What Pokémon TCG Pocket says about the state of the Pokémon TCG 

This is what happens when you give an actual budget to the game. It's about time the TCG got some love. Art in Pokémon cards is one of, if not the most beautiful art I have seen in any TCG, and it's quite embarrassing that the "main digital game" fails so miserably in showing out that beauty.

I agree with “a step in the right direction” Fingers crossed they merge or at least develop the full game mode.

the "hello, welcome to the club. I've been here for two years." was so funny

This definitely reminds me of Duel Links with there appearing to only be three columns of cards instead of five to promote a faster, more streamlined game suitable for mobile apps. I'm hoping it has a better monetization system than Duel Links though, as that game could be very pricey to remain competitive in. Also worth noting, many Duel Links players transferred their attention over to Master Duel once the "real" game got a proper simulator. If this does well hopefully Creatures can either develop a proper TCG simulator to replace Live, or incorporate the full game as a separate game mode in this app.

i just want a official glc format for live.

I like watching your deck ideas and set reviews, but I have major appreciation and respect for the no-nonsense criticism you give to the mess that Live is, and the general state of the TCG. From the horizon of the Online shutdown, to now, great stuff! :)

This app teases vintage cards, and i hope we get some. Would be fun to open a Jungle pack or something similar.

Even if they weren't to bring in Standard's cards, I still hope they do a 6 prize/point format, just because I really enjoy the lower power level of the Pocket format cards. Reminds me of like Gen 4 but with exs

There's NO master plan man. Having worked in many companies throughout the years, I can almost assure you that ALOT OF THIS IS MADE UP AS THEY GO. That is the reason the quality of Pokemon games is not up to par with the current rendering and specs capabilities of Nintendo's current videogame platforms. I REALLY hope they can get their act together and appoint real Creative people behind their projects. This would be a restoration to the company's beginnings where they actually stretched the capabilities of the Gameboy to make the games.

It would be nice if more people played in person. There aren't enough people coming to our local card shops to play any tournaments

Thank you for your great video essay! I can really relate your thoughts and I'm looking optimistically forward to that new route Creatures has taken with Pokémon TCG Pocket too. I miss the vivid gameplay of Pokemon Trading Card Online, the colours, the relaxed flow and those wonderful cards to look at. PTCGL took a lot of joy playing Pokémon on an online client... (and I feel sorry for the hard work the people behind Live are doing to keep it running). I play so much more with friends and new people in local league play, but I wish I could jump in the wonderful world of online Pokémon TCG again, playing the formats I like. So let's hope that this is a new and promising path onto the online representation of a trading card game, we all love.

Honestly I'm hoping this ends up being Pokemon Duel Links, but without the aggressive microtransactions that plague that game with the likes of Selection Boxes timelocking cards that you can basically only get with real money before getting released in actual boxes 3, 6, even 9 months down the line. Just hope it provides a fun alternative format for people to jump into, and hopefully leads into TPC and DeNA taking over development for a Pokemon TCG sim in the future, either sunsetting Live for a 3rd app that finally ticks all of the boxes or just handling development and revamping the entirety of TCGL.

It would be so great if they gave live the same treatment or even just made pocket the one stop shop for both the quick format as well as competitive. Really amazing video I hope this can get the recognition it deserves and changes are made for all the Pokémon fans out there.

I was super frustrated. Like: your first TCG doesn’t feel complete, it’s doesn’t even have really expanded! And now you are also developing another game? WTF???

As soon as I saw that Pokémon Pocket trailer the first thing I thought was: “oh I can’t wait to see what Mahone and Tricky Gym has to say about this!”. And I was not disappointed ;) Keep up the great work!

Thank you so much for this video. I was so confused by the announcement, but now I’m optimistic again; you’re such a good ambassador for the Pokémon TCG, and I hope you’re right, and this is a step towards a fully realised, beautiful Pokémon TCG Digital Experience, which both the fans and the cards themselves deserve.

Even though this is a different "game", made to compete with duel links, this only solidifies the theory that PTCGL was made as a placeholder for the online client made solely to cut costs, rather than an actual effort into being a quality online TCG experience. And now it represents a big slap in the face of tcg players, when you see how this other game looks. They oddly seem to care more about the game that will have microtransactions. The question of "Why?" still stands, and I have no clue what the answer could be. Seems anything but rational, given that, despite the smaller consumer base compared to card collectors who don't play, PTCGL is so atrocious that it does indeed damage their brand more than anything.

I planned to finally try to learn competitive with tcg live. Day one of using it I decided not to lol. I’d try again if they put standard on pocket.

