Hi there. In this Pokemon TCG post, I do a prerelease guide for the upcoming Chaos Rising set.
Prerelease events are casual tournament events where players, collectors and maybe PokeInvestors/scalpers (unfortunately) get cards early and play games. Some are aiming to get big hits like some of these art cards.
Chaos Rising Prerelease events are held from May 9, 2026 to May 17, 2026. Some local stores may give out extra packs for participation. Some other stores may have a format where you win more packs for each win or if you achieve a certain tournament record. It depends.
This post is long. Read and see what you want.
Prerelease events do take up a few hours out of the day. Entry fees for these events are usually around 40 or 45 CAD per event. Some places may charge 35 CAD or even 30 CAD but they give out less packs or have more competitive prizing.
In a prerelease event, each participant receives one build and battle kit. This kit usually retails for more than 45 CAD after release. You also get a few extra packs. It is usually two extra packs but it depends on the store.
After receiving the kit, you have 30 minutes to build a 40 card deck from the build and battle kit with a preconstructed deck and the packs you get. In a prerelease format, you can go past the standard max 4 copies of a card in a deck.
Once the deckbuilding phase is done, you play the tournament. The tournament is in a swiss format. You typically matchup with someone of the same record as you. If there is an odd number of people, then someone in each round gets a free win or a bye. A free win is impactful as the store may have a pack per win prize format. The casual prerelease tournaments are usually in a best of one format with 3 rounds. There may be a few places that have more rounds or even a best of 3 format.
In the prerelease build and battle kit, you get 1 of 4 promo cards and its associated preconstructed deck. The preconstructed decks are unknown but I'm sure there will be a few Youtubers who will leak the information before May 9.
For Chaos Rising, the promo cards are one of either:
Note that all 4 promo cards are Stage 2 Pokemon.
Crobat seems to be the best out of the four. One Dark Energy for 80 damage plus Confusion & Poison it pretty powerful.
Goodra may be the most powerful but you have to watch out for discarding the top card of your deck. Energy requirements can be awkward.
English card Images are from pokemonproxies.com or from Pokebeach.
If you are lucky, Beedrill ex is pretty good in the prerelease format. Watch out for Fire Pokemon though.
Fennekin outside of a Delphox deck is useable in my opinion. The Call For Family attack for any 1 Energy lets you search your deck for up to 2 Basic Pokemon and put them onto your Bench. (Then shuffle deck.) In standard play, Call For Family is sometimes used in the early game but for prerelease this attack is good for setup and you see your deck.
This Octillery evolution line good be good in a Goodra deck. You run Water Energy anyways. Octillery is also good if you don't like your deck and want to do just Water Pokemon.
Corner Stop requires one Water Energy to deal 30 damage. During the opponent's next turn, if the Defending Pokemon tries to attack, the opponent has to flip 2 coins. If any of the two is tails, the attack does nothing. The probability of hitting two Heads is 25%. This Corner Stop attack is pretty annoying and can lead to stall and deckout. However, the opponent can switch out to a new Pokemon and knock out the Octillery.
It is hard to ignore the Mega Greninja evolution line. If you are lucky, consider this evolution line. You may have to make room for Water Energy if you are not using Goodra.
Watch out for Ampharos though.
There are 4 Deoxys cards in the set. The one with Genome Charge could be okay in prerelease if you run a full Psychic deck (ditching the preconstructed deck).
The Deoxys with the Psy Protect attack is really good against opponents that have attackers with abilities. It would take some time to get energy on to this Deoxys though.
Free Retreat Deoxys
The only two Pokemon in this set that have a zero retreat cost. It is Zubat and this Deoxys.
You may or may not use this for attacking. The zero retreat cost is helpful for putting this in front after one of your Pokemon is Knocked Out. That way you can gain more information from your draw before committing a possible attack.
The Psy Speed attack is decent. One Psychic energy for 30 damage plus you draw cards until 5 cards in hand.
Mega Dragalge ex could be the best attacker in the prerelease format. The Pernicious Poison attack does not deal damage but it deals 16 damage counters of Poison damage in between turns for a Poisoned Pokemon.
Qwilfish is kind of usable for any deck. The Poison Point is a punish style ability. If Qwilfish is in the active spot and takes damage from an attack from the opponent's Pokemon, the Attacking Pokemon is Poisoned.
Roxie's Performance is a niche Supporter card that goes with Poison Pokemon. During the opponent's next turn, their Poisoned Pokemon cannot retreat (including newly Poisoned Pokemon).
Tauros could be good. In prerelease, you can go past 4 copies. You could even do an all out Tauros deck.
