Buzzwole ex – Extradimensional Crisis
Date Reviewed: June 5, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
The second best card of Extradimensional Crisis (A3a) is Buzzwole ex (A3a 006, 076, 088)! It is a Grass-Type, Basic Pokémon ex and Ultra Beast. Buzzwole ex has 140 HP, (R) Weakness, (C)(C) Retreat Cost, and two attacks. For (C)(C), Buzzwole ex can use “Punch” to do 30 damage to the opponent’s Active. Buzzwole ex can also attack with “Big Beat”, priced at (G)(G)(C). Big Beat does 120 damage to the opponent’s Active, but it says Buzzwole ex1 can’t use Big Beat during your next turn. Buzzwole ex is available at the ♦♦♦♦, ★★, and ★★★ rarities.
There’s a lot of Grass support2 but most of it is no longer competitive (if it ever was). Fortunately, Erika and Leaf Cape are still very good for Buzzwole ex, and seeing play in its decks. Exploiting (G) Weakness is relevant to Buzzwole ex. It allows Big Beat to OHKO Darkrai ex (A2 110, 187, 202; P-A 042), leave Rampardos (A2 089) with 10 HP, and Guzzlord ex (A3a 043, 079, 086) with 30 HP. While not as good as the OHKO for Darkrai ex, we’ll get to why coming that close is still relevant.
Being a Basic is the best. While most of the Basic support and counters aren’t competitive, Poké Ball and Repel absolutely matter. Otherwise, just enjoy requiring minimal deck space and turns for Buzzwole ex to hit the field. As a Pokémon ex, Buzzwole ex has to deal with Anti-ex effects5 and giving up an extra point when KO’d. There are no mechanical drawbacks to being an Ultra Beast, and no cards that punish an opponent for using them. We’ll discuss Ultra Beast support later.
Buzzwole ex’s 140 HP is good! Not as sturdy as the early days of the game, but if you’re not up against a deck’s main attacker, Buzzwole ex is likely to survive a hit. (R) Weakness matters when (R) decks go for a 2HKO using their non-primary attacker, a secondary attack on their main attacker, or when Buzzwole ex has a Leaf Cape attached. A (C)(C) Retreat Cost is decent – more than you want to pay, yet still plausible – but for reasons we’ll discuss, usually won’t matter.
Though Punch requires less Energy to use than Big Beat, it’s still Buzzwole ex’s secondary attack. If Buzzwole ex is stuck powering up as your Active, or you believe you can safely use it to setup for a 2HKO against another Pokémon ex (or anything resource heavy and hard to replace). As Big Beat has a built in drawback, sometimes its useful just so you can attack twice in a row with Buzzwole ex. 30 damage for two Energy is just “okay”. Its Energy requirements are both (C) but Big Beat needs two (G) Energy: you don’t want your Energy Zone set to more than just Grass when running Buzzwole ex.
Big Beat has a good return for the Energy. Yes, it needs mostly (G) Energy, but Big Beat does just 10 less damage than “Chaotic Impact” does on Giratina ex… who has an Ability (“Broken-Space Bellow”) to accelerate Energy to itself and requires four Energy, three of which need to be (P)! I haven’t forgotten that Giratina ex does 20 points of damage to itself when it uses Chaotic Impact, or that it’s Ability ends your turn. This comparison is because…
…Big Beat’s drawback is super easy to hand. Barely an inconvenience. I’m actually more concerned that, even with Red, it falls 10 damage shy of OHKOing 150 HP Pokémon ex. Which is not a deal breaker. I just thought this all was a good lead-in to finally explaining Ultra Beast support and what it means to Buzzwole ex!
First, let’s list off all the Ultra Beasts themselves. Besides Buzzwole ex itself, we have Blacephalon (A3a 009, 072; P-A 076), Celesteela (A3a 062, 075), Dawn Wings Necrozma (P-A 078), Dusk Mane Necrozma (P-A 079), Guzzlord ex, Kartana (A3a 008; P-A 075), Naganadel (A3a 045), Nihilego (A3a 042, 103), Pheromosa (A3a 007, 071), Poipole (A3a 044; P-A 082), Stakataka (A3a 053; P-A 080), Ultra Necrozma ex (P-A 081), and Xurkitree (A3a 020; P-A 077)!
Out of these Pokémon, Celesteela, Kartana, and Pheromosa have already proven themselves as partners for Buzzwole ex. Celesteela has an Ability that, once per turn per Celesteela, lets you switch your Active Ultra Beast with a Benched Ultra Beast. Kartana can do a solid 40 damage for (G). Pheromosa identically priced attack does 20 damage to the opponent’s Active and an opposing Benched Pokémon of your choice.
