Salamence ex 96 — what does this card actually do?
This card has 160 HP, a top attack printed at 150 damage and a Colorless weakness.
Colorless · Stage 2 ex · Power Keepers · measured against 20,444 cards on file — card data read July 28, 2026
What does Salamence ex 96 do in a game?
Salamence ex 96 is a Colorless Pokémon card with 160 HP, printed as Stage 2 ex.
Its strongest attack, Volcanic Flame, is printed at 150 damage for 4 Energy — 38 damage per Energy card.
Because of the Colorless weakness, any Colorless attack printed at 80 damage or more removes it in a single turn.
Salamence ex 96Power Keepers
Salamence ex 96 performance summary
160 HP · Colorless · Stage 2 ex · retreat 2 · Colorless weakness ×2
as of July 28, 2026
damage per Energy card, among cards whose cheapest attack costs 4
Strongest on Top printed damage — top 10.0% of the archive. Weakest on Attack cost lightness — bottom 2.7%.
Each spoke is this card's place among every card in the archive that prints that figure. Further out is stronger — retreat and attack cost are shown as lightness, so a cheap card reaches outward. Counted July 28, 2026.
| Measure | Percentile | Printed value |
|---|---|---|
| Hit points | 81.7% | 160 HP |
| Top printed damage | 90.0% | 150 damage |
| Energy efficiency | 80.8% | 38 per Energy |
| Retreat lightness | 45.3% | 2 Energy |
| Attack cost lightness | 2.7% | 4 Energy |
2 attacks printed on the card. The badge is the Energy it asks for.
Among the 17,290 cards in every card in the archive that carry printed HP, this one is number 2,895 at 160 HP.
Salamence ex 96160 HPPrinted HP
The ceiling of this archive is 380 HP — 220 HP above this card.
Mega Emboar ex 273380 HPWhat stands out on Salamence ex 96
- Hit points 160 HP puts it in the 130~180 band, where 15.5% of 17,290 cards with printed HP sit.
- Energy It returns 38 damage per Energy card against 27.8 for cards whose cheapest attack costs 4.
- Weakness A Colorless attack printed at 80 damage or more removes it in a single turn.
- Legality 3 of the 26 prints that carry this name are legal in Standard play.
Salamence ex 96 at a glance
- What it is. A Colorless Pokémon card with 160 HP printed as Stage 2 ex, printed in Power Keepers.
- What it can do. 2 attacks printed on the card, the strongest at 150 damage for 4 Energy.
- What it fears. A Colorless weakness at ×2, which means 80 printed damage is enough to remove it.
- What it costs to move. 2 Energy to retreat, discarded from the card itself.
- Where it can be played. Unlimited only.
- What this page does not claim. Deck lists, tournament results and win rates are not published here, because the card files this site reads do not contain them.
What do the attacks on Salamence ex 96 cost, and what do they hit for?
The card prints 2 attacks. The strongest asks for 4 Energy and returns 150 damage, which is 38 damage for every Energy card attached.
| Attack | Energy cost | Cards of Energy | Printed damage | Damage per Energy | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volcanic Flame | 2 Fire + 2 Colorless | 4 | 150 | 38 | Discard the top 5 cards from your deck. |
| Hydro Wave | 2 Water + 2 Colorless | 4 | — | — | Discard all Water Energy attached to Salamence ex. This attack does 30 damage to each of your opponent's Benched Pokémon. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.) |
Retreating costs a further 2 Energy, discarded from this card, and that cost is paid on top of anything in the table.
What each attack asks a deck to attach before it can be used, drawn as the symbols printed on the card.
One Energy card attaches per turn, so the number of symbols is also the number of turns the attack waits.
How does Salamence ex 96 compare with every other card?
Each bar below is the whole archive cut by one printed figure, with the band this card falls into marked. A number on its own says nothing about whether it is high or low — the shape of the archive does.

The ceiling of this archive is Mega Emboar ex at 380 HP — every bar here is measured against it.
