As The List Goes On: Dragapult EX for Frankfurt

Hey everyone! I wanted to share my testing thoughts going into Frankfurt, as well as my top choice deck choice for the event!

It will be the first tournament with 30th-anniversary legal, and I have a few predictions for which decks will see an increase and a decrease in play.

In Baltimore, we saw an increase in Basic box decks doing better than before. With the "best" deck, Dragapult, being more predictable in what they have in their list, cards like Lillies Clefairy ex with Cape can easily overrun Dragapult when they have nothing in their list to deal with the added 100 HP. We also saw Hydrapple take advantage of the most popular Hammer Pult list not running Moltres, while Dragapult Blaziken also have seen a decrease in play following that Excadrill were a lot less popular for Worlds than people expected.

Here are my expectations and answers going into Frankfurt.

• A small decline in Dragapult, due to it being disliked, but also because people will shift towards decks like Basic Box, Hydrapple and Slowking following this weekend's results and proof that other decks can also do well. Mew ex being adapted in Lopunny Dudunsparce, Slopbox, Bronzong and Slowking would also pivot some people into playing those instead of Dragapult. So my expectations will be around 25% Dragapult total.

• Attempting to reverse that prediction into how we can counter Hydrapple, Slopbox, Lopunny, Dudunsparce with Mew and Bronzong decks. My initial thoughts were to play Dudunsparce ex and Moltres because all those decks can struggle against one of the two.

• Hydrapple can struggle a little against both Moltres and Dudunsparce ex

• Slopbox / Mew ex builds also struggle against both

• Lopunny Dudunsparce can be countered a little bit with Moltres, because it is a one-prizer that can apply preassure relatively early. In combination with Judge and Hammers, it's quite good.

• Dudunsparce ex gives us an extra attacker against Bronzong when we go first. After it saw success considering its low play rate in Baltimore, I could see it performing even better with Mew ex. There were 3 in the Top 32 in Baltimore, which is quite impressive.

• So? How do we adapt the "best" deck for this? This is my solution right now. I added two 1-energy-cost attackers to the deck and removed 1 Budew and 1 Psychic Energy. By removing our 2nd Budew and adding two attackers that can apply preassure early, I found it ok to remove a Budew. Secondly, I found it ok to remove an Energy and instead play 2 extra attackers that require less energy. This is what I think is one of the best plays if you want to play meta, but I know that it is not everyone who wants to play Meta. Therefore, I have a couple of insane ideas for decks that I also still think have rogue potential, both because of their surprise factor and the evolving meta.

If I were going, I would most likely just stick to comfort and play the Dragapult Hammer list I shared. I think the deck is just too strong, and I have been struggling to find any deck without Drakloak that has the same powerlevel against the whole meta. Don't get me wrong, I think Mew ex helps a little against Dragapult, but the biggest problem for the decks that can play Mew ex efficiently is covering the matchups against the rest of the field.