Stellar Crown’s prerelease season begins next weekend, and yet we only just now are getting our first look at the prerelease promos for this set. That’s important because the promos largely dictate the strategies included in the Build and Battle kits, and it’s from these kits that your deck and path to victory at prerelease tournaments will be decided.

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The Pokemon that will be released as promos in the Build and Battle kits are:

Ledian
Crabominable
Drifblim
Bouffalant

Originally, these cards were revealed in pretty blurry images that were hard to read. While better quality images have been released, you can also read the card text for each promo below.

Ability: Sparkling Star Pattern
When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may switch in 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon with 90 HP or less remaining to the Active Spot.
[C][C] Swift: 70 damage. This attack’s damage isn’t affected by Weakness or Resistance, or by any effects on your opponent’s Active Pokémon.
Ability: Prep Work
Attacks used by this Pokémon cost [C] less for each Kofu card in your discard pile.
[W][C][C][C][C] Haymaker: 250 damage. During your next turn, this Pokémon can’t use Haymaker.
Ability: Curly Wall
If you have another Bouffalant in play, your Basic [C] Pokemon take 60 less damage from attacks from your opponent’s Pokemon (after applying Weakness and Resistance). You can’t apply more than 1 Curly Wall Ability at a time.
[C][C][C] Boundless Power: 130 damage. This Pokemon can’t attack during your next turn.
[P] Everyone Explode Now: 50x damage. This attack does 50 damage for each Drifloon and Drifblim you have in play. This attack also does 30 damage to each of your Drifloon and Drifblim in play.
(Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)

Stellar Crown prerelease decks will include two of these cards

While each Stellar Crown Build and Battle Box will only include one prerelease stamped promo, each will contain two of these cards. The core strategy will revolve around two of these cards, assorted at random. It will be up to you to then build your deck the best way you see fit.

For more general prerelease deck building ideas, read my comprehensive guide to Pokemon TCG prerelease tournaments. Below, we’ll get into the specific deck building tips you should be thinking about going into Stellar Crown given these four Pokemon.

Which Stellar Crown Prerelease Promo is strongest?

To be honest, this collection of promos may be the strongest we have seen in a while. Typically these promos include one or two stage 2 Pokemon who are more gimmicky in nature with somewhat repetitive mechanics.

In contrast, the Stellar Crown promos all have unique abilities that differ drastically from one another, as well as from those mechanics in recent Build and Battle kits.

Which is strongest? I’ll rank them from best to worst below. Keep in mind, none of these promos are bad some just stand out more than the others.

#1 Ledian

I’m going to give the top spot to Ledian but it isn’t by much because of how good the next card on this list is (more on that in a moment). For a prerelease tournament, Ledian has an insane ability. Typically most prerelease decks don’t get the option to switch one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon into the active (unless you happen to get a Boss’s Orders).

Realistically, this is one of the strongest mechanics in the game. It’s why Prime Catcher is the number one ACE SPEC. But how does Ledian’s ability work in practice?

Well, one common strategy at prerelease tournaments is to use a beefy, high HP basic Pokemon to eat up attacks while you build up your bench and end game strategy. Ledian allows you to avoid that common stall tactic entirely by letting you switch in a weak HP Pokemon that you can then knock out with Swift or with an attack from another Pokemon you’ve powered up.

This is an insane ability for a prerelease deck and anyone who gets Ledian as one of their promos or from a pack will have a severe leg up in the competition.

#2 Drifblim

From a pure attack-based standpoint, Driflblim is your strongest prerelease Promo. For just one energy (a huge advantage in prerelease format where energy acceleration is a challenge) this stage 1 Pokemon can hit a maximum damage output of 300. That means regardless of what your opponent pulls from packs, you have a shot at knocking out that Pokemon.

This attack is uncomonly powerful for a prerelease stamped promo, especially of only a stage 1 Pokemon. The fact that you only have to evolve it once and then it does that kind of damage from just having a full bench of basic Drifloons is insane.

If the prerelease kit doesn’t come with enough Drifloons or Drifblims make sure you add which ever of them you find in your booster packs to this deck. Remember, you aren’t limited to just four copies of Pokemon with the same name in the prerelease format like you are in Standard constructed.

#3 Crabominable

I’m going to include Crabominable as number three here just because of its insane potential. Again, it’s very rare to see prerelease promos that are only stage 1 hitting this kind of damage output. And Crabominable is doing 250 base damage from its attack, which should be enough to OHKO what you are likely to face in the field at one of these tournaments.

That being said, the big crab has a pretty hefty condition to get its attack off: it’s got a total of five energies in its attack cost.

While that might sound rediculous normally, thanks to its ability you need one less energy for each Kofu in your discard.

Kofu is making his debut in this set – being the last gym leader from Scarlet and Violet without a card made in his name yet. How good this card is depends entirely on how many Kofu you get included in your kit plus how many you find. Again, add as many Kofu as you get from your packs into you deck if you get this stamped Promo. You aren’t limited to four so if you get lucky and pull a bunch you could seriously scare your opponents in battle.

#4 Bouffalant

Lastly, we have the impressive Bouffalant Pokemon. Talking about that defensive wall strategy earlier, few cards are better for this than Bouffalant who massively reduces the damage output of attacks. 60 less damage is huge in a prerelease format where most decks aren’t looking to do a ton of damage but hoping to instead KO lower HP Pokemon.

If you get the Bouffalant promo, chances are you are going to be building a basic Pokemon focused deck where you use Bouffalant to tank attacks while building up the resources you need to start doing damage.

While I think Bouffalant’s ability is helpful, ultimately it is the three energy cost it needs to get an attack off that limits it as an attacker in this deck strategy. If it only needed two energies or one, for example, it would be a pretty broken card. But even with taking less damage from having multiple copies of it in play, you are going to be working hard to get the energies you need for its attack.

Stellar Crown prerelease is going to be fun

Regardless of what combination of these cards get, this set is looking to be a very, very fun prerelease. Study up and be ready for the big day of your prerelease by familiarizing yourself with the other meta changing cards getting released in this set. That way you will know what to look for as you open your packs!

And remember, there are quite a few valuable cards in Stellar Crown so have sleeves handy in case you manage to pull them!

Stellar Crown Prerelease Promos and Deck Strategy

Ledian

Crabominable

Bouffalant

Drifblim