After a surprise reveal back in February 2024, the end of this year gave us Pokémon TCG Pocket, a brand-new digital way to experience the Pokémon TCG from DeNA and The Pokémon Company. It’s shiny, classy, and full of stunning cards with fancy animations and immersive artwork. But what about Pokémon TCG Live, the mobile game that only launched a couple of years ago? To me, a TCG player who uses this older app a lot, Pokémon TCG Pocket is everything I wish my card game client was, and that makes me angry.
From the perspective of an outsider looking in, it’s hard to see the difference between Pokémon TCG Live and Pokémon TCG Pocket (henceforth Live and Pocket respectively) so I’ll clear things up for you. At its core, Live is a Pokémon TCG simulator app aimed at new and existing players of the physical card game. It’s an updated version of the old Pokémon TCG Online PC client, letting you battle on the go for the first time. On the other hand, while Pocket has a slimmed-down battle system, it’s primarily aimed at casual fans and collectors and functions as a card-opening and collecting simulator.
As well as the size difference between the intended audiences, there’s another reason why Pocket is immensely more popular than Live ever will be – Pokémon TCG Live feels awful to play. It’s buggy, it looks horrible, and the animations are downright nauseating. It’s been this way since the app released in beta and it hasn’t gotten any better. In my opinion, this is the main reason why TCG players got so mad when Pocket first stepped onto the scene. We’re jealous that DeNA and Pokémon were able to launch a fully functional, slick Pokémon card app first time while our platform still looks like garbage.
It’s not just the gameplay that looks great – the Pokémon TCG Pocket cards look phenomenal. The stunning and expressive artwork on the trading cards has always been a major draw for both players and collectors alike, so getting to literally dive into some of these scenes is a real treat. Of course, us TCG players love a bit of bling, with some people spending hundreds of dollars to build their decks in max rarity just for the joy of shiny cardboard. But blinging out your Pokémon TCG Live decks feels significantly less exciting because more often than not, they look horrendous. The digital versions of our beautiful secret rares are gaudy and pixelated, often making them impossible to read. It almost feels like an insult to the original artists’ work.
But what if you have too many of the same beautiful cards? From the very beginning, the developers promised that Pokémon TCG Pocket trading would be a core part of the game, and it’s very nearly here. We used to have trading on the player side of things too in Pokémon TCG Online, but that was another integral part of the TCG experience that we lost in the switchover to Live. Sure, it’s a lot easier to obtain the cards you need for decks now than it used to be, but I still miss the ability to trade. Now I can only do it with my real cards at my local card shop.
As a dedicated Pokémon TCG player, I frequently go to my local Pokémon League and compete in tournaments, which means I have quite a few League-stamped cards in my collection. I love playing them in my decks in real life and I wish I could use them digitally, too. These cards come from Play! Pokémon prize packs which, like any other booster pack would, come with a redemption code to use in Live. Back in the Online days, these codes would get you digitally-stamped cards to add to your decks and show off your dedication to your local league, but now those cards are nowhere to be found in Live.
So, you can understand my jealousy when only a couple of weeks into Pocket’s lifespan, Pokémon introduced stamped promo cards in the Lapras ex drop event. The stamps on these cards even resemble the Japanese Gym Promo cards! There’s a huge community of stamped card collectors out there, so it makes sense to introduce this extra form of exclusivity to Pocket, but I can’t help but cry over the loss of stamped promos in my game.
If you’ve made it this far without getting confused between the two games, I applaud you, because one of the biggest concerns for a lot of players when we heard about Pocket’s release was the brand confusion this would cause. Both names are so similar that it’s extremely easy to mix them up if you’re newer to the game. We even saw this in action a few weeks ago on social media. The official Pokémon TCG Twitter posted about some patch notes for Live, and @paxDREAMS responded asking for a nerf to Moltres ex, thinking the post was about Pocket. I imagine this is only the beginning of a PR nightmare for the various teams that work on these games.
I’d be lying if I said that nothing positive has come from Pokémon TCG Pocket’s success. In fact, it’s had a similar effect to Pokémon Go’s launch back in 2016, getting fans back into the franchise with the draw of nostalgia and casual gameplay. I’ve run into a couple of new people at my local league who started playing the physical TCG after getting into Pocket, and ultimately as a player, I just want to see more people enjoying the game that makes me so happy. If you tune into a Regionals stream on Twitch these days, the chat is full of Pocket players asking about game mechanics and how to play, which truly warms my heart.
Overall, I’m not really mad that Pocket is doing so well – it’s more that I’m disappointed by what Live could have been in the hands of DeNA and The Pokémon Company. I’m glad people are enjoying it, especially when that enjoyment means they get involved in my favorite hobby. It’s just not really for me, and that’s okay.
If you’re looking to better your battling skills, check out our list of the best Pokémon TCG Pocket decks next. We’ve also got a comprehensive Pokémon TCG Pocket tier list for you to examine. After all, it’s definitely one of the best Pokémon games out there right now.