Hi there. I have a tournament blog post here of Pokemon's Journey Together Pre-Release. This one is long. Read the parts you want.
Pre-Release Tournaments: Getting Cards Before Official Release
A pre-release tournament for Pokemon is a nice special event where participants (mostly players) can purchase sealed products with booster packs before the official release date. Typically you pay an entry fee to purchase one Build & Battle Box, some extra packs and a tournament entry. It is a more casual tournament to try out the new cards, play against others and potentially trade cards.
In the Build and Battle Kit sealed box there are 4 booster packs along with pre-selected cards with one of four promo cards. The four promo cards that you can get are either Lillie's Ribombee, Hop's Snorlax, N's Darmanitan or Iono's Kilowattrel. From the pre-selected cards you can get cards from two of either Lillie's group, Hop's group, N's group or Iono's group. For more details go to this Justin Basil site page.
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Journey Together is my second pre-release I have attended. My first was a year ago with Temporal Forces where I have been playing in-person events for 3 months at that point in time. Looking back I should have attended pre-release events for Twilight Masquerade, Stellar Crown and especially Surging Sparks.
Get Ready To Battle + Tournament Format
The place I went to was at 401 Games in Toronto. I made sure to book my spot early and pay the 35 CAD fee after taxes. Other places in Toronto have higher fees for their pre-release tournament. One place was 40 CAD before taxes and another one known for higher prices had it at 45 CAD before taxes. 401 Games is a pretty large local card store in downtown Toronto so they can price it really competitive as they have good revenue streams from their popularity and good operations/service.
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From the 35 CAD fee (after tax) you get one Build and Battle Kit along with two booster packs of Journey Together. For the tournament it is three rounds in a Swiss system best of one format. Each win got you two booster packs which is a very good incentive. Other stores may do their prizing and tournaments differently. In theory you should get extra packs on top of the Build and Battle kit.
Deck Building a 40 Card Deck From Build & Battle Kit + 2 Packs
Before the tournament begins you have to build your deck from the booster pack cards you pull. I think in Magic The Gathering this is called a sealed draft. Common ettiqite I think is to wait for the organizers to say that you can open your product. There was one guy who got too excited and opened up packs as soon as he got them. You had 30 minutes to build your deck before the tournament starts.
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I did manage to take some quick pictures of my pulls. From the build and battle kit I did get some nice pulls in the form of Pokemon ex. Dudunsparce ex and Salamence ex. Unfortunately I could not use those Pokemon ex for my deck as I did not have a Dunsparce, Bagon or Shellgon for Salamence ex.
As I am familiar with the Journey Together set I know which cards in general are good and not so good. In the pre-release limited format there are popular cards not available like Boss's Orders, Iono and Rare Candy. Some not so good cards in the competitive metagame can be really good in a limited format.
The two trainer archetypes I got were Hop's Corviknight evolution line and N's Darmanitan. Initially I wanted to do both Hop and N but I had to cut cards from a 50 card pool I liked. The deck building strategy was to sort cards in two groups. Bad and good. Maybe a third pile as a maybe pile would have been good too.
I wanted to do something like 14 Energy, 12 Pokemon with 7 to 8 Basic Pokemon and the rest of Trainers. The Trainer cards are generally very good as drawing cards and searching for cards provides better consistency and setup. Pulling the trainer cards in the form of Iris's Fighting Spirit and Professor Research is nice.
In the end I went with a 40 card Hop themed deck. N's Darminitan did not appeal to me in the end. Discarding energy for its attack is too costly even though you can hit 2 targets. Also the basic N's Darumaka had 2 retreat cost. Hops' Cramorant was an instant yes. It is too broken in this pre-release as you start with 4 prize cards.
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What is also broken is Hop's Dubwool. I pulled one Hop's Wooloo and one Hop's Dubwool. The Dubwool is a very scary Pokemon as its ability can swap one opponent's Benched Pokemon with their Active Pokemon. It is like Boss's Orders. Without Boss's Orders in this limited format, Hop's Dubwool is maybe the best mechanic (and maybe better than Pokemon ex).
