Pokémon TCG Pocket - Released Globally - Ongoing Events: Emblem and Fire Wonder Pick

[Vinc2612]

View attachment tcgpocketlogo_en.webp​

Hello everyone! As you may know, the next Pokémon mobile game is Pokémon TCG Pocket, launching globally on October 30th. But two days ago, they soft launched the game in New Zealand, allowing people from there to start playing the title. The official Twitter welcomed all of us:

"Transplants"? I wonder how many people moved to New Zealand recently... I for sure would not go against the TOS with a VPN, and would not advise you to do the same!
​

Serebii has already a lot of informations about the game : https://www.serebii.net/tcgpocket/

Anyway, as you can keep your progress from the soft launch, it looks like starting early gives quite a big head start: with 2 packs every day, 1/4 of pack from daily missions, and two Wonder Pick Hearts as well (a new mechanic allowing you to get a random card from a known poll of five), that will be a nice start at getting yourself a collection.

Battle-wise, the game is a simplified version of the TCG we already know, to adapt the game to a quicker, mobile format. The main differences being a 20-cards-2-duplicates deck, no energy cards (instead, you pick one to three types during the deckbuilding, and get one random energy each turn from that poll), and three points to win (instead of the 6 prize cards).

While the current content is a bit lacking (27 CPU battles to get some rewards, and PVP to grind in a painfully slow way), as someone who plans to see what the full game will offer after the launch, I will at least get all the free packs I can until the global launch. So if you want to do the same and share your journey, this is the right place!


Friend codes:

Vinc2612: 4992401472378416
DrPumpkinz: 8118842686097162
DrrT: 2049100916937826
Count Bleck: 3097463872106899
Esserise: 4822604018985575
CTNC: 7213147648127885

 

[R_N]

I assume the "full launch" will be...exactly the same just now there's more people in it.

it's definitely going to be one of those games you just pop open when you feel like it and do pulls or PVP for a few matches and then put it away.



I'm interested enough in trying it but probably won't play too much of it unless they add more substantial CPU content. I suspect the entire way the game functions around the pulls will just slowly kill my will to play.

 

[ant4456]

First impressions: This UI is VERY snappy. It feels nice and has a nice sound effect and good visual feedback, I've never had more fun filling out a Data Sharing sheet before!

It kinda reminds me of the 3DS era spinoffs? In a way? mix pokemon shuffle or something with frutiger aero

From here it gives the option to bring in data from another phone's game, I don't want that, or to link a Nintendo/Email account to have cloud saving. I decline since I don't want a New Zealand TCG Pocket account, I'll restart when the game comes out. Probably. Can always just opt in later I imagine.

And now, 500mb update. Nice. the update/loading screen has all the types spinning in a circle. update complete
the first pokemon they show are

pikachu
charizard
mewtwo
in that order

LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

and then a bunch of other gen 1 cards in this opening animation. god, i hate kanto

eevee is the default icon. they know me so well

I imagine we'll be able to unlock more icons + they'll add more own the line, I also wonder if this is randomized. fat Pikachu is Here

my name is scrumpulous (14 max characters btw)

it warns me you can't change player name for 30 days.

okay it's time for the bread and butter, opening a first pack

i go pikachu because it is the only pokemon in this trio i actually like

5 cards per pack, arcanine is EX

we have a pokedex, folks, 226 cards in the game I'm guessing 95%+ of that is kanto

they're REALLY fucking proud of this, aren't they

quests

i dont post a photo of this after, but it seems the base time for a new pack is 12 hours, so two a day. they call it "Stamina" which makes me think you can maybe pay to win that part. i can pick from char/mew/pika again, i'm going pikachu

it says you can get notified for when to open a pack

oh it forced me to go mewtwo

im in this screen where like 10 packs of genetic apex mewtwo in a ring and i have to pick one lmao

you can rotate the packs around which is neat

marowak. ok
giovanni. ok
cottonee. cool actually?
snom? i dig it
tentacool

ok fuck i got jack shit

i leveled up

this spoiler has a bunch of pictures in a row explaining wonder pick

i got another squirtle, folks. they call it the best squirtle, (the best!)

thats the end of the tutorial but i get a new pack for free

"Please enjoy playing Pokemon TCG Pocket!"

