Gaming Pokémon Strumfest

Should be a matchmaking system if there isn't one for the versus battles. Annoying coming up the exact same decks over and over again with two Mewtwo Ex or Starmie Ex and Articuno Ex FFS.
 
Tried both decks you suggested @Vidyoyo and @Havak . I was missing a few cards from each so have had to mixmatch with what I have but really enjoyed both, particularly the Blaine deck. That suits my style to a T and have had the most fun using it. The Venosaur deck I think I'm just missing too many cards to make it work as consistently as the Blaine one. Thanks both. Either way you have both helped me in having an eye in what is needed for a good deck of any type.

Been doing Solo stuff this evening with the Lapras EX event. Is it just me that refuses to do other battles until I finish all the missions for it? :lol: Only have two missions left for it to do in the Expert one. Need 10 and 20 wins. Sitting on 7 right now.
 
Got to 45 wins for the event. Miserable gits I thought they'd give some gold or hourglasses but nope all you get is an emblem
 
Got to 45 wins for the event. Miserable gits I thought they'd give some gold or hourglasses but nope all you get is an emblem
I've been surprised how far you can get with free to play tbh. Have completed the solo battle stuff now (all battles complete with all goals achieved) so now going to focus on the multiplayer event.
 
I've been surprised how far you can get with free to play tbh. Have completed the solo battle stuff now (all battles complete with all goals achieved) so now going to focus on the multiplayer event.
Which team will you use for the event?

I wish there was more solo content. A little story mode like "beat all 8 gym leaders and the elite 4" would have been really cool
 
Which team will you use for the event?

I wish there was more solo content. A little story mode like "beat all 8 gym leaders and the elite 4" would have been really cool

I was using the Blaine deck Havak posted before and having decent results with it. Already have 5 wins in about 9 matches so will stick with that I think.

Yeah, shame there isn't more but I saw on reddit they're planning quarterly content I think.
 
Round-up of my first couple weeks or so playing (along with a bit of background)!

First off, I really enjoy the game. I have always been interested in Trading Card Games, obviously starting with collecting Pokemon cards in the late 90's but I never went big on actually playing the game. As a kid I tried it briefly but it didn't feel like it was for me at the time. I collected Yu-Gi-Oh and tried battles with friends at that when it first came out and I liked the way it played more but I didn't stick with it for very long. Later on in life I got a bit more into collecting Pokemon cards again when I was playing the Video Games competitively and tried my hand at some tournaments (I did manage to win a City Championships and get far in another event using a hyper aggro deck but again the Pokemon TCG didn't feel the right pace for me). Most recently over the last year I have been playing Disney's Lorcana TCG and it is the best TCG IMO - not even close. My experience of playing that to a higher standard and more regularly has definitely aided me in picking up this faster (along with my knowledge of how Pokemon is played to some extent, despite it changing a bit over the years). I really think Pocket is more fun than the regular Pokemon TCG, they've almost nailed the mechanics to how I think most people would prefer the game. Not having to draw Energy cards is so good, the resource management in the game is super interesting and perfect for these shorter games. I think the balance is largely good, but the only thing I'm unsure of is the Play vs. Draw aspect. In most card games, it tends to fall in the region of if you go first, you probably win somewhere in the 53-60% range, but in Pocket it feels to me like that is reversed. I can't think of a way to fix it and like most, I do hate the Misty turn one option being the current way to compensate for the discrepancy. Ironically I think taking away the ability to attack on the first turn, going first, is probably something they should try even though it would probably push that Draw/Play advantage closer to the 60% - I don't think going first and being able to attach an Energy without being able to attack works either as that would just further improve the capabilities of Pikachu & Mewtwo. Maybe just hoping you draw 2 Basics in your opening hand is the least evil in terms of not getting donked by Misty. But yeah, the game is incredibly fun. It'll be interesting how they handle things like trading and ways to keep enticing people to play once the initial hype wears off but I'm impressed so far.

I ran through the Lapras ex event quite quickly and did all of the tasks, but unfortunately it took me until my 32nd Promo Pack this morning to finally get Lapras! Hopefully I get another before the event ends so I have the option if it ever becomes good. The Chansey/Meowth event is a bit meh, but fine. The free Wonder Picks are nice since there's some missions that get chalked off from them, meaning you can save your Picks for the best choices for your needs.

