Pokémon TCG Pocket

The trading part of trading card games has been on life support for a while now. At least the trading for another card part. Trading for money is thriving. It's a whole market in its own right.

Most digital card game clients have eliminated trading, in favour of crafting systems, if anything at all.

And I understand why game designers are incentivised to do it. Not only does it eliminate the risk of players being scammed out of their cards or having their accounts stolen and all their valuables traded away, it means that the only source of cards is the developer.

Yes technically, every physical card was pulled from a pack at some point, but every subsequent transaction cuts the manufacturers out of the equation, and multiple people can gain utility out of one card over time.

If you want to use a card on most card game clients, you have to buy packs, either to pull the cards themselves or to convert into crafting materials.

I was surprised when TCGP had a trade option pending, but I expected it to be limited in some way. No way they would just let you give other people cards.

I expected needing some expendable per trade, I expected trades to have to match rarity, but having to consume multiple cards to facilitate a single trade is excessive.

Hopefully this is just a trial period and the restrictions will be relaxed once trading doesn't immediately break the economy or lead to a bunch of stolen accounts.

But sadly, I expect the opposite; more restrictions, followed by trading being quietly phased out.
 
Its worth noting that most decks now have access to high damage for low energy cost strategies that dont heavily rely on coinflips for energy generation.

I see this as a huge win
 
I'm glad Dark & Metal both got real support out of this. Darkrai EX is going to be great in particular but I like Spiritomb's cheap spread tactics too; that'll pair okay with Weavile.
--
Out of curiosity, I counted up which sinnoh Pokemon aren't present:
Budew
Mothim
cherubi
cherrim
chingling
mime jr
bonsly
happiny
munchlax
mantyke
froslass
phione
arceus

Babies make sense,Tyrogue is also missing, I assume they want them to be a set "headliner" since they'll probably be introducing energy-less attacks like they have in the main TCG. Outside of turn 1 Mistys they'll be the primary Pokemon before they introduce regional variants to have the ability to do stuff going first. Since they aren't here, I still think a Gen 2-focused set will maybe introduce them properly.
Arceus is probably a set headliner marked for the future; leaning into the type gimmick like the original Arceus set would be a cute way to reuse all that artwork.
Phione probably just continues being the child no one loves and will just be included in some random set down the line.
Mothim's a little surprising, but perhaps they thought having Burmy and a card for each Wormadam was enough.
Froslass is the only cross-gen evo excluded...maybe they thought there was enough water types?
No clue about Cherrim & Cherubi other than they thought they had enough grass types. Cherrim does have a singular card depicting its overcast form, so maybe they have both in the next set.
 
I am a bit dissapointed with weavile ex. minimum 30 and max 70 damage is not really good output for an ex, especially one that needs to evolve (even if only stage 1). pika ex is easier to set up and does more damage on average, with them having pretty similar hp benchmarks (the main difference im seeing is that pika is ohko by yanmega ex while weavile isnt)
 
Bakugames said:
I am a bit dissapointed with weavile ex. minimum 30 and max 70 damage is not really good output for an ex, especially one that needs to evolve (even if only stage 1). pika ex is easier to set up and does more damage on average, with them having pretty similar hp benchmarks (the main difference im seeing is that pika is ohko by yanmega ex while weavile isnt)
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It seems to be designed with Spiritomb and Darkrai EX in mind. Especially Darkrai EX. Weavile only needing a single energy to both attack and retreat means you can spend the rest of your energy powering up Darkrai.
 
DrPumpkinz said:
It seems to be designed with Spiritomb and Darkrai EX in mind. Especially Darkrai EX. Weavile only needing a single energy to both attack and retreat means you can spend the rest of your energy powering up Darkrai.
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so its basically a non rng eggy, makes more sense since eggy is also a bad central ex but is fine as a tanky 1 energy damage chipper
 
Its definitively meant to be paired with Darkrai Ex. It takes one energy to activate Weavile so you just dump energy into Darkrai after that and your Weavile gets automatic guaranteed activation, very high damage output for 1 energy only. (Give Weavile Rocky Helmet for bonus dmg)

I believe its a very fast synergy that will have a significant impact on the meta as it has potential to destroy most decks before they get any chance to setup.



Skarmory also seems underrated. Needs one energy and an attachment to do good amount of damage as a potential lead while your dialga/melmetal/colorless at the back. Give it a helmet and it becomes a pretty solid early tank.
 
Ooh, another rainbow buff I noticed. While Manaphy itself requires Misty for its Water energy, once it's powered up you can put Water energy on your non-Water Pokemon. It might now be possible to get every energy color on the field without having to use Ditto or Mew EX.

On a less important note, Pokemon Communication seems very interesting. It seems like it will be very strong, but I'm having a hard time picturing how, exactly. Definitely feels like it's gonna be a new deck staple on the level of Oak and Pokeball.
 
DrPumpkinz said:
Ooh, another rainbow buff I noticed. While Manaphy itself requires Misty for its Water energy, once it's powered up you can put Water energy on your non-Water Pokemon. It might now be possible to get every energy color on the field without having to use Ditto or Mew EX.

