Mega Zygarde ex / Barbaracle deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Mega Zygarde ex / Barbaracle looks like when you open the box

Across the 20 lists we counted, this deck runs 13 to 18 Pokémon, 29 to 35 Trainers and 11 to 15 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fighting.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « zygarde-barbaracle ». 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: 11 to 15 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. Barbaracle 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: 29 to 35 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 10 to 14 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 11 to 19 Items you can play all of in the same turn.

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

Mega Zygarde ex and Barbaracle give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Mega Zygarde ex is in all 20 lists, 2 copies of it. Its attack Nullifying Zero costs 5 Energy (Fighting, Fighting, Fighting, Fighting and Fighting) 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: « For each of your opponent's Pokémon, flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 150 damage to that Pokémon. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.) »

Barbaracle is in all 20 lists, 3 copies of it. Its Ability is called Stone Arms, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « Once during your turn, you may use this Ability. Attach a Basic {F} Energy card from your hand to 1 of your {F} Pokémon. »

How Mega Zygarde ex / Barbaracle actually wins

Mega Zygarde ex attacks with Gaia Wave for 200. It needs 3 Fighting Energy attached, and it has 310 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 Gaia Wave 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. Barbaracle, which the list runs 3 of, has an Ability called Stone Arms: it attaches Energy from your hand on top of the one you already play. 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. Precious Trolley is one, and it puts as many Basic Pokémon as you like 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 rule to know: Precious Trolley is an ACE SPEC card. You are allowed just ONE ACE SPEC in your whole deck, so a second copy is never coming, and taking this one means giving up every other. 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, Team Rocket's Transceiver goes and gets it: 14 of the 20 lists bring it for exactly that.

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

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 Zygarde exBasic	310	Gaia Wave	200	Fighting + Fighting + Fighting	Grass ×2	2
Close BarbaracleStage 1	130	Hammer In	80	Fighting + Fighting + Colorless	Grass ×2	2
Close SolrockBasic	110	Cosmic Beam	70	Fighting	Grass ×2	1
Close LunatoneBasic	110	Power Gem	50	Fighting + Fighting	Grass ×2	1

The core: the 13 cards every list runs

These 13 cards appear in all 20 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: 16 Trainers, 12 Pokémon, 15 Energy. Nothing stands out in that split. What sets this deck apart is how thick its core is: 43 of the 60 slots are the same for everybody, when half the 97 decks we track fix 34 or fewer. Fewer choices left to you than usual, and fewer ways to get them wrong.

11 of those 13 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Binacle (3 to 4), Mega Zygarde ex (2 to 3) and Solrock (2 to 3), plus 8 more. Add those spreads up and you get 18 copies the 20 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
3	Close Barbaracle	POR 43	Pokémon
3–4	Close Binacle	POR 42	Pokémon
2	Close Lunatone	MEG 74	Pokémon
2–3	Close Mega Zygarde ex	POR 47	Pokémon
2–3	Close Solrock	MEG 75	Pokémon
3–4	Close Fighting Gong	MEG 116	Trainer
3–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer
2–4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer
1–2	Close Air Balloon	ASC 181	Trainer
1–2	Close Tarragon	POR 85	Trainer
1–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer
1–2	Close Core Memory	POR 70	Trainer
9–15	Fighting Energy	MEE 6	Energy

The 27 cards that change from list to list

27 cards fight over the 17 slots that are left: 4 above three lists in four, 13 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Premium Power Pro at 90 %, Team Rocket's Petrel at 80 % and Wally's Compassion at 80 %, plus 1 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Night Stretcher, at 45 %: 9 of 20 players took it, 11 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 2 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Carmine (5 lists out of 20) and Team Rocket's Watchtower (5 lists out of 20).

