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Win.gg Pokemon Fans upset about new premium card in TCG Pocket, here’s why

Fans upset about new premium card in TCG Pocket, here's why

M Alzamora
M Alzamora Published 01/01/2025
Google Preferred Source
Battling in Pokemon TCG Pocket.

The January premium rewards are out for Pokemon TCG Pocket, but some fans are upset over the “free” card for the new month.

While Pokemon TCG Pocket is a free-to-play game, many have invested in the premium model for its numerous benefits. These include getting to open a third card pack daily and getting regular access to exclusive rewards. But as the January updates have begun rolling out, some premium players are annoyed about what they hoped was going to be a cool new promo card.

Here’s what the new premium card is in Pokemon TCG Pocket and why fans are upset it.

Moltres ex is the January premium card in Pokemon TCG Pocket

While premium content is meant to be exclusive, many are pointing out that the January promo card  in Pokemon TCG Pocket is basically a duplicate of Genetic Apex’s Moltres ex card.

The new Moltres ex card breaks with the previously established pattern of premium promo cards. First, unlike November’s Pikachu or December’s Mewtwo, Moltres isn’t a full art card. It’s also nearly identical in design to the Moltres ex card fans can pull from the Genetic Apex booster set. The only difference is that the titular Pokemon is facing a different direction.

The Moltres ex card from Genetic Apex and Moltres ex from the January premium rewards.

Left: Moltres ex from Genetic Apex. Right: Moltres ex from the January premium reward set.

Many were expecting to get a new full art for Charizard and have expressed their disappointment with the Moltres ex being delivered instead. After all, Charizard is the third and final mascot from the Genetic Apex set and the only one to not have a premium promo card in Pokemon TCG Pocket. To maintain consistency, it would have made sense to introduce a full art Charizard and round out the existing collection. Given the theming of other January premium rewards, the decision to include Moltres rather than Charizard is confusing for many players.

In Moltres ex’s favor, it is a notoriously difficult card to pull and makes up one half of the powerful Charizard ex/Moltres ex deck. Players who are mainly focused on Mythical Island at this point and need that second fire bird have been welcoming the card, even if the design is still lackluster. Some suggest that Moltres ex would have been better-received had it at least been more interesting visually, rather than simply being a horizontal art flip.

Players can unlock the premium Moltres ex card in Pokemon TCG Pocket just by logging into the game. From there, they can complete other missions to purchase the rest of the exclusive January rewards.

Other premium January rewards in Pokemon TCG Pocket

Starting in January, Pokemon TCG Pocket players have the ability to unlock a number of different rewards in the premium shop based around popular Pokemon Charizard.

In addition to logging in, other premium missions award premium tickets to be spent on exclusive items in the shop. Players can earn such tickets by completing tasks like wonder picking, opening packs, and collecting 11 cards of a specific type. Each mission awards either one or two premium tickets. These can then be spent on new cosmetics like:

The premium Charizard rewards will be available in Pokemon TCG Pocket past January and through the very beginning of March. Players can also find Pikachu-themed cosmetics through the end of the month.

M Alzamora M Alzamora
About M Alzamora

There are few things that writer M Alzamora loves more in life than Pokemon. And there are even fewer things that she loves more than her favorite Pokemon, Eevee. But M’s appreciation for gaming isn’t just limited to Nintendo’s famous pocket monsters. She’s interested in every type of game across every genre of gaming, and she has the credentials to prove it. M’s work has also been seen on Working Classicists and gaming sites.

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