Gholdengo ex (TCG)

Gholdengo ex
Gholdengo ex Types used Major cards Gholdengo ex Era 2023-present

Gholdengo ex is a Pokémon Trading Card Game deck archetype that was mainly played in the 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26 seasons of the Standard format. The deck's primary Pokémon is Gholdengo ex, which has a powerful draw Ability in "Coin Bonus" and a "Make It Rain" attack that can deal practically any amount of damage.

Gholdengo ex has been paired with various cards to complement its strategy; most notably, the 2023-24 season sees it paired with Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR and Radiant Greninja as alternative attackers.

Gholdengo ex saw modest success during the 2023-24 season and the first half of the 2024-25 season; notably, it finished 3rd place in the 2023 Kyoto Champions League and 2nd place in the 2024 Dortmund Regional. However, the introduction of Energy Search Pro in the Surging Sparks expansion causes the deck's popularity to skyrocket, consistently ranking among the top 10 most played decks (per Limitless TCG rankings) as of July 2025.

Strategy

The card Gholdengo ex has an innately powerful Ability and attack. Its "Coin Bonus" Ability allows the player to draw a card from their deck, or 2 cards if the Gholdengo ex is in the Active Spot. This Ability works per Gholdengo ex, meaning with 4 Gholdengo ex in play, the player may draw upwards to 5 cards in a turn, not counting the card they draw at the start of their turn. Gholdengo ex's attack, "Make It Rain", costs only one (Metal) Energy and does 50 damage for each Basic Energy card the player discards from their hand. There is no upper bound to how many Basic Energy cards the player can discard with this attack, meaning Gholdengo ex can theoretically hit any number of damage. Cards that can recycle Basic Energy from the discard pile, such as Superior Energy Retrieval, are crucial in making sure Gholdengo ex can attack every turn.

Gholdengo ex has a very straightforward gameplay and method of attack; thus, it can be easily countered or inhibited with certain strategies, such as cards that block attacks or prevent Abilities used by Pokémon ex, or decks that only run single-Prize options and do not have a clean 2-2-2 Prize card map. Players usually play Gholdengo ex with a host of other cards to boost its draw power and consistency, or to open up alternative strategies.

2023-24 Standard format

A major breakthrough in Gholdengo ex deck-building during the 2023-24 season is seen with Kazuki Takahashi's Gholdengo ex deck list, which made a surprise 3rd place finish at the Kyoto Champions League on December 23-24, 2023. Takahashi paired Gholdengo ex with Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR, whose "Star Portal" VSTAR Power allows it to attach up to 3 Basic (Water) Energies from the discard pile to any of the player's Water-type Pokémon in play. This provides Takahashi's Gholdengo ex deck with two optional, more efficient attackers (in that they don't require the player to discard too many Energies):

• Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR itself, whose "Subspace Swell" attack deals 60 damage plus 20 damage for each Benched Pokémon, can deal up to 260 damage if both players have full Benches.
• Radiant Greninja's "Moonlight Shuriken" attack discards 2 Energy from itself and deals 90 damage to 2 of the player's Pokémon. An unprepared opponent may be caught off guard as Radiant Greninja can Knock Out their Active or Benched Basic Pokémon with 90 HP or less, taking upwards of 2 prizes in the early game. Radiant Greninja already sees play in Gholdengo ex decks because its "Concealed Cards" Ability complements Gholdengo ex's draw power, thus pairing it with Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR allows it to function as more than just a draw engine.

Subsequent Gholdengo builds during the 2023-24 Standard format iterates on the usage of Radiant Greninja as a sub-attacker, notably including Canceling Cologne to cancel Manaphy's "Wave Veil" Ability that blocks Radiant Greninja's "Moonlight Shuriken" attack.

