Hello, everyone! In this article, I wanted to take a look into one of my favourite rogue archetypes that’s been popping up and doing relatively well recently: Dragapult ex/Iron Thorns ex! Admittedly, I was very skeptical of this archetype at first, but after putting in a considerable amount of time into the deck, I feel like it’s a strong contender for the upcoming San Antonio Regional Championships. Most lists I’ve seen are very similar, but I’ll explain a few key differences about mine. Let’s take a look at the list!

 

Pokémon (17):	Trainers (33):	Energy (10):
4 Iron Thorns ex TWM 077 4 Dreepy TWM 128 4 Drakloak TWM 129 2 Dragapult ex TWM 130 1 Radiant Alakazam SIT 059 1 Toesdcool OBF 118 1 Toesdcruel PAR 017	4 Arven 4 Crispin 2 Boss’s Orders 2 Iono 1 Professor Turo’s Scenario 4 Pokégear 3.0 2 Night Stretcher 2 Ultra Ball 1 Buddy-Buddy Poffin 1 Counter Catcher 1 Earthen Vessel 1 Lost Vacuum 1 Nest Ball 1 Precious Trolley ACE SPEC 1 Tera Orb 2 Future Booster Energy Capsule 2 Technical Machine: Evolution 1 Rescue Board	4 Psychic 3 Fire 3 Lightning

 

Basically, the whole concept of this deck derives from a slower, grindier approach to setting up your stage 2 Pokémon, Dragapult ex. Iron Thorns ex is one of the strongest wall Pokémon in the current format, shutting off Abilities from other Pokémon such as Pidgeot ex, Charizard ex, Fezandipiti ex, Gholdengo ex, Radiant Greninja, among a whole host of others. All of these Abilities allow your opponent to play the game they’ve planned to play, but restricting their use can usually slow your opponent down so immensely, that it gives you plenty of time to grind away their board. The whole engine of this deck is able to consistently operate via 2 new cards we’ve gotten recently: Precious Trolley and Crispin. Precious Trolley is reminiscent of so many consistency Item cards such as Battle VIP Pass, Buddy-Buddy Poffin, etc., but this one fills your Bench completely! Crispin allows much needed energy acceleration that the deck was lacking. Previous iterations of Dragapult ex decks were either in the form of Regidrago VSTAR, using Dragapult as a tool in a vast Dragon-type toolbox deck or they used Arven to search for the Rare Candy+Sparkling Crystal combination that allows for a turn 2 attack. This latter strategy can and has been historically inconsistent and provides a much weaker board setup than this new build.

Turn 1:

Ideally, you will go second with this deck. This will ensure you can use your Supporter card on your first turn, as well as attack. You will ideally start Iron Thorns ex to stunt your opponent’s setup, find your Precious Trolley and a Technical Machine: Evolution. Hopefully, you have an Energy in hand as well to assist your setup. With the Precious Trolley, you’re going to get 3 Dreepy, 1 more Iron Thorns ex, and a Toedscool or 4^th Dreepy, depending on the matchup. You’ll get Toedscool down if you are playing against any deck that heavily utilizes getting cards back from the discard pile such as Regidrago VSTAR and Gholdengo ex. Use TM: Evolution to evolve 2 of your Dreepy immediately into Drakloak on your first turn. From here, your turns should smooth out as the draw power from these Drakloak is very powerful. The card selection is ridiculous, sending unwanted cards to the bottom of the deck, removing your chance of drawing them, effectively thinning your deck.

Turn 2:

Your ideal turn 2 will involve using Crispin to accelerate an Energy into play and attaching the other from your hand to your Active Iron Thorns ex. Iron Thorns ex’s attack actually combos well with the synergy of Crispin and the deck in general, as you will then use it to cycle the Energy to one of your Benched Drakloak. This combination lets you effectively power up your Drakloak to become Dragapult while hindering your opponent’s setup massively. If this attack didn’t move the Energy to the Bench, the entire deck would not be possible. It’s amazing how one simple effect of an attack can change the entire way we can build decks. All around, from here, the deck is pretty simple to play. You will be using Iron Thorns ex as much as possible to stop your opponent’s from getting into the game and then use Dragapult to exert tons of pressure on their weak setup. Utilize cards such as Professor Turo’s Scenario on Pokémon that have taken tons of damage to deny the Prize cards from your opponent.

Matchups:

There’re a few matchups I wanted to highlight as to why this deck is a strong rogue option for those who are disenthralled by the current Standard format before Prismatic Evolutions releases.

LUGIA VSTAR:

This matchup, in theory, should be as close to an autowin as possible, though it is possible that some Lugia decks will tech for Iron Thorns ex such as Iron Bundle, Klefki, Flutter Mane, etc. Keep these in mind by benching a second Iron Thorns to play around Iron Bundle from removing your Ability lock, or use these Pokémon to take additional prizes with Dragapult’s Phantom Dive when they inevitably move to the Bench. Mostly, this matchup will be straightforward enough: use Iron Thorns ex to slow their setup drastically. I don’t even think you should set up Dragapults in this matchup. If it is convenient, it can be good to go for it, but keep in mind that a Boss’s Orders or Iron Bundle has the potential to break the lock and allow your opponent to get back into the game. If you know they play hard counters such as Klefki or Flutter Mane, then I would flip and say setting up Dragapult should be a priority. The deck does get inconsistent without setting up Drakloaks to help with your draws, but for the most part, you are hoping the Iron Thorns Ability lock will be enough (and it usually is).

