Pokemon Pitch Black Prerelease Blog 02

Hi there. Here is blog 02 of a Pitch Black Pokemon TCG Prerelease.

Pitch Black is based off the Abyss Eye set in Japan.

Note: This post is long.

About Prerelease Events

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Prerelease Events are casual tournament events where participants can get Pokemon cards before the release date. Instead of buying booster boxes, I have been going to prerelease events since the Journey Together set. In the Mega Evolution era, you get some nice playable cards in the preconstructed decks. At this point I have too many and can donate leftovers to kids or something.

Pitch Black Prerelease events are held from July 4 to July 12. After paying a tournament fee, each participant receives one Build and Battle Kit. Usually two extra packs are given on top of the kit.

Different local stores have their own pricing for tournament fees, tournament structure, prizing and dates. Going to Prerelease events to get packs is cheaper than buying retail products upon the set release. I avoid Booster Boxes nowadays as prices are crazy.

In each Build and Battle Kit, you get a 40 card preconstructed deck with one of 4 promos seen below. There are 4 booster packs in each kit as well to boost your deck if you get good pulls.

Banana Games

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This event was a couple of hours after the first prerelease at Face to Face Games. After lunch and break, I head to Banana Games in the Downtown Toronto area.

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When it comes to Banana Games, I come here sometimes for prereleases. I no longer buy Pokemon singles from here. Their prices are overpriced for the most part and there are other card stores you can shop from in-person or online with more competitive and lower prices.

Banana Games does host a lot of TCG tournaments from different TCGs. There are pro Pokemon TCG players that play here but not so much at prereleases.

At the previous Chaos Rising prerelease, there was a petty sore loser I faced, I am a bit nervous going here again. Since then I have been kind of grinding the ranked ladder in standard mode and have been doing okay. I'm no pro but I can hold my own against most regulars.

The price for the prerelease tournament is 40 CAD plus tax. This 40 CAD is normal in the Toronto area but Banana Games have charged 45 for prereleases sometimes in the past. They are one of few stores in Toronto that host more than 2 prerelease events. Most card stores host 1 or 2 prereleases.

Tournament Format

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This prerelease tournament has 3 best of one Swiss rounds. You get paired up with someone with the same or similar record as you. To my surprise each round here is 20 minutes long. Most places do 30 minute rounds. I can see why they do 20 minutes as you do play with less prize cards and the games should not take too long.

You get one additional Pitch Black booster pack for each win. At the end of round 3, you and your opponent report the round 3 match result and then you get your prizes.

Deck Building Phase

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At this event, there is a deck building phase after receiving the Build & Battle Kit. This deck building phase takes around 30 minutes usually.

For whatever reason, this time around they gave a set of 100 card sleeves. It is Lockbox TCG card sleeves. They claim that they are affordable and tournament ready. They partner with local Toronto card stores. Even cheaper and good card sleeves can be obtained from Temu or from a China based supplier. (Off topic sorry)

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I got the Slowbro deck. When I saw this, I was like surprised and disappointed. This deck does not seem good. I would have to play my way out of a paper bag to get at least one win out of 3.

From the packs, I did get a few playable cards, one Lurantis art card and a Mega Slowbro ex card. Mega Slowbro ex was an automatic inclusion. One Jynx seemed good too so I added that to my deck.

I made the tough decision in cutting the 2-2 Type:Null and Silvally evolution line. It is hard to get zero cards in hand to activate Silvally's ability. What was added was 1 Shuppet and 1 Banette, a fifth Slowbro and a Rust Syndicate Grunt.

Round One Vs Bastiodon + Mega Zeroara ex Inclusion

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My first round opponent was someone I may have seen before at previous prerelease events. I have never played this person before. With new opponents, you never really know the level of the player. Once you start playing, you have some sort of an idea.

I am against a Bastiodon Fossil deck. Because of the Bastiodon ability, I cannot really use Slowbro's first attack. The second attack only does 110 damage which is not enough to Knockout a 120HP Skarmory. With this in mind, I had play a more patient setup style game. The strategy was to setup towards Mega Slowbro ex. Only Mega Slowbro ex can bypass the Batiodon ability.