The weirdest part to me is that is seems they have everything that is still missing from Live handled in such a graceful way. I even wonder how long it will take to load the mobile version, when compared to the long wait we currently have to experience... And the phone starts to heat up, you can't go to other app without needing to reload everything once you get back to PTCGL. And that's coming from an user using a flagship phone!

Literally Playing TCG Live in the background of watching this video, and while doing so: When using any card that searches the deck, the first selectable card will not respond to any clicking, dragging, or interaction... Oh also my character is perpetually barefoot so that's cool...

What frustrates me the most is that now Creatures Inc. has clearly demonstrated that they are capable of making a high quality client to play the TCG on, give it a bunch of cool features, and then limit it to mobile devices only and make the rules different so it's this weird miniature/fast version of the game. It seems like Pocket is SO CLOSE to being exactly what we want/need, and yet they're refusing to follow through. I don’t know the details as to how the rules are different, but I can't imagine it would be difficult to add a game mode that uses the standard rules. I'm assuming it's because of two reasons. One, Pokémon Company International already has the rights to make the main "official" Pokémon TCG client, and two, Creatures wants Pocket to mimic Duel Links and Snap, and as long as they're doing that, they don't feel the need to make it a "standard" client. It almost seems like Pocket is the Pokémon GO of the Pokémon TCG world (Miniaturized version of the traditional game designed for quick gameplay on the go). There are a lot of people who only know what Pokémon is because of Pokémon GO. I'm curious if Pocket will have a similar effect for the TCG.

For the same reason they don't make another TCG game like the gameboy one. They didn't care

this is genuinely one of the best videos about this issue, puts pretty much all of my thought and frustrations about live and pocket into a video and articulates it beautifully.

I got walled with one of the solo modes missions on Duel Links which led me to deleting the app. I was doing alright with Marvel Snap; it felt really rewarding to not only win a match, but to win with a Snap on the opponent. Granted, most of my matches were probably with a bot, which is fine for the most part. But the one thing that I don't like is the random battlefields for each match. Sometimes they're fine, most times, they're frustrating and, surprise, the other opponent just have the right cards for the right field at the right time. Meaning, that unless I don't come up with a win at the last minute, I will get snapped on and will loose the progress I've made on my rank...which is severely disappointing. I get that it gives the players a reason to keep playing, but for me, I didn't play that often. So, on the random chance I decide to play a game or two, I get bunked down a couple of ranks. I can hear people telling me to "get good," but how can I do that when the game is holding me back just so I have to, you guess it, pay to win. With that, I deleted the app. Now with Pokémon TCG online games, I miss Online with a passion. I had a decent sized collection, with a complete set of Burning Shadows. For some odd reason, the game didn't recognize my login information. So all of my progress was in the balance. In frustration, I put playing Online to the side. And right when I heard that Live was replacing Online, I rushed to get back on Online with having my laptop being bricked and not finding the internet modem...so my collection was gone for good. I told myself that I would only focus on collecting physical cards and not bother with Online. But then Pocket was announced, and I got excited. Sure, it's not a legit way of playing the game, but the app is mainly focused on the collecting aspect of Pokémon TCG. It would be funny if there's a World Championship for Pocket, like how there is/was one for GO. I can see other players frustrations and confusions. But I for one, will be playing Pocket when it comes out.

Honestly I'm extremely excited that this game will be more casual, I really love playing the game but everytime I've played tcg online or live it felt way too competitive for me because all I wanna do is get pretty looking cards and use my favorite Pokemon on a silly deck. I hope this game can become a more standard Pokemon tcg experience for everyone that wants to be more competitive but I also hope they can keep the casualness of it too for anyone that just wants a simpler way to play the game.

I’m actually pretty excited for pocket, because I was honestly going to take a break from the standard game if the next year was gonna be nothing but Charizard ex on top of the meta. I just hope upon hope that the monetization isn’t too scummy. 2 free packs a day is encouraging.

I agree with all historical company u tell about, and as PTCGO fans I felt deeply sadness when the server sunset & the PTCGLive is not development well. Last year I finally get into IRL PTCG and became a sertificate Judges on 🇮🇩 under TPC. This is all I can do to express big ❤ of PTCG & contribute to the community 😊

the backyard baseball referenced killed me

I really look forward to pocket as someone who used to play the tcg but doesn't have the time to play a full game. This gives me marvel snap vibes, which I already enjoy due to its quick 3min games.

As a Pokemon TCG player/collector since the very beginning, this is one the best videos I have seen in a long time. Mr Mahome speaks what so many of us feel. Well done and thanks!

