Misty's Gyarados

What Misty's Gyarados looks like when you open the box

Across the 27 lists we counted, this deck runs 19 to 25 Pokémon, 27 to 34 Trainers and 5 to 8 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Water.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « misty-gyarados ». 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: 5 to 8 out of 60, when half the 125 decks we track run 11 or more. This one is lean. It lives on cheap attacks and leans on Trainers to find the right Energy at the right moment rather than stockpiling it.

It sets up fast. Misty's Gyarados 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 34 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 125 decks we track. Inside that, 8 to 13 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 14 to 22 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 4 Stadiums, and 87 of the 125 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 Misty's Gyarados actually wins

Misty's Gyarados attacks with Waterfall for 120. It needs 3 Energy, 2 Water and 1 Colorless attached, and it has 180 HP.

The cost of Waterfall 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.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Misty's Gyarados back to the Bench you have to discard 4 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 4 Energy you spent 4 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.

Not one ex Pokémon in the core, and only 26 of the 125 decks we track are in that position. It is a hidden advantage: every knockout your opponent takes is worth a single Prize, so they need 6, where 3 would do against a deck stuffed with ex cards.

The attackers in the deck's core, with their best attack, its cost and their Weakness

Pokémon	HP	Attack	Damage	Cost	Weakness	Retreat
Close Misty's GyaradosStage 1	180	Waterfall	120		Lightning ×2	4
Close Misty's StarmieStage 1	100	Abrupt Flash	60+		Lightning ×2	1
Close Misty's PsyduckBasic	70	Sprinkle Water	30		Lightning ×2	1
Close Misty's StaryuBasic	70	Bubble Beam	20		Lightning ×2	1

The core: the 7 cards every list runs

These 7 cards appear in all 27 lists, without a single exception. That is 26 of the 60 slots. The other 34 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 26 slots break down: 4 Trainers, 17 Pokémon, 5 Energy. Pokémon dominate, which is unusual: this deck needs bodies on the board, and it depends on any single attacker less than it looks.

4 of those 7 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Misty's Starmie (1 to 4), Misty's Staryu (1 to 4) and Buddy-Buddy Poffin (2 to 4), plus 1 more. Add those spreads up and you get 11 copies the 27 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
4	Close Misty's Gyarados	DRI 49	Pokémon	stays
4	Close Misty's Magikarp	DRI 48	Pokémon	stays
4	Close Misty's Psyduck	DRI 45	Pokémon	stays
1–4	Close Misty's Starmie	DRI 47	Pokémon	stays
1–4	Close Misty's Staryu	DRI 46	Pokémon	stays
2–4	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
5–8	Water Energy	MEE 3	Energy	stays

The 35 cards that change from list to list

35 cards fight over the 34 slots that are left: 8 above three lists in four, 18 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Lillie's Determination at 96 %, Poké Pad at 96 % and Sacred Ash at 96 %, plus 5 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking, at 56 %: 15 of 27 players took it, 12 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 3 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Mega Kangaskhan ex (6 lists out of 27) and Latias ex (6 lists out of 27).

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
96 %26/27	Close Lillie's Determination	3–4	MEG 119	Trainer
96 %26/27	Close Poké Pad	2–4	POR 81	Trainer
96 %26/27	Close Sacred Ash	3–4	DRI 168	Trainer
96 %26/27	Close Night Stretcher	2–4	ASC 196	Trainer
93 %25/27	Close Misty's Lapras	1–4	DRI 50	Pokémon
93 %25/27	Close Boss's Orders	1–2	MEG 114	Trainer
89 %24/27	Close Academy at Night	1–3	SFA 54	Trainer
85 %23/27	Close Great Haul Net	1–4	CRI 78	Trainer
67 %18/27	Close Lana's Aid	1–3	TWM 155	Trainer
56 %15/27	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1–3	TEF 145	Trainer
56 %15/27	Close Max Rod	1	PRE 116	Trainer
44 %12/27	Close Hilda	1–4	WHT 84	Trainer
37 %10/27	Close Pokégear 3.0	2–4	SVI 186	Trainer
37 %10/27	Close Ultra Ball	1–3	MEG 131	Trainer
30 %8/27	Close Gwynn	2–4	PBL 78	Trainer
30 %8/27	Close Hassel	2	TWM 151	Trainer
26 %7/27	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
22 %6/27	Close Mega Kangaskhan ex	3	MEG 104	Pokémon
22 %6/27	Close Latias ex	1	SSP 76	Pokémon
22 %6/27	Close Switch	2	MEG 130	Trainer
22 %6/27	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
19 %5/27	Close Legacy Energy	1	TWM 167	Energy
11 %3/27	Close Morty's Conviction	3	TEF 155	Trainer
7 %2/27	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
7 %2/27	Close Iris's Fighting Spirit	2–4	JTG 149	Trainer
7 %2/27	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1	DRI 176	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Dedenne	1	SSP 87	Pokémon
4 %1/27	Close Tatsugiri	1	TWM 131	Pokémon
4 %1/27	Close Carmine	4	TWM 145	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Judge	2	POR 76	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Kofu	2	SCR 138	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Colress's Tenacity	1	SFA 57	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Surfing Beach	1	MEG 129	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer

The most common Misty's Gyarados list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 26 slots come from the core, the cards all 27 lists run. The remaining 34 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 13 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 21 Pokémon, 34 Trainers and 5 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 27 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: 21
4 Misty's Gyarados DRI 49
4 Misty's Magikarp DRI 48
4 Misty's Psyduck DRI 45
3 Misty's Starmie DRI 47
2 Misty's Staryu DRI 46
4 Misty's Lapras DRI 50

Trainer: 34
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Poké Pad POR 81
4 Sacred Ash DRI 168
3 Night Stretcher ASC 196
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Academy at Night SFA 54
3 Great Haul Net CRI 78
1 Lana's Aid TWM 155
3 Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking TEF 145
1 Max Rod PRE 116
1 Hilda WHT 84
2 Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186

Energy: 5
5 Water Energy MEE 3

Total Cards: 60

How many different cards Misty's Gyarados needs, and how long it will last

You need 42 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 7 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

26 of these 27 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 15 took Max Rod, 6 took Unfair Stamp and 5 took Legacy Energy. 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 Max Rod and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 1 of the 7 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Buddy-Buddy Poffin. The core table marks it. In copies, that is 4 of the 26 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Misty's Gyarados struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Lightning, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 9 of the 125 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Mega Manectric ex / Eelektrik, Eelektrik and Iono's Bellibolt ex, plus 6 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 9 decks out of the 125 we track. The other 116 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 Water, and 13 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, Ethan's Typhlosion and Ceruledge ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.