Mega Absol ex / Mega Audino ex

What Mega Absol ex / Mega Audino ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 12 lists we counted, this deck runs 12 to 15 Pokémon, 33 to 37 Trainers and 11 to 12 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Darkness and Psychic.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « mega-absol-mega-audino ». 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: 11 to 12 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.

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: 33 to 37 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 132 decks we track. Inside that, 13 to 14 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 18 to 21 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 3 Stadiums, and 124 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.

What the cards in this deck's name actually do

Mega Absol ex and Mega Audino ex give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Mega Absol ex is in all 12 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. »

Mega Audino ex is in all 12 lists, 2 copies of it. Its attack Kaleidowaltz costs 1 Energy (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: « Flip 3 coins. For each heads, search your deck for up to 2 Basic Energy cards and attach them to your Pokémon in any way you like. Then, shuffle your deck. »

How Mega Absol ex / Mega Audino 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. Except you are not on your own. Mega Audino ex, which the list runs 2 of, has an attack called Kaleidowaltz that 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. That attack takes your attack for the turn, so count it as a setup turn. That is how this deck gets itself charged.

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. Precious Trolley is one, and it puts as many Basic Pokémon as you like 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 rule to know: Precious Trolley is an ACE SPEC card. You are allowed just ONE ACE SPEC in your whole deck, so a second copy is never coming, and taking this one means giving up every other. One detail that matters: Team Rocket's Petrel is a Supporter, so that turn you play no other Supporter. Items all still go through. And if Team Rocket's Petrel will not show up, Team Rocket's Transceiver goes and gets it: every list brings it for exactly that.

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 Audino 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 and Pecharunt ex carry 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		Grass ×2	2
Close Latias exBasic	210	Eon Blade	200		Darkness ×2	2
Close YveltalBasic	110	Dark Feather	110		Lightning ×2	0
Close MunkidoriBasic	110	Mind Bend	60		Darkness ×2	1

The core: the 22 cards every list runs

These 22 cards appear in all 12 lists, without a single exception. That is 56 of the 60 slots. The other 4 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 56 slots break down: 34 Trainers, 12 Pokémon, 10 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.

15 of those 22 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Munkidori (3 to 4), Latias ex (1 to 2) and Yveltal (1 to 2), plus 12 more. Add those spreads up and you get 18 copies the 12 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 Munkidori	TWM 95	Pokémon	leaves
2	Close Mega Absol ex	MEG 86	Pokémon	stays
2	Close Mega Audino ex	ASC 172	Pokémon	stays
1–2	Close Latias ex	SSP 76	Pokémon	leaves
1	Close Pecharunt ex	SFA 39	Pokémon	leaves
1	Close Psyduck	ASC 39	Pokémon	stays
1–2	Close Yveltal	MEG 88	Pokémon	stays
3–4	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Pokégear 3.0	SVI 186	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	DRI 176	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	DRI 178	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Energy Switch	MEG 115	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
1–3	Close Special Red Card	CRI 82	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Jumbo Ice Cream	PFL 91	Trainer	stays
2	Close Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
2–3	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	DRI 180	Trainer	stays
1–2	Close Cyrano	SSP 170	Trainer	leaves
1	Close Precious Trolley	SSP 185	Trainer	leaves
1	Close Xerosic's Machinations	SFA 64	Trainer	leaves
6–9	Darkness Energy	MEE 15	Energy	stays
1–2	Psychic Energy	MEE 13	Energy	stays

The 13 cards that change from list to list

13 cards fight over the 4 slots that are left: 3 above three lists in four, 9 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Energy Search at 92 %, Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex at 75 % and Fighting Energy at 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Lisia's Appeal, at 67 %: 8 of 12 players took it, 4 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Mist Energy (2 lists out of 12) and Lillie's Clefairy ex (1 list out of 12).

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
92 %11/12	Close Energy Search	1	POR 72	Trainer
75 %9/12	Close Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex	1	TWM 112	Pokémon
75 %9/12	Fighting Energy	1	MEE 14	Energy
67 %8/12	Close Lisia's Appeal	1	SSP 179	Trainer
17 %2/12	Close Mist Energy	1–2	TEF 161	Energy
8 %1/12	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
8 %1/12	Close Maractus	1	JTG 8	Pokémon
8 %1/12	Close Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
8 %1/12	Close Reshiram ex	1	WHT 20	Pokémon
8 %1/12	Close Ultra Ball	3	MEG 131	Trainer
8 %1/12	Close Pokémon Catcher	1	POR 82	Trainer
8 %1/12	Fire Energy	2	MEE 10	Energy
8 %1/12	Close Prism Energy	2	ASC 216	Energy

The most common Mega Absol ex / Mega Audino ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 56 slots come from the core, the cards all 12 lists run. The remaining 4 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 4 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 12 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.

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
4 Munkidori TWM 95
2 Mega Absol ex MEG 86
2 Mega Audino ex ASC 172
1 Latias ex SSP 76
1 Pecharunt ex SFA 39
1 Psyduck ASC 39
1 Yveltal MEG 88
1 Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex TWM 112

Trainer: 36
4 Boss's Orders MEG 114
4 Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186
4 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
4 Team Rocket's Transceiver DRI 178
3 Energy Switch MEG 115
3 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
3 Special Red Card CRI 82
2 Jumbo Ice Cream PFL 91
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
2 Team Rocket's Watchtower DRI 180
1 Cyrano SSP 170
1 Precious Trolley SSP 185
1 Xerosic's Machinations SFA 64
1 Energy Search POR 72
1 Lisia's Appeal SSP 179

Energy: 11
8 Darkness Energy
2 Psychic Energy
1 Fighting Energy

Total Cards: 60

How many different cards Mega Absol ex / Mega Audino ex needs, and how long it will last

You need 35 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 22 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

Add Precious Trolley: all 12 players picked the same one. You are allowed ONE ACE SPEC card in your whole deck, so a single copy covers it whatever it costs.

Then there is time. 7 of the 22 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Munkidori, Latias ex, Pecharunt ex and Night Stretcher, plus 3 more. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 11 of the 56 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Mega Absol ex / Mega Audino ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Grass, Darkness and Lightning, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 48 of the 132 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: N's Zoroark ex, Mega Sharpedo ex / Toxtricity and Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex, plus 45 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 48 decks out of the 132 we track. The other 84 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 Psychic, and 33 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Latias ex / Mega Kangaskhan ex, N's Zoroark ex and Slowking, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.