Crowd Targeting requires 2 Energy for the attack. You choose 1 of your opponent's Pokemon (Active or Benched). Flip a coin for each Tauros you have in play. This attack does 50 damage times the number of heads to that Pokemon.
Three Tauros In Play (3 Flips) Probability Table
| # Heads | Damage | Probability |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 12.5% |
| 1 | 50 dmg | 37.5% |
| 2 | 100 dmg | 37.5% |
| 3 | 150 dmg | 12.5% |
Four Tauros Probability Table
| # Heads | Damage | Probability |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 6.25% |
| 1 | 50 | 25% |
| 2 | 100 | 37.5% |
| 3 | 150 dmg | 25% |
| 4 | 200 dmg | 6.25% |
Five Tauros Probability Table
| # Heads | Damage | Probability |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 3.125% |
| 1 | 50 | 15.625% |
| 2 | 100 | 31.25% |
| 3 | 150 | 31.25% |
| 4 | 200 | 15.625% |
| 5 | 250 | 3.125% |
Increasing the number of Tauros helps with getting at least 100 damage. The main issues with an all Tauros deck is getting the Tauros in play and getting energy set up. Tauros has 130 HP but can be fragile later in the game.
Minccino on its own is a decent early game attacker. One Energy for 30 damage and then 10 damage to itself.
Cincinno ex looks to be pretty annoying. Smooth Coat activates when any damage is done to it. Flip a coin. If heads, prevent that damage.
Energized Slap does 40 damage for each Energy attached to it.
If you get lucky, the combination of Mega Floette ex, Prism Tower and Hyperrouge Ange Floette is strong in prerelease. You would need a Pokemon ex to go toe to toe with this combination.
Crobat, Cincinno ex or Octillery can stall this out though.
Emma could be an okay draw supporter. The opponent reveals his/her hand. Then you draw cards equal to the amount of Pokemon in the opponent's hand.
Even if don't draw many cards, seeing the opponent's hand can be of great value.
This Delibird could be useful in a few niche decks. If you have a lot of energy in the hand, then this first attack can power up your attackers. I think this is best with Mega Pokemon ex attackers that require a lot of energy. If your Mega Pokemon ex is up and running, you typically just win if the opponent has no Pokemon ex to fight back with.
Special Red Card is one of the best cards in the game and in this format. Some may argue that this is the best card in the game (in Japan or soon).
In the prerelease format, you start with 4 Prize Cards instead of the Standard six. You can play this Special Red Card if the opponent has 3 Prize cards or lower. For the prerelease format, it would be when the opponent knocked out one of your Pokemon.
After playing this card, the opponent shuffles their hand and puts it into to the bottom of their deck. Then the opponent draws 3 cards. I boldfaced bottom of deck as the opponent should not shuffle the cards back into the deck. (Regular players should warn newer players about this to maintain board state. Someone who waits for this mistake then rulesharks this to gain a cheap win at a casual prerelease is suspect.)
There are 3 new special Energy cards in the Mega Evolution sets series. We have:
Nitro Fire Energy is good for Fire Pokemon with attacks that require discarding. Instead of discarding you put the discarded Energy back into your hand.
Bubble Water Energy is very good for Water Pokemon. You heal any Special Conditions (Paralysis, Poison, Asleep, Burn) and Water Pokemon with this Energy are not affected by Special Conditions.
Magnet Metal Energy will not see much play in the prerelease format. Metal Pokemon with this Energy has zero retreat cost.
When it comes to the prerelease format, a lot of luck and variance is involved. Two wins out of 3 rounds is usually good. One win out of 3 could be good if the opponents are tough somehow. Winning three out of three usually involves good luck in packs and in games. It is hard to do and I think it is not that important to win a prerelease event. Sometimes you lose against someone with lucky pulls and Pokemon ex. Sometimes you win without lucky pulls.
When it comes to deckbuilding, sticking with the preconstructed deck is generally safe. Regular players may want to cut certain cards to make room for better attackers or more supporters. Some people may want to adjust their decks to make room for a Mega Pokemon ex they got from packs.
You never know who you run into at prerelease events (or any event in general). The opponent could be a regular player, an ace trainer, a pro (who may be all in on this game), a store employee (maybe) or a first-timer. The main goal with prerelease events is to get stuff early. Earning more packs from wins is a nice bonus.
Chaos Rising prerelease events could be chaotic. Without knowing the preconstructed decks, I think any deck and even any player can do well. Some people may try to ditch their preconstructed decks and try stuff like Tauros, Cincinno ex, Mega Dragalge ex, Mega Greninja ex or Mega Floette ex.
Thank you for reading.
