Luxray ex

What Luxray ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 8 lists we counted, this deck runs 17 to 24 Pokémon, 26 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, when half the 125 decks we track run 11 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. 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: 26 to 34 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 125 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 10 to 16 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 3 Stadiums, and 118 of the 125 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 8 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		Fighting ×2	1
Close LuxioStage 1	90	Static Shock	40		Fighting ×2	1
Close ShinxBasic	70	Double Scratch	10×		Fighting ×2	1

The core: the 8 cards every list runs

These 8 cards appear in all 8 lists, without a single exception. That is 29 of the 60 slots. The other 31 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 29 slots break down: 10 Trainers, 10 Pokémon, 9 Energy. Nothing stands out in that split. What sets this deck apart is how thick its core is: 29 of the 60 slots are the same for everybody, when half the 125 decks we track fix 26 or fewer. Fewer choices left to you than usual, and fewer ways to get them wrong.

6 of those 8 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Shinx (3 to 4), Luxio (2 to 4) and Buddy-Buddy Poffin (2 to 4), plus 3 more. Add those spreads up and you get 17 copies the 8 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 Shinx	POR 26	Pokémon	stays
2–4	Close Luxio	POR 27	Pokémon	stays
3	Close Luxray ex	TWM 68	Pokémon	leaves
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
1–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
2–9	Lightning Energy	MEE 4	Energy	stays

The 60 cards that change from list to list

60 cards fight over the 31 slots that are left: 5 above three lists in four, 36 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Poké Pad at 88 %, Special Red Card at 88 % and Voltaic Lightning Energy at 88 %, plus 2 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Team Rocket's Chingling, at 50 %: 4 of 8 players took it, 4 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 2 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Eelektrik (2 lists out of 8) and Tynamo (2 lists out of 8).

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
88 %7/8	Close Poké Pad	2–4	POR 81	Trainer
88 %7/8	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
88 %7/8	Close Voltaic Lightning Energy	1–4	PBL 84	Energy
75 %6/8	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–2	DRI 176	Trainer
75 %6/8	Close Rare Candy	1–2	MEG 125	Trainer
63 %5/8	Close Luxray	1	POR 28	Pokémon
63 %5/8	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
50 %4/8	Close Team Rocket's Chingling	1–2	DRI 85	Pokémon
50 %4/8	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
50 %4/8	Close Fezandipiti ex	1–2	ASC 142	Pokémon
50 %4/8	Close Handheld Fan	1–3	TWM 150	Trainer
50 %4/8	Close Hilda	1–3	WHT 84	Trainer
50 %4/8	Close Night Stretcher	1–3	ASC 196	Trainer
38 %3/8	Close Dudunsparce	2–3	TEF 129	Pokémon
38 %3/8	Close Dunsparce	1–3	TEF 128	Pokémon
38 %3/8	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
38 %3/8	Close Canari	2–3	ASC 185	Trainer
38 %3/8	Close Crispin	1–3	SCR 133	Trainer
38 %3/8	Close Crushing Hammer	2–3	POR 71	Trainer
38 %3/8	Close Judge	2	POR 76	Trainer
38 %3/8	Close Xerosic's Machinations	2	SFA 64	Trainer
38 %3/8	Close Colress's Tenacity	1	SFA 57	Trainer
38 %3/8	Close Levincia	1	JTG 150	Trainer
38 %3/8	Close Mist Energy	1–2	TEF 161	Energy
25 %2/8	Close Eelektrik	3	ASC 60	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close Tynamo	3	ASC 59	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close Dunsparce	2	JTG 120	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close N's Zoroark ex	2	JTG 98	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close N's Zorua	2	JTG 97	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close Stunfisk	2	ASC 62	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close Chien-Pao	1	SSP 56	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close Ethan's Pichu	1	DRI 71	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close Latias ex	1	SSP 76	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close Battle Cage	1–2	PFL 85	Trainer
25 %2/8	Close Black Belt's Training	2	JTG 143	Trainer
25 %2/8	Close Nighttime Mine	2	ASC 197	Trainer
25 %2/8	Close Powerglass	2	SFA 63	Trainer
25 %2/8	Close Counter Gain	1	SSP 169	Trainer
25 %2/8	Close Cyrano	1	SSP 170	Trainer
25 %2/8	Close Dawn	1	PFL 87	Trainer
25 %2/8	Close Eri	1	TEF 146	Trainer
25 %2/8	Close Gravity Mountain	1	SSP 177	Trainer
25 %2/8	Close Lana's Aid	1	TWM 155	Trainer
25 %2/8	Close Maximum Belt	1	TEF 154	Trainer
25 %2/8	Psychic Energy	3	MEE 5	Energy
13 %1/8	Close Fletchinder	2	POR 13	Pokémon
13 %1/8	Close Fletchling	2	POR 66	Pokémon
13 %1/8	Close Talonflame	2	POR 14	Pokémon
13 %1/8	Close Tatsugiri	1	TWM 131	Pokémon
13 %1/8	Close Air Balloon	2	ASC 181	Trainer
13 %1/8	Close Energy Swatter	2	POR 73	Trainer
13 %1/8	Close Rosa's Encouragement	2	POR 84	Trainer
13 %1/8	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	2	DRI 180	Trainer
13 %1/8	Close Brock's Scouting	1	JTG 146	Trainer
13 %1/8	Close Grand Tree	1	SCR 136	Trainer
13 %1/8	Close Pokégear 3.0	1	SVI 186	Trainer
13 %1/8	Fire Energy	3	MEE 2	Energy

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

You need 68 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 8 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

All 8 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 5 took Unfair Stamp, 2 took Maximum Belt 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 8 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 29 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. 14 of the 125 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 11 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 14 decks out of the 125 we track. The other 111 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 21 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.