Hi there. In this blog style post I got to my first Pre Release Pokemon TCG event. It is the Temporal Forces Pre Release event.
A Pre Release event is a nice special event where you can obtain new cards from the upcoming set before the official release date. You collect some cards, playtest them in a small tournament format and maybe win more stuff.
This pre release event was on March 10, 2024 while the official release is on March 22, 2024.
There are more pre-release events around the St. Patrick's Day weekend. It would be Mar 16 and Mar 17, 2024
Note that this is a long post.
Topics
- Before The Event
- Opening The Build & Battle Kit
- Round One
- Round Two
- Round Three
- After The Tournament
- Other Notes
Before The Event
As this event was in Toronto which is kind of far from where I am, I made sure to book my spot early in advance. There are not many Pre-Release events in my area and the one place near me is kind of sketchy from the photos and reviews.
The price was just under 31 CAD before tax. After tax it came to 35 CAD. You get a Build & Battle Kit for Temporal Forces. Inside there are four booster packs and a preconstructed random deck with a promotional card. The store also gave two booster packs. In total you get six packs along with additional cards for the deck. About 5 CAD per pack and the remaining 5 CAD for the deck and tournament fee. The price of 35 CAD was a steal in my opinion for obtaining cards before the main release.
When I arrived at the place there were a few early people playing a casual game with their own decks. A few people had trade binders ready including me. I did a 1 for 1 trade of my Lugia VSTAR for Iron Hands ex. With the increase in price of Lugia VSTAR I don't plan to play Lugia VSTAR.
Before this event I was reading up on possible decks you can get from the Build & Battle Kit and got familiar with the cards from the set. It just helps with deck construction and with playing. I also was aware of the heavy variance when it comes to decks you get and playing in general. Randomness would be a huge factor in matchups and what you can make in your decks.
In the Pre Release format each best of one game features decks with 40 cards and there are four prize cards instead of six.
Opening The Build & Battle Kit
I opened mine up when I received my kit. My promo card was the single prize Dragon Ancient Koraidon. Pictures taken after the event.
My pre-constructed deck featured Koraidon with Metang. This was kind of lucky. The worst one in my opinion was Feraligatr. It would just take so much time to set up Feraligatr as it was Stage 2 and attack. Another guy was not happy getting Feraligatr. He was saying like "Oh man, this is my fifth Feraligatr!". Maybe it was sarcasm but I think he did go to other pre-release events before this one lol. Pre-Release events started as early on March 9 and this was March 10. There were a few guys who were willing to spend the time and money to go to multiple pre release events and get as many new cards as possible before the launch.
I open my four packs in the Build & Battle Kit. Although I did not get an ACE SPECs card I did get two big pulls. These two were Walking Wake ex and Raging Bolt ex. Pictures taken after the event. The Raging Bolt ex card is on the right of the Flutter Mane, it is hard to see sorry.
A guy on my left got the ACE SPEC Awakening Drum, a guy from across the table was showing off his Secret Illustration Rare Iron Leaves ex, some other guy got super lucky and got the sought after ACE SPEC card Prime Catcher. (I want this too.) The pull rates here seem pretty good but it is a small sample size of 20 or so players.
Deck Building
When it came to deck building I had two main options. It was either go with Metang with Metal energies plus Ancient Pokemon or go all out on Ancient Pokemon. I went with Ancient Pokemon. In the Pre Release format it was actually okay to go with 15 Energy cards. There were not a lot of Trainer cards available for you to use in the deck. Trainer cards that I had available were stuff like Heavy Baton (not useful here), Youngster, one copy of Morty's Conviction, one Ultra Ball, one Professor Sada's Vitality and few others.
A few guys at my table were done with their deckbuilding before the end of 30 minutes limit. I was still taking my time. I wanted to add both Walking Wake ex and Raging Bolt ex. Energy counts were somewhat tricky. I think in the end I had like 9 Fighting energy mostly for the Koraidon, 4 Water Energy for Walking Wake ex and 3 Lightning Energy for the Raging Bolt ex.
Round One
My opponent here had Miraidon with Metang. She started with Miraidon in the active. My hand sucked as it was mostly Energy cards. Miraidon's first attack does 40 damage and it allows the attacker to attach two Basic Energy to her Future Pokemon in any way she liked. Her start was pretty much perfect. I had no real response to her attackers including Iron Boulder ex. It was prolonged defeat. In the end I found out that both my Walking Wake ex and Raging Bolt ex were in the four prizes. The luck I had was really bad. It sucked.
