Time to talk about Dragapult. I like making discussion posts, but I think it's especially important to get my thoughts out there now that I'm on the OU council and I hope other council members will do the same. My first experience with Pult was also the first time I played NatDex when I signed up for a seasonal on a whim.
Avery completely destroyed me with the DD Ghostium set because I was using SM teams and didn't exactly realize what this mon does when it has access to Z moves. Chalk that up to my teams not actually being prepared for the NatDex meta but here we are again dealing with Pult in a NatDex meta that has progressed significantly with some major threats now banned and some newly realized threats getting usage.
However, I am still in favor of
keeping Pult banned. No matter how I look at this mon, the biggest issue I find with Pult is the lack of consistent answers across the board. It is exceptionally hard to check Dragapult when you consider all of the viable sets because, almost without fail, what you use to beat one set will fall prey to another. The result that I am worried this will have on teambuilding is forcing the use of multiple different checks and generally being too high a constraint on teambuilding.
In the interest of complete disclosure, this was how I felt about Blaziken too and I was wrong. Blaziken is not all that it was made out to be and certainly hasn't warped the metagame around it. There are a number of factors that I think differentiate Pult from Blaziken however. In terms of counterplay, they are similar in that their different sets usually require different counters. Pult on the other hand offers
far more initial value to teams than Blaziken. Unlike the chicken, Pult is more immediately threatening when it hits the field. It doesn't always require a turn of setup to force something out. Blaziken's coverage moves don't hit for much until after a swords dance, but Pult mostly uses STAB which gets a 1.5x boost instantly and it outspeeds the whole tier bar Zeraora making it a pseudo revenge killer even when it's set up to be more of a sweeper. The next most important difference is that Blaziken always takes the Z move slot on a team which is a significant opportunity cost to use it. It is unable to pick its counters without the damage boost from Z options like Electrium Z, Normalium Z, Firium Z, etc. that effectively remove 1 or 2 of its potential counters. In terms of viability, it is C rank with Z move lures and basically unviable without them. I've yet to see Blaziken be effective in any other role despite some experimenting with choice items. Dragapult only uses one set with a Z move, the infamous DD Ghostium set that I'm pretty sure everyone and their grandmother has used at this point. It is far more splashable than any set Blaziken uses because it takes advantage of amazing STAB coverage to simply overwhelm defensive mons with raw power. No guessing games hoping for the right Z move matchup, just one set with hella damage output. Basically if you want to use your Z move slot on Dragapult, you absolutely can but you're not obligated to. Dragapult is viable with not only Z moves but also all 3 choice items and heavy duty boots, to say nothing of sub lefties builds that are definitely underexplored right now.
Getting back to the main point of this post, lets look at counterplay and why Pult is a nightmare to deal with in the builder.
I'll start out with something positive and highlight Mega Tyranitar as one of the best and only blanket counters to various Dragapult sets. Mtar has such immense bulk that it shrugs off choice boosted or +1 hits fairly easily. Thanks to pursuit, it generally only has to switch into Pult once rather than getting chipped down over the course of a game. However, Pult's access to u-turn means that Mtar can get chipped if enough predictions are made by the opponent and it also still gets 2hko'd by Banded sets after stealth rocks damage. Not exactly a
hard counter but it's close.
Here's a mon that just recently moved up to S- rank and it absolutely deserves it. I'm not here to praise Weavile though, so how does it do against Dragapult? Weavile definitely isn't a counter, but it has some value as a check. Banded ice shard can revenge DD Pult after just a little chip which isn't hard to get on the initial turn of setup. Weavile also puts some limitations on specs Pult which wants to spam shadow ball but can't do so out of fear of pursuit. The main issue here is that you just can't get Weavile onto the field without sacking first. Even specs Pult is still free to click fire coverage or u-turn throughout the entire game and hex or banded Pult don't get pursuit trapped by this at all.
