Los Angeles Regional 2026: The Dragapult Supremacy

Hey team, time for another regional review. This time around it was the Los Angeles Tournament, on May 9 and 10, 2026, and let me tell you, I hadn't seen a deck dominate like this since the days of Lugia VSTAR or Palkia VSTAR.

Now Dragapult got a new partner: Crushing Hammer. And let me tell you something, I have a theory: when the tier S deck starts running hammers in the list, it's because the format isn't very healthy.

A few days out from our Campinas Regional, the question is: are you joining the dark side of the force or trying to find something that beats Dragapult? The deck looks so much better than the rest that it feels like, to win a tournament, you have to be on that team.

I have another take on this, and I want to get into it after we go through the metagame. As always, I'm open to discussion, that's what raises our level of play.

After Prague, which I covered here, we had the surprises of Crustle, Festival Lead and Hero's Cape. I figured Dusknoir could grow, like I'd already mentioned, and I really expected to see more Alakazam on the table.

But with Hero's Cape more targeted, players went back to Unfair Stamp, which is still the best disrupt in the format.

Day 1: Why LA Handed the Tournament to Dragapult

This is where I drop the controversial take I promised.

I completely understand that Dragapult has been the best deck in the format, that's clear to everyone. Still, looking at the Day 1 image, it feels like things got out of hand.

Look at these dominant Day 1 decks: few have a real shot of going toe-to-toe with Dragapult. You can argue Mewtwo has tools, that Starmie, if it starts well, destroys its setup. But with all due respect, aside from Raging Bolt ex which plays well against it, the rest is very winnable for Dragapult.

For me, we're in a meta where the rest should unite to punish the best deck, not hand it the trophy. These trending decks take up space from the ones with a real shot against Dragapult: a well-built Zoroark can win comfortably, Garchomp has cards to fight.

So even agreeing that Dragapult is the best deck in the format, I believe LA's players simply handed over the dominance.

And there's another thing that makes the deck even stronger: when the best players in the world pick it up. At that point it becomes nearly impossible to fight head-on, because the pilot amplifies what's already the best.

Campinas is right around the corner, and after Prague and Los Angeles I still believe in Dragapult's dominance. The meta is well mapped, everyone knows what to respect.

But I have a specific hope for Brazil. I think South American players still think a bit outside the box, or at least don't accept supremacy that easily. If the good players over here decide not to join Team Dragapult, we have a real shot at another deck lifting the trophy in Campinas.

Round 7: Matt Chuang (Dragapult ex / Dusknoir) vs. Israel Sosa (Mega Starmie ex)

I'll start the analysis with the matches that stood out the most from Day 1, and this Round 7 is the first I want to break down. Not because it was the prettiest, but because it has the kind of decision-making worth teaching.

Before getting into it, let me quickly call out other cool games that happened. Henry Chao's mirror was a treat to watch. And Moffitt against Grant Manley, Dragapult / Dusknoir against Alakazam, showed how much the ghost improves the matchup against that kind of deck.

Now about Matt and Sosa: what caught my attention was game 3, where a bad call and not checking prizes properly ended up giving away the match.

I liked both lists. Matt's had Neo Upper Energy, which made me really curious to see in practice. Sosa came with Scoop Up Cyclone, and that combo promised a very interesting series.

Both players had awful prizes, but the match was shaping up really well for Israel Sosa, a longtime player I genuinely respect. His start was great, hand closed and board coming together. The problem is he had 2 Mega Froslass ex stuck in prizes, and that's a situation that calls for plan B early on.

He needed to accept those cards weren't coming and change the route of the game. That's not what happened. He used the Ace Spec, brought up Meowth ex to active, played Larry's Skill, and only then realized he couldn't count on Froslass. Right there he knew he'd lost.

What would I have done? When I find out an attacker of mine is stuck in prizes, the first thing is to rewrite the route. You can't try to close the way you practiced a thousand times. I need to think about the next two, three turns with the cards I have, not the ones I wished I had. And honestly, I don't think Sosa thought about that.

And to make it worse, Wally's Compassion was also in prizes, which would have bought at least one more turn of survival. After Matt KO'd the only real attacker on board, his life got easy. The rest of the match was just steering.

Round 8: Christopher Mccullick Chuang (Dragapult ex / Blaziken ex) vs. Hale Obernolte (Mega Lopunny ex / Dudunsparce)

To start, I want to talk more about the deck than the match itself.

