Pre-Release Run Down

Prerlease week 1 is over and unfortunately I was occupied with other card games. If you played I would love to hear how your games went in the comments below!  However you did or if you’ll be playing this weekend, I’ve got some bomb picks for the cards that will take you to the top of your prerelease next weekend.

In general when drafting a prerelease deck you’re trying to pick the cards that give you the most bang for your play. Pokemon with attacks that have multiple effects besides damage like status conditions or discard effects will be winners. A prerelease deck isn’t just a race for damage. That being said, EX’s will always have a huge play advantage. Just because you didn’t pull an EX, doesn’t mean the tournament is over. Lets look at Carnivine. Its first attack is Lure Poison, switch the defending pokemon, the new pokemon is poisoned. Strong and a good way to perhaps set up a stall while you set-up pokemon on your bench. Carnivine’s second attack is Spit Squall. Your opponent puts the defending Pokemon and all cards attached to it into their hand. Boom, bomb. This is a fantastic answer to your opponent’s EX that you don’t know how to deal with, probably the best in the set. You won’t be KO’ing anything with Carnivine but if you’ve got something ready and waiting on your bench it might give you the stall time you need to get in for the win.

Minun and Plusle are always an interesting combo and one that I would love to see in a top deck. The new versions are pretty great for a limited build. Plusle, for a colorless, lets you shuffle your hand into your deck and draw 4 cards. If Minun is on your bench draw 4 more. Pretty awesome hand refresh. Minun is a little better on its own. For a colorless its first attack reduces damage from attacks by the defending pokemon by 30. That could be a great opening move. Its second attack does 10 damage to each of your opponent’s pokemon. A decent damage spread for limited and not a bad pokemon to start with.

My final pick, as a loyal Team Whimsy Tackle member, is the psychic Slowking. It only has 90 hp, not the greatest. Psybolt, its first attack for one psychic does 20 damage and if heads, paralyzes. Still not a fantastic or game changing pokemon. It’s second attack, for one psychic and two colorless, 50 damage and if you have more card than your opponent it deals 30 more damage. With the supporters that are being reprinted in this set I don’t think that this card will be hard to play at all. A well timed N, Juniper, or Cheren will allow you to throw an extra 30 damage that your opponent didn’t see coming and may not be able to stop coming. With the right supporters I think this card could be pretty huge.

Best of luck in the prereleases and pull Gold Pokemon Catchers so I can trade for them!