Going first often has its benefits. Not in Pokémon TCG Pocket. The cell card recreation flips the standard calculus on its head. Going first doesn’t simply lose its edge, it feels downright unhealthy.
Right here’s how each Pokémon TCG Pocket battle begins: First, the sport matches you with an opponent. Then, it flips a coin to see who goes first. Gamers place their Pokémon on the board and whoever gained the coin toss will get to choose a card after which…nothing. Pokémon card battles revolve round power, and also you get one power initially of every flip, except you’re going first if you skip it fully. And with out it, the the lovable little creatures are ineffective except they occur to have a particular capacity hooked up to them. Most don’t, nonetheless, leaving whoever goes first instantly hamstrung.
As an alternative, it’s the one who goes second who will get draw their first power and get the assault rolling. A Farfetch’d with one power can instantly begin hitting for 40 injury. In the event you’re opponent performs an EX card on their first flip—particular, extra highly effective variants of current uncommon Pokémon playing cards, they get a head begin on racking up the power wanted to make use of gaming successful assaults. From that time on, whoever went first is simply enjoying catch-up.
It’s already grow to be an established meme throughout the TCG Pocket neighborhood that this sucks. It’s not simply that going first within the recreation doesn’t convey the standard card recreation benefits; it’s that going first is mainly a faux flip that doesn’t truly let the participant have interaction with a very powerful mechanic within the recreation. TCG Pocket’s first PvP occasion going reside earlier this week made made the ache level much more pronounced as top-tier decks steamrolled everybody.
“If this occasion has proven me something,” one participant writes on Reddit, “in case you go first towards any of the highest 3 decks proper now you’ll extra then doubtless free except they draw like shit.”
“Whereas it’s arduous to realize a real 50/50 between going first and going second, if not unimaginable,” argued one other, “this recreation’s steadiness between the 2 is atrocious, certainly you would get nearer than this, it looks like 70-30 cut up, if not worse.”
Card video games have tried to steadiness the first-mover benefit in numerous methods. Magic: The Gathering doesn’t let whoever goes first draw a card within the first spherical, a consequential transfer given the large deck sizes and the significance maintaining momentum with new assets to deploy. Hearthstone offers with the problem by letting the second participant mulligan an additional card and get a one-time further mana enhance. Marvel Snap side-steps the problem fully by having each gamers play their turns concurrently. And whereas the table-top model of Pokémon TCG nonetheless stops the primary flip from attacking, it at the least helps you to connect an power and get your hand rolling.
Somebody will all the time have a slight benefit in TCG Pocket relying on the flip order. That’s why there’s a coin flip to assist make that as random as attainable. However it will nonetheless really feel means higher if the participant who goes second acquired to do one thing further, somewhat than simply penalizing whoever goes first. It’s attainable as new playing cards are added to the sport, the flip one benefit of enjoying further playing cards shall be extra worthwhile—that’s much more doubtless given one other of Pocket’s large modifications from the total TCG: letting Coach playing cards be performed on that first flip.
However for now it’s solely simply exploited by water decks operating Misty trainers and Articuno EX, and all of these gamers are scumbags anyway.
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