Details about Pokémon TCG Pocket’s battle system have been scarce since its initial reveal. But, thanks to a recent trip hosted by The Pokémon Company that Dot Esports attended, we know every detail about how matches between other players work.
Matches are entirely different from the usual Pokémon Trading Card Game and have been crafted to offer much quicker matches and made for on-the-go gameplay. There are many differences and changes made to utilize the digital format, including some pretty surprising alterations.
How Pokémon TCG Pocket’s battles work
| Key Pokémon TCG Pocket Battle System Summary |
|---|
| 20 Card Decks |
| No Prize Cards: Your goal is to reach three points |
| No Energy Cards |
| Only three Pokémon on your Bench |
| No damage counter dice; damage is auto-calculated through an HP Bar |
Instead of the usual 60-card decks, the mobile game has you craft decks of 20 cards, making choosing which Pokémon and other cards you use more important. We also lack many draw cards, judging by what we saw, but that could change with future booster pack releases, or we might not have seen everything.
The game appears to have way more Pokémon cards than Trainer cards, with the focus seeming to be on building mostly Pokémon decks, considering the small deck sizes and quick gameplay. A match should take anywhere between three to seven minutes long, which is much shorter than some regular card games that can take hours.
There also aren’t any Prize Cards in-game, with Pocket instead using a points-based system to determine a winner. When you face off against an opponent, you get one point every time you knock out an opposing pokémon and two points when you knock at an opposing ex Pokémon. The first trainer to three points wins the match.
There are also no Energy Cards, with Energy being turned into a token you can grab from the bottom right of the screen. This frees up decks to focus entirely on Pokémon and Trainer cards. You get one Energy token per turn and can drag and drop it onto your Active or Benched Pokémon.
The Bench has also been reduced from the main game, with you only able to have three Pokémon on your Bench at once instead of the usual five. Lastly, all damage done to Pokémon is automatically calculated while playing, so there is no need for manual dice or damage counters here.
Of course, everything we saw was based on an unfinished version of the game, so changes could still be made. However, we imagine the main gameplay here to remain mostly unchanged.
