Hey all, this is Pikkdogs here with a preview of the Black and White Pre-Release event. I know most people don’t play pre-releases to win, but if you want to here is how you can do it. 
To start with we will look at some of the better cards for the pre-release tournaments, than we will look at the top cards that you will want to trade for.
Before we do that, we will do a little review of Pre-Release strategies. One thing you do is play almost all of your trainers. There are no trainer cards that are useless for pre-releases in this set, so you should probably play all trainers that you pull. Another handy tip is to get all the draw/search power that you can. The Call of Legends set had a lot of great Pokemon cards that allowed you to draw and search. For Black and White, this is not the case. There are a only a couple cards that let you draw and search. The last tip is to play what you have. Stage 2’s aren’t great in pre-releases, but if you pull a 3-2-1 line, you would want to put it in. Or, if you pull a 3-2 or 2-2 line of a good stage 1, you will want to focus your deck around it. Okay, lets stop with the tips and move on to the best cards for the pre-release.
- Lillipup/Herdier– Herdier and Lillipup are some of the only Pokemon that let you draw cards. Lillipup will allow you draw 1 card for 1 energy, and if you evolve to Herdier you can attach an extra energy and draw 3 cards. Lillipup will probably be a good play even if you do not pull Herdier.
- Cinccino– This is a great card for a Modified format, and a pre-release. A Stage 1 that does a maximum of 100 damage for CC, will just about win you any pre-release game. If you pull it, play it no matter if you only pull a 1-1 line.
- Bouffalant #91– This Bouffalant will allow you to do 90 damage for only two energies if you had a Pokemon knocked out last turn. If you add in 2 more energies you can do 80 damage, which is good for a pre-release. He also has a great 100 Hp.
- Throh-Throh is also a basic Pokemon with 100 HP. For FFC his “Stone Throw” attack does 80 damage. The ability to do 80 damage for only 3 energies on a basic is amazing.
- Maractus #12– This is a basic Pokemon that has 90 HP. For 3 Grass energies you can do 50 damage and then heal from Maractus the number of damage counters that you put on the opponent. 50 for 3 isn’t great, but healing is pretty awesome. This can make Maractus quite a tank.
- Zoroark- This is a Stage 1 100 HP dark Pokemon. His first attack, “Nasty Plot” sounds dirty, but its a good attack that lets you search your deck for any card, it costs only one dark energy. Its second attack is “Foul Play”, which also sounds a little dirty. For two colorless energies you can use any attack on the defending Pokemon and use it as the effect of this attack. For a pre-release, this attack can be a little un-predictable, but its a good card for countering a good stage 1 or 2 Pokemon.
- Good Stage 1’s– I won’t review them all, but this set has a lot of good Stage 1 Pokemon. Here is a good list of them: Simisear, Simipour, Simisage, both of the Pignites, Darumanitan, Swanna, Zebstrika, Dewott #30, and Klang (which I think is also the name of tbe first Klingon to visit Earth). Most of these cards have the ability to hit fairly hard for not a lot of energy. A fast stage 1 can be about as good as a Stage 2.
- Pikachu– I know its a secret rare, so you will be lucky if one or two people will pull one at your event. But, if you can get it, I would play it. For one energy, you can use “Energize,” which attaches one lightning energy from the discard pile to Pikachu (read- use with Professor Juniper). Then, next turn you will be able to do “Thunderbolt” for LLC, which does 80 damage. It does require a discarding of all energy attached to Pikachu, but it only has 60 HP so it will probably be dying soon anyway.
- Mandibuzz– Its not a great card, but it does have an attack called “Punishment”. It will allow you to say “I punish you!” Which is always something cool. “Punishment” does 100 damage for DCC on a stage 2 Pokemon, but it only does 40 to any other Pokemon. It also has an attack called “Blindside” that can snipe for 50 for one Dark energy if there are any damage counters on that Pokemon. This will almost guarantee you about 2 knock outs from benched basic Pokemon, if you can put damage counters on the bench.
As you can see, there are not many cards that add consistency, but quite a few cards that do a lot of damage. I predict that weakness will be pretty important in the games, so make sure you have a card that can cover your weakness. This is usually not too hard since you normally pull a wide variety of cards. Okay, so we know what to do for the event, here is what you have to trade for.
- Cincinno– I already explained this card, so there isn’t much to say. If you see someone pull one, offer them 5-8 dollars of trade value. Every player should have at least 4 of these cards.
- Emboar #20 and Samurott #32– These will eventually be 2 playable cards, so trade for them if you can. I would say about 4-5 bucks of trade value is right on the money. Every good player should eventually have a couple copies of each card.
- Professor Juniper– This is gonna be a card on par with PONT and Copy Cat. Get a bunch if you can. I would put about 3 bucks of trade value on it.
- Reshiram #113/Zekrom #114/Pikachu- These cards may not be great for the modified format, but they will be fairly rare. If you can get them they will either help you complete your collection, be good trade bait, or easy to flip on Ebay.
Those are the only must have cards from the set, although Reuniclus and most of the trainers are also good. I hope with this guide you will be ready to do well at the Pre-Release, and get some good training done. If you think I left some good Black and White cards off the list, please include them in the comment section.
So long and thanks for all the fish!
Andy Wieman 
Joel 
Pikkdogs 
Ed 
