Klawf/Terapagos ex Deck Guide – Best Cards, How To Play

Poor Klawf: since its introduction in Paradox Rift, nobody has taken it seriously, but with the introduction of Terapagos ex, Pokemon TCG players finally figured out how to turn it from meme to menace, turning it into one of the most dangerous decks in the game.

Klawf decks want to assemble a combination of different effects from the Bench, which Terapagos facilitates by making your Bench bigger. Combined with the ability to bypass Fezandipiti ex’s Flip the Script ability and to Knock Out an opponent’s Active Pokemon on turn one, it’ll be a Klawful experience for your opponents.

Klawf / Terapagos ex Decklist

At their hearts, Klawf decks are toolboxes, using multiple Items and one-of Pokemon in order to access beneficial effects. Terapagos ex expands your Bench from five Pokemon to eight, allowing you to access more effects. The utility Pokemon can be adjusted based on your local meta.

This decklist placed seventh in the 2024 Stuttgart Regionals, played by Robin Shulz, and second place in the 2024 Perth Regionals, played by Hiro Yaoka.

Klawf / Terapagos ex Key Cards

Klawf is a Basic single-Prize Pokemon that can hit for 190 damage with Unhinged Scissors as long as it has a Special Condition, such as Burned or Poisoned. The second attack, Boiled Press, does 80 damage and burns itself.

It’s clearly intended to be a two-turn combo attack, but including other ways to Poison it, like Brute Bonnet’s Toxic Powder ability, allows you to hit harder faster while taking advantage of the tricks available for Poison in the current format.

Terapagos ex can do up to 240 damage with its Unified Beatdown attack, but its real value is expanding the Bench. It’s the only Tera Pokemon in the deck, so you need it in order to benefit from Area Zero Underdepths, and you’ll want to keep at least one alive at all times.

You can also adjust Terapagos ex’s damage by holding off on putting more Pokemon on the Bench. This allows you to do just enough damage for your opponent’s Active Pokemon to be KOed by Poison damage during Pokemon Checkup, which blocks your Opponent’s Fezandipiti ex’s Flip the Script ability.

A first turn Precious Trolley can set you up for the whole game, especially in conjunction with Area Zero Underdepths and Terapagos ex. Use it to dig out all of your utility Pokemon and put them on your Bench.

If you play Precious Trolley while you have an Area Zero Underdepths in play,
you cannot search for eight Pokemon unless Terapagos ex is in play
. All Pokemon come into play at the same time, so you do not get the expanded Bench space until after Precious Trolley’s effect has been resolved.

Typically, you’ll want to use your Precious Trolley after using a Nest Ball to get Terapagos into play, in order to maximize the effect, and then pull out Pokemon to set up the rest of your strategy, like Oranguru V and Squawkabilly ex.

Brute Bonnet is the easiest way to get a status condition on Klawf, with the added benefit of poisoning your opponent’s Active Pokemon, as well. You’ll need to attach an Ancient Booster Energy Capsule, but with three copies it should be pretty simple to find.

Combined with Radiant Hisuian Sneasler and Pecharunt ex, this can turn into 80 Poison damage before your opponent’s first turn, or 160 before you get around to attacking if they don’t manage to heal it on their first turn. While it isn’t likely to score you a first-turn win, it definitely puts pressure on your opponent right away.

Klawf / Terapagos ex Strategy

With a solid hand, this deck can set up on the first turn and potentially snag a KO before your opponent even has a chance to draw. So it’s a good idea to go first, but the fact that your primary attackers, Klawf and Terapagos ex, only need one Double Turbo Energy to attack means that you should be fine going second, as well.

As early as possible, you should play Terapagos ex and Area Zero Underdepths in order to expand your Bench to eight Pokemon, then use Precious Trolley to find Klawf, Brute Bonnet, Pecharunt, Radiant Hisuian Sneasler, Oranguru V, Latias ex, and Pecharunt ex.

Squawkabilly ex and Genesect are both good options for the last slot, but
Squawkabilly ex is only useful on your first turn
and
Genesect’s value lies in blocking your opponent’s ACE SPEC card
, so it isn’t useful if they already played that card.

Once you’re set up, you can attach a Double Turbo Energy to Klawf, use Brute Bonnet’s Toxic Powder to Poison both Active Pokemon, and start attacking.

Latias ex removes the Retreat Cost of all of your Basic Pokemon (which is every Pokemon in this deck), which, combined with Switch Cart and Pecharunt ex, allows you to rotate Pokemon up to three times in a turn. Each turn you’ll want to move Oranguru V into the Active position in order to get two Tool cards using Back Order, and then retreat it for an attacker or baby Pecharunt.

Oranguru V can use Back Order to find Forest Seal Stone, which you can attach and use immediately to find any other card you need. Other important tools are Binding Mochi, which adds 40 damage to your Poisoned Pokemon’s attacks, and Ancient Booster Energy Capsule, which will allow Brute Bonnet to Poison both Active Pokemon.

Pecharunt and Radiant Hisuian Sneasler work together to boost the effect of Poison on your opponent’s Active Pokemon to place eight damage counters during Pokemon Checkup. This can easily be done on the first turn, leaving your opponent to deal with potentially 160 damage before you can even attack.

This combo also requires Brute Bonnet and an Ancient Booster Energy Capsule, but all you really need is Oranguru V in your Active position: Using Back Order, you can find your Ancient Booster Energy Capsule and Forest Seal Stone, attach Forest Seal Stone, use Star Alchemy to find Precious Trolley, and use your ACE SPEC card to find everything else.

Many decks rely on Fezandipiti ex’s Flip the Script ability to draw cards, but your Poison debuff can counteract that ability. Switching to an Active Pokemon that can do enough damage for your opponent’s Active Pokemon to get KOed by Poison during Pokemon Checkup means that Flip the Script won’t activate.

The same tactic, using the Pecharunt/Sneasler combo, can also be used to pick off weakened Pokemon from the Bench by using Boss’s Orders to pull them forward to be Poisoned.

Klawf / Terapagos ex Common Threats

Regidrago VSTAR

Regidrago VSTAR remains one of the most dominant decks in the meta, but the Terapagos ex variant of Klawf decks has demonstrated a higher win rate than expected when played both skillfully and aggressively.

Genesect is an important Pokemon to have on the bench, since most Regidrago VSTAR decks use Prime Catcher, which can be used to target your Terapagos ex and reduce your Bench size.

Using Switch Carts to heal your Pokemon and Boss’s Orders to target utility Pokemon while forcing your opponent to burn resources to switch their Regidrago VSTAR back into the active spot are important tactics that will keep them on their toes and eventually win you the match.

Charizard ex

It’s kind of incredible that Charizard ex is still a major presence in the Pokemon TCG metagame, but here we are.

Charizard ex can set up fast and hit like a truck, but Klawf has an easy answer: Hisuian Electrode V. This little ball of courage has Tantrum Blast, which requires no Energy and deals 100 damage for each Special Condition it has. Poison, from Brute Bonnet, gives it 100 damage, but Charizard ex is notably weak to Grass-type attacks.

Supereffective Glasses gives this attack a boost against Charizard ex, allowing you to hit for 300 damage, then secure a KO from Poison if you have Radiant Hisuian Sneasler on the Bench. If not, trading your low-resource Hisuian Electrode V for the more resource-intensive Charizard ex is a good trade which your opponent will struggle to recover from.