Dragapult ex

What Dragapult ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 90 lists we counted, this deck runs 17 to 23 Pokémon, 30 to 36 Trainers and 7 to 9 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fire and Psychic.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « dragapult-ex ». 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: 7 to 9 out of 60, when half the 125 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: 30 to 36 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 125 decks we track. Inside that, 9 to 12 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 15 to 22 Items you can play all of in the same turn. It also brings up to 3 Stadiums, and 118 of the 125 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.

How Dragapult ex 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, 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 Dragapult exStage 2	320	Phantom Dive	200		none	1
Close DrakloakStage 1	90	Dragon Headbutt	70		none	1
Close Meowth exBasic	170	Tuck Tail	60		Fighting ×2	1
Close DreepyBasic	70	Bite	40		none	1

The core: the 12 cards every list runs

These 12 cards appear in all 90 lists, without a single exception. That is 37 of the 60 slots. The other 23 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 37 slots break down: 21 Trainers, 13 Pokémon, 3 Energy. Trainers outweigh everything else put together, which is the mark of a deck that goes and fetches its cards rather than waiting to draw them.

11 of those 12 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Drakloak (3 to 4), Dreepy (3 to 4) and Dragapult ex (2 to 3), plus 8 more. Add those spreads up and you get 15 copies the 90 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
2–3	Close Dragapult ex	TWM 130	Pokémon	leaves
1	Close Fezandipiti ex	ASC 142	Pokémon	leaves
1–2	Close Meowth ex	POR 62	Pokémon	stays
3–4	Close Buddy-Buddy Poffin	TEF 144	Trainer	leaves
2–4	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 Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
2–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
2–4	Fire Energy	MEE 2	Energy	stays

The 65 cards that change from list to list

65 cards fight over the 23 slots that are left: 10 above three lists in four, 51 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Budew at 99 %, Crispin at 99 % and Psychic Energy at 99 %, plus 7 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Moltres, at 52 %: 47 of 90 players took it, 43 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Team Rocket's Watchtower (22 lists out of 90) and Dunsparce (14 lists out of 90).

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 %89/90	Close Budew	1–2	ASC 16	Pokémon
99 %89/90	Close Crispin	2–4	SCR 133	Trainer
99 %89/90	Psychic Energy	2–4	MEE 5	Energy
97 %87/90	Close Munkidori	1–2	TWM 95	Pokémon
97 %87/90	Darkness Energy	1–3	MEE 7	Energy
93 %84/90	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
88 %79/90	Close Crushing Hammer	3–4	POR 71	Trainer
87 %78/90	Close Rosa's Encouragement	1	POR 84	Trainer
84 %76/90	Close Risky Ruins	1–2	MEG 127	Trainer
77 %69/90	Close Special Red Card	1–2	CRI 82	Trainer
53 %48/90	Close Dudunsparce	1	TEF 129	Pokémon
52 %47/90	Close Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
52 %47/90	Close Judge	1–2	POR 76	Trainer
40 %36/90	Close Dunsparce	1	JTG 120	Pokémon
24 %22/90	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1–2	DRI 180	Trainer
16 %14/90	Close Dunsparce	1	TEF 128	Pokémon
14 %13/90	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
12 %11/90	Close Dudunsparce ex	1	JTG 121	Pokémon
11 %10/90	Close Dark Bell	1–2	PBL 75	Trainer
11 %10/90	Close Dawn	1	PFL 87	Trainer
9 %8/90	Close Jamming Tower	1	TWM 153	Trainer
7 %6/90	Close Area Zero Underdepths	1–3	SCR 131	Trainer
6 %5/90	Close Yveltal	1	MEG 88	Pokémon
6 %5/90	Close Rare Candy	1–2	MEG 125	Trainer
6 %5/90	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
4 %4/90	Close Chi-Yu	1	TWM 39	Pokémon
4 %4/90	Close Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
4 %4/90	Close Handheld Fan	1	TWM 150	Trainer
4 %4/90	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
3 %3/90	Close Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
3 %3/90	Close Latias ex	1	SSP 76	Pokémon
3 %3/90	Close Patrat	1	CRI 70	Pokémon
3 %3/90	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
2 %2/90	Close Genesect	1	SFA 40	Pokémon
2 %2/90	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
2 %2/90	Close Rabsca	1	TEF 24	Pokémon
2 %2/90	Close Rellor	1	TEF 23	Pokémon
2 %2/90	Close Pokémon Catcher	2–3	POR 82	Trainer
2 %2/90	Close Enhanced Hammer	1	TWM 148	Trainer
2 %2/90	Close Forest of Vitality	1	MEG 117	Trainer
2 %2/90	Close Ruffian	1	JTG 157	Trainer
2 %2/90	Close Sparkling Crystal	1	SCR 142	Trainer
2 %2/90	Close Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
1 %1/90	Close Hoothoot	3	SCR 114	Pokémon
1 %1/90	Close Marill	3	30C 67	Pokémon
1 %1/90	Close Noctowl	3	SCR 115	Pokémon
1 %1/90	Close Azumarill	2	SSP 74	Pokémon
1 %1/90	Close Fan Rotom	2	SCR 118	Pokémon
1 %1/90	Close Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex	2	TWM 64	Pokémon
1 %1/90	Close Blaziken ex	1	JTG 24	Pokémon
1 %1/90	Close Chi-Yu	1	MEG 31	Pokémon
1 %1/90	Close Chien-Pao	1	SSP 56	Pokémon
1 %1/90	Close Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex	1	TWM 112	Pokémon
1 %1/90	Close Dedenne	1	SSP 87	Pokémon
1 %1/90	Close Pecharunt ex	1	SFA 39	Pokémon
1 %1/90	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
1 %1/90	Close Torchic	1	DRI 40	Pokémon
1 %1/90	Close Hilda	3	WHT 84	Trainer
1 %1/90	Close Lucky Helmet	2	TWM 158	Trainer
1 %1/90	Close Lumiose City	2	POR 77	Trainer
1 %1/90	Close Tera Orb	2	SSP 189	Trainer
1 %1/90	Close Rust Syndicate Grunt	1	PBL 81	Trainer
1 %1/90	Close Telepathic Psychic Energy	4	POR 88	Energy
1 %1/90	Close Neo Upper Energy	1	TEF 162	Energy
1 %1/90	Water Energy	1	MEE 3	Energy

