Is Pokémon Pocket PAY TO WIN? The BEST Packs to OPEN FIRST! - Pocket Pod Ep 1

[@F0XD1E]

I would consider $100 to be an insane amount for this game, but I don't spend much money on games. Considering like Tears of the Kingdom or something is $70 or less. I plan on being free to play and just making the best decks that I can and trying to have fun with it, even if they're not the best possible decks. Paying money with no guarantee to get the cards that I need seems like it would just give me too much regret or be a slippery slope. Hopefully trading comes out soon.

[@stevenroberts4356]

Except you get the pack points, 300 pack points can really fill a deck or two out.

[@peterkefalos7430]

People always bring up triple A $70 games when comparing value to mobile games like this and I don’t really get the comparison tbh. Tears of the Kingdom has a lot of content for sure but it’s still a game that you play and then eventually beat where is this is a competitive game that you can play for years on end because if it’s nature so I feel like it’s not really a 1-1 comparison in that way that it seems to be

[@Danexer]

@@peterkefalos7430 Yeah you are spending $100 on a deck that eventually will become non competititve and mostly forgotten

[@F0XD1E]

@@peterkefalos7430 I agree it's a bad comparison but it's the only one I can make since I never dump money into mobile games or digital tcgs. But dumping hundreds into this set and then needing to dump hundreds into every subsequent set to stay "competitive" can just snowball into a ridiculous amount. But I've spent money on stuff other people would probably say is dumb so I'm not here to judge. I just can't justify it to myself for a mobile game.

[@willems9411]

for sure $100 on a mobile game can certainly be too much. Coming to this game from Marvel Snap though, its hard not to see it as a breath of fresh air. In this game $200 NZ (so like $120 US or something) gets you a majority of the cards whereas in snap you're lucky to get more than two cards out of that amount in one purchase.

[@ImTheScout]

Tough to say till trading is introduced But for now, deckbuilding is fine since it’s early game. You have about 50 free packs to build a deck you want that can be very competitive & you can reroll pretty easily in the beginning. On next packs release though, at the current rate of 2 daily free packs it would def be leaned towards spenders Gotta wait til global release though to see what else will be introduced

[@char3smith]

really enjoyed watching this, because as someone waiting for the full launch at the end of the month i've only really been seeing battling (which i do really enjoy), so it's nice to see stuff being spoken about around the game itself outside of the gameplay itself.

[@the1travisb]

Realistically there isn’t much to this game. There isn’t much to do after the first couple days of opening many packs. Then you are just doing 2 or so a day and playing the shallow battling. Now if you want to play some simple battles, sure. But a couple weeks after NZ soft launch, I’m not even opening it daily. Nothing really to bring you back.

[@Badbufon]

​@@the1travisb The game hasn't even launched yet, the game will become more complex in the upcoming sets

[@Hotpotastedcik]

I have 3 decks rn as a f2p, mewtwo gardevior+articuno solo+dragonite weezing. I’m pretty satisfied with it. I don’t even reroll 😂 omggggg and I just got crown mewtwo from one pull

[@94jmbottaro]

in the long run this is gonna be way more pay 2 win than snap. especially when more packs are gonna come out, unless they repeat that day 1 opening for the new packs every time it will be overwhelming. i mean in snap yea the monetization is crazy, BUT you get 1 series 3 card every 1.5 weeks and 1.2 series 4 or 5 card every week. you have alot more choice on the series 4/5 cards with spotlight caches so that you can save up your keys for the cards of your choice. and the season pass actually matters and gives you an amazing card.

[@drdawson99]

Great first episode! Not sure how often you will do these but I'd like to see more meta game discussion, perhaps going over some tournament reports?

[@thomaswayne1852]

Didn’t know I needed this PokePod 😂 Best wishes, gentlemen. Excellent points from both.