The battle event has been my favourite and I ran through that super quickly as well, reaching 50 wins on Saturday morning for all the rewards. I did probably use Pikachu for most of the games, but I tried to have some fun with it using a combination of Blaine, Koga/Weezing, Exeggutor, Primeape, and Mewtwo. For the rest of the week I'll likely just be doing a few casual battles and opening my daily packs. I like the sound of the current release schedule so I'll probably keep the Premium Pass for the year before seeing how relevant the game stays with Set 2 in January.
 
Round-up of my first couple weeks or so playing (along with a bit of background)!

First off, I really enjoy the game. I have always been interested in Trading Card Games, obviously starting with collecting Pokemon cards in the late 90's but I never went big on actually playing the game. As a kid I tried it briefly but it didn't feel like it was for me at the time. I collected Yu-Gi-Oh and tried battles with friends at that when it first came out and I liked the way it played more but I didn't stick with it for very long. Later on in life I got a bit more into collecting Pokemon cards again when I was playing the Video Games competitively and tried my hand at some tournaments (I did manage to win a City Championships and get far in another event using a hyper aggro deck but again the Pokemon TCG didn't feel the right pace for me). Most recently over the last year I have been playing Disney's Lorcana TCG and it is the best TCG IMO - not even close. My experience of playing that to a higher standard and more regularly has definitely aided me in picking up this faster (along with my knowledge of how Pokemon is played to some extent, despite it changing a bit over the years). I really think Pocket is more fun than the regular Pokemon TCG, they've almost nailed the mechanics to how I think most people would prefer the game. Not having to draw Energy cards is so good, the resource management in the game is super interesting and perfect for these shorter games. I think the balance is largely good, but the only thing I'm unsure of is the Play vs. Draw aspect. In most card games, it tends to fall in the region of if you go first, you probably win somewhere in the 53-60% range, but in Pocket it feels to me like that is reversed. I can't think of a way to fix it and like most, I do hate the Misty turn one option being the current way to compensate for the discrepancy. Ironically I think taking away the ability to attack on the first turn, going first, is probably something they should try even though it would probably push that Draw/Play advantage closer to the 60% - I don't think going first and being able to attach an Energy without being able to attack works either as that would just further improve the capabilities of Pikachu & Mewtwo. Maybe just hoping you draw 2 Basics in your opening hand is the least evil in terms of not getting donked by Misty. But yeah, the game is incredibly fun. It'll be interesting how they handle things like trading and ways to keep enticing people to play once the initial hype wears off but I'm impressed so far.

I ran through the Lapras ex event quite quickly and did all of the tasks, but unfortunately it took me until my 32nd Promo Pack this morning to finally get Lapras! Hopefully I get another before the event ends so I have the option if it ever becomes good. The Chansey/Meowth event is a bit meh, but fine. The free Wonder Picks are nice since there's some missions that get chalked off from them, meaning you can save your Picks for the best choices for your needs.

The battle event has been my favourite and I ran through that super quickly as well, reaching 50 wins on Saturday morning for all the rewards. I did probably use Pikachu for most of the games, but I tried to have some fun with it using a combination of Blaine, Koga/Weezing, Exeggutor, Primeape, and Mewtwo. For the rest of the week I'll likely just be doing a few casual battles and opening my daily packs. I like the sound of the current release schedule so I'll probably keep the Premium Pass for the year before seeing how relevant the game stays with Set 2 in January.

Have you been saving or spending your shop tickets? I have c. 500 at the moment and not sure whether to plunge them into hourglasses for packs or save them.
 
Have you been saving or spending your shop tickets? I have c. 500 at the moment and not sure whether to plunge them into hourglasses for packs or save them.
Good question.

I have ended up spending most of mine on the Hourglasses (they are limited anyway to an initial selection at a cheaper rate and then a monthly refreshing option at a higher cost). However, I'm now building up a pretty substantial number again and plan to save them until we see what else there is to come, although I'm kind of forced as I don't feel a great desire to spend them on Wonder Hourglasses.

What are your plans for this game? This is the main question and it's a little hard to answer as we don't know if the Shop will eventually allow you to use these tickets for other things which might be a better option than what was currently on offer.

