Mega Abomasnow ex

What Mega Abomasnow ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 68 lists we counted, this deck runs 8 to 19 Pokémon, 8 to 36 Trainers and 14 to 42 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Water.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « mega-abomasnow-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: 14 to 42 out of 60, when half the 132 decks we track run 11 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. Mega Abomasnow ex 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: 8 to 36 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 132 decks we track. Inside that, 6 to 15 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 0 to 17 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 4 Stadiums, and 91 of the 132 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 Mega Abomasnow ex actually wins

Mega Abomasnow ex attacks with Frost Barrier for 200. It needs 3 Water Energy attached, and it has 350 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 opponent's next turn, this Pokémon takes 30 less damage from attacks (after applying Weakness and Resistance)."

The cost of Frost Barrier decides your first few turns. You only get to attach one Energy a turn, and that attack asks for 3. On your own attachments alone, your first real swing lands on turn 3. We have not found anything in this list that attaches Energy faster than that, so plan on holding out for 2 turns 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. Snover has to climb a step before it becomes Mega Abomasnow ex, and an evolution asleep at the bottom of your deck does you no good at all. The list has that covered. Dawn, which the list runs 3 of, goes into your deck for an evolution. Careful, though: only 43 of the 68 lists bring it, so it is a choice, and players are still arguing about it.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Mega Abomasnow ex back to the Bench you have to discard 4 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 4 Energy you spent 4 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 Abomasnow 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 Abomasnow exStage 1	350	Frost Barrier	200		Metal ×2	4

The core: the 2 cards every list runs

These 2 cards appear in all 68 lists, without a single exception. That is 42 of the 60 slots. The other 18 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 42 slots break down: 0 Trainers, 4 Pokémon, 38 Energy. Pokémon dominate, which is unusual: this deck needs bodies on the board, and it depends on any single attacker less than it looks.

2 of those 2 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Mega Abomasnow ex (3 to 4) and Water Energy (12 to 42). Add those spreads up and you get 31 copies the 68 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
3–4	Close Mega Abomasnow ex	MEG 36	Pokémon
12–42	Water Energy	MEE 3	Energy

The 58 cards that change from list to list

58 cards fight over the 18 slots that are left: 3 above three lists in four, 50 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Ultra Ball at 91 %, Snover at 88 % and Larry's Skill at 87 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Dawn, at 63 %: 43 of 68 players took it, 25 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 3 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Team Rocket's Transceiver (15 lists out of 68) and Hilda (14 lists out of 68).

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
91 %62/68	Close Ultra Ball	1–4	MEG 131	Trainer
88 %60/68	Close Snover	2–4	MEG 35	Pokémon
87 %59/68	Close Larry's Skill	2–4	PRE 115	Trainer
69 %47/68	Close Boss's Orders	1–2	MEG 114	Trainer
66 %45/68	Close Kyogre	1–3	MEG 34	Pokémon
63 %43/68	Close Dawn	1–4	PFL 87	Trainer
63 %43/68	Close Surfing Beach	1–4	MEG 129	Trainer
32 %22/68	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–4	DRI 176	Trainer
22 %15/68	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	2–4	DRI 178	Trainer
21 %14/68	Close Hilda	1–3	WHT 84	Trainer
19 %13/68	Close Cinderace	2–4	MEG 28	Pokémon
19 %13/68	Close Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
18 %12/68	Close Lillie's Determination	1–4	MEG 119	Trainer
16 %11/68	Close Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
15 %10/68	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
13 %9/68	Close Snover	1–4	DRI 59	Pokémon
12 %8/68	Close Great Haul Net	1–4	CRI 78	Trainer
12 %8/68	Close Heavy Baton	1–2	TEF 151	Trainer
12 %8/68	Close Waitress	1–3	ASC 215	Trainer
10 %7/68	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
10 %7/68	Close Mega Signal	1–3	MEG 121	Trainer
10 %7/68	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
9 %6/68	Close Mew ex	1–2	30C 66	Pokémon
9 %6/68	Close Pokégear 3.0	2–4	SVI 186	Trainer
9 %6/68	Close Judge	1–2	POR 76	Trainer
9 %6/68	Close Legacy Energy	1	TWM 167	Energy
7 %5/68	Close Brock's Scouting	2–4	JTG 146	Trainer
7 %5/68	Close Poké Pad	2–4	POR 81	Trainer
7 %5/68	Close Brilliant Blender	1	SSP 164	Trainer
7 %5/68	Close Master Ball	1	TEF 153	Trainer
7 %5/68	Close Mist Energy	1	TEF 161	Energy
6 %4/68	Close Kieran	2	TWM 154	Trainer
6 %4/68	Close Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
4 %3/68	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
4 %3/68	Close Festival Grounds	1	TWM 149	Trainer
4 %3/68	Close Poké Vital A	1	SFA 62	Trainer
3 %2/68	Close Avalugg	3–4	CRI 24	Pokémon
3 %2/68	Close Bergmite	3–4	CRI 23	Pokémon
3 %2/68	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
3 %2/68	Close Team Rocket's Articuno	1	DRI 51	Pokémon
3 %2/68	Close Acerola's Mischief	1–2	MEG 113	Trainer
3 %2/68	Close Wally's Compassion	2	MEG 132	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close Tatsugiri	1	TWM 131	Pokémon
1 %1/68	Close Handheld Fan	4	TWM 150	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close Salvatore	4	TEF 160	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	3	TEF 145	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close Jumbo Ice Cream	3	PFL 91	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close AZ's Tranquility	2	CRI 76	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close Misty's Vitality	2	PBL 80	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close Switch	2	MEG 130	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close Colress's Tenacity	1	SFA 57	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close Hyper Aroma	1	TWM 152	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close Miracle Headset	1	SSP 183	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close Redeemable Ticket	1	JTG 156	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close Sacred Ash	1	DRI 168	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close Scoop Up Cyclone	1	TWM 162	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close Tremendous Bomb	1	PBL 82	Trainer
1 %1/68	Close Bubbly Water Energy	1	CRI 84	Energy

The most common Mega Abomasnow ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 42 slots come from the core, the cards all 68 lists run. The remaining 18 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 10 Pokémon, 12 Trainers and 38 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 68 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.

One thing to fix before you play: there is no ACE SPEC card in these 60. Players split that slot so many ways that none of their cards climbed high enough to get in, and 56 of the 68 lists carry one. Take Secret Box, the most chosen, and drop a card from the bottom of the table to make room.

The text under the table is the one the game expects: copy it, paste it into the deck manager, and the list builds itself.

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: 10
4 Mega Abomasnow ex MEG 36
4 Snover MEG 35
2 Kyogre MEG 34

Trainer: 12
4 Ultra Ball MEG 131
4 Larry's Skill PRE 115
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Dawn PFL 87

Energy: 38
38 Water Energy MEE 3

Total Cards: 60

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

You need 60 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 2 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

56 of these 68 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 13 took Secret Box, 11 took Precious Trolley and 10 took Hero's Cape. The flex table shows you all 10. 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 2 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation. This deck walks through the change whole.

What Mega Abomasnow ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Metal, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 10 of the 132 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Slowking (Metagross), Mega Excadrill ex and Steven's Metagross ex, plus 7 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 10 decks out of the 132 we track. The other 122 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 Water, and 13 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, Ethan's Typhlosion and Ceruledge ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.