Dragapult Blaziken 1st Place at Betim League Cup

Hey everyone, my name is Alex Oliveira, I've been playing Pokémon TCG for 12 years and I live in Belo Horizonte. This past weekend, on April 12, 2026, the first League Cup in Minas Gerais with the new post-rotation format took place in Betim, featuring the Perfect Order collection. Betim is a city very close to BH, so I usually like going there for the bigger tournaments — especially because it's one of the best stores in the region, run by one of the most engaged and beloved store owners in the community: Carlim!

I decided to play Dragapult/Blaziken because I had already played our 24-hour online tournament with the same deck and performed well, opening 5-0 in Swiss and losing in top 8 to Zoroark. The Zoroark matchup is really tough, but winnable. I even considered playing Mega Starmie, but since I didn't have the cards, I preferred to play the deck I had already built and knew how to pilot. And I'm glad I made that decision!

I'll share with you the list I used and the matchups I faced throughout the tournament, up until I became champion. This report format was very common back in the day on the blog and it's extremely useful for improving at the game. I was really happy because the current season's champion playmat is truly beautiful and I wanted it badly, plus the amazing prizes that Carlim prepared: a custom trophy, a Perfect Balance Elite Trainer Box in English, 10 Perfect Balance booster packs, 6 Prize packs, and the gorgeous champion playmat featuring the Megas. Let's go!

Did you know we’re tracking the tournaments happening here in the region?

Click here to check out the full tournament, with pairings, results, and final standings — you’ll probably enjoy following everything there.

Round 1 – VS Jadson Forapani (Dragapult/Blaziken) WW

First match of the day and already a mirror. Nowadays you should go into a tournament expecting to face a lot of Dragapult decks, and sure enough that's what happened. I like to say that in the mirror, whoever draws the Lillies and Buddy-Buddy Poffins early wins.

In this specific match the game wasn't great for either of us, but in the first game I managed to use Budew first and lock my opponent while powering up my Dreepy, then set up Munkidori.

I took the first knockout on my opponent's Budew while still locking items.

From there I was able to set up Dragapult first and take more prizes, so Jadson conceded.

In the second game Jadson also didn't get very lucky. I managed to land the lock better and set up Dragapult first. First win!

Round 2 – VS Leonardo Lambiasi (Dragapult/Dusknoir) LL

Second match and against another Dragapult! I used to run Psyduck in the deck, but I had swapped it for Shaymin. I really missed Psyduck in this one.

In the first game I had terrible luck — no Supporters to play, not even a poffin. I managed to play a bit, but I had prized my stamp, and when I had the chance to take a knockout and use the stamp, I couldn't reduce my opponent's hand and lost.

In the second game, I started with Meowth ex in the active, which is the worst Pokémon in the deck to start with. Still, the second game was much more competitive. My opponent played the Risky Ruins stadium which made some bench knockouts easier, but he managed to maintain a better pace and board state so he ended up winning.

That was my first, and only, loss in the tournament.

Round 3 – VS André Gabriel (Magcargo/Ethan's Ho-Oh) WW

I think Ethan's deck is really cool — he mainly played Magcargo and Ho-Oh, but also had Typhlosion.

In the first game I started way behind. The Fire-type basics in his deck knock out Budew easily and I couldn't set up my Dragapult. When I finally attacked, he came back with Ho-Oh dealing 160 damage and healing 50 from all his Pokémon. I couldn't set up Munkidori to heal and he hit 160 again, healing all damage and knocking out my Dragapult.

I still had 6 prizes left and he had 3 — I thought I was going to lose. I set up another Dragapult and hit the Ho-Oh. If he healed, things would be really bad for me, but he chose to bring up a Magcargo and take the knockout instead, going down to 1 prize.

I came back with my third Dragapult, knocking out Magcargo, the benched Ho-Oh, and spreading damage to others. He came back with Typhlosion but couldn't get the KO, so I attacked and with Munkidori closing the damage I took the remaining 3 prizes.

It was so close!

The second game was smoother. I managed to set up Dragapult early with Rare Candy and started knocking out the small Pokémon.

Victory! Now I was 2-1 and needed to win the next one.

Round 4 – VS Leonardo Crozeta (Dragapult/Blaziken) WW

Another mirror, and this time against a great friend. It's pretty common for us to play against each other at tournaments like this — quite the coincidence.

