Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex deck: the core, the flex slots, and what beats it

What Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 34 lists we counted, this deck runs 20 to 23 Pokémon, 29 to 32 Trainers and 8 to 9 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fire and Psychic.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « dragapult-blaziken ». Every card named in that label turns up in the tables below, which is what makes it a fair name for the deck.

Look at the Energy: 8 to 9 out of 60, when half the 97 decks we track run 10 or more. This one is lean. It lives on cheap attacks and leans on Trainers to find the right Energy at the right moment rather than stockpiling it.

It takes a while to set up. Blaziken ex is a Stage 2 Pokémon: you put down the baby, you evolve it, and then you evolve it again. Three cards stacked before anything attacks. That is what the hardest-hitting decks cost you, and it is also where they crack — a fast opponent can bury you before the line is standing.

Look at the Trainers: 29 to 32 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 97 decks we track. Inside that, 9 to 11 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 17 to 19 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 3 Stadiums, and 91 of the 97 decks we track bring that many or more. Only one Stadium sits on the table at a time: the one you play sends the one already there to the discard pile.

What Tools and Stadiums do — the two Trainer families we skipped here — and why the Energy count says so much: how to read a deck list.

What the cards in this deck's name actually do

Dragapult ex and Blaziken ex give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Dragapult ex is in all 34 lists, 2 copies of it.

Blaziken ex is in all 34 lists, 2 copies of it. Its Ability is called Seething Spirit, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « Once during your turn, you may attach a Basic Energy card from your discard pile to 1 of your Pokémon. »

How Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex actually wins

Blaziken ex attacks with Smolder-sault for 200. It needs 2 Energy, 1 Fire and 1 Colorless attached, and it has 320 HP. And the number is not everything the card says. There is one more line printed under the attack, and it is the one everybody skips: "During your next turn, this Pokémon can't attack."

The cost of Smolder-sault decides your first few turns. You only get to attach one Energy a turn, and that attack asks for 2. On your own attachments alone, your first real swing lands on turn 2. Except it charges itself. Blaziken ex, which the list runs 2 of, has an Ability called Seething Spirit: it digs Energy out of your discard pile and puts it back on one of your Pokémon. An Ability costs you nothing: not your attack, not your card for the turn. That is where this deck buys its turns, and it is the first thing to look for in your opening hand.

Energy is not your only clock. Torchic has to climb two steps before it becomes Blaziken ex, and an evolution asleep at the bottom of your deck does you no good at all. The list has that covered. Dawn, a single copy in the list, goes into your deck for an evolution. Careful, though: only 31 of the 34 lists bring it, so it is a choice, and players are still arguing about it.

Here is the detail that quietly loses games. To pull Blaziken ex back to the Bench you have to discard 2 Energy attached to it. Retreating does not cost you your turn, you can step back and still swing right after. What it costs you is the 2 Energy you spent 2 turns attaching, and you start that climb again from nothing. Pack a card that moves it for free, or send it up knowing it stays up.

Blaziken ex, Dragapult ex, Fezandipiti ex and Meowth ex carry the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when one of them falls. They need 6 to win: 3 well-placed knockouts on those cards beat you, where it would take 6 anywhere else on your Bench.

The attackers in the deck's core, with their best attack, its cost and their Weakness

Pokémon	HP	Attack	Damage	Cost	Weakness	Retreat
Close Blaziken exStage 2	320	Smolder-sault	200	Fire + Colorless	Water ×2	2
Close Dragapult exStage 2	320	Phantom Dive	200	Fire + Psychic	none	1
Close DrakloakStage 1	90	Dragon Headbutt	70	Fire + Psychic	none	1
Close Meowth exBasic	170	Tuck Tail	60	Colorless + Colorless + Colorless	Fighting ×2	1

The core: the 20 cards every list runs

These 20 cards appear in all 34 lists, without a single exception. That is 52 of the 60 slots. The other 8 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 52 slots break down: 25 Trainers, 19 Pokémon, 8 Energy. Nothing stands out in that split. What sets this deck apart is how thick its core is: 52 of the 60 slots are the same for everybody, when half the 97 decks we track fix 34 or fewer. Fewer choices left to you than usual, and fewer ways to get them wrong.

9 of those 20 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Drakloak (3 to 4), Dreepy (3 to 4) and Budew (1 to 2), plus 6 more. Add those spreads up and you get 9 copies the 34 lists do not agree on, inside the core itself.

What "3 to 4" means in the copies column, what the "TWM 130" code under each name is for, and why we count dozens of lists instead of one: how to read a deck list.

