The first time I saw a demo of Pokemon TCG Live at Pokemon Worlds 2022 I was confused. The long-awaited upgrade to Pokemon TCG Online hardly seemed like an upgrade at all, and in some ways, it was a full-on downgrade. Most baffling was the removal of trading, a core feature of Pokemon TCG Online and something that set it apart from other digital card games. I just kept thinking, “There’s no trading in the Pokemon Trading Card Game?” It seemed wrong, and two years later, it still does.
I haven’t thought much about Pokemon TCG Live since Pokemon TCG Pocket took over my life. While I was initially confused as to why we need two different digital Pokemon TCG games, I’ve come to appreciate Pocket as the far superior game. I love the little details that make opening packs exciting, its focus on the collector experience, and its fresh take on bite-sized Pokemon battles. It’s got almost everything I want from a virtual card game, and pretty soon, it will even have trading too.
You Think You Want Trading, But You Don’t
This has been Pocket’s most highly anticipated feature since launch, partly because Live unceremoniously nixed the feature, but mostly because of the way cards are acquired in Pocket. The primary way of getting new cards is through opening packs and Wonder Picks, both of which are highly dependent on luck.
There is no guarantee you’ll get any card unless you buy it with Pack Points, but Pocket is incredibly stingy with those (you get 5 for opening a pack, and need hundreds to get a half decent card worth owning). It can be incredibly frustrating to open pack after pack, day after day, and never get the card you need to build your deck and finish your collection. In theory, trading will fix that problem.
Unlike most TCGs that use 40 or 60-card decks, Pocket decks use just 12 cards. You can’t substitute cards in for the ones you’re missing when there are so few cards that make a deck. Every card matters.
At first, I was as excited for trading as everyone else, but as I’ve settled into Pocket over the last few months, I’ve realized trading might not be the solution for bad pulls we think it will be. In fact, I worry that trading is going to suck all of the fun out of collecting, ruin the chase, and introduce a weird outside market that competitive players will have no choice but to participate in.
We don’t know exactly how trading will work yet, so let’s start by assuming it will have the greediest systems possible. I imagine there will be a new type of hourglass currency that will recharge over time (unless you pay up) that limits how many trades you can make. Like Wonder Picks, low-rarity cards will be cheaper, while higher-rarity cards will cost more. You likely won’t be able to trade the rarest cards. No immersive, gold crown, or full arts at least. For all we know, trading will be designed as a casual social feature and all but useless to competitive players and completionist collectors.
Even A Fair Trading System Will Make The Game Worse
But let’s say you can use Pocket’s trading system to efficiently build your collections. Take it from someone who finished his Mythical Island collection way too fast: you don’t actually want to get cards faster. It may be frustrating when you have your heart set on a specific ex, but the chase is what makes Pocket fun to play. Each pack you open gets you a little bit closer to the pack that has the card you want, so every pack you open is exciting. In a game all about collecting, the worst thing you can do is actually finish your collection.
The biggest problem will be the weird market it creates. As soon as trading launches, a separate website will materialize that determines the value of cards. You’ll have to join a Discord server to find people to trade with, and they’re going to be looking for cash offers. People are going to get ripped off, there’s going to be drama, and if you want to keep up with the competitive scene, you’re going to have to participate in it. People already buy and sell the code cards for Pokemon TCG Live, imagine how they’re going to treat trading singles in a way more popular Pokemon game.
This is a ‘careful what you wish for’ situation, and though I’m hoping for the best, I think trading is going to corrupt Pocket, overcomplicate the collecting process, and lead to an outside market that doesn’t need to exist.
Experience the fun of collecting Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) cards with Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, an upcoming game for iOS and Android devices from Creatures Inc., the original developers of the Pokémon TCG, and DeNA Co., Ltd.
In this game, you will be able to open two booster packs every day at no cost. You can collect digital cards featuring nostalgic artwork from the past as well as brand-new cards that are exclusive to Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket.
Be on the lookout for new “immersive cards,” which will make you feel as though you’ve leapt into the world of the card’s illustration.