"Daily gifts can be claimed"

okay. it's time to get into the actual nitty gritty: What Is the MTX?

first: boom, of course you can buy past stamina. that was super obvious though

you can buy sleeves, but also certain support cards. professor oak is available and what isn't in the screenshot is cards like potions. this seems to be for consistent accessibility if you cough up a bit of dough

sleeve cosmetics

lastly there is a limited time section which has this pikachu and tells me there is a subscription thing

we will see how this progresses over time, but first: new pack

pikachu

it seems that every time you pick you get a ring which adds to the idea of RNG and mystery

misty
paras
raticate
metapod
frosmoth

okay outside of frosmoth this was ass

LORE?????

i can open one more pack

pinsir
WHIMSICOTT
woobat
sizzlipede
voltorb

ehhh alright, I'm glad to see more non-kanto stuff though and complete the whimsicott line

hourglas tutorial

"One pack hourglass reduces the time to open packs by one hour."

can be obtained from

-leveling up
-mission rewards

or paying money the game doesn't say that

"When you subscribe to the premium pass, you can open one more pack every day." interestingly delibird is on the pass icon so that's cool

i have 12 hourglasses for this tutorial so i skip it all

misty (dupe)
doduo
ponyta
ponyta again (literally the same card???)
cinccino

oh completing this dex will take a fucking long time wont it

thank you for telling me what pikachu is

aaand that's all for now. I've run out of packs to get, and I'm tiredish. I'll come back later with more packs and to try the battling system when I feeeeel like it.

so far this is fun but also a bit stingy, also hate the kanto focus



DHR EDIT: Removed mentions of how to access this.

 

[ant4456]

DHR EDIT: Removed mentions of how to access this.

unfortunate but I get it

P.S. DHR-107 I didn't see another thread was for it, but tbh I still think it was better to be a Let's Play! thread because I'm bouta say a bunch of shit.

Play Session 2:
Okay, so since my last post I've played a bunch more and gotten into the battle system. The battle system has a few major changes:
1. Obviously, the number of cards are smaller. This changes the meta.
2. There are only 20 cards per deck.
3. Energy isn't really cards. Energy is a resource you gain per turn, and if you have multiple types you generate different energies on different turns. So far this makes Primary Type + Normal Type feel very good but running, say, Grass + Water is gonna be pretty ass. I'm curious how this effects Dragon Types since you can (as far as I know) only generate 1 energy per turn so far, and it's not up to your control- as a practical example, my Dragonite needs these energies, and I do not think I can practically obtain this (at least with my understanding of the game) reliably unless I run a Water + Electric deck that just happens to have a Dragonite on it.

3. You only need to knock out 3 Pokemon to win, with ex counting as two.


Obviously all of these things contribute to a faster game pace, with most of my games ending around 15 turns. They've been fast. A lot of these matches I've played are bot matches, but I've played some against other random players.

The game has a pseudo-campaign to play against AI and learn the game, as is TCG tradition. These usually have battle conditions to meet for minor rewards.

They aren't exactly hard.

As for some other stuff: Let's Go Gambling! They give you a SHIT ton of hourglasses so you can do lots of rolls really quickly for that dopamine. A quick rundown of all the gachapon I've been up to:

(dropdown to see all the cards I got from this)

I was mainly looking for the Gardevoir line as, as you may expect from Charizard/Mewtwo/Pikachu boosters, Fire/Psychic/Electric seem to be the most fleshed out types of cards. I've made a Water deck for solo bot grinding to complete challenges like using SE moves against a Fire deck, but it feels like the pickings are a bit slim.

Mewtwo is one of my least favorite Pokemon so it wasn't my preference. Still, I'll take a broken EX to grind with. Speaking of drops though, the game has droprates of course and here is some of it:

After doing more bot grinding, I decided to try another Wonder Swap and that cost some other in-game currency. I decided to go for this one though on the hopes that I'd get Zapdos:

What can I say, gambling works, folks.

Some other stuff: I unlocked other things like Binders, which are basically ways to showoff your favorite cards to people in a convenient way. You can also view random people's or friends at the "Special Hub"; which notably says Trading is coming soon:"

Rental Decks are also a thing which you earn from missions. These are used against solo bots only I'm pretty sure, and you don't own them. You have 10 uses of them before they go away.

Random Match has you pick a deck and choose between "Beginner" and "TCG Player" and I'm not sure if there is any ranking. If not that's bad because you can just pick your queue and then you're definitely gonna have people that aren't equipped just feel like shit getting owned.

