Hi there. Here is blog 3 where I attend my third Pokemon Destined Rivals prerelease event.
Yes I went to three this time. Going to prerelease events is the only to get sealed product and packs. Booster boxes & pre-orders are sold out for this mega set. Those damn scalpers ruined things since Surging Sparks in November 2024.
This post is long. Read what you want. I added pictures so your eyes don't get bored.
Heading To Venue
I head to Toronto on a Sunday afternoon. Buy some cards here and there plus shop around in downtown Toronto.
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The place I head to is below the downtown Toronto IKEA.
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There was also some accident nearby. That bus failed a tight right turn. It should not have made a right turn anyways. Big L.
Tournament Format
Banana Games is the store where the pre-release tournament is at. Their prices are kind of high compared to other card stores in the area. They do hold a lot of pre-release events. The other card stores in the area hold one pre-release event. This store held like 6 pre-release events for Destined Rivals with a limit of 2 events per person. They carry a lot of product and attract many collectors & players.
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The entry fee is 45 CAD which is higher than the competitors. You get one Build & Battle Box kit which has a set of pre-constructed cards and 4 booster packs inside. You also get 2 extra packs. This makes it 6 packs in total plus the pre-constructed set of cards in the kit.
From the pre-constructed set of cards you get 2 out of the 4 groups. Some combinations are better than others in theory and in gameplay. You build your deck around the cards you randomly get in this sealed limited format.
In the regular Pokemon TCG you start with a 60 card deck and 6 prizes each. For the pre-release limited format you build a 40 card deck and start the game with 4 prize cards. The games in theory are shorter.
We have 3 best of one rounds in this tournament. It is a Swiss format where you get paired with someone that is the same win-loss record as you or a similar record. For every win you get one extra pack as prizing.
Opening Up The Build & Battle Kit + Deckbuilding
Here are some pictures as I open up my packs and build my deck.
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I got the Ethan's Typhlosion group again for the third time in a row. Very good and lucky. The second group was Misty's Water Pokemon with the Misty's Gyarados promo card. Very nice. I think the Ethan's Typhlosion + Misty's Starmie group is the best.
The Typhlosion can hit for big damage for 1 Fire Energy and the Misty's Starmie can hit for 140 damage (plus another 140 if weakness) on the same turn you evolve. This duo group is very strong. I had to remind myself that this is not necessarily an auto-win as you still have to play well. Other people may have the same group as you or even luckier pulls.
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The pulls I got from the packs were much better than my previous two pre-release events. Yes to Team Rocket's Meowth illustration rare and the illustration rare Kangaskhan. I got a regular Rocket's Mewtwo ex. This Mewtwo cannot be used in my deck as I don't have enough Rocket cards to support it.
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The picture on the bottom right is pretty much my 40 card deck. At the time I was thinking about the 40th card to put in. I think it was Arven's Sandwich. This deck provides good attacking option, consistency and good firepower for most threats.
Round One
The table I was assigned at for round one was the same table I was at for deckbuilding. I did not have to move much. My opponent wanted my seat so he can sit beside his friend. I was okay with this. The opponent knew how to play but his friend did not. (Later I found out he knew Yugioh TCG.)
I think my opponent won the coin flip here. He chose to go second if I remember. My first turn was some basic setup of Ethan's Cyndaquil and at least 1 Misty's Staryu. For his first turn, my opponent started with a Misty's Staryu. Then he played an early aggressive Judge.
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The new hand I got from Judge was not too bad. I don't remember it but it was workable.
He attacks with Misty's Staryu. The coin flip was Heads in his favour. My Active Spot Ethan's Cyndaquil is paralyzed. It cannot attack nor retreat unless I evolve it. Kind of annoying but not game ending.
I don't remember the exact details & order from here on out. Ethan's Quilava was put into play by me. Then the ability can be used to fetch Ethan's Adventure from the deck.
