Should You Play Pokemon TCG Pocket?

Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket, also known as Pokemon TCG Pocket, is a mostly free-to-play app that allows you to open up one or two free packs of Pokemon cards daily. These digital cards are added to your collection and, if you so choose, you can later utilize them in the digital card battles against other players or AI.

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While the entire catalog of real-world Pokemon cards is not in the app, there are more than enough to make the simplified card battles relatively enjoyable, regardless of whether or not you’re choosing to battle a real player or a bot.

Review

Eric Switzer, our senior features editor, shared his opinion of Pokemon TCG Pocket, making it clear that while Pokemon TCG Pocket is more than a pack-opening simulator, it is, first and foremost, for the collectors. Understandably, the app’s primary features are about opening up different booster backs and trying to fill up your card dex as fast as you can.

There are already a lot of games built around the Pokemon TCG, but this one is primarily built around collecting different cards.

You get to rip open the cards yourself, you get to sift through each one in the hopes that you got one of the illustration cards or the EX ones, and then you get to toss them into your Card Dex, where you can later organize them into decks or put them on display, if you’d like.

Of course, there is one con: you are beholden to the timers. You can’t just open every pack you please, and you are instead bound to the different timer systems while waiting for the chance to open up your next card or pull from the Wonder Picks. There are ways to speed it up, like the Hourglasses, but eventually, you’ll run out of those and be left waiting once more.

While you can play Pokemon TCG free to play, the game is also intentionally designed to encourage you to, eventually, spend money through in-app purchases.

Time Expenditure

The great thing about Pokemon TCG Pocket is that you can spend as little time in the game as you’d like or a lot of time in-game. In general, your card battles will really only run you a handful of minutes, which means you probably won’t spend your entire day just playing various Pokemon Card battles – not unless you’re really trying to do so, anyway.

Suppose you don’t want to actually participate in the battles against other players or AI. In that case, you’ll probably only spend a few minutes in-game every day, opening up your free card pack (or, if you’re willing to cough up some coin, opening up a card pack you paid for).

Cost

If we can dedicate anything to Pokemon TCG Pocket, it’s that it has a lot of currencies. There are almost too many currencies – to the point where it becomes difficult to determine exactly what currencies are used for what if you don’t have an explanation. Fortunately, once you break it down, it’s not too difficult to parse through.

Hourglasses

There are two types of hourglasses:

• Pack Hourglass
• Wonder Hourglass

Pack Hourglasses are used to skip time so you can open up your different trading card packs sooner. Wonder Hourglasses are used to regenerate energy, so you can pick cards from the Wonder Picks sooner. Both are generally given as free rewards for completing missions and tutorial quests.

Shop And Emblem Tickets

There are three kinds of shop tickets and one Emblem Ticket that you can gain while playing around in-app.

Normal Shop Tickets are obtained by completing missions or winning step-up battles. These can be used to buy Special Shop Tickets for 300 Normal Shop Tickets, Accessories for about 15 Normal Shop Tickets each, and various Item and Supporter cards for about two Normal Shop Tickets each.

Special Shop Tickets can only be used in the Special Shop. At the moment, all you can buy with them are special accessories. Specifically, A Pokemon Coin, Card Sleeve, Playmat, Backdrop, and Cover. The only way to gain Special Shop Tickets is by consuming high-rarity cards in My Cards or by buying them with Normal Shop Tickets. Items in the Special Shop range from Seven to 26 Special Shop Tickets.

Event Shop Tickets are gained by completing different event missions. If you do not spend them during the event in question, you will lose these tickets. These can be used to buy different accessories, like backdrops and covers, which are used for your display boards.

• Emblem Ticket (Genetic Apex)

The Emblem Ticket (Genetic Apex) can be gained by completing themed collections or dex missions. If you manage to gain 100 of these emblems, then you can exchange them for different emblems in the shop. Given the high cost and how slow collection really is, it’s going to be a bit before you can get an emblem.

Lastly, we have something called Poke Gold, which is only obtained by buying it from the shop. Poke Gold is utilized to basically replace the Hourglasses or to buy various accessories in the in-app shop. There is a disclaimer at the bottom of the “Purchase Poke Gold” page that does clarify that you can play the entire game without spending any money, but you can still buy Poke Gold if you want.

Is The Premium Pass Worth It?

The Premium Pass allows you to open up an additional pack every day, putting your grand total at three packs a day. Plus, you get additional access to the premium missions, which gives you further access to premium accessories that you can use in your decks or when showing off your cards.

If that all wasn’t good enough, you also get access to a special Pikachu Illustration Card that would otherwise be incredibly difficult to get your hands on. For the first two weeks of the Premium Pass, you technically don’t have to pay a single cent.

After those two weeks are up, though, you’ll be paying $9.99 a month. While that’s not necessarily an absurd price, you have to keep in mind that this game is completely digital. A single physical booster back you can buy from a real store will cost you less than $10.

Of course, you only get one booster pack in real life, and you get about 30 extra ones in-game, so if you prefer digital, perhaps this is the way to go.

What Players Are Saying

The Most Approachable TCG Format – Branden Lizardi

Other TCGs, even with their digital adaptations, can be super overwhelming and confusing. What makes Pokemon Pocket so nice is how easy it is to understand. The rules are generally simple, the games are easy to follow, and the shorter match times make it easier to play more casually. Combine that with the wonderfully appealing graphics and art direction, and it becomes the only TCG game I’m willing to play daily.

It’s Great… So Long As You’re Free-To-Play – Tallis Spalding

Honestly Pokemon TCG Pocket is a great way for people who want to participate in the Pokemon card-collecting trend, even if they’re broke, to participate with it a little bit. Sure, you’re stuck with whatever cards are in the app, but they’re still fun to collect. At least up until you start considering spending real-world money in-app. At that point, you should probably just go out and buy real cards instead of the fake digital ones that will, inevitably, become a waste of money if the app ever loses functionality. So long as you’re free-to-play, though, opening up the cards is a fun way to spice up the day a little bit and you can pass the time playing a card battle or two.

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