Thoughts on the game so far is it's clicking with me more than TCG Live as someone who dislikes the TCG meta as is, but I do think this should be fleshed out a bit more. Wonder Swap is a great feature.

 

[Yung Dramps]

The UI designers really killed it here. The first word that comes to mind when looking at pictures of this game is "crisp". In terms of Kanto-to-everything-else ratio it's still a bit lopsided but WAY better than the trailers made it out to be, and I reckon this is just to get the ultra normies on board and future expansions will steadily phase out said bias.

I wonder how big this game will end up over the long run compared to its competitors in the online mobile TCG space. I can't imagine outright failure is on the table for the franchise that can make $100 million off a sleep tracker but its maximum potential may be inhibited by entering this market rather late.

 

[ant4456]

The UI designers really killed it here. The first word that comes to mind when looking at pictures of this game is "crisp". In terms of Kanto-to-everything-else ratio it's still a bit lopsided but WAY better than the trailers made it out to be, and I reckon this is just to get the ultra normies on board and future expansions will steadily phase out said bias.

I wonder how big this game will end up over the long run compared to its competitors in the online mobile TCG space. I can't imagine outright failure is on the table for the franchise that can make $100 million off a sleep tracker but its maximum potential may be inhibited by entering this market rather late.

My big hope is they add a ranked mode bc I feel like that'd add a lot of longevity. Outside of collecting, just playing with straight up random people, just in two queues (which actively basically allows smurfing btw! beginners are gonna choose beginner and you can just decide "imma fuck up some beginners"!) is kinda whack

i honestly think this game has the potential to be pokemon go huge though, it captures the fun of getting new cards in... your pocket. for free

 

[R_N]

Having seen a bunch of gameplay from a TCG streamer I follow, Tricky Gym, I'm pretty curious how quickly powercreep escalates. Despite his hype at how relatively even in HP/power the ex pokemon are to stage 2s it's already got shades of the current set up -strong ex center with ability support from stage 1/2s and the occasional extra tacked on- and I feel that "extra" will get phased out pretty quick. Supporters can only go up, as can items. Ah well, is what it is. For now it's novel to see the numbers so comparatively low.

Also curious what the next set will be. Will they spend the first however many sets going through each generation as the focus (Genetic Apex already has all 151 with almost all the supports/items focused on FRLG in addition to the 100 or so other gen Pokemon) or will they jump straight into "standard" type sets where it's just focused on a grabbag of Pokemon following some theme.

 

[ant4456]

Having seen a bunch of gameplay from a TCG streamer I follow, Tricky Gym, I'm pretty curious how quickly powercreep escalates. Despite his hype at how relatively even in HP/power the ex pokemon are to stage 2s it's already got shades of the current set up -strong ex center with ability support from stage 1/2s and the occasional extra tacked on- and I feel that "extra" will get phased out pretty quick. Supporters can only go up, as can items. Ah well, is what it is. For now it's novel to see the numbers so comparatively low.

Also curious what the next set will be. Will they spend the first however many sets going through each generation as the focus (Genetic Apex already has all 151 with almost all the supports/items focused on FRLG in addition to the 100 or so other gen Pokemon) or will they jump straight into "standard" type sets where it's just focused on a grabbag of Pokemon following some theme.

I think it really depends because, since Ranked doesn't exist, it feels like they're pretty ehh on the balancing

Particularly I'm finding it kinda annoying how hard it can be to evolve sometimes tbh. I just had a match where my wincon was any of my benched Pokemon getting their evolution card, didn't get any, GG. Poke Ball is nice for Basics but like, that doesn't help me lol

 

[Yung Dramps]

I have to assume the lack of a Ranked mode will be amended in the full release or at least added pretty quickly because that seems like an exceptionally bizarre and disconcerting omission for this type of game. Then again I'm not familiar with the scene so maybe this is actually completely normal and Marvel Snap dragged its feet for a year or whatever. I somehow doubt it though

 

[R_N]

I imagine it comes eventually, but I can see why they wouldn't launch with it. They probably want it to be a more "casual" affair, at least the start. They really have been emphasizing the collection and display aspects to start in particular. If you want the ranked ideal they probably want you in physical cards.

Perhaps after a few more sets are released.

 

[ant4456]

I imagine it comes eventually, but I can see why they wouldn't launch with it. They probably want it to be a more "casual" affair, at least the start. They really have been emphasizing the collection and display aspects to start in particular. If you want the ranked ideal they probably want you in physical cards.