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For the next turns I set up more Pokemon and attackers. I do remember my opponent getting a Team Rocket's Tyranitar into play from the Team Rocket's Pupitar attack. The Tyrantiar does not have enough energy for the attack. However the ability does deal damage to my one Benched Ethan's Cyndaquil. Eventually I am able to knock it out with relative ease with my Ethan's Typhlosion. Then the game is in my control from here on out.
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At this point I am one prize card or one knockout away from winning. The opponent uses Misty's Staryu to attack my Ethan's Typhlosion in hopes of getting the paralysis. He does land Heads and audibly gets excited. Even the female judge/organizer notices it and gets excited too. I was somewhat annoyed by this but I look at my hand again. My next turn is a win.
For my next turn I simply use Surfer to swtich out the Paralyzed Ethan's Typhlosion to a Misty's Starmie with 1 Water Energy. Then I can retreat the Starmie for the Ethan's Typhlosion again and attack for the knockout and win.
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It ended up being a comfortable win in the end. There were some lurking dangers from the opponent's deck. The Staryu & Starmie threat is something to be respected.
Round 1 matchups can be weird and random for me. Getting the round 1 win helps calm down some nerves.
Round Two Vs Youngster
My second round opponent was a young kid who was across from me during deckbuilding before round one. We knew each others core cards. He had Ethan's Typhlosion and Misty's Pokemon as well. The kid did not feel confident as he told me that he would easily beat me before we started. Did I have aura or something? I told him that we should play it out and his deck was similar to mine. Anything can happen in a mirror type match.
I won the coin flip so I start first. My first turn was basic setup with Ethan's Cyndaquil and I pass. He opened with Ethan's Pichu in the active and does basic setup. He attacks for 30 damage and draws 1 card with the Ethan's Pichu.
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On my second turn I further strengthen my setup and get Ethan's Quilava into play. I do other setup things and knockout the 30 HP Ethan's Pichu with Quilava (I think).
Over time I maintain my lead and setup. I end up knocking out 4 of his Pokemon for the win.
My opponent admitted to me that he was tired from staying up to midnight. It resulted in him making a few misplays. I don't know how he did in round 3. His deck is actually really good from his pulls.
Round Three
My round 3 opponent was also at 2 wins and 0 losses. She asked me how my games went. I replied by saying that I had to work for my wins. We setup and then start.
I won the coin flip and chose to go first on my first turn. My setup was Misty's Lapras in the Active Spot with a Misty's Staryu on the Bench. My five card hand was kind of bad but somewhat usable. It was a Misty's Starmie and 4 Basic Energy that was like 3 Water and 1 Fire Energy. Her active Pokemon was Team Rocket's Rattata. Somewhat unusual but I can see danger in this.
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My first turn setup was not the greatest but it was workable. I attach one Water Energy to Misty's Lapras and then pass my turn over. Her first turn included an early and aggressive use of Judge.
Judge in the early game does limit your hand size. I think her thinking was to reduce my hand size from 5 to four plus reset her hand. Little did she know that my hand kind of sucked. It was likely I would get 4 cards that were better than my 5 card hand. I don't remember my 4 cards but I do recall getting at least one Ethan's Cyndaquil and one Ethan's Quilava. This is workable enough for setup and attacking purposes.
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I am ahead with 2 Prize cards to go out of 4 and she has 4 Prize cards left. Misty's Lapras was doing good work knocking out her Team Rocket's Rattata and her Ethan's Cyndaquil. Her next turn was pivotal. I find out she had a 3rd Ethan's Adventure supporter card. She must've pulled one from packs and got lucky. She also had a fifth Ethan's Cyndaquil. Normally the maximum count is 4 but in a pre-release you can go past 4 copies of a card. I now see how she got 2 wins and 0 losses. She must've stomped her opponents or something. With 3 Ethan's Adventure cards in her discard pile, her Ethan's Typhlosion has one hit knockout power at 220 damage (40 + 60 x 3 = 40 + 180). She knocks out my Active Spot Ethan's Typhlosion.
This felt like one of those final bosses that powers up even more when losing. I am two knockouts away from winning and she reveals more firepower. At this point we are at 2 Prize cards each. I lost my Misty's Lapras and 1 of 2 Ethan's Typhlosion.
