I’m writing this and planning to publish it on Thursday, March 6, 2025. That’s one day before I start playing in 4 prerelease events in three days and another sealed event next Saturday. Here’s my attempt at a short blog about everything I’m doing to prepare for my Sealed events.
What Do I Have to Take To Prerelease?
Nothing. I show up, get my prerelease kit (and bonus Carbonite Booster pack of applicable) and play. It’s that easy.
What WILL I Take To Prerelease?
A backpack containing:
One pack each of interior sleeves and exterior sleeves
One deck pod for storing cards in transit
Tokens for tracking damage while playing
One playmat
One pack of 5 hard cases
One bottle of water
Two just past their expiration date Kind bars
What are the purpose of these items?
The interior and exterior sleeves will go on the cards I decide to play in the actual tournament after building my deck. After each one I’ll unsleeve my cards and reuse that set of sleeves for each prerelease event.
The deck pod will be where I store the cards I open and my damage tokens. After each event, I’ll take them out and store them at home, and carry the sleeves to be reused in the pod along with the tokens. The tokens are acrylic and easy to use in marking damage or other statuses on units or bases. They’re pretty standard for any event.
The playmat is an oversized neoprene placemat. It provides some protection for the back of the cards from the table and makes it easier to pick up and manipulate the cards. Not required but very nice and also standard among most regular players.
The hard cases are so I can store any particularly valuable cards after the event before they would go into the deck pod. I’m not overly concerned with card value, but if I pull a card that does have some value, I’d like to protect it in case I would want to sell or trade it. Case (ha!) in point: the Han Solo set 1 showcase I pulled went into a hard cases seconds after I opened it ad has never left. Its value has fluctuated between $500 and $250 dollars since release. No reason not to try to protect that.
Water and Kind bars - this should be pretty evident. I expect the events to run about 4 hours, and I’ll likely get thirsty and peckish. A quick half a snack bar between matches will keep me from getting cranky and help maintain focus.
So that’s what I’m taking to my pre-release events, along with an incredible level of excitement about getting to play with a new set of cards. I’m hoping that I can share what it’s like to build a sealed/prerelase deck in a slightly different format soon, so stay tuned!