Phantasmal Flames Prerelease Promos, Ranked
The Pokemon Company International released all the images for the Phantasmal Flames prerelease promo cards available at prerelease events and contained within the Phantasmal Flames Build and Battle box. The Phantasmal Flames prerelease promos look very solid, and avoid the frequent problem of one or two promos being absolutely broken into the prerelease format while one or two others boarding on weak to sometimes even unplayable (yes, I’m calling you out Team Rocket’s Mimikyu).
Below, let’s look at each of these prerelease promos in depth and rank them from good to great. But first, a little refresher on how Pokemon TCG prerelease events work.
Phantasmal Flames prereleases explained in brief
Pokemon prerelease events are very fun events where you get to build a deck on the spot from a build and battle box (pictured above). These boxes come with a prebuilt, 40 card deck that theoretically have everything you need to play the event with. However, you are allowed to customize your deck with the additional four booster packs you get inside the box, enabling some very fun and varied decks.
Indeed, the most fun thing for me at prerelease events is to come up with the most crazy deck combos that actually work, and unlocking synergies between your card pack and those cards you get in boosters is a huge high for a strategy nut.
With that covered, let’s look at the promos themselves and rank them from strong to strongest.
#4 Toxtricity
It feels pretty bad to start this list off with Toxtricity at the bottom, because this card is actually quite, quite strong. Indeed, it’s the backbone to one of the strongest Phantasmal Flames decks: the dark box deck featuring Mega Gengar ex and Mega Sharpedo ex. And if you happen to find one of these Pokemon in your packs that you can power up (especially the insanely powerful Mega Sharpedo ex) you could very well dominate the playing field.
However, evolving the Mega Sharpedo ex requires also finding Carvanha in packs – and the odds are against you landing both in your packs. However, I’ve had it happen to me before to successfully land not only a stage 1 Pokemon and its evolution line but a stage 2 as well, such as when I got everything I needed to evolve the formidable Hydrapple ex at a prerelease event.
The Pokemon company highlights a different combo, however, in its article about the prerelease promos, centered on the stage 2 Krookodile. It’s highly likely that Krookodile will be included in the prerelease kit as your primary attacker. And it’s not a bad option given it can potentially swing for 220 damage. However, as is always the case in a fast format like prerelease events, it’s better to move quickly with basic Pokemon or stage 1 Pokemon than having to wait until Stage 2 Pokemon come around.
#3 Flygon
Flygon presents a pretty unique strategy to the prerelease format: mill. Instead of trying to take four of your opponent’s prizes, Flygon looks to attack the cards in their deck. And that’s not a bad move, either given prerelease decks are only forty cards each. When you consider that at the start of the game 8 of these cards are already going to be drawn between the first seven cards and your first drawing turn, that’s only 32 more cards that need to be discarded – and those will go quick with all the other draw effects you have access to in Pokemon.
Going for the four prize cards is probably the more reliable strategy in the prerelease format, but this strategy gets props for being a unique departure from the regular staples in the format.
Curious about what cards this deck build comes with? It looks like kits that come with the Flygon will also be getting the Gligar and Gliscor cards included. While these aren’t the strongest attackers, the poison/stall effects could help you while you build up to your end of game mill strategy.
#2 Ceruledge
While Flygon may be unique for prerelease, in Ceruledge we have an example of a much more staple type of prerelease promo. Plenty of prerelease promos focus on having a lot of energies in your deck – something relatively easy to incorporate into the format where local shops typically leave a box of energies around for players to build with.
That being said, Infernal Slash is incredibly strong for what it is. Assuming you can discard the fire energies in hand, you’re knocking out most of what you’re likely to face.
Pokemon also hints at a handy supporter being included alongside Ceruledge: the new FireBreather supporter in Phantasmal Flames. Drawing this card makes hitting Infernal Slash much, much more reliable.
#1 Zacian
Zacian and its included deck is hands-down the strongest. Being a basic Pokemon that hits for 140 damage right off the bat is pretty incredible into the prerelease format. You should beat your opponent to the punch with relative ease thanks to this very efficient attacker, and it gets better with the cards the deck comes with, particularly the Alcremie.
Alcremie comes with Zacian in the 40 card deck, meaning you have a solid backup attacker to help your Zacian out. For just one psychic energy, Alcremie is swinging for 120 damage (assuming you have a full bench). Taking these two solid attackers into consideration and you should be able to dominate the rest of the strategies in the Phantasmal Flames prerelease format with ease.