Perhaps after a few more sets are released.

I think it's more that PTCG Live is still a thing and there may have been some internal affairs about trying to differentiate the two further. But I think TCGP having a ranked mode doesn't really stop it, and frankly, if only one of them is to live it's gonna be TCGP- TCG Live has not really made any waves, despite it trying to be a direct translation of the current main TCG into mobile.

 

[Mr. Uncompetitive]

Been playing the early build of Pokemon Pocket a ton over the last week or so. I am drafting a long post (as i usually do on the vg thread) with my thoughts on the game, but my opinions might change if there are major meta shakeups once the game properly launches. So I'll hold off on that till next month but I wanna some quick thoughts out there

To preface:
1. I do not care about card collecting outside of being able to build decks. I am mostly here to card game
2. I primarily play Yugioh but did play a fair amount of Pokemon TCG back in XY

The UI and aesthetics of Pokemon Pocket are clean and all, but it feels so boring in comparison to how incredible Yugioh Master Duel looks and sounds. The F2P economy isn't that bad if you're okay with just burning through a lot of your resources from the start in order to build decks, but again, it really pales in comparison to Master Duel's economy at launch. The trading system will definitely help rectify things though, that was the best part of Pokemon TCGO. The core gameplay is simple and addicting enough, feels fun to win. Not having a ladder system and very few F2P rewards from doing random matches though sucks

Anyways the main reason I wanted to make this post is because...holy shit this metagame is so bad LOL

Most decks are all about filling energies as fast as possible for a strong wincon. Pikachu ex, Starmie ex, Articuno ex, Zapdos ex, Mewtwo ex, Charizard ex, Marowak ex, Kabutops, Alakazam, Venusaur ex, and Dragonite (basically 95-99% of decks you fight) all play extremely similarly and mindlessly, the difference is just how fast they do it and how strong they are once they're done. Slow decks will need some mild control/aggro elements, except these are often luck-based lmao (see: Hypno, Frosmoth, Dugtrio, Exeggutor ex, Marowak ex). Unlike the physical TCG, there are very very few tutoring effects, and the ones that exist are unreliable. Pokeball is random and Prof Oak is a card that happens to be extremely strong despite only being a random +1 because every other supporter is only good mid-late game. Hell, even some energy acceleration like Misty and Moltres ex is luck-based.

This results in decks being EXTREMELY inconsistent and games pretty rarely ever coming down to skill. Some matchups are better or worse than others, but all of them are loseable with bad luck. If you brick with a long setup deck like Venusaur ex/Exeggutor ex, you're just kinda fucked, but you are pretty much guaranteed to win the game if you can setup Venusaur. Most of the skill is based on unsatisfying defensive gameplay like retreating, healing, and not playing Oak if you feel like your opponent will Red Card you (yay i love hand disruption in my card game yeah woo). That skill also won't matter if your opponent "drew the out", like "okay if they drew Sabrina/Potion/Giovanni I lose" or "if they evolve and hit Heads here on Exeggutor ex/Marowak ex I lose", which is just awesome.

Now sure, there are more interesting skill-testing decks like Pidgeot/Arbok (which is what I mostly play) and Muk/Weezing, which are both control-focused that can't hit hard but do have interesting ways of messing with the opponent's gameplan. But like...why bother playing them?? Both of these decks (as well as decks like Omastar and Gengar ex) still take a significant amount of setup, about as much as a deck like Mewtwo ex which can just brainlessly OHKO your whole team, and when you need several turns for the control elements to kick in, it's just not effective at all. Who cares if Gengar blocks supporters, it won't come into play until your opponent is already done using Oak to amass a crazy wincon. Who cares if Omastar stops your opponent from attacking, by the time its on field, your opponent should have the energy to retreat without much issues. To be fair, Arbok/Pidgeot feels like the one exception since that deck can at least kinda start the disruption by your second or third turn and the axis it operates on (shuffling and trapping your opponent's active) is effective enough at all stages of the game.

I know this game could definitely get more interesting over time. But like...if Professor's Research is meant to be the "staple supporter" (which indicates a slower pace of play with minimal tutoring, compared to the TCG where Prof Research is the wayyyy stronger "Discard hand and Draw 7"), and if many of my opponents, who are also playing early access on the "Advanced" queue and thus aren't total randos, can't even read the ONE line of text on Arbok that says you can't retreat and proceed to use XSpeed anyways, then I really don't have much faith that this game is gonna get more interesting. Guess we'll see on the proper launch.

