Pokémon TCG

 Another way Pokémon TCG Pocket encourages creative deck building is by having a decent free-to-play model. When playing the physical Pokémon TCG, there isn’t really an option to get free cards. Because players have to be smart with their money, they are encouraged to simply purchase cards that are good in the meta. However, when players are consistently getting free cards from Pokémon TCG Pocket, there’s no real harm in trying out some new creative builds that might not work.

 Going up against my friend’s janky Venusaur deck reminds me of a time when the only real consideration I gave my Pokémon cards was how much I liked the Pokémon I was collecting. I remember being pumped to pull a Venonat as a kid, simply because I thought it was cute. Since I’m not worrying about how much cards cost or how competitive my deck will be at a local event, playing Pokémon TCG Pocket feels a lot closer to this simpler way of engaging with the game.

 While I had a suspicion that I would be interested in Pokémon TCG Pocket when it was announced, I wouldn’t have expected it to have a broad enough appeal to pull in people who didn’t actively engage with TCGs. What has helped Pocket’s broad appeal - and in turn helped it recapture the feeling of the initial 90s Pokémon craze - is its simplicity. The game is a much more streamlined version of the TCG, making it much easier for players to engage with.

 Not only are the rules and card designs a bit simpler, but Pokémon TCG Pocket is also fully automated. This means players don’t have to remember rules or sequencing, because the game does it for them. It even has handy reminders if you forget to attach energy or play a supporter card, making it less likely that you’ll make a serious misplay. This accessibility, plus the ease with which friends can play remotely, has helped make Pokémon TCG Pocket appealing to a wider audience than a typical TCG might have. And built-in nostalgia for Pokémon doesn’t hurt.

 Now that I’m older, it takes a lot for something to occupy the same amount of space in my brain as Pokémon did back in the 90s. However, Pokémon TCG Pocket has done a pretty good job of keeping me excited about the game. For one, opening a couple of packs daily means I’m consistently engaged with the game. Pull rates for cool cards also aren’t terrible, so it’s not uncommon for me or someone I know to get a rare card that we want to share. This helps keep an active social scene around the game for me.

 This frequent engagement with Pokémon, especially with a version of card collecting, is something I haven’t experienced since I was in grade school. While I won’t say my enthusiasm for Pokémon TCG Pocket has reached full five-year-old status, it is the closest I’ve come in a long time. Any lifelong Pokémon fan who hasn’t tried out the game yet should give it a shot.

 A new limited Pokemon Trading Card Game card illustration was drawn by Tetsuo Hara, the artist behind the Fist of the North Star manga series. The Pokemon in question is Irukaman, who is better known in English as Palafin.

 Palafin is the evolution of Finizen, both of which debuted in the ninth-generation mainline entries Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. This card will be particularly based on the evolved Pokemon’s Hero Form. Tetsuo Hara is depicting the Pokemon performing Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken, the signature attack of the Fist of the North Star protagonist Kenshiro.

 The uniquely illustrated card will have the same in-game parameters as a previous Palafin ex card drawn by PLANETA Mochizuki. This Pokemon will have 340 HP with the ability Hero’s Spirit (or Mighty Soul in Japanese), which only allows the card to appear from the effect of Palafin’s ability Zero to Hero (or Mighty Change in Japanese). It will also have a Giga Impact attack that requires one Water energy and deals 250 damage, but it will render the Pokemon unable to attack in the player’s next turn.

 Pokemon TCG Pocket has become a massive hit on mobile devices since its release in late October. Racking up over 30 million downloads in just over a month, Pokemon TCG Pocket has already brought in a whopping $120 million and continues to be incredibly popular today. The Pokemon Company has even managed to ride its success to a nomination for Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards 2024.

 Despite its incredible success, it hasn't all been perfect in the world of Pokemon TCG Pocket. As one would expect from a new adaptation of a long-standing game, this mobile release takes some liberties from the rules of the pre-established card games and changes the overall formula. One such change is rubbing players the wrong way and may open up a slippery slope for the future of this title.

 Pokemon TCG Pocket recently released to massive success, and a recent datamine seemed to reveal an upcoming update that could be a good omen for fans.

