Hi there. In this Pokemon TCG post, I head to Toronto again for shopping, eating and for a local tournament. I play Raging Bolt ex with the Solrock, Lunatone engine.
This was on Feb 15, 2026.
Note that this post is long.
Tournament Details
This free tournament is in the best of one format with 3 rounds. It is a swiss system format where you play against people with the same or similar win-loss record as you. If there are an odd amount of players, then someone gets a free win in the form of a bye.
For each win, you get one booster pack from the Prize Pack Series 8 set. I don't buy booster packs or sealed product anymore. The only way I open packs is through events like this and pre-release events.
Decklist
My deck is the same as last time. It is a Raging Bolt ex deck with the rogue Solrock and Lunatone engine.
Pokémon: 10
1 Koraidon SSP 116
1 Latias ex SSP 76
3 Raging Bolt ex TEF 123
2 Lunatone MEG 74
3 Teal Mask Ogerpon ex PRE 12
1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38
1 Mew ex MEW 151
2 Solrock MEG 75
1 Raging Bolt SCR 111
1 Sandy Shocks ex PRE 56
Trainer: 16
3 Fighting Gong MEG 116
2 Boss's Orders SHF 58
1 Battle Cage PFL 85
1 Energy Retrieval SVI 171
1 Prime Catcher TEF 157
1 Energy Switch CRZ 129
2 Night Stretcher SFA 61
1 Pal Pad SVI 182
1 Penny SVI 183
4 Nest Ball SVI 181
2 Area Zero Underdepths PRE 94
1 Iono PAL 185
4 Professor Sada's Vitality PAR 170
1 Crispin SCR 133
3 Ultra Ball SVI 196
3 Earthen Vessel PAR 163
Energy: 3
5 Basic {F} Energy SVE 6
3 Basic {L} Energy SVE 4
5 Basic {G} Energy SVE 9
Total Cards: 60
Round One Versus Raging Bolt ex + Noctowl (Mirror Match)
My first round opponent was against someone I have seen around but never played against. At first I thought I was playing against Tera Box upon seeing the Wellspring Ogerpon ex in the Active Spot on turn one. It turned out that she was playing Raging Bolt ex as well. I think I knew the exact decklist too.
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My starting turns were not the greatest as I could not get many energies in play to get attacks off. Plus I was playing cautiously and maybe scared. When it comes to Raging Bolt ex mirror matchup, it is whoever gets the 2 Prize Knockout first wins. This is assuming there are 2 Prize Knockouts from each player every turn.
After maybe turn 3 or 4, I found an opening and started to attack. The opponent for whatever reason did not have much firepower to get 2 Prize Knockouts. She kept attacking with Fan Rotom.
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Over time, I kept increasing my lead and won in the end.
Round Two - Versus Mega Kangaskhan ex + Forretress ex
My round two opponent was someone I have not faced before. It is our first meeting. From the coin flip toss result, I won it and chose to go second on my first turn. My deck is not too dependent on going first or second. I wanted to go second blind against a new opponent for information gain and to go aggressive if needed.
The opponent opened with a Pineco in the Active Spot and a Mega Kangaskhan ex at the back. This gave me more than enough information of what I was up against. It was a rogue version of Mega Kangaskhan ex with Forretress ex. The gameplan of this deck is simple but linear and predictable. They setup a Forretress ex, sacrifice it to give you 2 Prize cards, accelerate Grass Energy and start swinging with Mega Kangaskhan ex.
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If you knock out the Mega Kangakshan ex, then you are down to 1 Prize card left. This enables Acerola's Mischief which prevents attacks and effects of attack from Pokemon ex. The deck becomes an attacking wall where you cannot damage the opponent but the opponent can damage you. I have faced this deck online at most twice. It is a rare deck but it is not a high performing deck as the strategy is predictable.
There was good luck on my side as I had the cards needed to setup a near perfect gameplan against this deck. I used Iono to reduce the opponent hand size, then knocked out the first Mega Kangaskhan ex with Sandy Shocks ex. A Koraidon was setup at the back just in case Acerola's Mischief is used.