The most common Dragapult ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 37 slots come from the core, the cards all 90 lists run. The remaining 23 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 13 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 19 Pokémon, 33 Trainers and 8 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 90 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: 19
4 Drakloak TWM 129
4 Dreepy TWM 128
3 Dragapult ex TWM 130
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
1 Meowth ex POR 62
2 Budew ASC 16
2 Munkidori TWM 95
1 Dudunsparce TEF 129
1 Moltres PFL 14

Trainer: 33
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Poké Pad POR 81
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
3 Night Stretcher ASC 196
3 Ultra Ball MEG 131
2 Crispin SCR 133
1 Unfair Stamp TWM 165
4 Crushing Hammer POR 71
1 Rosa's Encouragement POR 84
2 Risky Ruins MEG 127
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
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 at tournaments

Here is how Dragapult 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 30th Celebration became legal for tournaments, and we read the table on 21 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 Crustle: over 272 games, 90 won and 173 lost. 9 ended with no winner.

Against Latias ex / Mega Kangaskhan ex: over 774 games, 340 won and 417 lost. 17 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Excadrill ex: over 555 games, 248 won and 297 lost. 10 ended with no winner.

Against Dhelmise: over 576 games, 267 won and 301 lost. 8 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Lopunny ex / Dusknoir: over 236 games, 108 won and 127 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against Mew ex: over 107 games, 47 won and 59 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against Mega Sharpedo ex / Toxtricity: over 434 games, 212 won and 219 lost. 3 ended with no winner.

Against N's Zoroark ex: over 733 games, 366 won and 346 lost. 21 ended with no winner.

Against Slowking: over 665 games, 334 won and 321 lost. 10 ended with no winner.

Against Cynthia's Garchomp ex: over 238 games, 115 won and 121 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Lopunny ex / Dudunsparce: over 358 games, 180 won and 175 lost. 3 ended with no winner.

Against Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex / Froslass: over 217 games, 111 won and 104 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Team Rocket's Honchkrow: over 189 games, 97 won and 89 lost. 3 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex: over 419 games, 230 won and 182 lost. 7 ended with no winner.

Against Greninja ex: over 152 games, 80 won and 71 lost. One ended with no winner.

Against Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Arboliva ex: over 147 games, 78 won and 65 lost. 4 ended with no winner.

Against Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex: over 124 games, 65 won and 56 lost. 3 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Dusknoir: over 598 games, 343 won and 246 lost. 9 ended with no winner.

Against Alakazam / Dusknoir: over 428 games, 245 won and 178 lost. 5 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama: over 374 games, 217 won and 151 lost. 6 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Lucario ex: over 204 games, 115 won and 87 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Dragapult ex / Dudunsparce: over 130 games, 72 won and 58 lost.

Against Teal Mask Ogerpon ex / Meganium / Hydrapple ex: over 430 games, 255 won and 170 lost. 5 ended with no winner.

Against Alakazam / Dudunsparce: over 589 games, 355 won and 220 lost. 14 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Starmie ex: over 111 games, 63 won and 44 lost. 4 ended with no winner.

Against Beedrill ex: over 126 games, 76 won and 47 lost. 3 ended with no winner.

Against Mega Greninja ex: over 175 games, 108 won and 65 lost. 2 ended with no winner.

Against Festival Lead: over 354 games, 238 won and 110 lost. 6 ended with no winner.

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

You need 77 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 12 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

All 90 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 84 took Unfair Stamp, 3 took Hero's Cape and 2 took Sparkling Crystal. 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. 6 of the 12 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Drakloak, Dreepy, Dragapult ex and Fezandipiti ex, plus 2 more. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 19 of the 37 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Dragapult ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fighting, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 14 of the 125 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 125 we track. The other 111 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 125 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.