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

What Mega Lucario ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 35 lists we counted, this deck runs 15 to 18 Pokémon, 27 to 35 Trainers and 9 to 17 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fighting.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « mega-lucario-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: 9 to 17 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 sets up fast. Mega Lucario 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: 27 to 35 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 8 to 12 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 12 to 22 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.

How Mega Lucario ex actually wins

Mega Lucario ex attacks with Mega Brave for 270. It needs 2 Fighting Energy attached, and it has 340 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 next turn, this Pokémon can't use Mega Brave."

The cost of Mega Brave 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. Mega Lucario ex, which the list runs 3 of, has an attack called Aura Jab that digs Energy out of your discard pile and puts it back on one of your Pokémon. That attack takes your attack for the turn, so count it as a setup turn. That is how this deck gets itself charged.

Energy is not your only clock. Riolu has to climb a step before it becomes Mega Lucario ex, and an evolution asleep at the bottom of your deck does you no good at all. The list has that covered. Hilda, which the list runs 2 of, goes into your deck for an evolution. Careful, though: only 26 of the 35 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 Lucario 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 Lucario 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 Lucario exStage 1	340	Mega Brave	270	Fighting + Fighting	Psychic ×2	2
Close SolrockBasic	110	Cosmic Beam	70	Fighting	Grass ×2	1
Close LunatoneBasic	110	Power Gem	50	Fighting + Fighting	Grass ×2	1

The core: the 8 cards every list runs

These 8 cards appear in all 35 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: 15 Trainers, 7 Pokémon, 7 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.

7 of those 8 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Mega Lucario ex (3 to 4), Lunatone (2 to 3) and Solrock (2 to 3), plus 4 more. Add those spreads up and you get 15 copies the 35 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 Lucario ex	MEG 77	Pokémon
2–3	Close Lunatone	MEG 74	Pokémon
2–3	Close Solrock	MEG 75	Pokémon
4	Close Fighting Gong	MEG 116	Trainer
3–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer
3–4	Close Premium Power Pro	MEG 124	Trainer
2–4	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer
7–15	Fighting Energy	MEE 6	Energy

The 51 cards that change from list to list

51 cards fight over the 31 slots that are left: 7 above three lists in four, 30 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Gravity Mountain at 97 %, Poké Pad at 94 % and Dunsparce at 80 %, plus 4 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Wally's Compassion, at 51 %: 18 of 35 players took it, 17 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 2 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Fezandipiti ex (8 lists out of 35) and Jamming Tower (8 lists out of 35).

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 %34/35	Close Gravity Mountain	1–3	SSP 177	Trainer
94 %33/35	Close Poké Pad	3–4	POR 81	Trainer
80 %28/35	Close Dunsparce	2–3	JTG 120	Pokémon
80 %28/35	Close Riolu	1–4	PRE 50	Pokémon
80 %28/35	Close Dudunsparce	2–3	TEF 129	Pokémon
80 %28/35	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	2–3	TEF 144	Trainer
80 %28/35	Close Rocky Fighting Energy	2–4	POR 87	Energy
74 %26/35	Close Hilda	1–3	WHT 84	Trainer
74 %26/35	Close Special Red Card	1–2	CRI 82	Trainer
71 %25/35	Close Dudunsparce ex	1	JTG 121	Pokémon
60 %21/35	Close Air Balloon	1–3	ASC 181	Trainer
57 %20/35	Close Riolu	1–3	MEG 76	Pokémon
54 %19/35	Close Ultra Ball	1–4	MEG 131	Trainer
51 %18/35	Close Wally's Compassion	1–3	MEG 132	Trainer
37 %13/35	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
37 %13/35	Close Night Stretcher	1	ASC 196	Trainer
31 %11/35	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
29 %10/35	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
26 %9/35	Close Crushing Hammer	3–4	POR 71	Trainer
26 %9/35	Close Judge	1–2	POR 76	Trainer
26 %9/35	Close Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
23 %8/35	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
23 %8/35	Close Jamming Tower	1	TWM 153	Trainer
20 %7/35	Close Genesect	1	SFA 40	Pokémon
20 %7/35	Close Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
17 %6/35	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
14 %5/35	Close Togekiss	2	SSP 72	Pokémon
14 %5/35	Close Togepi	2	SSP 70	Pokémon
14 %5/35	Close Togetic	1	SSP 71	Pokémon
14 %5/35	Close Rare Candy	2	MEG 125	Trainer
14 %5/35	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1	TEF 145	Trainer
11 %4/35	Close AZ's Tranquility	1–2	CRI 76	Trainer
9 %3/35	Close Battle Cage	1–2	PFL 85	Trainer
9 %3/35	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1	DRI 176	Trainer
9 %3/35	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
6 %2/35	Close Mega Zygarde ex	2	POR 47	Pokémon
6 %2/35	Close Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex	1	TWM 112	Pokémon
6 %2/35	Close Core Memory	1	POR 70	Trainer
6 %2/35	Close Handheld Fan	1	TWM 150	Trainer
6 %2/35	Close Kieran	1	TWM 154	Trainer
6 %2/35	Close Mega Signal	1	MEG 121	Trainer
6 %2/35	Close Pokégear 3.0	1	SVI 186	Trainer
3 %1/35	Close Hariyama	1	MEG 73	Pokémon
3 %1/35	Close Makuhita	1	MEG 72	Pokémon
3 %1/35	Close Marshadow	1	MEG 80	Pokémon
3 %1/35	Close Okidogi	1	ASC 122	Pokémon
3 %1/35	Close Enhanced Hammer	1	TWM 148	Trainer
3 %1/35	Close Maximum Belt	1	TEF 154	Trainer
3 %1/35	Close Nighttime Mine	1	ASC 197	Trainer
3 %1/35	Close Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
3 %1/35	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer

