Mega Kangaskhan ex / Bouffalant deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What this deck looks like when you open the box

Across the 21 lists we counted, this deck runs 11 to 16 Pokémon, 30 to 37 Trainers and 9 to 14 Energy. Its attacks do not ask for any particular type of Energy.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « kangaskhan-bouffalant ». 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 count first: 9 to 14 out of 60. No single number tells you more about how a deck breathes. A lot of Energy means it wants to load up one big Pokémon and swing hard. Very little means it lives on cheap attacks and on Trainers to dig out whatever it is missing.

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: 10 to 17 Supporters, 14 to 21 Items, 1 to 4 Tools and 2 to 4 Stadiums. Worth saying out loud, because everyone forgets it once a tournament: you only get ONE Supporter a turn, while you can chain as many Items as you like. So a deck full of Items takes longer, louder turns than a deck full of Supporters.

How it actually wins

Mega Kangaskhan ex attacks with Rapid-Fire Combo for 200+, and it costs 3 Energy (Colorless, Colorless and Colorless). It has 300 HP to absorb the answer. Everything else in the list is built around getting that card online.

Do the arithmetic with us, because it decides your first few turns. You attach one Energy a turn by hand. Mega Kangaskhan ex wants 3. With no help, that means you swing on turn 3 at the earliest. Every card in this deck that accelerates Energy or fetches a Pokémon buys back a turn on that count, and at this level a turn is a game.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games: Mega Kangaskhan ex has a Retreat Cost of 3. Once it is in the Active spot you are not getting it back to the Bench cheaply. Think before you send it up.

1 of the core Pokémon carry the « ex » suffix. Those are the big ones: high HP, attacks that hurt, and the price tag to match. They also cost you more when they fall — an opponent takes extra Prize cards for knocking out an ex, so every trade you lose there walks you towards the loss faster than you think.

The attackers in the deck's core, with their best attack, its cost and their Weakness

Pokémon	HP	Attack	Damage	Cost	Weakness	Retreat
Mega Kangaskhan exBasic	300	Rapid-Fire Combo	200+	Colorless + Colorless + Colorless	Fighting ×2	3
BouffalantBasic	100	Boundless Power	130	Colorless + Colorless + Colorless	Fighting ×2	2

The core: the 4 cards every list runs

These 4 cards appear in all 21 lists, without a single exception. That is 10 of the 60 slots. The other 50 are decided player by player.

This is the most useful table on the page, and nobody publishes it. Everywhere else you get one list, from one player, who won one tournament. Fine — but you have no way of telling which parts of it were the deck and which parts were that person's idea on the day. Counting 21 lists settles the question by itself: what 21 people put in their deck without talking to each other IS the deck.

A word on the count column. We give you the number that comes up most often, and where the lists disagree we give you the range instead. A card sitting at "3 to 4" is one everybody plays but whose fourth copy is up for debate. That is exactly the kind of slot you reclaim when you want to fit an idea of your own.

The code next to the name — "TWM 130" and the like — is the set and the collector number, printed at the bottom of the card. We show you the printing the lists use most often, because two cards can share a name and have completely different attacks. Check that number before you buy anything.

The cards present in every list counted, with the number of copies

Copies	Card	Printing	Kind	Rotation
2–4	Mega Kangaskhan ex	MEG 104	Pokémon	stays
2–3	Bouffalant	SCR 119	Pokémon	leaves
1–4	Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
1–3	Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays

What changes from one list to the next

74 cards show up in some lists and not in others. The percentage tells you how many lists run each one: at 50%, half the players want it and the other half deliberately chose something else.

Do not read this table as a ranking from best to worst. A card sitting at 80% is one four players in five find useful and the fifth cut on purpose, usually because they were expecting a different field. That disagreement is worth something on its own.

Here is how to use it when you build. Take the whole core first, no arguing. Then walk down this list and stop on every card you do not understand: read its text, work out what it is answering. A card you cannot explain is a card you will misplay, even if the champion had it in their list.

And if this is your first time with the deck, build the boring version — the full core plus the most common cards from here. Understand the deck before you start tinkering with it. That order is the only one that works.