I hope people at the pokemon company are listening! I'm an old time pokemone fan and always had cards growing up, yet never learned to play!! I always played video games instead (like many lol ..shame I know). But now at 34 years old and trading old pokemon cards with my 8-9 year old nephew's and niece's and seeing how stoked they get about it, I think its awesome. They say its quite popular at their school still, so I decided to learn how to play recently so I could eventually teach them too. I only started playing a few weeks ago the pokemon tcg online and found it ok'ish.. Since I'm super new I still really enjoyed it to help learn the game more and deck building. I'm stoked to hear about this pokemon pocket app tho! I wanna see pokemon tcg actually being played in school yards and not only traded at the pokemon tree for the sake of collecting... Great vids thank you!

The main concern with Pocket will be the monetization. If it's too difficult for F2P to keep up with paid players, that will not reflect well on TPC as the player base will fall off.

Hoping that there’re more settings that can be adjusted. Like skipping animations or lower the quality of certain aspects of the gameplay to quicken the game. Playing the game now feels like such a drag as the animations are too long

The art! I've always been so enamored by the art on the cards, more than whichever cards are rare or even the gameplay, so it's definitely the TCG app I'm the most interested in

I've tried Live a couple months ago when I noticed that it remplaced the former application. After playing a single game in which I couldn't draw cards because of a bug, I closed the game, planning to eventually come back after the alpha ended and proper updates were made. And here I learn that this is an allegedly finished product!

Money that could have gone to live, love, time resources and ads went to Pocket. Not live. This is going to confuse kids and some adults like parents.. And live will still have bugs and glitches. And look like crap

I wanted to believe, then I started noticing the changes on the cards. It seems Pocket will run its own format and cards outside the regular TCG ones (see: DP to Arceus' weakness system, "Energy Zone" as stated on the Brock trainer card, different HP and attack values, no Resistances in sight and so on). As far as I know, I don't think Duel Links has drastically changed its cards to fit a new format. Also weird to see Fossil/Generations' Slowpoke with a completely different card.

Pokémon isn’t about graphics it’s about lore and the card game itself

I mistakenly transferred my PTCGO Desktop account to the current Mobile game. It got rid of everything I had worked for, it was too sad.

Now they need to show that you can make an avatar reminiscent to the Pokémon artstyle.

We won’t even mention the constant freezes, glitches, deletions of cards earned from card codes, total lack of anything cinematic, and avatars that all look anorexic…

I love it when you do these kinds of videos! Super informative, I totally agree with all your points- the dream would be a drip fed release of features building up to an app with all formats. Thanks Andrew, such a high quality of content as always

The thing I want from online tcg games like this is that if they are gonna have microtransactions why not give an option to buy a physical version of the card via the app that would be sooo convenient

looking forward to this. as a TCG collector who loves pokemon! i even made a Unity project for TCG collecting. (of course just my own project. i dont wanna get sued lol)

Really looking forward to this. I had a ton of fun with Marvel Snap and remember thinking. "Wow I really wish we had something like this for Pokemon that wasn't a clunky mess". Looks like they really did it!

I personally like PTCG Live, if only for it allowing me to play the game due to the ability for me to craft the cards. I wish it was functionally better in a lot of ways, but I have more fun playing it than I did PTCG Online. It was always a far more expensive and time consuming experience to even be able to play one (remotely) meta deck in that client. I will most likely not play this Pocket game. I doubt my old phone would run it, plus I want the full game experience and not the supposedly limited one this Pocket experience will offer. I am hopeful it results in more attention to the TCG overall, as I'm sure we've all heard the saying "a rising tide raises all ships". Thank you Andrew for this video and the opportunity for discussion around one of our favourite hobbies.

I only casually played TCG Online and was mainly a Yugioh player. When Live came out, I was amazed that it was their answer to updating the core TCG simulator in the face of MTG Arena and Yugioh Master Duel. Live is bad on so many levels that I pretty much haven't engaged with anything Pokemon TCG related since. Pocket looks good enough for me to at least try!

Art for pocket looks phenomenal. We have no idea what the gameplay will be like and hopefully we don't lose standards format to whatever weird system of playing that we get from pocket... fingers crossed

Just wanted to add - I got the Pokémon TGC iPad game during the summer and got fuckin decimated 3 times in a row.. within the first 2 moves the opponent obliterated me 😂 Deleted the app within 1 hour and never gave it another shot. This NEEDS to appeal to casuals or else they’ll never get the chance to become hardcore audience…

this seems like the equivalent of Duel Links for the Yugioh TCG/OCG

The old 2D characters of Pokemon TCG Online looked like the characters from the first season of Chaotic. The new 3D characters look like Mark Zuckerberg Meta clones

I hope whatever physical packs I get could give us the choice of pocket or live with the QR code. Shorter games might be fun. I would like to transfer the aesthetics of the card sleeves I have already earned from live to pocket. pocket does look fun.

