The North America International Championships are here, and the question on every player's mind is the same: what do I run? If you are still on the fence, stop overthinking it. Dragapult ex is the best deck at NAIC 2026, and honestly, it is not particularly close.
In this guide, we break down exactly why Dragapult ex has cemented its place as the BDIF (best deck in format), what the optimal disruption list looks like heading into NAIC, and whether any alternative is worth picking up if you are not a fan of playing the obvious choice.
Why Dragapult ex is still the king of the Pokémon TCG format
Dragapult ex has been a force since its release, but heading into NAIC 2026 it has reached a different tier altogether. The reasons are straightforward: massive HP that makes it hard to knock out in one hit, efficient spread damage across the whole board, and Drakloak providing arguably the strongest draw engine in the current Pokémon TCG metagame.
On the surface, Dragapult seems like it should be easy to counter. Lillie's Clefairy ex makes it weak to every Psychic-type Pokémon. Crustle walls it. Milotic ex creates real problems. But countering Dragapult on paper is very different from countering it at a table under tournament pressure.
Lillie's Clefairy ex looks like a hard counter. In practice, Dragapult actually trades evenly into it, meaning Clefairy is not the game-ender it first appears to be. Crustle shuts down some Dragapult lists and does absolutely nothing against others featuring Dusknoir or Dudunsparce ex. Mega Lopunny ex and Raging Bolt ex both look solid in testing, then collapse under Watchtower pressure. Fighting decks in general fall apart against Crushing Hammer. No matter the angle, Dragapult has an answer ready.
That adaptability is what makes it so oppressive. You can tech for one version and walk straight into another. And with multiple strong Dragapult builds circulating right now, you have no guarantee of knowing which one is across from you until it is too late to adjust.
The disruption build: what it runs and why it works
The version drawing the most attention heading into NAIC is the heavy disruption build. This is not a Dragapult deck that packs a few disruption cards on the side. It commits fully:
- 4 Crushing Hammers - flip-dependent, but when they land they deny Energy at a critical moment
- 4 Boss's Orders [Corbeau] - forces favorable prize trades and brings up threatening benched targets
- 3 Team Rocket's Watchtowers - punishes wide setups and works beautifully with hand-reset cards
- Unfair Stamp ACE SPEC - the most impactful ACE SPEC in the format, capable of ending games outright when landed early
- Judge - redundant hand disruption that compounds Watchtower's effect
The core idea is simple. Dragapult ex applies natural board pressure through its damage output. Disruption layers on top to make sure the opponent can never stabilize long enough to answer back. Crushing Hammer denies the Energy needed to attack. Watchtower punishes anyone trying to build a wide board setup. Unfair Stamp early in the game can reduce a prepared opponent to two cards and take entire turns away from them.
These cards stack deliberately. An Unfair Stamp forcing a two-card hand followed immediately by a Watchtower can leave your opponent with nothing usable. Once they are scrambling to rebuild from nothing, Dragapult ex is already positioned to close out the prize race. The deck does not just beat you on damage. It beats you on tempo first and damage second.
Dudunsparce ex earns its place in this build as the consistency backbone. Run Away Draw means the deck is not burning Supporter slots to find Energy, freeing those slots for Boss's Orders or Wally's Compassion when the situation calls for it. A Dragapult ex build that runs Dudunsparce ex as its draw engine is both faster and more flexible than one relying solely on Supporters.
Special Red Card: the Chaos Rising upgrade that matters
The recently released Chaos Rising set brought one new tool that slides directly into the disruption build: Special Red Card. Think of it as a late-game Unfair Stamp wrapped in an Item card.
The downside is real: it does nothing in the opening turns. The upside is that you can pitch it to Ultra Ball or Recon Directive early without meaningful loss, banking it for when the condition triggers later. Since the disruption build was already designed to close the early game with Unfair Stamp, Special Red Card picks up where the ACE SPEC leaves off, giving the deck a second window to reset the opponent's hand in the mid-to-late game.
The practical effect: Dragapult ex now has multiple hand-reset windows across a full game. If the first Stamp fails to close things out, Special Red Card provides continued disruption pressure. Unfair Stamp remains the right ACE SPEC choice by a significant margin. But Special Red Card makes the package noticeably more consistent, and that consistency is exactly what the disruption strategy needed. You can see all the new cards it competes with in our Best Pokémon TCG decks in Chaos Rising overview.
Should you play a counter-meta deck at NAIC?
Every major tournament has players who show up trying to beat the room rather than join it. At NAIC 2026, that means building specifically to beat Dragapult ex. The problem: you are targeting a moving target with too many faces.
