Hi there. Another Pokemon TCG Chaos Rising prerelease blog by me.
Note that this post is kind of long. Read and see what you want.
Prerelease events are casual tournament events where players/participants open packs early before the release date.
I revisit A & C Games near Toronto's Chinatown area and near the University of Toronto campus.
Different stores have different tournament structures and prizing. At A & C Games, their price was 40 CAD before 13% tax.
More prerelease info can be found in my previous posts or from a Youtube guide such as this one:
Pokemon prerelease tournaments are in a sealed draft format. Everyone gets one Build & Battle Kit. Inside the kit you get one of 4 preconstructed decks plus 4 booster packs.
The preconstructed decks are either: Crobat, Delphox, Ampharos or Goodra. Deck images below with Japanese cards.
At A & C Games you get your extra 2 packs after playing round one. Other stores may give the two packs before round 1 during the deckbuilding phase.
There are three best of one rounds at this store. For every win, you win another Chaos Rising pack.
Other stores may do different formats, more rounds or a different prizing system. Some places do you have to win at least two to get packs, some do everyone gets packs at the end. With a pack per win format, there is always something to play for in each round. Many Toronto card stores do this pack per win prize format at prereleases.
In prerelease blog 02, I got the Ampharos deck. In this one, blog 03, I get it again.
From the 4 packs in the build and battle kit, the best pull was Mega Gallade ex. A very below average Build and Battle Kit in terms of pulls I think. I could not even use this Mega in my deck as there is no Ralts or Kirlia in the set! Boo!!
I did not want to use the Ampharos deck out of the box. Ampharos does struggle against 160 HP Delphox and 160 HP Goodra. I need to find the extra chip damage from the cards I pulled.
I cut 4 Lightning Energy out of 11. Then I add 2 Dark Energy and a Zubat. Minus one Emolga for a Qwilfish and try out 1 Trubbish.
The Zubat is there for free retreat which goes well with Switch and Surfer. That way I can Switch, retreat with Zubat and attack on the next turn with Ampharos. Zubat can be used for Confusion if needed.
In round one I am up against Crobat. The opponent was someone I have seen before from time to time.
I was actually a little worried in the early turns. The Qwilfish is pretty annoying to deal with. It was better to not attack it, setup Energy and work my way to Ampharos on my Bench. I let the opponent take an early lead so I can build a better board state later in the game.
Over time, I manage to set up two Ampharos attackers to compete against Qwilfish and Crobats. Switch and Surfer help with the Zubat switch, retreat and attack again strategy.
Despite some early game stuggles, I take a comfortable win in the end. The Crobat confusion is pretty annoying to deal with though. Retreating helps though.
My round two opponent was someone I have played before maybe 4 times. He is a store regular and has placed well at the Toronto Regionals tournament in January 2026. Top 120 I think. His friend, another store regular I see often, placed 37th. This opponent is fairly laid back and plays well.
The opponent played a Goodra deck with the Meowstic. His first turn was pretty good as he had multiple Goomy on the Bench.
My starting turns were kind of slow. I focused on setting up at the back and work my way to Ampharos.
Several turns later, I do have one of my attackers ready. I noticed some sort of weakness in my opponent's board state. There was not much energy on the Benched Pokemon. I decided to attack the Active Meowstic. It turned out that this was a good play. I take control over the game.
The details at this point are fuzzy to me. I make good plays, extend my lead and then win.
My opponent thought that he should have played more patient and not leave his attacking Meowstic exposed like that. He had issues setting up Stage 1 Sligoos.
A somewhat lucky win here. I'll take it. Two wins and 0 loss at this point.
To pass the time, I and 9 other people were spectating this long match. It was between a Delphox player and a Crobat player with one Prize card remaining for each player. Both are regular players.
The final moment was where the Delphox player had to attack with a Confused Pokemon. A Heads means the attack goes through for the Knockout and Delphox player means. Tails means that the Delphox misses the attack, hits itself for 30 then the Crobat player can attack and win. From the coin flip, Delphox player gets Heads for the win. The game at that point was decided by a coin flip.
My round 3 opponent was someone I faced before once last year. She played really slow last time. This time around, her pace of play is not super fast but acceptable.
Her boyfriend (I think) sat next to me on my left in this round 3 match and during round one. He was the one that won that round 2 coin flip match. The guy also placed well in the Toronto Regionals tournament. Top 100 out of 2270 players (I think).
Okay onto to the match.
I am up against another Goodra deck. This one is different as she revealed a Mega Floette on the Bench. Once I saw this, I understood why she was 2 wins and 0 losses also. I also thought that this is an auto loss matchup. A few minutes after, I thought that maybe there is a rare win condition. I play on.
Instead of rushing to the Mega Floette ex, she decides to attack with Goodra. There was no need to expose the Mega Floette ex.
I try my best here but I could not win this one. The last turn was me attacking with Ampharos on a Goodra but there was Mega Floette ex waiting for me. She could do a final knockout, get her last Prize card and win. I forfeit and give credit to the opponent.
If I lose to a Mega Pokemon at prerelease then so be it. Can't do much. Being 2 wins and 1 loss is still pretty good without a Pokemon ex in deck.
To pass the time I watch the game on my left and chat with my opponent. She told me that this event was her 10th Chaos Rising prerelease. Okay, what??!!! She must have spent at least 400 CAD before taxes trying to pull Gold Mega Greninja ex or something. I thought 3 prereleases is pushing it, lol. There are some crazy players who collect a bit.
I don't recall my rank at this event. Maybe 6th, 7th or 8th out of maybe 18 or 20 players. The round three opponent I had came in second. Her boyfriend on my left in round 3 won all 3 matches too (including the round 2 coin flip win) and got first. Both are good, friendly players that are regulars. Well deserved.
Here are the two packs I won plus results.
Special Red Card was a good pull. Very playable. My luck at this prerelease in terms of pulls were way below average I think. Out of 8 packs, I got no illustration rares, no full arts and just 1 Pokemon which was Mega Gallade ex from the kit.
There were a few raffle prizes given out. I win this acrylic Pokemon TCG thing. This is my second one.
Given what I had, I played well enough to get 2 wins and 1 loss. Two wins and 1 loss from the last 7 or so prereleases from different sets is consistently good.
My pulls at this event was so bad. I am actually discouraged to do more than 2 prereleases. The next one is Pitch Black with Mega Darkrai ex in July. I may just do 2 max to save some time and money.
Thank you for reading.