On a less important note, Pokemon Communication seems very interesting. It seems like it will be very strong, but I'm having a hard time picturing how, exactly. Definitely feels like it's gonna be a new deck staple on the level of Oak and Pokeball.
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It's definitely something that gets stronger overall as the game goes on and you're whiffing what you need.

It'll see plenty of use to try and get your evolutions online, or trying to grab that dumb basic that you need to actually get going but kept whiffing on the ball.
 
I would like to introduce everyone to arguably one of the strongest supporters in the game, Dawn.

6799c1e5169202e5d7e6a06c_w360.webp


This is effectively a worse Energy Switch in the main TCG, but in TCG Pocket, Dawn enables many decks with not only moving energy around from early-game attackers but also allowing you to “accelerate” more energy from cards like Manaphy where you transfer one energy to get both energies on the same Pokemon. I want to go over some decks that greatly benefit from Dawn.

Darkrai Weavile is probably my favorite new deck, which is a deck that doesn't mind going first unlike many decks in the meta. Instead, you would almost prefer going first to give your Weavile time to evolve.
IMG_1841.jpeg

Now, you want to evolve Weavile as soon as possible which only happens during your second turn, regardless of whether or not you went first. Luckily, Weavile only requires 1 energy, which allows you to do something unique. Instead of attaching to Weavile, you attach to Darkrai, use its ability, and use Dawn to transfer the energy to Weavile, allowing you to hit for 90 on your second turn, even when going first.

Pikachu additionally accomplishes something similar, albeit a bit differently with the help of Magneton.
IMG_1842.jpeg

Here your goal is to have a Magnemite on the bench during your first turn, which allows it to evolve the next turn. You will then use its ability and transfer with Dawn to Pikachu, allowing it to gain 2 energy in one turn and attacking immediately. Now, neither of these decks are final and I'm sure there are changes to be made, like potentially swapping an X Speed with Leaf in Darkrai Weavile, or implementing a Tool in Pikachu. I merely wish to display the potential of Dawn and the future of energy acceleration.

Manaphy can accomplish the same with not only water types like Palkia and Gyarados, but also any cards that attack using colorless energy. Dialga can accomplish the same thing, but what Dawn would do for it is instead transfer one of its own energies after it has used its attack. I think going forward we will be seeing a lot of Dawn usage and decks that accelerate energy faster through any of the methods I mentioned.
 
How many packs does everyone have stacked?
I have hourglasses for about 40 packs, pretty excited as its basically the equivalent of an IRL booster box and then some. Probably will split between the two packs
 
i have an unused premium trial ready to go and about 130 hourglasses rn, with some battles left uncomplete from older sets. Not gonna be super ideal, but i'll have enough to go at least a 10 pull for dialga when it releases
 
TheDuckChris said:
How many packs does everyone have stacked?
I have hourglasses for about 40 packs, pretty excited as its basically the equivalent of an IRL booster box and then some. Probably will split between the two packs
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I've got enough for 40 packs. I plan to focus on Dialga first since I want it and Darkrai primarily. If I get lucky enough I'll use any reminder on Palkia.
 
I have 1,457 pack hourglasses (enough for 121 packs) but I started saving them right after the game released globally for a set based on Pokemon I liked more than the Genetic Apex Pokemon so I probably won't even use them for Space Time Smackdown
 
Arai said:
I would like to introduce everyone to arguably one of the strongest supporters in the game, Dawn.

6799c1e5169202e5d7e6a06c_w360.webp


This is effectively a worse Energy Switch in the main TCG, but in TCG Pocket, Dawn enables many decks with not only moving energy around from early-game attackers but also allowing you to “accelerate” more energy from cards like Manaphy where you transfer one energy to get both energies on the same Pokemon. I want to go over some decks that greatly benefit from Dawn.

Darkrai Weavile is probably my favorite new deck, which is a deck that doesn't mind going first unlike many decks in the meta. Instead, you would almost prefer going first to give your Weavile time to evolve.
View attachment 708942

Now, you want to evolve Weavile as soon as possible which only happens during your second turn, regardless of whether or not you went first. Luckily, Weavile only requires 1 energy, which allows you to do something unique. Instead of attaching to Weavile, you attach to Darkrai, use its ability, and use Dawn to transfer the energy to Weavile, allowing you to hit for 90 on your second turn, even when going first.

Pikachu additionally accomplishes something similar, albeit a bit differently with the help of Magneton.
View attachment 708946

Here your goal is to have a Magnemite on the bench during your first turn, which allows it to evolve the next turn. You will then use its ability and transfer with Dawn to Pikachu, allowing it to gain 2 energy in one turn and attacking immediately. Now, neither of these decks are final and I'm sure there are changes to be made, like potentially swapping an X Speed with Leaf in Darkrai Weavile, or implementing a Tool in Pikachu. I merely wish to display the potential of Dawn and the future of energy acceleration.

