Hi there. In this post, I cover the prerelease preconstructed decks from the upcoming Chaos Rising set.
Note: This post is long. Read and see what you want. Source links below too.
This Chaos Rising main set releases on May 22, 2026. Prerelease events where you get cards and play a casual tournament take place from Saturday May 9 to Sunday May 17, 2026.
Prerelease events are nice as you get cards before the release date. For me, booster boxes are hard to get so I go to preleases to open packs.
There are a few Youtubers that are showing/leaking the preconstructed decks from the Build & Battle Kits. I think these Youtubers are card store owners opening stuff early and want to put out early Youtube content.
Knowing what is in each deck helps with familiarity of the cards at prerelease events. It also helps with theorycrafting in deck building if you choose to modify the decks. In a lot of cases, keeping the same cards that you are given is safe. Note that other players may do the same thing.
In each deck, there are provided trainer cards that are usually from past sets. Most are playable and should not be taken out from the deck. Good cards include Lillie's Determination, Hilda, Poke Pad, Buddy Buddy Poffin, Rare Candy and Judge.
Source 2 - TiuSam Youtube Channel
Thero Dactilo Chilean Youtuber - Chaos Rising Prerelease Deck Unboxing
Reddit Source - Japanese Cards
Pokemon Proxies - Unreleased English Versions of Japanese Cards
Delphox Deck
The Pokemon line for the Delphox deck is:
- 4 Fennekin
- 3 Braixen
- 3 Delphox
- 2 Vulpix
- 2 Ninetales
The goal with this deck is to work your way up to Delphox and attack with it. Delphox requires 2 Fire Energy for its attack. You deal 30 damage for each Energy in play (both you and opponent). Waitress is a not great card in general but in this deck, Waitress helps with energy acceleration.
Fennekin's Call For Family is really good in the early game. For 1 of any Energy, you see your deck and Bench 2 Basic Pokemon.
I don't like the Ninetails here. It does not seem like a great attacker. You could cut out the 2 Vulpix and 2 Ninetales for more Fennekin, Braixen and Delphox. One could cut the Ninetales but keep Vulpix to deal some light burn damage. A card that can help with energy acceleration is this Delibird.
If you get lucky from the initial packs in deckbuilding, consider Mega Pyroar ex and Litteo. There is also Minccino and Ciccino ex.
Crobat Deck
This Crobat deck look scary and for me personally, I would not want to face this thing. The deck is well built and the attackers are pretty good.
The Pokemon line is:
- 4 Zubat
- 4 Golbat
- 3 Crobat
- 3 Qwilfish
For this Crobat deck, you want to attack with mainly Crobat. You could also lead with the Qwilfish as a mini wall or attacker. If they attack the Qwilfish, then the attacking Pokemon gets Poisoned. You can then come in with a second Qwilfish and hit the Poisoned Pokemon for 90 damage from one Dark Energy.
Crobat is an annoying attacker in prerelease. Confusion forces the opponent to flip a coin before attacking. If Heads then the attack happens as normal. A tails from confusion results in no attack and the Confused Pokemon does 30 damage to itself.
The Trainer cards in this deck are good and should not be cut out. No Rare Candys does make the evolution process slower but thats okay.
Grimsley's Move is powerful if you are lucky. If you find an evolved Dark Pokemon then you can Bench it and skip the evolution process.
Ten Dark Energy is kind of excessive. You could cut it down to 8 or maybe even 7. Make room for Special Red Card (if you get it from packs) or more Zubats/Golbats.
Adding Roxie's Performance or Mega Dragalge ex with a Water Energy could be okay. Playing this deck out of the box should be fine.
Goodra Deck
The Pokemon in this Goodra deck are:
- 4 Goomy
- 3 Sligoo
- 3 Goodra
- 2 Espurr
- 2 Meowstic
For me, I have mixed thoughts on the Goodra deck. The Goodra is a good attacker but discarding a card from your deck is bad and the energy types good be tricky. There are not many recovery options in this format and it may be hard to get the right energy type for Goodra's attack.
I have mixed thoughts on Meowstic also. Two energy for 80 damage is good and it is a bonus to move energy from the opponent's Active to a Benched Pokemon of your choice. I think it will take lots of time to setup your attackers.
Keeping the energy counts of 6 Psychic and 5 Water is okay. The Trainer line of Lillie's Determination, Dawn, one Emma, Buddy-Buddy Poffin, Poke Pads is fine.
You could maybe ditch the Meowstic evolution line and go with 2 Remoraid and 2 Octillery. Maybe.
Ampharos Deck
For the Ampharos deck, the Pokemon line includes:
- 4 Mareep
- 3 Flaaffy
- 3 Ampharos
- 3 Emolga
The Trainer cards here are good overall. Ultra Ball is the one card I am iffy about, discarding two cards is heavy as there is very little recovery in this format. Canari is very good for getting more Lightning Pokemon>
This deck runs 2 copies of Judge. Judge is an okay hand disruptor card but it is helpful in prerelease and in this deck. This Ampharos deck is the only deck with Judge.
Ampharos is a strong attacker. If you have the same amount of cards as the opponent then Ampharos deal 220 damage from Flash Bolt. The drawback is that it cannot attack on its next turn. That can be fixed with a Switch and a Surfer. Switching a Pokemon out resets this cannot attack next turn. Pair the Ampharos with a free retreat Pokemon like this Deoxys.
One hundred fourty damage is not enough against Delphox and Goodra. Deoxys with Psychic Energy could be okay. Hit for 30 from Deoxys and then 140 with Ampharos.
With Emolga, I have mixed thoughts on it. The Minor Errand Running is okay with retrieving Basic Energy from deck. The Sky Return attack does deal 30 damage from 1 Lightning Energy but you run away. You then put a new Pokemon in the Active Spot that you may not want there. Emolga does one hit knockout a Zubat though. I would replace 2 of 3 Emolgas with 2 Deoxys.
Another modification could be to remove the Emolgas and 5 Lightning Energy for alternate attackers and a different energy type. Alternate attackers can include stuff like Keldeo, Octillery, Donphan, Claydol.
Notes
In past prerelease posts, I mention that the prerelease events are good for new players. After some thought and seeing these decklists, I am not sure now. It does help to know the basics of the game and some deckbuilding tips before entering a casual tournament.
Assuming no deck modifications, I think the Crobat deck is the best on paper. It just seems really easy to use, Qwilfish is a good secondary attacker, Crobat is an efficient attacker and Confusion is really annoying.
Generally at the prerelease events, you have a 90% win (my estimation) chance if you get your Mega Pokemon ex up and attacking. The challenge is not prizing it in your 4 Prize cards, getting it in play and powering it up with Energy. Even regular Pokemon ex can be hard to knockout like Cinccino ex.
If you pull a Special Red Card, make room for it! It is one of the best cards in the standard format in Japan.
I see potential decks that include stuff like multiple Tauros and something around Claydol. Tauros can bench snipe and can hit for big damage if you get lucky. If you pull 4 or 5 Tauros, a Tauros deck is something to consider. Claydol's Devolution Ray hits for 50, devolves the evolution Pokemon and possibly Knocks out the underlying Pokemon.
Evolving a Pokemon removes Special Conditions like Asleep, Confusion, Burn and Paralysis.
This Chaos Rising prerelease looks kind of difficult. Crobat looks like the best deck but there are a lot of good attackers. It depends on what people get in packs and how people play. Even if you do poorly, good pulls make up for a bad Win-Loss record.
Thank you for reading.