The most common Mega Lucario ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 29 slots come from the core, the cards all 35 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 14 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 17 Pokémon, 34 Trainers and 9 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 35 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 35 of the 35 lists carry one. Take Hero's Cape, 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.

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: 17
3 Mega Lucario ex MEG 77
2 Lunatone MEG 74
2 Solrock MEG 75
3 Dunsparce JTG 120
3 Riolu PRE 50
2 Dudunsparce TEF 129
1 Dudunsparce ex JTG 121
1 Riolu MEG 76

Trainer: 34
4 Fighting Gong MEG 116
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Premium Power Pro MEG 124
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Gravity Mountain SSP 177
4 Poké Pad POR 81
3 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
2 Hilda WHT 84
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
2 Air Balloon ASC 181
3 Ultra Ball MEG 131
2 Wally's Compassion MEG 132

Energy: 9
7 Fighting Energy MEE 6
2 Rocky Fighting Energy POR 87

Total Cards: 60

Which decks beat Mega Lucario ex at tournaments

Here is how Mega Lucario 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 Dhelmise: over 133 games, 32 won and 100 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against Slowking: over 266 games, 95 won and 167 lost. 4 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex: over 349 games, 141 won and 206 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Festival Lead: over 242 games, 111 won and 130 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex: over 226 games, 109 won and 115 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Alakazam / Dudunsparce: over 239 games, 116 won and 119 lost. 4 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Dusknoir: over 226 games, 115 won and 110 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass: over 162 games, 84 won and 76 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against N's Zoroark ex: over 167 games, 97 won and 66 lost. 4 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Excadrill ex: over 306 games, 198 won and 105 lost. 3 ended with no winner.

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

You need 59 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 35 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 13 took Hero's Cape, 11 took Unfair Stamp and 9 took Secret Box. The flex table shows you all 5. 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, 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 Mega Lucario ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Psychic and Grass, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 48 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Festival Lead (Thwackey), Alakazam / Dudunsparce and Dragapult ex / Dusknoir, 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 97 we track. The other 49 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 Fighting, and 34 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Dragapult ex, Alakazam / Dudunsparce and Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Mega Lucario ex deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 35 tournament lists harvested between 11 August 2026 and 1 September 2026, 8 cards turn up in every single one, 29 slots out of 60. The remaining 31 change from player to player, with 51 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

35 lists, played across 33 different tournaments, harvested between 11 August 2026 and 1 September 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 35 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

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

With the whole core: 8 cards, 29 slots. Inside it, buy the 15 Trainer slots and the 7 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 7 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Gravity Mountain at 97 % and Poké Pad at 94 %.

What beats Mega Lucario ex?

Its attackers are Weak to Psychic and Grass, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 48 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Festival Lead, Alakazam / Dudunsparce, Dragapult ex / Dusknoir and Slowking, among others.

Will Mega Lucario 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 Mega Lucario ex?

We have read 35 lists of it, which puts it 21st of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 828 entries for it, 2.03 % 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.