Pokemon TCG Pocket: A First-Time Player's Perspective

Nowadays, Pokemon is pretty much just a part of life for anyone interested in videogame-based media. It’s entirely main-stream now, and is accepted as one of the major gaming icons of our age, as is pretty well displayed by the fact that it’s the single highest grossing multimedia franchise in the history of humanity. And back when Pokemania hit the U.S. in the late 1990s, it wouldn’t honestly be too hard to see that coming if you didn’t immediately pass it off as a fad. Seriously; if you weren’t around back then, the mania part of Pokemania was very much real. Kids everywhere were rabid for this series and every form of media that it had to offer. The games, the TV show, the toys, and especially the Pokemon Trading Card Game. This was about where I started taking an interest in the series, back in 1999 after I had my first encounter with Pokemon from the original Super Smash Brothers on the Nintendo 64 (yes, I’m old), and while I wasn’t exactly obsessed with Pokemon, I definitely played the games, had the toys, and collected the cards….

….but I never actually played the Pokemon Trading Card Game.

Sure, I had some cards at the time, as that’s what kids in the late 90s did. But I had no clue how to play and no friends who actually played the game themselves, and so I just ended up selling them 100% unused a few years later. And so I went on to become something a bit odd; a 90s kid/Pokemon fan who had never even tried the card game… and this remained the case up until about a week ago, when Pokemon TCG Pocket launched. Seeing that it had to offer for myself, I figured that It was about time that I stopped neglecting this part of the Pokemon franchise, and with this change on my part comes a somewhat unique review: the first glimpses of a legacy Pokemon fan into the Pokemon Trading Card Game!

Starting Pokemon TCG Pocket

Quick note here: I’m going to assume that you have at least a bit of knowledge of the TCG at this point, as this is a review and not a guide. If you don’t, then you’ll definitely understand everything here after you’ve downloaded the game and played through the quick tutorial.

Before starting Pokemon TCG Pocket, I still had absolutely no knowledge of how to play the TCG. I’d planned to learn about it in advance, but never got around to it. The only real information on this game that I had beforehand was that it’s easy to re-roll your account early on to get better cards to start off with. If you want to try this for yourself, then let me recommend that you aim for Pikachu ex - Genetic Apex #096 [RR], Charizard ex - Genetic Apex #036 [RR], Mewtwo ex - Genetic Apex #129 [RR], or Starmie ex - Genetic Apex #076 [RR] in one of their various alternate card art versions, as they're currently the staple cards for some of the most dominant decks in the game right now. When starting Pokemon TCG Pocket, one thing hit me right off the bat: it’s so dang pretty! Seriously, DeNA did an amazing job with the feel of this game. The user interface is clean and sleek, and the cards are absolutely stunning. These things look so real that it should be possible to just reach into the screen and pull them out, especially the holographic cards and immersive cards, which are absolutely beautifully rendered.

I mean, just look at this thing. Not only does the card look amazing, but it’s also one of the touted Immersive Cards that let you literally look into the world of the card itself in a cinematic cutscene. How great is that?

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the game isn’t too stingy with new cards. Players can open a pack every 12 hours, and can also utilize hourglass items to reduce the timer and open packs early. And they give you a lot of these hourglasses early on! Seriously, just playing through the tutorial, you’ll naturally get enough to open a lot of booster packs to build up your deck options. Add to that the Wonder Pick system that allows you to pick 1 random card from a pack that other players, especially players on your buddy list, have recently opened that can also be done more frequently via its own hourglasses, and it’s pretty easy to get a ton of cards up front if you so choose.

As anyone who knows anything about this game should know, the only card series available right now is from the Genetic Apex series, and players can pick between booster packs themed after Pikachu, Mewtwo, or Charizard, each with their own unique set of cards. It’s no secret that we’ll have more sets in the future, so it’s definitely recommended to save a fair number of premium items in order to get the drop on the next series once it shows up.

I did not follow this sound advice.

In order to get the best possible first experience for writing this article, I decided to drop all of my resources as soon as I got them. This was 100% for the sake of getting a better perspective, and not because I have no patience or impulse control. Nope, not at all.

The result of playing like this… sort of speaks for itself. While my account isn’t whale-level, I managed to get a fair number of really strong and rare cards pretty early on.

Do I recommend doing this when starting? Probably not, as it’s likely to set you up for weaker future performance. But it is definitely fun in the short term, and hopefully the staples in Genetic Apex remain viable well into the future, so pulling hard early on shouldn't be too detrimental in the long term. Hopefully.

So with all of my resources done, I was ready to get into my first battle… but that’s when I encountered one small issue: while the UI is great, the menus can also be a little confusing at first. It didn’t take me long to figure things out, but with a number of less than thoroughly explained options that later became self-explanatory, I found myself unable to reach the level necessary to actually battle…. which caused me to stupidly assume for a moment that this was purely a collection simulator and that battles would come at a later date. Don’t judge me, I’m probably not the only one who got a bit lost early on!

