Pokemon TCG Pocket Should Borrow One Popular Feature from Marvel Snap

Pokemon card collecting has seen a massive boost in popularity in recent years, so it’s not surprising to see Creatures and DeNA teaming up to create Pokemon TCG Pocket as a new way for players to digitally collect cards. Pokemon TCG Pocket was revealed during the Pokemon Day showcase and is slated for a 2024 release, but no specific release date has been announced. While Pokemon TCG Pocket will likely draw in players on concept alone, it could take the experience to the next level by borrowing one popular feature from Marvel Snap.

Alongside the resurgence of interest in the Pokemon Trading Card Game is a rise in digital card games like Marvel Snap, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, and Hearthstone. This genre is filled with solid entries that have refined card collecting and battling mechanics for bit-sized mobile play sessions, and Pokemon TCG Pocket has a lot it can learn from the success of these other games. However, Marvel Snap‘s card upgrade system in particular is a novel idea that Pokemon TCG Pocket could make great use of, giving players an even greater reason to build their in-game collections.

Pokemon TCG Pocket Needs Marvel Snap’s Card Upgrade System

Marvel Snap refined the concept of visual upgrades for cards with its system of allowing players to spend resources to increase a card’s rarity and alter the card’s visual effects. Players will need two Marvel Snap currencies to perform an upgrade: Credits and the Boosters specific to their chosen card. When upgrading a card, each level offers new visual effects and card borders, such as the jump from common to uncommon having the character break out of the card’s border which has now become green, or the jump from uncommon to rare giving the art a 3D effect and turning the border blue.

While these upgrades have no gameplay effect in matches, they do contribute to increasing the player’s collection level in Marvel Snap, allowing them to unlock more resources and even the potential for new cards. Pokemon TCG Pocket seems to be a lot more focused on the card-collecting aspect of the game, with a scaled-down version of the game’s PvP battle mechanics present. As such, Pokemon TCG Pocket should really lean into the collecting features it offers players and reward them for filling out their collection by allowing them to upgrade cards to higher rarity tiers as their collection grows.

How Pokemon TCG Pocket Could Benefit from Card Upgrades

The big draw of Pokemon TCG Pocket seems to be the ability to open two packs daily for free, as this point has been heavily emphasized in the game’s marketing. This system seems designed to encourage players to keep coming back to the game to open packs and try to pull some of the game’s rarest cards, like Legendaries or the ever-coveted Charizard cards. However, players who consistently play and pull numerous common cards should still be rewarded for their dedication by allowing them to upgrade these cards to higher tiers of rarity and unlock special new artwork for them.

The trailer for Pokemon TCG Pocket also showcased a new type of artwork called Immersive Cards that allows players to get a glimpse at a large world within the art of a card through animated scenes that go beyond the boundaries of the card’s borders. This new type of art is incredibly unique and deserves to be experienced by more players than just the ones lucky enough to pull an Immersive Card from a pack. Instead, players should be allowed to upgrade their cards to this ultimate level, perhaps by combining duplicates of a previous rarity tier, giving players a reason to collect even common cards from the game’s packs.

Pokemon TCG

Original Release Date

October 20, 1996