Dragapult ex — The New Tier S?

[PMJ]

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...

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[Steen]

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.

 

[MarlinRimes]

Everyone: yay let’s go, pult is now playable

Bolt:

 

[Charmaster:)]

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.

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.

 

[aguerork87]

Dragapult ex, rooring moon ex and raging bolt ex
Fighting witch is the most less skilled and less unfun to play up againts