Okidogi / Barbaracle deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What this deck looks like when you open the box

Across the 18 lists we counted, this deck runs 14 to 17 Pokémon, 27 to 33 Trainers and 12 to 16 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fighting.

Limitless files it under « okidogi-barbaracle », and that is the label you will see on results pages and on stream. Every card named in it turns up in the core below, which is what makes it a fair name for the deck.

Look at the Energy count first: 12 to 16 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 sets up fast. Barbaracle is a Stage 1 Pokémon: a Basic, one evolution on top, and you are attacking. Two cards instead of three. You lose fewer turns building, and you rebuild much more easily when an early knockout lands on you.

On the Trainer side: 10 to 15 Supporters, 10 to 19 Items, 1 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

Bloodmoon Ursaluna attacks with Mad Bite for 100+, and it costs 3 Energy (Fighting, Fighting and Colorless). It has 150 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. Bloodmoon Ursaluna 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: Bloodmoon Ursaluna 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.

Not one ex Pokémon in the core. That is unusual, and it is a hidden advantage: every time your opponent knocks something of yours out, they take a single Prize card. Six knockouts to beat you, where a deck stuffed with ex cards can be beaten in three.

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

Pokémon	HP	Attack	Damage	Cost	Weakness	Retreat
Bloodmoon UrsalunaBasic	150	Mad Bite	100+	Fighting + Fighting + Colorless	Grass ×2	4
BarbaracleStage 1	130	Hammer In	80	Fighting + Fighting + Colorless	Grass ×2	2
OkidogiBasic	130	Good Punch	70	Fighting + Fighting	Psychic ×2	2
SolrockBasic	110	Cosmic Beam	70	Fighting	Grass ×2	1

The core: the 15 cards every list runs

These 15 cards appear in all 18 lists, without a single exception. That is 46 of the 60 slots. The other 14 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 18 lists settles the question by itself: what 18 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	Okidogi	TWM 111	Pokémon	leaves
2	Barbaracle	POR 43	Pokémon	stays
2	Binacle	POR 42	Pokémon	stays
2	Lunatone	MEG 74	Pokémon	stays
2–3	Solrock	MEG 75	Pokémon	stays
1–2	Bloodmoon Ursaluna	PRE 54	Pokémon	leaves
4	Fighting Gong	MEG 116	Trainer	stays
2–4	Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
3–4	Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
3–4	Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
1–3	Air Balloon	ASC 181	Trainer	stays
2–3	Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
2–3	Tarragon	POR 85	Trainer	stays
6–9	Fighting Energy	MEE 6	Energy	stays
4	Prism Energy	ASC 216	Energy	stays

What changes from one list to the next

42 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
89 %16/18	Battle Cage	1–4	PFL 85	Trainer
78 %14/18	Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
78 %14/18	Legacy Energy	1	TWM 167	Energy
72 %13/18	Special Red Card	1–2	CRI 82	Trainer
67 %12/18	Morty's Conviction	1–2	TEF 155	Trainer
61 %11/18	Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
56 %10/18	Pokégear 3.0	1–2	SVI 186	Trainer
50 %9/18	Energy Retrieval	1	SVI 171	Trainer
44 %8/18	Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex	1	TWM 112	Pokémon
33 %6/18	Munkidori	1–3	TWM 95	Pokémon
33 %6/18	Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
28 %5/18	Gwynn	1–2	PBL 78	Trainer
28 %5/18	Premium Power Pro	1–4	MEG 124	Trainer
28 %5/18	Rocky Fighting Energy	1–2	POR 87	Energy
22 %4/18	Colress's Tenacity	1–2	SFA 57	Trainer
22 %4/18	Judge	1–2	POR 76	Trainer
22 %4/18	Brave Bangle	1	WHT 80	Trainer
22 %4/18	Darkness Energy	1–3	MEE 7	Energy
17 %3/18	Genesect	1	SFA 40	Pokémon
17 %3/18	Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1	TEF 145	Trainer
17 %3/18	Lana's Aid	1	TWM 155	Trainer
11 %2/18	Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
11 %2/18	Crispin	2	SCR 133	Trainer
11 %2/18	Gravity Mountain	1–2	SSP 177	Trainer
11 %2/18	Team Rocket's Watchtower	1–2	DRI 180	Trainer
11 %2/18	Ultra Ball	2	MEG 131	Trainer
11 %2/18	Hassel	1	TWM 151	Trainer
11 %2/18	Kieran	1	TWM 154	Trainer
11 %2/18	Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
11 %2/18	Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
6 %1/18	Ethan's Sudowoodo	1	DRI 93	Pokémon
6 %1/18	Great Tusk	1	TEF 96	Pokémon
6 %1/18	Hawlucha	1	POR 46	Pokémon
6 %1/18	Crushing Hammer	2	POR 71	Trainer
6 %1/18	Brock's Scouting	1	JTG 146	Trainer
6 %1/18	Deluxe Bomb	1	SCR 134	Trainer
6 %1/18	Lucky Helmet	1	TWM 158	Trainer
6 %1/18	Megaton Blower	1	SSP 182	Trainer
6 %1/18	Neutralization Zone	1	SFA 60	Trainer
6 %1/18	Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
6 %1/18	Team Rocket's Petrel	1	DRI 176	Trainer
6 %1/18	Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer

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

You need 57 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 15 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. No ex Pokémon in the core at all, which is very good news for your wallet: the expensive cards in a deck are almost always the ex ones. 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 15 core cards, 3 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 3 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 makes the machine run. 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 Grass and Psychic. A card with a Weakness takes DOUBLE damage from an attacker of that type. Of the decks we track, 29 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 Fighting — and 19 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.