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I do think this opponent is a newer player. He was not familiar with Sandy Shocks ex or Koraidon. He thought I was super skilled. Maybe but I am not a pro that travels between continents chasing Pokemon championship points.
At this point, I am at 2 wins and 0 losses. I feel good so far.
Round 3 Versus Raging Bolt ex + Noctowl (Mirror Match #2)
When I looked at the matchup lists, I noticed that there were 3 players including myself with 2 wins and 0 loss. I got paired against a player with 1 win and 1 loss. I got downpaired in this matchup.
The player I faced was someone I faced before. He played Dragapult ex while I played Ceruledge ex at the time. I did see his round 2 matchup against a Gholdengo ex player. He lost against the Gholdengo ex player as his luck was poor. Coming into this matchup, I knew what he was playing.
From the coin flip toss that I won, I chose to go first.
My first turn was okay in terms of setup. What the opponent did on his first turn was pretty much game ending (and tilting too).
The opponent manages to get this rare ultra aggressive combination of Prime Catcher to target my Mew ex plus Iron Leaves ex into play with enough Energy to get the attack off.
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Going into my second turn, I am already behind. He has 4 Prizes out of 6 while I am at 6 out of 6. My next turn did not result in a Knockout at all which was really bad. I had to keep up with the opponent in the mirror matchup.
I think in the next opponent turn, he gets another 2 Prize cards. I am further behind. At this point, I want to throw the towel. But it was a best of one round so you play it out and try to attempt a comeback.
My first knockout involved a Prime Catcher and Raging Bolt ex to knockout his Raging Bolt ex. The opponent's next turn had no attack which was a slight opening for me. I think the next turn involved me using Boss's Orders to knockout another 2 Prize Pokemon. I claw my way back into the game at 2 Prize cards left each. Maybe a comeback win was actually possible here.
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My opponent did his take with his turn. He did eventually find the combination of Nest Ball to fetch Latias ex, get enough Grass Energy on Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, use Professor Sada's Vitality and power up the Raging Bolt ex. The opponent managed to go from 0 Energy to 4 Energy to knock out my Raging Bolt ex for the win.
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This game was kind of wild as I almost pulled off the comeback win. Given my somewhat bad luck, I played well enough to make it close. If the opponent did have knock out for 2 Prizes, then I would have won in my turn as I had a second Boss's Orders in hand. A missed attacking turn can make a huge difference sometimes. In hindsight, benching the Mew ex first turn was a mistake.
Post Tournament & Other Stuff
I end up at 2 wins and 1 loss again. Getting the 3 wins and 0 loss would have been ideal given that I had 2 wins and 0 losses and got paired with someone a 1W-1L record in round 3. Looking at the big picture, getting 2W-1L again does demonstrate I have some good fundamentals and consistency with this deck. Last week I got rank 5 out of 24. This time around I got 4th place out of maybe 24 players again.
With the 2 wins I got 2 Prize packs. The store also gave an additional Prize Pack Series 8. This store is quite generous with their prizing even for a free tournament. I guess their tournaments are a loss leader to get players into the store and maybe spend a bit on stuff. The store also develops a good TCG scene in various games with their low prices and generous prizing.
Here is what I got from the two packs. Nothing too crazy.
I did visit one of my other favourite card stores in the Chinatown area. They don't list prices of cards online. If you go in person, you can get some nice prices on some promo cards and the latest Ascended Heroes special set cards.
All of this was 11 CAD (no tax). The Cynthia's Roserades and the two N's Zekrom were what I wanted. I wanted to complete a Cynthia's Garchomp ex deck and update my N's Zoroark ex deck for practice and maybe for playing in person events.
After the tournament I walk towards the downtown area. At the Toronto city hall area, there was a big gathering of people. It appeared to be a Chinese New Year celebration gathering. It was also a provincial long weekend.
Thank you for reading.