[@itranscendencei7964]

More than likely, trading will be tied to a currency and be time limited. In PokemonGO, it was tied to a resource that you only got in small amounts at a time and the amount you had to spend depended on if the Pokemon was legendary, shiny, or an unregistered dex entry. You could also only do one legendary, shiny, or dex entry trade per day, and 100 normal trades. They will probably do something very similar to this.

[@vecheeto21]

I just hope they dont make trading require gold or another currency that is hard to get/pay to get, i also hope they dont do some crazy limitations on it, like being to trade only once a week or even worse once a month, i want it to be at least a couple times a day, one can only hope but im really hopeful they dont mess it up because many players are banking on it

[@Mert-716]

Compared to Fifa/FC or NBA where the cards become obsolete every year, this game is very FTP friendly. Considering you can open 10 packs before locking into an account, if you have the patience you could open packs until you get most/all of the cards needed for a deck. The new mankey+primeape is probably a great candidate to aim for building with 10 packs.

[@Kougaku]

This is my 2nd day of playing and I already have two completed decks, Mewtwo/Gardevoir and Alakazam/Weezing, with more than a few full art cards that are in them. Haven't spent a penny. I'd say it's pretty solid f2p. Edit: For anyone wondering I got the 3 star Mewtwo full art, two Weezing full arts and two Alakazam full arts.

[@Givenn..]

26:50 In the wonderpicks tutorial there is called rare picks and chansey picks. I think some of wonderpick exclusive cards are going to appear here. Only thing is i don't have any idea if chansey/rare picks are going to appear everyday or just a chance to appear. I didn't encounter any of this on my wonderpicks yet so maybe they're going to introduce it when global release.

[@DKQuagmire]

When starting this game last Wednesday, I went with the reset method until I got a Mewtwo ex in the first 70 packs. Got the emersive Mewtwo in the 2nd pack on like the 2nd re-roll and just kept that account. Got like 4 Articuno ex (1 is the rainbow 2 star boarder full art). Account is now at 320 pack points from pulling nothing but Mewtwo packs, (Zero Gardevoir cards). But last 2 daily free packs have been Charizard. I can now basically fully build the Mewtwo ex deck. I'm just looking for Sabrina cards in the Charizard packs until I get to 470 pack points. Then I'm spending 300 on 2 Gardevoir, and 140 on 2 Sabrina. I'm not going for any collector trophies. I'm just focusing on one deck at a time, and I want my first deck to be Mewtwo ex/ Gardevoir. After that I might just grind out the pack points for some Misty cards in the Pikachu packs to play Articuno ex.

[@allanberche7902]

As someone who has been playing Snap and Hearthstone as their live service card games for the last 2+ years. It is so refreshing to play a game where they're upfront with acquisition. You can just buy the cards, or not, there is no hoops to jump through and the game doesn't feel like it's ticking you into buying a bad deal. It does have some of that "force F2P engagement and milk the whales model" however, I would say it's less predatory than Snap

[@cheatortrick5960]

Good to hear this podcast ( about gameplay and leaks)

[@hicamajig]

Just wanted to add "If the availability period for a given booster pack ends, its pack points will no longer be available for exchange". Wonder if this means when a new set is released or if for some reason they will remove old sets.

[@VanceWeebin]

I spent ~50 bucks. Have almost 2 of every Ex, and last night I pulled my first rare pack. lol no reroll or anything, but on my reroll f2p account, Mewtwo deck is complete but barely any other ex’s to make decks. I can see if you have bad luck in this game it’ll be really hard to make anything competitive

[@diode_wow]

Im personally going for the Charizard pack to start with. I feel like it's more beginner friendly. You obviously have youe Zard/Moltres, but you also have Starmie, Greninja, Exeggutor, Alakazam, Machamp, etc that, while not top tier decks, they can teach you how to play better. I feel like a lot of newcomers are going straight for Mewtwo hoping for free wins like that 12 yeat old kid on Smogon with 6 shiny legendaries that gets bodied by an actual team.