The first ten minutes was not much. My opponent takes a couple of knockouts here and there while I play more defensive and setup the Mega Slowbro ex. There was a surprise Pikipek and Toucannon reveal. This threw me off guard somewhat.

As I was setting up Mega Slowbro ex, my opponent Benches and reveals a Mega Zeraora ex. This one really surprised me. I did not forsee this. Another thing I noticed was that the opponent's deck was getting low on cards. The original plan was to Knockout his Pokemon with Mega Slowbro ex. Playing for the deckout win was another option.

Rust Syndicate Grunt was kind of useful here to discard 1 Energy from Mega Zerora ex. This reduces the firepower on it. I setup a checkmate style board state where if he attacked Mega Slowbro ex with Mega Zeraora ex then it takes damage, dies then I want. If he did not attack, then I can end the turn quickly and he has no cards in the deck. The opponent recognizes this and concedes. I manage to win this tough matchup.

I had a few spectators watching this one. One guy was astonished by a Mega Pokemon vs Mega Pokemon prerelease battle. Our match was one of the last few matches.

Round Two Vs New Player

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My round two opponent was a new player. She told me this right away.

I did not see her game in round one that went to extra time. Her deck is unknown to me but she won her first game apparently. You can see the pairings and win-loss records when you see the matchups sheet.

Her deck was the Fossils + Bastiodon deck. This matchup would be slightly annoying because of the Bastiodon preventing damage if it is on the Bench. You needed more than 2 energy to deal damage with Bastiodon in play. Mega Slowbro ex would be the best attacker again for this scenario.

For most of the game, I had to guide her with the rulings. She would sometimes forget to not play more than one Supporter card per turn.

This game was slow but I get a comfortable win in the end. Mega Slowbro ex could not be stopped here. I did have some spectators and judges wathcing as our match was the slowest and the last one. The opponent's friend thought she did well as she lasted long. I dunno as she never got a Knock Out against me. My brother after the event told me I had a Mickey Mouse win.

After our game ended, round 3 pairings went up. That was fast. I needed some time to shuffle, clean up and stuff.

Round Three

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My opponent (2 wins 0 losses also) played the Dhelmise deck. I was not sure if there was a second Dhelmise or even a third one.

From turn one, I knew I was in for a tough game. He gets some turbo start and easily gets 4 Hide 'n' Sneak attackers in the discard pile on turn one. The issue was he started with Shuppet & Banette in the Active Spot. I can sort of buy time as I attempt to work towards a Mega Slowbro ex attack. Mega Slowbro ex was the only way I can win this.

Around turn 3 onwards, I just get some bad draws and no draw Supporters like Lillie's Determination. The opponent was kind of high-rolling in this game. For three straight turns, he uses Gwynn to draw cards and power through the deck.

I do attempt to setup Mega Slowbro ex but it was too late. A second Dhelmise showed up. There was a possible angle where the opponent runs of energy for the attackers or he decks out. I lose this one in the end around turn 7 or turn 8. Despite the bad draws, there was a way for me to win. I was hoping the opponent ran out of energy or something.

Post Tournament Notes & Closing

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Losing the third round was annoying but most things were out of my control in round 3. Two wins and 1 loss is still really good.

Mega Slowbro ex saved the Slowbro deck. The regular Slowbros would not do well against Bastiodon. I would need 3 Psychic energy to start attacking to deal damage. Bastiodon seems like an auto loss matchup with no Mega Slowbro ex.

From the two bonus packs, I don't think I got major hits here. The latest Dark Chi-Yu is kind of playable. It goes well with Toxtricrity.

My luck with the packs were okay but not as good as the first prerelease. If I get a gold card, great. If not then that is okay. For Pitch Black, I was aiming for to get playable cards.

A third prerelease of Pitch Black does not seem likely. I got what I wanted from prerelease blog 01. The stuff I got from this prerelease 02 was okay.

Thank you for reading.