How to Build a Pokémon Deck

The deck building rules

A Pokémon deck has exactly 60 cards, and most of the other rules are limits on how many of one kind of card you can put in those 60. These are the ones the TurnZero HQ deck builder checks:

The four-copy limit goes by name, not by printing. Four copies of a card from one set and four from a reprint are eight copies of the same card, and the deck is over the limit. The name has to match exactly, so a Pokémon and its ex version are different cards with different limits. How to read a Pokémon card →

Standard and Expanded

The format decides which cards you can use. Standard covers the last few years of cards, and Expanded reaches back to the Black & White series. TurnZero HQ checks a deck against whichever one you pick.

Standard legality comes from the regulation mark, the letter in a small box at the bottom left of newer cards. The Pokémon Company International announces each rotation and the marks it removes, so check the current announcement before you build for a tournament.

A reprint with a legal mark makes older printings of the same card legal too. The 2026 rotation announcement gives Boss's Orders as an example: a copy with the rotated D mark is still playable in Standard because the Mega Evolution reprint carries an I. The deck builder follows the same rule and treats a card as legal when any printing of it is.

How to build a Pokémon deck, step by step

1. Pick a main attacker. Choose one Pokémon, and its evolution line if it has one, that you want to win the game with. A deck built around one clear plan is easier to fix than one built around six good cards.
2. Choose a format. Standard if you play at a league or a tournament, Expanded if your group allows older cards. The format sets the pool, so choose it first.
3. Fill the Pokémon slots. Count how many are Basics, because you need one in your opening hand, and a hand without one is a mulligan, which can give your opponent an extra card. For an evolution line, the rulebook suggests four of each stage. Many experienced players run fewer of the middle stage, using Rare Candy, an Item that evolves a Basic straight to Stage 2. How many copies you need depends on how many search cards you play.
4. Add Trainers. Trainers draw cards, find your Pokémon and move Energy, and they include Supporters, Items, Stadiums and Pokémon Tools. The rulebook's starting point is 20 to 25. Tournament decks often run 30 or more, because more search means the deck does the same thing more often. You can play only one Supporter per turn, which caps how many a deck can use.
5. Add Energy. Stick to one or two Energy types, matched to the attacks you plan to use most. The rulebook suggests 12 to 15 Energy cards. Basic Energy has no copy limit, so this is the easiest number to adjust once you have played a few games.
6. Reach exactly 60 and check the limits. Count copies by name, look for a second ACE SPEC or Radiant Pokémon, and confirm every card is legal in your format.
7. Test it. Draw seven cards a few times and see whether you get a Basic and something to do with it. Then play games, and note which cards sit in your hand unused. Those are the first to cut.

None of these counts is a rule. The right split depends on your attacker, how much draw your Trainers give you, and the format.

Building a Pokémon deck in TurnZero HQ

The Pokémon deck builder is a Deck Lab, the same place decks are built for Magic. It works on your phone and on the web, and it measures your list as you edit it. You can build from the cards in your Pokémon collection or from cards you don't own yet.

1. Add a new deck and choose Pokémon. Give it a name and a format, Standard or Expanded, and either start empty or paste a decklist. Pokémon TCG Live's format works, and so does a plain list like 4 Ultra Ball. Lines that match no card are listed so you can fix them.
2. Pick a template if you want a starting shape. Each one is a set of target counts for Pokémon, Basics, Trainers and Energy, and the recommended one is chosen for you. Balanced is a general-purpose split, Evolution engine leans on Stage 1 and Stage 2 lines, and Turbo runs fewer Pokémon and more Trainers. Custom starts with no targets.
3. Search for cards and add them. Your edits stay in a draft until you save, and the numbers update as you change the list, so what you see while editing is what you get after saving.
4. Read the header. It shows how many of the 60 cards you have, whether the deck is Legal or has N to fix, and the chance of an opening hand that works. Tap any of them for the explanation.
5. Work through what needs fixing, then save. A deck is saved even when it breaks a rule, because a deck is not legal until it is finished.

When a deck has problems, each one names the rule and the card. The problems the Pokémon builder can report are the wrong card count, too many copies of a name, a second ACE SPEC or Radiant Pokémon, no Basic Pokémon, and a card that isn't legal in the format.

What the deck builder shows

Beyond the rule check, the deck builder reads your list through a few lenses. Each is a view of the same 60 cards.

The opening hand lens uses the hypergeometric distribution, which gives the exact odds of drawing a given kind of card in seven cards from a 60-card deck. It measures the list as you built it. It can't tell you how a particular hand will play.

The collection lens is what makes the builder useful if you're building from a binder. It counts owned copies across every printing of a card and every variant, condition and grade, and it subtracts them from your list to show what you still need. Prices come from TCGplayer, as they do everywhere else in the app. What your Pokémon cards are worth →

Sharing a deck

A deck is private until you publish it. Publishing is an opt-in setting in the deck's menu, and it puts the deck on its own page in the public Pokémon deck gallery. You can copy your list out in Pokémon TCG Live's format at any time, whether or not it's published. Once the deck is built, how to play Pokémon covers the turn, and the Prize card tracker keeps score when you sit down to try it.

Frequently Asked Questions