Fat pink blobs, we know them well. Chansey is generally the better of the two here because of higher physical bulk, but both provide some amount of Pult counterplay. Both are very hard answers to hex and specs Pult as they eat up special attacks, don't care much about unboosted dragon darts, and heal themselves of status for free. Their glaring weakness is that banded Pult can muscle through and sub DD turns them into setup fodder. They're also passive and lose a ton of momentum when u-turn'd on by specs or hex sets. Once again we have a mon that only beats about half of what Pult has to offer and if you're starting to see a pattern here, you're catching on.
Here's another one of the better blanket counters. Toxapex is so bulky that it doesn't necessarily need to resist attacks to switch into them. +1 Z Ghost fails to KO, specs fails to 2hko, and non-specs hex needs to rely on lucky paralysis to break through. Sub sets can potentially use Pex as setup fodder, but it at least has knock off as an option to deal with this. The main problem is that Pex survives all these attacks by very thin margins. A simple 12% from hazards can turn 3hkos into 2hkos and Pex can only throw out toxic or a weak knock off in response. Also, banded Pult straight up 2hkos all but the most physically defensive spreads which is crazy. Despite coverage issues, I think that set is a massive threat when paired with magpull support.
Clef seems to be widely considered one of the best Pult answers and I'm just not sure that's true. While Clef (or most fairy types) are excellent vs banded Pult, this mon loses surprisingly easily vs all the other sets. +1 Z Ghost OHKOs phys def Clefable which forces you to use unaware and opt out of the massive value magic guard offers. Even though you're putting a bandaid on the DD matchup, you become so much more susceptible to chip damage that there's potential to still lose to DD eventually in a longer game. Vs specs, Clef is just barely saved from a 2hko by leftovers. You have to keep Clef completely healthy
and you can no longer safely use it as a knock off switch in. Both magic guard and unaware also roll a 20% chance to get sp def dropped every time they switch in. Magic guard will save you from chip damage but won't save you from being 2hko'd by any hex set, specs or not, once you get hit with status. I really don't think Clef is as good vs Pult as it's made out to be. Not gonna do a whole writeup on Tapu Fini but it functions similar to Clef, trading crucial longevity for a better matchup against the hex pivot set.
I wish you all the best if you're building with this mon thinking you'll be safe against Pult. Where do I even start? Mandibuzz is
barely viable in the meta as a whole, let alone as a Pult counter. In exchange for using a suboptimal mon and dark type that can't pursuit trap or switch into knock off, you get a hard answer to DD Pult and a decent answer to hex pivot sets if you're ok with being crippled by status. Specs will still 2hko with draco meteor and banded will 2hko with darts after any amount of chip damage. I can't recommend it.
This is an interesting one. Melm has great physical bulk that can tank +1 Z Ghost and even KO Pult through sub with double iron bash. AV Melm switches fairly well into specially offensive Pult too, although specs fire blast can 2hko. Any Melm set is going to be chunked by fire coverage, but not all Pult run fire moves so it's decent. Main issues here is susceptibility to chip damage. Melm can really only sustain itself by receiving a wish and sp def lefties sets don't get the bulk boost from AV. You often have to take damage from iron barbs or helmet if you want to go on the offensive with Melm, plus the possibility of status from contact abilities. Protective pads helps but then you don't get lefties recovery
or AV so there's a tradeoff.
This is not an exhaustive list of all the counterplay to Pult, but I think I touched on the most important aspects. Moreover, I hope it helps you understand why I feel Pult is not healthy for the current NatDex meta and probably never will be. It is nearly impossible to be safe vs Dragapult without incorporating multiple forms of counterplay into your teams that can overlap and deal with different sets. And don't get me wrong, you can make that work without ruining the viability of a team overall. In my own suspect run, I used unaware Clef + sp def Gastro to deal with Pult. Countering all the viable sets is doable, but it puts an immense strain on teambuilding that I just don't find healthy. For those reasons, I will be voting
do not unban on Dragapult.
/ 
in my opinion. 
vs 
Set-up fodder for Dd.
