Relicanth

What Relicanth looks like when you open the box

Across the 19 lists we counted, this deck runs 9 to 22 Pokémon, 28 to 41 Trainers and 8 to 12 Energy. Its attacks do not ask for any particular type of Energy.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « relicanth-pbl ». Every card named in that label turns up in the tables below, which is what makes it a fair name for the deck.

The bit they tack on the end, « PBL », is a set code: Pitch Black. They spell it out because several cards share that name, and this deck plays that particular printing.

Look at the Energy: 8 to 12 out of 60, when half the 131 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.

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: 28 to 41 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 131 decks we track. Inside that, 9 to 14 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 13 to 19 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 6 Stadiums, and 6 of the 131 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 Relicanth actually wins

Relicanth attacks with Fossil Beatdown. It needs 1 Colorless Energy attached, and it has 100 HP. Watch the damage box: "10+" is not a total. Here is what the card prints, word for word: "This attack does 30 more damage for each of your Benched Pokémon that has "Antique" in its name."

One Energy to attack is enormous. You can swing the turn after you set up, and you can do it again straight away when your attacker falls. Decks like that forgive a lot of bad draws.

Good news on mobility: pulling Relicanth 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.

Not one ex Pokémon in the core, and only 29 of the 131 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 RelicanthBasic	100	Fossil Beatdown	10+		Lightning ×2	1

The core: the 4 cards every list runs

These 4 cards appear in all 19 lists, without a single exception. That is 12 of the 60 slots. The other 48 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 12 slots break down: 8 Trainers, 4 Pokémon, 0 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.

3 of those 4 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Fossil Quarry (2 to 4), Lillie's Determination (2 to 4) and Poké Pad (1 to 4). Add those spreads up and you get 7 copies the 19 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
4	Close Relicanth	PBL 17	Pokémon
2–4	Close Fossil Quarry	PBL 76	Trainer
2–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer
1–4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer

The 74 cards that change from list to list

74 cards fight over the 48 slots that are left: 7 above three lists in four, 40 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Rare Candy at 95 %, Crispin at 95 % and Team Rocket's Petrel at 95 %, plus 4 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Dark Bell, at 53 %: 10 of 19 players took it, 9 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 2 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Arbok (4 lists out of 19) and Ekans (4 lists out of 19).

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
95 %18/19	Close Rare Candy	1–4	MEG 125	Trainer
95 %18/19	Close Crispin	3	SCR 133	Trainer
95 %18/19	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	2–4	DRI 176	Trainer
95 %18/19	Grass Energy	2–3	MEE 9	Energy
89 %17/19	Close Cradily	1–4	SCR 6	Pokémon
89 %17/19	Close Antique Root Fossil	2–4	SCR 130	Trainer
79 %15/19	Close Switch	1–2	MEG 130	Trainer
68 %13/19	Close Dangerous Laser	1	SFA 58	Trainer
68 %13/19	Close Mist Energy	1–2	TEF 161	Energy
63 %12/19	Close Tirtouga	1–2	BLK 22	Pokémon
63 %12/19	Close Antique Cover Fossil	2–4	SCR 129	Trainer
63 %12/19	Close Boss's Orders	1–3	MEG 114	Trainer
63 %12/19	Water Energy	2–3	MEE 11	Energy
63 %12/19	Close Prism Energy	1–2	ASC 216	Energy
58 %11/19	Close Hilda	1–2	WHT 84	Trainer
53 %10/19	Close Dark Bell	1–2	PBL 75	Trainer
47 %9/19	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1–3	JTG 56	Pokémon
47 %9/19	Close Bastiodon	1–2	PBL 62	Pokémon
47 %9/19	Close Antique Armor Fossil	2–4	PBL 72	Trainer
47 %9/19	Close Lillie's Pearl	1–2	JTG 151	Trainer
47 %9/19	Psychic Energy	2–3	MEE 13	Energy
42 %8/19	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
42 %8/19	Darkness Energy	1–5	MEE 15	Energy
37 %7/19	Close Qwilfish	1–4	CRI 52	Pokémon
37 %7/19	Close Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
37 %7/19	Close Ultra Ball	1–2	MEG 131	Trainer
32 %6/19	Close Scolipede	3–4	TWM 117	Pokémon
32 %6/19	Close Energy Search	1	POR 72	Trainer
32 %6/19	Close Bubbly Water Energy	1	CRI 84	Energy
26 %5/19	Close Venipede	3–4	BLK 54	Pokémon
26 %5/19	Close Terapagos ex	2–3	SCR 128	Pokémon
26 %5/19	Close Mr. Mime	1	TEF 63	Pokémon
26 %5/19	Close Area Zero Underdepths	1–2	SCR 131	Trainer
26 %5/19	Close Sparkling Crystal	1	SCR 142	Trainer
21 %4/19	Close Arbok	1–2	TEF 101	Pokémon
21 %4/19	Close Ekans	2–3	TEF 100	Pokémon
21 %4/19	Close Tyrantrum	1–2	POR 45	Pokémon
21 %4/19	Close Maractus	1	JTG 8	Pokémon
21 %4/19	Close Whirlipede	1–2	BLK 55	Pokémon
21 %4/19	Close Antique Jaw Fossil	2	POR 68	Trainer
21 %4/19	Close Dawn	1–2	PFL 87	Trainer
21 %4/19	Fighting Energy	2–4	MEE 14	Energy
16 %3/19	Close Chi-Yu	1	TWM 39	Pokémon
16 %3/19	Close Tatsugiri	1	TWM 131	Pokémon
16 %3/19	Close Antique Skull Fossil	2–4	PBL 73	Trainer
16 %3/19	Close Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
16 %3/19	Close Perilous Jungle	1	TEF 156	Trainer
16 %3/19	Lightning Energy	2–3	MEE 12	Energy
16 %3/19	Fire Energy	1	MEE 10	Energy
11 %2/19	Close Stunfisk	3	ASC 62	Pokémon
11 %2/19	Close Lileep	1–2	SCR 5	Pokémon
11 %2/19	Close Rampardos ex	1–2	PBL 45	Pokémon
11 %2/19	Close Heatran	1	TWM 123	Pokémon
11 %2/19	Close Antique Sail Fossil	2	POR 69	Trainer
11 %2/19	Close Colress's Tenacity	1–2	SFA 57	Trainer
11 %2/19	Close Counter Gain	1	SSP 169	Trainer
5 %1/19	Close Venipede	4	TWM 115	Pokémon
5 %1/19	Close Cranidos	3	PBL 44	Pokémon
5 %1/19	Close Shieldon	2	PBL 61	Pokémon
5 %1/19	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
5 %1/19	Close Pecharunt	1	SVP 149	Pokémon
5 %1/19	Close Terapagos	1	SSP 161	Pokémon
5 %1/19	Close Tyrunt	1	POR 44	Pokémon
5 %1/19	Close Walking Wake ex	1	TEF 50	Pokémon
5 %1/19	Close Gwynn	2	PBL 78	Trainer
5 %1/19	Close Brock's Scouting	1	JTG 146	Trainer
5 %1/19	Close Grand Tree	1	SCR 136	Trainer
5 %1/19	Close Kieran	1	TWM 154	Trainer
5 %1/19	Close Premium Power Pro	1	MEG 124	Trainer
5 %1/19	Close Rosa's Encouragement	1	POR 84	Trainer
5 %1/19	Close Tarragon	1	POR 85	Trainer
5 %1/19	Close Rocky Fighting Energy	4	POR 87	Energy
5 %1/19	Metal Energy	3	MEE 16	Energy
5 %1/19	Close Magnetic Metal Energy	2	CRI 85	Energy

