Ethan's Magcargo deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Ethan's Magcargo looks like when you open the box

Across the 9 lists we counted, this deck runs 15 to 20 Pokémon, 27 to 34 Trainers and 10 to 14 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fire.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « ethan-magcargo ». 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: 10 to 14 out of 60, when half the 91 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. Ethan's Magcargo 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: 12 to 13 Supporters, 11 to 18 Items, 0 to 3 Tools and 0 to 3 Stadiums, out of 27 to 34 — the median across the 91 decks we track being 31. Items edge it without crushing the Supporters. And it runs up to 3 Stadiums, which is no accident: it plans on bumping the one across the table.

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

What the card in this deck's name actually does

Ethan's Magcargo gives this deck its name. Here is what is written on it.

Ethan's Magcargo is in all 9 lists, 3 copies of it. Its Ability is called Melt Away, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « If this Pokémon has no Energy attached, it has no Retreat Cost. »

How Ethan's Magcargo actually wins

Ethan's Ho-Oh ex attacks with Shining Feathers for 160, and it costs 4 Energy (Fire, Fire, Fire and Fire), with 230 HP to absorb the answer. The whole list exists to get it online fast.

Do the arithmetic, it decides your first few turns. One Energy attached a turn, 4 to pay for Shining Feathers: with no help you swing on turn 4, and every card that accelerates Energy buys one of those turns back.

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

Ethan's Ho-Oh 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
Ethan's Ho-Oh exBasic	230	Shining Feathers	160	Fire + Fire + Fire + Fire	Water ×2	2
Ethan's MagcargoStage 1	130	Lava Burst	70×	Fire + Fire + Fire	Water ×2	3
Ethan's SlugmaBasic	80	Steady Firebreathing	20	Fire	Water ×2	2

The core: the 11 cards every list runs

These 11 cards appear in all 9 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: 11 Trainers, 11 Pokémon, 12 Energy. The balance is a normal one, so it is the cards themselves, more than the split, that give this deck its character.

7 of those 11 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Ethan's Slugma (3 to 4), Ethan's Ho-Oh ex (3 to 4) and Ethan's Adventure (2 to 4), plus 4 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
3–4	Ethan's Slugma	DRI 35	Pokémon	stays
3–4	Ethan's Ho-Oh ex	DRI 39	Pokémon	stays
3	Ethan's Magcargo	DRI 36	Pokémon	stays
1	Fezandipiti ex	ASC 142	Pokémon	leaves
2–4	Ethan's Adventure	DRI 165	Trainer	stays
2	Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
2–4	Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
2	Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
1–2	Switch	MEG 130	Trainer	stays
1–4	Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
10–14	Fire Energy	MEE 2	Energy	stays

The 34 cards that change from list to list

34 cards fight over the 26 slots that are left: 6 above three lists in four, 17 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Special Red Card at 89 %, Latias ex at 78 % and Ethan's Pinsir at 78 %, plus 3 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Mega Kangaskhan ex, at 56 %: 5 of 9 players took it, 4 put something else there. Read its text before you decide. Right at the bottom, Ethan's Cyndaquil at 22 % and Ethan's Quilava at 22 %: 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 %8/9	Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
78 %7/9	Latias ex	1–2	SSP 76	Pokémon
78 %7/9	Ethan's Pinsir	1	DRI 1	Pokémon
78 %7/9	Energy Retrieval	3–4	SVI 171	Trainer
78 %7/9	Lana's Aid	1–2	TWM 155	Trainer
78 %7/9	Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
67 %6/9	Pokégear 3.0	2	SVI 186	Trainer
56 %5/9	Mega Kangaskhan ex	2	MEG 104	Pokémon
56 %5/9	Team Rocket's Petrel	4	DRI 176	Trainer
56 %5/9	Team Rocket's Transceiver	4	DRI 178	Trainer
56 %5/9	Team Rocket's Factory	3	DRI 173	Trainer
44 %4/9	Poké Pad	3–4	POR 81	Trainer
44 %4/9	Firebreather	1–3	PFL 89	Trainer
44 %4/9	Energy Recycler	1–3	DRI 164	Trainer
44 %4/9	Energy Search	1	POR 72	Trainer
33 %3/9	Battle Cage	1–3	PFL 85	Trainer
33 %3/9	Brave Bangle	1–2	WHT 80	Trainer
22 %2/9	Ethan's Cyndaquil	2	DRI 32	Pokémon
22 %2/9	Ethan's Quilava	2	DRI 33	Pokémon
22 %2/9	Chi-Yu	1	MEG 31	Pokémon
22 %2/9	Ethan's Typhlosion	1	DRI 34	Pokémon
22 %2/9	Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
22 %2/9	Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
22 %2/9	Air Balloon	1–2	ASC 181	Trainer
11 %1/9	Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
11 %1/9	Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
11 %1/9	Tatsugiri	1	TWM 131	Pokémon
11 %1/9	Blowtorch	1	PFL 86	Trainer
11 %1/9	Gravity Mountain	1	SSP 177	Trainer
11 %1/9	Kieran	1	TWM 154	Trainer
11 %1/9	Max Rod	1	PRE 116	Trainer
11 %1/9	Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
11 %1/9	Surfer	1	SSP 187	Trainer
11 %1/9	Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer

