Hop's Zacian ex deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it
We took 20 lists of this deck, played across 20 tournaments by 20 people who never talked to each other, and counted every card in every one. We know how every one of them finished that day, and none won their tournament. 8 cards turn up in all of them, 25 slots out of 60. The remaining 35 are fought over by 70 different cards, and that is almost always where a game is won.
- 8 cards show up in all 20 lists, no exceptions: 25 of your 60 slots. Of those, 20 are Trainers, 5 are Pokémon and 0 are Energy. Start there, nobody argues about them.
- Your big card is Hop's Zacian ex, 230 HP. Brave Slash hits for 240, and it costs you 4 Energy (Metal, Metal, Metal and Colorless).
- The sharpest disagreement is over Fezandipiti ex: 11 of the 20 lists run it. The table below has all 70 cards fighting over the 35 free slots.
- Your attackers are Weak to Fire and Fighting, and 14 of the 72 decks we track attack in one of those: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, Mega Lucario ex and Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, among others. They are listed at the bottom, with the card that does the damage.
What Hop's Zacian ex looks like when you open the box
Across the 20 lists we counted, this deck runs 12 to 20 Pokémon, 30 to 42 Trainers and 4 to 13 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Metal.
On results pages and on stream you will see it written « hop-zacian ». 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: 4 to 13 out of 60, when half the 72 decks we track run 10 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.
Nothing here needs evolving — everything that attacks is a Basic Pokémon. Put it down, charge it, swing. That is as fast as the game gets, and it makes those turns where you draw nothing far less painful.
On the Trainer side: 9 to 15 Supporters, 10 to 21 Items, 3 to 5 Tools and 3 to 6 Stadiums, out of 30 to 42 — the median across the 72 decks we track being 31. Items edge it without crushing the Supporters. And it runs up to 6 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 fills the 60 slots
- Pokémon
- 12–20
- Trainers
- 30–42
- Energy
- 4–13
- Supporters
- 9–15
- Items
- 10–21
- Tools
- 3–5
- Stadiums
- 3–6
A range means the lists disagree with each other.
How Hop's Zacian ex actually wins
Hop's Zacian ex attacks with Brave Slash for 240, and it costs 4 Energy (Metal, Metal, Metal and Colorless), 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 Brave Slash: 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: Hop's Zacian ex has a Retreat Cost of 2, which is a whole turn to get it back to the Bench.
Hop's Zacian ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes TWO Prize cards instead of one when Hop's Zacian ex falls. They need six to win: three well-placed knockouts on that card beat you, where it would take six anywhere else on your Bench.
| Pokémon | HP | Attack | Damage | Cost | Weakness | Retreat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hop's Zacian exBasic | 230 | Brave Slash | 240 | Metal + Metal + Metal + Colorless | Fire ×2 | 2 |
| Hop's SnorlaxBasic | 150 | Dynamic Press | 140 | Colorless + Colorless + Colorless | Fighting ×2 | 4 |
The core: the 8 cards every list runs
These 8 cards appear in all 20 lists, without a single exception. That is 25 of the 60 slots. The other 35 are decided player by player.
Look at how those 25 slots break down: 20 Trainers, 5 Pokémon, 0 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.
8 of those 8 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Hop's Zacian ex (2 to 4), Hop's Snorlax (1 to 2) and Hop's Choice Band (3 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.
| Copies | Card | Printing | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2–4 | Hop's Zacian ex | JTG 111 | Pokémon |
| 1–2 | Hop's Snorlax | JTG 117 | Pokémon |
| 3–4 | Hop's Choice Band | JTG 148 | Trainer |
| 3–4 | Lillie's Determination | MEG 119 | Trainer |
| 3–4 | Postwick | JTG 154 | Trainer |
| 1–4 | Ultra Ball | MEG 131 | Trainer |
| 2–4 | Boss's Orders | MEG 114 | Trainer |
| 1–4 | Hop's Bag | JTG 147 | Trainer |
The 70 cards that change from list to list
70 cards fight over the 35 slots that are left: 5 above three lists in four, 51 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.
The most agreed on first: Secret Box at 90 %, Switch at 90 % and Night Stretcher at 85 %, plus 2 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.
The dividing line runs through Fezandipiti ex, at 55 %: 11 of 20 players took it, 9 put something else there. Read its text before you decide. Right at the bottom, Munkidori at 25 % and Mega Mawile ex at 25 %: 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.