You've probably noticed I've been pushing the angle of LA players accepting defeat to Dragapult. On Day 2, 47.1% of the field was Dragapult counting all variations. That's the kind of read Hale made.

He went completely against the grain. Built a list that plays really well against Dragapult and showed you can attack the problem head-on.

I really liked the list Hale built with Mega Lopunny ex, chaining several Wally's Compassion in a row, drawing cards with Enriching Energy, trying not to leave damage on board so he wouldn't give free prizes. Really cool.

Game 1 barely had anything for the other side. Hale set everything up clean and closed quickly. Game 2 was more contested, and that's where you could see his setup working: two Mega Lopunny on board fast, protecting the Pokémon with Battle Cage, everything coming together.

The deck has a ton of pivot. It uses Abra to rotate, retreats for free, comes back to the field with Mega Lopunny ex at 230 HP. It's awesome to watch the sequence repeat: comes in, hits, hits again, eats Phantom Dive, retreats with Air Balloon, and comes back at full 230 HP.

This is a deck worth practicing. For anyone who wants a path outside Team Dragapult, or anyone trying to learn a different way to play, go watch this Hale match. Worth the time.

Day 2 Metagame

On to Day 2. There are two things I want to call out from the Limitless table.

The first read is the obvious one: Dragapult stayed massive. 156 players in Day 2 across the four variations, nearly half the field. And it wasn't just volume. Dudunsparce closed with 57.46% WR, the best among the variants. Dusknoir came in at 53.63% and the pure version at 52.50%. All three above average. The version with Blaziken fell behind: 40% Win Rate, lost more than it won despite the 25 reps that made Day 2.

The second read is the Day 1 to Day 2 conversion, and here the story gets honest. The pairing with Dusknoir converted 32.92% of players, the highest of the tournament. I'd already said in the Prague review that the ghost had potential to shine, especially with ghosts doing well over there. In LA it delivered. The version with Dudunsparce came right after at 30.30%. The others don't even come close. With Blaziken, just 18.12%. Festival Lead, 14.55%. Rocket's Mewtwo closed the top at 14.29%. For me, this is the most important data point of the tournament. Whoever ran Dusknoir or Dudunsparce passed in force. The rest, almost all below 20%.

The Festival Lead drop is the most striking case. In Prague it showed up strong, with good WR and healthy conversion. In LA, with Dragapult taking up 47% of the field, the environment that gave Festival room simply didn't exist.

Alakazam disappointed me again. 19.15% conversion, even below Hydrapple Ogerpon. In Prague I'd already said I expected more, and LA confirmed it. Still in the same spot: the deck has the tools to be dangerous, what's missing is list refinement and reading the room. If people forget about it, it's the kind of thing that wins a tournament in Campinas.

And Crustle, which was one of the big names in Prague, didn't do as well in LA. It showed up in the Day 1 field, but the Day 2 conversion came in way below what it delivered in Prague. It's a deck that depends heavily on the environment: when the format reads you, it disappears. When people forget about it, it wrecks everyone. For Campinas I wouldn't take my eyes off it. I still think it can show up strong if the crowd focuses only on countering Dragapult.

To close, Day 2 confirms what I said up top: the rest didn't try to stop Dragapult. Dusknoir, Dudunsparce and the pure version all did well in both conversion and WR. Hale with Mega Lopunny was the only real counter case I saw, and it was isolated. Most bet on the ghost itself or on already-figured-out archetypes. In Campinas, if nobody shows up with a firm plan against it, we're getting the same scene.

Round 12: Ian Robb (Raging Bolt ex / Ogerpon ex) vs. Preston Rutledge (Dragapult ex / Dusknoir)

Game 2 of this series was the best match I've seen in the tournament so far. What an interesting game, gripping until the end. Both had very strong starts: Dragapult using Neo Upper Energy opened a huge lead, Ian responded with Clefairy ex, and right after came another KO from Preston. The match develops with each one dropping Boss at the end of the turn to plan the next. Preston denying the draw of Ian's Mega Kangaskhan ex, Ian bringing up Meowth ex to lock back. And then Preston had to pick: use Crispin to energize Dragapult, or use Boss. He couldn't do both on the same turn. Very, very good. Best game of the tournament so far.