My next turn was important. I evaluate my board state, my hand and her board state. I have an Active Ethan's Quilava with one Fire Energy, one Ethan's Cyndaquil on the Bench and a Misty's Staryu on the bench. If I don't knock her Typhlosion out this turn then I think I lose as she one hit knocks out anything I have in two attacks/turns.
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To start this turn, I use Rare Candy to evolve Ethan's Cyndaquil into a second & last Ethan's Typhlosion. I skip the Quilava stage.
I decide to go for a high risk, low probability, high reward play. The plan was to use Judge to hopefully get a Misty's Starmie plus at least 1 Water Energy. Then I can retreat my Quilava into Staryu. Then evolve into Misty's Starmie, attach Water Energy and hit for 280 damage (140 x 2 for weakness).
After using Judge I get what I want. My Misty's Starmie knocks out her 170 HP Ethan's Tyhplosion for 280 damage (60 + 80 = 140 then times 2 for weakness). She forgot about weakness and went "Oh shit." after the knockout. She could not believe I pulled out this play as it was either something she did not predict and/or it was a low probability & high impact play. (I had to improvise for this play.) This was a memorable crazy play I did here.
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Looking back on this I think she was tilted at this point. Maybe it was the first time she faced fierce opposition. When you make a play that makes your opponent say "Oh shit" even when a kid is in the tournament, you know you made a very good play. For some reason she decided to promote her 10 HP Ethan's Typhlosion for the counter attack. She had a full 170HP Typhlosion on her Bench to attack with and absorb damage. When on tilt you tend to make bad decisions like in Texas Hold'em Poker.
My opponent counter attacks my Misty's Starmie for the Knockout. For my next turn I needed 1 Fire Energy for my second Ethan's Typhlosion for the win. I already had it in hand. Attach Fire and attack for the win. I go 3 wins and 0 losses. Yes.
After Tournament + Prizing
Going 3 wins and 0 losses is nice. Much better than going 1 win and 2 losses in the previous 2 prereleases. The opponents I played all knew how to play. No easy opponents.
I checked my account and the store standings. Apparently I got 1st out of 19. Nice. In the grand scheme of things, rank here does not mean that much. The main objective here is to get some packs.
The nice thing about this tournament is that you don't have to wait for everyone to finish their round 3 matches to receive your prizing. Both my round 3 opponent and I finished our match kind of fast. After reporting the match, I get my extra 3 packs first from 3 wins and 0 losses. Then my opponent gets her 2 packs.
From the 3 extra packs I pulled one random rare card, one Ethan's Ho-oh ex and an illustration rare Arven's Greedent. Very nice.
The match on my right ended shortly after I pulled packs. Then some random guy takes the seat on my right and comes up with a trade binder. This guy was not playing at the event but his friends were. He wanted to trade cards based on pulls people were getting.
I bring out my trade binder and ask if he wanted to trade. He agreed. We see each other's trade binders and search for what we wanted. The guy wanted my full art Braixen and full art Wattrel. According to his phone app, the two cards were worth 11 dollars.
From his binder I wanted the full art Chinese version Fuecoco and Crocalor. He even added Steven's Metagross ex valued at 2 CAD for him. He wanted to remove his Chinese cards. The Fuecoco shopping cart art was one of my chase cards. In English it is expensive at 40 or 50 CAD. Japanese version is cheaper but I don't know the price. This Fuecoco card is maybe my favourite art card out of the Scarlet & Violet era.
Both of us agreed to the trade. He gets my Braixen + Wattrel and I get the Chinese Fuecoco, Chinese Crocalor and Steven's Metagross ex (not shown, sorry).
This event turned out great for me. The main thing was pulling some nice art cards and playable cards from the packs. Winning packs from the round wins were a good bonus.
These days it is hard to get booster boxes or pre-orders. When possible I will definitely do pre-release events. The next main set is unknown but they usually do a third main set of the year around September. The next special set of cards is from Black Bolt + White Flare around early June 2025. (Special sets have no pre-release events nor booster boxes.)