[@Fuzzydicee]

IM ALL HERE FOR THE POCKET POD LETSGO

[@Senshi00]

I wonder how to spend pack points? I mostly pulled on the mewto pack and am still missing 2nd mewto ex and gardevoir and others like Venusaur ex. Should I spend the points on trainers Erika & Sabrina and basic pokemon from other packs?

[@emandummie]

I spent 0$ and got mewtwo EX 2 Articunos EX gengar Ex marowak Ex dragonite holo pidgeotto holo garydoes holo weezing holo regular mewtwo regular articuno and and the good basic Pokémon it’s like a real life card game like getting packs and everything feels fair don’t feel like I really need to spend money cause I feel my luck will come soon and I like that feeling I get when I get lucky and that how it supposed to feel like opening packs in real life you won’t always get what you want but just might get lucky

[@matt-ns8ze]

Dragonite/Weezing is a lot of fun! Can't wait for more support for dragonite

[@justinlol6021]

i am free 2 play and i almost have all cards including gold mewtwo, gold charizard and immersive mewtwo

[@babysourpatch2202]

I think people saying the game pay to win are just not targeting things correctly. Obviously luck is involved and I haven’t payed a dime and I have a full Mewtwo deck and Pikachu deck. And working towards other decks as well.

[@Jeroji133]

I think the wonder promo cards will be when someone pull a regular version of a moewth and someone see that pack in wonder pick, its gonna be the promo version instead.

[@Sharshock]

Cool chat between the you guys, but a top 3 without the top 1 deck of the game cant be right, hahaha 😅 (Venusaur, obviouslly)

[@willems9411]

I kind of accidentally made 2 accounts (I wasn't intending on rerolling or having multiple accounts) as I needed to make a second (NZ) account to be able to spend money. As a result I have a F2P account and a paid account. My paid account has access to far more cards (as you'd expect) so I can play a wider variety of decks more easily, however my free account was very quickly able to put together a complete Dragonite list that has the potential to rock even the top meta decks so I'd say the game can be very easy to play F2P if you accept the deck(s) it gives you rather than chasing one in particular.

[@infinitybro2277]

After this honey moon phase when a new set drops and we don't have all these free resources it's going to suck trynna get the new meta decks plus dupes

[@ilikecheese2167]

IMO this game would be much better with more deck thinning with 30 card decks, although it would make it harder to grind for a good deck.

[@philippf5594]

Why do some people pay so much money for F2P mobile games? 😀 I started today completely free to play and got a few EX Cards including the Pikachu Immersion one, made a currently pretty good Electro Deck as well as an Water Deck. Even got Articuno EX Rainbow. I would never pay any amount of money for mobile games, they should just be something you play on the go or for a short time per day. Because people pay hundreds of Dollars for these games and even say "it is not that much for a card game", there will always be those trash massively pay to win games, especially on mobile. You dont need to have all the cards day 1 guys, it should be a journey, not a sprint.

[@robsg5838]

It's DEFINITELY Pay-To-Win AND Rich-Get-Richer. $100 is an INSANE amount of $ to spend on a mobile game. Especially in one sitting. That's not in the middle. That's "rich man" spending (or "it's your job" spending. That's more understandable)

[@dhbroad]

24:25 just to clarify for everybody watching, if you don't have the premium pass, you can only stack 2 unopened packs max

[@doom7607]

Why wouldn’t you have the premium pass when you get a free trial?

[@iamhere.1452]

About 2-3 days after the soft launch released, I versed someone named Super who was already level 30 & opened over 500 booster packs. He had a Crown rare & immersive Mewtwo/Garde deck. Was so insane to see so early into release, glad I won tbh 😂

[@diode_wow]

You found the rare beached whale

[@OfficialGrimZen]

I’m free to play and my first match I got sharted on by MewTwo Garde then the next two packs I pulled a crown rare Charizard 🥹 still getting sharted on by MewTwo Garde tho

[@rabblerouser8195]

"should I take out ghastly for jigglypuff?" "which one?" really hoping they change the name of the promo alts lul

[@davidvidal7156]

I Think Lapras EX (misty) with Dragonite will be so good, cuz Lapras EX is so tanky.