This card prints 160 HP, which is 42% of that ceiling.
Every figure in this panel is counted the same way: from the card files this site reads, read July 28, 2026, over the 17,290 cards that print an HP figure. Each bar is measured against the tallest HP in the archive, 380 HP.
17,290 cards in the archive carry a printed HP figure. This one has 160 HP.
Cards in the 130~180 band typically print 104 damage and ask 2 Energy to retreat.
| Group | Share | Value |
|---|---|---|
| ~70 | 38.6% | 6,669 cards |
| 80~120 | 33.1% | 5,725 cards |
| 130~180 — this card | 15.5% | 2,679 cards |
| 190~230 | 6.6% | 1,148 cards |
| 240~280 | 3.3% | 567 cards |
| 290~330 | 2.4% | 412 cards |
| 340+ | 0.5% | 90 cards |
16,246 cards print damage on at least one attack. The highest on this card is 150.
Cards in the 130~180 band typically have 198 HP and ask 2 Energy to retreat.
| Group | Share | Value |
|---|---|---|
| ~30 | 42.7% | 6,938 cards |
| 40~60 | 22.0% | 3,566 cards |
| 70~120 | 21.8% | 3,535 cards |
| 130~180 — this card | 9.0% | 1,461 cards |
| 190~250 | 3.8% | 621 cards |
| 260+ | 0.8% | 125 cards |
17,262 cards have at least one attack with an Energy cost. The cheapest on this card asks 4 Energy.
Cards whose cheapest attack costs 4 typically have 157 HP and print 111 damage.
| Group | Share | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1.8% | 304 cards |
| 1 | 54.4% | 9,392 cards |
| 2 | 26.4% | 4,565 cards |
| 3 | 14.7% | 2,533 cards |
| 4 — this card | 2.4% | 421 cards |
| 5 | 0.3% | 47 cards |
17,240 cards carry a retreat cost. This one costs 2 Energy to retreat.
Cards with a retreat cost of 2 typically have 132 HP and print 79 damage.
| Group | Share | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 5.3% | 914 cards |
| 1 | 49.3% | 8,503 cards |
| 2 — this card | 28.6% | 4,926 cards |
| 3 | 12.6% | 2,168 cards |
| 4 | 4.2% | 729 cards |
That is where Salamence ex 96 stands highest on HP — number 1 of 84 cards in Power Keepers. Cut the archive a different way and the answer moves, which is what the bars below are for.
- Hit points 160 HP
middle half 60–130 HP - Top printed damage 150 damage
middle half 20–90 damage
- Lowest to highest printed in the archive
- Middle half of the archive
- This card
Each row is stretched from the lowest printed figure to the highest, so the two rows are not on one shared scale — read each row on its own.
Open the group this card falls into
Back to summaryIs Salamence ex 96 efficient for the Energy it asks for?
Printed damage on its own says nothing — a 150 damage attack that needs 4 Energy and one that needs two are different cards. Dividing one by the other puts every attack on the same scale.
Each bar is what cards asking that much Energy typically print, divided by the Energy they ask for. The number beside the bar is that figure.
Cards whose cheapest attack costs 4 typically return 27.8 damage per Energy card. This card returns 38.
| Group | Share | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Energy | 49.0 | 49 damage typical |
| 2 Energy | 32.5 | 65 damage typical |
| 3 Energy | 34.7 | 104 damage typical |
| 4 Energy | 27.8 | 111 damage typical |
| 5 Energy | 41.8 | 209 damage typical |
| Salamence ex 96 — this card | 38.0 | 150 damage for 4 Energy |
Further right is a costlier attack, further up is a harder-hitting one, so the cheap and heavy corner is top left. The size of a grey dot is how many cards sit at that Energy cost.
| Group | Typical printed damage | Damage per Energy card | Cards in this group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest attack costs 0 Energy | 45 | — | 304 |
| Cheapest attack costs 1 Energy | 49 | 49 | 9,392 |
| Cheapest attack costs 2 Energy | 65 | 33 | 4,565 |
| Cheapest attack costs 3 Energy | 104 | 35 | 2,533 |
| Cheapest attack costs 4 Energy | 111 | 28 | 421 |
| Cheapest attack costs 5 Energy | 209 | 42 | 47 |
| Volcanic Flame | — | 38 | — |
Where this sits once the archive is cut by damage instead
The bars above cut the archive by what an attack asks for. Cut the same archive by what an attack prints and the groups come out differently — the damage ranges on record are gathered on one page, which is where a figure like 150 is read as high or low rather than merely large.
