Pokémon TCG

 It will be interesting to see how Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket evolves once the game has been around a little bit longer. At this point, it’s only been a little over a month since the game became available, and we can definitely expect to see things change over time. After all, the TCG itself has greatly changed since the original Base Set launched back in 1996, and it stands to reason that we’ll see that happen with the digital version as well. Whether or not that means fans will get the option to build new decks, however, remains to be seen!

 Pokémon TCG Pocket might be a highly simplified form of the Pokémon TCG, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a competitive meta. For the past five weeks, over 1,000 players have taken part in streamer Ursiiday’s weekly tournament, and that’s allowed us to see a noticeable shift in the meta. This week, Charizard ex is finally on top, and a surprising new Greninja deck has emerged to quench the flames.

 In the first month of Pokémon TCG Pocket’s lifespan, Pikachu ex and Mewtwo ex have dominated the ‘competitive’ scene. These decks are obvious favorites, featuring some of the most powerful Pokémon cards on the platform.

 Pikachu ex proved particularly troublesome, winning the first two tournaments thanks to its high level of consistency and powerful, low energy cost move. But Mewtwo ex took first place in tournaments three and four, powered by the strong synergy of Gardevoir fueling Mewtwo ex’s highly damaging attack.

 Finally in Ursiiday’s Pocket Weekly tournament five, which took place on November 30, we have an upset. Charizard ex, the third ‘face’ of Pokémon TCG Pocket’s first set Genetic Apex, took first place for the first time, but more interestingly, a brand new deck graced the scene, with a Water-type Greninja list securing the bronze medal.

 The victorious Fire-type deck is particularly dangerous to the lightning mouse strategy, as both Charizard and Arcanine ex can one-shot Pikachu. With that energy type squeezed out a little bit, Water decks now have some breathing space.

 The new Greninja deck is an interesting one, with a flexible and unique strategy. It relies on Greninja’s ability to deal a little bit of damage to any Pokémon, regardless of whether it’s in play or sitting on the bench. The ideal gameplan for the archetype is to have a high-damage dealing Pokémon like Articuno ex up front, then snipe at your opponent with a Greninja (or two if you’re living the dream) that’s waiting in the wings.

 Greninja can be used to lend extra damage to your main attacker, counteracting potions, and making it easier to finish off a ‘mon. But sometimes you can also use its ability to soften up or even KO other Pokémon on the bench, particularly paired with Articuno ex’s Blizzard attack. And of course the water type has an obvious advantage over the Charizard ex decks that are seeing a comeback.

 Pokémon TCG Pocket has recaptured my interest in Pokémon in a way that few games have done since I first played Pokémon Blue in 1999. This isn’t to say that it’s my first time revisiting the series. Back in 2016, my friends and I would take almost daily Pokémon GO trips to our local park. Occasionally, out of a sense of nostalgia, I’ll grab a new mainline Pokémon game to see what I’ve been missing (and put it down after an hour, never to touch it again). But Pokémon TCG Pocket comes closest to capturing my initial obsession with Pokémon.

 Collecting cards and creating decks in Pokémon TCG Pocket feels a lot closer to my earliest experiences opening packs of Pokémon cards than even my more recent engagement with the Pokémon TCG and Pokémon TCG Live. This is partially due to my social experience with Pokémon TCG Pocket, but also thanks to the game’s card pool. The game’s focus on tight and accessible gameplay also deserves some credit for fueling its success.

 I never would have imagined that, at age 30, a healthy dose of my daily communications now has to do with Pokémon. Since the release of Pokémon TCG Pocket, I have rarely gone a few hours without at least one message showing off an impressive new card being sent to a group chat. Of course, it helps that Pokémon TCG Pocket is a mobile game, so the process of screenshotting a great pull and sharing it with friends involves only a few clicks.

 While the methods may be updated, the act of showing off my coolest Pokémon to friends is still very nostalgic. Pokémon TCG Pocket also has built-in ways for players to show off their favorite cards on their public profile. That means even players who don’t have an enthusiastic group of Pokémon fans to share their collection with still have a chance to share their pulls with other players. But it isn’t just the collecting aspect of Pokémon TCG Pocket that feels similar to collecting the first edition cards back in the 90s.

 To be clear, Pokémon TCG Pocket does have a lot of the same deck-building tendencies that can rob modern TCGs of some magic. There is a pretty well-defined meta, and finding meta builds online (or net decks) is very easy. While this wasn’t necessarily the case back in the days of dial-up, I still find that deck building in Pokémon TCG Pocket feels similar to cobbling a deck together from random packs I bought at Toys "R" Us.

 One of the reasons I think Pokémon TCG Pocket lends itself to the type of experimental deck building I used to do as a kid is its limited card pool. Sitting down to play the full Pokémon TCG, where thousands of cards are legal in Standard, it can be a little impractical to sift through them all to create a unique deck. In contrast, Pokémon TCG Pocket has only around 200 cards, with some repeats for special art treatments. This makes it a lot easier to look through and find cards I want to play with.

 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.

Pokemon TCG

 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.

 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.