Dragapult ex / Froslass

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

Across the 42 lists we counted, this deck runs 20 to 23 Pokémon, 28 to 31 Trainers and 8 to 10 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Psychic, Fire and Water.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « dragapult-froslass ». 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 10 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 31 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 126 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 19 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 Froslass give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Dragapult ex is in all 42 lists, 2 copies of it.

Froslass is in all 42 lists, 2 copies of it. Its Ability is called Freezing Shroud, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « During Pokémon Checkup, put 1 damage counter on each Pokémon that has an Ability (both yours and your opponent's), except any Froslass. »

How Dragapult ex / Froslass 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 DrakloakStage 1	90	Dragon Headbutt	70		none	1
Close FroslassStage 1	90	Frost Smash	60		Metal ×2	1
Close MunkidoriBasic	110	Mind Bend	60		Darkness ×2	1

The core: the 17 cards every list runs

These 17 cards appear in all 42 lists, without a single exception. That is 50 of the 60 slots. The other 10 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 50 slots break down: 23 Trainers, 18 Pokémon, 9 Energy. Nothing stands out in that split. What sets this deck apart is how thick its core is: 50 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.

17 of those 17 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Drakloak (3 to 4), Dreepy (3 to 4) and Munkidori (2 to 3), plus 14 more. Add those spreads up and you get 20 copies the 42 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 Munkidori	TWM 95	Pokémon	leaves
2–3	Close Dragapult ex	TWM 130	Pokémon	leaves
2–3	Close Froslass	TWM 53	Pokémon	leaves
2–3	Close Snorunt	ASC 46	Pokémon	stays
1–2	Close Budew	ASC 16	Pokémon	leaves
2–4	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 Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
2–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
2–3	Close Crispin	SCR 133	Trainer	leaves
2–3	Darkness Energy	MEE 7	Energy	stays
3–4	Fire Energy	MEE 2	Energy	stays
3–4	Psychic Energy	MEE 5	Energy	stays

The 40 cards that change from list to list

40 cards fight over the 10 slots that are left: 2 above three lists in four, 30 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Meowth ex at 95 % and Unfair Stamp at 79 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Special Red Card, at 43 %: 18 of 42 players took it, 24 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 1 copy. Right at the bottom of the table, Shaymin (10 lists out of 42) and Rare Candy (10 lists out of 42).

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
95 %40/42	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
79 %33/42	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
74 %31/42	Close Area Zero Underdepths	1–2	SCR 131	Trainer
71 %30/42	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
64 %27/42	Close Rosa's Encouragement	1	POR 84	Trainer
43 %18/42	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
38 %16/42	Close Maractus	1	JTG 8	Pokémon
38 %16/42	Close Yveltal	1	MEG 88	Pokémon
38 %16/42	Close Brock's Scouting	1–2	JTG 146	Trainer
33 %14/42	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	1–2	DRI 180	Trainer
24 %10/42	Close Shaymin	1	DRI 10	Pokémon
24 %10/42	Close Rare Candy	1–2	MEG 125	Trainer
19 %8/42	Close Latias ex	1	SSP 76	Pokémon
17 %7/42	Close Mega Froslass ex	1	ASC 47	Pokémon
17 %7/42	Close Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
17 %7/42	Close Dawn	1	PFL 87	Trainer
12 %5/42	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
12 %5/42	Close Psyduck	1	ASC 39	Pokémon
12 %5/42	Close Hero's Cape	1	TEF 152	Trainer
12 %5/42	Close Jamming Tower	1	TWM 153	Trainer
12 %5/42	Close Risky Ruins	1–2	MEG 127	Trainer
12 %5/42	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	1–3	DRI 176	Trainer
12 %5/42	Close Tool Scrapper	1	ASC 212	Trainer
12 %5/42	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
12 %5/42	Water Energy	1	MEE 3	Energy
10 %4/42	Close Pokémon Catcher	1–2	POR 82	Trainer
10 %4/42	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
10 %4/42	Close Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
7 %3/42	Close Crushing Hammer	3	POR 71	Trainer
7 %3/42	Close Air Balloon	1–2	ASC 181	Trainer
5 %2/42	Close Azelf	1	SSP 80	Pokémon
5 %2/42	Close Bubbly Water Energy	1	CRI 84	Energy
5 %2/42	Close Legacy Energy	1	TWM 167	Energy
2 %1/42	Close Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex	1	TWM 141	Pokémon
2 %1/42	Close Pokégear 3.0	2	SVI 186	Trainer
2 %1/42	Close Team Rocket's Venture Bomb	2	DRI 179	Trainer
2 %1/42	Close Energy Recycler	1	DRI 164	Trainer
2 %1/42	Close Hilda	1	WHT 84	Trainer
2 %1/42	Close Hyper Aroma	1	TWM 152	Trainer
2 %1/42	Close Scoop Up Cyclone	1	TWM 162	Trainer

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

Here they are in full, ready to build. 50 slots come from the core, the cards all 42 lists run. The remaining 10 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 9 more cards to reach 60. The whole thing comes to 22 Pokémon, 29 Trainers and 9 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 42 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: 22
4 Drakloak TWM 129
4 Dreepy TWM 128
3 Munkidori TWM 95
2 Dragapult ex TWM 130
2 Froslass TWM 53
2 Snorunt ASC 46
1 Budew ASC 16
1 Meowth ex POR 62
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142
1 Maractus JTG 8
1 Yveltal MEG 88

Trainer: 29
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
2 Area Zero Underdepths SCR 131
1 Rosa's Encouragement POR 84
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
1 Brock's Scouting JTG 146

Energy: 9
3 Darkness Energy MEE 7
3 Fire Energy MEE 2
3 Psychic Energy MEE 5

Total Cards: 60

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

You need 57 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 17 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

All 42 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 33 took Unfair Stamp, 5 took Hero's Cape and 2 took Legacy Energy. The flex table shows you all 5. 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. 9 of the 17 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Drakloak, Dreepy, Munkidori and Dragapult ex, plus 5 more. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 25 of the 50 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Dragapult ex / Froslass struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Metal and Darkness, so they take DOUBLE damage from those types. 28 of the 126 decks we track attack in exactly those types.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: N's Zoroark ex, Slowking (Metagross) and Mega Excadrill ex, plus 25 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 28 decks out of the 126 we track. The other 98 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 Psychic, Fire and Water, and 18 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Mega Lucario ex / Hariyama, Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex and Mega Lucario ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.