| Lists running it | Card | Copies | Printing | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90 %18/20 | Secret Box | 1 | TWM 163 | Trainer |
| 90 %18/20 | Switch | 1–3 | MEG 130 | Trainer |
| 85 %17/20 | Night Stretcher | 1–3 | ASC 196 | Trainer |
| 75 %15/20 | Latias ex | 1–2 | SSP 76 | Pokémon |
| 75 %15/20 | Metal Energy | 4–12 | MEE 8 | Energy |
| 70 %14/20 | Poké Pad | 2–4 | POR 81 | Trainer |
| 70 %14/20 | Special Red Card | 1–2 | CRI 82 | Trainer |
| 65 %13/20 | Meowth ex | 1–2 | POR 62 | Pokémon |
| 65 %13/20 | Philippe | 1–4 | CRI 79 | Trainer |
| 65 %13/20 | Team Rocket's Petrel | 1–4 | DRI 176 | Trainer |
| 60 %12/20 | Hop's Cramorant | 1–2 | JTG 138 | Pokémon |
| 55 %11/20 | Fezandipiti ex | 1 | ASC 142 | Pokémon |
| 40 %8/20 | Pokégear 3.0 | 1–4 | SVI 186 | Trainer |
| 35 %7/20 | Air Balloon | 1 | ASC 181 | Trainer |
| 30 %6/20 | Brock's Scouting | 1–2 | JTG 146 | Trainer |
| 30 %6/20 | Buddy-Buddy Poffin | 2–4 | TEF 144 | Trainer |
| 30 %6/20 | Surfer | 1–2 | SSP 187 | Trainer |
| 30 %6/20 | Mist Energy | 3–4 | TEF 161 | Energy |
| 30 %6/20 | Magnetic Metal Energy | 1 | CRI 85 | Energy |
| 25 %5/20 | Munkidori | 2–4 | TWM 95 | Pokémon |
| 25 %5/20 | Mega Mawile ex | 1 | MEG 94 | Pokémon |
| 25 %5/20 | Darkness Energy | 2–5 | MEE 7 | Energy |
| 20 %4/20 | Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex | 1 | TWM 141 | Pokémon |
| 20 %4/20 | Patrat | 1 | CRI 70 | Pokémon |
| 20 %4/20 | Energy Search | 1–2 | POR 72 | Trainer |
| 20 %4/20 | Energy Switch | 1 | MEG 115 | Trainer |
| 15 %3/20 | Hop's Phantump | 3–4 | ASC 95 | Pokémon |
| 15 %3/20 | N's Zorua | 4 | JTG 97 | Pokémon |
| 15 %3/20 | Dudunsparce | 3 | TEF 129 | Pokémon |
| 15 %3/20 | Duraludon | 3 | SCR 106 | Pokémon |
| 15 %3/20 | Froslass | 3 | TWM 53 | Pokémon |
| 15 %3/20 | Hop's Trevenant | 2–3 | ASC 96 | Pokémon |
| 15 %3/20 | N's Zoroark ex | 3–4 | JTG 98 | Pokémon |
| 15 %3/20 | Snorunt | 3 | ASC 46 | Pokémon |
| 15 %3/20 | Archaludon ex | 2 | SSP 130 | Pokémon |
| 15 %3/20 | Archaludon | 1 | SCR 107 | Pokémon |
| 15 %3/20 | Lillie's Clefairy ex | 1 | JTG 56 | Pokémon |
| 15 %3/20 | Psyduck | 1 | ASC 39 | Pokémon |
| 15 %3/20 | Yveltal | 1 | MEG 88 | Pokémon |
| 15 %3/20 | Carmine | 1–3 | TWM 145 | Trainer |
| 15 %3/20 | Explorer's Guidance | 2 | TEF 147 | Trainer |
| 15 %3/20 | Cyrano | 1 | SSP 170 | Trainer |
| 10 %2/20 | Dunsparce | 3 | JTG 120 | Pokémon |
| 10 %2/20 | Dusclops | 2 | PRE 36 | Pokémon |
| 10 %2/20 | Duskull | 2 | PRE 35 | Pokémon |
| 10 %2/20 | Mega Kangaskhan ex | 1–2 | MEG 104 | Pokémon |
| 10 %2/20 | Dusknoir | 1 | PRE 37 | Pokémon |
| 10 %2/20 | Genesect | 1 | SFA 40 | Pokémon |
| 10 %2/20 | Shaymin | 1 | DRI 10 | Pokémon |
| 10 %2/20 | Team Rocket's Venture Bomb | 3–4 | DRI 179 | Trainer |
| 10 %2/20 | Iris's Fighting Spirit | 1 | JTG 149 | Trainer |
| 10 %2/20 | Telepathic Psychic Energy | 2–4 | POR 88 | Energy |
| 5 %1/20 | Dunsparce | 3 | TEF 128 | Pokémon |
| 5 %1/20 | Beldum | 2 | TEF 113 | Pokémon |
| 5 %1/20 | Metang | 2 | TEF 114 | Pokémon |
| 5 %1/20 | Fan Rotom | 1 | SCR 118 | Pokémon |
| 5 %1/20 | Hop's Dubwool | 1 | JTG 136 | Pokémon |
| 5 %1/20 | Hop's Wooloo | 1 | JTG 135 | Pokémon |
| 5 %1/20 | Mega Skarmory ex | 1 | POR 55 | Pokémon |
| 5 %1/20 | Metagross | 1 | CRI 61 | Pokémon |
| 5 %1/20 | Crispin | 2 | SCR 133 | Trainer |
| 5 %1/20 | Hassel | 2 | TWM 151 | Trainer |
| 5 %1/20 | Judge | 2 | POR 76 | Trainer |
| 5 %1/20 | Risky Ruins | 2 | MEG 127 | Trainer |
| 5 %1/20 | Colress's Tenacity | 1 | SFA 57 | Trainer |
| 5 %1/20 | Hilda | 1 | WHT 84 | Trainer |
| 5 %1/20 | Lana's Aid | 1 | TWM 155 | Trainer |
| 5 %1/20 | Prime Catcher | 1 | TEF 157 | Trainer |
| 5 %1/20 | Unfair Stamp | 1 | TWM 165 | Trainer |
| 5 %1/20 | Psychic Energy | 2 | MEE 5 | Energy |
What Hop's Zacian ex costs to build, and how long it will last
You need 78 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 8 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 Hop's Zacian ex, by a distance. The 20 Trainer slots in the core cost next to nothing, and you probably own some already. All 20 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 18 took Secret Box, 1 took Prime Catcher and 1 took Unfair Stamp. 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 Secret Box 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 8 core cards carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation. This deck walks through the change whole.
