Gholdengo ex/Dragapult ex - Post Rotation Deck Profile

Gholdengo ex/Dragapult ex has been severely slept on in early post rotation discussion despite a 2nd place finish in a 5000 player Japanese event. This is why it is poised to dominate the metagame.

Hey folks, welcome back! I have fully moved over to post rotation testing and content since Vancouver Regionals and I’ve been really enjoying playing the new format.

Formats fresh off of rotation, especially a rotation where we lose a lot of strong consistency cards, are always very interesting. Decks are all significantly less consistent now, some decks may only lose a couple of cards but every deck is currently feeling the impact of this rotation. In general the game is less consistent now, which often means more games will be decided by how well each player draws than last format.

The advantage to this is that with most players bringing decks with too much techs, or not enough consistency, we can punish that by simply bringing decks that are able to consistently set up and maintain a strong board presence that allows them to trade efficiently.

Gholdengo ex/Dragapult ex is a great example of the kind of deck that I’m talking about. This deck has a viable gameplan into every matchup, multiple attacking options, and is incredibly consistent, with great early game setup options and a lot of on board draw to sustain your mid to late game.

I genuinely believe this deck has it all right now and is being overlooked by a large portion of the player base for no reason beyond lack of trust in Japanese results. It is consistent, has fantastic options, is not easily countered, and already has mainstream success as proof that the deck can succeed in this format.

With all that being said, let’s take a look at my build of the deck.