At this time in theory I though that this deck was very good even without any Pokemon ex. I had good draw cards, decent attackers and Hop's Dubwool. Even one of the event organizers thought it was optimized lol.
Round One
My first round opponent was probably around my age. Early 30s. Most Pokemon TCG players are in their 20s. He seemed to have a good vibe.
When I revealed his attackers and bench options I did get nervous. It was a bit of a mirror match. It was my Hop's Cramorant deck with Hop's Corvinkight against his Hop's Cramorant plus Noivern.
This game was difficult as Noivern can attack for free from its ability if the user has the same number of cards as you. Noivern can attack for 110 damage in this case for 0 energy.
There were many key moments in this game that I don't remember. A lot of revenge knockouts occurred with Hop's Cramorant and his Noivern.
I was supposed to lose this but on my opponent's turn he attached Energy too early and on the wrong Pokemon. It did not result in a Knockout for him. When it came to my turn I had a winning play in mind. This was a long game and an ugly win.
Round Two
To my surprise the organizers mentioned that you are allowed to change cards in between rounds. At a different store at my first pre-release there was no mention of this so I assumed it was not allowed. This store allowed card switching which is nice. You can improve your deck if you don't like something from your deck.
Before round two I decided to cut something for a Professor's Research. I excluded Professor's Research at the start as the drawback of discarding cards was bad. I put it in for more draw power.
This game was difficult. My opponent kept using Accelgor which attacked for 70 damage plus it dealt Poison and Confusion. Then on top of that it can move to the Bench after the attack. A very annoying hit and run attacker against you.
Hop's Corviknight was super helpful in this matchup but some luck went my way.
This was a really ugly win where luck was a deciding factor. Going past confusion twice was a 25 % (1/2 times 1/2) plus a lucky topdeck for the Hop's Corviknight to save the game for me and comeback. This is some Yugioh style plot armor stuff.
Round Three
My round 3 opponent was also 2 wins and 0 losses.
This game was quick as I had good starting setup and made good decisions. Hop's Cramorant from me was very aggressive against him in the early game. It bullied him out of the game. No need to use Hop's Corviknight. I guess I got rewarded in this round after those 2 tough early rounds.
After The 3 Rounds + Prizing
At the end of the is tournament I end at 3 wins and 0 losses. Very good especially that I had to win in the ugliest ways in round 1 and 2. I had not much expectation in this tournament in terms of outcomes. My goal was to get sealed product as pre-orders on booster boxes were sold out, get some hits from booster packs, study some cards and play the best I can. As of late some Stoicism helps as I am not outcoome dependent. If I control how well I play given lots of RNG variance I should be okay.
Here are the pulls I got from the 6 packs I earned. Very happy with the Articuno illustration rare, Volcanion ex and the Hop's Zacian ex. The Wailord I got from the first few packs was good too. Good pull rates perhaps??
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A closer look of some pulls from the packs before the tournament plus the packs I won.
Closing Notes
Overall I enjoyed this pre-release tournament. I did have to work in the games and think for the 3 wins 0 losses. Two ugly wins and a easy third round. Winning more packs from the wins helped make things interesting and fun.
This was my second pre-release tournament. My first was for Temporal Forces. I don't why I skipped Twilight Masquerade, Stellar Crown and Surging Sparks pre-release. Oh well.
Ever since Surging Sparks in November 2024 there has been a surge of demand in Pokemon cards. Mostly from scalpers with some new players. It is hard to get even pre-orders of booster boxes. Prices are more than 200 CAD per box compared to 150 or 160 CAD these days.
The strategy now is go to pre-release event tournaments like this to get some sealed product, get them early, playtest and buy singles. I am mostly a player who does some collecting I can save some money this way. Funds not spent could be used for investing in dividend stocks, crypto, debt repayment or other expenses.