Five Pokémon Cards Under $5 to Survive the Dragapult Format Before NAIC

Crushing Hammer #71 (Perfect Order, Common)

Current Price: $0.10

Let’s start with the card that defines the best Dragapult build in the format. Crushing Hammer is a simple Item, flip a coin, and on heads you discard an Energy from one of your opponent’s Pokémon.

Yes, the coin flip is the stuff of memes, and yes, you will “tails” at the worst possible moment.

But in a format starved for ways to interact with the board without burning your Supporter for the turn, four copies of Crushing Hammer is one of the only tools we have to slow a setup before it snowballs.

It is the disruption engine behind two Regional titles, and it costs roughly the change in your couch cushions. Pick up a playset before everyone else catches on.

*Buy Crushing Hammer cards on TCGPlayer or eBay

Teal Mask Ogerpon ex #25 (Twilight Masquerade, Double Rare)

Current Price: $5

If you would rather hunt the dragon than join it, this is your weapon. Teal Mask Ogerpon ex is the budget aggressor of choice for decks built to punish Dragapult’s slower starts.

Its Teal Dance Ability lets you attach a Basic Grass Energy from your hand each turn and draw a card, so you are accelerating and digging at the same time, building pressure before your opponent can stabilize.

It is a Basic, so there is no clunky evolution line to brick on, and aggressive Ogerpon shells have become one of the most common ways players try to race the format’s top spot.

Best of all, the playable Double Rare run about $5, and the Prismatic Evolutions reprint a touch less, while the Special Illustration Rare climbs well past that.

Grab the cheapest playable printing and let the collectors fight over the alt-art.

*Buy Teal Mask Ogerpon ex cards on TCGPlayer or eBay

Moltres #14 (Phantasmal Flames, Rare)

Current Price: $0.20

Every counter has a counter, and Moltres is the answer to the answer.

As Teal Mask Ogerpon aggression floods the tables, this single-Prize Fire Basic becomes a beautifully efficient piece of tech.

Its Fighting Wings attack costs a single Fire Energy and does 90 more damage whenever your opponent’s Active is a Pokémon ex, that is 110 for one attachment, and against a Fire-weak Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, weakness doubles it into a clean knockout on the 210-HP attacker.

Even better, when your Moltres goes down it only hands over a single Prize instead of two. It is the kind of quiet, one-of inclusion that wins you a game you had no business winning, and at about a quarter, it costs less than a gumball.

If you expect a sea of green at your locals heading into NAIC, this is the dime card that earns its slot.

*Buy Moltres cards on TCGPlayer or eBay

Special Red Card #82 (Chaos Rising, Uncommon)

Current Price: $0.25

The lone gift Chaos Rising handed to the Dragapult deck, Special Red Card, is exactly the kind of low-cost disruption this grindy format rewards, and it becomes tournament legal on June 5, just in time for NAIC.

It is an Item, so it never eats up your Supporter for the turn, and it is built for the close. Once your opponent is down to three or fewer Prize cards, it sends their hand to the bottom of the deck and leaves them with just three fresh cards.

In a best-of-three grind where one disrupted turn separates a knockout from a stall, that late-game reset is brutal.

Most lists will run a single copy, and since it is an uncommon trainer from the newest set, that copy will run you about a quarter.

*Buy Special Red Card cards on TCGPlayer or eBay

Dudunsparce #129 (Temporal Forces, Rare)

Current Price: $0.40

Rotation took Iono and a chunk of our draw Supporters with it, which means consistency is suddenly the most valuable currency in the format.

Dudunsparce’s Run Away Draw Ability lets you draw three cards in a pinch and then shuffles itself back into your deck, giving you a repeatable, Supporter-free way to dig out of a clog and re-find it later in the game.

For the price of a pair of bulk cards, it is the glue that lets every other card on this list do its job. It’s not flashy, never going to spike, and that is precisely the point.

*Buy Dudunsparce cards on TCGPlayer or eBay