Pokemon's Perfect Order Prerelease Event Blog 03
Hi. I enter a third Pokemon Perfect Order Prerelease event. Here is blog number 3. It is not often I do 3 prereleases but I wanted to get some Poke Pads and there is a new upcoming format.
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Note: This post is long. Read and see what you want. Most of the first half of this post is copied and pasted from the other 2 blogs.
Card pictures are from PokemonProxies.com, Bulbapedia website or from my phone.
Perfect Order Prerelease Tournament Events
In the Pokemon TCG, prerelease events are great for players and collectors to get cards early before the main set release date. For a new player, prerelease events are a good first event instead of heading into the wild wild west of the Standard format.
In a prerelease event you pay a fee for:
- Tournament entry
- One build and battle box kit
- Two booster packs (some stores may do something else)
One build and battle box kit contains one preconstructed deck, 4 booster packs, one code card for the online client game and a list of cards in the set.
In the Toronto area, a build and battle box kit usually at around 70 CAD to 90 CAD. Paying a prerelease tournament fee of 40 to 50 CAD is pretty good.
Each deck contains one of 4 promo cards.
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Deck Building Info
Your build and battle kit comes with a 4 booster packs and a 40 card pre-constructed deck. You randomly get one of 4 preconstructed deck archetypes with a promo card. Each deck has its own pros and cons along with useful (Trainer) cards from previous sets.
This reddit post contains useful decklist info. Below, I post screenshot decklists images.
Tournament Structure
For this prerelease event, I head to A & C Games near the University of Toronto and near Toronto's Chinatown.
They do 3 best of one rounds at 30 minutes each. For each win, you get an extra pack. This store does their prereleases a little differently. This store tends to give out more stuff in the form of extra packs and Prize Pack Series 7 player packs.
I understand this store has leftover inventory of old Prize Packs. I guess this store really provides a lot for the players.
Initial Opening & Deck
Before opening my build and battle kit, I was just hoping for not a Serperior deck. I had 2 already. This time around I got the Doublade deck. Whew.
From my packs, I did get some nice pulls as well as some cards that could boost the Doublade default deck. One more Poke Pad and a Judge helps. Minus one Waitress for a Judge and I think I did minus 1 Metal Energy for the extra and third copy of Poke Pad. I also added a fifth Honedge for extra consistency and firepower.
Here is my modified Dobulade deck.
Round One
My first round opponent seemed new as he mentioned that he may have questions. Or maybe he started getting into the game. I sensed that he has played other card games given that he had kind of a nice playmat.
This matchup was my Doublade deck against his Barbarcle deck with no Mega Zygarde ex.
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I win this one fast in around 5 minutes. Set up Doublade and start attacking. My setup, hand and luck were good too. After reporting my win, I offered a practice match. This was for more practice and to pass the time.
Round Two
When I saw the matchup pairings, I noticed one odd thing. I got downpaired against someone who was 0 wins and 1 loss. As there were 17 players instead of 16, you get someone with a free win (a bye) and a downpair match.
The round two opponent was the person on my right in round one. I know this guy is a regular player at the store. Any regular player at a prerelease event is a dangerous player.
He lost to his opponent who played Barbaracle with Mega Zygarde ex. Then I find out that he has the same deck.
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The opponent did bench his Mega Zygarde ex around turn 2. This caught me somewhat off guard as I did not see this in his first round game on my right. This is a very dangerous opponent with 0 win and 1 loss. I did not panic out loud but I had to quickly come up with some strategy to beat this.
My plan was to use Aegislash to deal a big first hit on the Mega Zygarde ex and put pressure. This plan backfired as the opponent retreated it to safety. Hawlucha would two hit the Aegislash.
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There is no way to target down the damaged Mega Zygarde ex on the bench. I eventually lose this one.
I don't know if these players are getting lucky with their pulls or something. Getting a Mega Zygarde ex from packs is one type of luck but then getting the Barbaracle deck plus Mega Zygarde ex is super lucky.
There may be players who are swapping cards during deckbuilding. It is not against rules but some (including me) could say it is against the spirit of random sealed format tournament. I've done once two years ago but I don't do it these days.
Round Three
My round 3 opponent also had 1 win and 1 loss. This person sat on my left in round one. Very coincidental. I knew he was playing Tyrantrum but he was not sure on what I had.
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After my first turn, I realized I made a mistake. I noticed that my opponent had started a Fossil Pokemon for setup. It is an unusual and weird ruling but you actually cannot start a Fossil Pokemon for setup. A Fossil is treated as an Item trainer card until it is played on the field. I called a judge for this one. I don't like doing it but it was needed.
I mentioned that a Fossil was started for setup and that I already started my turn. I admitted that I caught the error a bit late. The judge mentioned that under normal rules it would be either a game loss or a 2 prize penalty.
This fossil setup ruling is not well known even amongst regular players let alone new players. The judge mentioned that we can work it out ourselves. I talked to my opponent and said that I keep my board state and he would restart his setup and then do his first turn going second.
As the opponent was setting up, he struggled to find a Basic Pokemon. In fact, it was five times that my opponent mulliganed his hand. From these five mulligans, I exercise the option of drawing 5 cards.
Sparing the details, I end up winning this one even with a 330 HP Tyrantrum on his side.
Post Tournament, Prizing and Extra Pulls
I end at 2 wins and 1 loss again for the third time in a row. It would be nice to get a 3 wins and 0 loss record but luck is needed though. Getting 2 wins and 1 loss at each of these three prereleases is still really, really good. To come to think of it, this is good given that I did not use powerful Pokemon ex attackers.
My rank was actually 8 out of 17 players. My round 2 opponent was 2 wins and 1 loss also but got rank 3 and a raffle prize. I am not sure how with all the tie breaker rules.
With the 2 wins, I get an extra 2 Perfect Order packs. My pictures are a bit all of the place. I think one of the pulls here was a full art Mega Skarmory ex. They do make nice full art Pokemon ex cards as of late. Very colourful. I also get a second Mega Clefable ex copy from this event.
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As I was about to walk out and thank the judge. He gave me an extra Prize Pack Series 7 player pack. This hit was nice. A stamped Vaporeon ex. I actually don't have an English regular Vaporeon ex. This was a nice bonus.
Closing Notes
I do like A & C Games. It is my main card store I go to when I make the occasional Toronto visit. If you are a regular, you don't feel more like a partner than a customer.
My pulls from booster packs here were noticeably better than the previous 2 prereleases. No special illustration rares or anything but some solid hits in full art cards and some Pokemon ex.