• 
  Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR
• 
  Radiant Greninja

2024-25 Standard format onward

The Gholdengo ex deck building scene sees another major shakeup with the advent of the ACE SPEC card Energy Search Pro, released in the Surging Sparks expansion. This card allows the player to search for any number of Basic Energy cards from their deck, as long as they are all of different types — the maximum number of Basic Energy cards that can be searched in this way, as of the Scarlet & Violet Series, is 8. In a single turn, a Gholdengo ex player using this card can amass enough Energy cards to deal massive damage with Gholdengo ex's "Make It Rain" attack. This card also helps to thin the deck significantly, ridding Basic Energies from the deck and ensuring the player gains more useful draws with "Coin Bonus".

Since Energy Search Pro necessitates the player to carry at least 1 of each type of Basic Energy card in their deck, it lets the player put in additional support Pokémon that can make use of those different Energy types; most notably, Munkidori with its "Adrena-Brain" Ability that activates if the Munkidori has a (Darkness) Energy attached.

Key cards

2025-26 Standard format

• Gholdengo ex - The deck's primary attacker and draw engine, Gholdengo ex's "Coin Bonus" Ability lets the player draw a card, or 2 cards if the Gholdengo ex is in the Active Spot, allowing the player to gather enough cards to make full use of their deck. Its "Make It Rain" attack costs 1 (Metal) Energy and deals 50 damage for each Basic Energy card the player discards from their hand. By amassing as many Basic Energy cards in the hand, the player may do any number of damage and Knock Out any opposing Pokémon.
• Gimmighoul - While there are multiple Gimmighoul cards that the player can choose from, Gimmighoul from Surging Sparks is the most popular choice due to its "Minor Errand-Running" attack, which allows the player to search their deck for 2 Basic Energy cards. This helps to thin the player's deck and ensures they have the bare minimum of Energy cards needed to launch Gholdengo ex's attack next turn.
• Genesect ex - Its "Metallic Signal" Ability lets the player search for up to 2 Metal-type Evolution Pokémon cards from their deck, which includes Gholdengo ex itself. This provides the Gholdengo ex deck with incredible consistency, and largely removes the need for other searcher cards such as Ultra Ball.
• Munkidori - Its "Adrena-Brain" Ability lets the player move up to 30 damage from 1 of their own Pokémon onto 1 of the opponent's Pokémon if it has any (Darkness) Energy attached. This serves multiple functions at once: it can heal a damaged Pokémon, it can help fix Gholdengo ex's damage output against bulkier Pokémon, and it can KO a Basic Pokémon with 30 HP or less like Budew.
• Buddy-Buddy Poffin - Places two Basic Pokémon with 70 HP or less onto the Bench, which is useful on the first turn to set up Gimmighoul on the player's board. This card replaces Battle VIP Pass, which had rotated out of the Standard format as of the 2024-25 season.
• Nest Ball - Useful for searching and benching Basic Pokémon that cannot be searched with Buddy-Buddy Poffin; namely, Genesect ex, Munkidori, or Fezandipiti ex for an additional draw.
• Superior Energy Retrieval - This card lets the player retrieve up to 4 Basic Energy cards from their discard pile, but only if the player discards 2 other cards from their hand first. Since Gholdengo ex attacks by discarding Basic Energy, Superior Energy Retrieval card is crucial as a way to constantly recycle the Energies into the player's hand.
• Energy Search Pro - The ACE SPEC card of choice for most Gholdengo ex decks, this card allows the player to search for any number of Basic Energy cards of different types from their deck, allowing the player to gather enough Basic Energy cards to deal big damage with Gholdengo ex's attack.
• Earthen Vessel - At the cost of discarding another card from the player's hand, this card searches up to 2 Basic Energy cards from the deck. Although this card's functionality is largely replaced by Energy Search Pro after the latter's introduction, at least 1 copy of Earthen Vessel still proves useful in situations where the player anticipates hand disruption, or when the player can't play ACE SPEC cards such as if the Ability of Genesect from Shrouded Fable is active.
• Night Stretcher - This card lets the player put a Pokémon or Basic Energy card from their discard pile into their hand. Useful to recover cards such as Gholdengo ex or a Basic Energy card to boost the "Make It Rain" damage output.
• Air Balloon - This card reduces the Retreat Cost of the Pokémon it is attached to by 2. When attached to Gholdengo ex, whose Retreat Cost is 2, it allows the Gholdengo ex to retreat freely, which is crucial since Energy attachment in this deck is very limited.
• Arven - Searches the deck for an Item card and a Pokémon Tool card, such as an Energy Search Pro and an Air Balloon.
• Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking - This Supporter card lets the player reorder their deck by putting any 2 cards from their deck on top of it. Combined with Gholdengo ex's "Coin Bonus" Ability to draw the topmost cards from the deck, this card essentially acts as a searcher for any specific cards the player might need during their turn.

