Card Rarity in TCG Pocket

For those who deal with the cards of the TCG - physical or electronic - they'll recognize that many cards can be commonly found. However, other cards, particularly special and/or "full art" versions as well as those with foil borders, are much harder to find, and this plays into the concept of "rarity". The physical cards (that also belong to the TCGL) actually have their own system for this concept, which might seem a little less evident, and I'll save that to deal with another time. Meanwhile, TCGP implements its own system, and that is what I would like to discuss presently.

The system for the TCGP has what I'll describe as "tiers" and "levels". At the bottom is the Diamond tier, which can be construed as being "common". It also has four levels, from one Diamond to four Diamonds. Those of one or two Diamonds are on the whole representative of common Pokémon with the usual windowed art and regular borders, while those of three Diamonds are of uncommon Pokémon with foil borders. Meanwhile, the level of four Diamonds contains Pokémon ex cards with vivid windowed art, and is thus the most basic level for them (though in a different sense they're not "basic"). Regardless, all cards in this tier do comprise the foundation of not only decks but also the body of cards as a whole.

Next on the tier structure is the Star tier, which would be "rare"; it has three levels, from one Star to three Stars. In the one-Star section, there are "full art" cards of different Pokémon species (some common and others less so), while in the two-Star level, there are "full art" cards of select Supporter cards and Pokémon ex cards. Meanwhile, the three-Star level is where the "immersive cards" reside, indicating that while they are not on the highest rarity level, they're still pretty rare to merit their own rarity level. All of the cards here have their characteristic art and unique borders, and while they may or may not be used frequently, they are functional just as they're interesting to look at.

At the top of the heap is the Crown tier... which is also its own (and thus only) level and can be considered "ultra rare". The only four cards currently residing in this tier all have golden backgrounds and represent the highlight Pokémon of the four current (sub-)expansions: Charizard, Pikachu, and Mewtwo for Genetic Apex and Celebi for Mythical Island, all of them Pokémon ex cards - which also happens to be the case for the three-Star level as above with the "immersive cards". It may be possible to consider these two levels as being related in content, and future expansions will feature their highlight Pokémon in them.

Cards of the Pokémon TCG are mostly gotten through random draw (gacha), and thus it would be expected that some cards would be rarer than others. The Pocket iteration of the Pokémon TCG shows this rather nicely with its structure of tiers and levels, having all its possible cards neatly organized into these sub-divisions, almost to the point of becoming predictable. While one cannot predict what cards one will get from the next booster pack, at least in TCGP, the rarity might be more easily predicted as per the above.

One year ago: Let's Talk About Being In and Out of Place

Two years ago: Three to Get Ready, Go

Three years ago: TCG 25th Anniversary (Plus Localized Content)

Four years ago: New GBL Novelties

Five years ago: On Third Parties

Six years ago: The Loading Screen of Go

Seven years ago: Team Assistance and Secrecy

Eight years ago: "They can imitate you, but they can't duplicate you..."