Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 37 lists we counted, this deck runs 14 to 17 Pokémon, 30 to 35 Trainers and 10 to 14 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Psychic, Grass and Water.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « rocket-mewtwo-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 14 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. Team Rocket's Spidops 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: 30 to 35 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 12 to 16 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 9 to 16 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 4 Stadiums, and 57 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.

What the card in this deck's name actually does

Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex gives this deck its name. Here is what is written on it.

Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex is in all 37 lists, 2 copies of it. Its Ability is called Power Saver, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « This Pokémon can't attack unless you have 4 or more Team Rocket's Pokémon in play. »

How Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex actually wins

Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex attacks with Erasure Ball. It needs 3 Energy, 2 Psychic and 1 Colorless attached, and it has 280 HP. The damage box reads "160+": 160 to start with, and 60 more per card you discard yourself to fire the attack.

The cost of Erasure Ball 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. Except you are not on your own. Team Rocket's Spidops, which the list runs 4 of, has an Ability called Charging Up: it digs Energy out of your discard pile and puts it back on one of your Pokémon. An Ability costs you nothing: not your attack, not your card for the turn. That is where this deck buys its turns, and it is the first thing to look for in your opening hand.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex back to the Bench you have to discard 3 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 3 Energy you spent 3 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.

Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex falls. They need 6 to win: 3 well-placed knockouts on that card beat you, where it would take 6 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 Team Rocket's Mewtwo exBasic	280	Erasure Ball	160+	Psychic + Psychic + Colorless	Darkness ×2	3
Close Team Rocket's ArticunoBasic	120	Dark Frost	60+	Water + Colorless + Colorless	Lightning ×2	1
Close Team Rocket's SpidopsStage 1	130	Rocket Rush	30×	Grass + Colorless	Fire ×2	2
Close Team Rocket's TarountulaBasic	50	Take Down	30	Grass	Fire ×2	1

The core: the 12 cards every list runs

These 12 cards appear in all 37 lists, without a single exception. That is 38 of the 60 slots. The other 22 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 38 slots break down: 14 Trainers, 14 Pokémon, 10 Energy. Nothing stands out in that split. What sets this deck apart is how thick its core is: 38 of the 60 slots are the same for everybody, when half the 97 decks we track fix 34 or fewer. Fewer choices left to you than usual, and fewer ways to get them wrong.

11 of those 12 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Team Rocket's Spidops (3 to 4), Team Rocket's Tarountula (3 to 4) and Team Rocket's Articuno (1 to 2), plus 8 more. Add those spreads up and you get 18 copies the 37 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 Team Rocket's Spidops	DRI 20	Pokémon
3–4	Close Team Rocket's Tarountula	DRI 19	Pokémon
1–2	Close Team Rocket's Articuno	DRI 51	Pokémon
2–3	Close Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex	DRI 81	Pokémon
1–2	Close Team Rocket's Mimikyu	DRI 87	Pokémon
3–4	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	DRI 178	Trainer
1–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer
2–4	Close Team Rocket's Ariana	DRI 171	Trainer
2–3	Close Team Rocket's Proton	DRI 177	Trainer
1–3	Close Team Rocket's Factory	DRI 173	Trainer
4–8	Grass Energy	MEE 1	Energy
4	Close Team Rocket's Energy	DRI 182	Energy

The 50 cards that change from list to list

50 cards fight over the 22 slots that are left: 7 above three lists in four, 35 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Team Rocket's Giovanni at 97 %, Night Stretcher at 97 % and Energy Switch at 97 %, plus 4 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Brave Bangle, at 62 %: 23 of 37 players took it, 14 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Secret Box (7 lists out of 37) and Energy Search (6 lists out of 37).