 

[ant4456]

Been playing the early build of Pokemon Pocket a ton over the last week or so. I am drafting a long post (as i usually do on the vg thread) with my thoughts on the game, but my opinions might change if there are major meta shakeups once the game properly launches. So I'll hold off on that till next month but I wanna some quick thoughts out there

To preface:
1. I do not care about card collecting outside of being able to build decks. I am mostly here to card game
2. I primarily play Yugioh but did play a fair amount of Pokemon TCG back in XY

The UI and aesthetics of Pokemon Pocket are clean and all, but it feels so boring in comparison to how incredible Yugioh Master Duel looks and sounds. The F2P economy isn't that bad if you're okay with just burning through a lot of your resources from the start in order to build decks, but again, it really pales in comparison to Master Duel's economy at launch. The trading system will definitely help rectify things though, that was the best part of Pokemon TCGO. The core gameplay is simple and addicting enough, feels fun to win. Not having a ladder system and very few F2P rewards from doing random matches though sucks

Anyways the main reason I wanted to make this post is because...holy shit this metagame is so bad LOL

Most decks are all about filling energies as fast as possible for a strong wincon. Pikachu ex, Starmie ex, Articuno ex, Zapdos ex, Mewtwo ex, Charizard ex, Marowak ex, Kabutops, Alakazam, Venusaur ex, and Dragonite (basically 95-99% of decks you fight) all play extremely similarly and mindlessly, the difference is just how fast they do it and how strong they are once they're done. Slow decks will need some mild control/aggro elements, except these are often luck-based lmao (see: Hypno, Frosmoth, Dugtrio, Exeggutor ex, Marowak ex). Unlike the physical TCG, there are very very few tutoring effects, and the ones that exist. Pokeball is random and Prof Oak is a card that happens to be extremely strong despite only being a random +1 because every other supporter is only good mid-late game. Hell, even energy acceleration like Misty and Moltres ex is luck-based.

This results in decks being EXTREMELY inconsistent and games pretty rarely ever coming to skill. Some matchups are better or worse than others, but all of them are loseable with bad luck. If you brick with a long setup deck like Venusaur ex/Exeggutor ex, you're just kinda fucked, but you are pretty much guaranteed to win the game if you can setup Venusaur. Most of the skill is based on unsatisfying defensive gameplay like retreating, healing, and not playing Oak if you feel like your opponent will Red Card you (yay i love hand disruption in my card yeah woo). That skill also won't matter if your opponent "drew the out", like "okay if they drew Sabrina/Potion/Giovanni I lose" or "if they evolve and hit Heads here on Exeggutor ex/Marowak ex I lose", which is just awesome.

Now sure, there are more interesting skill-testing decks like Pidgeot/Arbok (which is what I mostly play) and Muk/Weezing, which are both control-focused that can't hit hard but do have interesting ways of messing with the opponent's gameplan. But like...why bother playing them?? Both of these decks (as well as decks like Omastar and Gengar ex) still take a significant amount of setup, about as much as a deck like Mewtwo ex which can just brainlessly OHKO your whole team, and when you need several turns for the control elements to kick in, it's just not effective at all. Who cares if Gengar blocks supporters, it won't come into play until your opponent is already done using Oak to amass a crazy wincon. Who cares if Omastar stops your opponent from attacking, by the time its on field, your opponent should have the energy to retreat without much issues. To be fair, Arbok/Pidgeot feels like the one exception since that deck can at least kinda start the disruption by your second or third turn and the axis it operates on (shuffling and trapping your opponent's active) is effective enough at all stages of the game.

I know this game could definitely get more interesting over time. But like...if Professor's Research is meant to be the "staple supporter" (which indicates a slower pace of play with minimal tutoring, compared to the TCG where Prof Research is the wayyyy stronger "Discard hand and Draw 7"), and if many of my opponents, who are also playing early access on the "Advanced" queue and thus aren't total randos, can't even read the ONE line of text on Arbok that says you can't retreat and proceed to use XSpeed anyways, then I really don't have much faith that this game is gonna get more interesting. Guess we'll see on the proper launch.

