Dragapult ex

Hello, everyone! The Milwaukee Regional Championships are right around the corner and I want to go into detail on how to play the best deck in format: Dragapult ex! My first thoughts on the deck are that I find the Dusknoir version to be the best version to play so far. It offers a lot more versatility, allowing you to activate your Counter Catchers at any point and really lets you overrun the board quicker and more consistently than the straight Dragapult version. Let’s take a look at the list and then we’ll run through some matchups, and discuss some tech choices and my thoughts on them.

Pokémon (20): 4 Dreepy 4 Drakloak 2 Dragapult ex 2 Duskull 2 Dusclops 1 Dusknoir 2 Budew 1 Hawlucha 1 Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex 1 Fezandipiti ex

Trainer (34): 4 Iono 2 Arven 2 Boss’s Orders 2 Professor’s Research 1 Brock’s Scouting 1 Jacq 4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin 4 Ultra Ball 3 Counter Catcher 2 Nest Ball 2 Night Stretcher 1 Earthen Vessel 1 Rare Candy 1 Switch 1 Unfair Stamp 1 Exp. Share 1 Luxurious Cape 1 Rescue Board

Energy (6): 3 Fire Energy 3 Psychic Energy

 

I’ve been grinding this list for the past few weeks, and it’s largely based on Andrew Hedrick’s runner up list from the Atlanta Regional Championships. With Milwaukee coming up soon, I figured it was time to finally write up an article about Dragapult! Let’s go over some tech card choices and why you should (or shouldn’t!) play them.

The first card choice I wanted to discuss was the inclusion of Munkidori or not; a card that straight Dragapult lists get to play through their use of Luminous Energy! The fact is that the Munkidori can be a good option, but it is drastically worse in the mirror if your opponent is playing Dusknoir. The Dusknoir allows that player to KO the Munkidori, setting back your energy attachments by a turn, then they can use Phantom Dive afterward to spread damage again. The Munkidori and Luminous Energy package also just uses too many deck slots to be used alongside Dusknoir.

One difference between Hedrick’s list and this one is the use of Exp. Share which Hedrick opted not to play. After playing so many games, I realized I do not want to get cheesed out of a game because I could not keep up the energy attachments in time with their pressure being applied. I found the Exp. Share to be an invaluable insurance that keeps the threat of Phantom Dive always active.

I’ve seen a lot of discourse on social media about whether it would be correct to play Sparkling Crystal or Unfair Stamp and the unequivocal answer to this is to play Unfair Stamp. Always. Unfair Stamp does exactly what its name implies: gives you an unfair advantage where your opponent should otherwise have a chance. The idea with almost any matchup is to Budew to your heart’s content and then when it’s finally knocked out, use the Unfair Stamp and swing with Dragapult ex, slowing down your opponent’s setup and allowing you to build a perfect board to be resilient to the pressure most decks apply.

Dragapult being able to swing for a monstrous 200 damage and spread 60 to the bench in any way you like allows for come-from-behind plays where you take a four-prize turn, Iono your opponent low, and leave them with limited options. This restricts your opponent’s ability to use Fezandipiti effectively or to come back and knockout the enormous Dragapult ex in the active.

Let’s start looking into some matchups!

Mirror Match with Dusknoir: 50/50

The mirror match entirely depends on how well you both draw. The ideal scenario is choosing to go second and trying to get into Budew as quickly as possible. Using Budew will limit your opponent’s options immensely, effectively closing the game on your opponent early. The important thing to note in this matchup is that if you go first, try to use all the your Items that you possibly can, anticipating a Budew lock. If you can get your Dragapult evolved every turn, you should be on track to outpace your opponent and attempt to punish their choice to go second. Statistically, it is still better to go second, as you are more likely to setup yourself and the deck inherently does not set up well going first due to the lack of playing Supporters such as Arven for Poffins or any other draw support. You will also get the first swing with Budew which will allow for time to setup your board. While swinging turn 2 with a Dreepy or Drakloak to knockout their Budew may seem good, it is always extremely risky, as you suddenly unlock your opponent to use Reset Stamp to put you to 2 cards and allows them to draw a massive number of cards combined with Fezandipiti and Recon Directive on Drakloak to take a huge lead. It’s almost always better not to be the aggressor unless you can effectively shut down and take out their threats all at once. After playing the matchup a ton, it always seems that the first person to swing usually ends up losing as Dragapult primarily preys on the play-from-behind strategy as previously mentioned. It’s important to remember that benching Duskull will risk it being knocked out by the bench damage from Dragapult. Use the Luxurious Cape in these instances to prevent an easy knockout. If they want to gust that Duskull to knock it out, then they’re not applying enough pressure to your attacker to keep up.

