Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex

What Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 45 lists we counted, this deck runs 13 to 20 Pokémon, 24 to 31 Trainers and 12 to 20 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Grass.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « sinistcha-ogerpon ». 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 20 out of 60, when half the 126 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. Sinistcha 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: 24 to 31 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 126 decks we track. Inside that, 5 to 12 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 12 to 20 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 4 Stadiums, and 87 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 cards in this deck's name actually do

Sinistcha and Teal Mask Ogerpon ex give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Sinistcha is in all 45 lists, 3 copies of it. Its attack Cursed Drop costs 1 Energy (Grass) 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 4 damage counters on your opponent's Pokémon in any way you like. »

Teal Mask Ogerpon ex is in all 45 lists, 4 copies of it. Its Ability is called Teal Dance, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « Once during your turn, you may attach a Basic {G} Energy card from your hand to this Pokémon. If you attached Energy to a Pokémon in this way, draw a card. »

How Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex actually wins

Sinistcha attacks with Spill the Tea. It needs 1 Grass Energy attached, and it has 70 HP. Watch the damage box. "70×" does not mean 70 damage: it means 70 per card you discard yourself to fire the attack. The total moves every turn.

One Energy to attack is enormous, and it means the attack cost will never be what slows you down. What slows you down here is getting Sinistcha up. Once the line is standing you swing every turn with nothing to recharge, and you can start again immediately when your attacker falls.

Good news on mobility: pulling Sinistcha 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.

Teal Mask Ogerpon ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Teal Mask Ogerpon 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 SinistchaStage 1	70	Spill the Tea	70×		Fire ×2	1
Close Teal Mask Ogerpon exBasic	210	Myriad Leaf Shower	30+		Fire ×2	1

The core: the 6 cards every list runs

These 6 cards appear in all 45 lists, without a single exception. That is 35 of the 60 slots. The other 25 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 35 slots break down: 11 Trainers, 7 Pokémon, 17 Energy. Nothing stands out in that split. What sets this deck apart is how thick its core is: 35 of the 60 slots are the same for everybody, when half the 126 decks we track fix 25 or fewer. Fewer choices left to you than usual, and fewer ways to get them wrong.

5 of those 6 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Teal Mask Ogerpon ex (3 to 4), Sinistcha (2 to 4) and Lillie's Determination (2 to 4), plus 2 more. Add those spreads up and you get 16 copies the 45 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 Teal Mask Ogerpon ex	TWM 25	Pokémon	leaves
2–4	Close Sinistcha	TWM 22	Pokémon	leaves
4	Close Bug Catching Set	TWM 143	Trainer	leaves
2–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
1–4	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
12–20	Grass Energy	MEE 1	Energy	stays

The 65 cards that change from list to list

65 cards fight over the 25 slots that are left: 5 above three lists in four, 48 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Sinistcha ex at 98 %, Poltchageist at 93 % and Night Stretcher at 91 %, plus 2 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Energy Switch, at 49 %: 22 of 45 players took it, 23 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 4 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Shaymin (11 lists out of 45) and Briar (10 lists out of 45).

