Players Is Mad at the Pokémon TCG Pocket Game At the Moment.

Following its October 2024 release, Pokémon TCG Pocket maintained a regular schedule. Monthly, the mobile trading card game grows with fresh card packs, adding many of fresh collectibles that disrupt the battle scene and provide collectors updated objectives. But for its 12-month milestone, Pokémon TCG Pocket introduced an new set that effectively achieves nothing.

Ignoring the Established Rules

The Deluxe Pack: ex pack, launched on Sept. 30, breaks nearly every the common guidelines around a new TCG Pocket update.

Typically, a regular TCG Pocket set includes dozens of fresh additions in its roster, distributed via a couple of card packs. The new pack includes a substantial hundreds of entries in its exclusive release, but nearly all of them have been featured in earlier expansions. And critically, when you collect a item from the new pack, it counts toward your latest inventory, but not toward the group from which it originated.

Let’s say you’re lacking a particular card from the earlier expansion. Should you obtain it from unpacking a Deluxe Pack: ex booster pack, it’ll still be missing from your Wisdom of Sea and Sky collection.

Adjustments to Pack Contents

Additionally. Historically, obtaining a expansion provides five cards. Each Deluxe Pack: ex pull only offers a smaller set, though the compromise here is that every purchase is promised to include at least one card rated at four-diamond rarity or more exclusive — meaning you have an essentially airtight probability of getting a gorgeous full-art version or a strong battle card.

However the main issue is that the pack itself is time-limited and will become unavailable as of Oct. 30. Releases have not been temporary throughout TCG Pocket’s time online, and while these cards aren’t technically leaving the app — many are still obtainable in other expansions — the looming expiration date puts a hard deadline on collectors striving to fill out their new set roster.

Issues with Game Points

Complicating matters is the use of virtual points, an in-game currency obtained by opening packs. Pack Points can only be used for packs in the expansion you collected them through. Creators said in a announcement that “Accumulated points remain valid even if the sale time for that expansion ends,” but if the pack itself is being removed, well, how are you supposed to spend those resources after Oct. 30?

Player Backlash

These changes amounts to what some fans view as a slap in the face — notably to those who engage primarily for the completionist goal. For players who ignore competitive play and focus exclusively on TCG Pocket for building a collection, by doing your two free daily pulls, it is mathematically impossible to collect the full set in the new expansion before it ends. Even if you never pulled the same card twice, getting a handful of items per opening at a rate of a couple of openings per day falls far short to the complete set. It requires lean on paid resources or task-oriented time-saving items to achieve it. Moreover, that’s if you’re just obtaining new cards; the actual pull rates for specific Pokémon all but ensure the probability here are vanishingly slim.

Live-service games are notorious for favoring paying users over those who don’t, but some free-to-play TCG Pocket players claim the Deluxe Pack: ex expansion escalates the issue — and they aren’t shy about voicing their complaints.

“The new pack is disappointing players of aiming for full sets and may become an reason to leave out of the game for dedicated fans,” one self-described free-to-play player stated in a popular post on the online board.

In response, some players noted that the expansion is indeed a way to obtain unowned items, but the more common sentiment is that collectibles acquired through the new set should count toward the rosters they previously belonged to, rather than stay separated in a new but repetitive latest set roster.

Interface Challenges

Other players have been annoyed by how the new release has impacted card selection for the player vs. player. While the majority of items are copies of existing ones, TCG Pocket classifies them as new cards obtained through the newest release. When you go to create a team, by default, TCG Pocket will show you items from the newest expansion first. Thus in considering the latest release, this essentially means your recent pulls are probably a bunch you own duplicates of. This is more than a frustrating problem to the sorting of the system; it further makes it harder to see, in a chronological sense, which cards were favored during which eras.

“There are issue after issue with the expansion,” one player remarked in a forum thread highlighting the problem. The leading comment? “This set has become a disaster.”

Fan Criticism

Additionally, a community discussion highlighting the official update about Pack Points has generated a string of sarcastic comments. Several players teased that the creators will hand out a limited quantity of a particular currency — an in-game currency widely regarded as useless among most players — as recompense for the confusion, as has been done previously. Some commenters mocked that “we can all resume our premium subscription now.” Generally, many fans publicly call for the adoption of cross-expansion currency — that is, currency you’d collect from a particular release could be used for <