New sets are coming to Pokémon TCG Pocket at a frantic pace—Shining Revelry is the fifth collection added since the game’s launch at the end of October last year. It also marks the first time the gacha mobile game has locked a card inside one of its extremely expensive bundles: if you want the inevitably sought-after shiny Mewtwo ex full art promo, you’re going to need to pay $25.
This isn’t the first time the game has put a card behind a paywall—every month there’s one card held back for those who subscribe to the pretty dreadful $10 Premium battle pass. But the mobile app has never locked one inside one of its pricey bundles before. To get the shiny Mewtwo full art, you’re going to need to pay that extra 25 bucks.
Shining Revelry marks the appearance of shiny Pokémon to Pocket. It’s a term that bemuses billions of parents, who understandably think it refers to holographic cards, but instead means pocket monsters colored differently to their usual appearance. In the real-world card game, these are enormously popular, thanks to their rarity and novelty. Collectors love ‘em, so it’s not the loveliest move to make one of the most desirable cards locked behind such a hefty paywall.
What’s even more frustrating is that these bundles don’t even offer value for money. (Well, relative “value,” given the entire store is based on the conceit of us paying real money for imaginary “gold,” in turn to buy sealed packs with incredibly poor pull-rates. We’re paying to gamble, but the prizes don’t tangibly exist.) Inside you get 120 Poké Gold, then a bunch of meh cosmetics (coin, playmat, sleeves, a frame), and the Mewtwo card. To buy 120 Gold at the regular price would cost $20, so you’re not even getting a discount!
And to reiterate, that “Gold” doesn’t guarantee you anything new. I recently made a sucker of myself and bought some so I could open a bunch of packs at once—I spent $20 and got not one single card I didn’t already have, and only duplicated two special art cards across 20 packs. (I had seven packs in a row contain nothing but two-diamond or lower cards!) That’s the nature of gacha.
If you load Pocket today, it’ll ask for an update, which adds Shining Revelry to the app. As has been the case for the last few new sets, there’s no celebratory offer of bonus hourglasses, or fun new challenges to unlock the same. You either spend a small fortune, or you open you’re usual one or two packs. Weeeee.
There’s another small change: the game has tweaked how Wonder Picks work. The good news: it’s now far faster, without that pointless pause before shuffling. The bad news: for some godforsaken reason it now reveals the other four cards you didn’t “pick” first, so you learn you didn’t get the card you wanted before it reveals the bulk crap you actually got. Wow, great stuff guys. Really thinking this through.
It’s also worth noting that of the two packs I’ve opened, and the eighteen I can see in my Wonder Picks, not a single one of them features a shiny Pokémon. But at least you can pay $25 to guarantee getting one of them!
.