Ness's Nest
with Jason Klaczynski
Winning Prerelease Strategies
December 6, 2006
I'm sure a lot of you have probably been to a prerelease
before. While winning the tournament usually requires being
lucky enough to pull evolutions and good trainers out of
your packs, there are some strategies that can help you win
games in prereleases. Here are some of the most important
ones:
1) Play enough energy.
Most people don't realize how much energy you have to
play in limited. Because you have such little draw, one
HALF of your deck is a good general rule to go by. So play
twenty energy, and then perhaps if you did pull a draw
supporter, you could cut an energy. If you pulled two draw
cards, you could go down to 18. I know people who have
played dozens of limited tournaments, and still play 14 or
15 energy. If you don't play at least 18 in your 40 card
deck, you're going to run into problems.
2) Retreat often.
In limited, very few cards are able to take advantage of
a damaged basic on the bench. Since you are each trying to
get four prizes, you can often prevent a loss simply by
retreating damaged Pokemon. While there are times to
sacrifice Pokemon, if you have another Pokemon powered up,
and think you have enough to maintain an attacking Pokemon
throughout the rest of the game, consider retreating. When
the game is down to 1 prize each at the end, you'll know
that retreat saved you.
3) Be aware of dark/metal energy costs.
Some cards may look good in
modified, but if there attacks require dark or metal energy,
they better have another amazing attack, or you need to
leave it out of your deck. Don't get tricked into playing a
card that requires a dark energy to attack simply because
you have one d Rainbow energy in your deck.
4) Play any draw cards you get.
Cards that are weak in modified, like Island Hermit, are
amazingly huge in limited. You can literally NEVER have too
many draw supporters in your deck in limited. Play every
single draw supporter & trainer you get.
5) Stay at two or three types.
Don't just add every evolution you
pull if it means you're going to be playing 5 different
types in your deck. While you can always play different
types of Pokemon that require only colorless energy to
attack, if you add too many different types you won't have
the right energy when you need it. Instead, focus on two or
three types, and play the most energy of what you think
you'll need the most.
While prereleases are fun to acquire new cards at, the
tournaments themselves tend to be luck-based. However, if
you follow this advice, and have some luck, you'll have a
good chance of doing well.
-Jason Klaczynski (ness@pojo.com) |
