Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 29 lists we counted, this deck runs 15 to 22 Pokémon, 28 to 36 Trainers and 7 to 14 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Darkness.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « marnie-grimmsnarl-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: 7 to 14 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 takes a while to set up. Marnie's Grimmsnarl 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: 28 to 36 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 9 to 13 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 13 to 20 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 card in this deck's name actually does

Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex gives this deck its name. Here is what is written on it.

Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex is in all 29 lists, 2 copies of it. Its Ability is called Punk Up, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may search your deck for up to 5 Basic {D} Energy cards and attach them to your Marnie's Pokémon in any way you like. Then, shuffle your deck. »

How Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex actually wins

Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex attacks with Shadow Bullet for 180. It needs 2 Darkness Energy attached, and it has 320 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 also does 30 damage to 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)"

The cost of Shadow Bullet 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. Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex, which the list runs 2 of, has an Ability called Punk Up: it goes into your deck for Energy and attaches it. Not whenever you feel like it, though. The card itself says when, so read it before you count on it. An Ability costs you nothing: not your attack, not your card for the turn. That is where this deck buys its turns, and it is the first thing to look for in your opening hand.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Marnie's Grimmsnarl 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.

Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Marnie's Grimmsnarl 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 Marnie's Grimmsnarl exStage 2	320	Shadow Bullet	180	Darkness + Darkness	Grass ×2	2
Close Marnie's MorgremStage 1	100	Corkscrew Punch	60	Darkness + Darkness	Grass ×2	1
Close Marnie's ImpidimpBasic	70	Corkscrew Punch	10	Darkness	Grass ×2	1

The core: the 8 cards every list runs

These 8 cards appear in all 29 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: 14 Trainers, 8 Pokémon, 7 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 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 8 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Marnie's Impidimp (2 to 4), Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex (2 to 3) and Marnie's Morgrem (1 to 2), plus 5 more. Add those spreads up and you get 19 copies the 29 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
2–4	Close Marnie's Impidimp	DRI 134	Pokémon
2–3	Close Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex	DRI 136	Pokémon
1–2	Close Marnie's Morgrem	DRI 135	Pokémon
2–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer
3–4	Close Spikemuth Gym	DRI 169	Trainer
2–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer
1–4	Close Rare Candy	MEG 125	Trainer
6–14	Darkness Energy	MEE 7	Energy

The 71 cards that change from list to list

71 cards fight over the 31 slots that are left: 9 above three lists in four, 51 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Munkidori at 97 %, Night Stretcher at 97 % and Buddy-Buddy Poffin at 90 %, plus 6 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Secret Box, at 48 %: 14 of 29 players took it, 15 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, Dudunsparce ex (7 lists out of 29) and Pokégear 3.0 (7 lists out of 29).

