Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Matchmaking Sucks The Fun Out Of Battling

Key Takeaways

• Pokemon TCG Pocket’s matchmaking is based on badge wins.
• Future events may require consecutive wins.
• Matchmaking in this way creates numerous issues.

Last week I was grinding Pokemon TCG Pocket PvP hard. I managed 45 wins in the Emblem event in order to get a silly little badge for my profile and five more to grab some bonus shinedust. From my experience playing half a century of battles, I can tell you one thing: Pokemon TCG Pocket’s matchmaking is the worst.

Pokemon TCG Pocket is waiting for a few major updates. It launched with a great roster of cards to get us all ripping packs, and had the perfect secrets hidden within its depths that survived even the most rigorous of datamines. Yes, I’m talking about Mew.

But there are multiple things missing. Trading is the major one, and I’ll be honest, I’m not convinced it’ll be great when it’s eventually implemented. It’ll probably cost currency – shinedust, perhaps? – and I think you’ll only be able to trade cards you have duplicates of, but it’ll be handy for filling out those common and uncommon gaps in your Pokedex.

The other major addition that Pocket players are asking for is a ranked mode. A mode where you’re matched against players of a similar skill level to battle and climb some kind of leaderboard. But if the Emblem event is any kind of hint as to how a Pokemon Pocket ranked mode would work, I don’t want any part in it.

How Does Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Matchmaking Work?

Pokemon TCG Pocket’s matchmaking is based on your badge. Your badge is based on how many matches you’ve won. I quickly earned the first badge, as I understand the basics of battling and my opponent used a deck seemingly made up of 20 basic Pokemon.

After the initial win, the next four followed quickly. I had an array of good decks, and I was facing a range of players with different skill levels. This is what happens at the start of any ranked split. It was fine, fun even. The bronze badge was mine.

The route to 25 wins and the silver badge was tougher, but felt good. It was a challenge against similarly skilled players. This felt good. I was playing other players who had also won over five matches but no more than 25. I faced Pikachu ex, Articuno ex, Mewtwo ex, but also some interesting decks trying different things. The problem was, I thought 25 wins got me the final emblem for this event. I was wrong.

The grind from 25 wins up to 45 is pure, unbridled suffering. I faced more Mewtwo than I can count – to the extent that I formulated a specific anti-meta Team Rocket deck to counter it – and struggled my way up the ladder.

You see, now I was facing players who had more than 25 wins. Maybe they had 26, like me. Maybe they had 44 and were tryharding for that last emblem. Whatever the case, this period of playing wasn’t fun.

There needs to be smaller brackets for players, and – if you’re making a ranked mode – demotion to keep battles fun but competitive. Nobody wants to be stomped by a meta-chaser when they’re new, and those meta players don’t really enjoy stomping noobs either. They like stomping players with other good decks, testing their skills at the top. Pocket’s brackets based on emblems are too broad and there’s no upper limit in the event, making for a terrible time once you reach the higher levels.

How Do You Win Five Pokemon TCG Pocket Matches In A Row?

Luckily for the Emblem event, you don’t have to win consecutive matches. But datamines suggest that, in future events, that might be the case. This exacerbates all the problems I’ve already mentioned.

The closest I came to reaching five wins in a row was from 40-44, before I came up against a Pikachu ex deck. I went first, which is always a death knell. I got the Pikachu down to 30HP but my Kogas were not forthcoming and I couldn’t pull my Weezing in time to heal it. I lost after four wins in a row, devastated.

I made up for it in the next match, beating an Articuno ex deck to get the final badge of the event, but if I had to then try to win another four in a row? It would be too much. I’d simply stop battling.

Battling isn’t the point of this game, I understand that, but its systems need to be more robust if Pokemon TCG Pocket wants to introduce more battle-based events and the inevitable ranked mode. As it stands, this matchmaking isn’t fun, and the only way to consistently win five in a row will be to hope for kind players who instantly concede.

It might take players to come together to make this work. If we all give away five wins in a row before starting our grind, it gives everyone a chance to get five in a row and gives you a bigger chance of getting gifted a win. When the system is against you, come together to beat it. The power of players will prevail.