Misty's Gyarados

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

Across the 30 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 126 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 126 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 88 of the 126 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 27 of the 126 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 30 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 30 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, 15 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 97 %, Poké Pad at 97 % and Night Stretcher at 97 %, plus 5 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Max Rod, at 53 %: 16 of 30 players took it, 14 put something else there. It is an ACE SPEC card, and you are allowed exactly one in your whole deck. The players who passed on it did not leave the slot empty: they put a different ACE SPEC there. Right at the bottom of the table, Psyduck (7 lists out of 30) and Legacy Energy (5 lists out of 30).

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 %29/30	Close Lillie's Determination	2–4	MEG 119	Trainer
97 %29/30	Close Poké Pad	2–4	POR 81	Trainer
97 %29/30	Close Night Stretcher	2–4	ASC 196	Trainer
97 %29/30	Close Sacred Ash	3–4	DRI 168	Trainer
93 %28/30	Close Misty's Lapras	1–4	DRI 50	Pokémon
93 %28/30	Close Boss's Orders	1–3	MEG 114	Trainer
90 %27/30	Close Academy at Night	1–3	SFA 54	Trainer
87 %26/30	Close Great Haul Net	1–4	CRI 78	Trainer
67 %20/30	Close Lana's Aid	1–3	TWM 155	Trainer
57 %17/30	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1–3	TEF 145	Trainer
53 %16/30	Close Max Rod	1	PRE 116	Trainer
47 %14/30	Close Hilda	1–4	WHT 84	Trainer
40 %12/30	Close Ultra Ball	1–3	MEG 131	Trainer
37 %11/30	Close Pokégear 3.0	2–4	SVI 186	Trainer
30 %9/30	Close Hassel	2–3	TWM 151	Trainer
27 %8/30	Close Mega Kangaskhan ex	3	MEG 104	Pokémon
27 %8/30	Close Latias ex	1	SSP 76	Pokémon
27 %8/30	Close Gwynn	2–4	PBL 78	Trainer
27 %8/30	Close Switch	2	MEG 130	Trainer
27 %8/30	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
23 %7/30	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
17 %5/30	Close Legacy Energy	1	TWM 167	Energy
13 %4/30	Close Morty's Conviction	2–3	TEF 155	Trainer
7 %2/30	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
7 %2/30	Close Iris's Fighting Spirit	2–4	JTG 149	Trainer
7 %2/30	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1	DRI 176	Trainer
3 %1/30	Close Dedenne	1	SSP 87	Pokémon
3 %1/30	Close Tatsugiri	1	TWM 131	Pokémon
3 %1/30	Close Carmine	4	TWM 145	Trainer
3 %1/30	Close Judge	2	POR 76	Trainer
3 %1/30	Close Kofu	2	SCR 138	Trainer
3 %1/30	Close Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
3 %1/30	Close Colress's Tenacity	1	SFA 57	Trainer
3 %1/30	Close Surfing Beach	1	MEG 129	Trainer
3 %1/30	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer

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.

29 of these 30 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 16 took Max Rod, 8 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 126 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 126 we track. The other 117 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.