Jellicent ex / Dusknoir deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Jellicent ex / Dusknoir looks like when you open the box

Across the 15 lists we counted, this deck runs 17 to 23 Pokémon, 26 to 33 Trainers and 7 to 12 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Psychic.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « jellicent-dusknoir ». 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: 7 to 12 out of 60, exactly the median of the 91 decks we track. It draws neither too much nor too little, so this is not where its games are won or lost.

It takes a while to set up. Dusknoir is a Stage 2 Pokémon: you put down the baby, you evolve it, and then you evolve it again. Three cards stacked before anything attacks. That is what the hardest-hitting decks cost you, and it is also where they crack — a fast opponent can bury you before the line is standing.

On the Trainer side: 7 to 11 Supporters, 13 to 20 Items, 0 to 3 Tools and 2 to 4 Stadiums, out of 26 to 33 — the median across the 91 decks we track being 31. Items dominate, so expect long turns where you chain five or six before you swing. And it runs up to 4 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 cards in this deck's name actually do

Jellicent ex and Dusknoir give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Jellicent ex is in all 15 lists, 2 copies of it. Its Ability is called Oceanic Curse, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « As long as this Pokémon is in the Active Spot, your opponent can't play any Item cards or Pokémon Tool cards from their hand. »

Dusknoir is in all 15 lists, 2 copies of it. Its Ability is called Cursed Blast, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « Once during your turn, you may put 13 damage counters on 1 of your opponent's Pokémon. If you use this Ability, this Pokémon is Knocked Out. »

How Jellicent ex / Dusknoir actually wins

Latias ex attacks with Eon Blade for 200, and it costs 3 Energy (Psychic, Psychic and Colorless), with 210 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, 3 to pay for Eon Blade: with no help you swing on turn 3, and every card that accelerates Energy buys one of those turns back.

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

Jellicent ex, Latias ex and Lillie's Clefairy 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
Latias exBasic	210	Eon Blade	200	Psychic + Psychic + Colorless	Darkness ×2	2
DusknoirStage 2	160	Shadow Bind	150	Psychic + Psychic + Colorless	Darkness ×2	3
Jellicent exStage 1	270	Power Press	80+	Psychic + Colorless	none	3
DusclopsStage 1	90	Will-O-Wisp	50	Psychic + Psychic	Darkness ×2	2

The core: the 13 cards every list runs

These 13 cards appear in all 15 lists, without a single exception. That is 35 of the 60 slots. The other 25 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 35 slots break down: 15 Trainers, 16 Pokémon, 4 Energy. Pokémon dominate, which is unusual: this deck needs bodies on the board, and it depends on any single attacker less than it looks.

9 of those 13 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Dusclops (2 to 4), Duskull (2 to 4) and Frillish (2 to 4), plus 6 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	Dusclops	PRE 36	Pokémon	leaves
2–4	Duskull	PRE 35	Pokémon	leaves
2–4	Frillish	WHT 44	Pokémon	stays
1–3	Dusknoir	PRE 37	Pokémon	leaves
2	Jellicent ex	WHT 45	Pokémon	stays
2	Latias ex	SSP 76	Pokémon	leaves
1–2	Lillie's Clefairy ex	JTG 56	Pokémon	stays
3–4	Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
2–4	Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
2–4	Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
2–4	Mystery Garden	MEG 122	Trainer	stays
1	Secret Box	TWM 163	Trainer	leaves
4	Telepathic Psychic Energy	POR 88	Energy	stays

