Dragapult ex / Iron Thorns ex

What Dragapult ex / Iron Thorns ex looks like when you open the box

Across the 4 lists we counted, this deck runs 16 to 20 Pokémon, 30 to 34 Trainers and 10 Energy. Its attacks are paid for in Fire, Psychic and Lightning.

On results pages and on stream you will see it written « dragapult-iron-thorns ». 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: 10 out of 60, when half the 135 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 34 cards out of 60, against a median of 31 across the 135 decks we track. Inside that, 9 to 15 Supporters, and the rule there is strict — one a turn, even if you are holding three. The 15 to 20 Items you can play all of in the same turn.

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 Iron Thorns ex give this deck its name. Here is what is written on them.

Dragapult ex is in all 4 lists, 2 copies of it.

Iron Thorns ex is in all 4 lists, 4 copies of it. Its Ability is called Initialization, and here is what is printed on it, word for word: « As long as this Pokémon is in the Active Spot, Pokémon with a Rule Box in play (both yours and your opponent's) have no Abilities, except for Future Pokémon. (Pokémon ex, Pokémon V, etc. have Rule Boxes.) »

How Dragapult ex / Iron Thorns 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 3 of, looks at the top of your deck and attaches the Energy it finds there. That is where this deck buys its turns, and it is the first thing to look for in your opening hand.

There is another trick in this list, and the whole of it happens in one turn. Team Rocket's Petrel goes into your deck for a Trainer card and puts it in your hand. Precious Trolley is one, and it puts as many Basic Pokémon as you like onto your Bench in one go. A full Bench on turn one is what decides the game in a deck with lines to build. One rule to know: Precious Trolley is an ACE SPEC card. You are allowed just ONE ACE SPEC in your whole deck, so a second copy is never coming, and taking this one means giving up every other. One detail that matters: Team Rocket's Petrel is a Supporter, so that turn you play no other Supporter. Items all still go through.

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.

Iron Thorns ex and Dragapult 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 Iron Thorns exBasic	230	Volt Cyclone	140		Fighting ×2	4
Close DrakloakStage 1	90	Dragon Headbutt	70		none	1
Close DreepyBasic	70	Bite	40		none	1

The core: the 14 cards every list runs

These 14 cards appear in all 4 lists, without a single exception. That is 46 of the 60 slots. The other 14 are decided player by player.

Look at how those 46 slots break down: 24 Trainers, 14 Pokémon, 8 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.

12 of those 14 cards do not sit at the same count from list to list: Drakloak (3 to 4), Iron Thorns ex (3 to 4) and Buddy-Buddy Poffin (1 to 4), plus 9 more. Add those spreads up and you get 18 copies the 4 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
3–4	Close Iron Thorns ex	TWM 77	Pokémon	leaves
2	Close Dragapult ex	TWM 130	Pokémon	leaves
1–4	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
2–3	Close Boss's Orders	MEG 114	Trainer	stays
3–4	Close Crispin	SCR 133	Trainer	leaves
2–3	Close Night Stretcher	ASC 196	Trainer	leaves
2–4	Close Ultra Ball	MEG 131	Trainer	stays
2–4	Fire Energy	MEE 10	Energy	stays
3–4	Psychic Energy	MEE 13	Energy	stays
1–3	Lightning Energy	MEE 12	Energy	stays

The 29 cards that change from list to list

29 cards fight over the 14 slots that are left: 4 above three lists in four, 20 below one in four, and the percentage on each row says how many players took it.

The most agreed on first: Munkidori at 75 %, Special Red Card at 75 % and Switch at 75 %, plus 1 more above 75 %. Add those to the core and you have the common build.

The dividing line runs through Dudunsparce, at 50 %: 2 of 4 players took it, 2 put something else there. The ones who run it bring 2 copies. Right at the bottom of the table, Dunsparce (1 list out of 4) and Budew (1 list out of 4).