Dragapult exists in enough variants that a dedicated counter build will almost certainly be optimized against one or two versions while struggling against others. Prep for the Watchtower disruption build and you walk into the Dusknoir variant. Build around Psychic weakness with Lillie's Clefairy ex and you find out it actually trades evenly into Dragapult anyway. There is no clean answer that covers the whole spread.
There is also a field problem. Even if your counter deck goes 70-30 against Dragapult, NAIC is a long tournament and you will face plenty of other decks. A build that exists to beat one matchup usually sacrifices enough elsewhere to lose games it would otherwise win. Dragapult itself is well-rounded enough to handle most of the field without specializing, which is a meaningful advantage in a Swiss-heavy format.
The honest verdict: counter-meta is a calculated gamble at a tournament this size. Players who succeed with off-meta choices typically do so because their deck is genuinely strong across the whole field, not because it hard-counters Dragapult specifically. If your counter plan only works when you specifically run into the right Dragapult variant, that is not a plan.
Mega Greninja ex: the best alternative coming out of Chaos Rising
If you have decided you are not playing Dragapult ex, Mega Greninja ex from the Chaos Rising expansion is the most interesting alternative in the current meta. It has posted solid results in the Japanese competitive scene, sitting in a clear second tier of decks: not at Dragapult's level, but capable of competing with it and beating the rest of the field consistently.
The deck's mechanic centers on two attacks working together. Mortal Shuriken places damage counters across the opponent's board, directly recalling the original Greninja BREAK's Giant Water Shuriken. Ninja Spinner then deals direct damage scaled to those counters. The damage output per turn actually matches Dragapult ex's, with the added flexibility of redirecting excess damage to the Active Pokémon when you need to finish a KO instead of spreading further.
Mega Greninja ex's 350 HP is a serious stat. Lightning-type Pokémon are rare in the current Pokémon TCG format, so Weakness rarely becomes a factor. Wally's Compassion provides healing and makes the deck surprisingly resilient in longer games. You are not limited to one Mortal Shuriken per turn either. With proper Energy management and the ability to retreat or switch between two Mega Greninja ex, the damage ceiling is higher than it first appears.
Dudunsparce ex fits here for the same reason it fits in Dragapult builds. Run Away Draw lets you find Energy cards without burning Supporter slots, freeing them for Boss's Orders or Wally's Compassion at the right moment. The consistency gain is real and makes the deck significantly more reliable in Swiss rounds.
The one caveat: Mega Greninja ex demands more precise sequencing than Dragapult ex. Timing the Mortal Shuriken counters correctly so that Ninja Spinner can capitalize requires planning ahead, and Energy management is more demanding. Experienced players will appreciate that depth. Newer players looking for a competitive Chaos Rising option that is more forgiving should instead look at Beedrill ex, which runs more straightforwardly and still has genuine tournament viability. Check our Chaos Rising pull rates guide to see which of these cards you are actually likely to open.
Tracking your Chaos Rising collection between events
Between tournament rounds and after events, plenty of players are also managing their Chaos Rising pulls and deciding what to keep, sell, or trade. Pokeman for iPhone is the go-to app for scanning Pokémon TCG cards, checking live market prices, and building a full inventory of your collection. When card values are shifting fast post-tournament, having accurate price data at hand matters. Our roundup of the best Pokémon card apps for iPhone covers the full comparison if you want to find the right tool for your needs.
Conclusion
Dragapult ex is going to win a lot of games at NAIC 2026. That is not cynicism, it is just where this format sits right now. The deck is fundamentally strong, adaptable across builds, and now bolstered by Special Red Card from Chaos Rising. No counter strategy is clean enough to reliably beat every variant in a large Swiss field.
If you are heading to NAIC, run Dragapult ex and learn the disruption build inside out. If you genuinely cannot stomach playing the obvious meta call, Mega Greninja ex is the most competitive alternative Chaos Rising has to offer. Either way, knowing why Dragapult ex is the deck to beat is half the preparation.
Frequently asked questions
Dragapult ex is the best deck at NAIC 2026, offering massive HP, efficient spread damage, and the strongest draw engine in the format via Drakloak. No single counter-meta deck reliably beats all of its variants.
The disruption build combines four Crushing Hammers, three Team Rocket's Watchtowers, Unfair Stamp, and Judge to deny Energy and reset opponent hands while Dragapult ex applies relentless board pressure.
Special Red Card from Chaos Rising mimics Unfair Stamp's hand-reset effect in the late game, giving Dragapult ex a second disruption window once the ACE SPEC has already been used.
Mega Greninja ex is the strongest non-Dragapult option in Chaos Rising, matching Dragapult's damage output with 350 HP and flexible spread through Mortal Shuriken and Ninja Spinner.
Counter-meta decks are a risky choice at NAIC 2026 because Dragapult ex runs too many variants for any single answer to cover all of them, and a dedicated counter deck usually underperforms against the rest of the field.