Pokémon TCG Pocket denies the folded envelopes trick: it fooled us from the beginning

Although we told you a few days ago about the trick to knowing which Booster Pack to choose in Pokémon TCG Pocket, this “strategy” is not such, but rather an illusion that the video game itself offers, and that we have unfortunately and mistakenly believed like so many other video game media. Roughly speaking, when we want to open a new deck, the video game has already chosen which five cards will be in it, so the carousel of deck choices is just a visual addition that does not affect the outcome of the cards we get in any way.

Pokémon TCG Pocket’s Biggest Cheat Explained: How Opening Booster Packs Really Works

Since its release last October 30th, Pokémon TCG Pocket, a new Pokémon card game for iPhone and Android phones, has been making a lot of headlines in video game news. As usual with the first video games, its popularity has created its own buzz. In general, during the first week of the game’s availability, the belief that a bend or other flaw in the top of a Booster Pack is an unmistakable sign that it contains a good card, such as a Pokémon Ex, has become very popular.

However, once the initial fever has subsided, it is necessary to examine the facts. This belief is not only unfounded, but can be dispelled by several features of the video game itself. For one, you can skip the Booster Pack selection animation and go directly to the contents of the Booster Pack you opened. This would be a clear indication that the game is not “selecting” a booster pack from all the possible ones, but that it is skipping the animations to show us the cards we have received, which would imply that they have been selected beforehand.

Another key factor that serves to reinforce this is the Wonder Pick mechanic, which serves to show friends or other players against whom we have recently fought the five cards that were played in a recently opened booster pack, and allow us to choose one of them to add to our collection. The presence of this other system confirms that the contents of each booster pack is indeed something that is predetermined with each opening, and not something that can be influenced by the player’s “choice” of booster pack.

It is a waste of time to look at the booster packs one by one to see if there are any mistakes in the top. From the clues given by the video game itself, it has been shown that the “choice” of the booster pack itself is a trick to create the illusion that we can “choose” which cards will appear, and to make the opening of each pack more exciting. The reality, for better or worse, is much simpler: the cards we get are decided in advance.

In general, this is a subtle retention strategy similar to that of slot machines, where the “hook” is neither the collecting aspect nor the card duels themselves, but the opening of Booster Packs. In other words, the people behind Pokémon TCG Pocket want you to open a lot of Booster Packs so that you will continue to use their game and eventually spend money on it.