Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Another new Mega Evolution that caught my eye is Mega Scrafty, and the impetus for me to figure something out with it was seeing the Mega attack rare card on the Ascended Heroes ladder. Ever since I made this deck, it has become a minor presence in TCG Live, though their approach is a bit different from mine. But first, here is my decklist:
POKÉMON (14)
3x Scraggy (Ascended Heroes)
3x Mega Scrafty ex (Ascended Heroes)
4x Munkidori (Twilight Masquerade)
4x Cinderace (Mega Evolution)
TRAINERS (35)
3x Arven
2x Boss’s Orders
2x Earthen Vessel
3x Energy Switch
3x Janine’s Secret Art
3x Lillie’s Determination
2x Mega Signal
3x Nest Ball
1x Precious Trolley
2x Rigid Band
2x Super Rod
2x Switch
2x Technical Machine: Evolution
2x Technical Machine: Turbo Energize
3x Town Store
1x Ultra Ball
ENERGY (11)
11x Darkness Energy
Other people take the extra-damage approach, using Punk Helmet on Mega Scrafty ex alongside accelerating Energy using Phantasmal Flames Toxtricity. I don’t use Toxtricity in this deck, going all in on Munkidori and leaving Energy acceleration to Cinderace, Technical Machine: Turbo Energize, and to a lesser extent, Janine’s Secret Art. As I use Rigid Band to reduce damage to Mega Scrafty ex by 30, this is pretty similar in spirit to “Demon Copperajah Head,” the deck I made earlier featuring Copperajah ex. Certainly, the way it approaches spreading damage around via bulk use of Munkidori’s “Adrena-Brain” is much the same. The damage is lower, but it makes up for that by discarding cards from the opponent’s hand and deck to slow them down or even stop them from performing certain strategies.
It is also way easier to use by virtue of running on only one Energy type (Darkness) and not damaging the Bench (allowing you to focus on healing Mega Scrafty ex, meaning it works slower, but Mega Scrafty ex is far harder to knock out than Copperajah ex). If you can get Cinderace out, it is also a good matchup against Mimikyu and Crustle but not Cornerstone Ogerpon ex; against that one, you’ll need to find ways to get around it. According to my calculator, there is a roughly 40% chance you will find Cinderace in your opening hand with this deck; if you don’t, the deck is slowed down a lot upon setting up, and Cinderace becomes a useless card you might as well discard for Earthen Vessel and Ultra Ball.
I think this is the first deck where I used Mega Evolution Cinderace, so it might need explaining why Cinderace is there without Scorbunny or Raboot: its Ability, “Explosiveness,” allows you to play it down straight into the Active Spot if it is in your opening hand. To facilitate that, it has an attack for 1 Colorless Energy, Turbo Flare, that deals 50 damage and attaches 3 Basic Energy from your deck to your Benched Pokémon as you please. Because of this card’s presence in this deck, despite this being a deck centered around evolved Pokémon, you should go second in the event you can open with Cinderace and start accelerating Energy immediately. Cinderace also has a Retreat Cost of 0, so once you have the Energy and Pokémon you need, you can swap it out with the Pokémon you want (and if trapped there, it can still fight back).
Cinderace is the third Stage 2 card in the TCG’s history that you can play straight into the Active Spot when you begin, as far as I know, after Steam Siege Talonflame and Crown Zenith Luxray. All of them also have an attack for 1 Colorless Energy involving searching for cards from your deck, and all of them also have a free Retreat Cost. Crown Zenith Luxray’s Ability was also called “Explosiveness.”
Calculating damage ahead of time might be kind of difficult with this deck, as you can move damage via “Adrena-Brain” to your opponent’s Pokémon, and Mega Scrafty ex has “Coutnerattacking Crest” that automatically places 5 damage counters on the opponent’s attacking Pokémon if Mega Scrafty ex takes damage
I have two matches in this video: the first is without Cinderace, and the second is with it. For the first match, you can see that it can accumulate damage on the opponent’s Active Pokémon from many different sources that it can beat Obsidian Flames Charizard ex using Outlaw Leg only once. Outlaw Leg was also discarding Rare Candy, Ultra Ball, and such to prevent them from setting up fully. For the second match, Cinderace allows Mega Scrafty ex to set up at warp speed, usually by the second turn. Discarding cards from the opponent's hand and their deck that early on can stop them from executing their plans; for instance, the first use of Outlaw Leg in that match resulted in them losing both Hilda and Colress's Tenacity, a big deal in a deck that really needs its Stadium (in this case, Mega Meganium ex, who is very reliant on Forest of Vitality).
