Hot on the heels of the Meowth and Chansey Wonder Pick events, Pokémon TCG Pocket has launched a new reason for you to keep opening up your phone in the relentless pursuit of more digital cards. The Fire Pokémon Mass Outbreak Event doesn’t give you new single player challenges to overcome, so don’t worry about putting together that Misty deck you’ve been meaning to build. Instead, this one specifically rewards those who love checking in on their Wonder Pick options throughout the day.
Here’s how the Fire Pokémon Mass Outbreak event works: From now until November 28, a special “Bonus Pick” option will appear in the Wonder Pick menu. This will let you pick one of five fire-type cards at random for no cost, so you should always take a Bonus Pick whenever you see it. These can appear several times throughout the day, so make sure to check in on your Wonder Picks whenever you decide to play. At the same time, you’ll occasionally see “Rare Picks” pop up in the Wonder Pick menu, which will feature a fittingly rarer selection of cards. Rare Picks do cost Wonder Stamina, which takes 36 hours to naturally refill.
Let’s go over what exactly you’ll get here:
All Cards You Can Get From Bonus Picks
The pool of cards that can appear as Bonus Picks are as follows:
Charmander
Charmeleon
Vulpix
Ninetales
Ponyta
Rapidash
Growlithe
Magmar
Heatmor
Blaine
Again, Bonus Picks are literally free, so even if the cards are all terrible it’d still be worth grabbing. That said, the Charmander, Vulpix, and Ponyta evolution lines can help flesh out Fire decks, especially if you can pair them with a Blaine trainer card. A Ninetails with the extra 30 damage from Blaine can KO a Pikachu EX in one hit!
All Cards You Can Get From Rare Picks
Meanwhile, here’s what the Rare Pick pool looks like
Arcanine EX
Charizard
Moltres
Ninetales
Rapidash
Charmeleon
Blaine
Are Rare Picks Worth The Wonder Stamina?
Admittedly, the value prospect here is tricky. Charizard EX is one of the best cards in the game, but that is not on offer. Arcanine EX is the rarest pick here, but it’s not exactly a “meta” card. 120 damage for three energy can counter Pikachu EX cards that consistently pop up in online matches, so you definitely shouldn’t write it off. That said, you have no actual guarantee of grabbing one given how Wonder Picks work, so you’ll have to weigh whether the risk is worth the reward. You can get a Wonder Hourglass and a Shop Ticket from pulling an Arcanine EX during the event, but that’s more of a nice perk than a reason to chase the card specifically.
Fortunately, unlike most regular Wonder Picks, your consolation prizes are pretty good here. As alluded to above, Ninetales and Rapidash can be deadly if paired with Blaine. You’ll need Charmeleon if you want to build any Charizard deck. And if you don’t have Charizard or Moltres yet, this is a good opportunity to fill out your collection.
Is it worthwhile to dump all your stored Wonder Hourglasses on Rare Picks whenever you see them? Well, unless you don’t have any of these cards in your collection, you probably don’t need to relentlessly chase these. But is this a good way to use the Wonder Stamina you’ve already stored and are looking to spend? Definitely, so long as you don’t get tilted seeing all the cards you wanted more flip over afterwards.
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