Mega Latias ex

What Mega Latias ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 13 lists we counted, this deck runs 10 to 17 Pokémon, 30 to 36 Trainers and 10 to 15 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Psychic, Fire and Water.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « mega-latias-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: 10 to 15 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: 30 to 36 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 132 decks we track. Inside that, 10 to 19 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 10 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.

How Mega Latias ex actually wins

Mega Latias ex attacks with Illusory Impulse for 300. It needs 3 Energy, 1 Fire, 1 Psychic 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: "Discard all Energy from this Pokémon."

The cost of Illusory Impulse 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. Crispin, which the list runs 2 of, looks at the top of your deck and attaches the Energy it finds there. Ethan's Ho-Oh ex does the same job. That is where this deck buys its turns, and it is the first thing to look for in your opening hand.

Good news on mobility: pulling Mega Latias 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.

Mega Latias 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 Latias exBasic	280	Illusory Impulse	300		none	1
Close LatiosBasic	130	Dragon Claw	130		none	1

The core: the 6 cards every list runs

These 6 cards appear in all 13 lists, without a single exception. That is 22 of the 60 slots. The other 38 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 22 slots break down: 7 Trainers, 4 Pokémon, 11 Energy. Nothing stands out in that split. What sets this deck apart is how thick its core is: 22 of the 60 slots are the same for everybody, when half the 132 decks we track fix 26 or more. This one leaves more room than most, and two players can build it very differently.

6 of those 6 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Latios (1 to 3), Mega Latias ex (2 to 3) and Lillie's Determination (3 to 4), plus 3 more. Add those spreads up and you get 15 copies the 13 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
1–3	Close Latios	MEG 101	Pokémon
2–3	Close Mega Latias ex	MEG 100	Pokémon
3–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer
2–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer
3–10	Fire Energy	MEE 2	Energy
3–6	Psychic Energy	MEE 5	Energy

The 78 cards that change from list to list

78 cards fight over the 38 slots that are left: 7 above three lists in four, 54 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Latias ex at 92 %, Mega Kangaskhan ex at 85 % and Ultra Ball at 85 %, plus 4 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Lillie's Clefairy ex, at 54 %: 7 of 13 players took it, 6 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Munkidori (3 lists out of 13) and Iron Crown ex (3 lists out of 13).