Gardevoir ex: 45/55

This matchup has been kind of tossed on its head with the addition of Lillie’s Clefairy ex in the metagame. The matchup largely plays similarly to the mirror match, however the Clefairy being able to take a one-hit KO out of no where is a huge thing to keep in mind. It’s also very important that Mew ex can be used in tandem with Clefairy in the late game to copy Phantom Dive to take a 3-prize turn KOing your Dragapult and any other small guy. Their ability to use Munkidori to manipulate damage on your side of the field facilitates knockouts in their favour, however, if you can time Dusknoirs and Counter Catchers properly to take Munkidoris, you will be largely favoured to win. It’s also important in the early game to use Budew to item lock them and slow them down immensely. Generally, they will have a tough time getting energy in the discard pile under Item lock, and then if you can sweep all their Ralts in one turn, they will not be able to respond. The matchup is largely skill-dependent, and the better player will usually come out on top, but I would still consider this matchup to be generally unfavourable if even by a small percentage. Keep in mind that your opponent will usually have to put multiple non-Gardevoir ex two-prize Pokémon into play which Dragapult excels in capitalizing on. Sometimes just outpacing your opponent on the prize trade can result in an easy checkmate, even with ignoring their other threats. Using Dusknoir to put 130 on their Gardevoir ex and following up with Hawlucha to put 10 damage on a benched Ralts allows you to also take a three-prize turn and will usually lock the game up. Unfair Stamp carries a lot of weight in this matchup. Since their only way to draw cards is with Fezandipiti ex and Mew ex, this gives you lots of liabilities on their side to sweep after an Unfair Stamp. And if they don’t find those cards off the three cards they’ll see from the Stamp, they will be hampered quite a bit.

Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex: 50/50

This matchup largely comes down to relying on Raging Bolt dead-drawing, which the deck does do often. The strategy with this matchup is go down on prizes, do NOT take knockouts until you can establish a 6-prize turn where you can sweep their board. You will ideally swing into one two-prize Pokémon and setup damage on the bench, then gust another two-prizer, setting up more damage and then gust a third two-prizer for a 6-prize turn. Coupled with Unfair Stamp and not triggering their Fezandipiti by refusing to take prizes, this matchup can turn quickly in your favour by playing patiently and not taking aggressive KOs. One thing that throws this matchup off is if they properly utilize their baby Raging Bolt to start picking off your benched Drakloaks and Duskulls. If you can’t gust 3 times, keep in mind that you can also use Hawlucha+Dusknoir to take your 6-prize turn as well! Just play patiently!

Gholdengo ex: 55/45

The Gholdengo ex matchup is slightly favoured for Dragapult due to Dragapult being able to comfortably play from behind and use Dusclops/Dusknoir to wipe the board effectively. Leading with Budew’s Itchy Pollen will stall your opponent long enough to get your board set up. They cannot easily search out enough energy to take meaningful KOs and if they manage to setup 1 Gholdengo to knockout your Budew, there should be 10 damage already on the Gholdengo from when you used Itchy Pollen on their Gimmighoul. Then you can follow up with a Dusclops pop onto the Gholdengo, Unfair Stamp, and Phantom Dive their only Gholdengo. Getting down a Hawlucha will also let you KO one of their benched Gimmighouls, effectively ruining their board and leaving them with 2 cards to find an answer. This matchup can be a wild ride but also keep in mind that if you don’t rush through your deck super fast, there can be opportunities to late game Itchy Pollen to lock your opponent out of doing anything at all if they overextend trying to knockout Dragapults. Just make sure you can win the deck-out war in these circumstances!

Some other tech cards I’ve been considering adding are Genesect SFA 040, Defiance Band, and Artazon.

·         Genesect is extremely effective in the mirror match, turning off your opponent’s Unfair Stamp. It is also effective versus decks like Raging Bolt turning off their ability to use Prime Catcher. It also locks up the Gholdengo matchups pretty well, shutting off their Energy Search Pro even when swinging with Dragapult! Them not being able to draw into their energy so efficiently can kill their strategy before even getting to try.

·         Defiance Band is good versus the new Joltik Box deck allowing you to handle their Iron Hands ex that they’ve set up in a quick fashion, eliminating them from being able to take 2 more prizes the following turn. It’s also good into random niche situations like allowing your Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex to one-hit KO any Gholdengo or basic 2-prizer that has a Bravery Charm on it.

·         Artazon is just generally a useful card but not one that I’ve found the room for in the list quite yet. Its ability to get around Itchy Pollen in the mirror cannot be understated but it does allow your opponent access to this as well, so I haven’t put it in just yet as it can help your opponent’s setup under the Itchy Pollen lock which is not what we want to do. I haven’t decided if the consistency boost it offers is worth the lack of locking our opponents out of the game quite yet.

Overall, I think this deck is a very strong choice for Milwaukee this weekend and I’m not completely settled on the final list. But if I make day 2, I will write a follow up article on the final list that I decided on! This deck requires a lot of math skills and predicting what your opponent’s next several turns will accomplish or not be able to accomplish. I highly recommend giving this deck a try if you haven’t already!

 

 

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