The Pokémon Company Adds Tag Teams To The Official Trading Card Game

If they'd redo the online client and give us the ability to buy packs online, without the need to buy cards IRL and use those stupid codes, I would happily get back into this game. I don't have the time to travel all over the country going to events and the like, but the current Pokemon Trading Card game online is far too expensive for the people who only want to play online.

IRL I usually only buy the occasional single copies of cards that I specifically want to collect. I don't want or need the boxes and boxes of random, useless commons and even rares that I don't want for collection or play - just to get codes for booster packs online.

In a dream they'd fully follow in Hearthstone's foot steps and not online let us buy cheaper digital only packs, but would allow you to give up your extra cards for some sort of in game special currency that you could use to get individual cards or more packs. The only thing more useless than a box of 200 common Pikachu, is 200 common digital Pikachu online...

Of course a lot of people do sell codes online, but we shouldn't have to go through 3rd parties like that. Just let me pay directly. And if kids racking up bills on their parent's credit cards is a concern, parental controls requiring direct authorization of purchases wouldn't be hard to set up. Since Pokemon already has features like that with its other services.

@Heavyarms55 : I'd rather they do a proper sequel to the GBC games with annual instalments (that incorporate the latest cards, and perhaps phase out some of the older ones in subsequent instalments in order to ensure that the older games still hold value).

The appeal of the GBC games was being able to enjoy the card games without the exorbitant expenses involved in procuring the cards, in addition to requiring physical space to keep them in good condition. Without those key advantages, the video game version of the TCG is useless, IMO.

I tried to get into the TCG via the iPad version, and had bought a few decks to play with online, but the amount of grinding (and expense) required sucked all the fun out of it. I would rather pay full price on an annual basis for a complete retail package instead. I doubt they ever will, but I will never touch the TCG again otherwise. Meanwhile, the GBC original is one of my most played games on 3DS and I still find myself going back to it on occasion. I'm still bummed that the second instalment was never officially localised.

I pick up a few boosters here and there to play with my offspring, and I'll definitely look for some of these.

@Silly_G I'd like that for older formats, but doing it for current expansions would kill their profits from the main game which would kill the game overall. If they did it, based on real past formats, it would be cool if the final bosses of each game were the actual world champions of the respective years. Or used the same decks. And basing the games on previous formats would not get in the way of the current game.

@Heavyarms55 : I don't think it would make that big a difference. Hardcore fans will continue to buy the physical cards as they will need them for competing in tournments. I also made a point of proposing an annual franchise to ensure its longterm profitability.

I think there is space for both, but I guess TPC would know better than I.

Either way, I'm pretty bummed as I really, really, really love the GBC games, but sadly, the TCGO game does not come even close to replicating that experience.

Ehhh.... That sounds kinda dumb and over powered.

@Heavyarms55 You CAN buy packs online without those codes. You just need to spend 200 coins (500 for a theme deck) of in-game currency in the in-game store. You can also sign up for the official Pokémon newsletter and get a free code e-mailed to you every couple of weeks or so.

@Silly_G Um, that's exactly what the online version of the game is! I really enjoy it. Go try it out! You can find it on the official Pokémon web site.

Such a beautiful story I cry every time

Not sure if I understood correctly, but I think "opponent takes three prize cards from you instead of one" is wrong, because the opponent of course would take the prizes from his/her own prize cards, making him/her already 3 steps closer to victory, that is to draw all of his/her 6 prize cards.

But knocking out benched Pokémon sounds very dangerous! Well, haven't played in a while though... But 3 prizes - that is very high risk as well! In any case those cards will most likely end the game very soon when in play...

The Pokemon TCG game for gameboy (and on VC of 3DS) is a great game. Great music and gameplay, and it can get pretty challenging at times. I had some fond memories of the game back in the day, collecting cards and playing with friends.

Unfortunately, the balance in pokemon tcg went out the window a long time ago imo, with the introduction of the EX basic pokemon way back when being a fair part of that. This card is only further increasing that imbalance, primarily because it's a basic pokemon, so there's no requirements to bring out this beast other than drawing it.

