Infinite Flapple Loop (TCG)

Infinite Flapple Loop
Flapple and Jumpluff Types used Major cards Flapple, Jumpluff, Porygon-Z, and others Era 2025-2026

Infinite Flapple Loop, Flapple OTK (Flapple One-Turn Kill), or Jumpluff OTK (Jumpluff One-Turn Kill) was a Pokémon Trading Card Game deck archetype played in the Expanded format in the 2025-2026 season. The deck's strategy revolved around using Flapple's Ability to put 2 damage counters on 1 opposing Pokémon, at the cost of it being shuffled into the deck. Thanks to a combo of cards that includes Jumpluff, Porygon-Z, Enriching Energy, and the at-the-time recently released Vitality Forest, players were able to practically draw infinitely many cards from the deck. Therefore, Flapple could be put into play infinitely many times and used to defeat the opponent.

Strategy

This deck focuses on setting up a Porygon-Z and a Jumpluff on the second turn, which would act as the deck's draw engine, which involves attaching Draw Energy and Enriching Energy to Jumpluff using Porygon-Z's Crazy Code Ability, then using Jumpluff's Leave It to the Wind to put the Jumpluff back into the player's hand. If the player doesn't have Jumpluff in their hand, they can attach the Energy to Skiploom, triggering its Solar Evolution Ability. To ensure this draw engine can be used infinitely many times during the same turn, Vitality Forest is put in play to ensure Pokémon are able to evolve into other Pokémon during the same turn. This can be used to put Jumpluff back into play quickly. The draw engine is supplemented by cards such as Dedenne-GX, Crobat V, Squawkabilly ex, Unown, and Rescue Carrier (to restore the Unown).

Due to how Vitality Forest works, Flapple also takes advantage of it as a Pokémon that can evolve from another Pokémon. Its Apple Drop Ability allows it to put 2 damage counters on 1 opposing Pokémon, then it gets shuffled back into the deck. The Applin and Flapple can then be drawn again using the aforementioned engine, put back into play, and Apple Drop would be reused to do more damage.

The only Pokémon truly immune to Apple Drop are those with θ Stop, which prevents the Pokémon from being affected by opposing Pokémon's Abilities. Unlike other effects that do the same, this cannot be negated. Therefore, Porygon-Z or Flapple can sometimes be used as a finisher in these circumstances.

Key cards

• Flapple - Has an Ability called Apple Drop, which puts 2 damage counters on 1 opposing Pokémon, at the cost of being shuffled into the deck.
• Skiploom - Its Solar Evolution Ability allows it to evolve when an Energy card is attached to it from the player's hand. This makes it easier to search for Jumpluff and start the combo.
• Jumpluff - Its Leave It to the Wind Ability allows it to return to the player's hand. With Vitality Forest in play, this Pokémon can be put in play in just a single turn.
• Porygon-Z - Its Crazy Code Ability allows it to attach Special Energy cards infinitely many times during a player's turn.
• Vitality Forest - Allows Pokémon to evolve into other Pokémon during the turn they are played. If Sky Field was in play, it can be used to discard tech cards from the Bench.
• Unown - The Farewell Letter Ability allows it to discard itself from the Bench in order to draw a card. Those can be restored with Rescue Carrier, allowing the player to draw even more cards.
• Dedenne-GX, Crobat V, Squawkabilly ex - Additional cards with Abilities used to draw even more cards.
• Sky Field - Used to have more space on the Bench for tech cards. If the player goes second, this can also be used to remove the opponent's Stadium cards from play, such as Silent Lab.
• Draw Energy, Enriching Energy - Energy cards that allow the player to draw cards when they are attached from the player's hand.

Typical decklist

The deck list appearing below is not official; it is meant to represent an average build of the archetype, not specifically constructed for any regional metagame. Being that this is merely an archetype, a player may wish to change any part of this deck when building their own version.^[1]

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
4×	Unown
2×	Hoppip
2×	Skiploom
2×	Jumpluff
2×	Applin
2×	Flapple
2×	Porygon
2×	Porygon-Z
1×	Whismur
1×	Dedenne
1×	Crobat
1×	Squawkabilly
1×	Latias
4×	Quick Ball	I
4×	Buddy-Buddy Poffin	I
4×	Rescue Carrier	I
4×	Trainers' Mail	I
3×	Battle VIP Pass	I
2×	Rare Candy	I
2×	Stadium Nav	I
2×	Canceling Cologne	I
1×	Hisuian Heavy Ball	I
1×	Redeemable Ticket	I
1×	Escape Rope	I
1×	Forest Seal Stone	PT
2×	Lillie's Determination	Su
2×	Vitality Forest	St
1×	Sky Field	St
2×	Draw Energy	E
1×	Enriching Energy	E

Possible tech cards

The following cards are often used in Infinite Flapple Loop decks in place of certain cards included in the above lists.

• Latias ex - Nullifies the Retreat Costs of Basic Pokémon, including itself, allowing them to be switched out quickly.
• Whismur and Gengar & Mimikyu-GX - These cards can be used to prevent the opponent from playing Trainer cards, which can potentially disrupt this deck's strategy. Gengar & Mimikyu-GX's attack prevents them from playing any cards from the hand, not just Trainer cards.
• Lugia VSTAR - Its Ability Summoning Star can be used to put Porygon-Z into play directly from the discard pile.
• Tool Scrapper, Field Blower, Startling Megaphone - Can be used to discard Pokémon Tools from opposing Pokémon that may slow down or disrupt the strategy, such as Bravery Charm or Stealthy Hood.

Restriction

On July 31, 2025, the official Japanese Pokémon TCG website announced that Flapple is to be banned from all sanctioned Pokémon TCG tournaments using the Expanded format, starting from August 1, 2025 onward.^[2] This deck archetype may be the reason, but it has not been officially stated.

References

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