The most common Relicanth list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 12 slots come from the core, the cards all 19 lists run. The remaining 48 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 22 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 12 Pokémon, 38 Trainers and 10 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 19 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: 12
4 Relicanth PBL 17
3 Cradily SCR 6
1 Tirtouga BLK 22
3 Lillie's Clefairy ex JTG 56
1 Bastiodon PBL 62

Trainer: 38
4 Fossil Quarry PBL 76
3 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
1 Poké Pad POR 81
4 Rare Candy MEG 125
3 Crispin SCR 133
3 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
4 Antique Root Fossil SCR 130
1 Switch MEG 130
1 Dangerous Laser SFA 58
3 Antique Cover Fossil SCR 129
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Hilda WHT 84
2 Dark Bell PBL 75
2 Antique Armor Fossil PBL 72
2 Lillie's Pearl JTG 151
1 Judge POR 76

Energy: 10
3 Grass Energy
2 Mist Energy TEF 161
2 Water Energy
1 Prism Energy ASC 216
2 Psychic Energy

Total Cards: 60

How many different cards Relicanth needs, and how long it will last

You need 78 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 4 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

All 19 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 13 took Dangerous Laser, 5 took Sparkling Crystal and 1 took Grand Tree. 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 Dangerous Laser 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 4 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation. This deck walks through the change whole.

What Relicanth struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Lightning, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 9 of the 131 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 131 we track. The other 122 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 , 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.

When an attack does nothing at all

There are two ways to hurt the Pokémon across the table, and the game does not treat them the same. An attack with a number printed next to it deals damage. An attack with no number, whose text just says "place 2 damage counters", does what the rules call an effect. That matters, because a handful of Pokémon have an Ability that prevents the effects of your opponent's attacks, and their card spells it out in brackets: damage is not an effect.

This deck has an answer to that. Antique Cover Fossil has Protective Cover, and 12 lists out of 19 play it. Against an attack that only places counters, that Pokémon takes nothing at all. Not one counter. An attack with a number printed next to it still puts its damage on it, mind you. Careful, though: the Ability protects the card that has it, and only that card. The rest of your bench takes everything.

Of the decks we track right now, 9 play an attack like that. They are in the table below, with the Pokémon carrying it. When you run into one, put that Pokémon in the Active Spot: the marker attack can no longer touch it. Your opponent will have to reach for printed-damage attacks — most of these decks carry some too. The wall buys you turns, it does not win the game for you.