Pokémon TCG Prerelease tournaments allow players to receive and play with cards from upcoming expansions up to two weeks before the set's official release date! Players will use only the cards from a Build & Battle box to draft a 40 card deck to play in a 3 round swiss tournament.

All players will be awarded 3 packs for participation in all 3 rounds and undefeated players will receive an additional pack!

Registration

This prerelease format tournament is reserved for the Junior & Senior division, with a limit of 20 total competitors. Players can register online prior to the tournament until all spots have been reserved. Players should arrive at or before 3:50 PM. Last call for check-in is 4:00 PM.

Preparation

All that you need to compete is a Pokémon Trainer Club ID, and 40 non-transparent sleeves. Players will have 30 minutes to draft and sleeve a 40-card deck with the cards provided in the build and battle kit. Trades are open for the draft and judge proxies will be made available if you want to play a high value card pulled from your packs. Final deck changes must be made before 4:25 PM. If you are unsure whether your selected cards are ideal for prerelease format, just ask and we can help!

Competition‍ ‍

The first swiss round starts at 4:30 PM and Swiss rounds are 30 minutes, best-of-one, + 3 turns after time. Registered players not present are dropped starting at 4:40 PM, these players may pick up their build and battle kits and join the tournament with a round 1 loss or leave with the kit at any time.

Pairings are randomized by the tournament software and all subsequent rounds are determined by a player’s calculated win-loss ratio for direct matches. This means that each round, players are randomly paired with other players that have the same win-loss ratio. There can be up to 5 total rounds, each with 1 match. If you have questions, we’re here to answer them!