Dragapult ex / Dudunsparce

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

Across the 96 lists we counted, this deck runs 18 to 25 Pokémon, 28 to 33 Trainers and 6 to 11 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fire and Psychic.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « dragapult-dudunsparce ». 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: 6 to 11 out of 60, when half the 126 decks we track run 11 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. Dragapult 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: 28 to 33 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 126 decks we track. Inside that, 9 to 13 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 14 to 20 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 3 Stadiums, and 119 of the 126 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 Dudunsparce give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Dragapult ex is in all 96 lists, 3 copies of it.

Dudunsparce is in all 96 lists, 2 copies of it. Its Ability is called Run Away Draw, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « Once during your turn, you may draw 3 cards. If you drew any cards in this way, shuffle this Pokémon and all attached cards into your deck. »

How Dragapult ex / Dudunsparce actually wins

Dragapult ex attacks with Phantom Dive for 200. It needs 2 Energy, 1 Fire and 1 Psychic 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: "Put 6 damage counters on your opponent's Benched Pokémon in any way you like."

The cost of Phantom Dive 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 you are not on your own. Crispin, which the list runs 2 of, looks at the top of your deck and attaches the Energy it finds there. Rosa's Encouragement does the same job. That is where this deck buys its turns, and it is the first thing to look for in your opening hand.

Good news on mobility: pulling Dragapult ex back to the Bench costs you 1 Energy attached to it, and that is all. Retreating does not cost you your turn, so you step back and swing anyway. That matters enormously the day your opponent lands something nasty on it.

Dragapult ex carries the "ex" suffix, and your opponent takes 2 Prize cards instead of one when Dragapult ex falls. They need 6 to win: 3 well-placed knockouts on that card 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 Dragapult exStage 2	320	Phantom Dive	200		none	1
Close DudunsparceStage 1	140	Land Crush	90		Fighting ×2	3
Close DrakloakStage 1	90	Dragon Headbutt	70		none	1
Close DreepyBasic	70	Bite	40		none	1

The core: the 13 cards every list runs

These 13 cards appear in all 96 lists, without a single exception. That is 39 of the 60 slots. The other 21 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 39 slots break down: 19 Trainers, 14 Pokémon, 6 Energy. Nothing stands out in that split. What sets this deck apart is how thick its core is: 39 of the 60 slots are the same for everybody, when half the 126 decks we track fix 25 or fewer. Fewer choices left to you than usual, and fewer ways to get them wrong.

12 of those 13 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Drakloak (3 to 4), Dragapult ex (2 to 3) and Dudunsparce (1 to 2), plus 9 more. Add those spreads up and you get 13 copies the 96 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
4	Close Dreepy	TWM 128	Pokémon	leaves
2–3	Close Dragapult ex	TWM 130	Pokémon	leaves
1–2	Close Dudunsparce	TEF 129	Pokémon	leaves
1–2	Close Budew	ASC 16	Pokémon	leaves
3–4	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
3–4	Close Lillie's Determination	MEG 119	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Poké Pad	POR 81	Trainer	stays
2–4	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Crispin	SCR 133	Trainer	leaves
2–3	Close Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
3–4	Fire Energy	MEE 2	Energy	stays
3–4	Psychic Energy	MEE 5	Energy	stays

The 47 cards that change from list to list

47 cards fight over the 21 slots that are left: 6 above three lists in four, 31 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Munkidori at 99 %, Ultra Ball at 99 % and Darkness Energy at 99 %, plus 3 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Judge, at 51 %: 49 of 96 players took it, 47 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Yveltal (22 lists out of 96) and Dawn (18 lists out of 96).