Previous formats

2024-25 Standard format

• Radiant Greninja - Its "Concealed Cards" Ability lets the player draw 2 cards if they discard an Energy card from their hand. Useful as a draw boost, especially since the player will generally tend to search their deck for Energy cards with Energy Search Pro or Earthen Vessel.
• PokéStop - Discards the top 3 cards of the player's deck, but any Item cards discarded in this way goes into the player's hand. Since Gholdengo ex will naturally run a ton of Item cards, this card is useful as a draw boost.

2023-24 Standard format

• Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR - This card's "Star Portal" VSTAR Power allows the player to charge itself or Radiant Greninja with Basic Water Energies from the discard pile, allowing both of them to function as efficient sub-attackers.
• Battle VIP Pass - Places two Basic Pokémon onto the Bench on the first turn, useful for setting up Gimmighoul, Radiant Greninja, and Origin Forme Palkia V.
• Irida - Searches the deck for a Water-type Pokémon and Item card. This card is synergistic with Gholdengo ex decks that also run Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR, allowing the player to thin their deck and search for specific Item cards such as Superior Energy Retrieval.
• Worker - Primarily functions as a counter against Path to the Peak, which shuts down Gholdengo ex, Origin Palkia VSTAR, and Radiant Greninja's Abilities.

Typical decklist

2023-24 Standard format

Kazuki Takahashi's 3rd place decklist, Kyoto Champions League, 23-24 December 2023

Gholdengo Palkia
No.	Mark	Card	Type	Quantity
088/182		Gimmighoul		4×
139/182		Gholdengo		4×
039/189		Origin Forme Palkia		1×
040/189		Origin Forme Palkia		1×
035/182		Feebas		1×
038/203		Milotic		1×
046/189		Radiant Greninja		1×
041/172		Manaphy		1×
189/193		Superior Energy Retrieval	I	4×
230/264		Cross Switcher	I	4×
225/264		Battle VIP Pass	I	4×
181/198		Nest Ball	I	3×
196/198		Ultra Ball	I	3×
163/182		Earthen Vessel	I	2×
188/193		Super Rod	I	1×
171/198		Energy Retrieval	I	1×
189/197		Letter of Encouragement	I	1×
167/195		Worker	Su	4×
147/189		Irida	Su	2×
172/193		Boss's Orders [Ghetsis]	Su	1×
150/189		Roxanne	Su	1×
068/078		PokéStop	St	4×
WAT	—	Basic Water Energy	E	6×
MET	—	Basic Metal Energy	E	5×

