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jp's Pokémon TCG Pocket (iPd)
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| [June 26, 2025 04:50:57 PM]
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So after falling back in to Pokemon GO for a year (after 4 years of having quit) I decided to (after hitting level 42 in GO) bail and replace with another game. I had heard good things about the mobile version of the Pokemon TCG so I thought I'd give it a try.
People say the game is quite generous (2 free packs a day!), and it is...but the game seems to already have so many cards that it feels like a real uphill battle to get to a collection that lets you put together a semi-decent competitive deck. Or maybe I'm just bad at deckbuilding (or the auto-deck generator is bad, lol, I've been using it as the basis of my decks - and then tweaking)?
Either way it's been fun so far to explore this game - I'm mostly curious about the TCG because it is quite successful commercially, has an active competitive scene - and I wonder how much depth there is to it? (I think less than Magic, but there has to be at least enough to support a healthy competitive scene?)
So far I'm not really all that impressed - I was playing ranked and when I played against people that had way bigger collections (and badges demonstrating prior experience in the competitive seasons) I'd get trounced by decks with cards I had no chance of getting (quickly/easily)/ I'd lose three or four matches in a row and then get matched against a player with a single "regular" sounding username (e.g. "Luke", "Cynthia") - and then I'd easily win. I'm pretty sure I'm getting matched against bots - which is a huge disappointment because from what I can see there's no disclaimer/information about that happening! To be clear this is on the next-to-bottom rung of the competitive ladder (A1?). The big buckets are Beginner, PokeBall, Great Ball, Ultra Ball and then Master Ball - and within these there are 4 ranks. I was at the bottom of PokeBall..
What's really weird (to me) is that the season ended and the game paused the competitive ranked matches for a few days! (while it "calculated" results) and then told me how I placed...and the competitive mode is still unavailable! I find this really surprising - and I guess this means that the game's primary mode of interaction is just the card collecting?
There's a fun feature where you trade in cards you have dupes of to buy a cosmetic filter that's added to that card (similar to what Marvel Snap has - but here you have to buy the new look). There's also features for showcasing your cards and stuff like that, which really speaks to the collecting and sharing collection part of the game. Interesting!
I think I'll keep playing - but now I'm curious if the TCG game is the same digitally as in person - or if it's been "simplified"...and I am getting better at playing the game as well. ;-)
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jp's Pokémon TCG Pocket (iPd)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Friday 13 June, 2025
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This is the only GameLog for Pokémon TCG Pocket. |
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