Phantom Tax

What Changed in v3

Phantom Toll is v2. The Live list that played the most games ran 21 Pokémon on 7 Basics, 14 Energy with no way to recover any of it, 16 Supporters against 9 Items, and no Switch. Every complaint from those games traces to one of those four numbers.

What the games showed	The list that showed it	v3
Gastly-only openers, mulligans, a turn lost swapping Litwick in	7 Basics, one of them a Fire Litwick	10 Basics. Four Psychic Litwick, four 70 HP Gastly, Munkidori, Fezandipiti ex.
Energy arrives one card a turn and dies with the Mega	14 Energy, 2 Telepathic, nothing that recovers a discard	11 basic Energy plus 3 Wondrous Patch, Janine's Secret Art, Crispin, and Night Stretcher.
A Mega Chandelure goes down and the second one is not ready	no rebuild plan	Patch puts the dead Mega's Energy straight onto the next one; game plan 5 is the timetable.
Stranded Actives	Prime Catcher was the only switch	2 Switch and Prime Catcher.
Dead Supporters in hand, thin draw	16 Supporters, 3 draw cards	11 Supporters, 15 Items, 4 Lillie's, and a Fezandipiti ex that draws 3 every time a body falls.
Gengar ex as the second attacker	1 Gengar ex, for 160 and 2 Prizes	1 single-prize Gengar. for up to 160, gives up 0 Prizes to an ex, and comes back to hand.
Phantom Maze lands 50 short	no Gravity Gemstone	1 Gravity Gemstone.
Froslass rooms pick off benched Basics	no answer	Battle Cage stops every counter from landing on the Bench; Munkidori moves back the ones that land on the Active; every Basic that Poffin fetches is 70 HP.
N's Castle turned the toll off and the deck had no answer	no Stadium	2 Battle Cage. Any Stadium of yours discards theirs, and this one also shuts Phantom Dive and Freezing Shroud out of your Bench.
Energy in the discard fed N's Darmanitan's Back Draft	1 Night Stretcher	Lana's Aid. Three cards out of the discard per play instead of one.

What The Research Says

Four findings shaped this 60, and each one is checkable.

The number one deck on the ladder retreats for four. Per Limitless online play in August 2026, Mega Excadrill ex is the most-played deck at 7.7% of 34,788 players. It retreats for 4 and has 340 HP. One Binding Flame makes that 5, and Phantom Maze does 380. The full retreat sheet for the field is in The Toll Math; it comes from the pokemontcg.io card data, because the local pool snapshot strips Retreat Cost.

Standard has exactly four ways to raise the opponent's Retreat Cost. A sweep of the legal pool finds Binding Flame, Ariados's Big Net, Gravity Gemstone, and Rillaboom's Drum Beating. Gemstone is the only Trainer, it stacks with every Flame, and it costs about twenty cents. It is in the 60 now.

Nothing legal attaches two Darkness to one Pokémon, and only one Item attaches Psychic in bulk. The same sweep, for every card that puts this deck's colors on the board faster than one a turn:

Every deck needs a Stadium, and this one has a good reason for the one it picked. Standard holds 26 Stadiums. Most are brand-locked or symmetric in the wrong direction here: Gravity Mountain takes 30 HP off every Stage 2, which is both Megas; Jamming Tower turns off the Gemstone; Mystery Garden draws for Psychic boards, which is also Slowking's and Alakazam's boards. Battle Cage costs this deck nothing it uses and stops the two things that were killing benched Litwicks on Live: Freezing Shroud's Checkup counters and the six Phantom Dive puts on your Bench. Two copies rather than one plus a second Stadium, because the deck that beat v3 runs more than one Castle, and a same-name Stadium is the only kind you can always play over theirs. The one Pokémon that discards a Stadium in this deck's colors is Eternatus, whose Shatter costs and the attack for the turn; a second Battle Cage is cheaper.

