Scizor ex

What Scizor ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 13 lists we counted, this deck runs 15 to 18 Pokémon, 27 to 32 Trainers and 12 to 15 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Metal.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « scizor-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: 12 to 15 out of 60, when half the 125 decks we track run 11 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. Metang 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 32 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 125 decks we track. Inside that, 9 to 12 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 15 to 17 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 3 Stadiums, and 118 of the 125 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 Scizor ex actually wins

Genesect ex attacks with Protect Charge for 150. It needs 3 Energy, 2 Metal and 1 Colorless attached, and it has 220 HP. And the number is not everything the card says. There is one more line printed under the attack, and it is the one everybody skips: "During your opponent's next turn, this Pokémon takes 30 less damage from attacks (after applying Weakness and Resistance)."

The cost of Protect Charge 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. Metang, which the list runs 3 of, has an Ability called Metal Maker: it looks at the top of your deck and attaches the Energy it finds there. 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.

Energy is not your only clock. Beldum has to climb a step before it becomes Metang, and an evolution asleep at the bottom of your deck does you no good at all. The list has that covered. Genesect ex, a single copy in the list, has an Ability called Metallic Signal: it goes into your deck for an evolution.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Genesect ex 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.

Scizor ex and Genesect ex carry the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when one of them falls. They need 6 to win: 3 well-placed knockouts on those cards 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 Genesect exBasic	220	Protect Charge	150		Fire ×2	2
Close Scizor exStage 1	270	Cross Breaker	120×		Fire ×2	2
Close MetangStage 1	100	Beam	60		Fire ×2	2
Close ScytherBasic	90	Slashing Strike	60		Fire ×2	1

The core: the 10 cards every list runs

These 10 cards appear in all 13 lists, without a single exception. That is 39 of the 60 slots. The other 21 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 39 slots break down: 15 Trainers, 10 Pokémon, 14 Energy. Nothing stands out in that split. What sets this deck apart is how thick its core is: 39 of the 60 slots are the same for everybody, when half the 125 decks we track fix 26 or fewer. Fewer choices left to you than usual, and fewer ways to get them wrong.

8 of those 10 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Scyther (3 to 4), Genesect ex (1 to 2) and Lillie's Determination (3 to 4), plus 5 more. Add those spreads up and you get 11 copies the 13 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	Close Metang	TEF 114	Pokémon	leaves
3	Close Scizor ex	TEF 111	Pokémon	leaves
3–4	Close Scyther	TEF 1	Pokémon	leaves
1–2	Close Genesect ex	BLK 67	Pokémon	stays
3–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Energy Recycler	DRI 164	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
1–3	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
12–15	Metal Energy	MEE 8	Energy	stays

The 33 cards that change from list to list

33 cards fight over the 21 slots that are left: 5 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: Full Metal Lab at 85 %, Pokégear 3.0 at 85 % and Energy Retrieval at 85 %, plus 2 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Mega Skarmory ex, at 54 %: 7 of 13 players took it, 6 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Team Rocket's Petrel (3 lists out of 13) and Harlequin (3 lists out of 13).

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
85 %11/13	Close Full Metal Lab	2–3	TEF 148	Trainer
85 %11/13	Close Pokégear 3.0	2–3	SVI 186	Trainer
85 %11/13	Close Energy Retrieval	1–2	SVI 171	Trainer
85 %11/13	Close Maximum Belt	1	TEF 154	Trainer
77 %10/13	Close Metagross	1–2	CRI 61	Pokémon
69 %9/13	Close Beldum	3	TEF 113	Pokémon
54 %7/13	Close Mega Skarmory ex	1	POR 55	Pokémon
54 %7/13	Close Iron Defender	4	MEG 118	Trainer
54 %7/13	Close Judge	2	POR 76	Trainer
46 %6/13	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	2–3	TEF 144	Trainer
46 %6/13	Close Lacey	2	SCR 139	Trainer
38 %5/13	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
31 %4/13	Close Beldum	4	CRI 59	Pokémon
31 %4/13	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
31 %4/13	Close Air Balloon	2	ASC 181	Trainer
31 %4/13	Close Philippe	2	CRI 79	Trainer
31 %4/13	Close Switch	2	MEG 130	Trainer
31 %4/13	Close Kieran	1	TWM 154	Trainer
23 %3/13	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–2	DRI 176	Trainer
23 %3/13	Close Harlequin	1	WHT 83	Trainer
23 %3/13	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Mega Mawile ex	1	MEG 94	Pokémon
15 %2/13	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
15 %2/13	Close Gravity Mountain	1	SSP 177	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Night Stretcher	1	ASC 196	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Powerglass	1	SFA 63	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Sacred Ash	1	DRI 168	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1	DRI 180	Trainer
15 %2/13	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Wally's Compassion	2	MEG 132	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Iris's Fighting Spirit	1	JTG 149	Trainer
8 %1/13	Close Surfer	1	SSP 187	Trainer

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

You need 43 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 10 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

All 13 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 11 took Maximum Belt and 2 took Unfair Stamp. 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. 3 of the 10 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Metang, Scizor ex and Scyther. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 9 of the 39 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Scizor ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fire, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 13 of the 125 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, Ethan's Typhlosion and Ceruledge ex, plus 10 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 13 decks out of the 125 we track. The other 112 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 Metal, and 39 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: N's Zoroark ex, Dhelmise and Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.