Mega Sharpedo ex

What Mega Sharpedo ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 9 lists we counted, this deck runs 10 to 20 Pokémon, 24 to 40 Trainers and 10 to 16 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Darkness.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « mega-sharpedo-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 16 out of 60, when half the 119 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 Sharpedo 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: 24 to 40 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 119 decks we track. Inside that, 4 to 12 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 18 to 23 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 3 Stadiums, and 111 of the 119 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 Sharpedo ex actually wins

Mega Sharpedo ex attacks with Hungry Jaws. It needs 2 Darkness Energy attached, and it has 330 HP. The damage box reads "120+", and that little symbol hides the real decision on this card: 120 to start with, 270 the moment it has taken a hit itself.

The cost of Hungry Jaws 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. We have not found anything in this list that attaches Energy faster than that, so plan on holding out for a turn 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.

Good news on mobility: Mega Sharpedo ex retreats for free. You get it back to the Bench without discarding a single Energy, and you can still attack in the same turn. An attacker that comes and goes like that walks out of almost any mess.

Mega Sharpedo 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 Sharpedo exStage 1	330	Hungry Jaws	120+		Grass ×2	0
Close CarvanhaBasic	70	Reckless Charge	30		Grass ×2	1

The core: the 5 cards every list runs

These 5 cards appear in all 9 lists, without a single exception. That is 21 of the 60 slots. The other 39 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 21 slots break down: 6 Trainers, 8 Pokémon, 7 Energy. Pokémon dominate, which is unusual: this deck needs bodies on the board, and it depends on any single attacker less than it looks.

5 of those 5 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Carvanha (3 to 4), Mega Sharpedo ex (2 to 4) and Lillie's Determination (1 to 4), plus 2 more. Add those spreads up and you get 17 copies the 9 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 Carvanha	PFL 60	Pokémon
2–4	Close Mega Sharpedo ex	PFL 61	Pokémon
1–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer
2–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer
7–16	Darkness Energy	MEE 7	Energy

The 56 cards that change from list to list

56 cards fight over the 39 slots that are left: 5 above three lists in four, 39 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Boss's Orders at 89 %, Pokégear 3.0 at 78 % and Judge at 78 %, plus 2 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Crushing Hammer, at 56 %: 5 of 9 players took it, 4 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 4 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Froslass (2 lists out of 9) and Snorunt (2 lists out of 9).

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
89 %8/9	Close Boss's Orders	2	MEG 114	Trainer
78 %7/9	Close Pokégear 3.0	2–4	SVI 186	Trainer
78 %7/9	Close Judge	2–4	POR 76	Trainer
78 %7/9	Close Hand Trimmer	1	TEF 150	Trainer
78 %7/9	Close Shadowy Darkness Energy	3	PBL 83	Energy
67 %6/9	Close Handheld Fan	3–4	TWM 150	Trainer
67 %6/9	Close Team Rocket's Venture Bomb	3–4	DRI 179	Trainer
56 %5/9	Close Crushing Hammer	4	POR 71	Trainer
56 %5/9	Close Dark Bell	2–4	PBL 75	Trainer
56 %5/9	Close Super Potion	4	JTG 158	Trainer
56 %5/9	Close Eri	2	TEF 146	Trainer
56 %5/9	Close Poké Vital A	1	SFA 62	Trainer
44 %4/9	Close Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
44 %4/9	Close Switch	2	MEG 130	Trainer
44 %4/9	Close Energy Retrieval	1–2	SVI 171	Trainer
33 %3/9	Close Absol	1–2	PFL 63	Pokémon
33 %3/9	Close Wally's Compassion	1–2	MEG 132	Trainer
22 %2/9	Close Froslass	3	TWM 53	Pokémon
22 %2/9	Close Snorunt	3	ASC 46	Pokémon
22 %2/9	Close Chi-Yu	2	PBL 59	Pokémon
22 %2/9	Close Haunter	1–2	PFL 55	Pokémon
22 %2/9	Close Mega Gengar ex	1	PFL 56	Pokémon
22 %2/9	Close Munkidori	1	TWM 95	Pokémon
22 %2/9	Close Yveltal	1	SFA 35	Pokémon
22 %2/9	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	2–4	TEF 144	Trainer
22 %2/9	Close Poké Pad	3–4	POR 81	Trainer
22 %2/9	Close Mega Signal	1–3	MEG 121	Trainer
22 %2/9	Close Risky Ruins	3	MEG 127	Trainer
22 %2/9	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	3	DRI 180	Trainer
22 %2/9	Close Cyrano	1–2	SSP 170	Trainer
22 %2/9	Close Energy Search	1–2	POR 72	Trainer
22 %2/9	Close Rare Candy	2	MEG 125	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Cinderace	4	MEG 28	Pokémon
11 %1/9	Close Seviper	3	PFL 62	Pokémon
11 %1/9	Close Dudunsparce	2	TEF 129	Pokémon
11 %1/9	Close Dunsparce	2	TEF 128	Pokémon
11 %1/9	Close Gastly	2	PFL 54	Pokémon
11 %1/9	Close Mega Absol ex	2	MEG 86	Pokémon
11 %1/9	Close Pecharunt ex	2	SFA 39	Pokémon
11 %1/9	Close Yveltal	2	MEG 88	Pokémon
11 %1/9	Close Gastly	1	POR 48	Pokémon
11 %1/9	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	4	DRI 176	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Dizzying Valley	3	PFL 88	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Punk Helmet	3	PFL 92	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Team Rocket's Factory	3	DRI 173	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	3	DRI 178	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Enhanced Hammer	2	TWM 148	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Grimsley's Move	2	PFL 90	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Janine's Secret Art	2	PRE 112	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Energy Switch	1	MEG 115	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Pokémon Center Lady	1	MEG 123	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Rescue Board	1	TEF 159	Trainer
11 %1/9	Close Scoop Up Cyclone	1	TWM 162	Trainer

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

You need 61 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 5 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

All 9 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 5 took Poké Vital A, 1 took Hero's Cape and 1 took Precious Trolley. 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 Poké Vital A 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 5 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation. This deck walks through the change whole.

What Mega Sharpedo ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Grass, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 20 of the 119 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Festival Lead (Thwackey), Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex and Cynthia's Garchomp ex (Cynthia's Roserade), plus 17 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 20 decks out of the 119 we track. The other 99 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 29 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.