There are times when I feel like I might attack Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket too much, but then the developers make another shocking decision. As an example, we recently had an announcement about how trading will be implemented, and it is pretty much the worst-case scenario.

To start with, trades can only be done between friends, which is understandable. And this is the end of the reasonable restrictions. Only cards with a rarity of one to four, and also one star can be traded. On top of this, you must be using cards of the same rarity.


I can see two ways of thinking about this. There is an argument that this is a way to keep the game fair, to prevent you from trading a Rattata for a golden Pikachu. It also does stop an outside market from forming. If it was completely open to trade whatever you like then there would be third-party trades for cash.

Then again, it is hard not to look at this as being motivated by pure greed. The developers saying no, you can’t trade the higher rarity, you must give all your money here if you want that shiny card. Especially given the fact that you can go on a huge run of packs that only give you low-ranked duplicates.

More evidence for this argument stems from the fact that items must be consumed in order to trade. This was also one of my biggest fears, the lock for how much you can trade. Right now the biggest consumable I know of is Shinedust for adding Flairs to your card. How do you get this? Yep, from drawing cards.

In the best-case scenario, they add another currency that you only get from opening packs. Worst case, trades also use Shinedust, so now you need to collect twice as much for both uses. Either way, you are encouraged to drop money in Pocket for this feature.

It might even get more restrictive because there is a separate line in the announcement saying only “certain” cards from Genetic Apex and Mythical Island can be traded. Having this as a separate point to the rarity requirement makes me think that even some one-star cards won’t be included in this feature. Have the devs noticed the game literally has the word “trading” in the title?

This whole debacle is wildly disappointing, to say the least, and as much as I don’t want to support them; Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket is available to download from the App Store and Google Play. On the plus side there will be new booster packs added this month, so we can enjoy not trading the new good cards.

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