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 %36/37	Close Team Rocket's Giovanni	2–4	DRI 174	Trainer
97 %36/37	Close Night Stretcher	1–3	ASC 196	Trainer
97 %36/37	Close Energy Switch	1–3	MEG 115	Trainer
95 %35/37	Close Lillie's Determination	1–4	MEG 119	Trainer
95 %35/37	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–3	DRI 176	Trainer
86 %32/37	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1–2	JTG 56	Pokémon
86 %32/37	Psychic Energy	1–5	MEE 5	Energy
73 %27/37	Close Maximum Belt	1	TEF 154	Trainer
70 %26/37	Close Bug Catching Set	1–3	TWM 143	Trainer
70 %26/37	Close Prism Tower	1–2	CRI 80	Trainer
68 %25/37	Close Team Rocket's Archer	1–2	DRI 170	Trainer
62 %23/37	Close Brave Bangle	1–2	WHT 80	Trainer
62 %23/37	Close Lucky Helmet	1–2	TWM 158	Trainer
27 %10/37	Close Team Rocket's Sneasel	1	DRI 128	Pokémon
27 %10/37	Close Poké Pad	1–3	POR 81	Trainer
19 %7/37	Close Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
16 %6/37	Close Energy Search	1–2	POR 72	Trainer
16 %6/37	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
14 %5/37	Close Team Rocket's Wobbuffet	1	DRI 82	Pokémon
14 %5/37	Close Handheld Fan	1	TWM 150	Trainer
14 %5/37	Close Sacred Ash	1	DRI 168	Trainer
14 %5/37	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1	DRI 180	Trainer
11 %4/37	Close Team Rocket's Kangaskhan ex	1	ASC 162	Pokémon
8 %3/37	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	1–2	TEF 144	Trainer
5 %2/37	Close Team Rocket's Moltres ex	1	DRI 31	Pokémon
5 %2/37	Close Team Rocket's Hypnotizer	2	ASC 206	Trainer
5 %2/37	Close Lillie's Pearl	1	JTG 151	Trainer
5 %2/37	Close Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
5 %2/37	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
5 %2/37	Fire Energy	2	MEE 2	Energy
3 %1/37	Close Cynthia's Roserade	3	DRI 8	Pokémon
3 %1/37	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
3 %1/37	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
3 %1/37	Close Team Rocket's Crobat ex	1	DRI 122	Pokémon
3 %1/37	Close Team Rocket's Golbat	1	DRI 121	Pokémon
3 %1/37	Close Team Rocket's Zapdos	1	DRI 70	Pokémon
3 %1/37	Close Team Rocket's Zubat	1	DRI 120	Pokémon
3 %1/37	Close Crushing Hammer	2	POR 71	Trainer
3 %1/37	Close Colress's Tenacity	1	SFA 57	Trainer
3 %1/37	Close Counter Gain	1	SSP 169	Trainer
3 %1/37	Close Enhanced Hammer	1	TWM 148	Trainer
3 %1/37	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
3 %1/37	Close Hilda	1	WHT 84	Trainer
3 %1/37	Close Jacinthe	1	POR 75	Trainer
3 %1/37	Close Neutralization Zone	1	SFA 60	Trainer
3 %1/37	Close Scramble Switch	1	SSP 186	Trainer
3 %1/37	Close Wondrous Patch	1	PFL 94	Trainer
3 %1/37	Close Mist Energy	2	TEF 161	Energy
3 %1/37	Close Growing Grass Energy	1	POR 86	Energy
3 %1/37	Close Telepathic Psychic Energy	1	POR 88	Energy

The most common Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 38 slots come from the core, the cards all 37 lists run. The remaining 22 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 15 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 16 Pokémon, 33 Trainers and 11 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 37 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.

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: 16
4 Team Rocket's Spidops DRI 20
4 Team Rocket's Tarountula DRI 19
2 Team Rocket's Articuno DRI 51
2 Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex DRI 81
2 Team Rocket's Mimikyu DRI 87
1 Lillie's Clefairy ex JTG 56
1 Team Rocket's Sneasel DRI 128

Trainer: 33
4 Team Rocket's Transceiver DRI 178
4 Ultra Ball MEG 131
3 Team Rocket's Ariana DRI 171
2 Team Rocket's Proton DRI 177
1 Team Rocket's Factory DRI 173
3 Team Rocket's Giovanni DRI 174
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
1 Energy Switch MEG 115
3 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
1 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
1 Maximum Belt TEF 154
2 Bug Catching Set TWM 143
1 Prism Tower CRI 80
2 Team Rocket's Archer DRI 170
1 Brave Bangle WHT 80
1 Lucky Helmet TWM 158
1 Poké Pad POR 81

Energy: 11
6 Grass Energy MEE 1
4 Team Rocket's Energy DRI 182
1 Psychic Energy MEE 5

Total Cards: 60

Which decks beat Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex at tournaments

Here is how Team Rocket's Mewtwo 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 Mega Excadrill ex: over 105 games, 26 won and 78 lost. One ended with no winner.

What Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 62 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 12 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

All 37 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 27 took Maximum Belt, 7 took Secret Box and 1 took Hero's Cape. 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 Maximum Belt 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 12 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation. This deck walks through the change whole.

What Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Darkness, Lightning and Fire, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 27 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, N's Zoroark ex and Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, plus 24 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 27 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 70 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 Psychic, Grass and Water, and 28 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, N's Zoroark ex and Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, 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. Team Rocket's Articuno has Repelling Veil, and 37 lists out of 37 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. That Ability even covers other Pokémon on your side. Its text tells you which ones, so read it once before your next tournament.

Of the decks we track right now, 5 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.

Questions people ask

What is the Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 37 tournament lists harvested between 11 August 2026 and 5 September 2026, 12 cards turn up in every single one, 38 slots out of 60. The remaining 22 change from player to player, with 50 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

37 lists, played across 36 different tournaments, harvested between 11 August 2026 and 5 September 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 37 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex?

With the whole core: 12 cards, 38 slots. Inside it, buy the 14 Trainer slots and the 10 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 14 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Team Rocket's Giovanni at 97 % and Night Stretcher at 97 %.

What beats Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex?

Its attackers are Weak to Darkness, Lightning and Fire, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 27 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, N's Zoroark ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass and Team Rocket's Honchkrow, among others.

Will Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex survive the next rotation?

Yes, whole: not one of the 12 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 Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex?

We have read 37 lists of it, which puts it 14th of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 353 entries for it, 0.87 % 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.