If you draw this and three elec energies (or cards like Energy Search which will get them for you, or cards like Professor Oak to increase your chances by a fair deal), it's game over. No way can your opponent beat something like this in time with normal non EX pokemon.

The idea is cool and the video was cute, but honestly I dislike GX and EX sometimes just because they seem to make other normal pokemon so much viable. This just takes an already overpowered concept to the next level of ridiculous. I'm not sure that I'm looking forward to this.

"Tag-team-feature" for Pkmn2019 confirmed? Might be a hint for upcoming changes to the battle system.

When I read the title I was thinking 4 player instead of 2 player... Like under that Parent and child tournament or the generation exchange.

@BulbasaurusRex That's not what I am talking about. And I suspect you know that.

Unless they have become a lot more generous with coins in recent weeks, you cannot remotely earn the in anything reasonably close to efficiently.

They've already had this feature before. Legend cards had 2 Pokemon split over 2 cards that both had to be collected to use. I don't think this will affect the power creep too much.

@Heavyarms55 you get enough coins and rewards by just playing and aiming for the missions.

Will it be as fast as if you were buying real life cards for the codes? Of course not, but you should be able to get at least one or two packs a week. Probably more.

Though to be fair I don't know why they don't allow you to buy coins with real money. They could be making some nice extra cash from that.

I thought for sure this was gonna be a double stop format like MTG.

@Heavyarms55 yeah a few packs a week isn’t too bad, I mean it’s not much worse than Hearthstone, which only is slightly better due to being able to dust your cards to craft others. Especially since if you save for a week or two in Pokémon TCG Online, you can buy a premade deck and get a bunch more cards to do what you want with. And boosters give you nearly twice as many cards in Pokémon TCG than Hearthstone.

@Heavyarms55 Sure, you can. Just play in Versus Mode, and you'll rack up quite a few coins relatively quickly. On top of that, you'll nab a total of 30 coins, a tournament ticket, and a free booster pack for every 5 days that you just log in.

@nessisonett This is only a single card, though. You don't need to collect two different halves to use it.

@BulbasaurusRex Nonsense. What we have here is an even worse form of free to play, that demands you play subpar decks and spend weeks even months to build a collection. And unless things have changed, the cards you get via those coins cannot be traded! I have no interest in doing that. I want to play with real, competitive decks and flow with the meta. I shouldn't have to buy crates of IRL cards or go through ebay or reddit buying codes from random 3rd parties to do so. It's a mess.

@ShadJV Not a chance in hell. Hearthstone's system is VASTLY superior for the dusting alone. But also you can just buy packs. I can get nearly the entire expansion with just the pre-order every season, which costs less than a single booster box of Pokemon cards in real life. And Pokemon booster boxes on average only give you a couple of the top tier rarity cards on average.

There is no comparison, Hearthstone's system of card acquisition is overwhelmingly better and it's time for Pokemon to learn and improve.

@Heavyarms55 That's no different than starting a collection in real life. At least in this game, you can restrict your opponents in Versus Mode to only those playing with theme decks until you've built up enough of a collection to start building your own decks (which can also include any of the cards from your theme decks including the ones you start with). Once you get to that point, which certainly does not take months or even weeks to accomplish unless you're only playing sporadically, the game really opens up.

Only the cards you get in the theme decks can't be traded. Any that you get from the booster packs certainly can be traded.

Like I said, the booster packs aren't that hard to get even without buying any real life packs. You get one every 5 days you log in, you get one every two weeks with the newsletter, you get one every time you beat a Trainer Challenge opponent with 4 different decks (and you start with 3), and you can get one for every 200 coins which can earned around every 5 to 10 matches in Versus Mode

I was skeptical at first, but because your opponent gets 3 prize cards for defeating one of these instead of the typical 2 for a gx, I’m cool with it. I’m looking forward to some great designs.