 Users on social media have been discussing one of Pokemon TCG Pocket’s biggest limitations: the number of decks a player can build. Players can only build up to 15 possible decks at a time, with no leeway to increase the overall number. If gamers want to create new decks, they must delete one of their pre-existing decks to experiment with an entirely new one.

 Interestingly, this is not the only limit players are beholden to in Pokemon TCG Pocket, as they are also held back on the number of cards they can have in the deck. Unlike the conventional Pokemon Trading Card Game, which allows players to have decks containing as many as 60 cards, Pokemon TCG Pocket only allows players to have 20 cards in one deck. This is done largely to ensure more casual games that can be done quickly, with simple deckbuilding strategies thrown in for good measure.

 Fans have expressed frustration at the game's deck limit, considering it “pointless" and bemoaning the way it limits the overall gameplay. Fewer potential decks to work with means players will quickly run out of space, especially given the smaller deck sizes. There are currently 250 cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket, and while that theoretically means that a player with all 250 unique cards can use each of them in at least one deck, DeNA’s commitment to adding more cards to the game means that players will quickly run out of space when building their decks.

 Furthermore, players may have to use the same card across multiple decks, which means that even if a player had access to every unique card in Pokemon TCG Pocket, they may only be able to use some of them when building decks. Players can construct decks fairly quickly in Pokemon TCG Pocket, meaning the 15-deck limit probably won’t take long to reach. What’s worse, the deck limit can throw the game's balance off, as players may be forced to delete their best decks to build weaker decks if they want to play with friends who are just getting into the game.

 The most concerning part of this deck limitation is what it could mean for Pokemon TCG Pocket’s future monetization practices. Speculation has mounted that, as more cards are added to the game, DeNA may use this current deck limit as a basis to lock extra deck space behind a paywall. This would force users to pay even more for an option that should be available to all players, which could alienate gamers and turn them away from playing the game.

 It’s unclear what DeNA’s rationale is for imposing these kinds of deck limitations in Pokemon TCG Pocket. As the game receives more content, a 15-deck limit feels like an albatross around the neck that will only complicate things for players of all skill levels. Here’s hoping DeNA can do right by its players to remove these deck limits, and hopefully not lock such a removal behind monetization methods.

 Trading is coming to Pokemon TCG Pocket. We’ve known it’s been planned for a while now, thanks to the greyed-out button on the social tab, and players are eagerly anticipating completing their collections by swapping with other players. I’ve got just three regular cards to go before I’ve completed Genetic Apex and I’m loathe to spend pack points on anything other than alt arts, so trading could be a gamechanger.

Pokemon Opening

 But I’m not convinced trading will be the answer to all our problems. I’ll get into the reasons why in just a few sentences’ time, but the predatory nature of every other mechanic in this game gives me pause. Here’s how I anticipate Pokemon TCG Pocket will implement trading. Don’t shoot me, I’m only the Pokemon player.

 Trading will be restricted heavily when it becomes available. I don’t expect this to be a system like Pokemon Trading Card Game Online (now called Live, but I don’t know if its trading system has remained the same), where you can just put up whatever cards you have and request anything else in return.

 I fully expect Pokemon TCG Pocket to only allow trading of cards of the same rarity. There won’t be a way to put up 16 Psyduck and ask for an immersive rare Mewtwo ex from a generous patron. You’ll need to offer an ex card to ask for an ex card in return. This way, the game doesn’t lose out and you still need to pull an ex card in order to trade it for another one. But as a player, it kinda sucks as there’s no way to upcycle your duplicates.

 As well as needing to match the rarity of the card you’re requesting, I assume you’ll only be able to trade duplicates. Much like the current flair system, you’ll need a minimum of three cards in order to offer one up for trade.

 For my army of Psyduck, that’s not a problem. I should be able to trade for a Gloom and Gyarados without issue, but getting my hands on the two-star rarity alt art Gengar ex I’ve spent too long pulling Mewtwo for will be a lot more difficult. I’ve already transferred three full art Diglett for fancy currency, so getting one-stars hasn’t been a problem so far, but any higher? It’ll be a nightmare.

