Salamence ex

What Salamence ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 6 lists we counted, this deck runs 15 to 19 Pokémon, 27 to 35 Trainers and 8 to 14 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fire and Water.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « salamence-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: 8 to 14 out of 60, exactly the median of the 126 decks we track. It draws neither too much nor too little, so this is not where its games are won or lost.

It sets up fast. Shelgon 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 35 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 126 decks we track. Inside that, 11 to 16 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 13 to 18 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 3 Stadiums, and 119 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.

What the card in this deck's name actually does

Salamence ex gives this deck its name. Here is what is written on it.

Salamence ex is in 5 of the 6 lists, 83 % of players, 3 copies of it. Its attack Booming Call costs 1 Energy (Colorless) and has no damage number printed next to it. That is why you will not find it in the attacker table lower down, which sorts by printed damage. Everything it does lives in its text: « Put up to 3 <span class="energy-symbol Dragon" title="Dragon">Dragon</span> Pokémon from your discard pile onto your Bench. »

How Salamence ex actually wins

Shelgon attacks with Heavy Impact for 80. It needs 3 Energy, 1 Fire, 1 Water and 1 Colorless attached, and it has 100 HP.

The cost of Heavy Impact 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. Crispin, which the list runs 3 of, looks at the top of your deck and attaches the Energy it finds there. That is where this deck buys its turns, and it is the first thing to look for in your opening hand.

Energy is not your only clock. Bagon has to climb a step before it becomes Shelgon, and an evolution asleep at the bottom of your deck does you no good at all. The list has that covered. Hilda, which the list runs 2 of, goes into your deck for an evolution. Careful, though: only 4 of the 6 lists bring it, so it is a choice, and players are still arguing about it.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Shelgon back to the Bench you have to discard 2 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 2 Energy you spent 2 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 ShelgonStage 1	100	Heavy Impact	80		none	2
Close BagonBasic	70	Reckless Charge	50		none	2

The core: the 5 cards every list runs

These 5 cards appear in all 6 lists, without a single exception. That is 19 of the 60 slots. The other 41 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 19 slots break down: 3 Trainers, 6 Pokémon, 10 Energy. Pokémon dominate, which is unusual: this deck needs bodies on the board, and it depends on any single attacker less than it looks.

5 of those 5 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Bagon (3 to 4), Shelgon (1 to 3) and Crispin (2 to 4), plus 2 more. Add those spreads up and you get 13 copies the 6 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
3–4	Close Bagon	JTG 112	Pokémon	stays
1–3	Close Shelgon	JTG 113	Pokémon	stays
2–4	Close Crispin	SCR 133	Trainer	leaves
1–6	Fire Energy	MEE 10	Energy	stays
1–4	Water Energy	MEE 11	Energy	stays

The 55 cards that change from list to list

55 cards fight over the 41 slots that are left: 7 above three lists in four, 34 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Salamence ex at 83 %, Lillie's Determination at 83 % and Poké Pad at 83 %, plus 4 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Dreepy, at 50 %: 3 of 6 players took it, 3 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 3 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Alolan Exeggutor ex (1 list out of 6) and Exeggcute (1 list out of 6).

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
83 %5/6	Close Salamence ex	2–4	30C 109	Pokémon
83 %5/6	Close Lillie's Determination	2–4	MEG 119	Trainer
83 %5/6	Close Poké Pad	2–4	POR 81	Trainer
83 %5/6	Close Rare Candy	2–4	MEG 125	Trainer
83 %5/6	Close Air Balloon	1–2	ASC 181	Trainer
83 %5/6	Close Boss's Orders	1–2	MEG 114	Trainer
83 %5/6	Close Ultra Ball	2–4	MEG 131	Trainer
67 %4/6	Close Dragapult ex	3	TWM 130	Pokémon
67 %4/6	Close Drakloak	3–4	TWM 129	Pokémon
67 %4/6	Close Hilda	1–4	WHT 84	Trainer
67 %4/6	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	2	DRI 176	Trainer
67 %4/6	Psychic Energy	3–4	MEE 13	Energy
50 %3/6	Close Dreepy	3	TWM 128	Pokémon
50 %3/6	Close Night Stretcher	2–3	ASC 196	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	2–3	TEF 144	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Dawn	2–3	PFL 87	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Brilliant Blender	1	SSP 164	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Crushing Hammer	2–4	POR 71	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Area Zero Underdepths	3	SCR 131	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Special Red Card	1–2	CRI 82	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Alolan Exeggutor ex	3	SSP 133	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Exeggcute	3	MEG 4	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close N's Vanillite	2	ASC 49	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close N's Vanilluxe	2	ASC 51	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close N's Zoroark ex	2	JTG 98	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close N's Zorua	2	JTG 97	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Salamence ex	2	JTG 114	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Exeggcute	1	30C 1	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close N's Reshiram	1	JTG 116	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close N's Vanillish	1	ASC 50	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close N's Zekrom	1	ASC 155	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Jumbo Ice Cream	4	PFL 91	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	3	TEF 145	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Energy Retrieval	2	SVI 171	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Energy Switch	2	MEG 115	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Hole-Digging Shovel	2	POR 74	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Janine's Secret Art	2	PRE 112	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close N's PP Up	2	JTG 153	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Naveen	2	POR 79	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Switch	2	MEG 130	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Thick Scale	2	ASC 211	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Tremendous Bomb	2	PBL 82	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Academy at Night	1	SFA 54	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Cyrano	1	SSP 170	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close N's Castle	1	JTG 152	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
17 %1/6	Darkness Energy	7	MEE 7	Energy
17 %1/6	Grass Energy	4	MEE 9	Energy
17 %1/6	Close Neo Upper Energy	1	TEF 162	Energy

The most common Salamence ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 19 slots come from the core, the cards all 6 lists run. The remaining 41 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 18 Pokémon, 28 Trainers and 14 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 6 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.

One thing to fix before you play: there is no ACE SPEC card in these 60. Players split that slot so many ways that none of their cards climbed high enough to get in, and 6 of the 6 lists carry one. Take Brilliant Blender, the most chosen, and drop a card from the bottom of the table to make room.

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: 18
4 Bagon JTG 112
2 Shelgon JTG 113
3 Salamence ex 30C 109
3 Dragapult ex TWM 130
3 Drakloak TWM 129
3 Dreepy TWM 128

Trainer: 28
3 Crispin SCR 133
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
3 Poké Pad POR 81
3 Rare Candy MEG 125
2 Air Balloon ASC 181
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Ultra Ball MEG 131
2 Hilda WHT 84
2 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
3 Night Stretcher ASC 196
2 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144

Energy: 14
6 Fire Energy
4 Water Energy
4 Psychic Energy

Total Cards: 60

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

You need 60 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 5 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

All 6 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 3 took Brilliant Blender, 1 took Hero's Cape and 1 took Neo Upper Energy. The flex table shows you all 4. 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 Brilliant Blender and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 1 of the 5 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Crispin. The core table marks it. In copies, that is 3 of the 19 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Salamence ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck have no printed Weakness at all. That is rare and it is worth a fortune: nobody gets to double the damage they put on you.

Nothing to show here today, and that is information in itself: none of the 126 decks we track carry the type that would double the damage you take.

Going the other way, none of the 126 decks we track have an attacker Weak to your types. So you are not going to win trades on Weakness — you will have to win them on raw damage.