After getting stale for a bit too long for a launch month, Pokémon TCG Pocket has finally launched a new event into its rather echoey corridors—the Venusaur Drop Event. And oh wow, it comes with a winnable card that’ll go straight to the top of your binder.
Much like the earlier Lapras Drop Event, the Venusaur version is a collection of player vs. CPU battles, in which the game will play increasingly more powerful builds of decks based on the OG grass-type starter’s final evolution. Beating these gains you a clutch of awards, with extra bonuses to unlock if you re-battle each stage to complete specific missions.
And, much like the Lapras event, it’s bogged down by yet another bullshit in-game currency limiting how much you can play it, in the form of “Event Stamina (Solo)“ hourglasses. However, this time out it seems to be an awful lot more generous with the prizes it offers, throwing out handfuls of the item everyone actually wants—Pack Hourglasses—along with Wonder Stamina, Shinedust, Shop Tickets, and more Event Hourglasses to let you keep playing. Oh, and most importantly, it’s far kinder when it comes to handing out packs of the new Promo Pack A Series Vol. 2, in which you can pull a new set of stamped promo cards, including a wonderful new Venusaur full-art illustrated by Kuroimori.
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It’s pretty rudimentary to complete a first run through all four levels. Unlike the Lapras deck, Venusaur builds haven’t exactly entered the meta for good reason, and it’s hopelessly weak to a half-decent Fire Type build. (If you’ve got the Charizard/Moltres deck built, you’ll hammer through it in minutes.) But that’s no bad thing, given you’ll also get a total of 20 Pack Hourglasses, meaning you can tear open at least one extra pack for the day, and four chances to open the one-card promo packs.
My son, who blitzed the event, was grimly unlucky, although that serves him right after he got a Lapras ex first pack in the previous drop event. I, however, then made him furious by pulling the new Venusaur not just in my first pack, but my second too! Haha, that that, ten-year-old.
You can then keep replaying the tiers, finishing other tasks like “Make your opponent’s Pokémon Asleep 1 time,” or “Win this battle by turn 12,” which will reward you Wonder Stamina and Event Hourglasses, and given the “Win 20 or more battles” task on the top tier, also give you a new grind until the event is over on December 13.
There are five cards to pull from the promo packs, each with art that’s not been in Pocket before (although some familiar from the real-world cards). There’s Haunter, Jigglypuff, Onix, Greninja, and that splendid Venusaur. It’s just a shame the latter is spoiled by having the big, ugly blue box obscuring the image, madly overlapping the actual Venusaur itself. Dammit.
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