Hi everyone. In this Pokemon TCG blog post, I go to a Perfect Order Prerelease Event.
Notes:
- This post is long. Read what you want.
- Card pictures are from the web, Limitless TCG site, Bulbapedia or PokemonProxies.com
- Photos taken from my Redmi Note Pro 13 phone.
Perfect Order Prerelease Tournament Events
Prerelease events in the Pokemon TCG are great for players and collectors to get cards early before the main set release date.
In a prerelease event you pay a fee for tournament entry, one build and battle box kit, a few booster packs. One build and battle box kit contains 4 booster packs, one preconstructed deck, one code card for the online client game and a guide.
In the Toronto area, a build and battle box kit usually at around 70 CAD to 90 CAD. Paying a prerelease tournament fee of 40 to 50 CAD is pretty good. You get cards early and the price per pack on a cost basis is cheaper.
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Deck Building Info
Your build and battle kit comes with a 4 booster packs and a 40 card pre-constructed deck. (The regular standard deck is 60 cards but this prerelease format is faster with less cards and less prize cards.) You randomly get one of 4 preconstructed deck archetypes with a promo card. Each deck has its own strengths and weakness along with useful (Trainer) cards that come from previous sets.
Here are the screenshot decklists. This reddit post is also useful.
You could go with just the pre-constructed 40 card deck and make no changes. Those who know deck building and what cards are good could change a few cards from the pre-constructed deck. Cards like an extra Honedge for the Doublade deck are good, Pokepad in general, Judge, Mega Starmie ex with Water Energy and maybe Pokemon Catcher. Small changes could make the deck run smoothly and/or give it more attacking options/firepower.
In the regular standard format, you have a 60 card deck and there is usually a maximum of 4 copies of a card (except Basic Energy). For prereleases, you can 5 or more of a card.
Tournament Structure
This time around I head to Banana Games in the downtown Toronto area. They have moved to a new location around late 2025 I think. They used to be located under the IKEA Toronto but have moved slightly north near Yonge and Wellesley. I would be playing at their new location.
This store did offer prerelease events super early. At least one month in advance which is kind of crazy. The fee was 40 CAD.
This prerelease event was held at 1PM.
There are 3 best of 1 swiss rounds of 30 minutes each. For every win you get, you receive 1 extra pack at the end. In theory, you can get up to 9 booster packs. It would be 4 from the kit then an extra 2 packs and the 3 packs from winning all 3 rounds.
Winning all 3 rounds is actually not that easy. Luck is a big factor as some particpants can get lucky pulls, more optimized decks, lucky draws, lucky matchups and so on. Not many people get 3 wins and 0 losses. Two wins and 1 loss is more achievable and still good in my opinion.
Some Other Stores Do Other Formats & Prizing
There are some prerelease stores that do less competitive prizing. Everyone regardless of their win-loss record gets 2 or 3 extra packs at the end of the event. You just play for fun and for testing.
Some places do a best of three format. This is a bit too much I think.
Some places may do more than 3 rounds which could be a bit much for a casual/new player.
And some stores do even more competitive prizing. I know one store in Toronto where you need at 2 wins and 1 loss to get bonus packs. Zero or 1 win in 3 rounds leads to no bonus packs.
For me, I am used to a pack per win prizing. I do find it fair overall. In every round, you are playing for something.
My Deck + My Initial Pulls
From the build and battle kit, I got the Serperior promo card and its deck. I had mixed thoughts about this. This deck is good as it has a type advantage over 2 of the other 3 decks but you get no Poke Pads.
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From the two extra packs, I did get a Decidueye ex.
With the 4 packs from build and battle kit, I did get a regular Mega Zygarde ex. Unfortunately, I could not use this Zygarde card as it is not compatible with my Grass deck.
Before the event started, there was a St. Patrick's Day parade in the morning outside. It was on Yonge Street in downtown Toronto. This street is very popular for parades and other events.
Round One
This round one game was lucky for me. It was a favourable matchup. My Serperior Grass deck versus Barbaracle deck. The opponent was not happy to see a Grass Pokemon upon flipping our face down Active Pokemon.
Landorus is actually very vulnerable as it takes 2 hits of 60 damage after weakness from either Snivy or Shaymin.
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I end up winning this fairly easily even though the opponent's Judge card kind of made things difficult near the end.
Round Two
My round 2 opponent also had Barbaracle + Landorus. This player had a Mega Zygarde ex with it. Because I had the Grass Serprior deck, I did not panic as this matchup is not that bad. The gameplan was either to rush to Serperior and put pressure on the opponent or to sit back, setup and plan a comeback win. The first plan failed so I had to play more patient.
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The opening for me was to let the opponent come in with Mega Zygarde ex. Then I hit it for something like 150 damage then hit it again for 3 Prize cards. Then the other attacker should be easy to pick off for the game.
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I do lose my first Pokemon from the first Mega Zygarde ex attack. No big deal as I was planning to do more setup with Serperior and do a comeback strategy win.
The most important and pivotal moment of this game is when the opponent used the second attack Nullifying Zero from Mega Zygarde ex. I had 5 Benched Pokemon where 1 is a 160 HP Serperior and the rest can be knocked out. My Active is a second Serperior.
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The opponent hits 4 heads out of 6. Two Serperior are down to 10HP and I have two knocked out Pokemon. My opponent is at 1 Prize Card left.
This was game over for me. In my next turn I could knock out the Mega Zygarde ex to get 3 Prize cards out of 4. But the opponent could come in with a Hawlucha and knock out my 10 HP Serperior to get his last Prize card. I lost to coin flips pretty much. Very annoying but it is what it is.
Round Three
I am 1 win and 1 loss at this point. Losing to the coin flip Mega Zygarde ex attack was annoying. This is what I expected in some games though.
My round 3 opponent played the Metal Doublade deck given that he opened with Klefki. When I first saw this, I was a little annoyed by this. I am somewhat not favoured. With this matchup, I had play carefully and definitely use Diggersby as my secret tech here.
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This game was a bit slow paced. The opponent's Klefki would do 30 damage per turn and shut down attacks I had. This was not a big deal as I would setup Servine and Serperior at the back. It was better to not play too fast and aggressive with this Grass deck. A management style gameplay was preferred.
I think I was okay letting the opponent take the first knockout. Then I come in with something like Diggersby to knockout a Klefki. I don't remember the exact details.
Serperior would be used to come in and attack when needed. This matchup was tricky as I had to deal with Grass resistance on Metal Pokemon that reduced Grass attacks by 30 Damage. There was also a Full Metal Lab stadium in play which reduced damage by another 30 damage for Metal Pokemon.
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My final two turns consisted of knocking out his Aegislash and then knocking out a Honedge/Klefki. The opponent kind of played greedy by not Benching many Honedge.
I end up winning this somewhat unfavoured matchup. My record is 2 wins and 1 loss. Although it is not 3 wins and 0 losses, 2 W and 1 L is still very good. Rank? I don't know. There were 32 players I think so I rank at the top 10 or something. Rank at prerelease events is not a big deal.
Extra Packs, Closing Notes
At this venue, both my round 3 opponent and I report our match to the judges and organizers. Then we get our prizing. One pack per win. Here are the pulls.
A few of the past prereleases I went to at Banana Games were a little disorganized I thought. It depends on the staff sometimes. This time around is much better. The new playing area at Banana Games is nice. Much larger and spacious in this new location. They even have a separate room for One Piece players and Riftbound TCG during Sundays.
After this event I take a 1 hour break, eat a snack and walk around. I booked a second prerelease event at this place for 4PM.
More to come.
Thank you for reading.