Archaludon ex / N's Zoroark ex deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Archaludon ex / N's Zoroark ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 18 lists we counted, this deck runs 16 to 19 Pokémon, 30 to 35 Trainers and 9 to 12 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Metal, Darkness and Fighting.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « archaludon-zoroark ». 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: 9 to 12 out of 60, when half the 72 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. Archaludon ex 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.

On the Trainer side: 9 to 14 Supporters, 14 to 22 Items, 0 to 4 Tools and 2 Stadiums, out of 30 to 35 — the median across the 72 decks we track being 31. Items edge it without crushing the Supporters.

What those four families of Trainer actually do, and why the Energy count says so much: how to read a deck list.

What the cards in this deck's name actually do

Archaludon ex and N's Zoroark ex give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Archaludon ex is in all 18 lists, 3 copies of it. Its Ability is called Assemble Alloy, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may attach up to 2 Basic {M} Energy cards from your discard pile to your {M} Pokémon in any way you like. »

N's Zoroark ex is in all 18 lists, 3 copies of it. Its Ability is called Trade, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « You must discard a card from your hand in order to use this Ability. Once during your turn, you may draw 2 cards. » Its attack Night Joker costs 2 Energy (Darkness and Darkness) 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: « Choose 1 of your Benched N's Pokémon's attacks and use it as this attack. »

How Archaludon ex / N's Zoroark ex actually wins

N's Zoroark ex attacks with Night Joker, and it costs 2 Energy (Darkness and Darkness). It has 280 HP to absorb the answer. Its damage box is empty, so the table below, which sorts by printed damage, cannot rank it: its printed text above is where the counting happens.

Do the arithmetic, it decides your first few turns. One Energy attached a turn, 2 to pay for Night Joker: with no help you swing on turn 2, and every card that accelerates Energy buys one of those turns back.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games: N's Zoroark ex has a Retreat Cost of 2, which is a whole turn to get it back to the Bench.

Archaludon ex, N's Zoroark ex and Fezandipiti ex carry the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes TWO Prize cards instead of one when one of them falls. They need six to win: three well-placed knockouts on those cards beat you, where it would take six 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
N's Zoroark exStage 1	280	Night JokerChoose 1 of your Benched N's Pokémon's attacks and use it as this attack.	—	Darkness + Darkness	Grass ×2	2
Archaludon exStage 1	300	Metal Defender	220	Metal + Metal + Metal	Fire ×2	2
DuraludonBasic	130	Raging Hammer	80+	Metal + Metal + Colorless	Fire ×2	2
RelicanthBasic	100	Razor Fin	30	Fighting + Colorless	Grass ×2	1

The core: the 13 cards every list runs

These 13 cards appear in all 18 lists, without a single exception. That is 40 of the 60 slots. The other 20 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 40 slots break down: 17 Trainers, 15 Pokémon, 8 Energy. The balance is a normal one, so it is the cards themselves, more than the split, that give this deck its character.

8 of those 13 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Duraludon (2 to 4), N's Zoroark ex (2 to 4) and N's Zorua (2 to 4), plus 5 more. Everybody runs them, the last copy is arguable.

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
2–4	Duraludon	SCR 106	Pokémon	leaves
3	Archaludon ex	SSP 130	Pokémon	leaves
2–4	N's Zoroark ex	JTG 98	Pokémon	stays
2–4	N's Zorua	JTG 97	Pokémon	stays
1	Fezandipiti ex	ASC 142	Pokémon	leaves
1	Relicanth	TEF 84	Pokémon	leaves
4	Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
3–4	Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
2–3	Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
2–4	Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
2	Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
1–2	Special Red Card	CRI 82	Trainer	stays
8–12	Metal Energy	MEE 8	Energy	stays

The 41 cards that change from list to list

41 cards fight over the 20 slots that are left: 5 above three lists in four, 21 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Buddy-Buddy Poffin at 89 %, Team Rocket's Petrel at 89 % and Cyrano at 83 %, plus 2 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Archaludon, at 50 %: 9 of 18 players took it, 9 put something else there. Read its text before you decide. Right at the bottom, Duskull at 17 % and Dusclops at 17 %: personal ideas, only worth copying if you know why.

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
89 %16/18	Buddy-Buddy Poffin	1–4	TEF 144	Trainer
89 %16/18	Team Rocket's Petrel	1–3	DRI 176	Trainer
83 %15/18	Cyrano	2–3	SSP 170	Trainer
83 %15/18	Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
78 %14/18	Judge	1–2	POR 76	Trainer
67 %12/18	Mega Mawile ex	1	MEG 94	Pokémon
67 %12/18	Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
67 %12/18	Scoop Up Cyclone	1	TWM 162	Trainer
56 %10/18	Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
50 %9/18	Archaludon	1	PFL 75	Pokémon
50 %9/18	N's Castle	2	JTG 152	Trainer
50 %9/18	Kieran	1	TWM 154	Trainer
50 %9/18	Philippe	1	CRI 79	Trainer
50 %9/18	Magnetic Metal Energy	2	CRI 85	Energy
44 %8/18	Jumbo Ice Cream	1–2	PFL 91	Trainer
44 %8/18	Air Balloon	1–2	ASC 181	Trainer
33 %6/18	Hilda	1–2	WHT 84	Trainer
33 %6/18	Black Belt's Training	1	JTG 143	Trainer
28 %5/18	Team Rocket's Watchtower	2	DRI 180	Trainer
28 %5/18	Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
17 %3/18	Duskull	2	PRE 35	Pokémon
17 %3/18	Dusclops	1–2	PRE 36	Pokémon
17 %3/18	Dusknoir	1–2	PRE 37	Pokémon
17 %3/18	Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
17 %3/18	Battle Cage	2	PFL 85	Trainer
17 %3/18	Rare Candy	1–2	MEG 125	Trainer
17 %3/18	Enhanced Hammer	1	TWM 148	Trainer
17 %3/18	Handheld Fan	1	TWM 150	Trainer
11 %2/18	Duraludon	1	PFL 74	Pokémon
11 %2/18	Genesect	1	SFA 40	Pokémon
11 %2/18	Crushing Hammer	4	POR 71	Trainer
11 %2/18	Pokégear 3.0	4	SVI 186	Trainer
11 %2/18	Rust Syndicate Grunt	1	PBL 81	Trainer
6 %1/18	Archaludon	1	SCR 107	Pokémon
6 %1/18	Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
6 %1/18	Transformation Tome	4	CRI 83	Trainer
6 %1/18	Full Metal Lab	2	TEF 148	Trainer
6 %1/18	Iron Defender	2	MEG 118	Trainer
6 %1/18	Energy Switch	1	MEG 115	Trainer
6 %1/18	Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
6 %1/18	Lucky Helmet	1	TWM 158	Trainer