The cards some lists run and others don't, most common first

Lists running it	Card	Copies	Printing	Kind
95 %20/21	Jumbo Ice Cream	4	PFL 91	Trainer
95 %20/21	Mist Energy	1–4	TEF 161	Energy
90 %19/21	Munkidori	1–3	TWM 95	Pokémon
90 %19/21	Pokégear 3.0	1–4	SVI 186	Trainer
90 %19/21	Team Rocket's Petrel	3–4	DRI 176	Trainer
90 %19/21	Crispin	2–4	SCR 133	Trainer
90 %19/21	Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
90 %19/21	Darkness Energy	1–5	MEE 7	Energy
86 %18/21	Latias ex	1–2	SSP 76	Pokémon
86 %18/21	Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1–4	TEF 145	Trainer
76 %16/21	Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
67 %14/21	Bouffalant	1	SSP 151	Pokémon
67 %14/21	Team Rocket's Factory	2–4	DRI 173	Trainer
67 %14/21	Team Rocket's Transceiver	1–4	DRI 178	Trainer
67 %14/21	Backtrack Badge	1–3	PBL 74	Trainer
67 %14/21	Super Potion	1–2	JTG 158	Trainer
67 %14/21	Grass Energy	4–10	MEE 1	Energy
62 %13/21	Joltik	1–2	SCR 50	Pokémon
62 %13/21	Lightning Energy	3–4	MEE 4	Energy
57 %12/21	Galvantula	1	SFA 2	Pokémon
57 %12/21	Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
52 %11/21	Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
52 %11/21	AZ's Tranquility	1–2	CRI 76	Trainer
48 %10/21	Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
43 %9/21	Energy Search	1	POR 72	Trainer
38 %8/21	Lillie's Determination	2–4	MEG 119	Trainer
33 %7/21	Poké Pad	1–4	POR 81	Trainer
33 %7/21	Energy Switch	1–4	MEG 115	Trainer
33 %7/21	Psychic Energy	4–5	MEE 5	Energy
29 %6/21	Switch	1–4	MEG 130	Trainer
24 %5/21	Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
24 %5/21	Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
24 %5/21	Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
19 %4/21	Smoochum	2	SSP 75	Pokémon
19 %4/21	Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
19 %4/21	Brock's Scouting	1–2	JTG 146	Trainer
14 %3/21	Pikachu ex	1	SSP 57	Pokémon
14 %3/21	Team Rocket's Articuno	1	DRI 51	Pokémon
14 %3/21	Team Rocket's Kangaskhan ex	1	ASC 162	Pokémon
14 %3/21	Lively Stadium	2	SSP 180	Trainer
14 %3/21	Lumiose City	2	POR 77	Trainer
14 %3/21	Prism Tower	2	CRI 80	Trainer
14 %3/21	Gravity Mountain	1–2	SSP 177	Trainer
14 %3/21	Lana's Aid	1	TWM 155	Trainer
14 %3/21	Light Ball	1	ASC 191	Trainer
14 %3/21	Mega Signal	1	MEG 121	Trainer
14 %3/21	Metal Energy	2	MEE 8	Energy
10 %2/21	Transformation Tome	4	CRI 83	Trainer
10 %2/21	Handheld Fan	1–2	TWM 150	Trainer
10 %2/21	Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
5 %1/21	Teal Mask Ogerpon ex	3	TWM 25	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Dudunsparce	2	TEF 129	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Dunsparce	2	JTG 120	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Mega Audino ex	2	ASC 172	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Ninetales	2	CRI 9	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Shuckle	2	MEG 11	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Vulpix	2	CRI 8	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
5 %1/21	Bug Catching Set	4	TWM 143	Trainer
5 %1/21	Crushing Hammer	4	POR 71	Trainer
5 %1/21	Pokémon Catcher	4	POR 82	Trainer
5 %1/21	Battle Cage	3	PFL 85	Trainer
5 %1/21	Glass Trumpet	2	SCR 135	Trainer
5 %1/21	Lucian	2	TWM 157	Trainer
5 %1/21	Lucky Helmet	2	TWM 158	Trainer
5 %1/21	Energy Recycler	1	DRI 164	Trainer
5 %1/21	Gwynn	1	PBL 78	Trainer
5 %1/21	N's Plan	1	BLK 83	Trainer
5 %1/21	Nighttime Mine	1	ASC 197	Trainer
5 %1/21	Team Rocket's Venture Bomb	1	DRI 179	Trainer
5 %1/21	Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
5 %1/21	Wally's Compassion	1	MEG 132	Trainer
5 %1/21	Fire Energy	3	MEE 2	Energy

What it costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 78 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 4 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

What we can tell you is where the money goes. 1 ex Pokémon in the core, and they are almost the whole bill. The Trainers and basic Energy are near enough free, or already in your box. This deck runs no ACE SPEC card at all.

Now the question nobody asks you before you pay: how long will this deck stay legal? Of the 4 core cards, 1 carry the letter H in the bottom-left corner. That is the oldest letter still allowed in tournaments, which makes it the one that goes at the next rotation. Those 1 cards have an expiry date. We do not know what that date is — the publisher announces it and it appears in no card data — but we do know exactly which cards leave.

One last piece of old-player advice. Never build a deck card by card starting with the prettiest one. Start with the core Trainers: they are cheap, they carry over into other decks, and they are what keeps the deck running. Buy the expensive Pokémon last, once you know you actually enjoy the deck.

What this deck struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fighting. A card with a Weakness takes DOUBLE damage from an attacker of that type. Of the decks we track, 7 attack in exactly that type.

Here is how the table below is built. The Weakness is printed on your cards, the type of the attacker across the table is printed on theirs, and the fact that this particular deck really does play that attacker is counted off its own lists. You can check every line of it with the cards in your hand.

One limit, while we are here. Weakness alone does not decide a match. A deck can double your damage and still lose because it sets up too slowly, or crush you without ever touching your Weakness. This table tells you where to look first. What settles the game sits further along.

Going the other way, none of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to your types. So you are not going to win trades on Weakness — you will have to win them on raw damage.

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.