As someone who played Yu-Gi-Oh! in high school and now mostly watches gameplay on YouTube, I never expected to dive into another card game, let alone Pokémon TCG Pocket. It all started when my girlfriend introduced me to the mobile game. Initially, I just treated it as a digital card album, casually collecting cards through free missions without any interest in the actual gameplay.
However, as my collection grew, curiosity got the better of me. I found myself learning the rules, battling AI opponents, and eventually facing other players.
Coming from Yu-Gi-Oh!’s super-duper-uber complex mechanics, Pokémon TCG Pocket offered some interesting perspectives I’d like to share.
But first, I must explain how the game works.
Overview of Pokémon TCG Pocket
Pokémon TCG Pocket features 20-card decks and a unique Energy Zone system that replaces the traditional Energy cards in your deck.
Each player starts with 0 points and aims to get 3 points by knocking out their opponent’s Pokémon. The game is played with one Active Pokémon (which can attack) and up to three Benched Pokémon as backup. Unlike the physical card game, matches have a 20-minute time limit and last no more than 30 turns.
The game features three main card types:
- Pokémon cards: The main battlers that can attack and evolve
- Trainer cards: Support cards divided into Items (unlimited use per turn) and Supporters (limited to one per turn)
- Energy: Instead of being cards in your deck, Energy is managed through an Energy Zone that guarantees one Energy attachment per turn
A key innovation is the Energy Zone system. Players can attach one Energy per turn from a dedicated Energy Zone to power their Pokémon’s attacks, ensuring consistent resource availability, unlike traditional TCGs where you need to draw Energy cards. This makes the game pace faster.
Another unique aspect is the prevalence of coin flips in many card effects, introducing an element of chance that can swing matches dramatically. The game also features Pokémon-EX cards, powerful variants that give your opponent 2 points instead of 1 when knocked out.
Key Differences from Yu-Gi-Oh! (And Why They Matter)
With the basics of TCG Pocket covered, let’s explore some fundamental differences from Yu-Gi-Oh! that significantly impact how these games play – and why these differences matter to players coming from traditional card games.
No Costs for Strong Cards
There are some insanely strong cards from the current meta. Let’s take a look at some of them:
Superior (Pokémon Card)
Superior is a stage 2 grass-type Pokémon card. When it’s on your board, each Grass Energy attached to your Grass Pokémon counts as 2 Grass Energy. This ability doesn’t stack. In other words, even if it’s on the Bench, it doubles the Grass Energy for your Active grass-type Pokémon, which could use the boosted energy to attack the opponent.
Misty (Trainer Card)
Misty is a Trainer card that lets you choose one of your water-type Pokémon. You flip coins until you get tails, and for each head you flip, you can take one Water Energy from your Energy Zone and attach it to your chosen Pokémon.
As you can see, there are no costs for using any of these cards. However, in Yu-Gi-Oh!, you likely need to pay in your Life Point or discard cards to activate the ability. If not, those cards are likely on the limited list, so you can’t put them in your deck or can only put up to specific numbers, e.g., one copy max for a “limited” card.
Luck Plays a Huge Role
Luck plays a significant role in the game. I guess this is implemented to lure more casual players – which is understandable and great for business.
For instance, Eevee, a normal-type Pokémon, does damage by flipping a coin till you get tails. It deals 20 damage for each head and only needs one Energy (regardless of its type) to attack. This is crazy as you can even one-shot a boss Pokémon like Charizard if you’re really lucky – albeit you need to get 8 consecutive heads for it (that’s like a 0.4% chance, or 1 in 256 if you’re curious) – yeah, I know it’s statistically unlikely, but a similar thing happened to me..
In Yu-Gi-Oh!, there are luck-based decks, but they’re considered gimmicky and less played. If you’ve watched Yu-Gi-Oh! animation, you probably know that Joey Wheeler’s decks in anime fall in this category.
Speaking of Joey Wheeler, you must watch this fan-made parody video about Joey vs. Wevil, but with modern decks. It’s hilarious, and I think you’ll have a good time watching it even if you have never played the Japanese card game.
Insane Power Creep
Unlikely Yu-Gi-Oh! or Magic: The Gathering, where its publisher can create characters/monsters out of their imagination – sometimes (probably) from their wet dreams, there are only a finite number of Pokémon. As such, the power creep is insane for cards with the same name.
Let’s use Eevee, as mentioned before, as an example. Here is the ability of its predecessor from the first batch of expansions. JK. It doesn’t have any ability. It can attack with one Energy and deal 20 damage. That’s it. With the same HP and type, why would anyone put the previous iteration into the deck?
This also happens to other card games with lesser effect. In the case of Yu-Gi-Oh!, a retrained card usually comes with a longer name containing the old name and a stronger effect vs. the old one. But it doesn’t make the old card completely useless. Let’s take Gaia The Fierce Knight, the signature card from the protagonist in the anime decades ago, as an example. It’s a level-7 normal monster with 2300 attack points and 2100 defense points. Fast forward to now, there is an archetype with dedicated support cards surrounding the retrains. However, you can still use the old card in niche/gimmicky decks, which take advantage of it being a normal monster while the retrains are not.
Only One Way to Win
In Yu-Gi-Oh!, you have several ways to win a duel:
- You deck your opponent out, i.e., there is no card for them to draw from their decks,
- You win with a monster’s ability, e.g., Exodia the Forbidden One,
- You reduce your opponent’s LP to 0.
In the mobile Pokémon game, you win by getting three points first or knock-out opponent’s Active Pokémon while there is no benched one. Although most Yu-Gi-Oh! duels end through reducing LP to 0, having multiple win conditions adds strategic variety to the game.
Final Words
After spending the entire article talking shit about Pokémon TCG Pocket, I want to emphasize that I’m not saying Yu-Gi-Oh! is perfect. Heck, it’s far from it.
- The learning curve is steep – types, attributes, zones, chainlinks, and different summon methods exist.
- The unfair advantage for the player that goes first.
- The gotchas in the game, e.g., missing the timings.
- The staggering price tags for powerful and newer cards.
- The nonstop errata for existing cards, i.e., rewriting the texts for existing cards to accommodate newer cards.
- The longass time per turn.
Also, I had fun playing Pokémon TCG Pocket, especially when opponents with meta decks rage-quit against my weird-ass gimmicky deck. At the end of the day, that is what matters. There are also other in-game mechanisms besides battles that you can interact with other players, such as building your own themed collections.
Last, to be honest, it’s not fair to compare Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon TCG Pocket, as the latter is a mobile game. I guess a better comparison target would probably be Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, a mobile game iteration of Yu-Gi-Oh!, but unfortunately I have never played it.
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