I've been watching matches and writing about the ones that stuck with me most. For game 3 of this series I'm going to ask one thing: watch it yourself. It was a perfect tie, both decks at their peak at the same time. It's been a while since I saw a match played this well. Both were beasts. A match on another level. Seriously.

Top Cut

LA's Top Cut was asymmetric. Instead of a direct top 8, it ran a top 11: five players with the best standing went straight to the quarterfinals, and six fought through three play-ins to close out the bracket. Let's see how it went.

The five who advanced directly: Jack Pitcher (12-0-2, the only 12-0 of the tournament), Xavier Phelan, Nicholas Moffitt and Hale Obernolte (all 12-2-0), and Andrew Hedrick (11-0-3). The other six went to the three play-ins. Two stories jump out right away. Patrik Räty made the top 11 with Rocket's Mewtwo, a deck with low Day 2 conversion (14.29%). But Patrik has a simple explanation: he caught three Alakazam on Day 2, a comfortable matchup he knew how to capitalize on. And Hale Obernolte with Mega Lopunny / Dudunsparce went straight to the quarterfinals, confirming what I'd already said in Round 8.

The locked top 8 confirms exactly what Day 2 was already saying: five Dragapult. Pitcher with Dudunsparce, Moffitt and Rutledge with Dusknoir, Hedrick with Crushing Hammer for the mirror, and Velasco with pure Dragapult.

Beyond Räty's and Hale's stories, two non-Dragapult seats deserve a shoutout. Jose Marzan with Raging Bolt / Ogerpon was the bet that made the most sense: the deck had the second-best Day 2 conversion (20.87%), and Marzan was the one who cashed in. And the biggest surprise of the entire top 8: Xavier Phelan with Mega Lucario / Hariyama.

The Winning List

Let me jump straight into the winning list. The Pokémon stream only ran Dragapult mirrors, and you're probably sick of seeing it in this text too.

Andrew Hedrick is one of the American stars of the game. I don't think he's the best deck builder on the circuit, but the guy plays really well. His list was a pure Dragapult with 4 Crushing Hammer, with two clear reasons for the pick: improves the mirror and opens space against decks without energy acceleration. For LA the call was right. For Campinas I'm not locking it in. I think Raging Bolt can grow in our meta, but I'll get into that later.

The list is pretty standard, but there are details I liked. The 1-1 Dudunsparce to speed up draws, especially with the amount of search this deck runs (Poké Pad, Poffin). Dudunsparce also serves as an out to the opponent's Unfair Stamp, which is in almost every good deck in the meta. The third Crispin comes in to speed up energy in the setup, making it easier to get the Munkidori into play and start healing. And Judge is a situational card, to disrupt the hand when needed.

But the star of the list, no question, is the 4 Crushing Hammer. The hammer slows down the opponent, especially anyone without energy acceleration. Every charge that drops off the board is a turn eaten from the other side's setup. In the mirror it works because it strips energy straight off Munkidori and locks the healing cycle. Without Munkidori on board, the opposing Dragapult is left with exposed damage on the table to close the math. Easily the best addition to the list.

It's a slower version of Dragapult, no Rare Candy. But that's fine: in this list it's the opponent who's chasing, not Dragapult.

On to Campinas!

After two regionals over here in the West, it's our turn to try and save the format. Can we pull it off?

Dragapult remains the deck to beat. If I had to bet a few Pokécoins on the champion, no thinking, I'd go with it. But I feel the Brazilian plays differently from the American, and that opens a real shot for us to crown a champion outside the obvious.

I don't know what the real pros are cooking for Campinas. I am. And I'll probably post my pre-regional list here, so you can see the choices and understand why I landed on this build.

For our meta, it's time for Raging Bolt to shine. The matchup against Dragapult is OK, and it holds up well against the other format archetypes. For me, it and N's Zoroark are the ones with the most real shot at stopping the deck in Campinas.

You can build a version of Raging Bolt more focused on this fight, and the one with Crushing Hammer can grow too. The thing is, I don't know if the crowd's ready to risk it at an event the size of Campinas. In past tournaments it worked well, but now people are sharper on what these techs do.

My honest take is simple: play something you actually like, that keeps you comfortable and entertains you in the chair. I get those who aren't enjoying the metagame, but it's what we have, and I promise we've had worse formats. Drill the deck until it's reflex, and when match time comes, give your best. In the end that's what it's about, sitting prepared at the table and beating your opponent.

Good luck to everyone. We'll meet in Campinas, and it's going to be wild.