I'd like to see TCGLive just get the care it deserves. If Pocket comes out super polished, I'd like to see an expanded version of that team of developers oversee both games and take the strides necessary to make Live what I know it can, and should be. Live also just needs a better reward system. As of the past several years, there's this weird disconnect where things are coming out in an unfinished state, with a rushed and unpolished coat of paint, yet Pokémon continues to make gangbusters for profits and doesn't seem to be reinvesting any of it into their digital products as they should be if they want to continue to be the giant they are into perpetuity. The extra crazy part is they have all these side projects come out that are super polished and full of love and passion for the IP. /rant For a distant wish, give us the ability to do retro formats in a digital space.

I absolutely loved Yugioh Duel Links. Easy format, quick battles and collecting the OG cards. I cannot wait for essentially a Pokemon TCG version of it!

havent played TCG since online was taken down. I tried TCGL on my phone (where I played TCGO tablet version on my phone) but hated the vertical gameplay and was disappointed with the render quality. Thought maybe it was due to the phone, so I tried on PC granted i was able to see all my cards on the PC however quality was still garbage. It still surprises me that a tablet version of TCGO played on a smartphone performed better than TCGL on a top of the line PC.

I think despite it’s history at least im confident with TCG Pocket given i have played a bit for that back when in my childhood playing itso seeing it now as a game is nostalgic filling Hopefully it goes well

I’m personally very excited for the game. It feels like more of a lifestyle game that will allow me to enjoy Pokémon TCG more frequently in a new way with all the new cards and cool art. Can’t wait!

My hope for this is that like Duel Links, we get a physical edition of Quick Battles with reprints of these cards

I like that in pocket at least you wont get flashbanged opening packs 😅

A lot of my friends had no idea they could already play the Pokémon TCG on their phones or digitally. They had no idea Live existed before Pocket reveal.

The problem with TCG live (especially on mobile) it’s impossible to read the card text. So I hope there are able to fix this

The worry is that TPC decides that Pocket is "good enough" as an online product, that it's able to replace Live entirely - without having a standard gameplay mode - and finally end their worries about a game competing with their flagship physical TCG product. Hopefully they can get along - after all, they do just fine with Magic and Yugioh - but no one can ever predict Pokemon.

I was excited for it until I saw the "Two free packs per day" Now i'm worried about it becoming pay to win or just filled with microtransactions.

What is weird to me is they had to have talked about the separate projects, no? TPCI is _THE_ localization side of the company, is it not? And if it is like that, then TPCI was literally knowingly involved in the production of this app, to translate to different languages.....

I came to similar conclusions when I saw the Presents as to what may have happened internally. It's too bad this wasn't just one super app. I find the fact that you get code cards in Pokemon TCG to be something that really sets it apart from the other big three TCG's (which I also play). And while I doubt that'll ever get integrated in Pocket (the cards in it seem to have their own format), I'm still super excited for the new app's release.

Perfectly summarizes my excitement and concerns. I gotta say though, I really doubt they'll integrate standard TCG into the new game with how things are going

I used to be want to get really into tcg, but tcg live isn't really doing it for me, I loved the old game, but I am looking forward to this new one

When I first saw this announcement I was very confused when TCG Live already exists. I guess thus clarifies things a bit, thanks!

My main hope for Pocket is that more F2P leaning players can still really enjoy the game. I loved Sleep, but a major issue was that without the monthly subscription, catching new pokemon was pretty tough, and that monthly subscription was *pricey* I wouldn't mind spending 5 or 10 bucks every few months, particularly if I'm enjoying the game daily, but if I need to spend 10-15 monthly for just the 1 game, it's just not gonna be feasible for me.

I really appreciated the background dive on the different development teams. I wasn't around for PTCGO, but I am oddly very aware of Dire Wolf and their physical/digital games. (I love CLANK!) I have low hopes for the future of an online Standard format, as competitive players are sadly the minority and most people are collecting. What I see as unplayable bulk is another person's treasure. Sadly for most, the text and rule boxes are on top of the pretty art and just in the way.

Legends Z-A is a spin off, not a mainline series game. Good video though. I just hope we get the option to play with the regular rules too.

I've had "a bit" of a break from Pokemon and logged into Pokemon online to find out I need to download Pokemon TCG Live. Now after spending a couple of weeks cracking packs and rebuilding my collection I've found out that there's a new app coming lol. It's a good thing I've got my physical cards, it seems TPC STILL don't know how to manage digital collections.