[@tommysoulz]

not sure this game needed a podcast gang

[@mr.fluffypantz4150]

⁠The initial blitz of packs when you start the game dies down immensely once you finish the first blitz and all the missions. I’ve opened all the game start packs and have been fully maxed out on free to play packs for about 2 weeks, and the only ex cards I have 2 copies of are pikachu and venusaur. Been on charizard packs only for a long time now, and I still have 0 starmie ex. I’m hoping the trading system lets me dump alt arts to fill out the ex’s, because it sucks ass getting them right now. You need to find them all twice, and that’s really hard. I’m not playing mewtwo gardevoir with 1 mewtwo ex. We shall see. At the moment card acquisition really sucks.

[@mr.fluffypantz4150]

Also wonder pick is my least favorite mechanic in any gacha game ever.

[@stevenroberts4356]

Mate the ex's aren't all that. Wheezing line, arbok and or Pidgeot smashes a lot of decks. The double prize ex mons lose to my "cobra coughs on pigeon" deck hasn't lost to pika ex or Mewtwo. Also I have another two accounts so I could try out the other exs. They aren't all that great char Mewtwo are the best ex's in my opinion.

[@Xuhtig]

You can re roll and get all these cards in the first 100 packs if you spend enough time. Pack acquisition is fine for people who actually care and will min max f2p.

[@kirbylietz8377]

The problem with the new Mankey is if you can get one shot after you do 10 to yourself

[@globbriel]

Slowpoke my beloved is the best deck!

[@leecherleech]

that onyx looks like something else

[@sya2711]

the answer is yes.

[@sya2711]

to clarify it would take a f2p player weeks to build a decent deck that can rival the p2w players , if they are lucky.

[@daniell3264]

I wouldn't say it's pay to win. Definitely just pay to get a head start. You can always reset your account if you don't like what you pulled from all the packs they throw at you to start and can usually get at least 1 decent deck to start with

[@SporeVenom]

Agree with some of these other comments. I don't like Willow and how he presents himself. Please don't do any collabs with him in the future. Apart from that, his videos about suggestions packs/decks/etc are just plain wrong. I've seen a couple and it's just flat out unusable information, and that's apart from his demeanor

[@rkocity7627]

Love to see you both on snap and tcgp ❤❤

[@johnnyblaze10]

i dont think we can judge it yet. whether its p2w or not depends on the trading system. ive been playing f2p and got a good chunk of ex cards. if they allow me to trade them for other ex cards, its a f2p friendly game. if they dont allow it, its p2w. you may or may not complete one deck, depending on your luck. heres hoping the whales hunting for full arts can carry this game. oh and dont be naive, theres obviously going to be some sort of ressource required for trading to prevent people from making new accounts and trade with themselfs

[@JB-md7db]

Win what exactly? It's basically rock paper scissors with extra steps. For a card game that's been around as long as pokemon, this has got to be one of the most overhyped and underwhelming launches ever. The fact that every competitive deck is basically 2-4 pokemon and a bunch of trainer/support cards makes for stale, repetitive gameplay. I think there should be restrictions for #of items and support cards to push the use of pokemon. The fact that 20٪ of EVERY deck is pokeball/research just proves it. It's called the POKEMON tcg, not the Item/support tcg......

[@Badbufon]

I play Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel for free and it is amazing at that. If i can at least have 2 meta decks per month, that's fine by me, because i will most likely just play jank regardless lol.

[@spofet]

22:40 yeah same ill ride the free packs up to the expansion and save the hourglasses till the

[@joebowl8315]

That was a good show while eating thanks 😊

[@simonb4689]

I haven't put money and I can win, but I have 1.5 competitive deck and I can't build just about anything good. The progression is insanely slow.

