PokeBeach Podcast: “Pokemon TCG Pocket” Will Usher in a New Era for the Pokemon TCG!
- Thread starter Water Pokémon Master
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PTP is obviously targeting casual fans and this has both potential positives and negatives.
On the positive side, Pokemon TCG is notoriously difficult to learn and especially build decks for - the game isn't designed in a great way and without supervision most kids and casual players have games that are complete stalemates with no energy or supporters. PTP removes a lot of these issues.
However, on the negative side, I wouldn't be so hasty in thinking this will draw players to Pokemon TCG. There is a possibility TPC sees this product as a "borderline" between casuals and competitive players - they might give up on making PTCG approachable at all and focus it on the competitive side (gameplay-wise), while making PTP a game for the casuals out there.
On the positive side, Pokemon TCG is notoriously difficult to learn and especially build decks for - the game isn't designed in a great way and without supervision most kids and casual players have games that are complete stalemates with no energy or supporters. PTP removes a lot of these issues.
However, on the negative side, I wouldn't be so hasty in thinking this will draw players to Pokemon TCG. There is a possibility TPC sees this product as a "borderline" between casuals and competitive players - they might give up on making PTCG approachable at all and focus it on the competitive side (gameplay-wise), while making PTP a game for the casuals out there.
I’d disagree on the difficult to learn part, especially compared to other TCGs. I think deckbuilding is much harder
I too think it’s the easiest game to get into. There are like 5 decks around and you can simply copy and paste them while getting provided a lot of good ready-build decks to learn at home.
In the "difficult to learn" I am not just including the rules, but how to play correctly. Newbies don't want to play Professor's Research, because it loses them cards. They have a hard time managing energy, which isn't a "fire-and-forget" resource like in other TCGs. And then there is deckbuilding, which is extremely unintuitive. In other games you can pretty much throw cards into a pile and, as long as you follow some simple rules, the deck will work. In Pokemon, the exact opposite is true - if you don't build your deck around Supporters, it will completely stall and you'll look at an uninteractive board. The best example of this are the official Theme decks which are basically unplayable against any half-decently built deck.
The grand majority of players are not competitive netdeckers and they play the game to have fun, not to win at all cost.
I feel like it's Pokémon's version of NFT's and it will flop.
It doesn't have anything to do with blockchain technology or unique ownership of digital assets. They aren't NFTs. A representative from The Pokémon Company has confirmed such. It is just a quick and casual digital TCG game much like Marvel Snap or Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links. It irritates me to no end that people associate Pocket with NFTs, but don't do such for other digital TCG clients.
It may indeed flop simply because so many people incorrectly believe that it is NFT based.
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I agree. The amount of beginner players who dismiss trainers as virtually useless (usually because they haven’t come across the right ones for their deck) and pack their deck full of at least 5 different types of Pokémon and throw some energy in at the end is astounding.
That’s more of a skill issue though which is inherent for all TCGs. Learning how to play the actual game itself isn’t hard.
Honestly, I wouldn't hate this approach. The card design is limited because they need to keep it as sweet and simple as possible. Some creative liberty at the cost of simplicity could revitalize the game, as long as it doesn't degenerate into the insane feature-creep of something like YuGiOh.
This 100% started with them looking into NFTs. Now it isn't an NFT, but it sure feels like it.
Also Pokémon is so goddamn easy to understand, the people who don't get it just need better guidance. They'd be the same people who play mono Red with no converted mana cost less than 6
I for one would not mind Pokémon NFT's! xD
NFT's are such a scam. This web 3 bullshit is so dumb
Feraligatr! Really enjoyed this week! I cannot wait for Legends Z-A, legends arceus is my favorite pokemon game, and gen 6 is when I started playing pokemon, I just really hope they do not mess it up! I hope that they do mega cards, and do it similarly to the Vmax alternate arts and make gold cards like the ones from crown zenith for mega pokemon. I'm looking forward to new megas, as well as hoping that they make more future/ancient pokemon, maybe with fossils and ultra beasts. Really enjoyed listening, and hope you guys have a great week!
That's not a pokemon tcg issue, that is a concept issue. The rules of the game are extremely easy to understand, one supporter per turn, one attachment per turn, etc... I'm not sure who you're speaking for but I find it hard to believe that someone will turn away a card just because it has a negative effect. Most, if not all, people have SOME capacity of pros vs cons critical thinking. Even so, if new players don't like Professor's Research because it discards cards, that's probably because they fail to realize the concept of having access to 7 extra cards per turn is an extremely strong effect. Knowing what cards are actually GOOD is not a pokemon issue.
I'm not sure how you see deckbuilding as unintuitive, as pokemon cards are split into types and there are specific trainer cards that only apply to these types. For example, you can slap together a water deck with just water type pokemon and trainer cards without much thought. Is this competitive? Maybe not but it is playable.
You also literally don't need to build around supporters at all. Supporter cards only SUPPORT your strategy, they are not your strategy itself. Really the only supporters that players use nowadays are generalist supporters that just help you with consistency/disruptions which barely impact the strategy of your deck. We also have decks like pao+bax which runs only 4-5 supporters.
Maybe the old theme decks should have been more competitive but now there are league battle decks that are actually well designed in terms of basic level decks. The league battle decks nowadays have a solid core set of cards that still make them playable vs homebrew decks.
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No, it's a Pokemon TCG issue. It's an issue with how Pokemon TCG is designed as a game, and the way cards are designed. The difference between Pokemon TCG and other TCGs on the market is that a bad deck in other TCGs still does things and interacts with the opponent. A bad deck in Pokemon TCG just stops and stares at the opponent while drawing cards.
It's not going to be playable for the reason above. If both players have badly constructed decks, the first to attack is basically guaranteed to win, because they will deprave the opponent of resources they cannot replenish.
No, Pokemon TCG is a game about Trainer cards literally from its inception (which is why Wizards tried limiting how many Trainer cards you can run in your deck). You build your deck around playing a Supporter every turn, or playing Pokemon that have Abilities that allow you to get the same effects. The attacks of your Pokemon are rarely a strategy of your deck. You can look at Charizard, Miraidon, Gardevoir, all decks that are good because of the crazy Abilities and not what their attacks do.
You can still buy "ex Battle Decks" that are just as bad as old Theme decks.
