Scovillain ex

What Scovillain ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 8 lists we counted, this deck runs 20 to 22 Pokémon, 27 to 31 Trainers and 8 to 11 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Psychic.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « scovillain-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 11 out of 60, when half the 126 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.

It sets up fast. Dudunsparce 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 31 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 126 decks we track. Inside that, 8 to 14 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 10 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

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

Scovillain ex is in all 8 lists, 3 copies of it. Its Ability is called Double Type, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « As long as this Pokémon is in play, it is {G} and {R} type. »

How Scovillain ex actually wins

Dudunsparce attacks with Land Crush for 90. It needs 3 Colorless Energy attached, and it has 140 HP.

The cost of Land Crush 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.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Dudunsparce 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.

Scovillain ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Scovillain 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 DudunsparceStage 1	140	Land Crush	90		Fighting ×2	3
Close MunkidoriBasic	110	Mind Bend	60		Darkness ×2	1
Close CapsakidBasic	70	Headbutt Bounce	20		Fire ×2	1
Close DunsparceBasic	70	Ram	20		Fighting ×2	1

The core: the 14 cards every list runs

These 14 cards appear in all 8 lists, without a single exception. That is 43 of the 60 slots. The other 17 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 43 slots break down: 22 Trainers, 13 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.

11 of those 14 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Capsakid (3 to 4), Munkidori (2 to 3) and Dudunsparce (2 to 3), plus 8 more. Add those spreads up and you get 13 copies the 8 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 Capsakid	SSP 12	Pokémon	leaves
2–3	Close Munkidori	TWM 95	Pokémon	leaves
3	Close Scovillain ex	SSP 37	Pokémon	leaves
2–3	Close Dudunsparce	TEF 129	Pokémon	leaves
2–3	Close Dunsparce	JTG 120	Pokémon	stays
2–4	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Crispin	SCR 133	Trainer	leaves
2–3	Close Risky Ruins	MEG 127	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
2	Close Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
5–7	Fire Energy	MEE 2	Energy	stays
3–4	Darkness Energy	MEE 7	Energy	stays

The 20 cards that change from list to list

20 cards fight over the 17 slots that are left: 7 above three lists in four, 8 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Hero's Cape at 88 %, Froslass at 75 % and Snorunt at 75 %, plus 4 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Crushing Hammer, at 50 %: 4 of 8 players took it, 4 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 3 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Bunnelby (2 lists out of 8) and Diggersby (2 lists out of 8).

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
88 %7/8	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
75 %6/8	Close Froslass	2–3	TWM 53	Pokémon
75 %6/8	Close Snorunt	2–3	ASC 46	Pokémon
75 %6/8	Close Budew	1–2	ASC 16	Pokémon
75 %6/8	Close Dunsparce	1	TEF 128	Pokémon
75 %6/8	Close Ultra Ball	2	MEG 131	Trainer
75 %6/8	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
63 %5/8	Close Judge	1–3	POR 76	Trainer
50 %4/8	Close Crushing Hammer	3	POR 71	Trainer
50 %4/8	Close Powerglass	1	SFA 63	Trainer
38 %3/8	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
38 %3/8	Close Pokégear 3.0	2	SVI 186	Trainer
25 %2/8	Close Bunnelby	3	POR 64	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close Diggersby	3	POR 65	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
25 %2/8	Close Team Rocket's Venture Bomb	3	DRI 179	Trainer
25 %2/8	Close Switch	2	MEG 130	Trainer
13 %1/8	Close Dudunsparce ex	1	JTG 121	Pokémon
13 %1/8	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	2	DRI 176	Trainer
13 %1/8	Close Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer

The most common Scovillain ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 43 slots come from the core, the cards all 8 lists run. The remaining 17 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 9 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 22 Pokémon, 30 Trainers and 8 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 8 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: 22
3 Capsakid SSP 12
3 Munkidori TWM 95
3 Scovillain ex SSP 37
2 Dudunsparce TEF 129
2 Dunsparce JTG 120
3 Froslass TWM 53
3 Snorunt ASC 46
2 Budew ASC 16
1 Dunsparce TEF 128

Trainer: 30
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Poké Pad POR 81
3 Crispin SCR 133
3 Risky Ruins MEG 127
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
1 Hero's Cape TEF 152
2 Ultra Ball MEG 131
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
1 Judge POR 76
3 Crushing Hammer POR 71

Energy: 8
5 Fire Energy MEE 2
3 Darkness Energy MEE 7

Total Cards: 60

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

You need 34 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 14 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

All 8 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 7 took Hero's Cape and 1 took Precious Trolley. 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 Hero's Cape and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 7 of the 14 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Capsakid, Munkidori, Scovillain ex and Dudunsparce, plus 3 more. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 20 of the 43 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Scovillain ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fighting, Darkness and Fire, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 42 of the 126 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: N's Zoroark ex, Mega Sharpedo ex / Toxtricity and Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, plus 39 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 42 decks out of the 126 we track. The other 84 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, and 28 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: N's Zoroark ex, Mega Sharpedo ex / Toxtricity and Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.