I play Pokémon TCG Pocket every day, and I have since it launched. With somewhere north of 6,000 cards in my collection, it’s my most-played mobile game to date — so when I pulled six cards instead of five, it blew my mind. After opening hundreds of packs, I only expected five cards. The sight of a sixth one had me Googling whether it was a bug or something I’d missed.
As it turns out, the most recent update (the addition of the Wisdom of Sea and Sky packs) added a slight possibility that players could pull six cards instead. It’s like a regular pack plus one card, and that last pull often contains a baby Pokémon like Pichu, Cleffa, or Elekid. The feature is a nod to Pokémon Gold and Silver, just like the pack itself. With Ho-Oh and Lugia as the respective legendaries of the two games, it’s no real surprise they make an appearance as the card art — but Gold and Silver also introduced the idea of “baby” Pokémon, pre-evolutions to existing favorites.
When you draw a sixth Pokémon card, the animation is slightly different, but it took a couple of times before I actually noticed the tweaks. The change is subtle, so you might not realize it until you’re staring down at six cards in total.
Players have roughly an 8.33% chance to pull a sixth card out of a normal pack. Each of the two packs offers a different set of Pokémon, with the Ho-Oh set offering Magby, Smoochum, and Tyrogue, while the Lugia set offers Pichi, Elekid, and Cleffa. So far, it seems like the six-card draws are the only way to organically obtain a baby Pokémon (not counting Togepi, which can appear in any set).
That means the actual chance of drawing some of these cards, like the coveted 1-star Pichu, is close to 1%. If you want to get your hands on them, you’ll need to play regularly and take advantage of hourglass draws, too. The good news is that the dev team just awarded players an extra 10,000 Trade Tokens, and you can exchange 60 of these for 60 Pack Hourglasses. You can also exchange 100 Trade Tokens for 1,000 Shinedust for trading with other players, so it’s slightly easier to get your hands on the cards you’re missing.
All in all, you have around a 29% chance to pull a baby Pokémon as your sixth card. Aside from the adorable card art, these picks offer something else, too: the potential for a free ability. While their attacks don’t inflict damage, they do give you an edge. For instance, Cleffa can use Twinkly Call to put a random ‘mon in your hand, while Magby can use Toasty Toss to attach a fire energy from to a Pokémon on the bench.
All of the baby Pokémon only have 30 HP, so they’re vulnerable to even weak attacks. They aren’t currently able to evolve into higher-stage Pokémon, either, so playing them is a bit of a risk. These are great for early-game rushes, but you need a strategy in place to get them off the field once they’ve served their purpose. That holds especially true in Pokémon TCG Pocket with its much faster-paced gameplay.
This update feels like one of the best ones yet, and while it isn’t confirmed, the chance to pull better cards feels slightly higher compared to earlier sets. It’s a good time to be a Pokémon fan, especially with Pokémon Legends: Z-A launching soon and Pokémon Champions just around the corner.