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
75 %3/4	Close Munkidori	2	TWM 95	Pokémon
75 %3/4	Close Special Red Card	1	CRI 82	Trainer
75 %3/4	Close Switch	1	MEG 130	Trainer
75 %3/4	Darkness Energy	2	MEE 15	Energy
50 %2/4	Close Dudunsparce	1–2	TEF 129	Pokémon
50 %2/4	Close Pokégear 3.0	3–4	SVI 186	Trainer
50 %2/4	Close Team Rocket's Petrel	4	DRI 176	Trainer
50 %2/4	Close Risky Ruins	2	MEG 127	Trainer
50 %2/4	Close Precious Trolley	1	SSP 185	Trainer
25 %1/4	Close Dunsparce	3	JTG 120	Pokémon
25 %1/4	Close Budew	1	ASC 16	Pokémon
25 %1/4	Close Dunsparce	1	TEF 128	Pokémon
25 %1/4	Close Farigiraf ex	1	TEF 108	Pokémon
25 %1/4	Close Fezandipiti ex	1	ASC 142	Pokémon
25 %1/4	Close Girafarig	1	TEF 66	Pokémon
25 %1/4	Close Lillie's Clefairy ex	1	JTG 56	Pokémon
25 %1/4	Close Meowth ex	1	POR 62	Pokémon
25 %1/4	Close Moltres	1	PFL 14	Pokémon
25 %1/4	Close Crushing Hammer	4	POR 71	Trainer
25 %1/4	Close Hilda	2	WHT 84	Trainer
25 %1/4	Close Pokémon Catcher	2	POR 82	Trainer
25 %1/4	Close Team Rocket's Watchtower	2	DRI 180	Trainer
25 %1/4	Close Air Balloon	1	ASC 181	Trainer
25 %1/4	Close Judge	1	POR 76	Trainer
25 %1/4	Close Kieran	1	TWM 154	Trainer
25 %1/4	Close Rosa's Encouragement	1	POR 84	Trainer
25 %1/4	Close Unfair Stamp	1	TWM 165	Trainer
25 %1/4	Close Xerosic's Machinations	1	SFA 64	Trainer
25 %1/4	Close Voltaic Lightning Energy	1	PBL 84	Energy

The most common Dragapult ex / Iron Thorns ex list, all 60 cards

Here they are in full, ready to build. 46 slots come from the core, the cards all 4 lists run. The remaining 14 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 18 Pokémon, 32 Trainers and 10 Energy.

One thing to know before you build it: the 4 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.

One thing to fix before you play: there is no ACE SPEC card in these 60. Players split that slot so many ways that none of their cards climbed high enough to get in, and 3 of the 4 lists carry one. Take Precious Trolley, the most chosen, and drop a card from the bottom of the table to make room.

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: 18
4 Drakloak TWM 129
4 Dreepy TWM 128
4 Iron Thorns ex TWM 77
2 Dragapult ex TWM 130
2 Munkidori TWM 95
2 Dudunsparce TEF 129

Trainer: 32
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119
4 Poké Pad POR 81
3 Boss's Orders MEG 114
3 Crispin SCR 133
3 Night Stretcher ASC 196
3 Ultra Ball MEG 131
1 Special Red Card CRI 82
1 Switch MEG 130
4 Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186
2 Risky Ruins MEG 127

Energy: 10
3 Fire Energy MEE 10
3 Psychic Energy MEE 13
2 Lightning Energy MEE 12
2 Darkness Energy MEE 15

Total Cards: 60

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

You need 43 different cards to cover every version of this deck, 14 of which nobody argues about. The rest is where lists differ from one another, and that is where you have room to choose.

3 of these 4 lists bring an ACE SPEC, and that is where they part ways: 2 took Precious Trolley and 1 took Unfair Stamp. 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 Precious Trolley and watch what the others do with theirs before you switch.

Then there is time. 7 of the 14 core cards carry the letter H, the one that goes at the next rotation: Drakloak, Dreepy, Iron Thorns ex and Dragapult ex, plus 3 more. The core table marks every one of them. In copies, that is 24 of the 46 slots the core fills. Which day it lands, we do not know yet.

What Dragapult ex / Iron Thorns ex struggles against

The attackers in this deck are Weak to Fighting, so they take DOUBLE damage from that type. 13 of the 135 decks we track attack in exactly that type.

Concretely, here is what is waiting for you: Mega Lucario ex, Greninja ex and Cynthia's Garchomp ex, plus 10 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 13 decks out of the 135 we track. The other 122 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, Psychic and Lightning, and 24 of the decks we track have an attacker Weak to one of those: Latias ex / Mega Kangaskhan ex, Team Rocket's Honchkrow and Mega Greninja ex, among others. That is you doubling, for once. Second half of the table.