The most common Archaludon ex / N's Zoroark ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 40 slots come from the core, the cards all 18 lists run. The remaining 20 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 same guardrails a judge would hold you to: four copies of a card at most, one ACE SPEC, and a split that stays inside what these 18 lists actually showed. It comes to 19 Pokémon, 31 Trainers and 10 Energy.

A word on what it measures, because it changes what you can expect from it. The lists we read are the ones from players who came in the top twenty of their tournament. So there is no losing list to hold up against them, and "the cards that win" is not a sentence this count knows how to write. What you have in front of you is what the players finishing near the top bring most often. Start there.

The text under the table is the one the game expects. Copy it, open the deck manager, paste, and the list builds itself. Names in there are in English, with the set code and collector number right beside them: that pair points at one card and one only, whatever language you play in.

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.

How to read the percentages in the table above, and what order to buy all this in: how to read a deck list.

Pokémon: 19
4 Duraludon SCR 106
3 Archaludon ex SSP 130
3 N's Zoroark ex JTG 98
3 N's Zorua JTG 97
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
1 Relicanth TEF 84
1 Mega Mawile ex MEG 94
1 Psyduck ASC 39
1 Meowth ex POR 62
1 Archaludon PFL 75

Trainer: 31
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Poké Pad POR 81
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
3 Ultra Ball MEG 131
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
2 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
1 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
2 Cyrano SSP 170
1 Switch MEG 130
1 Judge POR 76
1 Scoop Up Cyclone TWM 162
2 N's Castle JTG 152
1 Kieran TWM 154
1 Philippe CRI 79
2 Jumbo Ice Cream PFL 91

Energy: 10
8 Metal Energy MEE 8
2 Magnetic Metal Energy CRI 85

Total Cards: 60

What Archaludon ex / N's Zoroark ex costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 54 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.

Where the money goes, though, we can name: it is Archaludon ex, N's Zoroark ex and Fezandipiti ex, by a distance. The 17 Trainer slots in the core cost next to nothing, and you probably own some already. All 18 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 12 took Scoop Up Cyclone, 5 took Secret Box and 1 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 Scoop Up Cyclone and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 5 of the 13 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Duraludon, Archaludon ex, Fezandipiti ex and Relicanth, plus 1 more. The core table marks each of them. The date belongs to the publisher, and we do not have it.

What Archaludon ex / N's Zoroark ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Grass and Fire, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 20 of the 72 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Festival Lead (Thwackey), Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex and Alakazam / Dudunsparce (Shaymin), plus 17 more decks. The table below takes them one at a time, and those are the lists you practise against first before an event.

Do not stop at this table, though. This deck sets up fast, so what troubles it looks less like a Weakness and more like an opponent who absorbs your first hits and answers harder.

Going the other way, your attackers are Metal, Darkness and Fighting, and 39 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Dragapult ex, Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex and Dragapult ex / Dusknoir, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Archaludon ex / N's Zoroark ex deck list?

There isn't one, and that is the whole point. Across 18 tournament lists harvested on 16 August 2026, 13 cards turn up in every single one — 40 slots out of 60. The remaining 20 change from player to player, with 41 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

18 lists, played across 15 different tournaments, harvested on 16 August 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 18 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Archaludon ex / N's Zoroark ex?

With the whole core: 13 cards, 40 slots. Inside it, buy the 17 Trainer slots and the 8 Energy first — they are cheap and they carry over into your next deck. Leave Archaludon ex, N's Zoroark ex and Fezandipiti ex for last, because that is the bill. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Buddy-Buddy Poffin at 89 % and Team Rocket's Petrel at 89 %.

What beats Archaludon ex / N's Zoroark ex?

Its attackers are Weak to Grass and Fire, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 20 of the 72 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Festival Lead, Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, Alakazam / Dudunsparce and Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex, among others.

Will Archaludon ex / N's Zoroark ex survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 5 core cards out of 13 carry the letter H, starting with Duraludon, Archaludon ex, Fezandipiti ex and Relicanth, plus 1 more.

Are a lot of people playing Archaludon ex / N's Zoroark ex?

We have read 18 lists of it, which puts it 72th of the 72 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 19 entries for it, 0.07 % 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.