What Hop's Zacian ex struggles against
The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fire and Fighting, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 14 of the 72 decks we track attack in exactly those types.
Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, Mega Lucario ex and Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, plus 11 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, and 9 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, Dhelmise and Greninja ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.
They double the damage they put on you
| Deck | Their card | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex | Blaziken ex | Fire |
| Mega Lucario ex | Mega Lucario ex | Fighting |
| Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama | Mega Lucario ex | Fighting |
| Cynthia's Garchomp ex | Cynthia's Garchomp ex | Fighting |
| Ethan's Typhlosion | Ethan's Typhlosion | Fire |
| Ceruledge ex | Ceruledge ex | Fire |
| Greninja ex | Greninja ex | Fighting |
| Blaziken / N's Zoroark ex | Blaziken ex | Fire |
| Okidogi / Barbaracle | Bloodmoon Ursaluna | Fighting |
| Flareon ex / Noctowl | Flareon ex | Fire |
| Mega Zygarde ex / Barbaracle | Mega Zygarde ex | Fighting |
| Mega Charizard X ex | Mega Charizard X ex | Fire |
| Bloodmoon Ursaluna / Lunatone | Bloodmoon Ursaluna | Fighting |
| Archaludon ex / N's Zoroark ex | Relicanth | Fighting |
You double the damage you put on them
| Deck | Their card | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass | Froslass | Metal |
| Dhelmise | Lillie's Clefairy ex | Metal |
| Greninja ex | Mega Froslass ex | Metal |
| Mega Starmie ex / Froslass | Mega Froslass ex | Metal |
| Froslass / Munkidori | Froslass | Metal |
| Lillie's Clefairy ex | Lillie's Clefairy ex | Metal |
| Lillie's Clefairy ex / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex | Chien-Pao | Metal |
| Mega Diancie ex / Dusknoir | Mega Diancie ex | Metal |
| Mega Froslass ex / Dudunsparce | Mega Froslass ex | Metal |
Questions people ask
- What is the Hop's Zacian ex deck list?
- There isn't one, and that is the whole point. Across 20 tournament lists harvested on 16 August 2026, 8 cards turn up in every single one — 25 slots out of 60. The remaining 35 change from player to player, with 70 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 16 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 Hop's Zacian ex?
- With the whole core: 8 cards, 25 slots. Inside it, buy the 20 Trainer slots and the 0 Energy first — they are cheap and they carry over into your next deck. Leave Hop's Zacian 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 Secret Box at 90 % and Switch at 90 %.
- What beats Hop's Zacian ex?
- Its attackers are Weak to Fire and Fighting, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 14 of the 72 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, Mega Lucario ex, Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama and Cynthia's Garchomp ex, among others.
- Will Hop's Zacian ex survive the next rotation?
- Yes, whole: not one of the 8 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 Hop's Zacian ex?
- We have read 20 lists of it, which puts it 65th of the 72 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 34 entries for it, 0.13 % of the field, across all its players. That figure is theirs.
Where all of this comes from
20 lists from play.limitlesstcg.com, played across 20 events, harvested on 16 August 2026. The 78 cards named here were read against poko's own catalogue, built on the public TCGdex API. No prices on this page, for want of a fresh enough reading. The TCGplayer link in the cost section is a shop link, labelled as one right where it stands.
You've just read a page about the game. We can do far more with one match.
Everything above is about the game in general. The thing we're really good at is one single match: yours. When a game ends, Pokémon TCG Live leaves you a log — the written record of everything that happened, turn by turn. Paste it here and we'll replay each of your decisions hundreds of times, then tell you which one actually cost you the game.
It's free and there's no account to make. Your log stays in your browser: your browser is what replays the game.
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.