The Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) has been somewhat of a dying medium for the company compared to all its other endeavors. There are new shows and movies being developed year after year, plenty of games on a variety of console generations and who can forget the success of "Pokémon Go"?
As of 2024, it seems like the TCG market is incredibly oversaturated as new IPs try and make some quick money by slapping their name and characters onto playing cards.
With new games like "Lorcana," "One Piece TCG," "Flesh and Blood" and "Star Wars Unlimited" joining powerhouse classics like "Yu-Gi-Oh" and "Magic: The Gathering," Pokémon just became another option. They needed a way to reach new players and boost awareness for TCG.
Come late October, "Pokémon TCG Pocket" was released on the app store. I thought it was a scam when my friends told me about it because it only had 25 reviews on the app store, but I still gave it a download because I liked the idea of opening packs for free.
A few weeks later, the game absolutely exploded, with people flocking to TikTok to post their ultra rare pulls and game breaking strategies. The world was hooked.
Here's how it works: you are given a free pack every 12 hours, and you open packs to get new cards and gain XP. You can also get packs faster with purchases and free in-game currency. After collecting enough cards, you can build a deck to battle against CPU or other players to gain even more rewards.
The app does have several differences in gameplay from the actual TCG: decks are only 20 cards, energy is automatically given to you every round, stadium cards do not exist, your bench only holds three Pokémon and the prize card system has been replaced with a first-to-three-points system.
I think all these changes are perfect to make things simpler and more accessible to newcomers of the game. This will also help the transition into the actual card game much easier.
Pokémon delivered yet another piece of media to get people back in circulation and has brought so much awareness to the card game once again. I guarantee we'll see a huge jump in the TCG's player count in 2025 as more and more people are brought in through the app.
For those who are hooked on Pocket who want to venture into the physical game, here are some tips:
Do not buy packs at first. Instead, go to TCGPlayer or other websites and buy the exact cards you want. Then you can afford to gamble to maybe find something useful.
Meet new people! The community is very grateful to have new players and is very helpful to anyone who is interested in the game. I've had multiple people straight up give me some of their cards for free just so I could make my deck stronger. There's a lot of friends to make at the local card shops in the area.
The biggest rule I live by is to have fun. Use your favorite Pokémon even if they're not competitively the best. Play the game your way.
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