I've never played this game before but I did learn how it works in a basic level ( how to set up, some game mechanics etc ) So Pocket TCG will have it's own set of rules while playing? 🤔 Interesting

This looks fantastic! I’m really excited to download it as soon as it hits the marketplace.

I really wish they had all series back to black and white playable at least too

The fact that there is no Pokemon TCG experience on the Switch should also show how little they invested in that and maybe now are starting to realize. Hoping Pocket becomes a quick play like Duel Links and pave the way for a full experience on console.

You can really tell you're in your element with this video. Just a well written and thought-out critique.

They need to make a switch edition

If nothing else, I’ve seen lots of potential interest in Pocket from people who don’t play or collect TCG currently (me included). It looks really clean and seems fun to collect for, especially with the promise of two free packs a day. When I collected as a kid it was just because I admired the artwork, and this seems to scratch that itch while potentially getting me into the actual game as well so it has my attention at least.

Quick games like Marvel Snap took me over because im 30+ with kids and dont have time to sit on my phone and play 1 game for 20+ min. Hope this new app does well, personally

Ptcgl actually stopped working for me like a month ago. I would open the app , and then it would leave me on a loading screen for minutes - hours and then crash instead of actually going through.

Standard format in TCG pocket would be INCREDIBLE!!!!

I'm still upset that some of my favorite decks were no longer viable because they just didn't include the cards in live. give me back my battle compressor!

As someone who has been watching the divide between Magic Online and Magic Arena for several years now... Don't get your hopes up that pocket will ever be enough

Do you guys think that "mini/casual" game version of the Pokémon TCG Pocket might actually end up being supported in the physical game as well?

You didn't mention what turned me off Live the most- we lost all the offline game modes and I lost all my decklists (and many cards) from Online. As a casual player I mainly enjoyed playing Online offline because matching with strangers seemed so imbalanced with all the OP rule box cards etc. So yeah, the interface in Live is bad, but that's not as important as it being a fun balanced game which doesn't require you to buy lots of codes for powerful cards.

i hope their is some kind of merge. so you can transfer Character/Cards from PTCG LIVE to The TCG pocket game

I saw this before, but now hearing you break it down, I’m very excited and can’t wait to see how this all goes down. 🤞 Also, I played duel links when it first came out for a few years and I gotta say this seems oddly similar to it. Hopefully so

I hope new tcg game will be more japanese and less american. Anime like art style and better animation. The version we play now is so bad and cringe. Its like fan made game. Great video by the way. You really explained a lot thanks.

As someone who loved the Gamboy version of PTCG, I could never get into PTCG beyond that, the clients were just so bad. The Gameboy game has that charm and nostalgia for me. As a PTCG fan who has been craving a mobile version, I’m very excited for this, I’m only afraid it will very much be a pay to win type format. But you are absolutely spot on with everything you said Mahone!

Honestly for me, I don’t see a point in pocket at all, sure its cool to see the art, but it strips the TCGs nuisance away. Like if the art work never comes to physical that sucks aswell as cards like the meowth and lapras are stunning. If they provide no incentive to interact with the game, its gonna just be another rumble rush where the servers shut down in about a year and you have nothing to show for it.

Ultimately I feel like this is the company accepting that digital cards can be a full pillar of the company rather than an afterthought like with Online and Live. I don’t see these replacing the physical cards any time soon, but it’s being treated as a proper mainstream way for fans to enjoy Pokémon.

I read somewhere that development of the games is done at creatures and they do help out

LMFAO THE FLOATING GLASSES

I feel like this might our best chance to get a version of GLC online again

I was so angry at first when I saw the announcement of pocket 🙈😝 I thought "why, oh why couldn't you have done that before and spared us all the excruciating pain of tcgl?" Now I am just hoping that this will be the shining beacon that brings the tcgl into a new era some day. 🙌🏻 Thank you Andrew for being there with us all for the last two years of this yoke of a platform and still giving us good tcg content 💚

I love Pokémon Unite and I play marvel Snap another quick TCG and I'm really excited to try Pokémon TCG Pocket.

Being someone who is so invested into the Pokemon TCG that I just purchased a new colour laser printer, just to print proxies and test decks with friends: If the quick match mode is even close to being a regular game of the TCG, I'm off of ptcgl for good

Aw Dragon Shield, I learned all about these From the Tolarian Professor 😂

Very curious as to what will happen with the code cards that come with each physical pack of Pokemon cards. Will there be any redemption feature for Pocket or will the codes just strictly work with TCG Live?