Community Chandelure lists agree on the plumbing. The Mega Chandelure lists posted in July 2026 (TrustYourPilot's profile, the PokéBeach thread, Deltia's guide) run Wondrous Patch, Gravity Gemstone, Switch, and a Journey Together Grimmsnarl line whose Shadowy Knot reads the toll at 50 per for one Prize. This deck takes the first three and spends the Grimmsnarl seats on the Gengar line; the Grimmsnarl is a third Stage 2 in a deck that already runs two.

Deck List

x4

x3

x3

x4

x2

x4

x2

x3

x2

x3

x4

x3

x2

x2

x6

x5

Pokémon (20)

Trainers — Supporters (11)

Trainers — Items (15)

Trainers — Tool & Stadium (3)

Energy (11)

20 + 11 + 15 + 3 + 11 = 60. ✓

Basics: 10 (4 Litwick, 4 Gastly, Munkidori, Fezandipiti ex), which is a 26% mulligan rate. The Live list ran 7 and mulliganed two games in five. Test and Tune has the eleventh Basic ready if it still stings. Litwick and Gastly both sit at 70 HP, so Poffin fetches either pair; Munkidori and Fezandipiti are Ultra Ball and Dawn targets.

The same 60 in the TCG Live import format:

Pokémon: 20
4 Litwick PBL 36
3 Lampent PBL 37
3 Mega Chandelure ex PBL 38
4 Gastly PFL 54
1 Haunter POR 49
2 Mega Gengar ex PFL 56
1 Gengar POR 50
1 Munkidori TWM 95
1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38

Trainer: 29
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
2 Dawn PFL 87
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
1 Janine's Secret Art SFA 59
1 Lana's Aid TWM 155
2 Ultra Ball MEG 131
3 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Rare Candy MEG 125
3 Wondrous Patch PFL 94
2 Switch MEG 130
1 Prime Catcher TEF 157
1 Gravity Gemstone SCR 137
2 Battle Cage PFL 85

Energy: 11
6 Basic {P} Energy MEE 5
5 Basic {D} Energy MEE 7

The Toll Math

Phantom Maze does 130 plus 50 for each in the opponent's Active Pokémon's Retreat Cost. The deck's job is inflating that number and choosing who pays it.

At 330 you one-shot nearly every ex in the format; at 380 you one-shot every card ever printed. Every gust converts a row you cannot reach into one you can.

Who pays what, on the current ladder. Retreat and HP from pokemontcg.io, August 2026.

The other ledger is the Prize sheet. Shadowy Concealment covers the Darkness half whenever an opposing Pokémon ex scores the Knock Out:

The discount only exists while a Mega Gengar is in play, only against attack damage, and only from a Pokémon ex. Against single-prize rooms both tables go quiet, and the meta section is honest about what that costs.

1. Pick the Wall

The reason this deck exists. Read the room, then lead the half the room cannot punish.

Do not build both Megas by reflex. Every game wants the toll engine online; only some games want the second Mega at all. The Gastly you bench turn one is a 0-Prize speed bump and a future Gengar even if the matchup never calls the Mega up.

2. One Attachment, Two Colors

The two-color lesson, and it is scheduling, not juggling. Neither Mega ever wants a mixed cost: Chandelure needs and Gengar needs . The one body that mixes is Munkidori, a Psychic that wants a Darkness. So the manual attachment defaults Psychic, onto the lantern line, and the Darkness arrives by Supporter, ferry, and recovery.

The count is 11 Energy, three fewer than the Live list, and the deck is faster for it. The Live list was not short of Energy; it was short of ways to attach more than one a turn, and every Mega that died took two with it for good. Patch alone returns that pair.

3. The Dark Button

How the second Mega comes online without stealing the first one's fuel.

1. Turn one, bench a Gastly with the Poffin that was fetching Litwick anyway.
2. Janine's Secret Art puts one Darkness on the Gastly and one on the Fezandipiti or a second Gastly. Munkidori is a Psychic Pokémon, so it is not a legal target; its Darkness comes from the Void Gale ferry in step 4 or from a manual attachment. Nothing was manually attached to the Gengar line, so Chandelure's curve did not notice.
3. Rare Candy the Gastly into Mega Gengar. The Energy rides the evolution up.
4. One manual Dark finishes . Void Gale for 230, and the mandatory move ships an Energy back to the Bench: onto the next Gastly, onto a Lampent, or onto the Munkidori if the Janine's went elsewhere.

