Hi there. Here is blog 01 of my Chaos Rising Pokemon TCG Prerelease event.
This one happened to be on Mother's Day (in Canada). Maybe the Pokemon Company made a booking error having prereleases possible on Mother's Day.
This post is kind of long. I tried this time to not make it too long like in the past prerelease blogs.
Prerelease Event Info & Tournament Structure
Prerelease events are casual tournament events where players/participants open packs early before the release date.
Different stores have different tournament structures and prizing. The one I went to at A & C Games has 3 best of one rounds where you win an extra pack for each win. They do an extra 2 packs on top of your Build & Battle Kit after round 1. (This is to prevent/discourage those from getting their kit and leaving.)
More prerelease info can be found in my previous posts or from a Youtube guide such as this one:
Deckbuilding
From my build and battle kit, I got the Goodra deck.
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I pulled a Beedrill ex from one of the packs but I could not use it. No Kakuna to complete the evolution line.
I made minor changes to the Goodra deck. I think I did minus one Espurr for a Speed Deoxys and minus one Meowstic for a second Emma. (Images from PokemonProxies)
Round One
I was not sure if my round one opponent was a regular player or not. The deck was Goodra with a Pumkaboo + Gourgeist ex.
In my second turn, I missed an energy to get a Sligoo knockout on his Pumpkaboo. At this point, I thought that the Gourgeist ex would be an issue. Not really as its attacks are not that great. My Goodras were setup well.
The opponent did surrender/concede in the end. I think he saw no way to win.
We did a practice rematch but we ran out of time.
Round Two Vs Store Regular
My round two opponent was someone I have faced three times before. She was a regular and she is there when I visit this store (at least once a month).
It was another mirror Goodra mirror match. I was doing well until the mid and late game where I lose momentum and miss energy. It was close as we were one Prize card away from winning. I miss a Water Energy or something for the win. She broke her losing streak against me. No shame losing to a good opponent.
Round Three Vs Mother
I am 1 win and 1 loss at this point. My opponent was against a mother. She sat on the left side of me in round one playing against her daughter (lol). Family members facing each other in round one is kind of unusual.
She played the Delphox deck against my Goodra deck. I don't remember the exact details but I won this one fairly easily. I think I let one of my Pokemon get Knocked out to favour more setup at the back. My thinking was that once I get Goodra up and running I should be favoured.
We did agree on a practice regame. I won this one as well.
Post Tournament
I finish with 2 wins and 1 loss. Going three wins and 0 losses in general is not that easy. Some luck is needed. Two wins and 1 loss is still pretty good. I get two extra packs.
Prerelease events usually have new or returning players that are not familiar with the game. The two wins were fairly comfortable. The one loss was a close one.
The winner of the prerelease event was my brother. He rarely goes to in-person events but he is my practice partner. He got the 3 wins and 0 losses and won the tiebreaker from another player with the same record. His round one win was close though against a pesky Crobat deck with Poison + Confusion.
This A & C store is pretty generous with their prerelease events. They give old and current Prize Pack booster boxes. Raffle prizes were offered too. Plus they gave out pizza. Superb value from your 40 CAD tournament entry. Not many other stores do this lol.
Here are some stuff I got.
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The pizza party had to be skipped. There was a prerelease event at a different downtown Toronto location in 30 minutes. Some walking had to be done.
More to come.
Thank you for reading.