In Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, you can collect a wide variety of cool digital Pokémon TCG cards. They’re great to admire and show off to friends with binders and display boards, but they can also be used to construct powerful decks that you can take into quick, fun battles against the computer or other players. This guide will give you tips and advice to help grow your collection of Pokémon TCG Pocket cards.
Card Rarity
Cards in Pokémon TCG Pocket are ranked by rarity, which is denoted by a symbol in their lower left corner. Rankings can be one to four diamonds, one to three stars, or a crown. Here’s a list of rarities from rarest to most common:
Diamond cards are the most common. Many diamond cards have star card counterparts with alternate artwork, but the game text is the same. Three-star cards include immersive cards that feature awesome animation that brings the card art to life. Crown cards also share the same stats as more common variants, but they feature different alternate artwork, including gold-colored cards.
Outside of cards from regular expansions, there are also special promo cards that can be obtained from promo packs, the in-game Shop, wonder picks, and more. Promo cards will also sometimes have symbols on the artwork to make them stand out even more. The Trainer cards that can be purchased in the Shop are promo cards.
Collecting Cards
The easiest way to collect cards in Pokémon TCG Pocket is—of course—to open booster packs. Every 12 hours, you can choose a booster pack to open at no cost. The pack stamina meter on the game’s home screen shows you how much time is left before you can open your next pack. Pack hourglasses (which can be earned as mission rewards and so forth) and Poké gold (which is purchasable with real money in the Shop) can be used to reduce that time.
If you’ve played the physical Pokémon Trading Card Game, you’re probably aware that all booster packs from an expansion can contain any of that expansion’s cards regardless of the illustration on a booster pack itself—but that isn’t the case in Pokémon TCG Pocket! Different booster packs from this game’s expansions have different groups of cards available.
For example, Pokémon TCG Pocket’s first expansion, Genetic Apexfeatures three different booster packs: Charizard, Pikachuand Mewtwo. If you were to only open Mewtwo booster packs, you would never find all the cards from that expansion. On the pack selection screen, you can check each booster pack’s offering rates to learn which cards can be found within each set.
Some cards do appear in multiple booster packs, and to help you collect complete evolutionary lines, Basic Pokémon and their evolved forms will be found within the same booster pack set.
As you consume pack stamina to open booster packs, you’ll earn pack points, which can be exchanged for cards of your choice. As you might imagine, rare cards require more pack points. It’s generally a good idea to not spend your pack points right away. Save them up until you’re missing only a few cards from one of the booster pack sets, then use them to fill out that collection.
Pack points are also useful in getting the last couple cards you might need to complete a deck that you’re building. This can be helpful early on when you’re trying to get certain cards that can be particularly impactful in a match—Supporter cards can be especially useful in this regard.
Although you might be tempted to dive right into the action when starting Pokémon TCG Pocket, don’t forget to play through the game’s tutorial, which can be found on the Battle screen under the Guide button. There are two main topics in the Guide: For New Players and For Advanced Players. Completing all these missions will earn you rewards such as pack hourglasses, shop tickets (see the Shop section below), a starter deck, a rental deck, and a selection of Item cards. And note that those Item cards are typically only available via the Shop, so be sure to complete the Guide first to save some shop tickets.
In Pokémon TCG Pocket, decks can only contain two cards with the same name. If you find yourself with a lot of copies of a single card, you can use them to obtain flair. Flair is a fun cosmetic effect that adds a little style to your cards.
Wonder Pick
Wonder picking allows you to get cards from booster packs that your friends and other players have opened. It’s a great way to collect cards with illustrations you like or powerful Pokémon ex for your battle deck. When you enter the Wonder Pick screen, you’ll be presented with multiple selections of cards to choose from. If you see an icon of a card deck in the lower left corner of a card image, that means you already have that card in your collection.
Wonder picking requires wonder stamina, which automatically regenerates one unit every 12 hours. You can also use wonder hourglasses (earned as mission rewards and so forth) and Poké gold (purchasable with real-world money in the Shop) to reduce that time. If a selection of cards contains a rare card, you’ll need to spend more wonder stamina to perform the wonder pick.
Once you’ve chosen a set of cards for a wonder pick and exchanged your wonder stamina, the five available cards will be turned face down and shuffled. You’ll then pick one of those cards—so best of luck on getting the one you want! Once you’ve chosen from a given set of cards, it will no longer be available for you to wonder pick from again. And don’t forget to send a thanks to the person from whom you received your card after you’re done with a wonder pick. They’ll receive shop tickets as a reward—and so will you, if someone wonder picks from a pack you’ve opened! Also, in case you were wondering—when you wonder pick, the person whose cards you selected keeps the cards in their collection, so there’s no need to worry about taking rare cards from your friends!
If there’s a particular card you’re looking for, you can add it to your wishlist. Doing so will mark them with a heart icon when they show up as options for wonder picking. To add cards to your wishlist, go to the My Cards page and switch the card dex view to display all the cards in the expansion. Cards you’ve yet to collect will show only the collector card number. Click on a card’s number, and it will display all the card’s data without any artwork. In the upper right corner of this screen, you can tap the heart icon to add the card to your wishlist.
Be aware that some extremely rare cards will not be obtainable through wonder picking.
Individual wonder picks are only available for a limited time, which is noted by the timer above each selection. However, you still have a chance to use wonder picks that have expired. Scroll to the bottom of the list of available wonder picks to see options that have expired. You can restore them by exchanging wonder stamina and a rewind watch, which are given as rewards when you earn enough EXP to level up.
There may occasionally be other types of wonder picks available, so be sure to check the list during in-game events to have a chance to get your hands on special items or promo cards.
Shop
In Pokémon TCG Pocket’s in-game Shop, you can exchange shop tickets to get Trainer cards that can prove quite useful in deckbuilding. Shop tickets are earned by completing event missions or competing in Step-Up Battles. You’ll also get some as a reward when someone thanks you after a wonder pick or likes one of your showcase items in the Community Showcase.
The Shop also offers a limited supply of pack hourglasses and wonder hourglasses that refreshes monthly. Stocking up on these while they’re available can go a long way in helping you open more booster packs and make more wonder picks. There’s also Poké gold, which is purchased with real-world money and can be used to reduce recovery time for pack stamina and wonder stamina.
Real-world money can also be used to subscribe to Pokémon TCG Pocket’s Premium Pass, which costs $9.99 (or the equivalent pricing tier in your local currency) per month. The Premium Pass allows you to open another booster pack every 24 hours and gives you access to Premium Missions, where you can earn even more pack hourglasses, wonder hourglasses, and special premium tickets, which can be exchanged in the Shop for unique items like promo cards and accessories.
Whether you’re attempting to build a deck to crush your rivals or complete a collection of beautiful cards to admire—or both—these tips will help you assemble the Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket collection of your dreams. Have fun, Trainers!