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
98 %44/45	Close Sinistcha ex	1–2	TWM 23	Pokémon
93 %42/45	Close Poltchageist	2–4	PBL 5	Pokémon
91 %41/45	Close Night Stretcher	1–4	ASC 196	Trainer
82 %37/45	Close Ultra Ball	1–4	MEG 131	Trainer
78 %35/45	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
73 %33/45	Close Poké Pad	2–4	POR 81	Trainer
71 %32/45	Close Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
58 %26/45	Close Forest of Vitality	1–4	MEG 117	Trainer
49 %22/45	Close Energy Switch	1–4	MEG 115	Trainer
44 %20/45	Close Tera Orb	1–3	SSP 189	Trainer
38 %17/45	Close Flutter Mane	1	TEF 78	Pokémon
33 %15/45	Close Lana's Aid	1	TWM 155	Trainer
31 %14/45	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	1–4	TEF 144	Trainer
31 %14/45	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
29 %13/45	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1–2	DRI 180	Trainer
29 %13/45	Close Naveen	1–2	POR 79	Trainer
27 %12/45	Close Brock's Scouting	1–2	JTG 146	Trainer
24 %11/45	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
22 %10/45	Close Briar	1	SCR 132	Trainer
22 %10/45	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
20 %9/45	Close Pokégear 3.0	1–3	SVI 186	Trainer
20 %9/45	Close Lisia's Appeal	1	SSP 179	Trainer
20 %9/45	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
18 %8/45	Close Poltchageist	1–4	TWM 20	Pokémon
18 %8/45	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
16 %7/45	Close Meowth ex	1–2	POR 62	Pokémon
16 %7/45	Close Carmine	1–3	TWM 145	Trainer
13 %6/45	Close Iron Leaves ex	1	TEF 25	Pokémon
13 %6/45	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
11 %5/45	Close Iris's Fighting Spirit	2–3	JTG 149	Trainer
11 %5/45	Close Area Zero Underdepths	1–2	SCR 131	Trainer
11 %5/45	Close N's Plan	1	BLK 83	Trainer
9 %4/45	Close Brave Bangle	1–2	WHT 80	Trainer
9 %4/45	Close Prism Tower	2	CRI 80	Trainer
7 %3/45	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
7 %3/45	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–4	DRI 176	Trainer
7 %3/45	Close Morty's Conviction	1–2	TEF 155	Trainer
4 %2/45	Close Bayleef	2	MEG 9	Pokémon
4 %2/45	Close Chikorita	2	MEG 8	Pokémon
4 %2/45	Close Meganium	2	MEG 10	Pokémon
4 %2/45	Close Noctowl	2	SCR 115	Pokémon
4 %2/45	Close Celebi	1	MEG 12	Pokémon
4 %2/45	Close Latias ex	1	SSP 76	Pokémon
4 %2/45	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
4 %2/45	Close Mew ex	1	30C 66	Pokémon
4 %2/45	Close Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
4 %2/45	Close Hassel	2	TWM 151	Trainer
4 %2/45	Close Energy Retrieval	1	SVI 171	Trainer
4 %2/45	Close Max Rod	1	PRE 116	Trainer
4 %2/45	Close Sacred Ash	1	DRI 168	Trainer
2 %1/45	Close Cinderace	4	MEG 28	Pokémon
2 %1/45	Close Hoothoot	2	SCR 114	Pokémon
2 %1/45	Close Hoothoot	2	TEF 126	Pokémon
2 %1/45	Close Yanma	2	DRI 2	Pokémon
2 %1/45	Close Yanmega ex	2	DRI 3	Pokémon
2 %1/45	Close Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
2 %1/45	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
2 %1/45	Close Explorer's Guidance	2	TEF 147	Trainer
2 %1/45	Close Brilliant Blender	1	SSP 164	Trainer
2 %1/45	Close Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1	TEF 145	Trainer
2 %1/45	Close Dawn	1	PFL 87	Trainer
2 %1/45	Close Kieran	1	TWM 154	Trainer
2 %1/45	Close Surfer	1	SSP 187	Trainer
2 %1/45	Psychic Energy	2	MEE 13	Energy
2 %1/45	Close Legacy Energy	1	TWM 167	Energy

How many different cards Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex needs, and how long it will last

You need 71 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 6 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

All 45 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 32 took Prime Catcher, 9 took Unfair Stamp and 2 took Max Rod. 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 Prime Catcher and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 3 of the 6 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, Sinistcha and Bug Catching Set. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 11 of the 35 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fire, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 13 of the 126 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 126 we track. The other 113 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 Grass, and 24 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: N's Zoroark ex, Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama and Mega Sharpedo ex / Toxtricity, 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. Poltchageist has Hide 'n' Sneak, and 42 lists out of 45 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. Careful, though: the Ability protects the card that has it, and only that card. The rest of your bench takes everything.

Of the decks we track right now, 6 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.

The other way round, this deck attacks with counters too: Sinistcha with Cursed Drop, Sinistcha ex with Re-Brew and Poltchageist with Furtive Drop. Those attacks have no damage number printed next to them at all. In front of a Pokémon that shuts off effects, they place nothing. Zero.

Of the decks we track, 6 play a Pokémon like that, and they are in the table below. The day you see one come across the table, stop counting on your counters. You need an attack with a real number written on it. You have one: Spill the Tea, on Sinistcha, for 70×.