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

What Mega Absol ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 21 lists we counted, this deck runs 13 to 20 Pokémon, 28 to 36 Trainers and 9 to 12 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Psychic and Darkness.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « mega-absol-box ». The cards we can recognise in that label are Mega Absol ex. The bit « box » does not point at any one card in the list, so we leave it out of the name rather than make up a meaning.

Look at the Energy: 9 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.

Nothing here needs evolving — everything that attacks is a Basic Pokémon. Put it down, charge it, swing. That is as fast as the game gets, and it makes those turns where you draw nothing far less painful.

Look at the Trainers: 28 to 36 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 10 to 15 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 14 to 20 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.

What the card in this deck's name actually does

Mega Absol ex gives this deck its name. Here is what is written on it.

Mega Absol ex is in all 21 lists, 2 copies of it. Its attack Terminal Period costs 2 Energy (Darkness and Colorless) and has no damage number printed next to it. That is why you will not find it in the attacker table lower down, which sorts by printed damage. Everything it does lives in its text: « If your opponent's Active Pokémon has exactly 6 damage counters on it, that Pokémon is Knocked Out. »

How Mega Absol ex actually wins

Mega Absol ex attacks with Claw of Darkness for 200. It needs 3 Energy, 2 Darkness and 1 Colorless attached, and it has 280 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: "Your opponent reveals their hand, and you discard a card you find there."

The cost of Claw of Darkness 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.

There is another trick in this list, and the whole of it happens in one turn. Team Rocket's Petrel goes into your deck for a Trainer card and puts it in your hand. Lumiose City is one, and it puts Basic Pokémon onto your Bench in one go. A full Bench on turn one is what decides the game: every Pokémon you put down is one more attacker, ready to take over when the one in front goes down. One detail that matters: Team Rocket's Petrel is a Supporter, so that turn you play no other Supporter. Items all still go through.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Mega Absol 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 Absol ex and Mega Kangaskhan ex are Mega Evolution exes, and that is the most expensive rule in the game: your opponent takes 3 Prize cards instead of one the turn one of them goes down. They need 6 to win the game, so 2 well-placed knockouts on those cards beat you, where it would take 6 knockouts anywhere else on your Bench. Latias ex carries the plain "ex" suffix, and give up 2. That is already a lot, and it is less than the Mega.

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 Absol exBasic	280	Claw of Darkness	200	Darkness + Darkness + Colorless	Grass ×2	2
Close Latias exBasic	210	Eon Blade	200	Psychic + Psychic + Colorless	Darkness ×2	2
Close Mega Kangaskhan exBasic	300	Rapid-Fire Combo	200+	Colorless + Colorless + Colorless	Fighting ×2	3
Close MunkidoriBasic	110	Mind Bend	60	Psychic + Colorless	Darkness ×2	1

The core: the 9 cards every list runs

These 9 cards appear in all 21 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 9 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Munkidori (2 to 3), Mega Kangaskhan ex (2 to 4) and Latias ex (1 to 2), plus 5 more. Add those spreads up and you get 14 copies the 21 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 Munkidori	TWM 95	Pokémon	leaves
2	Close Mega Absol ex	MEG 86	Pokémon	stays
2–4	Close Mega Kangaskhan ex	MEG 104	Pokémon	stays
1–2	Close Latias ex	SSP 76	Pokémon	leaves
3–4	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
1–4	Close Energy Switch	MEG 115	Trainer	stays
1–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
1–2	Close Special Red Card	CRI 82	Trainer	stays
6–8	Darkness Energy	MEE 7	Energy	stays

The 64 cards that change from list to list

64 cards fight over the 31 slots that are left: 12 above three lists in four, 49 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Yveltal at 95 %, Fezandipiti ex at 95 % and Pecharunt ex at 95 %, plus 9 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Lumiose City, at 62 %: 13 of 21 players took it, 8 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 2 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Meowth ex (5 lists out of 21) and Prism Energy (5 lists out of 21).

