Hi there. In this blog I shop around in Toronto for Pokemon cards and other things. I also share a local tournament report.
(This one is long, read what you want.)
Shopping Around
The Journey Together Pokemon TCG set released on Friday March 28, 2025. The original plan was to go on Sunday March 30 but Friday had better projected weather. I take the trip into the main city of Toronto by mostly train.
I check out several card game stores in the Chinatown area to see what they had and if they had new stuff. The first place A & C Games did have some Journey Together single cards. Market prices of the cards upon release are pretty high. Over time the supply of playable cards will increase driving card prices down. For illustration rare and art cards the prices could either remain the same or go up. I ended up not buying anything at A & C games.
The next place I check out is Dolly's Sports Cards & Games. They specialize more on sports cards but they carry some Pokemon cards in their Chinatown location. After searching their bulk Pokemon cards I ended up getting a few cards. One Professor Turo's Scenario, one Area Zero Underdepths and two other cards I don't remember.
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Go For Game TCG in Toronto's Chinatown was the next place I went to. To my luck they did have new Journey Together cards. Their prices were much lower than the leading Toronto TCG store 401 Games. My new strategy now is to avoid booster boxes as their prices are no longer at 160 CAD a box and are now at least 300 CAD. I buy singles now and buy more carefully in terms of deck building. This Go For Game TCG store had Iono's Kilowattrel, Levencia, Mamoswine ex, Tapu Koko ex, Noivern ex and Hop's Snorlax at more reasonable prices.
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The store also had a section of free cards you can take. I took mostly free Japanese Pokemon cards for playtesting purposes against my brother. Why pay for the English version of cards when you can go free (unwanted in Canada) Japanese versions of cards? They also had free Yu-gi-oh cards there but I don't play Yu-Gi-Oh TCG.
Selling Milotic ex, 2 Arven and 1 Counter Catcher
I walk around, do some shopping and have an early dinner before heading to Banana Games. This card store is more in the downtown Toronto area. Banana Games is located under the downtown Toronto IKEA store.
My purpose for this visit was to sell my 4 copies of Milotic ex, 2 copies of Arven and 1 Counter Catcher. I do not plan to play Milotic ex wall decks. In addition I had extra Arven and Counter Catcher to sell for store credit. Getting around 7 CAD per Miltoic ex sold when I bought at 1 CAD per Milotic ex is good. (Buy low sell high when it comes to playable cards.)
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From the cards I receive around 37 CAD in store credit.
Local Tournament Venue
After selling my cards I head to 401 Games for cards pickup plus play a local tournament there. Other than the pre-release tournament from a couple of weeks ago I have not really played at 401 Games much.
Instead of me typing out the tournament format and prize structure, I share it through a screenshot from their website.
This tournament is not a free entry one but you get a Prize Pack Series 6 included in your 5 CAD fee (after tax). Regardless of your record in the tournament you get one pack. If you get at least two wins then you win more stuff + store credit.
Here is what I got from the Prize Pack. Night Stretcher is helpful.
Round One Versus Feraligatr + Munkidori Control Deck
My first round opponent played the Feraligatr + Munkidori control deck. It might have been the same or nearly the same decklist as the Champions League winning deck from Japan in February 2025. When I saw his Pokemon on the opening turn, I knew I was in a for long, long game.
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The opponent's first turn was pretty much perfect. It was something like Arven to search for Precious Trolley and TM: Evolution. Precious Trolley had his whole Bench filled with what he wanted.
My first couple of turns were sub-optimal. I had to use Ultra Ball to fetch a Lumineon V to get an Iono to reset my hand.
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In the early game I was attacking with non-Pokemon ex (single prize Pokemon). I was playing it safe while attacking and putting pressure on my opponent.
I only evolved into Archaludon ex when I taught it was safe to do and for knocking out his Feraligatrs.
Professor Turo's Scenario was needed only when the opponent was trying to trap my non-attacking Pokemon with Counter Catchers. The Feraligatr deck tries to checkmate you into a lock. They also can use hit an run attacks with Feraligatr with Croconaw's attack and Relicanth.
