Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
With the Chaos Rising season comes a new mode outright, at least within the confines of Pokémon Trading Card Game Live: the Build & Battle format, based on the prerelease events. Each set has one (except for special sets like Black Bolt & White Flare or Ascended Heroes), set one to two weeks before the set officially comes out, and is the first chance the public gets to have these cards. TCG Live does it a bit differently in that you don’t get to play these until the set’s release, though you can play them as many times as you get tokens (which can be redeemed for 600 Trainer Points).
Otherwise, they play much like your prerelease events: you are given one of four possible decks, of which the central Pokémon of has alternate artwork as a promotional card. You are also given four packs from that set, and you can swap out any cards within the premade deck for cards from those four packs. The rules for the deck are as follows:
1. The deck must have exactly 40 cards.
2. There must be at least 1 Basic Pokémon in the deck. (Fossils don’t count as Basic Pokémon.)
3. You may swap out cards using only the cards found in the accompanying packs.
4. You may put in as many cards with the same name as you’d like.
5. Matches play out with 4 Prizes instead of 6.
6. During deckbuilding, you are given an unlimited number of any Basic Energy of any current type.
Chaos Rising’s premade decks consist of Ampharos, Crobat, Goodra, and Delphox. For this one, for the first time, I got the Delphox one, a Fire deck designed to exploit Delphox’s Ability, “Flare Magic.” The other featured Pokémon also all have Abilities and decks designed to work with them too, though Goodra’s is less pronounced due to being a reactive effect.
00:00 - Intro
01:41 - Deckbuilding
I took out the Vulpix line within the deck and swapped it with more Fennekin and Braixen I got in the packs. I also put in a Ho-Oh due to it working with the Fire Energy. I also took out the Rare Candy due to the low chances of actually putting it to use. In the missing cards’ place are 2 of Prism Tower, as discarding 2 cards and drawing a card allows me to draw one more card out of “Flare Magic,” though I rarely put it to use.
POKÉMON (13)
5x Fennekin (Chaos Rising)
4x Braixen (Chaos Rising)
3x Delphox (Chaos Rising)
1x Ho-Oh (Chaos Rising)
TRAINERS (16)
2x Buddy-Buddy Poffin
1x Energy Recycler
2x Hilda
2x Lillie’s Determination
3x Poké Pad
2x Prism Tower
1x Surfer
1x Switch
2x Waitress
ENERGY (11)
11x Fire Energy
03:33 - Match #1
This match had me up against someone else who got the Delphox deck. Unfortunately, my game’s shuffling resulted in most of my Energy cards at the bottom, rendering me unable to attack for much or use “Flare Magic.”
12:50 - Match #2
My opponent also used the Delphox deck in this match. They decided to add in Psychic Energy as well, having put in Deoxys #32 (the on based on Attack Deoxys, with Psyspear). It has an absurd Energy cost to use its extra effect though, let alone the 3 Psychic cost just to use it at all. I’ve never had a good result from a Build & Battle deck made up of 2 or more mututally exclusive types.
21:59 - Match #3
That was a very fast concession. They were really apprehensive of Braixen using Flamethrower to knock out Mareep.
24:07 - Match #4
My opponent was using the Crobat deck. I’ve used this one before; the Qwilfish is a land mine (and shaped like one too), waiting to be attacked so it can inflict Poison and counter with a much stronger attack. The Crobat deck doesn’t hit as hard, but its card-searching Ability, “Nighttime Maneuvers,” gives it incredible consistency compared to the other decks, and it runs on just one Energy per Pokémon, limiting Delphox’s Energized Storm attack and minimizing the odds that it can’t attack. Poisonous Sound Wave inflicting Confusion AND Poison makes it annoying to fight too.
31:40 - Match #5
This one was a tense one for me—I needed to watch the total amount of Energy carefully. My opponent was also using the Delphox deck, and I needed to make sure their Delphox’s Energized Storm attack, which deals 30 damage for each Energy on the entire board (both players), doesn’t knock out my Delphox while I could knock out theirs. Waitress was the key to make it work; I was looking for Waitress (who lets you attach an extra Energy for the turn) towards the end, using Energy Recycler to put Energy back in to ensure I found one to attach.
42:24 - Rewards
And after it’s over, you get every card from the deck and the extra packs added to your collection. You also get experience points, Trainer Points, extra packs depending on how many wins you got, and possibly your token back if you won at least 3 matches out of 5 for that Build & Battle set. As you can see, since I had never received the Delphox deck before, the promo featured card there, the one illustrated by Souichirou Gunjima instead of Gemi, was labeled as “new.” I will use that Delphox in a normal deck; I’ll feature it later.