Is Salamence ex 96 strong for a ex card?
ex cards are built large to begin with, so measuring this one against the whole archive mixes up what the mechanic gives it with what the card itself gives it. Measured inside its own group, the two come apart.
The group is every ex card in the archive — 942 of them. Each figure is compared with what that group typically prints, not with the archive as a whole.
What does being a Colorless card do for Salamence ex 96?
Type decides two things at once — which cards take double damage from this one, and which cards deal double to it. Both are read from the weakness printed on each group, not from a rule of thumb.
17,249 cards carry an energy type. The note under each name is the weakness printed most often on that group.
| Group | Share | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Psychic | 13.5% | 2,335 cards |
| Water | 14.1% | 2,435 cards |
| Colorless — this card | 12.6% | 2,173 cards |
| Fire | 9.1% | 1,574 cards |
| Fighting | 10.9% | 1,884 cards |
| Lightning | 8.8% | 1,520 cards |
| Grass | 13.8% | 2,387 cards |
| Metal | 5.4% | 925 cards |
| Darkness | 7.2% | 1,249 cards |
| Dragon | 3.1% | 530 cards |
| Fairy | 1.4% | 237 cards |
Read from the weakness printed on each group. The first row is this card; the rest are groups that most often print a Colorless weakness.
What being a Colorless card is worth
No group in the archive most often prints a Colorless weakness, so this type gains nothing automatic from the weakness rule. Going the other way, Colorless cards are themselves most exposed to Colorless.
What knocks out Salamence ex 96 in one hit, and what does it knock out?
Weakness doubles the damage a Colorless attack deals to this card, so the bar it has to clear is 80 printed damage rather than 160.
80 damage becomes 160 against this card
Salamence ex 96160 HPWhy this card was picked to stand opposite
Of the 513 cards in the archive that can remove Salamence ex 96 in a single attack, this one clears the bar by the smallest margin — 80 printed damage against a bar of 80. Anything printed higher removes it just as surely, so this is where the line actually sits, and this print is legal in Standard play today.
Read from the two boxes in the lower-left corner of the card — weakness multiplies incoming damage, resistance subtracts from it.
What the Fire and Fighting resistance changes
Damage from Fire and Fighting attacks is reduced before it is applied, so an attack printed high enough to knock this card out on paper may not do it. Resistance is a flat subtraction, not a multiplier — it does not scale with the attack.
| Card | Set | HP | Printed damage | After weakness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slaking ex (147) | Surging Sparks | 340 | 280 | 560 |
| Slaking ex (227) | Surging Sparks | 340 | 280 | 560 |
| Slaking V (77) | Pokémon GO | 230 | 260 | 520 |
| Lugia (132) | Vivid Voltage | 130 | 250 | 500 |
| Lugia (SWSH069) | SWSH Black Star Promos | 130 | 250 | 500 |
| Slaking (162) | Paldea Evolved | 180 | 240 | 480 |
160 HP against a Colorless ×2 weakness means any Colorless attack printed at 80 damage or more is enough. 518 cards in the archive clear that bar.
113 cards in the archive are weak to Colorless and sit inside the damage this card can deal. Point at a card to see it full size.Tap a card to open its page.
What is Salamence as a Pokémon, across every card it has been printed on?
Salamence ex 96 is one print of Salamence. The figures below are about the Pokémon rather than this single card — how many times it has been printed, how tough those prints run, and how many of them can still be played.
