Dragapult ex — The New Tier S?

By: Gabriel Pino Semedo · Posted Posted onSep 14, 2024 at 3:29 PM · 4 Comments

Hello to all PokeBeach readers! This is Gabriel Semedo back again with another Pokemon TCG article. This time, I’ll be discussing Dragapult ex and how it’s generating a lot of hype, especially with the arrival of the new Stellar Crown set.

Lately, every new Pokemon TCG collection has made a considerable impact on the metagame. Twilight Masquerade introduced Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, along with the rise of Raging Bolt ex  and Regidrago VSTAR decks. Temporal Forces brought us Raging Bolt, Future Box, and Ancient Box, while Paradox Rift introduced Iron Hands ex and Roaring Moon ex. Obsidian Flames saw the rise of Charizard ex and Pidgeot ex, but with each new set, the metagame has consistently reinvented itself. However, it seems that Stellar Crown may not follow that trend.

It’s still too early to determine the true impact of Stellar Crown, as it has only just been released, but many players worldwide have already been testing the new cards. From everything I’ve tried in Stellar Crown, Cinderace ex and Galvantula ex show good potential, but I still don’t feel confident enough to present them in an article. The decks that have caught my attention the most are Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR / Terapagos ex and straight Terapagos, although they still seem slightly below top-tier decks like Charizard ex and Regidrago VSTAR.

While the new Pokemon haven’t yet stood out among players testing Stellar Crown, there is one well-known Pokemon that has been drawing attention in Japan: Dragapult ex. The reason for this is that the new set features two cards that directly address one of Dragapult ex’s biggest weaknesses—being able to attach the necessary Energy to attack. The task of attaching both a Psychic Energy and a Fire Energy to Dragapult ex has proven more difficult than it seemed, often causing the deck to underperform. However, with the introduction of the Supporter card Crispin and the ACE SPEC Pokemon Tool Sparkling Crystal, it appears that this issue has been resolved, or at least significantly mitigated.

In today’s article, I want to delve deeper into the Dragapult ex / Pidgeot ex deck and explore all the reasons why this deck is standing out in the metagame at the start of this new format.

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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I've seen plenty of Dragapult ex decks on Live use Sparkling Crystal and Crispin, it's definitely went from Fraudapult to an actual Dragapult deck as far as I'm concerned but two huge weaknesses of it continue to be it being an evolution deck and Lost Vacuum is still in the meta.

Dragapult ex needs to be ready for any tool counters like Joust Klefki, Jamming Tower, the aforementioned Lost Vacuum, and the rising Espathra ex from cancelling out the Crystal's effect with its ability.

Tool ACE SPEC cards probably won't be completely viable until the unavoidable threat of Lost Vacuum is rotated out next year, which is a card every deck is going to want to have moving forward. We lack stadium variety (in terms of actually useful ones) to balance out the priorities of what you use a Vacuum for nowadays unfortunately.
 
Steen said:
I've seen plenty of Dragapult ex decks on Live use Sparkling Crystal and Crispin, it's definitely went from Fraudapult to an actual Dragapult deck as far as I'm concerned but two huge weaknesses of it continue to be it being an evolution deck and Lost Vacuum is still in the meta.

Dragapult ex needs to be ready for any tool counters like Joust Klefki, Jamming Tower, the aforementioned Lost Vacuum, and the rising Espathra ex from cancelling out the Crystal's effect with its ability.

Tool ACE SPEC cards probably won't be completely viable until the unavoidable threat of Lost Vacuum is rotated out next year, which is a card every deck is going to want to have moving forward. We lack stadium variety (in terms of actually useful ones) to balance out the priorities of what you use a Vacuum for nowadays unfortunately.
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An observation. Sparkling Crystal is a Tool card that helps you on your turn, not your opponents, so even if it gets Lost Vacummed on your opponent's turn, you still got one turn of attacking for a single Energy. That's an advantage over something like Hero's Cape. As for counter stadiums, hasn't Dragapult played Temple of Sinnoh in the past? How relevant is Lugia right now?

Also, Esparthra ex's Ability wouldn't so much a hard-counter to Sparkling Tool as it would be a challenge to decks that are designed to attach such-and-such a number of Energy, in which case Sparkling Crystal would be a windfall if you could find it when you need it. And if you only do 10 damage with Joust, wouldn't your opponent just manually attach the second Energy the next turn, since they ideally would have had a plan to attach two Energy to the next Dragapult ex anyways and now have the added bonus of a free turn to spread damage?

That being said I would not know how common Jamming Tower is in the meta, nor was I aware of an Espathra resurgence. Seeing interactions between cards is one thing; knowing the meta is another, and I cannot claim to possess that level of knowledge where the current format is concerned. Also, the comment about it being an evolution deck still stands. Things like Iron Hands ex, Dusknoir, other Dragapult, etc., can still Knock Out your evolving Pokémon before they reach their full potential.
 
Dragapult ex, rooring moon ex and raging bolt ex
Fighting witch is the most less skilled and less unfun to play up againts
 
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