It was the night before, probably around 9:00, when I was asked by my brother what a pre-release event was in the context of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. I didn’t know what to say, even though I knew what they were. Eventually, I asked him where he heard of one. His response was simple, at the last Pokémon League he went to. I knew what the next expansion was, Crimson Invasion, and I had been waiting so long for the release of it. After being lost in thought for a bit, I told him everything I knew and asked if he was going to this event. Sure enough, he was going, but not without me.
This event, the Pokémon TCG Pre-Release Event for the Crimson Invasion expansion, was a chance for a few things. Most importantly, it was fun. Secondly, it was a look at the not-yet-released expansion to the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Among these things however, it was a competition. Attendees needed to create a 40-card deck using a specialized 23-card pack (including standard cards, a promotional card, and Pokémon that evolved into each other) four booster-packs of 10 cards each (or 11, depending on how you’re counting), and as many of the supplied Basic Energy cards as needed. There was no prize for the winner in the event I attended, but everyone received a few promotional cards and three more booster-packs after the event. Everyone who didn’t get a “Bye,” a free win when there is nobody to challenge who would get it, competed three times.
The event was very fun, kind people were there, the staff was great, and there were some rare cards obtained by many people. I even got to chat about the symphony event, “Pokémon Symphonic Evolutions,” with one of the staff. This staff member was the mother of Marriland (a YouTube user with a Pokémon themed channel). Even if my win/loss/draw ratio was 1/1/1, all due to running out of time, I really enjoyed the event, and I look forward to the next one I can attend.
Oh, and for those of you wondering, this was my deck:
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