Mega Venusaur ex deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What this deck looks like when you open the box

Across the 22 lists we counted, this deck runs 15 to 24 Pokémon, 19 to 37 Trainers and 8 to 19 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Grass.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « mega-venusaur-ex ». 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: 8 to 19 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.

It takes a while to set up. Mega Venusaur ex 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: 8 to 13 Supporters, 6 to 17 Items, 0 to 4 Tools and 1 to 5 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 Venusaur ex attacks with Jungle Dump for 240, and it costs 4 Energy (Grass, Grass, Grass and Grass). It has 380 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 Venusaur ex wants 4. With no help, that means you swing on turn 4 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 Venusaur ex has a Retreat Cost of 4. 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 Venusaur exStage 2	380	Jungle Dump	240	Grass + Grass + Grass + Grass	Fire ×2	4
IvysaurStage 1	110	Razor Leaf	60	Grass + Grass	Fire ×2	3
BulbasaurBasic	80	Bind Down	10	Grass	Fire ×2	2

The core: the 7 cards every list runs

These 7 cards appear in all 22 lists, without a single exception. That is 28 of the 60 slots. The other 32 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 22 lists settles the question by itself: what 22 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
2–3	Bulbasaur	MEG 1	Pokémon	stays
1–2	Ivysaur	MEG 2	Pokémon	stays
2	Mega Venusaur ex	MEG 3	Pokémon	stays
2–4	Bug Catching Set	TWM 143	Trainer	leaves
2–4	Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
2–4	Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
8–13	Grass Energy	MEE 1	Energy	stays

What changes from one list to the next

77 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 %21/22	Teal Mask Ogerpon ex	2–4	TWM 25	Pokémon
95 %21/22	Forest of Vitality	3–4	MEG 117	Trainer
86 %19/22	Meganium	2	MEG 10	Pokémon
86 %19/22	Ultra Ball	1–4	MEG 131	Trainer
86 %19/22	Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
86 %19/22	Wally's Compassion	1–4	MEG 132	Trainer
82 %18/22	Bayleef	1–3	MEG 9	Pokémon
77 %17/22	Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
77 %17/22	Meowth ex	1–2	POR 62	Pokémon
73 %16/22	Poké Pad	1–4	POR 81	Trainer
64 %14/22	Mega Meganium ex	1–2	ASC 10	Pokémon
59 %13/22	Celebi	1–2	MEG 12	Pokémon
59 %13/22	Lana's Aid	1	TWM 155	Trainer
55 %12/22	Chikorita	2–3	ASC 8	Pokémon
55 %12/22	Special Red Card	1–2	CRI 82	Trainer
45 %10/22	Dawn	1–3	PFL 87	Trainer
41 %9/22	Judge	1–2	POR 76	Trainer
41 %9/22	Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
36 %8/22	Chikorita	1–3	MEG 8	Pokémon
27 %6/22	Max Rod	1	PRE 116	Trainer
27 %6/22	Switch	1–2	MEG 130	Trainer
27 %6/22	Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
23 %5/22	Genesect	1	PFL 8	Pokémon
23 %5/22	Regigigas	1	PRE 86	Pokémon
18 %4/22	Gwynn	2–3	PBL 78	Trainer
14 %3/22	Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
14 %3/22	Lucian	1	TWM 157	Trainer
9 %2/22	Yanma	2–3	DRI 2	Pokémon
9 %2/22	Bayleef	2	ASC 9	Pokémon
9 %2/22	Shuckle	1–2	MEG 11	Pokémon
9 %2/22	Yanmega ex	2	DRI 3	Pokémon
9 %2/22	Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
9 %2/22	Tapu Bulu	1	SFA 6	Pokémon
9 %2/22	Buddy-Buddy Poffin	1–2	TEF 144	Trainer
9 %2/22	Jumbo Ice Cream	1–2	PFL 91	Trainer
9 %2/22	Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
9 %2/22	Battle Cage	1	PFL 85	Trainer
9 %2/22	Energy Recycler	1	DRI 164	Trainer
9 %2/22	Rare Candy	1	MEG 125	Trainer
5 %1/22	Carvanha	3	PFL 60	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Mega Darkrai ex	3	PBL 48	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Mega Sharpedo ex	3	PFL 61	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Cinccino ex	2	CRI 73	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Erika's Gloom	2	ASC 2	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Erika's Oddish	2	ASC 1	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Erika's Vileplume ex	2	ASC 3	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Leafeon	2	TWM 11	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Minccino	2	CRI 72	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Eevee	1	TWM 135	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Eevee	1	SSP 143	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Latias ex	1	SSP 76	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Rabsca	1	TEF 24	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Rellor	1	TEF 23	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Toxel	1	PFL 67	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Toxtricity	1	PFL 68	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Zarude	1	SSP 11	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Pokégear 3.0	4	SVI 186	Trainer
5 %1/22	Crispin	2	SCR 133	Trainer
5 %1/22	Energy Search	2	POR 72	Trainer
5 %1/22	Jasmine's Gaze	2	SSP 178	Trainer
5 %1/22	Lucky Helmet	2	TWM 158	Trainer
5 %1/22	Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1	TEF 145	Trainer
5 %1/22	Colress's Tenacity	1	SFA 57	Trainer
5 %1/22	Energy Switch	1	MEG 115	Trainer
5 %1/22	Enhanced Hammer	1	TWM 148	Trainer
5 %1/22	Lacey	1	SCR 139	Trainer
5 %1/22	Megaton Blower	1	SSP 182	Trainer
5 %1/22	Occa Berry	1	SCR 140	Trainer
5 %1/22	Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
5 %1/22	Sacred Ash	1	DRI 168	Trainer
5 %1/22	Scoop Up Cyclone	1	TWM 162	Trainer
5 %1/22	Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
5 %1/22	Team Rocket's Petrel	1	DRI 176	Trainer
5 %1/22	Urbain	1	ASC 214	Trainer
5 %1/22	Darkness Energy	10	MEE 7	Energy
5 %1/22	Growing Grass Energy	2	POR 86	Energy

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

You need 84 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 7 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 7 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 Fire. 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, your attackers are Grass — and 13 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

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.