Pokémon Pocket Review: No Buffs or Nerfs - Is This Strategy Sustainable?

Today, we'll discuss the future of Pokémon Pocket. Unlike other digital TCGs, the dev team behind the game decided to tackle the meta without nerfing or buffing any cards. Instead of releasing patch notes, the team decided to just add more cards to the pool, as well as many reprints or updated versions of already existing Pokémon. This strategy is quite similar to what happens in the physical Pokémon TCG.

Let's see how this traditional approach will affect the game long-term, and how the meta can change as a result.

If you don't know me: my name is Gabriel, or "total", as I'm known online. I have a game design degree, and worked as a professional Legends of Runeterra caster for Riot Games for five years. I also play card games professionally in competitive circuits.

The dev teams behind digital card games like Hearthstone, Marvel Snap, and Legends of Runeterra often change their cards with buffs and nerfs to keep the meta balanced. This approach is extremely common in multiplayer games, and you will rarely find anything different in modern titles.

Pokémon Pocket, on the other side, is one of the few games where nerfs and buffs aren't used to balance the meta. Instead, the dev team prefers a traditional approach, which is very similar to what happens in the physical Pokémon TCG.

The main way they balance the game is by releasing new cards, and these, in turn, replace old cards in the best meta decks, updating them naturally. As such, instead of changing a card that is too strong or too weak, the team simply introduces new options to the card pool to keep the game fresh.

This is a practical solution that the dev team can easily implement to update and balance the game. As Pokémon Pocket is inspired directly by the physical TCG, it can also reuse already existing arts and adapt them for the mobile version. Furthermore, creating cards for the game is also a relatively simple process: you just need to be careful with the rarest cards, like Gold and Animated cards.

This way, the dev team will just release more sets frequently to meet our demand for fresh metas. Competitively, for instance, a meta forms in just a few weeks, so we'll need constant updates if the idea is to keep the game as diverse as possible.

However, this approach, despite practical, can create a few problems long-term - as we'll see soon.

Just like in every TCG, Power Creep (which is when new cards get exponentially stronger, and end up a lot stronger than old cards) is inevitable in Pokémon Pocket, and it can become an issue.

The difference is that, in this game, this issue can come up earlier than usual because of the approach the dev team decided to take to balance the game. We can already find a few cards that are a bit stronger than their previous iterations.

Additional Problems Power Creep Can Create in Pokémon Pocket

High Entry Barrier

The game's fast-paced rhythm can make it extremely difficult for new players to start playing. Even if they invest money, a beginner might have to open several packs of different sets to get the cards they need to build a competitive deck.

This can create a closed environment where veterans dominate the game and new players can hardly win any matches. If a beginner notices they can't catch up to older players without spending a lot of time and money, they can get frustrated and abandon the game altogether.

Weak Sets Usually Fail

Power Creep creates a vicious cycle: every new set needs to introduce cards that are strong enough to motivate players to invest in them. After all, no one wants to spend money on packs that don't offer you anything better than what you already have.

If a set doesn't include stronger cards, the interest in the game may die out, which, in turn, will lead us to stale metas that last a long time and make many players frustrated.

If They Can't Manage Power Creep Well, It May Destroy the Game

If a new card is way stronger than any other card, it might dominate the meta completely. If we don't find any efficient counters to beat it, the game will become repetitive, as all players will use the same deck or variations of it.

We, as players, won't have the freedom to pick which strategy we want to play, as we'll have to use a single archetype if we want to win. The meta won't be diverse, and our experience will be boring and frustrating.

Besides Power Creep. Pokémon Pocket may face other challenges because of this balance decision. It might create polarized metas that last for months until a new set comes along.

Players may get stuck with an unbalanced meta for a long time, which will make them more frustrated and anxious for the new set. This already happened on a small-scale with the very first meta in the game - dominated by Mewtwo ex. Until the next set came along, all tournaments and matches in this meta were dominated by Mewtwo ex and Pikachu ex.

Another possible problem is that the game's card pool might grow too much. When numerous cards are introduced to the game too quickly, they can create bugs and unbalanced interactions.

To deal with this, the dev team behind Pokémon Pocket can implement a few restrictions in the future, such as: