Slaking ex

What Slaking ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 6 lists we counted, this deck runs 14 to 21 Pokémon, 31 to 36 Trainers and 8 to 10 Energy. Its attacks do not ask for any particular type of Energy.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « slaking-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 10 out of 60, when half the 124 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 takes a while to set up. Slaking ex is a Stage 2 Pokémon: you put down the baby, you evolve it, and then you evolve it again. Three cards stacked before anything attacks. That is what the hardest-hitting decks cost you, and it is also where they crack — a fast opponent can bury you before the line is standing.

Look at the Trainers: 31 to 36 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 124 decks we track. Inside that, 12 to 14 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 12 to 15 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 5 Stadiums, and 19 of the 124 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

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

Slaking ex is in all 6 lists, 3 copies of it. Its Ability is called Born to Slack, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « If your opponent has no Pokémon ex or Pokémon V in play, this Pokémon can't attack. »

How Slaking ex actually wins

Slaking ex attacks with Great Swing for 280. It needs 2 Colorless Energy attached, and it has 340 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: "Discard an Energy from this Pokémon."

The cost of Great Swing decides your first few turns. You only get to attach one Energy a turn, and that attack asks for 2. On your own attachments alone, your first real swing lands on turn 2. Except you are not on your own. Crispin, which the list runs 2 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. Slakoth has to climb two steps before it becomes Slaking ex, and an evolution asleep at the bottom of your deck does you no good at all. The list has that covered. Hilda, a single copy in the list, goes into your deck for an evolution.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Slaking ex back to the Bench you have to discard 4 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 4 Energy you spent 4 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.

Slaking ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Slaking 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 Slaking exStage 2	340	Great Swing	280		Fighting ×2	4
Close Fan RotomBasic	70	Assault Landing	70		Lightning ×2	1
Close VigorothStage 1	90	Slashing Claw	50		Fighting ×2	2

The core: the 15 cards every list runs

These 15 cards appear in all 6 lists, without a single exception. That is 34 of the 60 slots. The other 26 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 34 slots break down: 23 Trainers, 9 Pokémon, 2 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.

14 of those 15 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Slaking ex (2 to 3), Slakoth (3 to 4) and Vigoroth (1 to 2), plus 11 more. Add those spreads up and you get 19 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
2–3	Close Slaking ex	SSP 147	Pokémon	leaves
3–4	Close Slakoth	SSP 145	Pokémon	leaves
1–2	Close Vigoroth	SSP 146	Pokémon	leaves
1–2	Close Fan Rotom	SCR 118	Pokémon	leaves
2–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
2–3	Close Rare Candy	MEG 125	Trainer	stays
2–4	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	DRI 180	Trainer	stays
1–3	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
2	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
1–2	Close Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
1–3	Close Colress's Tenacity	SFA 57	Trainer	leaves
1–3	Close Hilda	WHT 84	Trainer	stays
1–2	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	DRI 176	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Boomerang Energy	TWM 166	Energy	leaves

The 39 cards that change from list to list

39 cards fight over the 26 slots that are left: 2 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: Poké Pad at 83 % and Switch at 83 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Dudunsparce, at 50 %: 3 of 6 players took it, 3 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 2 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Budew (1 list out of 6) and Mew ex (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 Poké Pad	2–3	POR 81	Trainer
83 %5/6	Close Switch	1–2	MEG 130	Trainer
67 %4/6	Close Munkidori	1–3	TWM 95	Pokémon
67 %4/6	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
67 %4/6	Close Crispin	2–3	SCR 133	Trainer
67 %4/6	Close Maximum Belt	1	TEF 154	Trainer
67 %4/6	Darkness Energy	2–3	MEE 15	Energy
67 %4/6	Psychic Energy	2–3	MEE 13	Energy
50 %3/6	Close Dudunsparce	2	TEF 129	Pokémon
50 %3/6	Close Dunsparce	2	TEF 128	Pokémon
50 %3/6	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
50 %3/6	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
50 %3/6	Close Black Belt's Training	1	JTG 143	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Counter Gain	1	SSP 169	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Dawn	1	PFL 87	Trainer
50 %3/6	Close Ignition Energy	3–4	WHT 86	Energy
33 %2/6	Close Lunatone	2	MEG 74	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Solrock	2	MEG 75	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Buneary	1	MEG 107	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Dudunsparce ex	1	JTG 121	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Gastrodon	1	SSP 107	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Mega Lopunny ex	1	PFL 84	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Shellos	1	SSP 46	Pokémon
33 %2/6	Close Fighting Gong	3	MEG 116	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Air Balloon	1–2	ASC 181	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Powerglass	2	SFA 63	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close AZ's Tranquility	1	CRI 76	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
33 %2/6	Close Lana's Aid	1	TWM 155	Trainer
33 %2/6	Fighting Energy	4	MEE 6	Energy
17 %1/6	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Mew ex	1	30C 66	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Tatsugiri	1	TWM 131	Pokémon
17 %1/6	Close Pokégear 3.0	3	SVI 186	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Battle Cage	1	PFL 85	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Nighttime Mine	1	ASC 197	Trainer
17 %1/6	Close Mist Energy	1	TEF 161	Energy

The most common Slaking ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 34 slots come from the core, the cards all 6 lists run. The remaining 26 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 19 Pokémon, 33 Trainers and 8 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.

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: 19
3 Slaking ex SSP 147
3 Slakoth SSP 145
2 Vigoroth SSP 146
1 Fan Rotom SCR 118
3 Munkidori TWM 95
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
2 Dudunsparce TEF 129
2 Dunsparce TEF 128
1 Lillie's Clefairy ex JTG 56
1 Meowth ex POR 62

Trainer: 33
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
3 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
3 Rare Candy MEG 125
3 Team Rocket's Watchtower DRI 180
3 Ultra Ball MEG 131
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
1 Colress's Tenacity SFA 57
1 Hilda WHT 84
1 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
3 Poké Pad POR 81
1 Switch MEG 130
2 Crispin SCR 133
1 Maximum Belt TEF 154
1 Black Belt's Training JTG 143
1 Counter Gain SSP 169
1 Dawn PFL 87

Energy: 8
2 Boomerang Energy TWM 166
3 Darkness Energy
3 Psychic Energy

Total Cards: 60

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

You need 54 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 15 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: 4 took Maximum Belt and 2 took Hero's Cape. 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. 8 of the 15 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Slaking ex, Slakoth, Vigoroth and Fan Rotom, plus 4 more. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 17 of the 34 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Slaking ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fighting and Lightning, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 23 of the 124 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, Cynthia's Garchomp ex and Mega Lucario ex, plus 20 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 23 decks out of the 124 we track. The other 101 do not attack into yours, and this table says nothing about them. You will still run into them.

Going the other way, none of the 124 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.