Yeah I fell off the game after a week when I realized I was waiting 12 hours to get like 5 cards that were ass to play a game with zero ranked mode and a bad metagame lol

It's crazy bc imo this game had the potential to be as popular as Go, but I think most people will get bored after a week if even I, a big Pokemon fan, can't stick with it

 

[CryoGyro]

I can't really argue with anything you can levy against this game in its current state, so I'll just try to articulate why it's still compelling to me.

It mainly comes down to pace of play. One of my favorite things about Pokemon video games is the feeling of hitting major progression milestones; reaching that evolution or learning that awesome move or getting a boost from early gen badges. One of my main pastimes lately is solo running a sped-up Blue because it compresses that joy into one or two sittings per Pokemon. TCGP takes that even further, allowing games to tell stories in just a few minutes. You're sure to play out your evolution lines and hit your biggest numbers in just a few turns. Opponents will never be playing solitaire or strangling the joy out of you over 30 minute technically winnable games. You can't spend an hour on a handful of mood-ruining games, a major thing keeping me away from the card game space. The cards and board states are simple, but the bite size is to the game's benefit. It's something you play a little here and there for bits of game essence, and concise game essence is something I've been craving lately.

If there's one thing holding the game experience back, it's basic ex cards. The tension between consistent basics and powerful evolutions is fundamental to the game, and it's pretty obvious it wasn't designed with those exs in mind; across the designs, they tend to play both ways, outputting relevant damage or energy ramp for cheap and offer a good-to-untankable finishing move. While normal cards can pressure them down, they need too much more to go right, whether avoiding getting picked off after one swing like the 60 HP, Electric-weak Farfetch'd or drawing the right evolution out the gate like 100 HP 40-damage stage 1s and 'ex buster' stage 2s. All while putting on enough damage on these 120+ HP monsters, cause you probably aren't OHKOing. Evolution exs are fine; they represent a much greater investment and consistency hit (besides starmie lol) than basics, and choosing between them and their non-ex counterparts tends to be interesting. Charizard ex is piggybacking off Moltres ex's sins. I especially like the design elegance of the counterparts being the same concept with differing numbers, though most stage 2s don't have the HP to hang with the greedy ex decks, which feels like a big miss. There's too much money in it for exs to go anywhere, but they certainly stand to hurt the game between their less interesting gameplay for both sides (stack energy on your mewtwo/pikachu/articuno and press the attack button) and difficulty of acquisition.

 

[ant4456]

would it be Pokemon TCG if basic cards weren't obviously broken however

 

[DrPumpkinz]

I've been playing this a lot these past few days and been having a ton of fun. Figuring out different strategies and synergies for decks is super satisfying. I've mainly been running a Dragonite deck supported by Tentacruel, Zebstrika, and a pair of utility basics (I cycle between Psyduck, Vulpix, and Cubone, also I only have one Vulpix).

• The utility basics stall to buy time for Dragonite.
• Zebstrika spreads around damage evenly to get everything in Draco range.
• Tentacruel is decent at stalling thanks to its HP and makes an okay backup wincon. Its poison can pressure switches which helps keep damage even across the board, and also lets Vulpix and Cubone deal some damage while they stall.
• Even Dragonair is useful beyond just "oh its attacks cost less energy than its evolution" since it can reliably deal 80 damage to the opponent's active while Dragonite can potentially deal only 50 or even 0.

That said, for as much as I like Tentacruel and Zebstrika, I plan on swapping them out for Vaporeon and Jolteon once I get access to them. Bench damage and poison will be missed, but Vaporeon is way tankier than Tentacruel which makes it better at both stalling and being a backup wincon, while Jolteon is a proper secondary wincon if my experience using Zapdos-ex is anything to go by. More importantly, Tentacool and Blitzle have the potential to screw you over if you're forced to lead with them and get unlucky with energy, so swapping them out for two Eevee would be a lot more consistent.

My only gripes are that most "big damage but you discard energy" attacks don't seem properly balanced around you effectively draw two cards every turn with one of them always being an energy, and that as far as I can tell the only proper spread damage is through Articuno-ex.



Also farming solo battles by building a deck with Zapdos-ex as its only usable Pokemon and then going afk with auto-battle is super funny.

friend code: 8118-8426-8609-7162

 

[R_N]

I haven't used any hourglasses and lemme tell ya, you really feel the squeeze if your pulls aren't great.
Rentals requiring you get their "ace" card is bizarre. The entire point of these is to offset not having the cards for a "real" deck, but half of them require Ex cards and the other half specific supporters. I only just got access to the Blaine deck.