 I want that Legendary bird icon, but what are my chances of two alt art birds? Literally zero if I keep pulling Mewtwo for Gengar, though if I manage to get the alt art Articuno I might switch to Charizard. But even with trading, I’ll struggle to get my hands on my favourite cards.

 Trading is coming at the end of January, which is coincidentally when the next set is rumoured to launch. Or is it? Is it coincidence, I mean, not is it launching. We don’t know either for sure, but I think there’s reasoning behind this schedule.

 I think trading, when it’s released next year, will be limited to Genetic Apex. Pokemon TCG Pocket knows players will spend big on the new set, and it doesn’t want you completing its next set without parting with your cash. This may be good news for those of us who still haven’t finished the set, but it’ll be bittersweet when we’re seeing exciting new cards from the new set.

 This combination of drawbacks gives me pause when it comes to Pokemon TCG Pocket’s most requested feature. When you consider that the game might add another currency to proceedings as well, suddenly it feels like trading could be a bigger disappointment for fans than the most recent Wonder Pick event.

 While the invisible hand of compulsion and in-game spending lingers, Pokémon TCG Pocket benefits from smartly interwoven systems and, crucially, just a darn good underlying card game.

 The last thing I needed was for Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket to be good. But here we are! It's a cracker, and annoyingly, worryingly, compulsively so. Over the past week or two since The Pokémon Company unleashed this fearsome dopamine machine onto the world, I've been hard pressed to put it down, filling erstwhile empty moments during tooth brushing, kettle boiling and, erm, definitely not working with just one more quick game.

 A central question here, of course, is how TCG Pocket balances its worst instincts - its reliance on loot boxes, and all the patently compulsive effects they surface in its players - with a sense of health, balance and, crucially, actual intrinsic fun. The surprising answer is: quite well, actually.

 Nevertheless, Pokémon TCG Pocket undoubtedly sets itself up as a game centred around obtaining and opening booster packs - at least at first. On starting the game for the first time, you'll be given a guided tour of the pack opening experience, plied with in-game resources for opening more, and then sent on your way through a twisting nebula of objectives, incentives and rewards. At the time of writing, there are 226 unique cards (plus around 14 additional "promo" cards) available, split across three choices of pack (one each themed after Charizard, Mewtwo, and Pikachu) and all together making up the game's first expansion. Each booster pack contains just five cards - reduced from the 10 you get in real-world Pokémon boosters, in part because there are no energy cards to pad things out here.

 Your ability to open packs meanwhile is governed by a 12-hour timer, which you can accelerate with an in-game currency called Pack Hourglasses, and given the level of rarity of different cards - and the scarcity of packs - that means collecting 'em all is going to take a very, very long time. One player ran the numbers and suggested completing the entire expansion without paying anything would take something between approximately 500 and 1100 days of consecutive play on average, depending on what in-game rewards and mechanics you factor into the equation. Either way: that is a very long time.

 But here's the rub: collecting cards is really only a part of the game's wider, cyclical mechanical journey. Here's an example. Open a pack and you get some cards. The new cards fill out your Pokédex, while any duplicates are automatically kept in storage. These can be used for creating decks to battle with (more on that shortly) where having more than one of a certain card is often essential for success. Or they can be traded in, alongside a resource called Shinedust, for a special flair - essentially a fancy sparkle or themed effect that triggers when you play a card from your hand in a match. You can also create collections and binders of cards to put on display in your profile, which is all a form of essentially highlighting favourites or showing off your rarest acquisitions.

 This is not the end of the pack-opening sequence, however. With each opened pack, you also get a small amount of another resource, called Pack Points. These can be used in exchange for effectively 'buying' a specific card outright. You get five Pack Points per opened pack, and cards cost anything from 35 points for a lowly Caterpie to 2,500 points for the absolute rarest cards in the set, such as a rather garish gold, full holo Pikachu EX. That's not all! You also get experience, which counts towards your player level, which, when it goes up one, offers you more rewards in Pack Hourglasses and the like for, you guessed it, opening more packs. And round and round it goes.