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
97 %28/29	Close Munkidori	1–3	TWM 95	Pokémon
97 %28/29	Close Night Stretcher	1–3	ASC 196	Trainer
90 %26/29	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	2–4	TEF 144	Trainer
90 %26/29	Close Poké Pad	3–4	POR 81	Trainer
83 %24/29	Close Duskull	2–3	PRE 35	Pokémon
83 %24/29	Close Dusclops	1–2	PRE 36	Pokémon
83 %24/29	Close Dusknoir	1–2	PRE 37	Pokémon
83 %24/29	Close Budew	1–2	ASC 16	Pokémon
83 %24/29	Close Special Red Card	1–2	CRI 82	Trainer
66 %19/29	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–4	DRI 176	Trainer
62 %18/29	Close Dark Bell	1–2	PBL 75	Trainer
48 %14/29	Close Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
45 %13/29	Close Punk Helmet	1–2	PFL 92	Trainer
34 %10/29	Close Meowth ex	1–2	POR 62	Pokémon
31 %9/29	Close Dudunsparce	2	TEF 129	Pokémon
31 %9/29	Close Dawn	2–3	PFL 87	Trainer
31 %9/29	Close Hilda	1–3	WHT 84	Trainer
28 %8/29	Close Dunsparce	1–3	JTG 120	Pokémon
28 %8/29	Close Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
28 %8/29	Close Enriching Energy	1	SSP 191	Energy
24 %7/29	Close Dudunsparce ex	1	JTG 121	Pokémon
24 %7/29	Close Pokégear 3.0	1	SVI 186	Trainer
21 %6/29	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
17 %5/29	Close Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
17 %5/29	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	1–2	DRI 178	Trainer
14 %4/29	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
14 %4/29	Close Yveltal	1	MEG 88	Pokémon
14 %4/29	Close Ultra Ball	2–4	MEG 131	Trainer
14 %4/29	Close Energy Switch	1–2	MEG 115	Trainer
14 %4/29	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
10 %3/29	Close Latias ex	2	SSP 76	Pokémon
10 %3/29	Close Mega Kangaskhan ex	2	MEG 104	Pokémon
10 %3/29	Close Dreepy	1–3	TWM 128	Pokémon
10 %3/29	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1–2	JTG 56	Pokémon
10 %3/29	Close Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
10 %3/29	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
10 %3/29	Close Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex	1	TWM 64	Pokémon
10 %3/29	Close Crispin	2	SCR 133	Trainer
10 %3/29	Close Gwynn	2–3	PBL 78	Trainer
10 %3/29	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1	TEF 145	Trainer
10 %3/29	Close Judge	1–2	POR 76	Trainer
10 %3/29	Fire Energy	1–2	MEE 2	Energy
10 %3/29	Psychic Energy	1–2	MEE 5	Energy
10 %3/29	Water Energy	1	MEE 3	Energy
7 %2/29	Close Marnie's Morpeko	2–3	DRI 137	Pokémon
7 %2/29	Close Dunsparce	1–2	TEF 128	Pokémon
7 %2/29	Close Blaziken ex	1	JTG 24	Pokémon
7 %2/29	Close Dragapult ex	1	TWM 130	Pokémon
7 %2/29	Close Torchic	1	DRI 40	Pokémon
7 %2/29	Close Energy Recycler	1–3	DRI 164	Trainer
3 %1/29	Close Drakloak	3	TWM 129	Pokémon
3 %1/29	Close Marnie's Liepard	1	DRI 131	Pokémon
3 %1/29	Close Marnie's Purrloin	1	DRI 130	Pokémon
3 %1/29	Close Marnie's Scrafty	1	DRI 133	Pokémon
3 %1/29	Close Marnie's Scraggy	1	DRI 132	Pokémon
3 %1/29	Close Mega Darkrai ex	1	PBL 48	Pokémon
3 %1/29	Close Pecharunt ex	1	SFA 39	Pokémon
3 %1/29	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
3 %1/29	Close Tatsugiri	1	TWM 131	Pokémon
3 %1/29	Close Janine's Secret Art	3	PRE 112	Trainer
3 %1/29	Close Colress's Tenacity	2	SFA 57	Trainer
3 %1/29	Close Binding Mochi	1	PRE 95	Trainer
3 %1/29	Close Cyrano	1	SSP 170	Trainer
3 %1/29	Close Grimsley's Move	1	PFL 90	Trainer
3 %1/29	Close Lacey	1	SCR 139	Trainer
3 %1/29	Close Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
3 %1/29	Close Sacred Ash	1	DRI 168	Trainer
3 %1/29	Close Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
3 %1/29	Close Tremendous Bomb	1	PBL 82	Trainer
3 %1/29	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
3 %1/29	Close Prism Energy	1	ASC 216	Energy

The most common Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 29 slots come from the core, the cards all 29 lists run. The remaining 31 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 15 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 20 Pokémon, 33 Trainers and 7 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 29 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: 20
4 Marnie's Impidimp DRI 134
2 Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex DRI 136
2 Marnie's Morgrem DRI 135
1 Munkidori TWM 95
3 Duskull PRE 35
2 Dusclops PRE 36
2 Dusknoir PRE 37
1 Budew ASC 16
1 Meowth ex POR 62
2 Dudunsparce TEF 129

Trainer: 33
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Spikemuth Gym DRI 169
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
3 Rare Candy MEG 125
3 Night Stretcher ASC 196
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Poké Pad POR 81
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
4 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
1 Dark Bell PBL 75
1 Secret Box TWM 163
1 Punk Helmet PFL 92

Energy: 7
7 Darkness Energy MEE 7

Total Cards: 60

What Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 79 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 8 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

All 29 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 14 took Secret Box, 8 took Enriching Energy and 6 took Unfair Stamp. 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 Secret Box and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time, and the answer is a good one: not one of the 8 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation. This deck walks through the change whole.

What Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Grass, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 19 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Festival Lead (Thwackey), Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex and Cynthia's Garchomp ex (Cynthia's Roserade), plus 16 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 19 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 78 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 Darkness, and 29 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Alakazam / Dudunsparce, Dragapult ex / Dusknoir and Slowking, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 29 tournament lists harvested between 11 August 2026 and 30 August 2026, 8 cards turn up in every single one, 29 slots out of 60. The remaining 31 change from player to player, with 71 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

29 lists, played across 29 different tournaments, harvested between 11 August 2026 and 30 August 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 29 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex?

With the whole core: 8 cards, 29 slots. Inside it, buy the 14 Trainer slots and the 7 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 8 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Munkidori at 97 % and Night Stretcher at 97 %.

What beats Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex?

Its attackers are Weak to Grass, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 19 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Festival Lead, Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex, Cynthia's Garchomp ex and Beedrill ex, among others.

Will Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex survive the next rotation?

Yes, whole: not one of the 8 core cards carries the letter H. At equal price, that is the argument that should settle where your money goes.

Are a lot of people playing Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex?

We have read 29 lists of it, which puts it 48th of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 64 entries for it, 0.16 % 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.