Every Salamence print on record, split by whether it can still be entered in Standard play.
Legality is read from the print rather than from the Pokémon, so an older copy of the same Pokémon is a different card for tournament purposes.
Back to summaryWhat has to be in play before Salamence ex 96 can be?
Salamence ex evolves from Shelgon, so the whole line has to be built before this card reaches the field.
- This card cannot be played from your hand onto an empty spot — it goes on top of Shelgon.
- The line runs 4 stages, so the first card has to be in play 3 turns before this one can be.
- Every print in the line shares Pokédex number 373.
Every print of a stage is counted, not just the one shown in the chain above, so the bar is the ceiling that stage has reached rather than one card from it.
Is this the strongest Salamence print, and can the older ones still be played?
34 prints carry this name in the archive, and 26 of them are laid out below. They share a Pokémon but not a card — printed HP, printed damage and tournament legality all move from one print to the next.
Bar height and the number above each bar = highest HP that year; the two digits below = the year.
26 rows are shown of the 34 prints counted under this name.
| Set | Regulation mark | Standard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salamence ex 187/159 | SV09: Journey Together | Mark I | Legal in Standard |
| Salamence VMAX 194/189 | SWSH03: Darkness Ablaze | Mark D | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence VMAX 144/189 | SWSH03: Darkness Ablaze | Mark D | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence ex 177/159 | SV09: Journey Together | Mark I | Legal in Standard |
| Salamence ex 114/159 | Jumbo Cards | Mark I | Legal in Standard |
| Salamence-GX 73/70 | Dragon Majesty | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence-GX 44/70 | Dragon Majesty | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence V 185/189 | SWSH03: Darkness Ablaze | Mark D | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence V 143/189 | SWSH03: Darkness Ablaze | Mark D | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence-EX XY170 | XY Promos | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence 109/203 | SWSH07: Evolving Skies | Mark E | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence ex δ 98/101 | EX Dragon Frontiers | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence ex 96/108 | EX Power Keepers | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence ex 103/107 | EX Deoxys | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence LV.X 98/99 | Arceus | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence 057/108 | Blister Exclusives | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence XY59 | XY Promos | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence SM140 | SM Promos | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence 64/101 | Plasma Blast | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence 106/168 | SM - Celestial Storm | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence 008/020 | League & Championship Cards | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence 18/132 | Secret Wonders | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence 24/100 | Stormfront | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence 8/99 | Arceus | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence 10/97 | EX Dragon | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
| Salamence δ 14/113 | EX Delta Species | No mark printed | Not legal in Standard |
3 of the 26 prints listed here are legal in Standard play. An older print of the same Pokémon is a different card for legality, because legality is read from the print rather than from the name — so owning the cheap old copy does not always mean you can enter with it.
Back to summaryWhat can you use instead of Salamence ex 96?
Every card below asks a deck for the same kind of slot, so the comparison is between what they print, not what they cost.
| Card | Set | HP | Top damage | Retreat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragonite ex | Dragon | 150 | 120 | 2 |
| Salamence ex | Deoxys | 160 | 120 | 2 |
| Eevee ex | Prismatic Evolutions | 200 | 200 | 1 |
| Flygon ex | Legend Maker | 150 | 100 | 2 |
| Blissey ex | Unseen Forces | 160 | 60 | 1 |
| Meowth ex | Perfect Order | 170 | 60 | 1 |
This card itself is 160 HP, 150 top damage and 2 retreat, and every card here is Colorless like it.
Back to summaryWhich other cards share the Pokémon behind Salamence ex 96?
Every card below carries the same Pokédex number as this one, so they are the same Pokémon printed as different cards — different stages, different mechanics and different names all sit in this group.
What was printed next to Salamence ex 96 in Power Keepers?
A card is met inside a set, not on its own, and the number on it is the order that set gave it. The cards either side are the ones a collector actually turns past to reach this one.
