Mega Excadrill ex Deck List and Guide
Now that Pitch Black has fully released, there is one deck that is absolutely tearing up the online Pokémon TCG tournament scene: Mega Excadrill ex. Although the set hasn’t been out very long, Mega Excadrill ex is currently more popular in online tournaments than even Dragapult ex.
But what is it about this deck that makes it so powerful?
Below, we’ll be diving into how Mega Excadrill ex works, and what makes it so strong right now in the Pokémon TCG Standard format.
Ap3XxX9941 2nd out of 416 – Tournament of Doom
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Pokémon: 18
4 Beldum TEF 113
4 Metang TEF 114
2 Metagross CRI 61
3 Drilbur PBL 46
2 Mega Excadrill ex PBL 65
2 Genesect ex BLK 67
1 Ethan's Pichu DRI 71
Trainer: 25
4 Team Rocket's Petrel DRI 176
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Kieran TWM 154
2 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Team Rocket's Transceiver DRI 178
2 Energy Recycler DRI 164
2 Jumbo Ice Cream PFL 91
1 Ultra Ball MEG 131
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
1 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
1 Precious Trolley SSP 185
1 Air Balloon ASC 181
1 Gravity Mountain SSP 177
Energy: 17
17 Metal Energy MEE 8
Mega Excadrill ex deck – quick start guide
Bench Drillbur and Beldum early so you can start evolving them.
Use Pichu early to draw additional cards.
Evolve Mega Excadrill ex.
Evolve Metang and use Megal Maker to accelerate energy onto your Excadrill.
Once powered up, take heavy hits into your opponent’s Active Pokémon via Mega Excadrill ex and Metagross.
Mega Excadrill ex – early game setup
Because Mega Excadrill is an evolution Pokémon, it’s very important to get your board set up early. To help you with this, you’re going to want to use Precious Trolley
Precious Trolley
SV08: Surging Sparks • ACE SPEC Rare
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One single Precious Trolley can set up your entire board which is fantastic. Use it to get two Beldum and two Drillbur right off the bat. Additionally, an Ethan’s Pichu can be helpful if you are going second to get an extra draw, while Genesect ex adds handy consistency via Metallic Signal.
Accelerate energy via Metang’s Metal Maker
While we’ll get to the heavy hitters in a moment, Metang’s Metal Maker is what really makes this deck viable. This ability lets you search the top four cards of your deck and attach any number of Basic Metal Energy and attach them to your Pokémon in any way you like. That’s a powerful Energy acceleration ability, although it does mean you’ll need to run A LOT of Basic Metal Energies in your deck (17 here) to ensure consistency.
The last thing you want to do is hit zero Metal Energies off of Metal maker, but that’s statistically hard to do if you’re running nearly 20 in your deck. Plus, as you thin out your deck, you can use Energy Recycler to put them back!
Swing for the fences with Mega Excadrill ex
Mega Excadrill ex - 065/084
ME05: Pitch Black • Double Rare
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Of course, the deck is named after this big guy for a reason. Mega Excadrill ex is a beast of an attacker. All you need to do is give it a few extra Metal Energy and it’s swinging for 330. Use Kieran and that’s 360. It’s a powerful and reliable attack – the main reason for why this deck is so popular right now.
Of course, having only a Fire weakness (not a popular type right now) and a Grass resistance (a relatively popular type) also gives it advantages in the matchup department.
Metagross is a handy secondary attacker
In some situations, Metagross will be an even handier attacker than Mega Excadrill ex. Use Metagross to take huge knockouts (300 if you discard 3 Metal Energy and more if you use Kieran) while unlocking a favorable prize trade.
No damage spread makes Mega Excadrill ex a blunt instrument
On the deck weaknesses side of things: every deck has them. Mega Excadrill ex’s is its lack of damage spread and sniping. While most decks these days love to have a way to spread damage around the board to take multiple knockouts in a turn, Mega Excadrill ex is looking to one-hit knockout anything in sight rather than get too strategic with damage placement.
That being said, you can tech in a Mega Skarmory ex at least to do some bench sniping if need be.
Mega Skarmory ex - 055/088
Perfect Order • Double Rare
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Mega Excadrill ex is clearly a favorite in the early days of Pitch Black. Will it stay at the top? Perhaps not. Things often change as we move out of the more hype-based online tournament scene into the more grounded in-card play we see at more prestigious tournaments. But it’s certainly a deck with a lot of potential, as well as a breath of fresh air for many in the competitive scene.