The honest print on this plan: it is a turn slower than it looks, because Janine's feeds two different Pokémon and never two onto one. Against rooms where the Gengar never leads, spend that Supporter turn on Lillie's and let the Gastly sit. It is still a Gengar in waiting.

4. The Closer

What happens when the table math lands short. The format's big bodies run 340 to 380, and the toll table reaches them with two Flames or a Gemstone, not always both. The gap-closers, best first:

• Adrena-Brain, 30 anywhere, every turn. Move the counters off your wounded Mega onto their Active before you attack, and a Maze that was 30 short is a Knock Out. Mega Lucario at 340 takes 330 from two Flames plus Gemstone; three counters first, and it is down.
• Mind Jack, up to 160 for one Energy. Gengar into a full Bench is a Mega's worth of damage from a card that pays them nothing and comes back. Lead with it against the ex decks whenever the Megas need a turn.
• Boss's Orders and Prime Catcher. Four gusts. The Retreat 3 and 4 bodies on their Bench are the ones the toll wants; the Dusknoir in a Dragapult list, the Dudunsparce, the Raging Bolt.
• Cruel Arrow, 100 anywhere. Fezandipiti's attack for three of anything, when the Void Gale ferry has left it holding Energy and something on their Bench is sitting at 100.
• Haunt, 3 counters a turn. A pre-Candy Haunter with a Janine's Darkness is 30 placed damage per turn that no Resistance shaves.

5. The Rebuild

The first Mega Chandelure will die. This is the turn after.

1. Their attack Knocks it Out and takes 3 Prizes. Two Psychic Energy go to your discard.
2. Your turn. Flip the Script draws 3.
3. Wondrous Patch, twice, onto the Lampent you seeded with Spreading Light or the Litwick you benched earlier. If it is a Litwick, Rare Candy it; if it is a Lampent, evolve it.
4. Switch or Prime Catcher it into the Active Spot. Phantom Maze, same turn, into whatever they left in front.

If the Patches are not in hand, Lillie's Determination goes looking for them, and the Mega Gengar or the Gengar takes the turn instead. Lana's Aid rebuilds the line under the next Mega, two Energy and a Basic in one play, but it cannot return a Mega; the third Mega Chandelure is the spare for exactly that reason. Wally's Compassion, which the lanterns run, is the other shape of this plan: heal a wounded Mega to full and take its Energy to hand before it dies at all. It is a Test and Tune swap here, not a resident, because a healed Mega with no Energy still needs two turns to attack.

6. Reading the Opening Hand

Step one, do you have a Basic? At 10 Basics you mulligan about one game in four; dig accordingly.

Your hand has

Play

Buddy-Buddy Poffin

Play it first, always. Litwick plus Gastly is the standard fetch; two Litwick if the Gengar half is not wanted.

Litwick Active and a Psychic

Attach. Going second, Will-O-Wisp for 20. Turn two is Candy, second Psychic, Phantom Maze.

Gastly Active, nothing else

Poffin or Ultra Ball for a Litwick, attach to the Litwick, Switch next turn. Never spend the turn retreating.

Dawn

A whole line to hand. Take Litwick, Lampent, Mega Chandelure unless the room says Gengar.

Ultra Ball and two Psychic

Pitch the Psychic you cannot attach. It is a Patch away from the Bench.

A bad hand

Lillie's for the reset; at 6 Prizes it draws 8.

Gastly and a Gengar in hand

Bench the Gastly and wait. Candy is illegal turn one and on fresh Basics.

The first attachment defaults Psychic. The first Candy belongs to Chandelure; the toll pays for everything else.

7. Things That Will Cost You a Game

Mistake

What actually happens

Janine's aimed at one Pokémon

Illegal as intended: one Energy each to two different Darkness Pokémon.