I'd probably just spend them on Hourglasses at the moment, because the Hourglasses will be useful to open more packs and don't necessarily have to be used purely on the current set. You could keep the Hourglasses for the next set(s) and make use of them there too. I think the only thing that might be added any time soon is additional Promo Trainer Cards which could be useful, but they tend to be a couple of Shop Tickets each which are really easy to stock up on each day through Showcases and Battles so it wouldn't be hard to get more and buy those if you'd spent up.

There is a Store Update planned on 30th November, but there's no details as to what that means. It could literally just be the case that the monthly hourglasses refresh.

It seems like the next set (coded A1a) will release 16th December. It's likely to be a smaller set if the regular Pokemon TCG is anything to go by. It could be somewhere between 50-100 cards and only have 1 Pack option. I'm not sure how drastically this would change the metagame compared to the next full set release at the end of January, so I don't see much harm in continuing to open the first set if you're missing a lot of the cards and don't have optimal decks etc.
 
Good question.

I have ended up spending most of mine on the Hourglasses (they are limited anyway to an initial selection at a cheaper rate and then a monthly refreshing option at a higher cost). However, I'm now building up a pretty substantial number again and plan to save them until we see what else there is to come, although I'm kind of forced as I don't feel a great desire to spend them on Wonder Hourglasses.

What are your plans for this game? This is the main question and it's a little hard to answer as we don't know if the Shop will eventually allow you to use these tickets for other things which might be a better option than what was currently on offer.

I'd probably just spend them on Hourglasses at the moment, because the Hourglasses will be useful to open more packs and don't necessarily have to be used purely on the current set. You could keep the Hourglasses for the next set(s) and make use of them there too. I think the only thing that might be added any time soon is additional Promo Trainer Cards which could be useful, but they tend to be a couple of Shop Tickets each which are really easy to stock up on each day through Showcases and Battles so it wouldn't be hard to get more and buy those if you'd spent up.

There is a Store Update planned on 30th November, but there's no details as to what that means. It could literally just be the case that the monthly hourglasses refresh.

It seems like the next set (coded A1a) will release 16th December. It's likely to be a smaller set if the regular Pokemon TCG is anything to go by. It could be somewhere between 50-100 cards and only have 1 Pack option. I'm not sure how drastically this would change the metagame compared to the next full set release at the end of January, so I don't see much harm in continuing to open the first set if you're missing a lot of the cards and don't have optimal decks etc.

I have no idea really in terms of a plan. Just collecting and playing it as it comes I suppose. I have the free trial premium so far and it does feel worth it so might end up keeping it too. I've become a big achievement hunter in games now so trying to get every card in the *cheapest* way possible is enticing to me, but I've enjoyed doing the duel stuff too. Completed all the solo things and just getting round to PvP now (I've never really enjoyed PvP in games). I prefer to play games either by myself against AI or with others against AI like WoW so the trade will be good when it comes in.

Decided to use half of my shop tickets on hourglasses to get packs and still have a good stack left just in case they bring more stuff out.

I built a deck with Pikachu EX that can be good if I get lucky though with the early pulls. Had two people in a row concede on me due to it so got some easy wins. :lol:
 
I have no idea really in terms of a plan. Just collecting and playing it as it comes I suppose. I have the free trial premium so far and it does feel worth it so might end up keeping it too. I've become a big achievement hunter in games now so trying to get every card in the *cheapest* way possible is enticing to me, but I've enjoyed doing the duel stuff too. Completed all the solo things and just getting round to PvP now (I've never really enjoyed PvP in games). I prefer to play games either by myself against AI or with others against AI like WoW so the trade will be good when it comes in.

Decided to use half of my shop tickets on hourglasses to get packs and still have a good stack left just in case they bring more stuff out.

I built a deck with Pikachu EX that can be good if I get lucky though with the early pulls. Had two people in a row concede on me due to it so got some easy wins. :lol:

Yeah, well I think the easiest way to get more cards and build more decks is... Surprise, surprise, opening more packs :lol:

Think I said it in the thread earlier, but you definitely want to build a couple of good decks and battle a fair bit against real people too. The more wins you can get, the more XP, so it's best to have at least a couple of good decks to ensure you can grab a couple of wins by playing for fun when you get a spare 15 minutes at times through the day. Every level up seems to give 12 Hourglasses which is a pack, so battling and winning is just a way to sneak those extra points towards the level up for an extra pack every now and then on top of the daily ones :)
 
I'm one EX Pokémon away from either the Pikachu EX or the Staryu / Articuno EX deck

Only have enough dust for one of Staryu EX or Zapdos EX (I have one of each).. decisions..
 
