Finding Treasures

It just occurred to me that I didn't write a blog post to talk about the Legendary Treasures pre release for Pokemon TCG. Well, I'm here to rectify that!

Unfortunately, I have to open this blog on a sour note. Those of you who played in the pre release and borrowed energy from other players, PLEASE RETURN THEM!!! I am down six grass energy and five psychic energy, and I know I'm not the only one who didn't get their loaned energy back. Next pre release, don't be surprised if I'm stingy to the point of not giving out any of my own energy for other players. I'm sure if you simply take them in Kev can hold onto them until he sees us.

With that out of the way, let's move onto the best part, shall we? New cards! Well... with a few reprints mixed in as well. I'll be honest, going into the event I was expecting to see Mewtwo-EX and Darkrai-EX everywhere since they were the two big names to be reprinted, though I didn't see very many at all. Actually, Meloetta-EX was probably one of the most commonly seen cards of the day, along with the absolutely hilarious Cedric Juniper card.

 Do you fancy yourself a Pokemon Master? This card will definitely put you to the test! When played, you choose a pokemon from your hand and place it face down on the table, then tell your opponent it's name. Your opponent then has to guess its height. If they get it right they draw three cards, but if they get it wrong then you draw three cards. From a competitive stand Cheren is a much better card as it simply lets you draw three cards, but who can pass up the opportunity to make your opponent sweat a little? Oh, you guys should definitely use this against me with Lucario or Gardevoir. They're the only ones I can't remember the heights of...

I think my favourite draw of the day was Victini-EX. With its Turbo Energize attack, I can attach two energy cards from my deck onto any pokemon on my bench. Having it in my open hand along with a single fire energy meant that I could get set up very quickly, and Intensifying Burn mean that Victini-EX can punch above its weight when confronted with opposing Pokemon-EX.

The games themselves were enjoyable, mostly due to the fact that everyone was on equal footing. For starters, with the promo card being Tornadus-EX it meant that everyone had a big pokemon to play with and getting an unlucky few boosters wasn't as much of a problem. Which for the most part is what happens to me when I attend a pre release.

I'll admit that I made a huge mistake in my first game, in that I forgot to keep track of my prizes. Since we only play with forty card decks, only four prizes are used and I fed one into the grinder when I really shouldn't have. That'll learn me for making a mistake as bad as Ash thinking he would only need one pokemon to beat Elesa!

In spite of that, I somehow managed to sneak into 6th place at the end of the day. Either way, a fun day was had by all I would hope. Besides, there were plenty of shiny new cards to be picked up on the day (including a very gold and full art Reshiram!) and I'm quite interested in picking up a few more boosters of Legendary Treasures when I can. Although I'm definitely looking forward to the arrival of the first X and Y sets starting in February, and the coming mega evolution cards! Because they evolve from Pokemon-EX, that means there's going to be a Lucario-EX and a Gardevoir-EX for me to collect!

Before I head off, there is some important news. From the 8th of November (I know it's kinda late at this point, but we've only had a pre release at this point so I'm sure it'll slide) there are some rules changes to the game. I figure we need to see this because of the tourney coming up on Sunday the 17th, and I'll be enforcing these rules in all of my games. They are as follows:

• First Turn: Before drawing your opening hand, flip a coin. The winner of the coin flip decides who goes first, and the person who goes first can't declare an attack on their first turn. 
• Errata - Pokemon Catcher: The new effect for Pokemon Catcher is "Flip a coin. If heads, switch 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon with his or her Active Pokémon."
• Professor Juniper and Professor Sycamore: Both Juniper and Sycamore are identical in effect, but you may not contain both in your deck. You can have up to four copies of Professor Juniper or four copies of Professor Sycamore, but you may not include copies of both in your deck even if they only add up to four between them.

The official announcement can be found on the Pokemon website.

Well, that's all I have to say for now. Signing off, Pokemon Professor Troy.