The most common Ethan's Magcargo list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 34 slots come from the core, the cards all 9 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 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 9 lists actually showed. It comes to 16 Pokémon, 32 Trainers and 12 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: 16
4 Ethan's Slugma DRI 35
3 Ethan's Ho-Oh ex DRI 39
3 Ethan's Magcargo DRI 36
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
2 Latias ex SSP 76
1 Ethan's Pinsir DRI 1
2 Mega Kangaskhan ex MEG 104

Trainer: 32
3 Ethan's Adventure DRI 165
2 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
1 Switch MEG 130
1 Ultra Ball MEG 131
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
4 Energy Retrieval
1 Lana's Aid TWM 155
1 Precious Trolley SSP 185
2 Pokégear 3.0 BLK 084
4 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
4 Team Rocket's Transceiver DRI 178
3 Team Rocket's Factory DRI 173
1 Firebreather PFL 89

Energy: 12
12 Fire Energy MEE 2

Total Cards: 60

What Ethan's Magcargo costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 45 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 11 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 Ethan's Ho-Oh ex and Fezandipiti ex, by a distance. The 11 Trainer slots in the core cost next to nothing, and you probably own some already. All 9 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 7 took Precious Trolley, 1 took Max Rod and 1 took Prime Catcher. 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. 2 of the 11 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Fezandipiti ex and Night Stretcher. The core table marks each of them. The date belongs to the publisher, and we do not have it.

What Ethan's Magcargo struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Water, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 22 of the 91 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Festival Lead (Seaking), Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass and Raging Bolt ex (Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex), plus 19 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 Fire, and 29 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Mega Excadrill ex, Festival Lead and Slowking, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Ethan's Magcargo deck list?

There isn't one, and that is the whole point. Across 9 tournament lists harvested on 16 August 2026, 11 cards turn up in every single one — 34 slots out of 60. The remaining 26 change from player to player, with 34 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

9 lists, played across 9 different tournaments, harvested on 16 August 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 9 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Ethan's Magcargo?

With the whole core: 11 cards, 34 slots. Inside it, buy the 11 Trainer slots and the 12 Energy first — they are cheap and they carry over into your next deck. Leave Ethan's Ho-Oh 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 Special Red Card at 89 % and Latias ex at 78 %.

What beats Ethan's Magcargo?

Its attackers are Weak to Water, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 22 of the 91 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Festival Lead, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, Raging Bolt ex and Mega Greninja ex, among others.

Will Ethan's Magcargo survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 2 core cards out of 11 carry the letter H, starting with Fezandipiti ex and Night Stretcher.

Are a lot of people playing Ethan's Magcargo?

We have read 9 lists of it, which puts it 86th of the 91 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 10 entries for it, 0.04 % 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.