Dragapult ex

Intro + Notable Placings

• 2nd at World Championships 2025

• 2nd at Regional Frankfurt (Rare Candy build)

• 7th, 8th at Regional Pittsburgh

Dragapult ex is one of the top decks in the format, known for being the premier Budew (Item locking) deck. The huge amount of Bench spread — Dusknoir, Munkidori, Hawlucha, and of course Dragapult ex's attack — makes it capable of incredible comebacks where it takes 4 or more Prizes in one turn. It's also good at demolishing 1-Prizer decks which need to set up multiple attackers throughout the game, sniping down their Basic forms on the Bench while they're waiting to evolve.

Dragapult ex is weak to Lillie's Clefairy ex; a lot of decks splash that card, and it's even worse if they have Mew ex too, as they can then line up two Psychic-type attackers hitting for Weakness in a row.

Dragapult ex turned out to be the best deck post-rotation, taking up 30+% of the meta and winning Worlds (in Masters and Juniors) in 2026. This primarily had to do with other top 2025 decks losing key pieces to rotation (Gardevoir ex, Gholdengo ex, and Charizard ex were all G Regulation Mark, as was Professor Sada's Vitality from Raging Bolt ex), and the new J Regulation Mark cards not being quite on the same power level as G Regulation Mark ones.

Game Plan

Put Budew in the Active Spot and use Itchy Pollen to slow down your opponent. Use Buddy-Buddy Poffin to build your Bench, refreshing your hand with Iono or Professor's Research when it gets low.

You usually want to Bench as many Dreepy as you can, as they will pay for themselves when they evolve into Drakloak and gain access to Recon Directive for card advantage. This deck plays a thick 4-4-x Dragapult ex line for that reason. When you're ready to start attacking, Hilda can find both Dragapult ex and an Energy (including Neo Upper Energy, which will fully power Pult from nothing).

You will fall behind on Prizes early as you have to sacrifice Budew, but you can play from behind comfortably with Counter Catcher and Iono. Your setup for taking huge multi-Prize turns is to Counter Catcher a 2-Prize liability (e.g. Fezandipiti ex) with more than 200 HP to the Active Spot, Iono them low, then Phantom Dive to damage their Active and bring one of their Benched 2-Prizers into KO range next turn, taking care not to KO anything yet in order to avoid turning on Fezandipiti ex. If they brick, on your next turn you'll Boss/Catcher out the Pokémon you previously spread damage to, then score a double KO for 4 Prizes by hitting the new Active with Phantom Dive's direct hit and the now-Benched liability with the spread.

Attackers

Dragapult ex is your main attacker, doing 200 damage to the Active and 60 more to the Bench split however you like. 200 damage isn't enough to 1HKO most opposing attackers, but you have a lot of ways to spread damage without attacking to set up KOs: Dusclops/Dusknoir, Munkidori, Hawlucha. Dusknoir can bring high-HP Stage 2s under 200 for the KO, and the other Pokémon can set up damage on evolving Basics/Stage 1s to pick off with Phantom Dive's spread. This deck plays a lot of Boss's Orders and Counter Catcher, so it can reposition the enemy board to set up multi-Prize KOs in future turns.

Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex is your other attacker. Your big 4-Prize turns require a lot of resources: two Stage 2s, two Energy on Dragapult ex, maybe also a Boss/Catcher. You have to set all this up while bleeding Prizes, and if your opponent can weather the storm and return the KO on Dragapult ex, you won't have a lot of resources left to close out the game. Fortunately, Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex is an attacker that doesn't require much to attack once the game has reached its final stages. If your opponent is down to 2 Prizes, you can play it, attach an Energy, Boss in a weak 2-Prizer from their Bench, and KO it to steal the game.

First or Second?

This deck wants to go second, as it wants to attack with a Basic Pokémon (Budew) as soon as possible.

If you're up against another Budew deck and they choose to go second, you can regain the advantage if you're able to put down Duskull on T1, then evolve into Dusclops on T2 and use Cursed Blast to KO their Budew. Now you have a Budew and they don't, and it's going to be hard for them to get another Budew into play when you're locking them out of Buddy-Buddy Poffin and Night Stretcher.

ACE SPEC

Neo Upper Energy. It powers up Dragapult ex's attack from nothing and can be searched for with Hilda. This deck has no Energy acceleration otherwise.

Non-Dusknoir builds may use Unfair Stamp. The "PultZard" build with Charizard ex as a partner instead of Dusknoir uses Unfair Stamp, as Charizard ex provides Energy acceleration.

When F Regulation Mark was still legal, Sparkling Crystal was the ACE SPEC of choice, being searchable off Arven.

Other Options

• Maractus, Elgyem: Controlling attackers. They don't do much damage, but they can keep your opponent stuck for many turns with their attacks. Maractus can trap a Pokémon in the Active Spot with Corner. If you're able to Boss/Catcher a passive Pokémon (that can't attack, retreat, or KO itself) into the Active Spot, Elgyem can start messing with Energy on your opponent's side of the field, moving Energy onto non-attacking Pokémon or Darkness Energy off Munkidori. It's especially good against other Dragapult ex decks, as it can target Neo Upper Energy to remove 2 Energy from their attacker.