The cards present in every list counted, with the number of copies

Copies	Card	Printing	Kind	Rotation
3–4	Close Drakloak	TWM 129	Pokémon	leaves
3–4	Close Dreepy	TWM 128	Pokémon	leaves
2	Close Blaziken ex	JTG 24	Pokémon	leaves
2	Close Dragapult ex	TWM 130	Pokémon	leaves
2	Close Munkidori	TWM 95	Pokémon	leaves
2	Close Torchic	DRI 40	Pokémon	stays
1–2	Close Budew	ASC 16	Pokémon	leaves
1	Close Fezandipiti ex	ASC 142	Pokémon	leaves
1–2	Close Meowth ex	POR 62	Pokémon	stays
4	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Rare Candy	MEG 125	Trainer	stays
1–2	Close Crispin	SCR 133	Trainer	leaves
2	Close Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
3	Fire Energy	MEE 2	Energy	stays
3	Psychic Energy	MEE 5	Energy	stays
2–3	Darkness Energy	MEE 7	Energy	stays

The 23 cards that change from list to list

23 cards fight over the 8 slots that are left: 4 above three lists in four, 12 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Combusken at 97 %, Unfair Stamp at 94 % and Dawn at 91 %, plus 1 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Chi-Yu, at 44 %: 15 of 34 players took it, 19 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Judge (7 lists out of 34) and Moltres (3 lists out of 34).

Why a card at 45 % is not a bad card, and what order to buy all this in: how to read a deck list.

The cards some lists run and others don't, most common first

Lists running it	Card	Copies	Printing	Kind
97 %33/34	Close Combusken	1	DRI 41	Pokémon
94 %32/34	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
91 %31/34	Close Dawn	1–2	PFL 87	Trainer
76 %26/34	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
65 %22/34	Close Area Zero Underdepths	1–2	SCR 131	Trainer
59 %20/34	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
44 %15/34	Close Chi-Yu	1	TWM 39	Pokémon
41 %14/34	Close Risky Ruins	1–2	MEG 127	Trainer
41 %14/34	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1–3	DRI 180	Trainer
38 %13/34	Close Chien-Pao	1	SSP 56	Pokémon
26 %9/34	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
21 %7/34	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
9 %3/34	Close Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
6 %2/34	Close Yveltal	1	MEG 88	Pokémon
6 %2/34	Close Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
6 %2/34	Close Secret Box	1	TWM 163	Trainer
3 %1/34	Close Chi-Yu	1	MEG 31	Pokémon
3 %1/34	Close Maractus	1	JTG 8	Pokémon
3 %1/34	Close Pecharunt	1	SVP 149	Pokémon
3 %1/34	Close Handheld Fan	1	TWM 150	Trainer
3 %1/34	Close Jamming Tower	1	TWM 153	Trainer
3 %1/34	Close Lillie's Pearl	1	JTG 151	Trainer
3 %1/34	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer

The most common Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 52 slots come from the core, the cards all 34 lists run. The remaining 8 come from the table just above, working down it: the cards the most players chose, each at its most common copy count, until the total lands on 60.

This list is nobody's list in particular. It takes, slot by slot, what the most people played, under the guardrails a judge would hold you to: never more than four copies of a card, and one ACE SPEC. Behind the core it took 7 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 22 Pokémon, 30 Trainers and 8 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 34 lists we counted are all from players who came in the top twenty of their tournament. Nobody publishes the lists of the players who lost. So what you have in front of you is what the players finishing near the top bring most often.

The text under the table is the one the game expects: copy it, paste it into the deck manager, and the list builds itself.

There is no price total on this page. The readings we have are Cardmarket's, in euros, and the shop link further down sends you to TCGplayer, which quotes in dollars. Putting a euro figure next to a dollar shop would be one currency too many. The French and German pages carry the total.

Why we only read lists from players who came in the top twenty of their tournament, and what that changes about every percentage on this page: how to read a deck list.

Pokémon: 22
4 Drakloak TWM 129
4 Dreepy TWM 128
2 Blaziken ex JTG 24
2 Dragapult ex TWM 130
2 Munkidori TWM 95
2 Torchic DRI 40
1 Budew ASC 16
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
1 Meowth ex POR 62
1 Combusken DRI 41
1 Lillie's Clefairy ex JTG 56
1 Chi-Yu TWM 39

Trainer: 30
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Ultra Ball MEG 131
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
3 Poké Pad POR 81
3 Rare Candy MEG 125
2 Crispin SCR 133
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
1 Unfair Stamp TWM 165
1 Dawn PFL 87
2 Area Zero Underdepths SCR 131
1 Special Red Card CRI 82

Energy: 8
3 Fire Energy MEE 2
3 Psychic Energy MEE 5
2 Darkness Energy MEE 7

Total Cards: 60

Which decks beat Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex at tournaments

Here is how Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex did against every other deck at tournaments. Real games, real players sitting across the table from each other, and the platform those tournaments run on counts them one by one. All of them were played after Pitch Black became legal for tournaments, and we read the table on 5 September 2026.