REGIDRAGO VSTAR:

Regidrago VSTAR thrives on being able to draw a ton of cards in explosive fashion using Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, Fezandipiti ex, Mew ex, and Squawkabilly ex. Without the use of these cards, Regidrago will be expected to draw semi-perfectly in order to get anything going. The good news is that they will typically need to attach for turn 3 times, as they cannot accelerate with Teal Mask Ogerpon ex. Keep in mind, Regidrago is the best deck in format for a reason! They play cards such as Cancelling Cologne to get around this Ability lock and can use its VSTAR power to get it back. This is where it will be important to set up the Toedscruel ASAP. Toedscruel can also punish builds that include Superior Energy Retrieval as well! Typically, throughout the course of this matchup, you will quickly two-shot most 2-Prize Pokémon they have and will accelerate with Crispin quicker than they can answer in most cases. My current list includes 2 Future Booster Energy Capsule while most lists don’t. The reason I’ve found for including two copies is you will sometimes find yourself wanting to get into a board state of juggling an Energy back and forth between two Iron Thorns, which you cannot do if you only play 1 Future Booster Energy Capsule. This matchup is where it matters a little more, as you would like to keep Iron Thorns ex in the Active spot as much as possible to prevent your opponent from drawing as much as you can.

RAGING BOLT EX:

Iron Thorns ex, again, pulls incredible weight in this matchup. Raging Bolt decks typically do not play any kind of Cancelling Cologne effects, so they are usually stuck accelerating 3 Energy into play at a time. This is also difficult to do since they won’t be drawing many cards with Squawkabilly, Teal Mask Ogerpon, and Radiant Greninja like they would normally be. This can usually result in your opponent bricking for turns on end, allowing you to smack into their Pokémon with little drawback. This can allow Dragapult ex to sweep through later after setting up numbers and KOs on other Pokémon. This matchup is pretty straightforward as much as any other: use Iron Thorns ex to wall their Abilities until you setup a checkmate scenario.

GHOLDENGO EX:

Iron Thorns ex shines as the best card in the entire deck yet again, preventing your opponent from setting up whatsoever in this matchup, except unlike Lugia, which can run techs very easily to get around the Ability lock, Gholdengo may play 1 Cancelling Cologne and never recover after a brutal Iono or two. You almost never want to break the Ability lock until maybe the last turn of the game where you get to clean up a bunch of KOs. Keep Iron Thorns ex in the Active as much as possible, give ‘em the business, rinse, and repeat.

KLAWF/TERAPAGOS:

Klawf/Terapagos thrives on its Rule Box Pokémons’ Abilities such as Latias ex for maneuverability, Pecharunt ex, for a second switch out for the baby Pecharunt, Lumineon V for consistency, and Squawkabilly ex to draw a lot of cards during the first turn. With all of these Abilities shut off, Klawf/Terapagos basically has to draw perfectly in order to have a chance. During the first couple turns while you are setting up and taking KOs with Iron Thorns ex, set up your Dragapults on the Bench and then you can usually use 2 Dragapult to sweep their board in 2-3 attacks. Klawf/Terapagos cannot take KOs on large Pokémon like Dragapult very easily, but Iron Thorns is weak to fighting, so it will be a balancing game of keeping them locked and preventing abilities from being used vs the risk of them taking a knock out if they find all the pieces they need to one-shot your Iron Thorns.

ANCIENT BOX:

This deck can rely heavily on Radiant Greninja to get going and Pecharunt ex for maneuverability. With these shut off, you slow their setup quite significantly. Once you’ve set up your Dragapults, you can usually use up to 3 Dragapult to close out the game, as you will eventually take 2-Prize turns while setting up numbers on their Bench with Phantom Dive. Keep in mind that they play Flutter Mane, so Iron Thorns is not as reliable as other matchups and their own Flutter Mane can begin to put in lots of work versus your setup, so you have to hope to have better draws. The good news is that if they have Flutter Mane in play, that’s a faster route to a 2-Prize turn for you, which usually means a quicker victory for you as well.

 

All around, I vastly discounted this deck when I initially saw it putting up results, but it has surprised me in its versatility and is one of the strongest rogue decks I’ve seen in this format. Locking Abilities can win matchups all on their own, and this meta presents a perfect opportunity to play Iron Thorns as it has favoured matchups across a lot of the most popular decks. Coupled with the devastating spread damage that Dragapult ex offers, your opponents will have some difficult decisions to make- if they can play the game at all!

 

I want to thank you all so much for reading, and I’ll have more out soon!

• Share on:
• WhatsApp
• Facebook
• X
• Pin it
• Messenger
• Email

---