Mega Zygarde ex / Barbaracle 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 13 to 18 Pokémon, 29 to 35 Trainers and 11 to 15 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fighting.

Limitless files it under « zygarde-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: 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.

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 14 Supporters, 11 to 19 Items, 2 to 4 Tools and 0 to 2 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

Mega Zygarde ex attacks with Gaia Wave for 200, and it costs 3 Energy (Fighting, Fighting and Fighting). It has 310 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. Mega Zygarde 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: Mega Zygarde 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.

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
Mega Zygarde exBasic	310	Gaia Wave	200	Fighting + Fighting + Fighting	Grass ×2	2
BarbaracleStage 1	130	Hammer In	80	Fighting + Fighting + Colorless	Grass ×2	2
SolrockBasic	110	Cosmic Beam	70	Fighting	Grass ×2	1
LunatoneBasic	110	Power Gem	50	Fighting + Fighting	Grass ×2	1

The core: the 13 cards every list runs

These 13 cards appear in all 20 lists, without a single exception. That is 43 of the 60 slots. The other 17 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
3	Barbaracle	POR 43	Pokémon
3–4	Binacle	POR 42	Pokémon
2	Lunatone	MEG 74	Pokémon
2–3	Mega Zygarde ex	POR 47	Pokémon
2–3	Solrock	MEG 75	Pokémon
3–4	Fighting Gong	MEG 116	Trainer
3–4	Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer
2–4	Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer
1–2	Air Balloon	ASC 181	Trainer
1–2	Tarragon	POR 85	Trainer
1–3	Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer
1–2	Core Memory	POR 70	Trainer
9–15	Fighting Energy	MEE 6	Energy

What changes from one list to the next

27 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
90 %18/20	Premium Power Pro	2–3	MEG 124	Trainer
80 %16/20	Team Rocket's Petrel	1–4	DRI 176	Trainer
80 %16/20	Wally's Compassion	1	MEG 132	Trainer
75 %15/20	Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex	1–2	TWM 112	Pokémon
70 %14/20	Team Rocket's Transceiver	2–3	DRI 178	Trainer
70 %14/20	Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
65 %13/20	Jumbo Ice Cream	2–4	PFL 91	Trainer
65 %13/20	Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
65 %13/20	Rocky Fighting Energy	1–4	POR 87	Energy
45 %9/20	Night Stretcher	1–2	ASC 196	Trainer
30 %6/20	Energy Retrieval	1–2	SVI 171	Trainer
30 %6/20	Judge	2	POR 76	Trainer
30 %6/20	Switch	1–2	MEG 130	Trainer
30 %6/20	Ultra Ball	2	MEG 131	Trainer
25 %5/20	Carmine	1–2	TWM 145	Trainer
25 %5/20	Team Rocket's Watchtower	2	DRI 180	Trainer
25 %5/20	Scoop Up Cyclone	1	TWM 162	Trainer
20 %4/20	Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
10 %2/20	Bloodmoon Ursaluna	1	PRE 54	Pokémon
5 %1/20	Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
5 %1/20	Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
5 %1/20	Energy Switch	2	MEG 115	Trainer
5 %1/20	Pokégear 3.0	2	SVI 186	Trainer
5 %1/20	Battle Cage	1	PFL 85	Trainer
5 %1/20	Brock's Scouting	1	JTG 146	Trainer
5 %1/20	Colress's Tenacity	1	SFA 57	Trainer
5 %1/20	Scramble Switch	1	SSP 186	Trainer

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

You need 40 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 13 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.

And here is a genuinely good piece of news: not one core card carries the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation. This deck walks through the change with its skeleton intact. At equal price, that is the argument that should settle it.

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. A card with a Weakness takes DOUBLE damage from an attacker of that type. Of the decks we track, 12 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.