Both games my deck just wanted to cooperate more. In the first game we both started with really bad hands, passing turns back and forth without being able to even attack with Budew or play a Supporter. But I managed to play a Lillie first, attack with Budew, and build my board more consistently, with Blaziken powering up and closing knockouts first.

Surprisingly, throughout the entire tournament I never used Clefairy Ex once. It was all Dragapult trading, but since my deck ran better, I got two wins.

Leo is a great player — it's a shame his deck didn't want to cooperate.

Round 5 – VS Osman (Mega Lucario/Solrock) ID

At this point in the tournament I was 3-1. I could tie and risk making top cut, knowing that at the last Cup at Dimensão (another store here in BH) I went 3-1-1 and bubbled out of top 8 in 9th place.

But I decided to risk it because I was in a good position in the standings with a better opponent win rate, and I was also hungry. So I agreed on the ID (intentional draw) with Osman and we went to the bakery to eat together.

Osman's daughter had won the Junior division and I was trying to negotiate a playmat trade with her, but she didn't accept. Hahaha — and good thing too, I didn't know I was going to be champion.

Top 8 – VS Bernardo Mourão (Cynthia's Garchomp/Roserade) LWW

I made it to top 8, but it was risky — Henrique Monteiro bubbled in 9th with 3-1-1 as well. I came in as the 6th seed and would face Garchomp, a really tough matchup for my deck.

So tough that I lost the first game. Garchomp's second attack with two Roserades in play knocks out Dragapult, and if they keep the energy flow going, it's hard to keep up. On top of that, if you leave damage on the board, Cynthia's Spiritomb hits incredibly hard — if you leave two Garchomp with 200 damage each, Spiritomb swings for 400 plus extra damage if there's Roserade out.

So I lost the first game and thought I was going to lose the match, but in the second game I managed to set up a Dragapult quickly and start picking off the basics, getting ahead. I maintained the tempo, retreating a damaged Dragapult, and held the advantage to win the second game.

In the third game it was a really tough and close match — in the end I ran out of Dragapult and won by attacking with Blaziken into a marked Garchomp.

Let's go to top 4!

Top 4 – VS Leonardo Lambiasi (Dragapult/Dusknoir) WW

Now I was facing the same matchup I lost during Swiss — and on stream, no less. The match is available on Youtube on the Bugado Playz channel!

With the new rules, the player who finishes higher in Swiss gets to choose who goes first, so I didn't get to choose in any of my top cut games. My opponent chose to go first, which meant I could set up the Budew lock first.

I built up a single Dragapult while he was also attacking with Budew. I took the first knockout on his Budew and then he knocked out my Budew from Drakloak without setting up Dragapult.

I managed to play Crispin to power up my Dragapult and took a knockout on his Drakloak in the active and the damaged Dreepy on the bench — he had no more Dreepy in play, so I was way ahead and won.

In the second game I started terribly with Meowth exin the active. He chose to go first, and I was stuck with Meowth up front for a long time, setting up Dreepy and Munkidori on the bench while taking advantage of the Risky Ruins stadium to move damage with Munkidori.

I even attacked with Munkidori itself to leave my opponent's Dragapult confused, since I didn't have my own Dragapult yet. Leonardo couldn't power up properly and his Dragapult stayed confused for the rest of the game, failing the confused coin flip twice, so I gradually set up my Dragapult and managed to get ahead.

Now it's the finals!

Finals – VS Gustavo Daniel (Ogerpon/Arboliva) WW

Feral, as we call Gustavo here in BH, is a player who's been in the competitive Pokémon TCG scene longer than me. Talking to him earlier, I said he had a great chance of making the finals — and sure enough I was right.

This match is also available on Youtube if you want to watch. The matchup is favorable for me because I run Shaymin, which prevents most of Arboliva's damage, plus I have Blaziken which hits his entire deck for weakness.

The problem was that in the first game my Shaymin was prized and I was slow to set up Blaziken. I fell way behind, but in the end I managed to set up two Blaziken to maintain the energy flow and attacks, and I was able to turn the game around.

Just one more win to become champion.

This time I got Shaymin down early so I was much more comfortable. I set up Blaziken and took my first knockout with a stable board.

Feral then conceded and I became the League Cup champion of Betim!

That's it everyone, those were my matches at the latest League Cup in Betim! It was a really fun tournament and I'm happy with my result.

Now it's time to test other decks because next month I'll be playing the Campinas Regional and I still haven't decided on a deck.

Thanks to everyone who read this far and see you next time!