With the Chaos Rising season comes a new mode outright, at least within the confines of Pokémon Trading Card Game Live: the Build & Battle format, based on the prerelease events. Each set has one (except for special sets like Black Bolt & White Flare or Ascended Heroes), set one to two weeks before the set officially comes out, and is the first chance the public gets to have these cards. TCG Live does it a bit differently in that you don’t get to play these until the set’s release, though you can play them as many times as you get tokens (which can be redeemed for 600 Trainer Points).
Otherwise, they play much like your prerelease events: you are given one of four possible decks, of which the central Pokémon of has alternate artwork as a promotional card. You are also given four packs from that set, and you can swap out any cards within the premade deck for cards from those four packs. The rules for the deck are as follows:
1. The deck must have exactly 40 cards.
2. There must be at least 1 Basic Pokémon in the deck. (Fossils don’t count as Basic Pokémon.)
3. You may swap out cards using only the cards found in the accompanying packs.
4. You may put in as many cards with the same name as you’d like.
5. Matches play out with 4 Prizes instead of 6.
6. During deckbuilding, you are given an unlimited number of any Basic Energy of any current type.
Chaos Rising’s premade decks consist of Ampharos, Crobat, Goodra, and Delphox. For this one, for the first time, I got the Delphox one, a Fire deck designed to exploit Delphox’s Ability, “Flare Magic.” The other featured Pokémon also all have Abilities and decks designed to work with them too, though Goodra’s is less pronounced due to being a reactive effect.
00:00 - Intro
01:41 - Deckbuilding
I took out the Vulpix line within the deck and swapped it with more Fennekin and Braixen I got in the packs. I also put in a Ho-Oh due to it working with the Fire Energy. I also took out the Rare Candy due to the low chances of actually putting it to use. In the missing cards’ place are 2 of Prism Tower, as discarding 2 cards and drawing a card allows me to draw one more card out of “Flare Magic,” though I rarely put it to use.
POKÉMON (13)
5x Fennekin (Chaos Rising)
4x Braixen (Chaos Rising)
3x Delphox (Chaos Rising)
1x Ho-Oh (Chaos Rising)
TRAINERS (16)
2x Buddy-Buddy Poffin
1x Energy Recycler
2x Hilda
2x Lillie’s Determination
3x Poké Pad
2x Prism Tower
1x Surfer
1x Switch
2x Waitress
ENERGY (11)
11x Fire Energy
03:33 - Match #1
This match had me up against someone else who got the Delphox deck. Unfortunately, my game’s shuffling resulted in most of my Energy cards at the bottom, rendering me unable to attack for much or use “Flare Magic.”
12:50 - Match #2
My opponent also used the Delphox deck in this match. They decided to add in Psychic Energy as well, having put in Deoxys #32 (the on based on Attack Deoxys, with Psyspear). It has an absurd Energy cost to use its extra effect though, let alone the 3 Psychic cost just to use it at all. I’ve never had a good result from a Build & Battle deck made up of 2 or more mututally exclusive types.
21:59 - Match #3
That was a very fast concession. They were really apprehensive of Braixen using Flamethrower to knock out Mareep.
24:07 - Match #4
My opponent was using the Crobat deck. I’ve used this one before; the Qwilfish is a land mine (and shaped like one too), waiting to be attacked so it can inflict Poison and counter with a much stronger attack. The Crobat deck doesn’t hit as hard, but its card-searching Ability, “Nighttime Maneuvers,” gives it incredible consistency compared to the other decks, and it runs on just one Energy per Pokémon, limiting Delphox’s Energized Storm attack and minimizing the odds that it can’t attack. Poisonous Sound Wave inflicting Confusion AND Poison makes it annoying to fight too.
31:40 - Match #5
This one was a tense one for me—I needed to watch the total amount of Energy carefully. My opponent was also using the Delphox deck, and I needed to make sure their Delphox’s Energized Storm attack, which deals 30 damage for each Energy on the entire board (both players), doesn’t knock out my Delphox while I could knock out theirs. Waitress was the key to make it work; I was looking for Waitress (who lets you attach an extra Energy for the turn) towards the end, using Energy Recycler to put Energy back in to ensure I found one to attach.
42:24 - Rewards
And after it’s over, you get every card from the deck and the extra packs added to your collection. You also get experience points, Trainer Points, extra packs depending on how many wins you got, and possibly your token back if you won at least 3 matches out of 5 for that Build & Battle set. As you can see, since I had never received the Delphox deck before, the promo featured card there, the one illustrated by Souichirou Gunjima instead of Gemi, was labeled as “new.” I will use that Delphox in a normal deck; I’ll feature it later.
