New Pokémon TCG Set Has Some of Rarest Cards in Game’s History To Further Torture Fans

Luckily, it’s not all bad news for Pokémon TCG-heads: apparently, the pull rates for the other types of rare cards are marginally improved compared to the previous set, with Double Rares, Ultra Rares, Illustration Rares, and Special Illustration Rares all being included at slightly higher rates. Specifically, Double Rares are a 1/5 chance, Ultra Rares are 1/12, Illustration Rates are 1/9, and Special Illustration Rares are 1/101.

I will be honest, as someone who isn’t part of Pokémon’s card-collecting scene, one of the most surprising elements here is that the pull rates for cards aren’t provided by the card publisher directly, but need to be estimated by a platform, in this case, one that had to open 5,000 packs and run statistical probabilities on the data. In short, that’s pretty scummy, man. Even many of the most exploitative gacha and digital card games publish their pull and drop rates, so players can know just how screwed they are. Granted, in most cases, those rates are only included due to government regulations, but still.

In other Pokémon TCG news, the mobile game Pokémon TCG Pocket is currently facing backlash over its latest set, Deluxe Pack ex. It’s a limited-time pack only available from September 30 to October 30, and on paper, it sounds relatively generous, at least if you haven’t been playing the game since launch. It seems designed to help people catch up, as it doesn’t include any truly “new” cards, and instead, includes a variety of standouts from the game’s first year. Most importantly, each four-card pack is guaranteed to include an existing four diamond rarity ex card (according to this calculator, you normally only get an ex card in about 1/12 packs).

However, there’s a big catch: the three hundred-plus cards in this “new” set are tracked in the app differently than their identical counterparts, meaning even if you already have that exact card from a different set, it won’t count towards completion of the new set. Functionally, it will be almost impossible to reach to reach 100% Dex completion for the Deluxe pack (this is a Pokémon game after all, so that’s something many players very much care about) without spending lots of money. While it was previously quite doable to collect all of the standard cards in previous sets if you utilized trading and the game’s free daily packs, basically, that’s no longer the case. On top of this, there are many enticing rare art cards—like the sought-after 2 Star variant of Professor’s Research—that are part of this release, and will be come unattainable once the pack leaves late this month (the game’s developer, DeNA, has said the pack will eventually return, but still). It’s all a good reminder that while you may love card games, the vast majority of them don’t love you back (except for Balatro, that game rules).