I’ve been putting off the battling aspect of Pokemon TCG Pocket ever since I jumped into the mobile money pit earlier this month. The main draw is clearly opening booster packs to build a collection of rare cards, with this being where most of the monetisation is focused.
But you can also assemble multiple decks and use them to fight both other players and AI across its traditional modes and regular drop events. There is an incentive to battle, but if you end up doing it wrong, you’re bound to get your head kicked in by the closest Machop.
Why Auto Building Decks In TCG Pocket Is A Bad Idea
I’m not a seasoned Pokemon TCG player, so I’m largely unaware of what cards are good and the rules required to take part in a game. Pocket streamlines the process somewhat and does incredible work at gradually pulling you through tutorials to learn all the rules while rewarding you for learning each step, but little of this involves the process of either building a deck or knowing what cards best compliment one another. For that, you need to do some serious research or look at the community. Alternatively, you could auto build. But I promise you this is not a good idea.
Head into your card collection and interact with the deck screen to craft a 20-card deck from your collection. However, a few layers deeper, you can find an auto build option which allows you to pick an energy type and build an entire deck around it without doing a thing. I understand the intention here and how it’s supposed to help players who aren’t familiar with the TCG, but it’s useless at creating decks that are actually any good.
Auto build isn’t very good at its job. Sure, it builds decks, but not good ones. I chose Water and found myself with a deck containing mostly basic Pokemon, two Potions, and not nearly enough trainer or item cards to help formulate a decent strategy.
Sometimes they don’t even take valuable evolutions or ex cards into account, leaving me with a deck that will no doubt get you stomped on with haste. My advice if you’re serious about battling is to only resort to auto-build if you don’t mind losing, because only through the most ludicrous of luck will you be able to stand up against meta decks. You’re signing yourself up to lose, and this can be avoided so easily.
And Here’s Why You Should Build Your Own
There’s also rental decks which are unlocked by collecting specific rare and leader cards, and these can only be used a limited number of times and against AI opponents. But you should still use them if you’re a beginner, because they’re perfectly capable of winning a match and are made up of card combos and an even distribution of types that players are encouraged to take inspiration from. At least I did, and now I’m crossing the threshold of building my own, even if it means taking inspiration from some of our killer deck guides.
Our own Ben Sledge has also done some excellent analysis on some select decks I’m going to try my hand at, namely
Dragonite
and
Team Rocket
offerings.
Pokemon TCG Pocket is only just beginning too, with Genetic Apex likely to be the first of so many collections to come in the future. Combine this with promo cards and regular events, it will only be a matter of time until our collections are full to bursting. So it’s best to learn the ins and outs of assembling decks now before the prospect becomes too overwhelming. You won’t be on your own either, since I’ll be figuring it out right alongside you.
