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

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

Across the 33 lists we counted, this deck runs 11 to 14 Pokémon, 38 to 41 Trainers and 8 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Darkness.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « rockets-honchkrow ». 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: 8 out of 60, when half the 97 decks we track run 10 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. Team Rocket's Honchkrow 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: 38 to 41 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 20 to 21 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 15 to 18 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.

How Team Rocket's Honchkrow actually wins

Team Rocket's Honchkrow attacks with Hammer In for 100. It needs 3 Energy, 1 Darkness and 2 Colorless attached, and it has 130 HP.

The cost of Hammer In 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.

Good news on mobility: pulling Team Rocket's Honchkrow 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 21 of the 97 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 Team Rocket's HonchkrowStage 1	130	Hammer In	100	Darkness + Colorless + Colorless	Lightning ×2	1
Close Team Rocket's MurkrowBasic	80	Torment	30	Darkness + Colorless	Lightning ×2	1
Close Team Rocket's Porygon2Stage 1	90	R Command	20×	Colorless + Colorless + Colorless	Fighting ×2	1

The core: the 16 cards every list runs

These 16 cards appear in all 33 lists, without a single exception. That is 56 of the 60 slots. The other 4 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 56 slots break down: 38 Trainers, 10 Pokémon, 8 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.

7 of those 16 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Team Rocket's Honchkrow (3 to 4), Team Rocket's Porygon (2 to 3) and Team Rocket's Porygon2 (1 to 2), plus 4 more. Add those spreads up and you get 10 copies the 33 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 Team Rocket's Murkrow	DRI 127	Pokémon	stays
3–4	Close Team Rocket's Honchkrow	ASC 127	Pokémon	stays
2–3	Close Team Rocket's Porygon	DRI 153	Pokémon	stays
1–2	Close Team Rocket's Porygon2	DRI 154	Pokémon	stays
3–4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
2–4	Close Roto-Stick	PRE 127	Trainer	leaves
4	Close Team Rocket's Archer	DRI 170	Trainer	stays
4	Close Team Rocket's Ariana	DRI 171	Trainer	stays
4	Close Team Rocket's Giovanni	DRI 174	Trainer	stays
4	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	DRI 176	Trainer	stays
4	Close Team Rocket's Proton	DRI 177	Trainer	stays
4	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	DRI 178	Trainer	stays
1–4	Close Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
3–4	Close Team Rocket's Factory	DRI 173	Trainer	stays
4	Close Ignition Energy	WHT 86	Energy	stays
4	Close Team Rocket's Energy	DRI 182	Energy	stays

The 12 cards that change from list to list

12 cards fight over the 4 slots that are left: 2 above three lists in four, 9 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Team Rocket's Articuno at 97 % and Miracle Headset at 97 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Ultra Ball, at 61 %: 20 of 33 players took it, 13 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Pokégear 3.0 (6 lists out of 33) and Team Rocket's Mimikyu (3 lists out of 33).

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 %32/33	Close Team Rocket's Articuno	1–2	DRI 51	Pokémon
97 %32/33	Close Miracle Headset	1	SSP 183	Trainer
61 %20/33	Close Ultra Ball	1	MEG 131	Trainer
18 %6/33	Close Pokégear 3.0	1–3	SVI 186	Trainer
9 %3/33	Close Team Rocket's Mimikyu	1	DRI 87	Pokémon
9 %3/33	Close Lucky Helmet	1–2	TWM 158	Trainer
6 %2/33	Close Team Rocket's Porygon-Z	1	DRI 155	Pokémon
6 %2/33	Close Hilda	1	WHT 84	Trainer
3 %1/33	Close Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
3 %1/33	Close Brave Bangle	1	WHT 80	Trainer
3 %1/33	Close Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
3 %1/33	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer

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

Here they are in full, ready to build. 56 slots come from the core, the cards all 33 lists run. The remaining 4 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 3 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 12 Pokémon, 40 Trainers and 8 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 33 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: 12
4 Team Rocket's Murkrow DRI 127
3 Team Rocket's Honchkrow ASC 127
2 Team Rocket's Porygon DRI 153
1 Team Rocket's Porygon2 DRI 154
2 Team Rocket's Articuno DRI 51

Trainer: 40
4 Poké Pad POR 81
4 Roto-Stick PRE 127
4 Team Rocket's Archer DRI 170
4 Team Rocket's Ariana DRI 171
4 Team Rocket's Giovanni DRI 174
4 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
4 Team Rocket's Proton DRI 177
4 Team Rocket's Transceiver DRI 178
3 Night Stretcher ASC 196
3 Team Rocket's Factory DRI 173
1 Miracle Headset SSP 183
1 Ultra Ball MEG 131

Energy: 8
4 Ignition Energy WHT 86
4 Team Rocket's Energy DRI 182

Total Cards: 60

Which decks beat Team Rocket's Honchkrow at tournaments

Here is how Team Rocket's Honchkrow 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 Festival Lead: over 131 games, 29 won and 101 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against Slowking: over 136 games, 50 won and 84 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex: over 136 games, 53 won and 81 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex: over 194 games, 80 won and 113 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Dusknoir: over 131 games, 60 won and 70 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against N's Zoroark ex: over 121 games, 59 won and 61 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against Alakazam / Dudunsparce: over 135 games, 81 won and 49 lost. 5 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Excadrill ex: over 165 games, 108 won and 56 lost. One ended with no winner.

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

You need 28 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 16 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

All 33 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 32 took Miracle Headset and 1 took Prime Catcher. 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 Miracle Headset and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 2 of the 16 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Roto-Stick and Night Stretcher. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 7 of the 56 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Team Rocket's Honchkrow struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Lightning and Fighting, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 17 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Mega Lucario ex, Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama and Cynthia's Garchomp ex, plus 14 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 17 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 80 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.

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 32 lists out of 33 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 Honchkrow deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 33 tournament lists harvested between 11 August 2026 and 5 September 2026, 16 cards turn up in every single one, 56 slots out of 60. The remaining 4 change from player to player, with 12 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

33 lists, played across 31 different tournaments, harvested between 11 August 2026 and 5 September 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 33 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

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

With the whole core: 16 cards, 56 slots. Inside it, buy the 38 Trainer slots and the 8 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 10 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 Articuno at 97 % and Miracle Headset at 97 %.

What beats Team Rocket's Honchkrow?

Its attackers are Weak to Lightning and Fighting, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 17 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Mega Lucario ex, Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, Cynthia's Garchomp ex and Greninja ex, among others.

Will Team Rocket's Honchkrow survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 2 core cards out of 16 carry the letter H, starting with Roto-Stick and Night Stretcher.

Are a lot of people playing Team Rocket's Honchkrow?

We have read 33 lists of it, which puts it 36th of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 511 entries for it, 1.25 % 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.