The format matters more than people think. When the next set lands, decks get rebuilt around the new cards, and a matchup that leaned one way can swing the other. What you are reading holds for today's format.

We start with the opponent that gives you the most trouble, because that is where the work is before your next tournament. The further down the list you go, the better it goes for you.

Always look at the number of games next to the score. Six wins out of ten happens on its own, even with a middling deck: it is the same as flipping six heads in ten tries. Six hundred out of a thousand, and luck has nothing to do with it. Below 100 games we show nothing at all, because at that count half the matchups look like they lean one way when they lean nowhere.

Against Cynthia's Garchomp ex: over 137 games, 46 won and 88 lost. 3 ended with no winner.

Against Raging Bolt ex: over 269 games, 105 won and 157 lost. 7 ended with no winner.

Against N's Zoroark ex: over 586 games, 254 won and 318 lost. 14 ended with no winner.

Against Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass: over 447 games, 197 won and 242 lost. 8 ended with no winner.

Against Crustle: over 113 games, 47 won and 63 lost. 3 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex: over 946 games, 459 won and 460 lost. 27 ended with no winner.

Against Slowking: over 631 games, 310 won and 309 lost. 12 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama: over 196 games, 95 won and 100 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Dusknoir: over 661 games, 343 won and 311 lost. 7 ended with no winner.

Against Festival Lead: over 639 games, 340 won and 288 lost. 11 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Lucario ex: over 226 games, 115 won and 109 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Latias ex / Mega Kangaskhan ex: over 201 games, 103 won and 93 lost. 5 ended with no winner.

Against Dhelmise: over 442 games, 243 won and 190 lost. 9 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Chandelure ex: over 116 games, 60 won and 54 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Alakazam / Dudunsparce: over 710 games, 414 won and 282 lost. 14 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Absol ex: over 103 games, 55 won and 44 lost. 4 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Greninja ex: over 134 games, 74 won and 58 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Excadrill ex: over 841 games, 514 won and 319 lost. 8 ended with no winner.

Against Team Rocket's Honchkrow: over 136 games, 81 won and 53 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Toucannon: over 271 games, 174 won and 93 lost. 4 ended with no winner.

Against Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex: over 165 games, 104 won and 59 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Beedrill ex: over 121 games, 78 won and 43 lost.

What Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex costs to build, and how long it will last

You need 43 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 20 of which nobody argues about. We do not have card prices, so we are not going to put a number on it.

All 34 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 32 took Unfair Stamp and 2 took Secret Box. You are allowed ONE ACE SPEC card in your whole deck, so a single copy covers it whatever it costs. New to this deck? Take Unfair Stamp and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 10 of the 20 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Drakloak, Dreepy, Blaziken ex and Dragapult ex, plus 6 more. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 24 of the 52 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Water and Fighting, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 35 of the 97 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Festival Lead (Seaking), Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass and Raging Bolt ex (Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex), plus 32 more decks. The table below takes them one at a time, and those are the lists you practise against first before an event.

This table counts one thing, Weakness, and that comes to 35 decks out of the 97 we track. The other 62 do not attack into yours, and this table says nothing about them. You will still run into them.

Going the other way, your attackers are Fire and Psychic, and 29 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Mega Excadrill ex, Festival Lead and Slowking, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.

Questions people ask

What is the Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex deck list?

There isn't one, so we built one for you: all 60 cards are written out further up this page. Across 34 tournament lists harvested between 11 August 2026 and 4 September 2026, 20 cards turn up in every single one, 52 slots out of 60. The remaining 8 change from player to player, with 23 different cards competing for them. Both tables are above.

How many lists is this counted on, and where do they come from?

34 lists, played across 28 different tournaments, harvested between 11 August 2026 and 4 September 2026 from play.limitlesstcg.com. All 34 were read card by card, and every card recognised.

Where do I start if I want to build Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex?

With the whole core: 20 cards, 52 slots. Inside it, buy the 25 Trainer slots and the 8 Energy first: they carry over into your next deck. Leave the 19 Pokémon slots for last. Only then work down the flex table and add the cards the most lists agree on, starting with Combusken at 97 % and Unfair Stamp at 94 %.

What beats Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex?

Its attackers are Weak to Water and Fighting, so they take double damage from an attacker of that type. 35 of the 97 decks we track play an attacker of that type: Festival Lead, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass, Raging Bolt ex and Mega Lucario ex, among others.

Will Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex survive the next rotation?

Not intact: 10 core cards out of 20 carry the letter H, starting with Drakloak, Dreepy, Blaziken ex and Dragapult ex, plus 6 more.

Are a lot of people playing Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex?

We have read 34 lists of it, which puts it 27th of the 97 decks we track by lists read. The platform those tournaments run on counts 2,333 entries for it, 5.72 % of the field, across all its players. That figure is theirs.

These pages are about the same corner of the game. If you came away from this one still wondering about something, start with one of them.