Pokemon Scarlet & Violet – Journey Together Prerelease Event Announced

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet – Journey Together isn’t set to arrive until March 28th, but The Pokemon Company has announced a special opportunity in which fans will be able to check it out a little early. Prerelease events will start on March 15th, at a number of locations around the country. At these events, participants will be able to purchase a Build & Battle box, which will include 4 Pokemon Trading Card Game packs from the Journey Together expansion. The box will also include a pre-made 40-card deck composed of cards from “current and prior sets.” The highlight of each deck will be 1 of 4 Journey Together promo cards.

The promo cards in question each feature one of the Trainer’s Pokemon from Pokemon Scarlet & Violet – Journey Together. The pre-made deck will either include N’s Darmanitan, Iono’s Kilowattrel, Lillie’s Ribombee, or Hop’s Snorlax. Traditional Pokemon decks consist of 60 cards, but the 40-card decks are meant to offer faster battles; the rules also shrink the number of prize cards from the traditional 6 down to just 4. This format should give players a quicker idea of what to expect from the new TCG expansion. The Build & Battle boxes will be sold outside of the prerelease events, but not until the expansion’s official release date.

From what’s been shown, it looks like Hop’s Snorlax could be the most powerful of the promo cards revealed. Dynamic Press does 140 damage to the opposing Pokemon, and an extra 30 thanks to Hop’s Snorlax’s Extra Helpings ability. The trade-off is that Hop’s Snorlax does 80 damage to itself, but with 150 HP, it’s quite the monster. The promo card also features some nice new art, with a stadium from Pokemon Sword and Shield‘s Galar region.

The official Pokemon website has an event locator, which allows users to see if there are any nearby stores that will be holding prerelease events for Journey Together. Those that can’t attend an event will just have to wait for the expansion’s full release to obtain their own Build & Battle box. For anyone that does happen to have a participating store location near them, this seems like a great opportunity to see what the latest set has to offer! Given how popular recent Pokemon sets have been, hopefully stores will take precautionary measures to ensure that there’s a limit on purchases.

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Pokemon Scarlet & Violet – Journey Together seems to be one of the last sets that will fall under the current banner. Recent trademarks have suggested that we’ll be seeing a theme shift that will focus on Mega Evolutions, and content based on Pokemon Legends: Z-A. However, since that game isn’t coming out until late in 2025, there will be at least some additional sets with the current Scarlet & Violet branding. Following Journey Together this month, it appears that the next Pokemon TCG set will be Destined Rivals, which will apparently launch in May. That set will feature additional Trainer’s Pokemon, including favorites like Misty and Arven.

Are you excited about the next Pokemon TCG expansion? Do you plan on checking out these prerelease events? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!