M Ellis reviews the popular card game and looks at the newest set - Astral Radiance!
The classic yet hard-to-play Pokémon Trading Card Game has an online variant, as it’s just as engaging as the real life version, originating in 1998. In 2011, the beloved card game received an online version, and features all 898 Pokémon with their respective cards. Each one is drawn by talented artists, and has moves that could help you if you start losing. Players start out with a basic deck, guided by and fighting NPCs with your prized Pokémon .
You can use in-game coins or QR codes from real life packets to buy more packs/Pokémon to fight online! If players don’t want to play the game online, they can always get cards from packs and booster boxes in real life. It may take a while to perfect a deck, but players will always have a blast fighting the opposition. There are many helpful videos on playing this trading game but I suggest this video from the Official Pokémon Team:
Back to Pokémon Trading Card Game, there are many rarities in the new set, including V, VMax and the all-new VStar. VStar features super powerful Star-Moves, with the rarity originating from Brilliant Stars.
There are lots more in Astral Radiance, including my favourite, Darkrai VStar. The moves are powerful and the artwork is incredible, as with every full-art card. These are all sought-after as they are quite rare but often obscenely powerful and can even carry your deck to the end of a difficult game.
Pokémon TCG has been around for a long time, yet it still finds popularity even today. Some may even have a friend, teacher or family member who used to play or still collects from this incredible game.
Overall, TCG is an amazing and addictive game (both online and offline) with cool art, moves and rarities. Definitely worth 4.5 stars, even despite its downsides like learning the game and/or collecting cards, give it a go and see if you dominate the battlefield.
Image Sources: First is from the official Pokémon website. Second is from Pokecollector, a TCG card tracker to help you track what cards you have and the final is a promotional art for the new set.
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