Dudunsparce and Dragapult ex / Dusknoir, plus 45 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 48 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 49 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 Fighting, and 34 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Dragapult ex, Alakazam / Dudunsparce and Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 44 tournament lists harvested between 11 August 2026 and 4 September 2026, 15 cards turn up in every single one, 53 slots out of 60. The remaining 7 change from player to player, with 39 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

44 lists, played across 40 different tournaments, harvested between 11 August 2026 and 4 September 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 44 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama?

With the whole core: 15 cards, 53 slots. Inside it, buy the 27 Trainer slots and the 11 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 15 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Judge at 98 % and Wally's Compassion at 98 %.

What beats Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama?

Its attackers are Weak to Psychic and Grass, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 48 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Festival Lead, Alakazam / Dudunsparce, Dragapult ex / Dusknoir and Slowking, among others.

Will Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 1 core cards out of 15 carry the letter H, starting with Gravity Mountain.

Are a lot of people playing Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama?

We have read 44 lists of it, which puts it 6th of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 728 entries for it, 1.78 % 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.