[@RedeyeJedi40]

Caterpie >

[@DChoudens]

ftplay players hopes the trading is with no restriction, trading for same rarity is no worth it for us

[@Stygiophobic]

I mean ive pulled 3 full art card mewtwo ex's, 2 of the second rarest then the notmal one, as f2p. Rerolling is easy and doesnt take long, but saying that i cant pullthe rest of what i need for the deck which arent even rare 😂😂

[@TeaTimeMr]

Nice Pod. Really dig the idea to have a mandatory non-EX Basic in your deck.

[@dhbroad]

19:56 You only get around 13 packs to open from completing the tutorial, not 20-30.

[@mushixiii3029]

So Dekks....where did you get this idea of "pocket pods" from like maybe fozy snap and alexander foccia? 🤭🤭🤭

[@DogginsFroggins]

The card acquisition right now is kinda terrible. If you are missing a single card you better have the patience of a saint because once you get past your first day or two of play you get a whopping 2 boosters a day, which might as well be nothing. I think I'm just gonna wait till official launch to see if it gets better, right now its just boring.

[@TomorrowNobody]

There is a whole ass store that you can buy cards from

[@senpaiyoh]

Answer: No Ive spent no money and have full mewtwo and pikachu deck

[@adamthebest4382]

I think I'm hearing some buzzing in dexter's mic when he speaks

[@willsanderson8561]

Tbh with how punishing the RNG is I’d say it feels like pay to play let alone win.

[@zuunpyi7120]

F2P here got my mewtwo crown in a month or less 😅😅

[@leonardotralongo4978]

So if u begin lucky = not p2w for u ? Lol

[@DKQuagmire]

I got the Emersive Mewtwo on the 2nd re-roll account during the tutorial. Decided to just keep that account. Completely free to play Btw, and I can nearly build a complete Mewtwo ex deck already!

[@zakarum1996]

Mewtwo/Gardevoir is not to strong for misty/Blastoise/sleeper haha

[@LethalAscend]

why does he have two pack stamina bars?

[@DKQuagmire]

He paid for the $10 premium pass, which gives you 1 additional pack per day, on its own timer, desperate from the normal 12 hour timer for the normal daily packs.

[@randx1075]

idk man, i have 1 account that i only pulled the Charizard pack and got 2 crown(Charizard and Mewtwo) in under 70 pulls😂😂😂

[@ethanwyman1579]

DEKKS AND WILLOW THE 2 BEST POCKET CREATORS RN W gotta get some popcorn

[@Hugo-hl7sz]

How out of touch do you have to be say dropping $100 on a mobile game is mid level spending. That is beyond ridiculous. And then "I didn't spend very much." Followed by "I spent money cap two days in a row." Which is over $400... Thats an entire months worth of grocery budget for a family household. Grossly out of touch comments.

[@simonshura9144]

Well it depends on the individual and personal income 😂

[@drewwootten6770]

How out of job are you 😂 that’a a tee time

[@shal5342]

Yes, it's pay to win. You need to pay Misty for heads so your opponent would concede.

[@osoperezoso2608]

No, is not ptw. It's pay if you want to gamble. I haven't paid a dime and i have all of the top ex decks and some off meta stuff. Its pay if you don't want to wait as long.

[@truesdale7388]

Hell nah 😂😂😂

[@boyshair4133]

short version: no. Just reset until you get whatever cards you need. best to shoot for 1-2 decks from the same packs and open nothing but those packs.

[@willodiaz4644]

I’m free to play and I got 2 charizards already full art and other Ex and I got crown pikachu already to lol

[@gianlucatozzi5337]

I spent 0 and in 4 days I have a complete mewtwo deck 👌👌👌

[@SporeVenom]

Willow is 100% wrong. Charizard is the only deck to open as a F2P player. Mewtwo only has one competitive deck in the entire pack, with no useful trainers. Charizard has multiple viable decks, including the best budget deck (Blaine aggro), while also including the best trainer (Sabrina), and best single pokemon (Starmie ex). Every deck NEEDS at least one Sabrina, if not a mandatory 2. You cannot make a deck without opening charizard packs, unless you want to leave out of the best cards in the game that is in every single deck (Sabrina). Him also mentioning Articuno ex is also pointless, since you NEED misty for it to be even close to viable, which means actually divided your packs into 2 (Pikachu for Misty). His perspective seems to be from the P2P perspective and is just plain wrong. It's a "I'm just assuming you already have Sabrina and can get any other card you need from any pack, so with that open Mewtwo packs." Horrible take

[@TomorrowNobody]

Sabrina is good, but it's far from necessary.

