Best Dragapult ex Deck Build In Pokemon TCG Live

The most popular leading Pokemon in the current Pokemon TCG Live rotation list is Dragapult EX from the Twilight Masquerade expansion. It's gotten a somewhat infamous reputation as the deck you play if you're willing to do whatever it takes to win - and for good reason. Taking up a shocking roughly 50 percent of the roster for the world championships in 2026, this powerhouse of an attacker comes with a built-in draw engine, a ridiculously powerful attack, and a reasonable prize trade-off. If you want to play this extremely popular deck (no hard feelings...much), here's what you need to know. How Dragapult EX Works: Attacks & Evolution Line Dragapult EX is a Stage Two Dragon-type Pokemon from the Twilight Masquerade expansion of the Scarlet & Violet series. This version of Dragapult : Has 320 HP. Is a Tera Pokemon, which means that it cannot be damaged by opposing Pokemon's attacks while it's on your bench. It has no inherent weaknesses or resistances. It's worth two prize cards on a knockout. It has a one colorless energy retreat cost. Dragapult EX has 2 attacks. Jet Headbutt For one colorless energy, it can use Jet Headbutt, which does 70 HP of damage to the opposing active Pokemon. Phantom Dive For one fire energy and one psychic energy, it can use Phantom Dive, it's main attack; this does 200 HP of damage to the opposing active Pokemon as well as allowing you to place six damage counters across your opponent's benched Pokemon in any way you like. When strategically paired with supporters and other Pokemon's abilities, this attack allows you to chain knockouts consistently for big, multi-prize turns. Dragapult EX evolves from Drakloak, which evolves from Dreepy. The only current legal version of Dreepy in standard format is from Twilight Masquerade as well; it has 70 HP, no weaknesses or resistances, one colorless energy retreat cost, and two attacks — Petty Grudge for one psychic energy, which does 10 HP of damage, and Bite for one fire energy and one psychic energy, which does 40 HP of damage. Dreepy is not a particularly powerful card, though it has enough HP to be able to withstand a hit or two before evolving while still being searchable with things like Buddy-Buddy Poffin. This makes it relatively easy to find and establish on the board quickly, which makes setup more efficient. There is also only one legal version of Drakloak currently, from the same expansion. This Drakloak has 90 HP, no weaknesses or resistance, one colorless energy retreat cost, and one attack - Dragon Headbutt for one fire energy and one psychic energy, which does 70 HP of damage. The attack is not this card's major selling point, though. Drakloak has a particularly useful ability, however: Recon Directive, which, once per turn, lets you look at the top two cards of your deck, put one of them into your hand, and put the other back on the bottom of your deck. This ability stacks, so if you have multiple Drakloaks out on the board, you can use each one's Recon Directive each turn. This gives Dragapult a built-in search engine, making it a highly consistent deck. Dragapult EX Deck Variants Because it's so ridiculously popular, there are several variations of the Dragapult EX deck. While many meta decks use Drakloak as their draw engine, and may include a copy of Dragapult in the list, these popular builds center around Dragapult's Phantom Dive attack as the driving force of the deck. Straight Dragapult EX The most popular basic version of the Dragapult EX deck relies heavily on Drakloak's Recon Directive, bolstering your search ability with the Dudunsparce draw engine (evolving Dunsparce into Dudunsparce, then using its Run Away Draw ability to draw three cards before shuffling Dudunsprace back into your deck) and a copy of Meowth EX (whose Last Ditch Catch ability lets you search for a Supporter card and put it into your hand when you play Meowth onto your bench). This version of the deck also includes Budew for its Itchy Pollen attack, which stops your opponent from using Item cards on their next turn while also doing ten HP of damage, as well as Munkidori, whose Adrena-Brain ability allows you to move three damage counters from one of your Pokémon to one of your opponent's Pokémon. The key Trainer cards in this deck include Crushing Hammer, Crispin, and Risky Ruins. Crushing Hammer Lets you remove an energy from an opponent's Pokemon if you land heads on a coin flip Crispin Allows you to search for one energy each of two different types, putting one into your hand and one onto one of your Pokémon in play Risky Ruins Places two damage counters on any Pokemon played to the bench that isn't a dark type The basic strategy for this version of the deck is to go first and open with Budew if possible (if not, putting Budew into the active in turn two) to use Itchy Pollen to stall while you set up your bench. You play down at least two Dreepys, as well as one or two Dunsparces, then play down Risky Ruins so your opponent has to take damage while setting up their bench. On your next turn, evolve into Drakloak and Dudunsparce, then use their abilities to search your deck for Crispin and Dragapult. Use Crispin to set up Dragapult, and on your next turn, put it in the active and start swinging. Full Straight Pult Decklist If you want to pull this deck directly into Pokemon TCG Live, simply copy and paste the following list: Pokémon: 19 4 Dreepy TWM 128 4 Drakloak TWM 129 3 Dragapult ex TWM 130 2 Munkidori TWM 95 2 Budew ASC 16 1 Dunsparce JTG 120 1 Dudunsparce TEF 129 1 Meowth ex POR 62 1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 142 Trainer: 32 4 Lillie's Determination MEG 119 3 Boss's Orders MEG 114 2 Crispin SCR 133 1 Rosa's Encouragement POR 84 4 Poké Pad POR 81 4 Crushing Hammer POR 71 4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144 3 Night Stretcher ASC 196 3 Ultra