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
95 %20/21	Close Yveltal	1–2	MEG 88	Pokémon
95 %20/21	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
95 %20/21	Close Pecharunt ex	1–2	SFA 39	Pokémon
95 %20/21	Close Lillie's Determination	2–4	MEG 119	Trainer
95 %20/21	Close Night Stretcher	1–3	ASC 196	Trainer
90 %19/21	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–4	DRI 176	Trainer
81 %17/21	Close Mega Signal	2–4	MEG 121	Trainer
81 %17/21	Close Mist Energy	1–3	TEF 161	Energy
76 %16/21	Close Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
76 %16/21	Close Janine's Secret Art	3–4	PRE 112	Trainer
76 %16/21	Close Pokégear 3.0	1–4	SVI 186	Trainer
76 %16/21	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
71 %15/21	Close Energy Search	1	POR 72	Trainer
62 %13/21	Close Lumiose City	2	POR 77	Trainer
62 %13/21	Fire Energy	1–2	MEE 2	Energy
24 %5/21	Close Meowth ex	1–3	POR 62	Pokémon
24 %5/21	Close Prism Energy	1–4	ASC 216	Energy
19 %4/21	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
19 %4/21	Close Jumbo Ice Cream	1	PFL 91	Trainer
19 %4/21	Close Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
19 %4/21	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1	DRI 180	Trainer
14 %3/21	Close Mega Audino ex	1–2	ASC 172	Pokémon
14 %3/21	Close Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
14 %3/21	Close Prism Tower	1–2	CRI 80	Trainer
14 %3/21	Close Crispin	1–3	SCR 133	Trainer
10 %2/21	Close Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex	2	TWM 112	Pokémon
10 %2/21	Close Paldean Tauros	1	SSP 18	Pokémon
10 %2/21	Close Transformation Tome	4	CRI 83	Trainer
10 %2/21	Close Area Zero Underdepths	2–3	SCR 131	Trainer
10 %2/21	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1–2	TEF 145	Trainer
10 %2/21	Close Judge	1–2	POR 76	Trainer
10 %2/21	Close Risky Ruins	2	MEG 127	Trainer
10 %2/21	Close Ruffian	1	JTG 157	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Cinderace	4	MEG 28	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Close Teal Mask Ogerpon ex	4	TWM 25	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Close Toxel	2	PFL 67	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Close Toxtricity	2	PFL 68	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Close Chi-Yu	1	TWM 39	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Close Chi-Yu	1	MEG 31	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Close Chien-Pao	1	SSP 56	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Close Flutter Mane	1	TEF 78	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Close Iron Leaves ex	1	TEF 25	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Close Crushing Hammer	4	POR 71	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Dusk Ball	4	SSP 175	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	4	DRI 178	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Backtrack Badge	2	PBL 74	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Carmine	2	TWM 145	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Harlequin	2	WHT 83	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Lisia's Appeal	2	SSP 179	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Nighttime Mine	2	ASC 197	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Binding Mochi	1	PRE 95	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Brock's Scouting	1	JTG 146	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Counter Gain	1	SSP 169	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Cyrano	1	SSP 170	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Dark Bell	1	PBL 75	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Enhanced Hammer	1	TWM 148	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Glass Trumpet	1	SCR 135	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Lively Stadium	1	SSP 180	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Lucian	1	TWM 157	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
5 %1/21	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
5 %1/21	Grass Energy	6	MEE 1	Energy
5 %1/21	Fighting Energy	2	MEE 6	Energy

The most common Mega Absol ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 29 slots come from the core, the cards all 21 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 13 Pokémon, 36 Trainers and 11 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 21 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: 13
3 Munkidori TWM 95
2 Mega Absol ex MEG 86
2 Mega Kangaskhan ex MEG 104
1 Latias ex SSP 76
2 Yveltal MEG 88
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
1 Pecharunt ex SFA 39
1 Moltres PFL 14

Trainer: 36
4 Boss's Orders MEG 114
4 Energy Switch MEG 115
4 Ultra Ball MEG 131
2 Special Red Card CRI 82
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
2 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
4 Mega Signal MEG 121
4 Janine's Secret Art PRE 112
2 Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186
1 Hero's Cape TEF 152
1 Energy Search POR 72
2 Lumiose City POR 77

Energy: 11
7 Darkness Energy MEE 7
2 Mist Energy TEF 161
2 Fire Energy MEE 2

Total Cards: 60

Which decks beat Mega Absol ex at tournaments

Here is how Mega Absol ex 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 Mega Excadrill ex: over 125 games, 52 won and 71 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex: over 102 games, 42 won and 60 lost.

Against Festival Lead: over 113 games, 48 won and 62 lost. 3 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex: over 103 games, 44 won and 55 lost. 4 ended with no winner.

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

You need 73 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 9 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

All 21 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 16 took Hero's Cape, 4 took Precious Trolley and 1 took Secret Box. 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 Hero's Cape and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 2 of the 9 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Munkidori and Latias ex. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 4 of the 29 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Mega Absol ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Grass, Darkness and Fighting, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 40 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Festival Lead (Thwackey), N's Zoroark ex and Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, plus 37 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 40 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 57 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 Psychic and Darkness, and 34 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 Mega Absol ex deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 21 tournament lists harvested between 11 August 2026 and 4 September 2026, 9 cards turn up in every single one, 29 slots out of 60. The remaining 31 change from player to player, with 64 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

21 lists, played across 18 different tournaments, harvested between 11 August 2026 and 4 September 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 21 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Mega Absol ex?

With the whole core: 9 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 Yveltal at 95 % and Fezandipiti ex at 95 %.

What beats Mega Absol ex?

Its attackers are Weak to Grass, Darkness and Fighting, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 40 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Festival Lead, N's Zoroark ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass and Mega Lucario ex, among others.

Will Mega Absol ex survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 2 core cards out of 9 carry the letter H, starting with Munkidori and Latias ex.

Are a lot of people playing Mega Absol ex?

We have read 21 lists of it, which puts it 75th of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 384 entries for it, 0.94 % 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.