Toxtricity deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Toxtricity looks like when you open the box

Across the 27 lists we counted, this deck runs 16 to 18 Pokémon, 31 to 33 Trainers and 10 to 12 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Darkness and Psychic.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « toxtricity-box ». The cards we can recognise in that label are Toxtricity. The bit « box » does not point at any one card in the list, so we leave it out of the name rather than make up a meaning.

Look at the Energy: 10 to 12 out of 60, when half the 97 decks we track run 10 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. Toxtricity 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: 31 to 33 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 10 to 13 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 91 of the 97 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

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

Toxtricity is in all 27 lists, 4 copies of it. Its Ability is called Sinister Surge, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « Once during your turn, you may use this Ability. Search your deck for a Basic {D} Energy card and attach it to 1 of your Benched {D} Pokémon. Then, shuffle your deck. If you attached Energy to a Pokémon in this way, place 2 damage counters on that Pokémon. »

How Toxtricity actually wins

Mega Absol ex attacks with Claw of Darkness for 200. It needs 3 Energy, 2 Darkness and 1 Colorless attached, and it has 280 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: "Your opponent reveals their hand, and you discard a card you find there."

The cost of Claw of Darkness 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. Toxtricity, which the list runs 4 of, has an Ability called Sinister Surge: it goes into your deck for Energy and attaches it. 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.

There is another trick in this list, and the whole of it happens in one turn. Team Rocket's Petrel goes into your deck for a Trainer card and puts it in your hand. Lumiose City is one, and it puts Basic Pokémon onto your Bench in one go. A full Bench on turn one is what decides the game in a deck with lines to build. One detail that matters: Team Rocket's Petrel is a Supporter, so that turn you play no other Supporter. Items all still go through. And if Team Rocket's Petrel will not show up, Secret Box goes and gets it: every list brings it for exactly that.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Mega Absol 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.

Mega Absol ex is a Mega Evolution ex, and that is the most expensive rule in the game: your opponent takes 3 Prize cards instead of one the turn it goes down. They need 6 to win the game, so 2 well-placed knockouts on that card beat you, where it would take 6 knockouts anywhere else on your Bench. Pecharunt ex carries the plain "ex" suffix, and give up 2. That is already a lot, and it is less than the Mega.

The attackers in the deck's core, with their best attack, its cost and their Weakness

Pokémon	HP	Attack	Damage	Cost	Weakness	Retreat
Close Mega Absol exBasic	280	Claw of Darkness	200	Darkness + Darkness + Colorless	Grass ×2	2
Close ToxtricityStage 1	140	Gentle Slap	100	Darkness + Darkness + Colorless	Fighting ×2	2
Close MunkidoriBasic	110	Mind Bend	60	Psychic + Colorless	Darkness ×2	1
Close Pecharunt exBasic	190	Irritated Outburst	60×	Darkness + Darkness	Fighting ×2	1

The core: the 18 cards every list runs

These 18 cards appear in all 27 lists, without a single exception. That is 48 of the 60 slots. The other 12 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 48 slots break down: 24 Trainers, 14 Pokémon, 10 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.

9 of those 18 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Toxtricity (3 to 4), Boss's Orders (2 to 3) and Air Balloon (1 to 2), plus 6 more. Add those spreads up and you get 11 copies the 27 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
4	Close Toxel	PFL 67	Pokémon	stays
3–4	Close Toxtricity	PFL 68	Pokémon	stays
3	Close Munkidori	TWM 95	Pokémon	leaves
1	Close Brute Bonnet	TWM 118	Pokémon	leaves
1	Close Mega Absol ex	MEG 86	Pokémon	stays
1	Close Pecharunt ex	SFA 39	Pokémon	leaves
4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
1–2	Close Air Balloon	ASC 181	Trainer	stays
1–2	Close Energy Recycler	DRI 164	Trainer	stays
1–2	Close Energy Switch	MEG 115	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
2–4	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	DRI 176	Trainer	stays
1–2	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
1	Close Secret Box	TWM 163	Trainer	leaves
1	Close Special Red Card	CRI 82	Trainer	stays
10–12	Darkness Energy	MEE 7	Energy	stays

The 19 cards that change from list to list

19 cards fight over the 12 slots that are left: 7 above three lists in four, 7 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Fezandipiti ex at 96 %, Pecharunt at 96 % and Ultra Ball at 96 %, plus 4 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Lumiose City, at 52 %: 14 of 27 players took it, 13 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Team Rocket's Transceiver (5 lists out of 27) and Team Rocket's Sneasel (2 lists out of 27).

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
96 %26/27	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
96 %26/27	Close Pecharunt	1–2	SVP 149	Pokémon
96 %26/27	Close Ultra Ball	1–2	MEG 131	Trainer
93 %25/27	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1–2	DRI 180	Trainer
85 %23/27	Close Chi-Yu	1	PBL 59	Pokémon
85 %23/27	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
81 %22/27	Close Pokégear 3.0	1–3	SVI 186	Trainer
70 %19/27	Close Morty's Conviction	1–2	TEF 155	Trainer
52 %14/27	Close Lumiose City	1	POR 77	Trainer
44 %12/27	Close Team Rocket's Factory	1	DRI 173	Trainer
41 %11/27	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
26 %7/27	Close Hassel	1–2	TWM 151	Trainer
19 %5/27	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	1–2	DRI 178	Trainer
7 %2/27	Close Team Rocket's Sneasel	1	DRI 128	Pokémon
7 %2/27	Close Yveltal	1	MEG 88	Pokémon
7 %2/27	Close Dark Bell	2	PBL 75	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Mega Darkrai ex	1	PBL 48	Pokémon
4 %1/27	Close Punk Helmet	2	PFL 92	Trainer
4 %1/27	Close Team Rocket's Venture Bomb	1	DRI 179	Trainer

What Toxtricity costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 37 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 18 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

Add Secret Box: all 27 players picked the same one. You are allowed ONE ACE SPEC card in your whole deck, so a single copy covers it whatever it costs.

Then there is time. 6 of the 18 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Munkidori, Brute Bonnet, Pecharunt ex and Night Stretcher, plus 2 more. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 9 of the 48 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Toxtricity struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Grass, Fighting and Darkness, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 40 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Festival Lead (Thwackey), N's Zoroark ex and Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, plus 37 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 40 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 57 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 Darkness and Psychic, and 34 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Alakazam / Dudunsparce, Dragapult ex / Dusknoir and Slowking, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Toxtricity deck list?

There isn't one. Across 27 tournament lists harvested between 11 August 2026 and 1 September 2026, 18 cards turn up in every single one, 48 slots out of 60. The remaining 12 change from player to player, with 19 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

How many lists is this counted on, and where do they come from?

27 lists, played across 26 different tournaments, harvested between 11 August 2026 and 1 September 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 27 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Toxtricity?

With the whole core: 18 cards, 48 slots. Inside it, buy the 24 Trainer slots and the 10 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 14 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Fezandipiti ex at 96 % and Pecharunt at 96 %.

What beats Toxtricity?

Its attackers are Weak to Grass, Fighting and Darkness, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 40 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Festival Lead, N's Zoroark ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass and Mega Lucario ex, among others.

Will Toxtricity survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 6 core cards out of 18 carry the letter H, starting with Munkidori, Brute Bonnet, Pecharunt ex and Night Stretcher, plus 2 more.

Are a lot of people playing Toxtricity?

We have read 27 lists of it, which puts it 58th of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 267 entries for it, 0.65 % of the field, across all its players. That figure is theirs.

These pages are about the same corner of the game. If you came away from this one still wondering about something, start with one of them.