Forgetting Void Gale's move is mandatory

The attacking Gengar strips itself below . Every swing needs a third Energy aboard or a plan for the ferry.

Wondrous Patch on an empty discard

Dead card. Ultra Ball a Psychic first, or wait for the first Knock Out.

Wondrous Patch aimed at the Active

Illegal. It reads Benched. Charge the Bench, then Switch.

Munkidori with no Darkness on it

Adrena-Brain is off. Janine's cannot feed it, because it is a Psychic Pokémon; budget a manual Darkness or the Void Gale ferry for it.

Poffin for Munkidori or Fezandipiti

Illegal, 110 and 210 HP against a 70 cap. Ultra Ball and Dawn are the routes.

Rare Candy on a Basic benched this turn

Illegal. Bench the seeds one turn earlier than you think you need them.

First Candy spent on the Gengar line

The toll engine is late and the whole deck idles. Chandelure first, always.

Both Megas exposed at once

Six Prizes standing in the open, and only one of them carries a discount. Two walls is a queue, not a formation.

Gemstone down, no exit budgeted

Your own Active pays the extra too. Switch ignores it; retreating does not.

Spreading Light for three

With Munkidori and Fezandipiti seated there are two chairs, not three. Fetch what you can seat.

Flip the Script with nothing dead

It only draws the turn after one of yours was Knocked Out, once per turn. Plan the Lillie's around it.

Adrena-Brain at their Bench under your own Cage

Blocked. Battle Cage reads both sides. Aim at their Active, or bump your own Cage first if the Bench shot wins the game.

Second Battle Cage while the first is still down

Illegal. A Stadium with the same name cannot be played. It is the answer to their Stadium, not a second copy of yours.

Lana's Aid for a Mega

Illegal. Rule Box Pokémon never come back with it.

The Meta This Deck Lives In

The TCG Live ladder, per Limitless play data, August 2026, 467 tournaments and 34,788 players.

The honest summary: this deck trades the lanterns' best-case consistency for coverage. It plays real games in the rooms the house decks each dodge, and it pays for that with a thinner engine in the rooms they own.

Versus the Kitchen Table

Fox's Team Rocket's Mewtwo. Mewtwo ex retreats for 3, so one Flame prices it at 330 into a 280 HP body: one shot, two Prizes. His board is ex-heavy, so Concealment runs all game, and his Assassin's Return at 240 into Weakness is the reason the Psychic ghosts stay benched when Crobat is loaded; feed it the Dark wall instead, which takes it neutral. Gengar into his full Rocket bench is 160 for one Energy and pays him nothing.

Fox's Flareon ex. Fire hits both halves neutral, and nothing he has one-shots a healthy 350. Flareon ex retreats for 2, so it pays 280 to one Flame and 330 to two; his Tera bench protection stops attacks, not Adrena-Brain, so the counters reach whatever they like.

Fox's Sun and Moon. The matchup the lanterns lose is the matchup this deck is for. Moon Mirage doubles into every Psychic ghost and lands neutral on Mega Gengar, so the Dark wall leads, the lanterns work from the Bench, and the toll prices his pivots. Still a real fight; no longer a forfeit.

Xero's Lucky Haunt. Ghost against ghost, and both sides park the same Mega Gengar, so both Concealments are live and the counters take the Prizes. Chaotic Pain, Haunt, and Adrena-Brain all place or move counters, which skip Concealment and Fainting Spell on both sides. Battle Cage is the card that decides it. It stops Chaotic Pain at your Bench line, so his snipe reaches only your Active, and the Munkidori that would be his first target lives to move counters onto his Active. He runs two Risky Ruins and two Petrel to take the Cage down, and every Ruins chips the Litwick and Munkidori you bench after it, so hold the second Cage.

