A Blast of Light

It's that time of the year again, time for another release for not only Yu-Gi-Oh!, but for Pokemon TCG as well! First thing's first, there are still spots for both pre-release events at the time of writing, with Judgment of the Light on this Saturday the 3rd and Plasma Blast on the 11th. I'm gonna be going to both, as there are quite a few cards I'm hoping to get my hands on as early as possible. Don't we all know that feeling.

Synchro monsters are coming back in a big way in Judgment of the Light. Star Eater (I really don't know why they didn't just stick with Celestial Dragon, Konami makes some odd naming choices. Don't even get me started on the name change of Radiant Photon Paradius) is a good example of this, as it's essentially a 3200atk beatstick that doesn't have to worry about traps when it attacks. I figure it'd work best on the field by itself, since a thought out Mirror Force will get rid of it easily enough. Still, it's one big beasty to have on your side of the field.

As far as the pre-release will go, my predictions are that the stars of the day will be amongst the Star Seraphs and Bujin archetypes, with Super Defence Robot sneaking in there thanks to their xyz monster Googly-Eyes Drum Dragon. This is similar to how Battlin' Boxers with Magnum Shield performed well at the Tachyon pre-release and Hazy Flames being the cards to have at Cosmo Blazer. Mind you, I'd be happier getting copies of Starliege Lord Galaxion for my Photon deck (you thought Galaxy-Eyes was annoying before? Watch me summon it straight from my deck) and Number C39: Utopia Ray Victory and Rank-Up-Magic Numeron Force for the Battlin' Boxer deck I'm working on. Although I have a friend in England I'm sure wouldn't object to me pulling a World of Prophecy.

Now I've already covered some of the good stuff for the Plasma Blast set in this post here, but there's nothing quite like actually being able to get the cards. I haven't actually been to a Pokemon pre-release yet, so I'm definitely excited to be able to attend this one.

I figure it'll be similar to a Magic: The Gathering pre-release (Chad, help me out here with how that works?) where we build either a deck or half-deck with what we get and some borrowed energy cards from the Card House. One tip for building a deck that I can give is to try and stick with a maximum of two types so as to limit the possibility of drawing useless energy.

The best things about pre-release events are that they are "the great equalizers." By that, it means you won't have to worry about coming up against decks like my Gardevoir/Gallade, Team Plasma-EX or, Arceus forbid, Machamp from Diamond & Pearl - Stormfront*. So with a little bit of luck (or a nice Pokemon-EX from your boosters), it's anyone's game. (For those of you who can't read Japanese, Kyurem-EX's first attack is 30 damage + 10 more for each damage counter on itself and its second attack is 150 damage that requires you to discard two water energy attached to it. Not a bad card, and something that can slot into Keldeo/Blastoise easily enough).

Remember, there are only three spots left (though by the time I write this they may be all gone) for Judgment of the Light and approximately eight for Plasma Blast, and the race goes to the swift as they say. Kinda like how the duel goes to Dragon Rulers because they usually spawn Dracossack first turn, but enough about that. I'm looking forward to both days, and I hope to see you all there as well!

Your resident Pokemon Professor, Troy

*Okay, I know I really shouldn't say it like that. But from what I've seen on the rest of the internet it would appear that nobody likes that card apart from the people who suppress their conscience enough to use it.