2024-25 Standard format

Lucas Xing's 2nd place decklist, Vancouver Regionals, March 7-9, 2025

Gholdengo ex
No.	Mark	Card	Type	Quantity
097/191		Gimmighoul		4×
139/182		Gholdengo		4×
131/191		Gholdengo		1×
046/189		Radiant Greninja		1×
038/064		Fezandipiti		1×
095/167		Munkidori		1×
089/193		Spiritomb		1×
189/193		Superior Energy Retrieval	I	4×
144/162		Buddy-Buddy Poffin	I	4×
181/198		Nest Ball	I	2×
196/198		Ultra Ball	I	2×
061/064		Night Stretcher	I	2×
181/198		Pokégear 3.0	I	2×
163/182		Earthen Vessel	I	1×
146/189		Hisuian Heavy Ball	I	1×
181/198		Pal Pad	I	1×
181/198		Switch	I	1×
162/196		Lost Vacuum	I	1×
176/191		Energy Search Pro	I	1×
178/182		Technical Machine: Evolution	PT	1×
166/198		Arven	Su	3×
145/162		Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	Su	3×
172/193		Boss's Orders [Ghetsis]	Su	2×
171/182		Professor Turo's Scenario	Su	1×
150/189		Roxanne	Su	1×
068/078		PokéStop	St	2×
MET	—	Basic Metal Energy	E	3×
WAT	—	Basic Water Energy	E	2×
DAR	—	Basic Darkness Energy	E	2×
GRA	—	Basic Grass Energy	E	1×
FIR	—	Basic Fire Energy	E	1×
LIG	—	Basic Lightning Energy	E	1×
PSY	—	Basic Psychic Energy	E	1×
FIG	—	Basic Fighting Energy	E	1×

2025-26 Standard format

Kazuki Kasahara's 10th place decklist, Pokémon Japan Championships, 21-22 June 2025

Gholdengo ex
No.	Mark	Card	Type	Quantity
097/191		Gimmighoul		4×
139/182		Gholdengo		4×
067/086		Genesect		2×
123/165		Scyther		1×
141/197		Scizor		1×
095/167		Munkidori		1×
038/064		Fezandipiti		1×
189/193		Superior Energy Retrieval	I	4×
144/162		Buddy-Buddy Poffin	I	4×
181/198		Nest Ball	I	4×
160/182		Counter Catcher	I	2×
061/064		Night Stretcher	I	2×
171/198		Energy Retrieval	I	1×
163/182		Earthen Vessel	I	1×
176/191		Energy Search Pro	I	1×
079/086		Air Balloon	PT	3×
166/198		Arven	Su	4×
172/193		Boss's Orders [Ghetsis]	Su	4×
145/162		Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking	Su	2×
171/182		Professor Turo's Scenario	Su	2×
150/159		Levincia	St	1×
MET	—	Basic Metal Energy	E	3×
LIG	—	Basic Lightning Energy	E	2×
GRA	—	Basic Grass Energy	E	1×
FIR	—	Basic Fire Energy	E	1×
WAT	—	Basic Water Energy	E	1×
PSY	—	Basic Psychic Energy	E	1×
FIG	—	Basic Fighting Energy	E	1×
DAR	—	Basic Darkness Energy	E	1×

Possible tech cards

The following cards can be used in Gholdengo ex decks in place of certain cards included in the above lists.

