Ceruledge ex Deck with Budew: List and Guide

Ceruledge ex is a powerful deck in the Pokemon TCG and it’s seeing huge success in the online Pokemon TCG Live tournament scene.

Although this deck was hugely popular when it first came out, it did lose a little bit of steam due to the fact that it failed to secure many high level spots at big tournaments. That’s all likely to change, however, thanks to Budew. Budew grants added power to Ceruledge and acts as a phenomenal first turn attacker in a deck that otherwise wouldn’t have a very powerful play.

Below, let’s look at my custom Ceruledge ex deck that I’ve been using to grind the Pokemon TCG Live ladder.

• Ceruledge ex Deck List

  Pokémon: 10

  1 Origin Forme Palkia V ASR 39

  4 Ceruledge ex SSP 36

  1 Charcadet SSP 32

  1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38

  1 Mew ex MEW 151

  1 Budew PRE 4 PH

  1 Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR ASR 40

  1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46

  3 Charcadet SSP 32 PH

  1 Squawkabilly ex PAL 169

  Trainer: 13

  1 Counter Catcher PAR 160

  1 Mela PAR 167

  4 Carmine TWM 145

  2 PokéStop PGO 68

  4 Ultra Ball CRZ 146

  1 Brilliant Blender SSP 164

  3 Night Stretcher SFA 61

  1 Pal Pad SVI 182

  4 Nest Ball SVI 181

  2 Boss's Orders PAL 172

  1 Iono PAL 185

  1 Briar SCR 171

  3 Earthen Vessel PAR 163

  Energy: 3

  2 Jet Energy PAL 190

  4 Basic {W} Energy Energy 11

  11 Basic {R} Energy Energy 10

  Total Cards: 60

Ceruledge ex – card breakdown

Ceruledge ex is actually a pretty broken card. It’s this deck’s main attacker because…well…it’s all you need! The goal here is to get as many energies as possible into your discard to power up its Abyssal Flames attack. You aren’t even going to be bothering with Raging Amethyst, so don’t worry about that attack.

While you’ll need to invest plenty of work into getting Abyssal Flames attack power to scale, it’s otherwise really easy to use needing only one fire energy. This is handy for a lot of reasons but one of them is that if your Ceruldedge ex is knocked out you can easily power another one up the next trurn.

Other factors that make Ceruldedge ex a fantastic and versatile attacker: it’s only a Stage 1 Pokemon, meaning evolving it is easy to do. Meanwhile, if you have 15 energy in your discard, you can hit for a whopping 330. That might sound like a tall order but thanks to the sheer amount of draw/discard available in the Pokemon TCG right now, along with this powerful ACE SPEC, it’s actually relatively straightforward to achieve.

Brilliant Blender massively ramps up Ceruledge’s attack

While you have plenty of options to get energy cards into your hand and then discard them, Brilliant Blender massively speeds up the process, letting you send five fire energy from your deck to your discard. That equates to 100 added damage to your Abyssal Flames attack, meaning that playing this card alone gets your Ceruledge up to 130 damage.

Turn one – Earthen Vessel, Squawk and Seize and Carmine

Thanks to the cards included in this deck, you have the opportunity to unlock a powerful opening turn combo. Ideally – given this is an evolve deck – you’re going to go first. Then you’ll take these steps to set yourself up for success:

1. Load up your bench with two Charcadet, Squawkabilly and Radiant Greninja if you can.

2. Earthen Vessel for a full hand of energy. Attach one of those energies to Characadet.

3. Squawk and Seize into Carmine (if not in hand). If in hand, Carmine first then Squawk and Seize.

This deck list only runs three copies of Earthen Vessel but I would consider even running four. You need to get as many energies into your discard as possible – that’s the way you are going to maximize your damage output. Running Earthen Vessel makes it much easier to achieve this early in the game so you can start taking KOs as early as possible.

The Budew Play

I mentioned earlier on that Budew plays a big role in this deck’s strategy. Indeed, any deck that has a reason to play Budew gets an added boost in effectiveness in the current format, and Ceruldedge ex is a deck that certainly can use Budew. Use Budew’s attack to lock your opponent out of playing items during their next turn. Slowing them down in this way will help you get the time you need to not only set up your board but get the maximum number of energies into your discard pile as possible!