There are also three Trainers for Ultra Beasts already: Beast Wall (A3a 063), Beastite (A3a 066), and Lusamine (A3a 069, 083). Lusamine is the one I’ve seen used the most, with a little Beastite usage and no Beast Wall usage I’ve noticed. Lusamine is a Supporter that can only be used if your opponent has taken at least one point and if you’ve got at an Ultra Beast in play, and at least one Energy in your discard pile. Lusamine then lets you attach two random Energy cards from your discard pile to your Ultra Beast of choice.
I’ll just tell you now, don’t expect to see Beast Wall used, possibly not at all. It’s effect is the same as Adaman (A2a 075, 090) except it is restricted to Ultra Beasts instead of (M) Types and your opponent cannot have earned any points. Unless you Ultra Beast deck is good at walling, you’d need to draw and use Beast Wall very early in the game. Lusamine does get used, but is why Ultra Beast decks prefer to be mono-type with Energy, so the “random” part of the attachment doesn’t matter. Buzzwole ex sometimes uses Beastite, but seems better off with Leaf Cape.
Buzzwole ex is the star of its own deck. Celesteela always accompanies it; if you’ve got two copies or one plus something that can afford to manually retreat, you use Celesteela to return a Buzzwole ex to your Bench after it used Big Beat. Then retreat the new Active or use a second Celesteela to bring your original Buzzwole ex back up front. Doing this erases the effects of Big Beat! If you’re new to the Pokémon TCG, know that this is how these effects work in the full TCG as well, and has for decades.
Before you start attacking with Buzzwole ex, though, you’ll hope to lead with Kartana or Pheromosa. Some decks only run one or the other, while other decks run both. LimitlessTCG treats them as two separate archetypes, but I think they probably should just count as one. Both these Pokémon can attack for one Energy, so choose whether you want to focus on raw attack power or a strategic split in the damage. Either way, you’re hoping to overwhelm the weak while setting the rest up for Buzzwole ex.
As all three of these Pokémon are Basic, Grass-Type Ultra Beasts, they can share all the different kinds of Support together. Celesteela can share Poké Ball and its own Ability with the rest. If you don’t have enough time to manually build Buzzwole ex, that’s where Lusamine comes in, letting you ready Big Beat in a single turn if needed… assuming KOs and manual retreats have enough (G) Energy in the discard pile. Yeah, sometimes you’ll retreat when you don’t need it to set up for Lusamine!
Celesteela, Kartana, and Pheromosa also help with Oricorio. They’re not a perfect counter. I know first hand, as I lost a frustrating game to an Oricorio/Greninja (A1 089; P-A 19; A3a 093) deck that healed twice with Irida (A2a 072; 087), buying enough time to kill both my Pheromosa. Celesteela was my last hope, but it’s attack is “tails fails” and I got “tails”. Celesteela is also (L) Weak, which is not good in decks where the Oricorio can attack. It’s why I made room to also run Kartana, but its no guarantee, either.
The Buzzwole ex/Celesteela/Pheromosa version of the deck already has a 346 Count, giving it a 14.20% Share of the metagame. It’s Win Rate is 53.67%. The version that runs Kartana instead of Pheromosa or alongside the other three has a Count of 104, 3.14% Share, and 54.17% Win Rate. Unless the latter deck’s numbers are skewed by the smaller sample size, the decks are roughly on par with each other.
It’s a fun deck overall, and I was fortunate enough to get all the pieces I needed for it – that were from Extradimensional Crisis – a few days after the set dropped. The deck has done well for me, but I don’t think it is doing as well as it has for others. It’s probably due to bad calls on my part, besides the usual luck that plagues all decks. There are also a few more unusual decks where Buzzwole ex headlines, but their Counts and/or Win Rates are so low, they’re not really worth discussing.
Rating: 4/5
Buzzwole ex is a very good card, with at least one very good deck. If the HP and/or damage output on Big Beat were even a little higher, it might have gone on to completely dominate the metagame. I know first hand, though, that the deck is not foolproof and even good lists can fail in less skilled – meaning my – hands. Since I’ve got space, I’ll also mention all Ultra Beasts have at least one attack that references a music genre or style! Yes, I needed this article on Pokémon Zone to notice.
1Literally “this Pokémon”, which is relevant for attack copiers.
2Caterpie (A1 005), Erika (A1 219, 266), Leaf Cape (A3 147), Leafeon ex (A2a 010, 082, 091), Lilligant (A1 030), Serperior (A1a 006, 070), and Sprigatito (A2b 005; P-A 052).
3Celestic Town Elder (A2a 073, 088), Combee (A2 017, 157), Fishing Net (A3 143) Poké Ball (P-A 005; A2b 111) and Shaymin (A2a 069, 081).
4Araquanid (A3 053), Pokémon Flute (A1a 064), Repel (A3a 064) and Victreebel (A1 020).
5Meowscarada (A2b 007, 073), Oricorio (A3 066, 165), Red (A2b 071, 090) Sudowoodo (A2a 036, 079), and Tauros (A1a 060). Note that Sudowoodo and Tauros currently see little in the way of competitive success.
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