It’s hard to remember that with the Pokémon 30th Anniversary set soaking up so much attention the Pokémon Trading Card Game is getting a new set in early November. The Rayquaza-themed Delta Reign set comes with some of the year’s best special illustration cards and a two-card Stadium mechanic that will keep players on their toes. The best part about the release, however, has to be the official options for purchasing it.
There are the standard routes, like waiting for The Pokémon Center’s drop or lining up early outside a major retailer on release day. The least stressful option is also one of the most overlooked, however: pre-release events. The Pokémon Company just announced that its Delta Reign events page is live, and players can use it to find a participating store here.
The events all cost money — the exact amount will vary by location — but they offer some of the best pack-per-dollar ratios among all the upcoming releases. They also allow you to score cards well ahead of the release date. One of my local card shops, for example, is holding a pre-release event two weeks before the official Nov. 6 Delta Reign release date.
What do I get at a Pokémon pre-release TCG event?
The caveat here is that you will, in fact, have to learn how to play the Pokémon TCG. An event ticket grants you a Build and Battle box that comes with a pre-built deck, a Delta Reign promo card, and three booster packs. If you stay and play a couple of matches, you will receive a few more packs. Some shops even give out extra packs for people who win. Regardless, that’s at least 6 packs and 40 additional set-exclusive cards for a low price. At my shop, which charges $39.99, that works out to about $6.60 a pack.
If learning the game sounds intimidating, the good news is that events are typically full of people who are playing for the first time. TCG players tend to be pretty patient with newbies, and the format for these events is an abridged version of the actual game. You don’t have to figure out what to put in your deck, and each one comes with a short explanation of how to utilize its mechanics.
For collectors, the appeal is that events give out promo cards that cannot be obtained anywhere else. In this case, there are promo cards for Masquerain, Magmortar, Enamorus, and Kommo-o that you can peruse earlier in this post. Delta Reign marks the introduction of the wonderful Tayu, an artist who physically embroidered the Nidoran card in the set. The dark-type card would be a great pick-up for fans of Yuka Morii and Asako Ito.
Plus, if you do learn how to play, you can begin attending TCG play events regularly — and those give out prize packs without requiring you to be awake at 4 a.m.