Team Rocket's Honchkrow deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What this deck looks like when you open the box

Across the 19 lists we counted, this deck runs 11 to 14 Pokémon, 38 to 41 Trainers and 8 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Darkness and Water.

Limitless files it under « rockets-honchkrow », 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: 8 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. Team Rocket's Honchkrow 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: 20 to 21 Supporters, 15 to 18 Items, 0 to 2 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

Team Rocket's Honchkrow attacks with Hammer In for 100, and it costs 3 Energy (Darkness, Colorless and Colorless). It has 130 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. Team Rocket's Honchkrow 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.

Good news on mobility: Team Rocket's Honchkrow retreats for 1 Energy. You can pull it out of the Active spot without throwing away your turn, and that matters enormously when your opponent lands something nasty on it.

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
Team Rocket's HonchkrowStage 1	130	Hammer In	100	Darkness + Colorless + Colorless	Lightning ×2	1
Team Rocket's ArticunoBasic	120	Dark Frost	60+	Water + Colorless + Colorless	Lightning ×2	1
Team Rocket's MurkrowBasic	80	Torment	30	Darkness + Colorless	Lightning ×2	1
Team Rocket's Porygon2Stage 1	90	R Command	20×	Colorless + Colorless + Colorless	Fighting ×2	1

The core: the 18 cards every list runs

These 18 cards appear in all 19 lists, without a single exception. That is 59 of the 60 slots. The other 1 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 19 lists settles the question by itself: what 19 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
4	Team Rocket's Murkrow	DRI 127	Pokémon	stays
3–4	Team Rocket's Honchkrow	ASC 127	Pokémon	stays
1–2	Team Rocket's Articuno	DRI 51	Pokémon	stays
2	Team Rocket's Porygon	DRI 153	Pokémon	stays
1–2	Team Rocket's Porygon2	DRI 154	Pokémon	stays
3–4	Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
3–4	Roto-Stick	PRE 127	Trainer	leaves
4	Team Rocket's Archer	DRI 170	Trainer	stays
4	Team Rocket's Ariana	DRI 171	Trainer	stays
4	Team Rocket's Giovanni	DRI 174	Trainer	stays
4	Team Rocket's Petrel	DRI 176	Trainer	stays
4	Team Rocket's Proton	DRI 177	Trainer	stays
4	Team Rocket's Transceiver	DRI 178	Trainer	stays
2–4	Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
3–4	Team Rocket's Factory	DRI 173	Trainer	stays
1	Miracle Headset	SSP 183	Trainer	leaves
4	Ignition Energy	WHT 86	Energy	stays
4	Team Rocket's Energy	DRI 182	Energy	stays

What changes from one list to the next

6 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
58 %11/19	Ultra Ball	1	MEG 131	Trainer
21 %4/19	Pokégear 3.0	1–2	SVI 186	Trainer
11 %2/19	Hilda	1	WHT 84	Trainer
5 %1/19	Team Rocket's Mimikyu	1	DRI 87	Pokémon
5 %1/19	Team Rocket's Porygon-Z	1	DRI 155	Pokémon
5 %1/19	Lucky Helmet	2	TWM 158	Trainer

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

You need 24 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. 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. Add Miracle Headset, which is an ACE SPEC — you are only allowed ONE ACE SPEC card in your whole deck, so a single copy is all you will ever need.

Now the question nobody asks you before you pay: how long will this deck stay legal? Of the 18 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 Lightning and Fighting. A card with a Weakness takes DOUBLE damage from an attacker of that type. Of the decks we track, 8 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 Darkness and Water — and 24 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.