• Gimmighoul - These Gimmighoul can be used as alternatives to Surging Sparks Gimmighoul.
  • Gimmighoul (Paradox Rift 087) has the "Call for Family" attack, which lets the player set up a Basic Pokémon, such as another Gimmighoul, from their deck. Although this Gimmighoul's low HP makes it a risky target against sniping decks like Dragapult ex and Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex, its attack can be useful if the player fails to get a Supporter like Arven to search for Buddy-Buddy Poffin or Nest Ball to set up Basic Pokémon.
  • Gimmighoul (Paradox Rift 088) has the "Continuous Coin Toss" attack, which has the player flip a coin until they get tails, and does 20 damage for each heads. It can be an early-game attacker to knock out low-HP Basic Pokémon such as Budew.
• Scizor - An efficient single-Prize attacker, its "Punishing Scissors" attack costs only 1 Metal Energy and does 10 damage plus 50 more damage for each Pokémon in the opponent's board that has an Ability.
• Gholdengo - Like Scizor above, this single-Prize Gholdengo is an efficient early game attacker, dealing up to 120 damage for 1 Metal Energy.
• Dudunsparce - An additional draw boost, Dudunsparce's "Run-Away Draw" Ability lets the player draw 3 cards, and shuffle the Dudunsparce and all attached cards back into the deck. Players using Dudunsparce will also want to run 1 copy of Dudunsparce ex, which deals 60 damage for each Pokémon ex the opponent has in play.
• Ethan's Typhlosion - Some Gholdengo ex variants use Ethan's Typhlosion as a secondary single-Prize attacker; its "Buddy Blast" attack deals up to 280 damage for 1 (Fire) Energy if all 4 Ethan's Adventure cards are in the discard pile.
• Togekiss - Its "Wonder Kiss" Ability makes it so that whenever the opponent's Active Pokémon is Knocked Out, the player flips a coin, and takes 1 more Prize card for that Knock Out if they flip heads. This allows the Gholdengo ex player to be ahead on Prize cards if they are lucky, taking upwards to 3 Prize cards if they Knock Out a Pokémon ex. Players running Togekiss will want to use Rare Candy to evolve it quickly.
• Budew - Its "Itchy Pollen" attack prevents the opponent from using any Item cards from their hand, which can be useful in slowing down the opponent's gameplay.
• Genesect - If it has a Pokémon Tool attached, its "ACE Nullifier" Ability prevents the opponent from playing any ACE SPEC cards from their hand. This can halt various decks, such as Gardevoir ex and Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex with Secret Box, Raging Bolt Ogerpon with Prime Catcher, or an opposing Gholdengo ex with Energy Search Pro.
• Tool Scrapper - Allows the player to remove up to 2 Pokémon Tool cards from their or their opponent's Pokémon. This card is primarily used to remove Pokémon Tools from an opponent's Genesect as mentioned above.
• Energy Retrieval - Allows the player to recover up to 2 Basic Energy cards from their discard pile. This card can be used in addition to Superior Energy Retrieval, as this card doesn't force the player to discard cards from their hand in order to use it.
• Switch/Escape Rope - Common switching cards that can help counter the effects of disruption cards such as Boss's Orders and Counter Catcher, as well as cards that prevent retreating such as Pokémon cards with the Corner attack. Note that Escape Rope is not legal in the Standard format as of the 2024-25 season.
• Iron X Defense - Reduces damage taken by all of the player's Metal-type Pokémon in play by 30, giving more bulk to Gholdengo ex, Genesect ex, Scizor, etc. This stacks with itself and the Full Metal Lab Stadium card.
• Rigid Band - Reduces damage taken by the Gholdengo ex it is attached to by 30, giving it more bulk.
• Technical Machine: Evolution - Can be used to accelerate the Evolution of Gholdengo ex in the early game.
• Professor Turo's Scenario - Can be used to return a damaged or low-HP Pokémon ex to the hand without losing Prize cards, allowing the player to remove liabilities such as Genesect ex or Fezandipiti ex.
• Full Metal Lab - A Stadium card that reduces damage taken by all Metal-type Pokémon in both players' in-play zone by 30. This effect stacks with Iron X Defense.
• Levincia - Allows the player to recover up to 2 Basic (Lightning) Energy cards from their discard pile, essentially functioning as another Energy Retrieval.
• ACE SPEC cards - These can be used as alternatives in Gholdengo ex decks that don't use Energy Search Pro, such as Gholdengo ex decks using Ethan's Typhlosion:
  • Prime Catcher allows the player to switch an opponent's Benched Pokémon to the Active Spot, as well as switching their own Active Pokémon with 1 of their Benched Pokémon. This lets the player target specific Pokémon on the opponent's Bench, allowing Gholdengo ex to target specific 2-Prize Knock Outs and preserve a 2-2-2 Prize card map.
  • Hyper Aroma allows the player to search their deck for up to 3 Stage 1 Pokémon, allowing them to search for 3 Gholdengo ex at once.

Related articles

• Deck archetype
• Gholdengo Dragapult — An archetype that combines Gholdengo ex and Dragapult ex.
• Gholdengo Joltik — An archetype that combines Gholdengo ex and Joltik Box.

External links

• Gholdengo ex on Limitless TCG
• Gholdengo ex winning lists on Pokecabook
• "Gholdengo ex Worlds Spotlight!" YouTube video by OmniPoke

This article is part of Project TCG, a Bulbapedia project that aims to report on every aspect of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.