Ball MEG 131 1 Unfair Stamp TWM 165 1 Special Red Card CRI 82 2 Risky Ruins MEG 127 Energy: 9 3 Fire Energy MEE 2 3 Darkness Energy MEE 7 3 Psychic Energy MEE 5 Dragapult EX/Dusknoir Dusknoir from the Shrouded Fable expansion is a Stage Two Pokemon that evolves from Dusclops, which evolves from Duskull. All three evolutions are psychic types with weakness to dark types and resistance against fighting types. Duskull has a retreat cost of one, Dusclops has two, and Dusknoir, three. This evolution line is incredibly popular in the current format as a way to take massive multi-prize turns — in some rare instances, it can even be used to take six prizes in a single turn. This is thanks to the ability Cursed Blast, which allows you to place damage counters on your opponent's Pokemon in exchange for knocking out your own Pokemon who's using the ability. Both Dusknoir and his middle evolution Dusclops have Cursed blast; Dusclops places five damage counters while Dusknoir places 13. Duskpult, as it's lovingly referred to by the community, relies on finding and establishing Dragapult EX and Dusknoir quickly through Buddy-Buddy Poffin and Crispin while controlling your opponent's board with Boss's Orders, Special Red Card, and Jamming Tower. When you're established, you use either Dusclops or Dusknoir, depending on the amount of extra damage you need, to bolster Phantom Dive's damage counter placement. Dragapult EX/Blaziken EX Blaziken EX, like Dusknoir, is a Stage Two Pokémon, this time from the Journey Together expansion. It evolves from Combusken, which evolves from Torchic. All three are fire type Pokémon that are weak to water types and have no resistances. Torchic has a retreat cost of one colorless energy while Combusken and Blaziken EX have a cost of two. Blaziken has the ability Seething Spirit, which, once per turn, allows your to attach a basic energy from your discard pile to one of your Pokemon. It's stackable, which can be convenient if you're in a tight spot and need multiple attachments. It's also great for setting up Dragapult really quickly and consistently should you need to retreat or face an opponent that relies on energy control. Blaziken's attack, Smolder-sault, costs one fire and one colorless energy, does 200 HP of damage, and stipulates that it can't be used again in the next turn, though you can get around that by swapping Blaziken out of the active and back in again if you need to. This deck is built very similarly to the straight Pult deck. The main difference in strategy is establishing Dragapult and Blaziken quickly through Buddy-Buddy Poffin and Rare Candy, then using Crispin and/or Blaziken's ability to get both of them powered up. You can then use Phantom Dive the way you normally would, but if Pult takes damage, you can swap it for Blaziken to give yourself time to take the knockout, or vice versa. Popular Dragapult EX Counters Because Dragapult is so popular in the current format, there are quite a few counters for it that are incorporated into various decks. Here are the most common counters available, and how you can get around them. Lillie's Clefairy EX Lillie's Clefairy EX is a psychic type basic Pokémon with 190 HP Weakness to metal types No resistances A retreat cost of one colorless energy It has a reasonable attack: Full Moon Rondo, which does 20 HP of damage plus 20 more for each benched Pokémon in play for one psychic and one colorless energy. What makes it a perfect Pult counter, though, is its ability, Fairy Zone. This ability makes all opposing dragon Pokémon weak to psychic types. With this ability in play, psychic decks become ridiculously effective against Pult, with many basic non-EX Pokémon suddenly able to oneshot Dragapult and its entire evolution line. Lillie's Clefairy itself can oneshot Pult if there are enough benched Pokémon in play - its max damage output with two full benches against a dragon type is 800 HP. Luckily, Lillie's Clefairy is relatively easy to take care of. Because it's only got 190 HP, if you can use Boss's Orders to pull it into the active, Phantom Dive can oneshot it while still putting plenty of damage on the bench. Battle Cage Battle Cage is a stadium that prevents all damage counters from being placed on benched Pokémon on either side, which effectively negates half of Phantom Dive's power, which is frustrating when you rely on those effects to string knockouts. It's also annoying when using Munkidori to move damage counters around. Since most Pult decks use a limited number of stadiums, you'll need to rely largely on keeping one copy in reserve, just in case you need to bounce this stadium later in the game. To get around Battle Cage, you can use Meowth EX to grab Team Rocket's Petrel (which you can sub in for a copy of Rosa's Encouragement); you can then use it to grab Risky Ruins and bounce Battle Cage before attacking. If you don't have any stadiums left to play, you can still use Phantom Dive for its main damage - 200 HP is nothing to sneeze at. Special Red Card/Unfair Stamp Both Special Red Card and Unfair Stamp are item cards that force your opponent to return their hand to their deck before drawing new cards. Card Type Use Conditions Function Special Red Card Regular Item Can only be played if your opponent has three or fewer prize cards left Your opponent puts their hand on the bottom of their deck and draws three. Unfair Stamp ACE SPEC Item Can only be played if one of your Pokemon was knocked out last turn Both players shuffle their hands into their deck. You then draw five while your opponent draws two. Both of these cards can be frustrating if you had the perfect winning strategy in hand and now suddenly have far fewer cards to work from. Thankfully, if you've got Drakloak or Dudunsparce out, you can quickly rebuild your hand's effectiveness. This deck also plays plenty of Lillie's Determination, which you can find with Meowth EX.