It’s the best day of the year – Pokemon Day! We can’t think of a better way to celebrate other than digging out your deck, dusting off your shiny Charizard, and playing Pokémon TCG Live.
After a long time in beta, the game launched globally on June 8th 2023. Whether you’ve been keeping up to date with every expansion or haven’t played since the days of Red and Blue, there’s lots of awesome stuff to dive into!
A Digital Playground to Battle and Collect
Ask any player who has purchased a booster pack and they’ll tell you the Pokémon Trading Card Game is about two things. The first is curating a carefully crafted deck, using the latest metagame to cultivate strategies. The second – amassing a collection of the shiniest cards possible. Pokémon TCG Live is focused squarely on these two things, letting you collect digital versions of all the real-world cards to use in simulated online battles.
The game has not changed its fundamental rules since its very first set, great news for lapsed players jumping back in. Players pit their Pokémon Cards against each other, evolve them to make them stronger, use Trainer Cards to get an advantage, ready them for attack with Energy Cards, and claim one of their six Prize Cards for every felled foe to inch closer to victory. There are newer mechanics, including Supporters and Pokémon ex, though they add extra depth rather than rewrite the rulebook. The opening tutorial will teach you all about them and refresh you on the other rules too.
Once you’re done with the tutorial, you will be able to play in either Casual Mode or Ranked Mode. The former will give you the choice to play in the Standard Format, which includes all sets from the last two years or so, or the Expanded Format, which uses all cards dating back to Black & White in 2011. Ranked Mode is the big new addition that wasn’t in Pokémon TCG Online, adding the competitive angle many players have been wanting. Like Magic: The Gathering Arena and Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, there is no single-player campaign. You will be playing against real-world randoms in both modes of play.
Collecting Cards in Pokemon TCG Live
Thankfully you won’t need to beg your mum to buy you some cards to play with your friends. The game will give you several competitive decks at the start, with more available through the rotating Battle Pass. It won’t be long before you want to build one all of your own. It’s easy to add more to your collection, and more bespoke than it was in Pokémon TCG Online. You can purchase Booster Packs to grow your collection as you would IRL, or cash in credits for specific cards.
This is one of the bigger changes for Pokémon TCG Live, replacing trading from its predecessor. Rather than having to grow a deep collection to barter for better cards, you can exchange credits for any card at any rarity level you want. Credits are easy to earn, given to you for completing daily missions and offloading extra cards from your collection.
Now if you’ve been building a substantial card collection on Pokémon TCG Online for the last decade, you won’t want to see that vanish. Thankfully, you will be able to transfer it all over to Pokémon TCG Live.
Are There Micro-Transactions in Pokemon TCG Live?
A wise man once said that free-to-play does not mean free. Thankfully that isn’t the case here. There are no micro-transactions or means to spend real currency in Pokémon TCG Live. Instead, there are different currencies you will earn by completing quests, through Battle Pass, and by levelling up. Each currency has a different purpose; credits, as we mentioned earlier, are exchanged for specific cards. Coins are used to buy extra cosmetic options for your avatar as well as deck sleeves and boxes. Crystals can be used to purchase digital versions of real-world Pokemon TCG products like booster packs, ex Battle Decks, and Ultra Premium Collections.
While you can also redeem codes packaged with physical Pokémon TCG products to unlock their digital facsimiles, the system is balanced enough so the game falls in the play to win column rather than pay to win.
Pokemon TCG Live Official System Specifications
It’s not just a good collection of cards you’ll need to play, but a good system too. The official system requirements for Pokémon TCG Live have already been revealed, so you can make sure your PC is ready to play.
| Component | Minimum Specs | Recommended Specs |
|---|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows 7/Windows 8/Windows 10 | Windows 10 64-bit |
| Processor | Intel Premium D/AMD Athlon 64 X2 | Intel Core 2 Duo/AMD Athlon 64 X2 |
| Memory | 3GB RAM | 4GB RAM |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT/ATI Radeon HD 2600XT | NVIDIA GeForce 240 GT/ATI Radeon HD 4850 |
| Network | Broadband internet connected required to play | Broadband internet connected required to play |
| Storage | 3GB available space | 3GB available space |
The Best PCs to Play Pokemon TCG Live
If you’re in need of a new system or an upgrade to your existing setup, then you’ve come to the right place. We here at Overclockers UK have plenty of gaming PCs and laptops that will be great for playing Pokémon TCG Live. We’ve picked out our top selections below, but if these don’t suit your vibes, you can shop all our PCs and laptops below.
Available to order for £1,099.99* with free next-day delivery.
Refract Gaming Amber Pre Built PC
Part of our range of pre-built Refract Gaming PCs, the Amber is an ideal entry system if you are just getting into PC gaming or prefer to play casually. Designed to perform at a consistent 1080p resolution at over 100 frames per second with popular titles like Apex Legends and CS:GO, this is a great system for playing Pokémon TCG Live. And with a generous 1TB SSD, you’ll be able to fit in more than just your army of spare Rattata cards.
Gigabyte G6X Gaming Laptop
For those who want to play Pokemon TCG Live on the go, there is the Gigabyte G6X Gaming Laptop. Equipped with an Intel i7 13650HX CPU and NVIDIA RTX 4060, this laptop can handle any task you throw its way. Thanks to 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB M.2 SSD, your gameplay will remain uninterrupted by latency or input lag. What’s more, the 16.0” FHD+ display and 165Hz refresh rate deliver high-res visuals and fast response times.
Available to order for £1,99.99*.
How Will You Be Celebrating Pokemon Day?
Got any plans for Pokemon Day? How will you be celebrating? Let us know in the comments.
*Prices correct at time of writing and PC specs are subject to change.
- 6 min read
Jacob Smith
Author
Jacob is a passionate gamer, plus a noted Pokemon and LEGO nutjob, who emerges only when doing the words here at Overclockers UK. Since starting at the tail end of 2021, Jacob has gone on to write dozens of blogs on everything from the latest games to whimsical Dickens-inspired poetry. Outside of creating content and being the one person in the office daring to champion Nintendo, he is often found fawning over his Pokemon card collection and his trio of lovely doggos.
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