Another new Mega Evolution that caught my eye is Mega Scrafty, and the impetus for me to figure something out with it was seeing the Mega attack rare card on the Ascended Heroes ladder. Ever since I made this deck, it has become a minor presence in TCG Live, though their approach is a bit different from mine. But first, here is my decklist:
POKÉMON (14)
3x Scraggy (Ascended Heroes)
3x Mega Scrafty ex (Ascended Heroes)
4x Munkidori (Twilight Masquerade)
4x Cinderace (Mega Evolution)
TRAINERS (35)
3x Arven
2x Boss’s Orders
2x Earthen Vessel
3x Energy Switch
3x Janine’s Secret Art
3x Lillie’s Determination
2x Mega Signal
3x Nest Ball
1x Precious Trolley
2x Rigid Band
2x Super Rod
2x Switch
2x Technical Machine: Evolution
2x Technical Machine: Turbo Energize
3x Town Store
1x Ultra Ball
ENERGY (11)
11x Darkness Energy
Other people take the extra-damage approach, using Punk Helmet on Mega Scrafty ex alongside accelerating Energy using Phantasmal Flames Toxtricity. I don’t use Toxtricity in this deck, going all in on Munkidori and leaving Energy acceleration to Cinderace, Technical Machine: Turbo Energize, and to a lesser extent, Janine’s Secret Art. As I use Rigid Band to reduce damage to Mega Scrafty ex by 30, this is pretty similar in spirit to “Demon Copperajah Head,” the deck I made earlier featuring Copperajah ex. Certainly, the way it approaches spreading damage around via bulk use of Munkidori’s “Adrena-Brain” is much the same. The damage is lower, but it makes up for that by discarding cards from the opponent’s hand and deck to slow them down or even stop them from performing certain strategies.
It is also way easier to use by virtue of running on only one Energy type (Darkness) and not damaging the Bench (allowing you to focus on healing Mega Scrafty ex, meaning it works slower, but Mega Scrafty ex is far harder to knock out than Copperajah ex). If you can get Cinderace out, it is also a good matchup against Mimikyu and Crustle but not Cornerstone Ogerpon ex; against that one, you’ll need to find ways to get around it. According to my calculator, there is a roughly 40% chance you will find Cinderace in your opening hand with this deck; if you don’t, the deck is slowed down a lot upon setting up, and Cinderace becomes a useless card you might as well discard for Earthen Vessel and Ultra Ball.
I think this is the first deck where I used Mega Evolution Cinderace, so it might need explaining why Cinderace is there without Scorbunny or Raboot: its Ability, “Explosiveness,” allows you to play it down straight into the Active Spot if it is in your opening hand. To facilitate that, it has an attack for 1 Colorless Energy, Turbo Flare, that deals 50 damage and attaches 3 Basic Energy from your deck to your Benched Pokémon as you please. Because of this card’s presence in this deck, despite this being a deck centered around evolved Pokémon, you should go second in the event you can open with Cinderace and start accelerating Energy immediately. Cinderace also has a Retreat Cost of 0, so once you have the Energy and Pokémon you need, you can swap it out with the Pokémon you want (and if trapped there, it can still fight back).
Cinderace is the third Stage 2 card in the TCG’s history that you can play straight into the Active Spot when you begin, as far as I know, after Steam Siege Talonflame and Crown Zenith Luxray. All of them also have an attack for 1 Colorless Energy involving searching for cards from your deck, and all of them also have a free Retreat Cost. Crown Zenith Luxray’s Ability was also called “Explosiveness.”
Calculating damage ahead of time might be kind of difficult with this deck, as you can move damage via “Adrena-Brain” to your opponent’s Pokémon, and Mega Scrafty ex has “Coutnerattacking Crest” that automatically places 5 damage counters on the opponent’s attacking Pokémon if Mega Scrafty ex takes damage
I have two matches in this video: the first is without Cinderace, and the second is with it. For the first match, you can see that it can accumulate damage on the opponent’s Active Pokémon from many different sources that it can beat Obsidian Flames Charizard ex using Outlaw Leg only once. Outlaw Leg was also discarding Rare Candy, Ultra Ball, and such to prevent them from setting up fully. For the second match, Cinderace allows Mega Scrafty ex to set up at warp speed, usually by the second turn. Discarding cards from the opponent's hand and their deck that early on can stop them from executing their plans; for instance, the first use of Outlaw Leg in that match resulted in them losing both Hilda and Colress's Tenacity, a big deal in a deck that really needs its Stadium (in this case, Mega Meganium ex, who is very reliant on Forest of Vitality).