Other than that I've been whittling away at the solo challenges, making do with what I have. Judging by the UI it seems each expansion should get a set of these, which is cool.
The simple style is both interesting and also somewhat annoying. Lack of search and draw -while understandable- makes dead drawing frequent and annoying. made more so when you dont have a lto of complete lines, so it gives chance for the other side to snowball out of control. Also getting pretty annoyed at all the Pokeball-rank decks having Chansey to stall.

 

[Worldie]

I haven't used any hourglasses and lemme tell ya, you really feel the squeeze if your pulls aren't great.
Rentals requiring you get their "ace" card is bizarre. The entire point of these is to offset not having the cards for a "real" deck, but half of them require Ex cards and the other half specific supporters. I only just got access to the Blaine deck.

Other than that I've been whittling away at the solo challenges, making do with what I have. Judging by the UI it seems each expansion should get a set of these, which is cool.
The simple style is both interesting and also somewhat annoying. Lack of search and draw -while understandable- makes dead drawing frequent and annoying. made more so when you dont have a lto of complete lines, so it gives chance for the other side to snowball out of control. Also getting pretty annoyed at all the Pokeball-rank decks having Chansey to stall.

This post is giving me Master Duel PTSD.

Which to be honest... I guess is a fair comparison, both are japanese TCGs making a mobile version that is actually a gacha in disguise....

 

[R_N]

One thing I think is absolutely tuned badly is the "pity" rate. It's cool you can eventually just buy the card you want, but the prices are extremely high for something that only ever goes up in increments of 5. It takes 7 packs to buy a common, which is absurd. If they want Exes and up to cost a lot that's fine (they ARE the chase cards), but anything lower should have their prices slashed or you should get more points per pack (or at least more points if you get duplicates).

 

[ant4456]

some quick meta thoughts:

-marowak ex deck is bullshit, either wins the game through luck or loses the game through luck
-misty blastoise ex build similarly also feels kinda bad
-vaporeon card is actually really fire, will 1v1 any non-EX
-farfetch'd is one of the best leads, i agree with popular opinion on that

wants:

-trade system ofc
-more expansions (i dont care for kanto)
-stage 1 deck search card
-better pity system
-faster wonder trade recovery

 

[DrPumpkinz]

I haven't used any hourglasses and lemme tell ya, you really feel the squeeze if your pulls aren't great.
Rentals requiring you get their "ace" card is bizarre. The entire point of these is to offset not having the cards for a "real" deck, but half of them require Ex cards and the other half specific supporters. I only just got access to the Blaine deck.

Any reason you haven't been using hourglasses? The game hands them out pretty regularly through missions and level-ups. The level-ups especially since opening packs gets you experience.

This post is giving me Master Duel PTSD.

Which to be honest... I guess is a fair comparison, both are japanese TCGs making a mobile version that is actually a gacha in disguise....

Aren't physical TCGs also just gacha?

 

[CryoGyro]

I've been playing this a lot these past few days and been having a ton of fun. Figuring out different strategies and synergies for decks is super satisfying. I've mainly been running a Dragonite deck supported by Tentacruel, Zebstrika, and a pair of utility basics (I cycle between Psyduck, Vulpix, and Cubone, also I only have one Vulpix).

• The utility basics stall to buy time for Dragonite.
• Zebstrika spreads around damage evenly to get everything in Draco range.
• Tentacruel is decent at stalling thanks to its HP and makes an okay backup wincon. Its poison can pressure switches which helps keep damage even across the board, and also lets Vulpix and Cubone deal some damage while they stall.
• Even Dragonair is useful beyond just "oh its attacks cost less energy than its evolution" since it can reliably deal 80 damage to the opponent's active while Dragonite can potentially deal only 50 or even 0.

That said, for as much as I like Tentacruel and Zebstrika, I plan on swapping them out for Vaporeon and Jolteon once I get access to them. Bench damage and poison will be missed, but Vaporeon is way tankier than Tentacruel which makes it better at both stalling and being a backup wincon, while Jolteon is a proper secondary wincon if my experience using Zapdos-ex is anything to go by. More importantly, Tentacool and Blitzle have the potential to screw you over if you're forced to lead with them and get unlucky with energy, so swapping them out for two Eevee would be a lot more consistent.

