Hello everyone! About 3 weeks ago I decided to try the new mobile Pokemon game Pokemon TCG Pocket. To start, you download it from the official store (Android or Apple). The first time you open the game it will make you have an additional download and you have to fill in some data like country and age and select a username. After that, you get to the initial screen:
After tapping on it, you get to the main screen. You can see right away the booster packs that you can open. When you start, there's a tutorial that guides you on most things. You'll get to open some packs, do wonder picks, and learn the basics of the battles.
There is one important thing right at the start. The first pack that you choose, impacts 3 things: your starter deck, your first EX Pokemon, and your first full art card. I'll list what each one gives you:
Charizard: Exeggcute EX, full art Charmander, and a Grass starter deck.
Mewtwo: Marowak EX, full art Bulbasaur, and a Fighting starter deck.
Pikachu: Arcanine EX, full art Squirtle, and a Fire starter deck.
There are upsides and downsides to each of them. EX Arcanine is currently the best EX card of the three, in the competitive meta. That might change in the future, though. There's also an event running that makes it easier to get Arcanine EX. Exeggcute EX is probably the least relevant in competitive battles and none of them are better than the most sought-after cards. They're all good starting cards, though. As for the full art card, they all look good so it's all about preference. For the starter decks, Grass might be a little easier for the starting missions. In the end, it's not that relevant and it's up to you to make a decision. Any of these cards can be opened in regular packs.
After this, you'll get to open a regular pack and learn about the ways you can open more. Each pack takes 12 hours to charge up, so you can open 2 per day. You can use Hourglasses to speed up the pack by 1 hour per Hourglass. Remember, this is a freemium game and they need ways to monetize it. I haven't spent anything and I already have a decent collection. You'll be getting plenty of Hourglasses when you start, but they will eventually dry up a bit. It is good to use them early to build your collection but just be aware that the experience of opening a ton of packs at the start won't repeat forever.
I recommend checking which exclusive cards appear in each pack so you can focus on the ones you want more. That way, you can build the deck that you want more easily instead of having a few cards of each deck. Personally, I started with the Charizard pack and got a bunch of good fire cards (the initial pack is different from regular packs). My first deck was the Blaine Fire deck that doesn't use any EX card and eventually, I had 2 Charizard EX and 2 Moltres EX so I built the Charizard EX deck. I'm now chasing Zapdos EX and Raichu so I'm getting Pikachu packs.
Next, there are the Wonder picks. There are regular ones and event ones. Regular ones are packs that other players have opened. They can be friends that you have added to the game or random players. You get to see a pack and pick one of its cards randomly. Wonder Stamina also fills up every 12 hours and there are also Wonder Hourglasses that you can use to speed up. I recommend saving those so that you have them available when something you want shows up. It's still random and you'll likely fail to get what you want most of the time. The best ones to get are the ones that cost 3 or 4 because they include at least one higher rarity card. There are times to get the ones that cost 1 or 2 if they have 1 (or more cards) that you really need but the higher cost ones are better value. Especially when they include not 1 but 2 higher rarity cards, because it increases your odds but it doesn't increase the cost. Those are very rare though. Here's an example of a fantastic pack with 2 EX mons to spend your Wonder Stamina:
Another cool thing is that if you pick from someone who has the game in another language, the card will show up in that language. When playing, it will be in your language, so that you can understand what it does. That is a great feature! The event Wonder picks are some cards (and sometimes currency) that you also get to pick for free. There's one with Arcanine EX and other fire cards that costs 3 stamina, like any other pack with an EX. Moving to another subject, there's also a shop where you can buy some stuff and collect free daily gifts.
You'll be getting Tickets from missions and daily. You'll end up using them mostly on Pack Hourglasses but you can also get Wonder Hourglasses if you need to. You'll also need a few to buy some Supporter and Item cards. There are also some cosmetic items in the other tabs, some from events, and some with premium currency, but I wouldn't worry about it, at least at first.
There's a Premium pass to which you can subscribe for free for 2 weeks (you need to cancel it otherwise you'll have to pay) and you can spend points that you get from opening packs to craft specific cards. I'm saving them up for when I need to finish a deck or my collection. I don't want to craft a card to keep opening packs and see get it after.
With this out of the way, let's get into the battles. You can fight against other people and you can do missions and tutorials. These missions teach you the basics of the game and let you earn Tickets and Hourglasses. The Guides are the most basic ones and you can get some of the item cards from them so you'll spend less Tickets getting the rest from the store.
Sometimes there are events in the missions as well. Those are fun because they allow you to win some promo cards. There is one starting in the next few days.
I am having a lot of fun with this game. The progress is a bit slow for those playing for free but that is expected. The game can interest people who just want to collect and people who want to battle. The full art cards and some even rarer cards are great ways to make people spend money but they don't affect gameplay. Your regular Pikachu EX will work the same way as 3 special rarer versions it has. To me, the third one is the nicest, even though it isn't the most rare. I only have the regular version but that is ok for me as my first goal is to battle and collecting everything is secondary.
I'll stop this post now. I am interested in explaining the battle part of the game but I think it will be better to do that in a separate post. Let me know if you play the game or if I got you to try it! Thanks for reading.
I opened packs for a few days but had no interest in doing battles. After a few days I kept forgetting to open packs so I just uninstalled it. Love the concept though. I guess this is one instance where digital collecting didn't get to me.
I understand it can be boring to people not interested in battling because you will need to battle to get more stuff. Or they can always pay a lot of money and in that case, battling doesn't matter much (there are still some mission-exclusive cards but you can do those in auto-battle because they are against the AI).
It is a great pleasure to open the envelope, to see the animations, to see your collection is a very nice experience. I haven't played the online games yet, I have to do the tutorial to understand hahaha but for sure I will do it in a few days, I want to get the full experience. Plus there are cards that have a really beautiful and unique concept art.
Yes! Those full art cards are amazing! Tomorrow starts a new event where you play in solo mode. That's gonna be fun.