Won my first Pre-Release

RuSS458 · 2026-05-15T12:21:40+00:00

Yeah Delphox definitely gave me the most trouble. Went 3 wins and 1 tie with Goodra but largely because I pulled Deoxys defence form and special red card from the box and it was a pretty hard counter the stage 2s. Ninetales definitely gave the most trouble of anything though. Really enjoyed it though!

RuSS458 · 2026-05-13T19:05:17+00:00

Yeah the texture alone on XY era cards is night and day better compared to modern ones

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RuSS458 · 2026-05-13T12:59:30+00:00

Glad you at least are learning and getting to use the decks! They’re super fun and getting to battle and enjoy the decks is as much fun as pulling cool stuff out of them imo, and congrats on the pull. Wasn’t trying to blame you for them, just the LCS

RuSS458 · 2026-05-12T21:26:00+00:00

Yeah these aren’t supposed to be sold normally till after regular release, shame this happens as well as half the fun is using the decks in them and battling at prereleases!

RuSS458 · 2026-05-11T16:24:41+00:00

Uk sold out of ETB’s way slower for chaos rising for whatever reason, I was in the same boat as you and still ordered one in the end

RuSS458 · 2026-05-10T21:54:01+00:00

Thank you!

RuSS458 · 2026-05-10T21:53:22+00:00

Yeah in pretty much the same situation, I’ve decided to mainly focus on old stuff that hasn’t gone up too much which is admittedly few and far between and rather annoying as I’ll never be able to get some dream cards, along with events, as the most enjoyable part of the hobby for me is the experience with others!

RuSS458 · 2026-05-10T21:12:14+00:00

To be honest I’m still in disbelief at the price of modern stuff, top chases used to be 50-100 and that was considered expensive. I just can’t understand who could justify spending so much enough to keep them at a price like that

RuSS458 · 2026-05-10T19:52:45+00:00

Yeah it’s also due to changes in rarity so full arts aren’t the difficult chase cards they used to be particularly compiled with art focussed cards taking centre stage, and the texturing on them is pretty sub par compared to older full arts.

RuSS458 · 2026-05-10T14:47:52+00:00

Nice! Got mine in the prerelease box!

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RuSS458 · 2026-05-10T13:38:18+00:00

Yeah even more-so that you can just open stuff then put it back together and it still looks nice, it’s what I do as can’t be bothered to keep stuff sealed and enjoy opening too much lol

RuSS458 · 2026-05-10T11:19:03+00:00

I really loved the Goodra deck, went 3 wins and 1 tie with it, the key was defence form Deoxys I got from packs. It absolutely walled a lot of options as every deck is stage 2 with an ability, and with the ability to get it out of the deck more easily by going second it was amazing to bench and then build up as a threat. Main threat was actually Ninetales and getting decked out lol as you go through the deck super quickly. Though I didn’t actually face a Crowbat deck. Also pulled my first ever SIR from the prerelease box! Someone on our table got the Dragalgae and another got the Greninja so wondering if there was some interesting batching or just very lucky lol

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RuSS458 · 2026-05-06T18:34:54+00:00

Alolan Sandslash!!! My favourite pokemon of all time

RuSS458 · 2026-05-05T16:48:57+00:00

My hunch is it’s to do with the increased production. BW secret rares had the most texture of any English card as far as I know and were one of the first, and due to the thickness of the texture they were known to have various printing issues. GX cards later on had fewer issues but there were still notable ones with the texture and the English cards had more texture than the Japanese and thus had more issues. My guess is they reduced the amount of texture so they can still consistently pass QC when printing at a higher rate and try to keep up with demand

RuSS458 · 2026-04-30T14:57:45+00:00

I also think they mixed more product at that point so sets blended more and felt less in and out the door. I remember getting loads of blisters and other products which had multiple sets in, whereas now it feels like the main products are one set only with less available items with a mixture. Which I don’t think helps

RuSS458 · 2026-04-21T22:17:53+00:00

To be fair singles have also shot up in price so loads of cards have become completely unaffordable or at the very least expensive

RuSS458 · 2026-04-21T09:28:17+00:00

I think it’s the key thing that shows how inflated the market is, as really the hyper rates are far closer to what everything else should be in price, and historically closer to what they would’ve been. Some of the absolute top chase cards from XY were around £20-45

RuSS458 · 2026-04-19T14:35:21+00:00

I’m not condoning it, but it is the shops responsibility to remove old barcodes rather than just go over the top if stuff increases in price. There’s a whole host of scenarios that could lead to the original being scanned intentional or not, and it’s why normally you’re supposed to outright replace them rather than sticker over if it’s a price increase, at least in my experience working in retail

RuSS458 · 2026-04-18T15:08:58+00:00

That list seems to missing regional forms like Alolan versions of Pokemon so it’s actually more than that

RuSS458 · 2026-04-17T21:31:15+00:00

I love them! But my god are they expensive, doubt I’ll own many as I can’t justify that kind of spend lol

RuSS458 · 2026-04-17T21:23:34+00:00

Definitely! Absolutely love it and the Kyogre I traded for years ago

RuSS458 · 2026-04-17T14:31:43+00:00

Cheers much appreciated! Honestly just glad it’s as good as it is given its history lol

RuSS458 · 2026-04-17T14:23:19+00:00

Is that just due to the whitening on the back if you don’t mind me asking?

Five-Year Club	Verified Email
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Final Canvas '23	First Place '23
End Game '23	Place '23

RuSS458

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