As someone in the rare position of writing regular articles about the Pokémon TCG, I often lament the fact that such a small proportion of fans actually appear interested in the G at the end of the name – the game attached to the Pokémon cards they love to buy.
It’s truly the only popular tabletop game I can think of that works like this, where the cards involved are collectibles first and foremost, and pieces in a competitive game a distant second.
But as much as it may personally frustrate me that strategy tips and news about cool new cards falls on deaf ears, while the umpteenth article about Pokémon card price movements breaks the internet, for the actual playerbase of the Pokémon TCG, being in such a small minority is (arguably) pretty cool.
The fact most Pokémon fans aren’t interested in cards for their power is a major reason Pokémon cards can be so cheap: that every card can have a cheap and cheerful version available for a dollar or two at the absolute maximum. While you can choose to spend thousands on rare Pokémon cards to bling out your deck if you want to, you can also easily construct a tournament winning deck for less than the price of a takeaway.
We can see the alternative in a TCG like Magic: The Gathering, where you have very few active collectors that don’t also play the game. Here, how playable a card is is a major factor determining its cost. Competitive cards will balloon in price, to the point that building a real-life deck, selecting the cheapest variant every time, will still cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
For Pokémon TCG players, the non-playing, collecting Pokémon fans effectively subsidize the hobby. Because there are so many fans who will crack packs just hunting for the ultra-rare SIRs and other top chases, it allows the ordinary versions of those cards to become bargain bulk.
This is the reason Pokémon remains the cheapest TCG to play by a long, long margin – far more affordable than even the brand new games that have sprung up in the last few years.
Therefore, while I may not understand the fervent desire to own rare cards just to have, not to play with, and find it strange that a large proportion of the Pokémon fanbase would be just fine if the cards had zero rules text on them, I shouldn’t look a gift Ponyta in the mouth. If tomorrow, every fan suddenly decided to storm their LGS and learn to play the game, it might actually make the Pokémon TCG worse.
Source: Wargamer