My only gripes are that most "big damage but you discard energy" attacks don't seem properly balanced around you effectively draw two cards every turn with one of them always being an energy, and that as far as I can tell the only proper spread damage is through Articuno-ex.



Also farming solo battles by building a deck with Zapdos-ex as its only usable Pokemon and then going afk with auto-battle is super funny.

friend code: 8118-8426-8609-7162

Kangashkan is a great option for Dragonite decks, being the most efficient colorless tanky basic. Drawing all the Dragonite stages and seeing both energy types is variance-ridden as it is, so you want the surrounding cards to be as consistent as possible without being so passive the Dragontie gets beaten down anyway. Weezing + Koga without Dark energy is popular but more passive and variable.

I haven't used any hourglasses and lemme tell ya, you really feel the squeeze if your pulls aren't great.

USE THEM. They're there specifically so you can get competent decks going by focusing on one pack type.

some quick meta thoughts:

-marowak ex deck is bullshit, either wins the game through luck or loses the game through luck
-misty blastoise ex build similarly also feels kinda bad
-vaporeon card is actually really fire, will 1v1 any non-EX
-farfetch'd is one of the best leads, i agree with popular opinion on that

The game is 'bullshit', period; every deck is hoping their cards align and they get to do their 'thing' sooner than the opponent. Really, that's every card game. Marowak may be flipping literal coins to your face, but everyone is flipping 'did you draw your key cards' coins. Pikachu ex is on top because its 'thing' is stuffing the bench and putting two energies on a basic, simple as can be. Thankfully, the EXP for winning games is pitiful, so you don't really have to be concerned about winning. I had the most fun yet yesterday after building a coinflip-centric Seaking-Frosmoth-vanilla Articuno deck. Just try stuff.

I'll also caution people against making snap judgements about the 'economy'. Having the game installed for about three weeks now, I'm already pretty darn close to filling out the card dex. I have a good amount of 'competitive' evo lines complete (Alakazam, Pidgeot, Fighting-types, Arbok, the Blaine mons, Tentacruel, Golduck) and am about to craft my second Weezing with almost enough left over for the Haunters I need. You are meant to check in with the game once or twice a day for a few minutes, maybe play some games, and move on. Building your collection is a many-day journey, not something you can burn through. If you're invested, it allows for some room to explore cards that might otherwise look bad to you or get no attention. I've grown a fondness for Flareon as my budget Fire finisher, and I'm seeing Vaporeon shoutouts for the first time in this thread. The gap between good and bad cards isn't that large, and deckbuilding is dead simple. Don't let the meta poison your brain.

 

[R_N]

Any reason you haven't been using hourglasses? The game hands them out pretty regularly through missions and level-ups. The level-ups especially since opening packs gets you experience.

USE THEM. They're there specifically so you can get competent decks going by focusing on one pack type.

The reason I'm avoiding them is because the hour glasses are going to fall off. Level ups will taper off, missions will whittle away and then you're just getting a couple from dailies.
I am specifically banking on the next set probably power creeping this one and at that point I'd rather go hard on that.
At the very least I want to see what the "regular" month of a game looks like; the math'll change if they refresh quests often, have more events with things to pull on, add more of a PVP incentive (not even just a ranked ladder, but maybe like gimmick tournaments or whatever), etc. But right now I'm going to bide my time, mostly stick to the single player, kvetch about things and just give side-eye to standard gacha practices. Having a stash of hour glasses probably is a good idea in general.

Less qualms using the wonder pick hour glasses, though.

Aren't physical TCGs also just gacha?

They definitely are, but the offset is you get actual physical components you can do things with. Even bulk can be offloaded in the worst case, even if its for relative pennies.
And of course you can just buy the card you want. I just bought a full art Larry a while back, no need to worry about digging through packs for those.

 

[Arcticblast]

this is so much worse than going outside and playing the actual Pokemon Trading Card Game

however, it is on my tiny computer, so it gets a pass, and getting to open mini booster packs is kind of cute

 

[ant4456]

this is so much worse than going outside and playing the actual Pokemon Trading Card Game

however, it is on my tiny computer, so it gets a pass, and getting to open mini booster packs is kind of cute

i dont wanna play the actual Pokemon Trading Card Game because i dont like all of the mechanics and ABCDEFGHIJKLMONPQRSTUVWX cards that have 280 hp and 160 damage for 3 energy but then also their ability fetches 1 extra card once per turn and then and then