Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 10 lists we counted, this deck runs 13 to 19 Pokémon, 27 to 31 Trainers and 12 to 19 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Grass.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « sinistcha-ogerpon ». 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: 12 to 19 out of 60, when half the 91 decks we track run 10 or fewer. This one carries more than most, and you feel it at the table — it wants to load up a big Pokémon and swing hard, even if that means drawing a spare Energy now and then.

It sets up fast. Sinistcha 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: 9 to 12 Supporters, 12 to 19 Items, 0 Tools and 0 to 4 Stadiums, out of 27 to 31 — the median across the 91 decks we track being 31. Items edge it without crushing the Supporters. And it runs up to 4 Stadiums, which is no accident: it plans on bumping the one across the table.

What those four families of Trainer actually do, and why the Energy count says so much: how to read a deck list.

What the cards in this deck's name actually do

Sinistcha and Teal Mask Ogerpon ex give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Sinistcha is in all 10 lists, 3 copies of it. Its attack Cursed Drop costs 1 Energy (Grass) and has no damage number printed next to it. That is why you will not find it in the attacker table lower down, which sorts by printed damage. Everything it does lives in its text: « Put 4 damage counters on your opponent's Pokémon in any way you like. »

Teal Mask Ogerpon ex is in all 10 lists, 4 copies of it. Its Ability is called Teal Dance, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « Once during your turn, you may attach a Basic {G} Energy card from your hand to this Pokémon. If you attached Energy to a Pokémon in this way, draw a card. »

How Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex actually wins

Sinistcha attacks with Spill the Tea for 70×, and it costs 1 Energy (Grass), with 70 HP to absorb the answer. The whole list exists to get it online fast.

One Energy to attack is enormous, and it means the attack cost will never be what slows you down. What slows you down here is getting Sinistcha up. Once the line is standing you swing every turn with nothing to recharge, and you can start again immediately when your attacker falls.

Good news on mobility: Sinistcha 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.

Teal Mask Ogerpon ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes TWO Prize cards instead of one when Teal Mask Ogerpon ex falls. They need six to win: three well-placed knockouts on that card beat you, where it would take six anywhere else on your Bench.

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

Pokémon	HP	Attack	Damage	Cost	Weakness	Retreat
SinistchaStage 1	70	Spill the Tea	70×	Grass	Fire ×2	1
Teal Mask Ogerpon exBasic	210	Myriad Leaf Shower	30+	Grass + Grass + Grass	Fire ×2	1

The core: the 7 cards every list runs

These 7 cards appear in all 10 lists, without a single exception. That is 37 of the 60 slots. The other 23 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 37 slots break down: 13 Trainers, 7 Pokémon, 17 Energy. The balance is a normal one, so it is the cards themselves, more than the split, that give this deck its character.

4 of those 7 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Sinistcha (2 to 4), Boss's Orders (2 to 4) and Night Stretcher (1 to 2), plus 1 more. Everybody runs them, the last copy is arguable.

What "3 to 4" means in the copies column, what the "TWM 130" code under each name is for, and why we count dozens of lists instead of one: how to read a deck list.

The cards present in every list counted, with the number of copies

Copies	Card	Printing	Kind	Rotation
4	Teal Mask Ogerpon ex	TWM 25	Pokémon	leaves
2–4	Sinistcha	TWM 22	Pokémon	leaves
4	Bug Catching Set	TWM 143	Trainer	leaves
4	Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
2–4	Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
1–2	Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
12–19	Grass Energy	MEE 1	Energy	stays

The 40 cards that change from list to list

40 cards fight over the 23 slots that are left: 3 above three lists in four, 21 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Poltchageist at 90 %, Sinistcha ex at 90 % and Prime Catcher at 80 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Fezandipiti ex, at 50 %: 5 of 10 players took it, 5 put something else there. Read its text before you decide. Right at the bottom, Poltchageist at 20 % and Meowth ex at 20 %: personal ideas, only worth copying if you know why.

Why a card at 45 % is not a bad card, and what order to buy all this in: how to read a deck list.

