Luxray ex deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Luxray ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 6 lists we counted, this deck runs 17 to 21 Pokémon, 30 to 34 Trainers and 8 to 12 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Lightning.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « luxray-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: 8 to 12 out of 60, exactly the median of the 97 decks we track. It draws neither too much nor too little, so this is not where its games are won or lost.

It takes a while to set up. Luxray ex 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: 30 to 34 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 12 to 14 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 11 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.

How Luxray ex actually wins

Luxray ex attacks with Volt Strike for 250. It needs 2 Lightning Energy attached, and it has 310 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: "Discard all Energy from this Pokémon."

The cost of Volt Strike 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. Shinx has to climb two steps before it becomes Luxray ex, 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 3 of, goes into your deck for an evolution. Careful, though: only 4 of the 6 lists bring it, so it is a choice, and players are still arguing about it.

Good news on mobility: pulling Luxray 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.

Luxray ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Luxray 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 Luxray exStage 2	310	Volt Strike	250	Lightning + Lightning	Fighting ×2	1
Close LuxioStage 1	90	Static Shock	40	Lightning + Colorless	Fighting ×2	1
Close ShinxBasic	70	Double Scratch	10×	Lightning	Fighting ×2	1

The core: the 10 cards every list runs

These 10 cards appear in all 6 lists, without a single exception. That is 28 of the 60 slots. The other 32 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 28 slots break down: 14 Trainers, 9 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.

8 of those 10 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Luxio (2 to 3), Shinx (3 to 4) and Buddy-Buddy Poffin (2 to 4), plus 5 more. Add those spreads up and you get 17 copies the 6 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
2–3	Close Luxio	POR 27	Pokémon	stays
3	Close Luxray ex	TWM 68	Pokémon	leaves
3–4	Close Shinx	POR 26	Pokémon	stays
2–4	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
2–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
2	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
1–2	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	DRI 176	Trainer	stays
1–2	Close Rare Candy	MEG 125	Trainer	stays
1–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
2–8	Lightning Energy	MEE 4	Energy	stays

The 49 cards that change from list to list

49 cards fight over the 32 slots that are left: 4 above three lists in four, 16 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Poké Pad at 83 %, Special Red Card at 83 % and Unfair Stamp at 83 %, plus 1 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Dudunsparce, at 50 %: 3 of 6 players took it, 3 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 2 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Fletchinder (1 list out of 6) and Fletchling (1 list out of 6).

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
83 %5/6	Close Poké Pad	2–4	POR 81	Trainer
83 %5/6	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
83 %5/6	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
83 %5/6	Close Voltaic Lightning Energy	2–4	PBL 84	Energy
67 %4/6	Close Team Rocket's Chingling	1–2	DRI 85	Pokémon
67 %4/6	Close Fezandipiti ex	1–2	ASC 142	Pokémon
67 %4/6	Close Handheld Fan	1–3	TWM 150	Trainer
67 %4/6	Close Hilda	1–3	WHT 84	Trainer
67 %4/6	Close Night Stretcher	1–3	ASC 196	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Dudunsparce	2–3	TEF 129	Pokémon
50 %3/6	Close Dunsparce	1–3	TEF 128	Pokémon
50 %3/6	Close Luxray	1	POR 28	Pokémon
50 %3/6	Close Crispin	1–3	SCR 133	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Crushing Hammer	2–3	POR 71	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Judge	2	POR 76	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Xerosic's Machinations	2	SFA 64	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Mist Energy	1–2	TEF 161	Energy
33 %2/6	Close Dunsparce	2	JTG 120	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Stunfisk	2	ASC 62	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Chien-Pao	1	SSP 56	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Ethan's Pichu	1	DRI 71	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Latias ex	1	SSP 76	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Battle Cage	1–2	PFL 85	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Nighttime Mine	2	ASC 197	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Powerglass	2	SFA 63	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Counter Gain	1	SSP 169	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Dawn	1	PFL 87	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Eri	1	TEF 146	Trainer
33 %2/6	Psychic Energy	3	MEE 5	Energy
17 %1/6	Close Fletchinder	2	POR 13	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Fletchling	2	POR 66	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Talonflame	2	POR 14	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Tatsugiri	1	TWM 131	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Air Balloon	2	ASC 181	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Canari	2	ASC 185	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Energy Swatter	2	POR 73	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Rosa's Encouragement	2	POR 84	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	2	DRI 180	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Brock's Scouting	1	JTG 146	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Colress's Tenacity	1	SFA 57	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Grand Tree	1	SCR 136	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Levincia	1	JTG 150	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Pokégear 3.0	1	SVI 186	Trainer
17 %1/6	Fire Energy	3	MEE 2	Energy

What Luxray ex costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 59 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 6 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 5 took Unfair Stamp and 1 took Grand Tree. 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. 2 of the 10 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Luxray ex and Buddy-Buddy Poffin. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 7 of the 28 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Luxray ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fighting, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 12 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Mega Lucario ex, Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama and Cynthia's Garchomp ex, plus 9 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 12 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 85 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 25 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 Luxray ex deck list?

There isn't one. Across 6 tournament lists harvested between 16 August 2026 and 1 September 2026, 10 cards turn up in every single one, 28 slots out of 60. The remaining 32 change from player to player, with 49 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

6 lists, played across 6 different tournaments, harvested between 16 August 2026 and 1 September 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 6 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Luxray ex?

With the whole core: 10 cards, 28 slots. Inside it, buy the 14 Trainer slots and the 5 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 9 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Poké Pad at 83 % and Special Red Card at 83 %.

What beats Luxray ex?

Its attackers are Weak to Fighting, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 12 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Mega Lucario ex, Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, Cynthia's Garchomp ex and Greninja ex, among others.

Will Luxray ex survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 2 core cards out of 10 carry the letter H, starting with Luxray ex and Buddy-Buddy Poffin.

Are a lot of people playing Luxray ex?

We have read 6 lists of it, which puts it 95th of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 6 entries for it, 0.01 % 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.