Lead the Dark wall. His Void Gale lands 460 and a Poisoned Chain-Crazed 520 on a lantern, and your Mega Gengar takes them neutral at 230 and 260 and lives through either. One Flame prices his board at 280 into a Gengar ex, 330 into Okidogi ex, and 380 into Blissey ex, which is Colorless, outside Concealment, and two full Prizes. Gengar's Mind Jack reads his wide Bench, 160 into five benched, which kills a Toxtricity or a Haunter; it is a one-Prize attacker, so his Concealment never applies, and Infinite Shadow sends it back to your hand. Fezandipiti ex's Cruel Arrow can reach his Bench too, but it is an ex, so a Gastly or Toxel it kills pays you nothing while his Mega is down. Any attack that knocks out his Gengar ex flips Fainting Spell at the attacker, so finish a damaged one with Haunt or Adrena-Brain, which never flip. House rule of thumb: whoever's wall commits first loses the information war.

Versus the Card Shop

Free retreat is the off switch, and two cards in the format flip it. "No Retreat Cost" overrides every increase, so Phantom Maze floors at 130 against anything it covers. Latias ex's Skyliner does it for their Basics; Boss's Orders the Latias itself, 210 HP at Retreat 2, one Flame, 280, gone. N's Castle does it for every N's Pokémon, and it is a Stadium, so the answer is a Stadium: Battle Cage discards it, and N's Zoroark ex at Retreat 2 pays 280 to one Flame, which is its whole HP. They will play a second Castle; that is what the second Cage is for. Until the Stadium is gone the closers that never cared about retreat carry the game: Mind Jack into their full Bench, Adrena-Brain, and Void Gale's flat 230.

Back Draft reads your discard. N's Zoroark's Night Joker copies any attack from a Benched N's Pokémon, and N's Darmanitan's Back Draft does 30 for each Basic Energy in your discard pile. Six Energy in the discard is 180, and 360 into a Dark-weak Mega Chandelure. Against the N's room the discard pile is a resource to keep empty: Patch and Lana's Aid pull Energy out of it every turn, Ultra Ball should pitch Pokémon rather than Energy, and the lanterns work from the Bench while Mega Gengar, which takes Darkness neutral, stands in front.

Froslass and Munkidori. Freezing Shroud puts a counter on every Pokémon with an Ability at each Checkup, both sides, and their Munkidori moves three of those counters a turn onto whatever you benched. Battle Cage stops both at your Bench line: Shroud is an Ability placing counters on Benched Pokémon, and so is Adrena-Brain. Your Active still takes them, so your own Munkidori sends those back, three a turn. Without the Cage down, a 70 HP Gastly survives two deliveries where the 60 HP print died to one; evolve early, and do not bench a Basic you cannot evolve next turn.

Ability lock hurts twice. Anything that shuts Abilities off takes Binding Flame, Concealment, Adrena-Brain, and Flip the Script down together, and the Maze falls back to 130 plus printed Retreat. The toll half survives on Gemstone alone; those games are about Mind Jack and Void Gale.

Jamming Tower turns off every Tool, which here means the Gemstone, and it is a Stadium, so Battle Cage removes it. Nothing else in the deck cares.

Where Gourgeist Went

Favorite number three earned his cut honestly, twice. Horrifying Rondo pays 30 plus 50 for each of your Benched Pokémon with damage counters on it, and this deck generates none of that on its own board; the first draft fueled it with a Stadium that wounded every Basic either player benched, and the draft's own Litwicks kept dying to it. The Live games confirmed the second half: even fed, the Rondo does not reach the numbers the field's 320 to 380 HP walls demand, and Ghostly Touch at 140 for is a Mega's cost for less than half a Mega's damage.

Gourgeist is not homeless. The lanterns page documents the clean version of his engine, Froslass pinging your own Ability Pokémon at every Checkup (Feeding the Rondo), and both Froslass and both Gourgeist ex stay in the box waiting for that build to get its own night.

✗ Cards That Look Right, Skip Them

Card

Why not

Gengar ex (Temporal Forces)

Tricky Steps is 160 for and two Prizes; the Perfect Order Gengar is up to 160 for , one Prize, zero against an ex under Concealment, and it comes back. Gnawing Curse is real, but it lives in Curse Toll, where the deck is built around it.