Manaphy can accomplish the same with not only water types like Palkia and Gyarados, but also any cards that attack using colorless energy. Dialga can accomplish the same thing, but what Dawn would do for it is instead transfer one of its own energies after it has used its attack. I think going forward we will be seeing a lot of Dawn usage and decks that accelerate energy faster through any of the methods I mentioned.
Click to expand...
Shame Darkrai EX's ability one seems to activate from Energy Zone energy, so you can't attach one energy normally and then another through Dawn to deal 40 damage.

Also, that scarf placement on full art Dawn sure is something. The way it's contoured my brain assumes it's titties every time I look at it.

Unrelated, but you can potentially run all five Rotom on the same deck, since they all technically has different names and they only require three energy colors between them. Speaking of multiple energies, I'm disappointed that Glaceon requires two Water energy. The main reason I like Eevee is the flexibility it brings to multicolor decks, and which every other Eeveelution plays into by only requiring one of their energy color.
 
Being F2P pretty much means I can't trade anything other than 1 or 2 Diamond Cards... It's still not completely useless for me because I need a second Frogadier and I'm that one guy that cares about Card Flair and this makes it much easier to get extras of 1 and 2 Diamond cards to sacrifice! *awkward flex.* After I get the few cards I'm really looking for, I'm probably going to ask for Dratini, Dragonair, Blitzle, and Zebstrika just so I can hope to use the Stamina. Asking for stuff like Leaf and Servine is tempting, but most people asking for them need them for making decks, so I don't want to make things harder for others just for the sake of shiny sparkle effects.

TheDuckChris said:
How many packs does everyone have stacked?
I have hourglasses for about 40 packs, pretty excited as its basically the equivalent of an IRL booster box and then some. Probably will split between the two packs
Click to expand...
I have enough for exactly 30 Packs. I'm going to open 10 Dialga, 10 Palkia for variety, 10 more Dialga, then I'm pretty sure Single Player Battles and collection stuff will throw enough hourglasses at us for another Open 10 and I'll go with 10 Palkia. After all that, I'll stick with Dialga until I either get 2 Darkrai EX, 2 Dialga EX, or an Immersive Art Dialga EX. I know it's unlikely, but I've had every Immersive in the game ever since I finished the Dex 2 days ago and I want to keep that claim!


DrPumpkinz said:
Unrelated, but you can potentially run all five Rotom on the same deck, since they all technically has different names and they only require three energy colors between them. Speaking of multiple energies, I'm disappointed that Glaceon requires two Water energy. The main reason I like Eevee is the flexibility it brings to multicolor decks, and which every other Eeveelution plays into by only requiring one of their energy color.
Click to expand...

Fun Fact: There are 7 Rotom different cards. 1 for each appliance, and normal form has 2 because of having a Full Art card. Despite this, Rotom is tied for second for most cards a Pokemon has. Pikachu has the most with 9 because it's Pikachu. (A normal versions in 2 sets, 4 different art cards of the Pikachu EX, and 3 promo cards.) The other Pokemon tied for second is Eevee because Genetic Apex gave it 4 different arts and there's a promo card. There's more Eevee cards than Eeveelution cards! (5 Eeveelutions and Vaporeon has a second one.) If you're only counting cards with different effects, Rotom wins with 6 cards that do different things. Eevee is in second with 4 becasue every set's Eevee has a different move, including the promo set. I wonder how long it will take until they introduce an Eevee that isn't competly new...
 
Antihaxxer said:
How the game is so slow / lagging ... We're talking about Pokemon ! How bad is TPC/Creatures Inc/Dena to not prepare that huge number of connections
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I suppose it is cheaper to deal outages for a few hours during a set launch than it is to permanently fund more servers.

Things seemed to settle down after a couple of hours for me, but I'm on Japanese servers. Are there still problems in other parts of the world?
 
DrPumpkinz said:
Shame Darkrai EX's ability one seems to activate from Energy Zone energy, so you can't attach one energy normally and then another through Dawn to deal 40 damage.
Click to expand...

It would definitely be helpful if you could Dawn additional energy to it but I’m not quite sure how often that would be applicable, since most of your new energies would be going to Darkrai, giving you little room to even use Dawn in the first place.

Speaking of Darkrai though, it has even more unique uses than I first had expected, like in Greninja Druddigon or with Magnezone.
 
GipxDg1bYAI4r-m

It seems they will be changing the trade system in response to player feedback.

I personally think this was an attempt to get away with a more expensive trade system, only to revert to a slightly more reasonable one if the backlash became too large. We might even thank them for the privilege of reverting to the system we would similarly have objected to, simply because they gave us something worse first.

But whatever the motives, genuine mistake or "New Coke" conspiracy, better is still better, even if it does not turn out to be perfect.
 
I normally don't mess with gacha/skinner boxes but started playing the game because my cousins asked me to. I was planning on just funneling all of my good stuff to them and uninstalling once trading became available b/c I really hate games with player economies. I wish the trade restrictions didn't exist because they 1. mean I just wasted a bunch of time on this game and 2. means that the devs intend for the digital cards to have actual value and thus encourage RWT and other forms of money laundering. The physical TCG is already a shitshow with that and scalpers and I was hoping that a market flooded with easy to get cards would stop that.
 
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