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 %12/13	Close Latias ex	1–2	SSP 76	Pokémon
85 %11/13	Close Mega Kangaskhan ex	1–4	MEG 104	Pokémon
85 %11/13	Close Ultra Ball	3–4	MEG 131	Trainer
85 %11/13	Close Night Stretcher	1–3	ASC 196	Trainer
77 %10/13	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
77 %10/13	Close Crispin	2–4	SCR 133	Trainer
77 %10/13	Close Gravity Mountain	1–3	SSP 177	Trainer
69 %9/13	Close Switch	2–4	MEG 130	Trainer
62 %8/13	Close Ethan's Ho-Oh ex	2–3	DRI 39	Pokémon
62 %8/13	Close Energy Retrieval	1–4	SVI 171	Trainer
62 %8/13	Close Maximum Belt	1	TEF 154	Trainer
62 %8/13	Close Special Red Card	1–2	CRI 82	Trainer
62 %8/13	Close Wally's Compassion	1–3	MEG 132	Trainer
54 %7/13	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
46 %6/13	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–4	DRI 176	Trainer
46 %6/13	Close Cyrano	1–3	SSP 170	Trainer
46 %6/13	Close Wondrous Patch	2–4	PFL 94	Trainer
38 %5/13	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
38 %5/13	Close Energy Switch	1–4	MEG 115	Trainer
38 %5/13	Close Mega Signal	1–3	MEG 121	Trainer
38 %5/13	Close Poké Pad	2–4	POR 81	Trainer
31 %4/13	Close Smoochum	1–2	SSP 75	Pokémon
31 %4/13	Close Powerglass	2–4	SFA 63	Trainer
31 %4/13	Close Prism Energy	2–3	ASC 216	Energy
23 %3/13	Close Munkidori	1–3	TWM 95	Pokémon
23 %3/13	Close Iron Crown ex	1	TEF 81	Pokémon
23 %3/13	Close AZ's Tranquility	1–3	CRI 76	Trainer
23 %3/13	Close Kieran	1–2	TWM 154	Trainer
23 %3/13	Close Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
23 %3/13	Darkness Energy	1–3	MEE 7	Energy
23 %3/13	Close Telepathic Psychic Energy	1	POR 88	Energy
15 %2/13	Close Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
15 %2/13	Close Unown	1	30C 72	Pokémon
15 %2/13	Close Energy Search	1–4	POR 72	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Pokémon Catcher	4	POR 82	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Explorer's Guidance	3	TEF 147	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	2	TEF 144	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Ethan's Adventure	2	DRI 165	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Firebreather	2	PFL 89	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Lively Stadium	2	SSP 180	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Black Belt's Training	1	JTG 143	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Dusk Ball	1	SSP 175	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Energy Recycler	1	DRI 164	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close N's Plan	1	BLK 83	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Pokégear 3.0	1	SVI 186	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Team Rocket's Spidops	3	DRI 20	Pokémon
8 %1/13	Close Team Rocket's Tarountula	3	DRI 19	Pokémon
8 %1/13	Close Charmander	2	PFL 11	Pokémon
8 %1/13	Close Charmeleon	2	PFL 12	Pokémon
8 %1/13	Close Oricorio ex	2	PFL 18	Pokémon
8 %1/13	Close Armarouge	1	PBL 12	Pokémon
8 %1/13	Close Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
8 %1/13	Close Buneary	1	MEG 107	Pokémon
8 %1/13	Close Charcadet	1	PFL 19	Pokémon
8 %1/13	Close Deoxys	1	CRI 31	Pokémon
8 %1/13	Close Mega Charizard X ex	1	PFL 13	Pokémon
8 %1/13	Close Mega Lopunny ex	1	PFL 84	Pokémon
8 %1/13	Close Carmine	4	TWM 145	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Crushing Hammer	4	POR 71	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Antique Sail Fossil	3	POR 69	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Dawn	2	PFL 87	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Dragon Elixir	2	SSP 172	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Lumiose City	2	POR 77	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Risky Ruins	2	MEG 127	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	2	DRI 178	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Acerola's Mischief	1	MEG 113	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Brock's Scouting	1	JTG 146	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1	TEF 145	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Energy Search Pro	1	SSP 176	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Jumbo Ice Cream	1	PFL 91	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Lana's Aid	1	TWM 155	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Rare Candy	1	MEG 125	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Scoop Up Cyclone	1	TWM 162	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Surfer	1	SSP 187	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer

The most common Mega Latias ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 22 slots come from the core, the cards all 13 lists run. The remaining 38 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 20 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 13 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
2 Latios MEG 101
2 Mega Latias ex MEG 100
2 Latias ex SSP 76
2 Mega Kangaskhan ex MEG 104
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
2 Ethan's Ho-Oh ex DRI 39
1 Lillie's Clefairy ex JTG 56
1 Meowth ex POR 62

Trainer: 36
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
4 Ultra Ball MEG 131
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
2 Crispin SCR 133
2 Gravity Mountain SSP 177
2 Switch MEG 130
2 Energy Retrieval SVI 171
1 Maximum Belt TEF 154
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
1 Wally's Compassion MEG 132
3 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
2 Cyrano SSP 170
2 Wondrous Patch PFL 94
3 Energy Switch MEG 115
2 Mega Signal MEG 121

Energy: 11
6 Fire Energy MEE 2
5 Psychic Energy MEE 5

Total Cards: 60

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

You need 84 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 6 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

All 13 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 8 took Maximum Belt, 3 took Precious Trolley and 1 took Energy Search Pro. 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 Maximum Belt 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 6 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation. This deck walks through the change whole.

What Mega Latias ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck have no printed Weakness at all. That is rare and it is worth a fortune: nobody gets to double the damage they put on you.

Nothing to show here today, and that is information in itself: none of the 132 decks we track carry the type that would double the damage you take.

Going the other way, none of the 132 decks we track have an attacker Weak to your types. So you are not going to win trades on Weakness — you will have to win them on raw damage.