PokeStop

You could run this deck without PokeStop but actually PokeStop works well when paired with Ceruledge ex. You can use PokeStop to dig for helpful items like Earthen Vessel. On the plus side, given how many energies you have in this deck, odds are fairly good some of the cards that get discarded with this effect will end up in your discard.

In turn, that’s going to power up Abyssal Flames, making your Ceruledge ex even strong.

The Pokemon Catcher play

Weirdly enough, Counter Catcher works well in this deck. Although it takes being behind in the prize raise to get off, if you land it you could pull ahead from behind.

Ceruledge ex is a deck that can’t really afford to get behind. However, you might not always have the exact energy you need to take a KO against the Pokemon you are facing. To that end, why not switch out a more advantageous matchup?

That’s why Counter Catcher is here – simply to ensure you always get that two-prize knockout to stay ahead in the prize race.

Supporting cards that help

While these cards aren’t as core to this deck’s strategy, they can certainly help you pull ahead against the competition. Let’s look over each one in more detail.

Pal Pad

You’re going to be discarding a lot of cards in your aim to get as many energy into your discard as possible. There might be some collateral damage along the way in the form of Supporters you don’t really want in your discard. Pal Pad lets you bring them back. It’s not critical to have this card but including it could be helpful to find that Boss’s Orders to finish a game that’s just out of reach, or to restock your hand with a Professor’s Research.

Night Stretcher

Whether you need to bring back a Pokemon or an energy you discarded, Night Stretcher is your multipurpose tool making it easy to access the many cards you’ll be discarding throughout the game.

Jet Energy

Jet Energy may sound like a weird choice for this deck but including it actually makes sense. You can discard it via Brilliant Blender if you need. Meanwhile, you can use it to get out of sticky situations as a switch card. The benefit here is that it counts as added damage for Abyssal Flames, making it more useful in this deck than just running a basic Switch.

Briar

Briar is definitely a situational card and not one you will be able to take advantage of every single game. But she’s such a strong comeback/finishing strategy that she should be included in virtually each and every deck that features a Tera-type primary attacker.

Mela can come in clutch

One thing that tends to happen as you are making your way through a ton of energies in your discard is eventually you can get to the point where you run out of energies in your deck. While having access to Night Stretcher can bring those energies back when needed, I find Mela to be a helpful late game tech. Playing Mela lets you bring one of your energies back from your discard, attach them to your Ceruldedge ex, and attack. Not to mention she lets you draw additional cards!

Fezandipiti and Mew ex add consistency

Fexandipiti is pretty much a staple at this point in most decks, and running it will help you draw a three additional cards after your Pokemon is knocked out. It’s pretty much a no-brainer to included this card in your deck.

Additionally, I’ve found Mew ex works really well in this deck, letting you draw incremental cards and energies that can then be used to discard.

Palkia VSTAR is a powerful secondary attacker

Although rotation is right around the corner, for now, Palkia VSTAR is still allowed in standard play, and is a powerful ally to Ceruledge. Using Palkia you can attack for a decent ammount of damage if you need to, but even more importantly you can use Star Portal to power up Radiant Greninja.

Radiant Greninja is a must in this deck with or without Palkia as you will use Concealed Cards to draw cards while adding more energy to the discard. Power up Greninja’s Moonlight Shuriken attack to take smaller KOs and disrupt the board. It’s a powerful additional attack in this deck that otherwise focuses on big, two-prize KOs.

Will Ceruledge ex be viable after rotation?

Finally, everyone has their eyes on the 2025 Pokemon TCG Standard rotation, and the natural question to ask is whether or not Ceruledge ex will still be viable after the switch up. The answer: Ceruledge ex should still be very strong post rotation. The only thing of huge significance that Ceruledge ex is losing is Palkia VSTAR and Radiant Greninja. However, every deck is also losing access to that attack, meaning the game won’t have the standard of being able to take two KOs in a turn against low HP Pokemon.

So the fact that all decks are losing access to these strategies means Ceruledge ex is largely unaffected by rotation: it remains strong and powerful although you’ll be looking to always take KOs against two-prizers to stay ahead in the prize race when possible.