I'm one EX Pokémon away from either the Pikachu EX or the Staryu / Articuno EX deck

Only have enough dust for one of Staryu EX or Zapdos EX (I have one of each).. decisions..
Tough one, depends which deck you think you'd enjoy playing more.

For what it's worth, as much as I hate the Water deck, I think having 2 Starmie ex is more integral to that deck working than 2 Zapdos ex is to the Pikachu ex deck. You can more easily roll along with a substitute Pokemon like an extra Pincurrchin or Electabuzz etc in the Pikachu one. I think you lose too much in the Water deck if you can only run a 1-1 or 2-1 Saryu/Starmie. So, I'd probably lean toward the Starmie if you really want to use your Pack Points! Otherwise, just focus on either the Charizard or Pikachu packs for all of your openings until you hit another.
 
Getting nothing but repeats when opening packs now, as expected but it still sucks.
Yeah, struggling as well. I need 9 more Kanto Pokemon for the secret mission. 6 of them are in Pikachu packs so I am focusing on those again now (as I also still need the extended art of Pikachu ex to get all three). I think I'll be saving my Hourglasses from now though to use on the next set. Keeping the Premium Pass to open 3 packs a day of Pikachu and trying to find Wonder Picks for the missing cards until then.
 
Tough one, depends which deck you think you'd enjoy playing more.

For what it's worth, as much as I hate the Water deck, I think having 2 Starmie ex is more integral to that deck working than 2 Zapdos ex is to the Pikachu ex deck. You can more easily roll along with a substitute Pokemon like an extra Pincurrchin or Electabuzz etc in the Pikachu one. I think you lose too much in the Water deck if you can only run a 1-1 or 2-1 Saryu/Starmie. So, I'd probably lean toward the Starmie if you really want to use your Pack Points! Otherwise, just focus on either the Charizard or Pikachu packs for all of your openings until you hit another.

Yeah, I agree with this. I might save them for expansions and try to snipe from FTP pulls as you suggest.

Not sure what other cards I need in those packs though so going to be annoying, probably
 
Added those of you who posted codes: Doudy
4337573481937572

Enjoying it so far. Fast games, plenty to play through on solo whilst building and nice artwork and designs.
 
Trading is confirmed for January in a news update from the Pocket TCG Team.

Very few details on it yet bar the release month and it mentioning that it will only support 'certain cards' initially. I'd read into this as only select rarities at first, maybe 1-3 or maybe 4 Diamond if we're lucky. Maybe even 1-Star right away even we're extremely lucky :lol: However, it could even be a bit better than that and by certain cards, they mean certain sets. Perhaps only Genetic Apex would be able to trade once this goes live and the next couple of sets would need to release and be available for 3 months~ before trading is supported for them. Promos need to be able to be traded as well but might work differently.

Some other thoughts on what they'd do for Trading:

Stamina - I wouldn't be surprised if trading has a stamina resource, it could use the same hourglasses as packs or they add in a new hourglass.
Item - It might also be an item like a Shop Ticket rather than stamina, limiting amount of trades that way.
Friends - Possible that at first, they make it friends only until they roll out more functionality.
Daily Limit - It could just be none of the above exactly and you're limited to 1 trade per day regardless of friends or any resource. Could be an extra trade each day for Premium users.
Amount - I think you will need to have a third copy of a card to trade it, like when it comes to adding the Flair. Perhaps they will lift this for Star Rares and above though as it would alienate pure collectors.
Like-for-like - I think this will be something they do regardless, where you can only trade for the same rarity level. Lots of people have additional accounts with the expectation of trading the rare cards over to their main. This will probably be repeated unless they change how the sign up and account deletion processes work. So, if you can only trade a Crown Rare for a Crown Rare, it'll still be very hard to send this over to a main account.

In other news, it took me over 40 Promo Packs but I have 2 Lapras ex at last! No stress anymore :)

I'm about 6-7 cards away from the Kanto PokeDex Secret Mission. Trying to scour Wonder Picks for the missing few and currently focusing on Pikachu Packs again.