Hi there. In this post I talk about the modern problems of the Pokemon TCG in early 2025. Early 2025 as in as of March 2025 when I write this. The problems are more of the supply and demand of the cards and not so much of the game. I put one short section about the game issues.
The Pokemon TCG game after Prismatic Evolutions is not too bad right now. In the Scarlet & Violet era there are multiple deck contenders that are competitive and can win big regional tournaments. There are a few cards that kind of ruin the game in a few ways.
Budew
Snorlax Stall
Snorlax Stall in 2025 is not as popular compared to 2024 but it is still annoying. The deck tries to deck you out in a long, torturing manner. Snorlax prevents retreating, Miss Fortune Sisters removes Item cards from your top 5 cards, Eri discards Item cards, Xerosic's Machinations reduces your hand size, Mimikyu as a wall against Pokemon V and Pokemon ex. The main annoying card is the Snorlax. The other cards are not used that much except for Mimikyu.
Fezandipiti ex
Fezandipiti ex is too forgiving of a card. One of your Pokemon gets knocked out then you can use this to get 3 new cards.
Other than those three things, the game is at a good state I think. Lots of options to choose from, different playstyles and ways to win.
For me personally I don't like the tournament scene for larger events. It does not appeal to me as I have other priorities than trying to win points for a chance to get an invite to a world tournament. (I could just travel instead.)
Local tournaments in Pokemon TCG are good for testing out decks, trying to win some prizes, trade cards and meet people. At locals you have your casual tournaments for newer players and experienced ones where no Pokemon Championship points are on the line, League Challenges for a soft introduction to Pokemon TCG tournaments and League Cups which could have something like 30 players and a best of 3 format for top 8 matches.
The next tier of Pokemon TCG tournaments are regional tournaments. Regional tournaments are held in a big city in a country where players in the city, country and even players from other continents come in play competitively and try to win or place high for Championship Points for World Championships. These regional tournaments have typically 1000, 2000 or 3000+ players. These are open invite so anyone can sign up and play.
Those are the tournament tiers for Pokemon TCG. I don't like this open invite system because you can have a guy who never played in person before be in this event and theoretically get destroyed in the tournament. Maybe open invite is for trying to report big numbers for player attendance. Open invite registration would be for people who are waiting on their computers to register ASAP during normal 9-5 working hours. I think there should be some sort of local invite system for local players near the regional to get priority booking if they have a certain Championships threshold. Even local qualifier tournaments could be okay.
I don't understand the absence of a tournament between a local tournament at 60 players to a regional tournament at 1000+ players. What if there are Pokemon TCG tournaments that have something like 100 to 400 players in a big city area. This would be larger than your normal standard local tournament and not as big as a large regional tournament with thousands of players. Regional tournaments take 2 days while a large local tournament with a 100 - 400 players could take 1 day like on a Saturday or Sunday.
The scalpers and hoarders have entered the Pokemon TCG. They really take the buy low and sell high to the extreme. You may have seen videos of people fighting it out at Costco and other retail stores to buy product. Instead of trying to make money like most people with day jobs, or invest in stocks, bonds, crypto they turn into scalping. Buy low and sell high on Ebay.
Here are some clips of people going crazy for product. It looks like Black Friday shopping all over again.
Here is a scene near my area at a Toronto, Ontario, Canada Costco. Which Costco? Not sure as there are many in the city and surrounding parts. These guys really wanted some mini tins from the Pokemon 151 set.
https://x.com/pokebeach/status/1901323699007176862
This ain't a Pokemon battle. They battling it out MMA style or something. Pretty messed up.
For Anti-Scalping there are stores that are selling sealed product but are removing the plastic seal off of it. That way the product cannot be resold. Once the plastic seal is broken then the sealed product is not authentic. This is one way to deter scalpers and ensure that buyers will actually open packs.
What makes the scalping situation worse is that the Pokemon Company is not really able to keep up with the demand. The increased out of control demand has started sometime in November 2024 with the Surging Sparks set. Surging Sparks features Dragon Pokemon from Japan's Paradise Dragona and Pikachu ex. Nostalgia is bringing non-regulars back to the Pokemon TCG for collecting and playing.
Surging Sparks Pokemon cards are hard to find and even if you find sealed product the prices will be at least double of what they are usually are. With Prismatic Evolutions and the Eevee cards there are scheduled reprints throughout 2025. But still there was low product availability to meet crazy demand for the Eevee themed set.
I hope that there is more production of cards to help out both players and collectors.
Thank you for reading.
