Emerging Powers Pre-Release

Emerging Powers, the second expansion from the Pokémon Black & White TCG, is due for release in the next few days - 31st August to be precise. As usual for a week or two before launch, players can attend pre-release events where they can get hold of the new cards early. I had never played Pokémon cards outside of my own home, but I took this opportunity to 'go public' with my hobby.

It seems these pre-release events follow the same rules wherever in the world you are attending. First you pay a fee, in my case I paid £22 of my finest English ones, which I consider very good value considering what I walked out with. Players are sat down and given six booster packs and told to not open them until signalled to do so, this was apparently incredibly difficult for everyone in the room as all I could hear was the rustling of foil packets and excited predictions of what might be inside.

Now the frantic pack opening began. The idea was that each player had to construct a forty card deck from the contents of their six boosters. We would then battle each other with the decks we had created and see who had managed to get the luckiest pulls that worked to their advantage in battle. It was interesting because everyone was on a level playing field; nobody had months to practice and carefully build the perfect deck, we just had half an hour and the cards we had just received.

Darmanitan and Beartic were my hero cards for the few games I played. Darmanitan has 100HP, which isn't bad for a Stage 1 Pokémon. It deals a fairly devastating 70 damage with its 'Fire Punch' attack and Burns the defending Pokémon at the same time - causing extra damage turn after turn. Beartic was a great pull that a lot of people seemed to get too, a sturdy 130HP and an attack that hits for 80HP made this one of the hard-hitters of my deck. That said, I only won one of the three games I played. Both of the opponents I was defeated by managed to play Audino - a surprisingly powerful basic Pokémon with the ability to heal 50 damage in a single turn. In one game I actually only managed to send out one basic Pokémon that was inevitably defeated, resulting in a very early game finish.

Once the three game tournament was finished, we were given an exclusive Emerging Powers deck box, promo Gigalith card and an extra two booster packs, so for £22 this was a pretty good deal. I had a good time, though I was nervous at first, I soon felt at home playing cards with fellow Poké-dorks. The next pre-release event will most likely be in November with the launch of the third Black & White set, Noble Victories. Check out my video below to see the cards I picked up at the Emerging Powers pre-release event!