[@SporeVenom]

@@TomorrowNobody I mean.... No card is technically "necessary." But literally everyone runs at least one, so, yes, I'd argue it's 100% necessary and your deck is weaker without it

[@TomorrowNobody]

@@SporeVenom techniy

[@chanzijun5247]

I totally agree with you. To add on, the Charizard pack has the following viable decks WITHOUT opening other packs (minimally tier 2 or 3): 1) Charizard EX + Moltres EX 2) Ninetales + Rapidash (Blaine deck) 3) Exeggutor EX + Pinsir (which you get if you picked Charizard pack when starting the game; just need the 2nd copy of Exeggutor EX) 4) Machamp EX + Sandslash or Primeape 5) Alakazam + Farfetch or Kangaskan or Tauros If we are willing to relax the constraint by opening 1 of Mewtwo or Pikachu pack, then: 6) Starmie EX + Greninja or Golduck(with Misty from Pikachu pack) 3b) Exeggutor EX can get the 2nd copy of Parasect from Pikachu pack or Venusaur EX from Mewtwo pack

[@SporeVenom]

@@TomorrowNobody what?

[@lelandhutchinson3374]

Willow seems really stuck up when you talk about playing games for fun :/ not enjoyable at all

[@Zoouhs]

What are you on about , you seem stuck up with your negativity

[@Kiserai]

Agreed. Not really a fan of Willow's overall attitude towards the game.

[@stevenroberts4356]

​@@Zoouhshave you watched his live stream? "Pidgeot is bad" " Koga wheezing is bad" "you should only run 3-4 basics" "it's dumb to play 2-2-2 instead of 1-2-2" dude pretends like he has it all figured out two weeks in. Hope I get the chance to smash his best deck with my "Cobra Coughs on Pigeon".

[@DKQuagmire]

NGL, I never understood why he would run only 1 evolving basic. Just run 2 Ralts. It would at least increase your odds of drawing it. And if you draw a second one later on, you can use it as a Sabrina target, for when your opponent is trying to remove your powered up active Mewtwo, but your benched Mewtwo has no energy on it. And you don't want to sack Gardevoir! Also Pidgeot really helped me with a lot of the expert solo missions. Like against the Charizard ex deck Bot, by bringing out the bench Charmanders and Growlithe, before they evolved for cheap knockouts!

[@stevenroberts4356]

@@DKQuagmire the idea behind the 1-2-2 in the Mewtwo deck is that you have a 66% chance to start with Mewtwo which is the better start(no x speed needed) then it's a 6/19 where you get 4-5(maybe 7-9) draws to have the best possible start.

[@sato4636]

this game is straight up fraud,just buy the real packs at this point

[@ziker3958]

The game Lucktowin I been open mewtwo pack from beginning Not getting any mewtwo,dragonite,venusaur,articuno All luck goes to 1* card and 3 marowak 🥲

[@SporeVenom]

Willow is 100% wrong. Charizard is the only deck to open as a F2P player. Mewtwo only has one competitive deck in the entire pack, with no useful trainers. Charizard has multiple viable decks, including the best budget deck (Blaine aggro), while also including the best trainer (Sabrina), and best single pokemon (Starmie ex).

[@DKQuagmire]

@@SporeVenom I'm only just opening Charizard Now, now that I hit 300 pack points, and still have zero Gardevoir. Might craft them, but going for Sabrina now. (Maybe Gardy will show up in a wonder pick?)