I’ve opened a lot of Pokemon TCG Pocket packs. Too many, some might say. But it’s kind of my job to write about this game (and any popular game), and to do so, I need the good cards.
I was one of the first to figure out the broken nature of Celebi ex and Serperior – or at least to write about it. I stay on top of the meta, I have collected every card available via battle challenges (just), and I have nearly every 1-star and below card in Genetic Apex. It’s just Exeggutor ex (regular art) that eludes me, and trading is so bad that nobody is willing to send it to me.
I know that Celebi ex is not meta, but it’s incredibly annoying.
As you can probably imagine, my collection is pretty big. While my spending on the game remains in the double figures (for now), I have amassed over 4,400 cards. I’ve opened over 800 packs, Wonder Picked 233 times, and make sure to always like my friends’ showcases. But I’ve never had a God Pack.
What Are The Odds Of Getting A Pokemon TCG Pocket God Pack?
With odds of just 0.05 percent, I’m still below average. You should open a God Pack once every 2,000 packs. That would take a free-to-play trainer around two and a half years to get their first God Pack. But we’re talking about probabilities here, so it could take you five years. Or five minutes.
I’m going to interrupt this broadcast (read: diatribe) to bring you a short PSA. If you don’t know what a God Pack is, this has probably all been gobbledegook this far and I’m impressed you read the first four paragraphs at all. A God Pack is tagged in the game as a Rare Pack, and it’s a pack that contains five cards all of a 1-star rarity or higher. Yep, five full art, immersive, or crown rare cards in one pack. It’s a white Wailord for the majority of players, myself included.
My Friend’s God Pack
As avid Ben Sledge readers will know, I was at the ALGS Championship this weekend. There was an unscheduled 40-minute break in play because an unknown issue cropped up – a player had a nosebleed or a PC crashed or something – so my friends and I were killing time. Naturally, we opened Pokemon TCG Pocket.
We were chatting away, not really paying much attention to our screens, when one friend – we’ll call her Eva because that’s her name – exclaimed, “I think I have a God Pack.” She was remarkably calm, and I watched as a full art Weavile ex made way for an immersive rare Palkia ex. She flicked past another card, and then to a crown rare Palkia ex.
I don’t remember exactly what the other two cards were – it was a bit of a blur – but the pack review showed five incredibly rare cards with no dupes. I’d witnessed a God Pack with my own eyes.
I was happy for her, honestly. I wasn’t jealous, I didn’t think ‘that should have been me’. I was just excited for the spectacle and amazed at the events that had just unfolded in front of my very eyes. I felt the same when a stranger emailed me a picture of their God Pack about a month ago. ‘Good for you!’ I thought.
But it’s in the days since that my mindset has shifted. Not towards my friend, not towards that stranger. I’m not jealous, despite the fact I’ve written an entire article specifically about not getting a God Pack. But I look at my packs differently.
The Darkrai Ex Problem
I’ve opened a lot of Space-Time Smackdown. Too many packs, considering I don’t even like Gen 4. And yes, I’ve had my share of luck. I’ve got two immersive rare Dialga ex cards, and both crown rates for the set – my first two gold cards. But what I really want, what I really really want, is Darkrai ex.
Darkrai ex is the new meta. Combined with Weavile ex (which alo remains absent from my collection), it makes for a fun, powerful deck. Combined with a humble Magnezone, it becomes one of the strongest decks in the game. I’d love to explain the deck in more detail, to do a deep dive into its strengths and counters, but my 181 Space-Time Smackdown packs haven’t yielded a single Darkrai ex.
Having seen a God Pack with my own eyes, I look at every Darkrai-less pack I open with disdain. Full art Gallade ex? Not Darkrai. That adorable alt art Shinx? Got two already, it should have been Darkrai. Even exciting pulls like the alt art Giratina or Cresselia are tinged with the bittersweet feeling that I’ve used up my Darkrai luck on cards I want far less.
Any of you with basic maths skills will know that I have enough Pack Points to buy Darkrai ex outright. But you forget one important factor: I’m a stubborn man, and I refuse to spend my Pack Points on anything other than a rare, rainbow-bordered card. 69 more packs, a month or so of opening, and I can grab that alt art Darkrai ex. I just hope I’ve already pulled one regular version by then.
My pal Eva has, obviously, already pulled the alt art Darkrai ex. She reminds me of the fact constantly.
To paraphrase one of the great minds of the internet age: “I’m not jealous! I’m not jealous!”, but the corn cob cometh. Arceus, if you can hear me now, I don’t need a God Pack. I’ve witnessed one and seen the light, but I do not covet it for myself. All I want is a Darkrai ex. Okay, make that two. Weavile ex would be the cherry on top. If they could all come in one big, rare pack, I wouldn’t say no. Is that too much to ask?
Next
Playing Pokemon Go In A Country Where It’s Banned
You can’t play Pokemon Go in China, but I needed a digital souvenir.