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
90 %18/20	Close Premium Power Pro	2–3	MEG 124	Trainer
80 %16/20	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–4	DRI 176	Trainer
80 %16/20	Close Wally's Compassion	1	MEG 132	Trainer
75 %15/20	Close Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex	1–2	TWM 112	Pokémon
70 %14/20	Close Team Rocket's Transceiver	2–3	DRI 178	Trainer
70 %14/20	Close Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
65 %13/20	Close Jumbo Ice Cream	2–4	PFL 91	Trainer
65 %13/20	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
65 %13/20	Close Rocky Fighting Energy	1–4	POR 87	Energy
45 %9/20	Close Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
30 %6/20	Close Energy Retrieval	1–2	SVI 171	Trainer
30 %6/20	Close Judge	2	POR 76	Trainer
30 %6/20	Close Switch	1–2	MEG 130	Trainer
30 %6/20	Close Ultra Ball	2	MEG 131	Trainer
25 %5/20	Close Carmine	1–2	TWM 145	Trainer
25 %5/20	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	2	DRI 180	Trainer
25 %5/20	Close Scoop Up Cyclone	1	TWM 162	Trainer
20 %4/20	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
10 %2/20	Close Bloodmoon Ursaluna	1	PRE 54	Pokémon
5 %1/20	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
5 %1/20	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
5 %1/20	Close Energy Switch	2	MEG 115	Trainer
5 %1/20	Close Pokégear 3.0	2	SVI 186	Trainer
5 %1/20	Close Battle Cage	1	PFL 85	Trainer
5 %1/20	Close Brock's Scouting	1	JTG 146	Trainer
5 %1/20	Close Colress's Tenacity	1	SFA 57	Trainer
5 %1/20	Close Scramble Switch	1	SSP 186	Trainer

The most common Mega Zygarde ex / Barbaracle list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 43 slots come from the core, the cards all 20 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 8 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 13 Pokémon, 32 Trainers and 15 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 20 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.

There is no price total on this page. The readings we have are Cardmarket's, in euros, and the shop link further down sends you to TCGplayer, which quotes in dollars. Putting a euro figure next to a dollar shop would be one currency too many. The French and German pages carry the total.

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: 13
3 Barbaracle POR 43
3 Binacle POR 42
2 Lunatone MEG 74
2 Mega Zygarde ex POR 47
2 Solrock MEG 75
1 Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex TWM 112

Trainer: 32
4 Fighting Gong MEG 116
3 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
3 Poké Pad POR 81
2 Air Balloon ASC 181
2 Tarragon POR 85
1 Boss's Orders MEG 114
1 Core Memory POR 70
3 Premium Power Pro MEG 124
4 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
1 Wally's Compassion MEG 132
2 Team Rocket's Transceiver DRI 178
1 Precious Trolley SSP 185
4 Jumbo Ice Cream PFL 91
1 Special Red Card CRI 82

Energy: 15
15 Fighting Energy MEE 6

Total Cards: 60

What Mega Zygarde ex / Barbaracle costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 40 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 13 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

All 20 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 14 took Precious Trolley, 5 took Scoop Up Cyclone and 1 took Scramble Switch. 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 Precious Trolley and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time, and the answer is a good one: not one of the 13 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation. This deck walks through the change whole.

What Mega Zygarde ex / Barbaracle struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Grass, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 19 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Festival Lead (Thwackey), Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex and Cynthia's Garchomp ex (Cynthia's Roserade), plus 16 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 19 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 78 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 Fighting, and 34 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Dragapult ex, Alakazam / Dudunsparce and Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Mega Zygarde ex / Barbaracle deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 20 tournament lists harvested on 11 August 2026, 13 cards turn up in every single one, 43 slots out of 60. The remaining 17 change from player to player, with 27 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

20 lists, played across 20 different tournaments, harvested on 11 August 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 20 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Mega Zygarde ex / Barbaracle?

With the whole core: 13 cards, 43 slots. Inside it, buy the 16 Trainer slots and the 15 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 12 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Premium Power Pro at 90 % and Team Rocket's Petrel at 80 %.

What beats Mega Zygarde ex / Barbaracle?

Its attackers are Weak to Grass, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 19 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Festival Lead, Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex, Cynthia's Garchomp ex and Beedrill ex, among others.

Will Mega Zygarde ex / Barbaracle survive the next rotation?

Yes, whole: not one of the 13 core cards carries the letter H. At equal price, that is the argument that should settle where your money goes.

Are a lot of people playing Mega Zygarde ex / Barbaracle?

We have read 20 lists of it, which puts it 81st of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 56 entries for it, 0.14 % 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.