After this round one game, all the players got their two packs. I thought packs 5 and 6 were for the deckbuilding but I guess not. In one of these two packs I pulled an Explorer's Guidance.
Round Two
The round two opponent was someone the round one opponent knew. I had played against this guy before. He is also a employee/seller a different trading card game store. I am not a fan of this guy to be honest. I get arrogance vibes from this guy and in the last time I played him he was doing a somewhat complicated sequence without announcing his moves. Outside the games he is civil with me but he gets loud and annoying at times in between games. This was also the guy who showed his Iron Leaves ex Secret Illustration Rare. I find out later that he knows the first round girl.
My starting hand and setup was much better than in round one. My opponent has a good start and it seemed like he was doing Ancient Pokemon with a surprise Iron Leaves ex. When it came to me damaging his Pokemon he did not ask if he could use my dice he just took them and placed them. I am not surprised.
The details were fuzzy but I remember being behind in the prize race until I got Walking Wake ex as a barrier for him getting his fourth and final prize card. In the next turn or so I also had my Raging Bolt ex in play. As Walking Wake ex had one retreat cost I retreated it for Raging Bolt to obtain my last few prize cards. His Iron Leaves ex could not one hit kill Raging Bolt ex. I escaped there with a somewhat lucky victory. He got surprised by both Walking Wake ex and Raging Bolt ex from my pulls and appearances in the game.
Maybe the opponent thought I would be a easy win for him given my game in round one.
Round Three
When it came to round three I was happy with one win one loss as this event is filled with randomness. Getting three wins no losses would be super lucky.
My round three opponent had the Feraligatr and Metang deck. His start was not great as he had Totodile and Beldums. I was able to get three out of four prize cards easily with Koraidon with Ancient Pokemon on my Bench.
I sensed a comeback attempt from him as he had Metangs and got a Metagross in play. Metagross was 180 HP so I need to hit it for 90 damage twice for the final prize card and win. There was a Great Tusk in my active spot to stall out for a few turns.
Sandy Shocks was there to deal the 90 damage with three Basic energies in play. The fully charged Flutter Mane was there do the second 90 damage for the knockout and game. This game was getting scary near the end but I got the win.
After The Tournament
I ended up going with 2 wins and 1 loss. Given the major luck differential between me and the round 1 opponent I will take this result. These games were not easy. I had to play well to even get a win especially in round two knowing the opponent. In addition this pre-release event did not feel that casual. It was my first pre-release event so I did expect a more relaxed environment. Maybe not here. It could be a city thing or a Toronto thing.
As I got 2 wins I did receive another 2 booster packs of Temporal Forces. These two packs were packs number 7 and number 8 from the store's booster box. I did really get good pulls from these two packs. In one pack I got a Miraidon and the second pack was not good but I got the supporter Eri.
Other Notes
I did enjoy this pre-release event. You do get good value from the 35 CAD with 6 booster packs, a promotional card and some nice playable cards. If you win a game you get another booster pack which is nice. As what you get is random the games should not hold that much weight. The opponents I got knew how to play but I am sure there are participants there that are more for getting the cards early than playing.
If you do go to one of these it would be a very good idea to bring card sleeves, a playmat and be familiar with the Temporal Forces cards. Being familiar with the cards and the card effects helps with deckbuilding and gameplay. This guide by JustinBasil is helpful.
It felt like the pull rates were pretty good here. I knew of four people out of 18 who got an ACE SPEC card. Round two opponent got a Special Illustration Rare, I got a full Art Raging Bolt ex. If you get an ACE SPEC card or a rare card you got your money's worth lol.
There were a few guys who were planning to go to more pre-release events. They really wanted to get a lot of the cards early before the March 22 release. Plus they were willing to pay a bit of money. I think there is diminishing returns if you go to too many pre-releases. Something like more than 3 pre-releases is overkill because of diminishing returns. Recall that one of the guys already went to a couple of pre-releases before this one and complained about getting his 5th Feraligatr. Getting extra cards (more than 4) of what you don't want is possible if you go to way too many.
