We’ve known for a while that trading is coming to Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket (I mean, it’s in the name) in January 2025, and while the feature has been highly anticipated by players , it’s going to be very limited in its capabilities.
Here at TheGamer, we’ve been largely doom and gloom about it. My colleague Eric Switzer wrote that trading might ruin the fun of Pocket altogether by introducing an external market for competitive players and making packs too easy to finish, while Ben Sledge suggested that trading would be heavily restricted and limited to older sets.
Despite these fairly depressing predictions, Pokemon TCG Pocket’s trading feature is somehow worse than we thought it would be. The team has now revealed how trading will work in a tweet, and it’s got players very upset.
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Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Wonder Picks Being Predetermined Makes Me Feel A Lot Better
You weren’t really one spot away from picking the right card.
There Are So Many Restrictions That Trading Is Basically Pointless
As we all expected, trades can only be done between friends and with cards of the same rarity. However, you won’t be able to trade cards of a 2 star rarity or higher, which means that you won’t be able to trade ex level alternate art cards in any form. At launch, you’ll also only be able to trade “certain cards” from Genetic Apex and Mythical Island, but it’s unclear if that means that there are more cards that are banned from trading or if this is just alluding to the rarity restrictions.
It’s also unclear if we’ll be able to trade cards from the new booster packs when they launch, or if they’ll be barred from the feature until the packs have been out for a while. I assume the latter, since the team will want the trading feature to be used primarily for catching the few cards that regular players haven’t been able to get their hands on yet.
The implementation is very annoying. A lot of hardcore players will likely already have all the sub 1 star cards for sets, especially if they’re spending money on the game, and will have no need for the feature at all since it excludes trades for higher rarity cards. It also makes rare duplicates essentially useless, since you can’t use or trade them.
And Yes, Trading Will Likely Add A New Currency
Perhaps worst of all, the statement confirms “items must be consumed in order to trade”. That implies that trading is going to have a cooldown limited by an impending brand new currency, adding yet another consumable to Pocket’s already overwhelming array of them.
It’s hard to enjoy Pokemon TCG Pocket when I’m constantly assailed with reasons to delete the game altogether. So much of what I even get is predetermined for me, from (probably) packs to wonder picks. It’s incredibly hard to complete collections if, like me, you refuse to spend money on the game – one estimate says it could take up to two and a half years, and that’s if the game were to stop adding new expansions, which it won’t.
And if you do spend money, you might have to spend $1,500 just to finish Genetic Apex, like this player. Add all this on top of a frustrating UI and a dizzying number of currencies, and I’m largely unwilling to engage with the game beyond opening packs every day and collecting my daily rewards.
Trading, as a whole, has mostly served as a reminder that the team behind Pocket is willing to make features that are wholly unhelpful for players if it means adding more ways to monetise and squeeze cash out of its audience. It’s microtransactions all the way down, and I’m sick of it.
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.