Telepathic Psychic Energy

Its bench fetch is Poffin's job, and as Special Energy nothing in the deck ever recovers it. The Live games used the fetch in emergencies and lost the Energy every time a Mega died. Four basic Psychic and three Patches do both jobs.

Shadowy Darkness Energy

Same verdict, same reason. A Darkness that cannot be Stretchered or ferried back is a Darkness the deck loses.

Hilda

An Evolution and an Energy to hand. Ultra Ball finds the Evolution at Item speed, Lana's Aid brings back three cards, and Dawn finds three Pokémon. Three Hilda were three Supporter turns the Live list could not afford.

Lana's Aid

Three non-Rule-Box Pokémon or basic Energy from the discard. Cannot touch a Mega, and Patch attaches what Lana's only puts in hand.

Team Rocket's Energy

Provides exactly this deck's colors, and only attaches to Team Rocket's Pokémon; on anything here it discards itself.

Neo Upper Energy

Two Energy of any color on a Stage 2 pays either Mega's whole attack in one card. It is an ACE SPEC, so it costs Prime Catcher, and a toll deck sells its gust last. The one skip that is a Test and Tune row, not a verdict.

Mystery Garden

A Psychic draw Stadium that also puts Energy in the discard for Patch. It reads both sides, and Slowking, Alakazam, and the Dusknoir builds have Psychic boards too. Battle Cage is the Stadium that costs this deck nothing.

Eternatus (Phantasmal Flames)

Shatter discards a Stadium for and 50, a Darkness body Janine's can feed. It spends the attack for the turn on what a second Battle Cage does for free.

Grimmsnarl (Journey Together)

Shadowy Knot at 50 per for one Prize is the meta's echo of the Maze and the reason those lists run it. Here it is a third Stage 2 line, and the Gengar line already holds that seat.

The Fire Chandelures

The Twilight Masquerade print with Alluring Light is Standard-legal and genuinely good, and it belongs to the meta's one-line shell, not to this 60.

Test and Tune

The list is a hypothesis; games are the data. Symptoms and their fixes:

Symptom

Fix

Mulligans still sting

Marshadow, Pitch Black 040, as an eleventh Basic over the Haunter. Shadowy Knot is 30 per for one Energy and one Prize; 150 into Mega Excadrill.

You want a Basic that attacks the turn it lands

The same Marshadow, over Munkidori. It reads the toll table for one Psychic from a Basic body.

Energy still runs dry

A seventh Psychic over the third Ultra Ball, or Rosa's Encouragement, Perfect Order 114, over the second Dawn: two basic Energy from the discard onto a Stage 2, live whenever you are behind on Prizes, which after a Mega dies is always.

Dragapult keeps surviving at 230

Black Belt's Training over one Boss's Orders. One Flame, Gemstone, and the 40 is 320 exactly.

Prime Catcher rarely decides a game

Neo Upper Energy in the ACE SPEC seat. One attachment, either Mega attacks.

Wounded Megas keep dying loaded

Wally's Compassion over the second Switch.

Megas keep ending up in the discard with nothing to bring them back

Night Stretcher over Lana's Aid; the Item recovers a Mega, the Supporter recovers three of everything else.

Both colors keep arriving one turn late

Crispin over Lana's Aid: one attached, one to hand, from the deck rather than the discard.

Stadiums keep beating you anyway

A third Stadium, or Colress's Tenacity, Shrouded Fable 057: a Stadium and an Energy from the deck in one Supporter.

Nobody in your rooms places counters

Mystery Garden, Mega Evolution 122, over the second Battle Cage: discard an Energy from hand, draw to your Psychic count, then Patch the Energy back.

Gengar never comes online

A second Haunter, Perfect Order 049, over the third Wondrous Patch.

Froslass rooms still snipe

A second Munkidori over the Fezandipiti.

Single-prize rooms keep winning

Sleeve the Gang for that room; this deck's answer is knowing when not to play it.