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
99 %95/96	Close Munkidori	1–2	TWM 95	Pokémon
99 %95/96	Close Ultra Ball	3–4	MEG 131	Trainer
99 %95/96	Darkness Energy	2–3	MEE 7	Energy
98 %94/96	Close Risky Ruins	1–3	MEG 127	Trainer
85 %82/96	Close Meowth ex	1–2	POR 62	Pokémon
80 %77/96	Close Dunsparce	2–3	JTG 120	Pokémon
74 %71/96	Close Dudunsparce ex	1	JTG 121	Pokémon
71 %68/96	Close Special Red Card	1–2	CRI 82	Trainer
69 %66/96	Close Rosa's Encouragement	1	POR 84	Trainer
67 %64/96	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
67 %64/96	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
51 %49/96	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
46 %44/96	Close Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
31 %30/96	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
26 %25/96	Close Dunsparce	1–3	TEF 128	Pokémon
26 %25/96	Close Crushing Hammer	2–4	POR 71	Trainer
23 %22/96	Close Yveltal	1	MEG 88	Pokémon
19 %18/96	Close Dawn	1–2	PFL 87	Trainer
16 %15/96	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
13 %12/96	Close Jamming Tower	1–2	TWM 153	Trainer
10 %10/96	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
9 %9/96	Close Pokégear 3.0	1–2	SVI 186	Trainer
8 %8/96	Close Dark Bell	1–2	PBL 75	Trainer
6 %6/96	Close Rare Candy	1–2	MEG 125	Trainer
5 %5/96	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
3 %3/96	Close Elgyem	1	BLK 40	Pokémon
3 %3/96	Close Brock's Scouting	1–2	JTG 146	Trainer
3 %3/96	Close Gwynn	1	PBL 78	Trainer
3 %3/96	Close Handheld Fan	1	TWM 150	Trainer
2 %2/96	Close Latias ex	1	SSP 76	Pokémon
2 %2/96	Close Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
2 %2/96	Close Area Zero Underdepths	1–2	SCR 131	Trainer
2 %2/96	Close Acerola's Mischief	1	MEG 113	Trainer
1 %1/96	Close Rellor	2	TEF 23	Pokémon
1 %1/96	Close Chi-Yu	1	TWM 39	Pokémon
1 %1/96	Close Chien-Pao	1	SSP 56	Pokémon
1 %1/96	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
1 %1/96	Close Rabsca	1	TEF 24	Pokémon
1 %1/96	Close Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex	1	TWM 64	Pokémon
1 %1/96	Close Accompanying Flute	4	TWM 142	Trainer
1 %1/96	Close Hilda	1	WHT 84	Trainer
1 %1/96	Close Prime Catcher	1	TEF 157	Trainer
1 %1/96	Close Ruffian	1	JTG 157	Trainer
1 %1/96	Close Sparkling Crystal	1	SCR 142	Trainer
1 %1/96	Close Switch	1	30C 127	Trainer
1 %1/96	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1	DRI 176	Trainer
1 %1/96	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1	DRI 180	Trainer

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

Here they are in full, ready to build. 39 slots come from the core, the cards all 96 lists run. The remaining 21 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 14 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 24 Pokémon, 28 Trainers and 8 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 96 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.

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: 24
4 Drakloak TWM 129
4 Dreepy TWM 128
3 Dragapult ex TWM 130
2 Dudunsparce TEF 129
1 Budew ASC 16
2 Munkidori TWM 95
1 Meowth ex POR 62
2 Dunsparce JTG 120
1 Dudunsparce ex JTG 121
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
1 Moltres PFL 14
2 Dunsparce TEF 128

Trainer: 28
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Poké Pad POR 81
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
2 Crispin SCR 133
2 Night Stretcher ASC 196
3 Ultra Ball MEG 131
2 Risky Ruins MEG 127
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
1 Rosa's Encouragement POR 84
1 Unfair Stamp TWM 165
1 Judge POR 76

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 / Dudunsparce at tournaments

Here is how Dragapult ex / Dudunsparce 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 30th Celebration became legal for tournaments, and we read the table on 23 October 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 Dragapult ex: over 135 games, 60 won and 75 lost.

How many different cards Dragapult ex / Dudunsparce needs, and how long it will last

You need 60 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 13 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

All 96 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 64 took Unfair Stamp, 30 took Hero's Cape and 1 took Prime Catcher. The flex table shows you all 4. 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. 8 of the 13 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Drakloak, Dreepy, Dragapult ex and Dudunsparce, plus 4 more. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 22 of the 39 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Dragapult ex / Dudunsparce struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fighting, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 14 of the 126 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, Cynthia's Garchomp ex and Mega Lucario ex, plus 11 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 14 decks out of the 126 we track. The other 112 do not attack into yours, and this table says nothing about them. You will still run into them.

Going the other way, none of the 126 decks we track have an attacker Weak to your types. So you are not going to win trades on Weakness — you will have to win them on raw damage.