So...I quickly became a big fan of the Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket mobile game that came out last fall. As I've mentioned before on this blog, the Pokémon TCG is what really turned me into a gamer in the first place (despite my advanced age). From there I discovered MTG, then D&D, then other RPGs, including the OSR community. I write more about gaming than anything else on here, but if I had never discovered the Pokémon TCG (thanks to the kids I worked with at an after-school arts program), this blog would probably be primarily about comics, or music, or biopunk, or...I dunno, dogs or something.
The Pocket version is a great distillation of the physical card game into a quick and casual competition that works very well on a phone. A few aspects of the game have been tweaked for simplicity (the elimination of Energy cards probably being the most impactful), but it's largely the IRL game, shrunk down. Games are fast (around 5 minutes on average), and most of them feel like a little self-contained puzzle to be solved. The app also keeps free packs flowing to you, so even without spending a dime, you get the constant "thrill" of opening up boosters, searching for rare cards and variants. In case you can't tell, I dig Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket quite a bit, and it has definitely taken its place as the next in a line of mobile games that have been my go-to downtime entertainment.
And then, on March 28, ranked play debuted, and PTCGP become a much more serious matter. In the months leading up to start of the ranked ladder, there was really no in-game measure of your success other than a running log of how many games you've won. And that's cool, and it fits the overall casual feel of the app, but I had really been longing for something like this to give some weight to the games, like I used to have when playing Hearthstone and Auto Chess and Chess Rush. Plus...and this is a side effect of the new mode that has played out somewhat like I anticipated...I wanted a reason for players to quit disconnecting as soon as they felt like they were going to lose a game (leaving me to wait for the fairly extended timer to count down before I could move on, unless I just conceded), which actually happens way more than I would have thought in unranked play.
Of course I wanted to see how I fared on the ranked ladder. The point system is set up where you technically don't even need a winning record to advance, especially at lower levels where you earn bonuses for win streaks. It became pretty clear once I got into the weeds of it, though...especially as I read others' takes on the math involved in the climb...that reaching Master Ball (the top rank, not counting placing in the upper echelon of those who reach Master Ball) would be a grind. This wasn't unexpected...but it was really going to be a grind...hundreds of games even if you perform pretty well, and hundreds upon hundreds if you happen to be a solidly average TCG player like me (borne out by decades of experience in competitive formats).
Now, keep in mind...I really don't have especially onerous responsibilities in life. I don't have kids, for example...ones with fewer than four legs, at least. BUT...I do have fairly normal adult responsibilities, along with that persistent little daemon in the back of my mind telling me that I'm too old and ostensibly responsible to spend this much time trying to earn a little digital emblem that doesn't even necessarily mean I played the game with a winning record. It'll definitely make you question if the time spent is worth the reward, especially when you know the reward doesn't even indicate that you're actually good at the task involved. (Honestly, it's sort of a microcosm of getting a PhD...)
In the wee hours of this past Saturday, however, I got that final win necessary to put those all-important letters (MB) after my name on official documents. I reached the mountaintop...or, at least, the plateau where you can rest while the real go-getters are up there aiming for the peak. I probably used around 15 different decks in total to get there, including (but not limited to...and if you don't play the game, this is just going to seem like a bunch of gibberish): Gyarados/Manaphy (with Dewgong because I don't have an Origin Form Palkia...played this one pretty significantly, actually); Gyarados/Greninja/Druddigon; Rampardos/Hitmonlee; Rampardos/Lucario/Sudowoodo (both Ramp decks got played a fair amount); at least two different versions of Circle Circuit Pikachu; Arceus/Exeggutor; Arceus/Skarmony; Pachirisu/Zebstrika; Giratina/Darkrai (the bogeyman of the format, so my deck is named "Sellout"); Giratina/Mewtwo; Giratina/Greninja/Druddigon; and one or more decks using Wigglytuff, since the Jigglypuff line is my favorite group of 'mons.
Wigglytuff was actually kind of crucial, as a Wiggly/Weezing/Darkrai deck helped me rebound from a slump that sent me crashing down out of the Ultra Ball rank. I basically replaced Wigglytuff with Weavile to end up using the following deck (with tiny tweaks here and there) for a majority of the rest of my grind. I know it isn't the best, but I was able to play it A LOT without getting tired of it.
I'm pretty happy that I had Weezing in there, as it isn't a common 'mon in competitive decks these days, although I'll fully admit that the deck may be stronger overall with something else in those slots. As mentioned above, though, I was fine playing this deck for a lot of games.
How many games, exactly?
Well, since most of the people who will read this are friends that I don't expect to judge me for it, I'll give the real answer...
674. I went 338-333-3. At somewhere around five minutes a game (thankfully, often less than that in ranked mode, as players are ready to move on to the next game in the grind as quickly as possible)...well, I'm good enough at multiplicaton to know that I don't want to think about that math at all. Perhaps it's good enough to give the total amount of time as: pretty much every minute that could be spared from real life, and some that probably shouldn't have been, for the 15+ days I was caught up in the grind. My overall winning percentage as calculated by the game (so ties count the same as losses) was 50.1%. And if you take away the "gimme" wins when you're matched up against bots at the early levels, I may not have even had a winning record. But y'know what? I'll take it!
(And then...just so the world could have a little extra fun with me, I guess, I accidentally clicked back into a ranked game -- intending to just rest on my current points and not risk falling out of the Master Ball rank -- with a silly Golduck/Wigglytuff deck that was not exactly prepared for competitive play. So I did drop back out, thankfully winning my way back in with a two-win streak -- after losing my first "serious attempt" to recoup the lost points. So...you can add an extra four games to that total because I'm kind of an idiot.)
So where does this all leave me? Well, I intended to just care about it this one time, to prove to myself that I was capable and get the emblem for the first ranked season, and then go back to the casual enjoyment of the game that most players had been experiencing since it launched. But...apparently, having hit Master Ball, I may start next season already just a few ranks away from hitting it again (although still where most of the grind is found). And in playing casual games now, I do have to admit that I kind of miss having something riding on the outcome of my games. I'm honestly not a very competitive person in general...but I think I might be drawn back in...
And so, I'm telling myself this over and over: I do not have to succeed at this mobile game in order to prove myself to anyone. But man, is this game good at what it's designed to do. It hasn't managed to get any cash from me (yet), so I guess it's failed at its primary function (although it has raked in oodles of money from players around the world)...but as far as making me feel like there's always time for one more game, it's about as good as it gets. You might even say The Very Best.
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Alright, time to tie this all in with the stuff I normally like to post here on Monstrous Matters. I also happened to recently catch a Koffing in Pokémon GO, so to celebrate my little TCG achievement, I evolved Louise into a Weezing and decided I'd stat her out for OSR games, as I've done at times in the past. First of all, here she is with Tulip:
For this as a final result...
Weezing
HD 3 (11 HP), AC 11
Weakness: Fighting
Ability: Gas Leak - All creatures near Weezing (including other active Elemental Beasts) must save vs. poison (CON) each round or become poisoned by its noxious gas. Until healed, the poisoned creature takes 1 damage at the end of every round.
Attack: Tackle +5 (1d6 darkness damage)
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