The cards some lists run and others don't, most common first

Lists running it	Card	Copies	Printing	Kind
90 %9/10	Poltchageist	2–4	PBL 5	Pokémon
90 %9/10	Sinistcha ex	1	TWM 23	Pokémon
80 %8/10	Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
70 %7/10	Poké Pad	3–4	POR 81	Trainer
60 %6/10	Ultra Ball	2–4	MEG 131	Trainer
60 %6/10	Tera Orb	1–3	SSP 189	Trainer
50 %5/10	Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
50 %5/10	Energy Switch	2–4	MEG 115	Trainer
40 %4/10	Flutter Mane	1	TEF 78	Pokémon
40 %4/10	Briar	1	SCR 132	Trainer
40 %4/10	Naveen	1–2	POR 79	Trainer
30 %3/10	Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
30 %3/10	Forest of Vitality	1–4	MEG 117	Trainer
30 %3/10	Iris's Fighting Spirit	2–3	JTG 149	Trainer
30 %3/10	Pokégear 3.0	3	SVI 186	Trainer
30 %3/10	Team Rocket's Watchtower	2	DRI 180	Trainer
30 %3/10	Buddy-Buddy Poffin	1	TEF 144	Trainer
30 %3/10	Lisia's Appeal	1	SSP 179	Trainer
30 %3/10	Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
20 %2/10	Poltchageist	1–4	TWM 20	Pokémon
20 %2/10	Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
20 %2/10	Brock's Scouting	1	JTG 146	Trainer
20 %2/10	Lana's Aid	1	TWM 155	Trainer
20 %2/10	Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
20 %2/10	Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
10 %1/10	Bayleef	2	MEG 9	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Chikorita	2	MEG 8	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Hoothoot	2	TEF 126	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Meganium	2	MEG 10	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Noctowl	2	SCR 115	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Celebi	1	MEG 12	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
10 %1/10	Team Rocket's Petrel	4	DRI 176	Trainer
10 %1/10	Area Zero Underdepths	2	SCR 131	Trainer
10 %1/10	Carmine	2	TWM 145	Trainer
10 %1/10	Hassel	2	TWM 151	Trainer
10 %1/10	Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	1	TEF 145	Trainer
10 %1/10	Dawn	1	PFL 87	Trainer
10 %1/10	N's Plan	1	BLK 83	Trainer
10 %1/10	Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer

What Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 47 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.

Where the money goes, though, we can name: it is Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, by a distance. The 13 Trainer slots in the core cost next to nothing, and you probably own some already. All 10 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 8 took Prime Catcher and 2 took Unfair Stamp. You are allowed ONE ACE SPEC card in your whole deck, so a single copy covers it whatever it costs. New to this deck? Take Prime Catcher and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 4 of the 7 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, Sinistcha, Bug Catching Set and Night Stretcher. The core table marks each of them. The date belongs to the publisher, and we do not have it.

What Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fire, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 9 of the 91 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, Ethan's Typhlosion and Ceruledge ex, plus 6 more decks. The table below takes them one at a time, and those are the lists you practise against first before an event.

Do not stop at this table, though. This deck sets up fast, so what troubles it looks less like a Weakness and more like an opponent who absorbs your first hits and answers harder.

Going the other way, your attackers are Grass, and 17 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: N's Zoroark ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass and Mega Lucario ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

When an attack does nothing at all

There are two ways to hurt the Pokémon across the table, and the game does not treat them the same. An attack with a number printed next to it deals damage. An attack with no number, whose text just says "place 2 damage counters", does what the rules call an effect. That matters, because a handful of Pokémon have an Ability that prevents the effects of your opponent's attacks, and their card spells it out in brackets: damage is not an effect.

This deck has an answer to that. Poltchageist has Hide 'n' Sneak, and 9 lists out of 10 play it. Against an attack that only places counters, that Pokémon takes nothing at all. Not one counter. An attack with a number printed next to it still puts its damage on it, mind you. Careful, though: the Ability protects the card that has it, and only that card. The rest of your bench takes everything.

Of the decks we track right now, 3 play an attack like that. They are in the table below, with the Pokémon carrying it. When you run into one, put that Pokémon in the Active Spot: the marker attack can no longer touch it. Your opponent will have to reach for printed-damage attacks — most of these decks carry some too. The wall buys you turns, it does not win the game for you.

The other way round, this deck attacks with counters too: Sinistcha with Cursed Drop, Poltchageist with Furtive Drop and Sinistcha ex with Re-Brew. Those attacks have no damage number printed next to them at all. In front of a Pokémon that shuts off effects, they place nothing. Zero.

Of the decks we track, 5 play a Pokémon like that, and they are in the table below. The day you see one come across the table, stop counting on your counters. You need an attack with a real number written on it. You have one: Spill the Tea, on Sinistcha, for 70×.

Questions people ask

What is the Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex deck list?

There isn't one, and that is the whole point. Across 10 tournament lists harvested between 16 August 2026 and 18 August 2026, 7 cards turn up in every single one — 37 slots out of 60. The remaining 23 change from player to player, with 40 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

How many lists is this counted on, and where do they come from?

10 lists, played across 10 different tournaments, harvested between 16 August 2026 and 18 August 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 10 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex?

With the whole core: 7 cards, 37 slots. Inside it, buy the 13 Trainer slots and the 17 Energy first — they are cheap and they carry over into your next deck. Leave Teal Mask Ogerpon ex for last, because that is the bill. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Poltchageist at 90 % and Sinistcha ex at 90 %.

What beats Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex?

Its attackers are Weak to Fire, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 9 of the 91 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex, Ethan's Typhlosion, Ceruledge ex and Blaziken / N's Zoroark ex, among others.

Will Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 4 core cards out of 7 carry the letter H, starting with Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, Sinistcha, Bug Catching Set and Night Stretcher.

Are a lot of people playing Sinistcha / Teal Mask Ogerpon ex?

We have read 10 lists of it, which puts it 84th of the 91 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 10 entries for it, 0.04 % of the field, across all its players. That figure is theirs.

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.