Battling

Once I got over my mild case of chronic stupidity, it was finally time to play a game that was 24 years overdue. Honestly, Pokemon TCG Pocket’s tutorials do a really good job of easing new players in, and they also made me start to think of different ways to play pretty early on. I had already been looking over the cards that I’d pulled, and suddenly the terminology and intended strategies for them started to come to light in my mind. Within minutes I had the basics of the game down, and was starting to run through the solo battles with my starter deck, a Fighting deck that headlined my first EX card; Marowak ex - Genetic Apex #153 [RR]. Finally I was ready to start, and it was time to begin playing!

…and that’s when I discovered that I absolutely hate coin-tosses.

That aside, the battle system actually is pretty simple get started on. In fact, a few of my friends who play the TCG themselves have told me that the experience has been streamlined and simplified specifically for this game. And, honestly, I feel like that’s to the game’s benefit. When compared to a “normal” Pokemon TCG game, games here are relatively quick and have minimal issues outside of finding out that the card that you need ended up at the bottom of your deck. Most of the time games finish in 5 minutes or so, so it’s a great way to have a bit of fun with minimal required time investment. And speaking of time investment, it’s also worth noting that the daily “chores” of this game are extremely light. Most of the time you’ll clear them without issue, with the most obtuse daily requirements being playing at least 1 battle, and completing at least 3 battles with other players and getting a total of 3 “thanks” afterwards… which a surprising number of players neglect to give despite it literally just being a matter of tapping a different button. Still, it’s also possible to get those thanks from friends that you can match up with extremely easily with a very simple and unobtrusive password matchmaking system, so it’s a breeze most of the time… either that or you can do like I do and make a deck so bad that it’s impossible to win with and throw the battle three times in a row. That always gets me thanks!

Deck Building

The rules for building a deck are pretty simple: exactly 20 cards per deck, no more than 2 cards with the same name, has to have at least one base-stage Pokemon, and has at least one type of energy, with a maximum of 3 energy types per deck. Players are given a starter deck with some basic useful cards early-on, and it seems that the starter deck that you’re given is based on how your early-game pulls went. As stated, my first good card was Marowak EX, and my starter deck was Fighting type (for the uninitiated, the TCG lumps Fighting, Ground, and Rock Type Pokemon under the collective banner of Fighting to help stream-line gameplay), but I have one friend who started with a Grass deck after pulling Exeggutor ex - Genetic Apex #023 [RR], so it seems that your early-game pulls will determine your initial starter deck.

On this front I’m a bit torn. On the one hand, I feel like it would be better to let players choose their starting decks themselves. On the other, a good portion of the cards given in your starter decks are useful in any deck that you may make, and giving players a deck to best capitalize on cards that they’ve already pulled can definitely streamline the game for players who are entirely clueless when starting.. Like me! Regardless, Pokemon TCG Pocket does do a good job of holding a player’s hand just long enough to get everything that they need to get started, and it’s also very easy to get all of the resources needed to score new cards early on, so most players will have at least one viable deck with at least one game-making card by the time they’re ready to start tackling other players. And that’s where one potential issue comes in.

This game definitely has a metagame, and players not playing the meta will tend to get stomped pretty hard by players who do. Sadly, that’s just a part of any competitive card game, so that’s less a strike against Pokemon TCG Pocket and more a strike against getting into trading card games as a whole. If you want to score a lot of wins (which currently isn’t that important in most cases), then you’re probably going to want to build a deck around Pikachu EX, Mewtwo EX, Starmie EX, or Charizard EX. While other cards can definitely win, these four seem to be the most dominant forces in the game as of right now. This is also why I highly recommend seeing if you can get a few friends involved in playing as well, as the game is far more enjoyable when you can actually converse with players while fighting, and also use less viable but still fun decks without being curb-stomped.

The Monetization

This is probably one of the biggest concerns that many players immediately consider when starting a new gacha-based game: how bad is the monetization? And, honestly, it’s not bad here. Completely free-to-play players will encounter issues building good decks, but a bit of luck with free packs and some Wonder Picks can frequently translate into at least one genuinely good deck, especially if you re-roll your account a few times until you get some of the currently dominant cards. As of right now, the major things that you can actually buy in Pokemon TCG Pocket are additional Booster Pack pulls, Wonder Pick pulls, cosmetic items like Play Mats and Card Sleeves, and the monthly Premium Pass, which grants an additional pack every 24 hours as well as missions to pick up premium cosmetic items in the shop for $10 per month with a 2 week free trial. Add to that the fact that buying new pulls is actually pretty cheap and a fairly reasonable pity system to act as a buffer, and you honestly get a lot for what you spend here, and you don’t honestly have to spend at all to enjoy the game. Don't get me wrong, spending will definitely provide an advantage, but it's not strictly necessary as of right now.

Is It Worth Playing?

All-in-all, I’d say that Pokemon TCG Pocket is definitely worth picking up and playing. It’s a simple resource-strategy game that doesn’t take a huge time investment, and is a lot of fun to play with friends. It has its rough spots, especially with whales currently ruling most battles thanks to their superior cards, but even free-to-play players have a decent shot at getting the best cards in the game given a little time. The gameplay is fun, and the polish is amazing, so yeah; pick it up, and let me know what your favorite cards are! I'm Raven8 in-game, so hopefully we'll match up during the Genetic Apex Emblem event so that you can absolutely destroy me!