The 35 cards that change from list to list

35 cards fight over the 25 slots that are left: 5 above three lists in four, 11 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 93 %, Boss's Orders at 93 % and Meowth ex at 87 %, plus 2 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Mega Diancie ex, at 53 %: 8 of 15 players took it, 7 put something else there. Read its text before you decide. Right at the bottom, Surfer at 13 % and Dunsparce at 7 %: 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
93 %14/15	Special Red Card	1–3	CRI 82	Trainer
93 %14/15	Boss's Orders	1–3	MEG 114	Trainer
87 %13/15	Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
87 %13/15	Night Stretcher	2–3	ASC 196	Trainer
80 %12/15	Hilda	1–3	WHT 84	Trainer
60 %9/15	Wondrous Patch	3–4	PFL 94	Trainer
60 %9/15	Psychic Energy	6–8	MEE 5	Energy
53 %8/15	Mega Diancie ex	2	PFL 41	Pokémon
53 %8/15	Buddy-Buddy Poffin	2	TEF 144	Trainer
53 %8/15	Powerglass	2–3	SFA 63	Trainer
47 %7/15	Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
47 %7/15	Rare Candy	1–3	MEG 125	Trainer
40 %6/15	Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
40 %6/15	Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
40 %6/15	Dudunsparce	1	TEF 129	Pokémon
40 %6/15	Dudunsparce ex	1	JTG 121	Pokémon
40 %6/15	Lacey	2	SCR 139	Trainer
40 %6/15	Pokégear 3.0	2	SVI 186	Trainer
40 %6/15	Counter Gain	1	SSP 169	Trainer
40 %6/15	Ignition Energy	3	WHT 86	Energy
33 %5/15	Dunsparce	2	TEF 128	Pokémon
27 %4/15	Flutter Mane	1	TEF 78	Pokémon
27 %4/15	Judge	1–2	POR 76	Trainer
27 %4/15	Lillie's Pearl	1	JTG 151	Trainer
13 %2/15	Surfer	1	SSP 187	Trainer
7 %1/15	Dunsparce	2	JTG 120	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Maractus	1	JTG 8	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Munkidori	1	TWM 95	Pokémon
7 %1/15	Brock's Scouting	2	JTG 146	Trainer
7 %1/15	Mega Signal	2	MEG 121	Trainer
7 %1/15	AZ's Tranquility	1	CRI 76	Trainer
7 %1/15	Dawn	1	PFL 87	Trainer
7 %1/15	Jacinthe	1	POR 75	Trainer
7 %1/15	Team Rocket's Watchtower	1	DRI 180	Trainer
7 %1/15	Darkness Energy	1	MEE 7	Energy

The most common Jellicent ex / Dusknoir list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 35 slots come from the core, the cards all 15 lists run. The remaining 25 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 15 lists actually showed. It comes to 20 Pokémon, 29 Trainers and 11 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: 20
3 Dusclops PRE 36
3 Duskull PRE 35
3 Frillish WHT 44
2 Dusknoir PRE 37
2 Jellicent ex WHT 45
2 Latias ex SSP 76
1 Lillie's Clefairy ex JTG 56
1 Meowth ex POR 62
2 Mega Diancie ex PFL 41
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142

Trainer: 29
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Poké Pad POR 81
4 Ultra Ball MEG 131
2 Mystery Garden MEG 122
1 Secret Box TWM 163
3 Special Red Card CRI 82
1 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
3 Hilda WHT 84
3 Wondrous Patch PFL 94
2 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144

Energy: 11
4 Telepathic Psychic Energy POR 88
7 Psychic Energy MEE 5

Total Cards: 60

What Jellicent ex / Dusknoir costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 48 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 Jellicent ex, Latias ex and Lillie's Clefairy ex, by a distance. The 15 Trainer slots in the core cost next to nothing, and you probably own some already. Add Secret Box: all 15 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. 5 of the 13 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Dusclops, Duskull, Dusknoir and Latias ex, plus 1 more. The core table marks each of them. The date belongs to the publisher, and we do not have it.

What Jellicent ex / Dusknoir struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Darkness, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 13 of the 91 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: N's Zoroark ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass and Team Rocket's Honchkrow, plus 10 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 spends three cards getting Dusknoir standing, and the deck that hurts you most this season may simply be the one that swings before your line is up, without ever touching your Weakness.

Going the other way, your attackers are Psychic, and 6 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Mega Lucario ex, Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama and Greninja ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Jellicent ex / Dusknoir deck list?

There isn't one, and that is the whole point. Across 15 tournament lists harvested on 16 August 2026, 13 cards turn up in every single one — 35 slots out of 60. The remaining 25 change from player to player, with 35 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

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

15 lists, played across 13 different tournaments, harvested on 16 August 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 15 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Jellicent ex / Dusknoir?

With the whole core: 13 cards, 35 slots. Inside it, buy the 15 Trainer slots and the 4 Energy first — they are cheap and they carry over into your next deck. Leave Jellicent ex, Latias ex and Lillie's Clefairy 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 93 % and Boss's Orders at 93 %.

What beats Jellicent ex / Dusknoir?

Its attackers are Weak to Darkness, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 13 of the 91 decks we track play an attacker of that type: N's Zoroark ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, Team Rocket's Honchkrow and Mega Absol ex, among others.

Will Jellicent ex / Dusknoir survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 5 core cards out of 13 carry the letter H, starting with Dusclops, Duskull, Dusknoir and Latias ex, plus 1 more.

Are a lot of people playing Jellicent ex / Dusknoir?

We have read 15 lists of it, which puts it 76th of the 91 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 15 entries for it, 0.06 % 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.