Metagross 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 16 to 20 Pokémon, 23 to 29 Trainers and 15 to 19 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Metal.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « metagross-cri ». Every card named in that label turns up in the tables below, which is what makes it a fair name for the deck.

The bit they tack on the end, « CRI », is a set code: Chaos Rising. They spell it out because several cards share that name, and this deck plays that particular printing.

Look at the Energy count first: 15 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. Metagross 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, 7 to 17 Items, 0 to 3 Tools and 0 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

Metagross attacks with Metallic Hammer for 150+, and it costs 4 Energy (Metal, Metal, Metal and Colorless). It has 180 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. Metagross 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: Metagross 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
MetagrossStage 2	180	Metallic Hammer	150+	Metal + Metal + Metal + Colorless	Fire ×2	3
Genesect exBasic	220	Protect Charge	150	Metal + Metal + Colorless	none	2
MetangStage 1	100	Beam	60	Metal + Colorless + Colorless	Fire ×2	2

The core: the 5 cards every list runs

These 5 cards appear in all 22 lists, without a single exception. That is 27 of the 60 slots. The other 33 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
3–4	Metang	TEF 114	Pokémon	leaves
2	Genesect ex	BLK 67	Pokémon	stays
2–3	Metagross	CRI 61	Pokémon	stays
1–3	Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
15–18	Metal Energy	MEE 8	Energy	stays

What changes from one list to the next

70 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	Team Rocket's Petrel	3–4	DRI 176	Trainer
95 %21/22	Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
91 %20/22	Energy Recycler	1–3	DRI 164	Trainer
91 %20/22	Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
91 %20/22	Buddy-Buddy Poffin	1–3	TEF 144	Trainer
86 %19/22	Team Rocket's Transceiver	3–4	DRI 178	Trainer
86 %19/22	Ultra Ball	1–4	MEG 131	Trainer
73 %16/22	Gravity Mountain	1–2	SSP 177	Trainer
68 %15/22	Beldum	4	TEF 113	Pokémon
68 %15/22	Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
68 %15/22	Brave Bangle	1–2	WHT 80	Trainer
68 %15/22	Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
59 %13/22	Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
55 %12/22	Heatran	1–2	TWM 123	Pokémon
50 %11/22	Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
50 %11/22	Philippe	1–2	CRI 79	Trainer
45 %10/22	Brock's Scouting	1–2	JTG 146	Trainer
45 %10/22	Judge	1–2	POR 76	Trainer
45 %10/22	Pokégear 3.0	1–3	SVI 186	Trainer
41 %9/22	Drilbur	1–2	PBL 46	Pokémon
41 %9/22	Mega Excadrill ex	1	PBL 65	Pokémon
36 %8/22	Kieran	1	TWM 154	Trainer
32 %7/22	Beldum	3–4	CRI 59	Pokémon
32 %7/22	Mega Skarmory ex	1–2	POR 55	Pokémon
32 %7/22	Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
27 %6/22	Lillie's Determination	1–4	MEG 119	Trainer
27 %6/22	Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
27 %6/22	Jumbo Ice Cream	1–2	PFL 91	Trainer
18 %4/22	Empoleon ex	1–3	PFL 70	Pokémon
18 %4/22	Piplup	1–3	PFL 27	Pokémon
18 %4/22	Full Metal Lab	1–4	TEF 148	Trainer
18 %4/22	Rare Candy	2	MEG 125	Trainer
18 %4/22	Battle Cage	1	PFL 85	Trainer
18 %4/22	Magnetic Metal Energy	1–2	CRI 85	Energy
14 %3/22	Dialga	1	MEG 95	Pokémon
14 %3/22	Iron Defender	1–2	MEG 118	Trainer
14 %3/22	Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
9 %2/22	Cinccino ex	1–2	CRI 73	Pokémon
9 %2/22	Minccino	1–2	CRI 72	Pokémon
9 %2/22	Genesect	1	SFA 40	Pokémon
9 %2/22	Mega Kangaskhan ex	1	MEG 104	Pokémon
9 %2/22	Regigigas	1	PRE 86	Pokémon
9 %2/22	Team Rocket's Kangaskhan ex	1	ASC 162	Pokémon
9 %2/22	Hilda	1–2	WHT 84	Trainer
9 %2/22	Handheld Fan	1	TWM 150	Trainer
9 %2/22	Lacey	1	SCR 139	Trainer
5 %1/22	Bastiodon	3	PBL 62	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Shieldon	3	PBL 61	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Prinplup	2	PFL 28	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Cramorant	1	TWM 58	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Flutter Mane	1	TEF 78	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Mega Mawile ex	1	MEG 94	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Steven's Skarmory	1	DRI 142	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Team Rocket's Articuno	1	DRI 51	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex	1	TWM 64	Pokémon
5 %1/22	Antique Armor Fossil	3	PBL 72	Trainer
5 %1/22	Dawn	2	PFL 87	Trainer
5 %1/22	Energy Search	2	POR 72	Trainer
5 %1/22	Fossil Quarry	2	PBL 76	Trainer
5 %1/22	Poké Pad	2	POR 81	Trainer
5 %1/22	AZ's Tranquility	1	CRI 76	Trainer
5 %1/22	Haban Berry	1	PRE 111	Trainer
5 %1/22	Redeemable Ticket	1	JTG 156	Trainer
5 %1/22	Rosa's Encouragement	1	POR 84	Trainer
5 %1/22	Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
5 %1/22	Team Rocket's Factory	1	DRI 173	Trainer
5 %1/22	Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
5 %1/22	Water Energy	2	MEE 3	Energy

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

You need 75 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 5 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 5 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 Metal — and 7 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.