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I eventually get the win but it was not an easy win due to the nature of this deck and the opponent's gameplay. The opponent sort of gave up when he used Counter Catcher plus an attack to knockout my Lumineon V. Then my Archaludon ex comes in for the final knockout and the final (sixth) Prize card. I go 1 win and 0 loss.
Round Two Vs Dragapult ex With Rotom V
Tournament pairings can be weird sometimes. I got paired up with someone with 0 win and 1 loss. When I see something like this I get somewhat nervous. Maybe the guy has a good deck and got unlucky in round 1?
I find out quickly that I am against Dragapult ex with his Rotom V in the active spot. Dragpault ex is considered S tier since Prismatic Evolutions in January and will still stay S tier for a few more months in early 2025.
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My early turns were pretty good. I managed to get a turn 2 knockout on his Rotom V with Archaludon ex. Two prize cards taken with 4 to go.
The mid-game seemed normal when he would attempt a comeback with Dragapult ex and try to spread damage around from the Phantom Dive attack.
Another thing to note was that his girlfriend (it seemed) was playing next to him. She was playing an Eevee/Flareon ex/Sylveon ex deck against a Dragapult ex + Charizard ex deck on my right. The girl seemed really new as she was asking basic gameplay questions and ask for help from my opponent. At a casual local tournament this stuff is kind of okay but it it still weird. The opponent would sometimes get distracted from his girlfriend instead of focusing on the game in front of him and me. The guy on my right might have felt weirded out at times but at the same time he was likely to get an easy win.
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There was a turn where I had to take time to think about things. The opponent's damage spread was weird and was tricky. He had a Dusclops on the Bench, a Radiant Alakazam, one Drakloak and the Active Dragapult ex that is damaged.
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I had a 10 HP damaged Relicanth, a 210 HP damaged Archaludon ex a second powered up Archaludon ex + Iron Bundle. I think I saw his game winning play and decided to use Professor's Turo Scenario to pickup the damaged Relicanth and knockout his Dragapult ex. At this point we are at 1 Prize card each.
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His next turn resulted in a Iono then a non-knockout attack leaving me with a 10 HP Archaludon ex. On my next turn I use Iron Bundle's Hyper Blower to remove his second Dragapult ex and target attack a weaker single Prize Pokemon for the win. It was a close and somewhat ugly win.
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I am 2 wins and 0 losses. I get store prizing at least and another Prize pack.
Round Three Versus Miraidon ex
Before we started round three, my opponent requested a draw. Under normal circumstances the winner would go 3 wins and 0 losses and would earn 2 prize packs and 30 CAD store credit. The person going 2 wins and 1 loss would get 1 Prize pack and $5 store credit. The draw request from my opponent would be both of us get one Prize pack each and we each receive $17.50 CAD store credit (half of 35). I agreed and we talk to the judge/event organizer about this. The judge was okay with this.
We end up playing against each other for the 3rd Prize pack. This opponent was diagonally across from me at the table I was at in round one. We knew each other's decks.
For this game looking back I made a really bad error in setup. I should've put the Duraludon on the Bench instead of the Active Spot. The Relicanth should have been in the Active Spot for setup. For some reason I forgot that Miraidon ex decks really like to attack on their first turn going second.
Another bad mistake was that I should have got Scyther into Scizor early. It is good for the prize trade against Miraidon ex.
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Don't want to too much details but I could have pulled over a comeback win if I played better. I played too relaxed or something. The opponent's game ending play was Mew ex ability plus Fezandipiti ex to replenish the hand after my Iono play the previous turn. He then was able to use Electric Generator to get one Lightning Energy plus one manual attack to power up his one Energy Miraidon ex. The powered up Miraidon ex was able to go for knockout by dealing 220 damage on my 140 HP damaged Archaludon ex. (He also had Latias ex for free retreat.)
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After The Tournament
I end the tournament at 2 wins and 1 loss. Technically it is 2 wins and 1 draw. Not winning the extra Prize Pack is not a big deal as I wanted the extra store credit lol. Overall I am happy winning some stuff from this tournament.
Here is what I got from the second Prize Pack. The cards pulled from here are stuff I already have. Another holographic Fire energy is nice.
I may return to this place. Friday evenings are kind of iffy for me as I work the next morning (with my non standard schedule). I usually go Sundays.
Thank you for reading.