Hokus Pinkus: The XY Prerelease

Back when I went to my first trading card prerelease in 2011, I wanted to take my brother to one. I had a blast last time and wanted to share that experience with him. Plus, bringing him along would mean more cards for our collection :P. So yesterday, we attended the Pokémon X and Y prerelease over at Strikezone.

Basically, a prerelease is a tournament where you pay $30 for 6 packs of cards from the upcoming set. From there, you build  a 40-card deck and play 3 matches. Afterwards, you receive 2 more packs and a promo

card. I highly doubt the $5 entrance fee increase from last time was due to inflation, but what can you do.

We arrived at Strikezone around 12:30 and signed in. Mike, the event coordinator, surprisingly recognized us. It took me a second, but I realized he knew us because of my brother's back-to-back VGC regional titles.

When we received our cards, Mike suggested new players to go to the far table if they needed help. I looked over at my brother, and he just gave me a sly smile and stayed seated. A few minutes later, I had to walk over and helped him build his deck. Why is that boy crazy?

He managed to get good pulls, including a Venusaur-EX and Xerneas. While Venusaur is one of my favorite Pokémon, that card looks U-G-L-Y! His girth can't be contained in such a small card border. The trading card artwork never can capture Venusaur's grace. Regardless, it's a good card and helped my brother win 2 out of 3 matches.

I was equally lucky in my pulls. The first card I got was an Yveltal-EX. I then got Shadow Circle, a stadium card that takes away weakness if your Pokémon has Dark energy. Like my brother, I won the majority of my matches, but I never once pulled out Yveltal or Shadow Circle. So how did I win?

WIGGLYTUFF!

Wigglytuff has an interesting move called "Hocus Pinkus." For 3 energies, Hokus Pinkus inflicts 60 damage and prevents the opposing Pokémon from attacking next turn. 60 damage is good enough to knock out Basic Pokémon and is a great way to stun your opponent. Originally, Wigglytuff was meant to stall until I set up Yveltal, but she managed to win on her own. The only match I didn't get Wigglytuff was the time I lost. What can I say, you can't handle the power of Hocus Pinkus!

Afterwards, my brother and I traded some cards to help complete our collection. My personal favorite was Wobuffet. He looks just like an action figure! We then had a quick battle with some folks on the 3DS, traded some more, and left. It was great to bond with fellow Pokémon trainers and expand our collection, but I had the most fun because of my brother. Afterall, Pokémon is a shared experience. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better prerelease. Well...maybe if I got a Slurpuff card, that would have been sweet.