Raging Bolt ex deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What this deck looks like when you open the box

Across the 20 lists we counted, this deck runs 17 to 23 Pokémon, 26 to 28 Trainers and 11 to 15 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Psychic, Water, Lightning and Fighting.

Limitless files it under « raging-bolt-ogerpon », and we could not tie that label to any card in the deck. So we are keeping it exactly as they wrote it rather than making up a meaning for it. Their label, and we're copying it across as it stands.

Look at the Energy count first: 11 to 15 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: 7 to 14 Supporters, 11 to 16 Items, 0 Tools and 3 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

Latias ex attacks with Eon Blade for 200, and it costs 3 Energy (Psychic, Psychic and Colorless). It has 210 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. Latias 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: Latias ex has a Retreat Cost of 2. Once it is in the Active spot you are not getting it back to the Bench cheaply. Think before you send it up.

7 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
Latias exBasic	210	Eon Blade	200	Psychic + Psychic + Colorless	Darkness ×2	2
Mega Kangaskhan exBasic	300	Rapid-Fire Combo	200+	Colorless + Colorless + Colorless	Fighting ×2	3
Wellspring Mask Ogerpon exBasic	210	Torrential Pump	100	Water + Colorless + Colorless	Lightning ×2	1
Raging Bolt exBasic	240	Bellowing Thunder	70×	Lightning + Fighting	none	3

The core: the 18 cards every list runs

These 18 cards appear in all 20 lists, without a single exception. That is 49 of the 60 slots. The other 11 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 20 lists settles the question by itself: what 20 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
1–3	Meowth ex	POR 62	Pokémon	stays
3	Teal Mask Ogerpon ex	TWM 25	Pokémon	leaves
2	Latias ex	SSP 76	Pokémon	leaves
2	Raging Bolt ex	TEF 123	Pokémon	leaves
1	Fezandipiti ex	ASC 142	Pokémon	leaves
1	Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex	TWM 64	Pokémon	leaves
4	Crispin	SCR 133	Trainer	leaves
2–4	Energy Switch	MEG 115	Trainer	stays
4	Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
2–4	Area Zero Underdepths	SCR 131	Trainer	leaves
2–3	Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
1–3	Cyrano	SSP 170	Trainer	leaves
1–2	Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
5–8	Grass Energy	MEE 1	Energy	stays
1–3	Fighting Energy	MEE 6	Energy	stays
2–3	Lightning Energy	MEE 4	Energy	stays
1–2	Water Energy	MEE 3	Energy	stays

What changes from one list to the next

35 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 %19/20	Lillie's Clefairy ex	1–2	JTG 56	Pokémon
95 %19/20	Psychic Energy	1–2	MEE 5	Energy
90 %18/20	Glass Trumpet	1–2	SCR 135	Trainer
90 %18/20	Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1	TEF 145	Trainer
85 %17/20	Chien-Pao	1	SSP 56	Pokémon
80 %16/20	Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
50 %10/20	Iron Leaves ex	1	TEF 25	Pokémon
40 %8/20	Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
35 %7/20	Iron Crown ex	1	TEF 81	Pokémon
35 %7/20	Lillie's Determination	1–3	MEG 119	Trainer
25 %5/20	AZ's Tranquility	1	CRI 76	Trainer
25 %5/20	Energy Retrieval	1	SVI 171	Trainer
25 %5/20	Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
20 %4/20	Passimian	1	SSP 111	Pokémon
20 %4/20	Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
15 %3/20	Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
15 %3/20	Fire Energy	1	MEE 2	Energy
10 %2/20	Fan Rotom	1–2	SCR 118	Pokémon
10 %2/20	Hoothoot	2	SCR 114	Pokémon
10 %2/20	Noctowl	2	SCR 115	Pokémon
10 %2/20	Flutter Mane	1	TEF 78	Pokémon
10 %2/20	Koraidon	1	SSP 116	Pokémon
10 %2/20	Paldean Tauros	1	SSP 18	Pokémon
10 %2/20	Poké Pad	2	POR 81	Trainer
10 %2/20	Energy Search	1	POR 72	Trainer
10 %2/20	Tera Orb	1	SSP 189	Trainer
5 %1/20	Iron Boulder ex	1	TEF 99	Pokémon
5 %1/20	Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
5 %1/20	Pecharunt ex	1	SFA 39	Pokémon
5 %1/20	Tapu Koko ex	1	JTG 51	Pokémon
5 %1/20	Briar	1	SCR 132	Trainer
5 %1/20	Brock's Scouting	1	JTG 146	Trainer
5 %1/20	Enhanced Hammer	1	TWM 148	Trainer
5 %1/20	Jamming Tower	1	TWM 153	Trainer
5 %1/20	Team Rocket's Watchtower	1	DRI 180	Trainer

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

You need 53 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 18 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. 7 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 18 core cards, 9 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 9 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 Darkness, Fighting and Lightning. A card with a Weakness takes DOUBLE damage from an attacker of that type. Of the decks we track, 15 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 Psychic, Water, Lightning and Fighting — and 11 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.