• Shaymin: Defends your Bench against snipe attacks. This deck has a higher need for Shaymin than other Stage 2 decks, as it (usually) doesn't play Rare Candy, and thus the Evolution process is very slow. Dreepy/Drakloak is liable to getting sniped during the 2 turns it's sitting in play before it evolves into Dragapult ex and out of snipe range.

• Brock's Scouting: Helps you set up against Item lock (such as in the mirror) cutting you off Buddy-Buddy Poffin. Also an additional way of searching for Hawlucha — Buddy-Buddy Poffin and Nest Ball don't work, because Hawlucha must be played from hand. More commonly seen in builds that also play Rare Candy, or in Dusk-less builds that play more tech Basics whose HPs are too high for Buddy-Buddy Poffin to search out.

• Professor Turo's Scenario: Lets you escape retreat locks, or reuse Hawlucha. 

• Rare Candy: This gets your Pokémon from Basic to Stage 2 in one turn, skipping the intermediate Stage where their HP is still low enough that they can be Bossed or sniped for the KO. It's weak against Item lock, and skipping Drakloak also means that you miss out on at least 2 Recon Directive activations.

Tips

• Don't put 2 Luminous Energy on the same Pokémon, as they will end up providing only Colorless.

• If Neo Upper Energy is Prized or discarded, but all your other Energy are still in your deck, and you play Hilda to search for an Energy to build towards a Dragapult ex attack, Fire Energy is the best choice. If you choose to get Fire Energy, subsequently drawing into Luminous Energy or Psychic Energy (5 outs) completes the set. If you choose to get Luminous Energy instead, you need to hit Psychic Energy or Fire Energy (3 outs), because double Luminous doesn't work.

• Usually, you'll want to use Recon Directive after Iono, Professor's Research, or Flip the Script (unless you just need the 1 card as discard fodder for Ultra Ball). When you have both draw and selection effects in one turn, you'd want to use the draw effects first and see what cards they get you before making a selection. Also, with the draw Supporters, if you can't play either card that you see with Recon Directive, it would be wasted when you bottom-deck or discard it.

• If you're evolving into Dragapult ex this turn, be sure to use that Drakloak's Ability for value first.

• Use Hawlucha to put 10 damage on Benched 70 HP Basics, so Dragapult ex can finish them off with the spread. Hawlucha's 10 damage also combines with Phantom Dive's 200 for a KO on Fezandipiti ex (you may use Phantom Dive, then Boss/Catcher Fez to the Bench and finish it off with Hawlucha, or vice versa).

• Two potential counters to be aware of when spreading damage to the Bench with Phantom Dive are Munkidori and Picnic Basket. If you're setting up something to be KOed with another Phantom Dive, you might want to put 30 more damage on the target so a single Munkidori or Picnic Basket won't be able to get it out of KO range (e.g. putting 40 damage on a 70 HP Basic; even if they heal 30 damage off, they'll be at 60 HP and your next Phantom Dive will KO).

Alternatively against Munkidori, you might want to split your damage into chunks of 10 or 20 so it can't move 30 damage back. If they have Froslass, you'll want to put only 10 damage on Munkidori (if you put 20, it will take another 10 during Pokémon Checkup, and have a full 30 to move over).

• Jet Headbutt (Dragapult ex's first attack) can be a way to chip opposing Pokémon to setup up multi-Prize KOs. Example: you need to KO a full HP Noctowl and a Latias ex with 10 damage on it for the last 3 Prizes. You have enough Bosses and Catchers in your deck, but the problem is, whether you Phantom Dive Noctowl or Latias ex, the other Pokémon will survive and your opponent can promote their attacker and swing back for the win. You also can't force in another undamaged 210 HP Basic ex liability like Fezandipiti ex to eat the Phantom Dive, because Latias ex lets it retreat for free. What you should do instead is Boss/Catcher in Noctowl, Jet Headbutt it, hope your opponent bricks on getting it out of the Active Spot, then next turn Boss Latias ex in and KO both it and the damaged Noctowl with Phantom Dive.

• Boss/Catcher + Jamming Tower can be used to trap something relying on Air Balloon to retreat for free.

• If your opponent has Lillie's Clefairy ex, Full Moon Rondo would fail to 1HKO a full HP Dragapult ex if there are 6 or fewer Benched Pokémon in play.

• Mist Energy on your opponent's Benched Pokémon will block the spread damage from Phantom Dive. The 90 HP Charmeleon with Flare Veil is also immune.

• Dusknoir can attack with Neo Upper Energy to pay for 2/3 of the cost. It is very rare that you'd want to do this, but against a wall like Crustle or Milotic ex, it may be your only out.