These are the cards numbered either side of #96 in Power Keepers. The badge on each card is its printed HP. Point at a card to see it full size.Tap a card to open its page.
Which rules apply to Salamence ex 96, and where can it be played?
Two kinds of rule meet on one card — the sentence printed on the card face, and the rulebook clauses that apply because of what the card carries.
The rule printed on this card
“When Pokémon-ex has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.”
Prize cards your opponent takes when it is knocked out
Every knockout carries the opponent 2 steps closer to winning, and that is the cost of putting this card on the field whatever it cost to buy.
| Clause | What the rulebook says | Cards it applies to | Share of the archive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weakness | Some Pokemon have Weakness or Resistance to Pokemon of certain types, marked in the lower-left corner of the card. | 16,744 cards | 81.9% |
| Retreat | Retreat your Active Pokemon (only once per turn). | 17,244 cards | 84.3% |
| Energy per turn | You can attach Energy just once each turn! | 17,180 cards | 84.0% |
Counted across 20,444 English cards. A clause applies to this card because the card carries the property the clause names, not because we judged it to.
| Format | Status | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Not listed | This card is not listed for this format |
| Expanded | Not listed | This card is not listed for this format |
| Unlimited | Legal | Can be played in this format |
Read from the format list recorded with the card. Formats rotate on a schedule set by the organiser, and that schedule is not published on this page.
Where this card can be played
This card is legal in Unlimited play. It was released on February 2, 2007.
Salamence ex 96 in depth — what these figures add up to
Three readings of the same card, side by side: what it costs to get going, where it sits among the cards it will be compared with, and what takes it off the field.
What it asks a deck for
- Its hardest attack, Volcanic Flame, needs 4 Energy attached. Energy attaches once a turn, so that attack waits 4 turns from an empty card.
- That works out at 38 damage for every Energy card attached.
- Moving it out of the active spot costs 2 more Energy, discarded from the card itself.
- It cannot start the game in play — Shelgon has to be on the field first.
Where its HP stands, cut four ways
What actually removes it
- A Colorless attack printed at 80 damage removes it in a single turn — that is the bar, not its 160 HP.
- 518 cards in the archive clear that bar.
- Going the other way, it removes 113 cards in one attack.
- Damage from Fire attacks is reduced before it is applied, so an attack that clears the bar on paper may still fall short.
Salamence ex 96 card record
| Hit points | 160 HP | Type | Colorless |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weakness | Colorless ×2 | Retreat cost | 2 Energy |
| Evolves from | Shelgon | Card type | Stage 2 ex |
| Pokédex number | #373 | Set | Power Keepers |
| Card number | 96 of 108 | Series | EX |
| Released | February 2, 2007 | Rarity | Rare Holo EX |
| Illustrator | Mitsuhiro Arita | ||
| Tournament legality | Unlimited only | ||
| Printed rule | When Pokémon-ex has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards. | ||
Read from the printed card face, the set listing and the official format list.
What does Salamence ex 96 cost?
This page is about what the card does. The figure below is the one number worth carrying across, read on August 14, 2026.
Salamence ex 96 — frequently asked questions
How much damage does it take to knock out Salamence ex 96?
What is the strongest attack on Salamence ex 96?
What is the retreat cost of Salamence ex 96?
Can an older Salamence print be played in a tournament?
What does Salamence ex evolve from?
Can Salamence ex 96 be played in a tournament?
What does the rule on Salamence ex 96 mean?
Does this page say how good Salamence ex 96 is in a deck?
Where these card facts come from
Card facts are read once from openly published card files and do not change between readings — a printed card cannot gain HP. The places below are where the same information can be checked. Last updated: July 28, 2026 — the counts and rankings on this page were taken from the card files read on that day.
Primary official source
First-party official sources — the body that issues the data itself, such as a government agency, a statutory register or a rights holder publishing its own records.
Industry source
Second-party sources — marketplaces, trade associations, research institutes and companies that compile data about the market.