Pokémon Deck Builder
New to the game? Start from a real winning deck and tweak it — a friendly checklist tells you what your deck still needs in plain English. Know your stuff? Flip to Advanced for the full construction score (consistency, energy, prize economy and more), built from exact math over real tournament data.
A deck is 60 cards · max 4 of any card · needs ≥1 Basic Pokémon
Browse community decks →1. The rules that make a deck legal
Every tournament-legal deck must follow all of these:
- Exactly 60 cards. Not 59, not 61 — always 60. You have 0.
- At most 4 of any one card by name — except Basic Energy, which is unlimited.
- At least 1 Basic Pokémon.Basics are the ones you can put straight down without evolving — without one, you can't start the game. You have none.
- Every card legal in your format.Standard uses only the current rotation; older cards are “rotated out.”
Singleton cards: a few cards break the “4 copies” rule the other way — you may run only 1 ACE SPEC in the whole deck, 1 Radiant Pokémon, and 1 of each Prism Star (◇).
2. What a 60-card deck is made of
Your attackers + their evolution lines + ability/support Pokémon.
The engine — draw, search, Supporters, Items, Stadiums and Tools that find your cards.
Pays for attacks. Match the colors your attackers actually need.
3. Build it in this order
- Pick your main attacker — 1–2 Pokémon that deal the damage. Everything else supports them.
- Add its evolution line. A Stage 2 attacker needs its Basic and Stage 1 too — and Rare Candy to skip the slow middle step.
- Match Energy to the attacker's color.Pack the Energy type your attacks actually cost — not the Pokémon's type.
- Add ~12–15 draw & search (Professor's Research, Iono, Ultra Ball, Nest Ball) so you find your pieces every game.
- Fill with utility — Boss's Orders (gust), switching, recovery — then trim to exactly 60.
Your deck
Pick a starter deck above, or search to add your first card.
As you build, a friendly checklist tells you what your deck still needs.