Fans have realised that Pokemon TCG Pocket wonder picks are predetermined. There’s a lot of evidence for this. Players have noticed that notifications of completing collections pop up before they’ve even selected an upside-down card. If you quit the game mid-pick, it will give you one of the available cards, despite the fact you haven’t chosen one yet.
This caused quite a stir in the online community, but it’s the sort of thing that needs to happen for the sausage to get made. First and foremost, these things avoid mishaps like phones running out of battery or players intentionally quitting in order to reroll their pick.
Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Wonder Picks Are Predetermined
It puts a stop to any manipulation, the game knows what you’re getting whether or not you get mired in technical difficulties, and we get the illusion of choice. So much for slowing down screen recordings or picking your ‘lucky’ spot.
My system has always been to pick the spot where the card originally was. The hit rate seems pretty good.
However, some people are up in arms about the illusion of choice. They want a real choice. They want to know where the cards actually landed post-shuffle, and if they were anywhere near picking the right spot. They want the horror, the agony, the I-came-so-close-to-alt-art-Gengar-ex-but-yet-so-far.
Why they would want to know that they would have actually picked their chase card if only they’d gone top left, I don’t know. It doesn’t appeal to me. Much like my colleague Eric Switzer, I don’t thrive on this FOMO. A game telling me here’s what you could have won before parading half a speedboat in front of me doesn’t get me excited to pick more cards.
If anything, it does the opposite. My wonder energy has been languishing as a filled meter for days now. I’m not going to waste a fifth of my total on a random pack of commons. I’ve collected all but one of the Genetic Apex exes now (Gyarados still eludes me). I don’t need another full art Dedenne, thank you.
I Feel A Lot Better About My Wonder Pick Misses Now
I have seen my chase card, that alt art Gengar ex I never stop going on about, just once in a wonder pick. I guessed my usual spot, exactly where the Gengar had been pre-shuffle, and was one space away. It had evaded me. The cheeky grin that first endeared me to the Ghost-type trickster all those years ago now gloated, goaded me.
But now I know it was pre-determined. If I’d have picked bottom left (who does that?), I would have still received the Koffing I got in place of my beloved card. Gengar would have been shown to be somewhere different. At that point when you’re faced with five face-down cards, it is Schrödinger’s Gengar. It’s both there and not there. One of those cards will have a picture of Gengar on it, but the game has already decided whether you will be able to add it to your collection or not.
I feel so much better knowing that it wasn’t human error, a poor choice on my part, that let Gengar ex slip through my fingers. The game just decided, and the 20 percent roll didn’t go in my favour. The game shafted me. It’s not my fault.
This knowledge has led me to let go of every wonder pick I’ve ever missed. All that bitterness, that ruefulness, that oh-so-closeness has dissipated into the aether, lost in time like Fake Tears in the Rain Dance. I’m lighter, less burdened. I was never stressed when I was choosing my wonder picks, but now I open them with frivolity, reckless abandon. Who cares where I click? My fate is predetermined.
It’s like I’ve been shown proof that Arceus exists and my entire life, every decision I’ve ever made and will ever make, was mapped out the moment I was born. The illusion of choice has been lifted, and I’m finally free.
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PSA: Don’t Forget To Like Your Friends’ Showcases In Pokemon TCG Pocket
Help your friends out and they may just return the favour.