Pokémon TCG Pocket review: The perfect casual card game

Unlike most digital TCGs, Pokémon TCG Pocket is best if you don't log in too much.

Pikachu TCG Pocket / The Pokémon Company

Twitter sucks, I’ve got no Tinder matches, BlueSky is bursting with weak patter, Pokémon GO is old news, and lord knows that I want nothing less than to check in on the people I grew up with on Facebook and Instagram. I am in a digital prison of my own design, one where my overtly online sense of humor can no longer thrive. I feel alienated, isolated, and worst of all, bored. 2024 feels like the year the online persona died and left AI bots in its wake, parroting what came before but with imperialistic agendas at the fore. So it’s no wonder that I’ve been opening Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket at every opportunity.

Is it too much to ask for a little bit of joy in the morning? Instead of logging onto Twitter and looking up the latest world news, I’ve been logging onto Pokémon TCG Pocket instead, and it’s massively improved my quality of life. Well, for the most part, anyway.

Pokémon TCG Pocket is a simplified version of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. It has the same basic ruleset, except you’re dueling with a 20-card deck and need only three “points” to win. This keeps games moving at a swift pace, and a duel will rarely reach 20 turns played. There are currently 226 base set cards in the game, but there are also super-rare full-art and even unique immersive art cards available. While you can do battle in TCG Pocket, the game is clearly made with card collecting in mind first and foremost.

Pokémon TCG Pocket / The Pokémon Company

It’s generous at first, happily handing out packs upon packs of boosters, before your progress grinds to a halt. You’ll easily collect most of the base Genetic Apex set – as long as you get in before more boosters launch – but the last few cards you’re missing will feel incredibly elusive. While you have event challenges and fresh solo battle challenges to grind through, progress will feel slow but steady. However, when you’re just left with logging in twice a day to open packs and complete daily missions, you’ll find yourself staring at the Poké Gold shop and calculating how much each booster would cost you in real money.

It feels bad when you’re running low on tasks to complete, and you’ll hit that point pretty fast if you’re a semi-dedicated player. I was scratching at the neck waiting for the current Venusaur ex battle event to launch, and now that it’s here, I’m afraid I’ve completed it too fast. That’s my only real problem with TCG Pocket: it needs more.

Pokémon TCG Pocket / The Pokémon Company

I haven’t found myself thinking about collecting and battling Pokémon this much for years. I’m not even a Pokémon card collector in real life, but in the digital world, I’m a bit obsessed. Possibly the best complaint one could have about a game like this is that it needs more: more tasks, more events, more cards, more opportunities to earn cards without paying money.

I love the simplified card battles, but a mere 15 XP per victory makes them feel more than a bit unrewarding, especially when opening a booster pack gives you 25 XP. I also love the variety of cards currently available to collect, but the promised Trade feature isn’t available quite yet, meaning excess cards can only be funneled into a Flair cosmetic system, which only shows its worth in the battles. I’ve pulled five full-art Snorlax at this point, and I need something to actually do with them.

Sabrina / The Pokémon Company

It’s a good problem to have though. I’m already opening the app far more often than new packs become available, and that’s because I love dipping into the Wonder Pick shop to see what card I could nab from another player or checking to see if someone has liked my card display so I can spend Tickets at the Shop. Even those incredibly minor interactions that take less than a minute could potentially result in some high-tier rewards down the road. And that’s what’s making the app one of my phone’s most used, despite refusing to invest real money (other than the Premium pass, which totally got me).

Pokémon TCG Pocket is a truly fantastic mobile game that will keep you opening the app daily — and as long as it stops at once a day, you’ll probably love the experience. If you’re going back for more and more, like me, you’re inevitably going to run out of things to do. Pace yourself, enjoy the experience, and I promise you that Pokémon TCG Pocket is one of the best card games a casual TCG fan can play. At the very least, it’s better than Twitter.

Score: 8/10

Platform tested: Android