PTCG Live: The Complete Guide

What’s goin’ Po Town readers? Have you tried playing PTCG Live yet? If you haven’t heard yet, PTCGO is on its way out, and PTCG Live is on its way in - it's only a matter of time before we all play PTCG Live together as a community. PTCG Live is the newest way to play Pokemon TCG on one of your compatible devices, and it aims to be a 1-to-1 replica of our physical Pokemon TCG. I’ve been playing PTCG Live for about a year now (because I had access to the early Canadian-only beta program), and I have a few helpful tips to share with our Pokemon community. If you are trying to grow your online Pokemon TCG Live collection, consider picking up some code cards right here at PoTown.com! You’ll be closer to finishing off your collection and maybe even finishing your latest deck masterpiece! There is a lot to cover, so let's jump right into it!

PTCG Live is an app for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, and Mac devices that allows you to play Pokemon TCG digitally! In order to start, you’ll need to download the game on whichever device you own:

iPhone / iPad: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1557962344

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pokemon.pokemontcgl&pli=1

Mac: https://installer.studio-prod.pokemon.com/installer/PokemonTCGLiveInstaller_Mac.dmg

Make sure that your device meets the system requirements here: https://tcg.pokemon.com/en-us/tcgl/#system-requirements

Once you complete the download and any other requirements to start the game, load it up! You’ll be greeted with the login screen and any other notifications the game shares with you before you enter your username/password. Depending on when you’re reading this article, there might be an option to migrate your account from Pokemon TCG Online or not. If you don’t have any need to play PTCGO anymore / don’t have a Pokemon TCG Online game, it might be best to migrate. In short, migrating transfers most of your collection (if any) from PTCG Online to PTCG Live at the cost of losing your PTCGO account. Pokemon Trading Card Game Online will be obsolete / sunsetted in the future, but some players haven’t fully transitioned to PTCG Live and might not want to for various reasons. Personally, I’m keeping both my PTCG Live and Pokemon Trading Card Game Online account separate for the purpose of playing in unofficial Pokemon TCG tournaments on the Play Limitless website, coaching, and testing with my friends who only have PTCG Online client. It should be noted that you can build a collection on both apps at the same time, so be sure of your decision before clicking migrate or not. There are some things like having a specific amount of packs and maximizing your PTCGO account before you migrate, but I plan on sharing that in a future article! Once you get to the loading screen, you’ll see that there are many different areas of this app to explore! Let’s do just that!

Near the top of the screen (location might vary depending on your device), there are many buttons that you can click on to explore different areas of PTCG Live. From the home page, you can access areas to play games, build decks, edit your profile, shop/redeem codes, work on completing the battle pass, access settings, and more! This is usually the area where you will play games with other PTCG Live users, and you can choose between Casual or Ranked ladder games to test your favourite decks. Casual games would be a great place for a new player or to test off an unpolished concept before bringing it to a ranked game. Ranked games are likely to feature more competitive decks, players, and the games can allow you to go up the ladder. After selecting which mode you wanna play, click on Play to start a game! If you click on the Pokemon avatar, it will show you how far you’ve progressed in the monthly reward ladder, and you can see the Poke League and Ladder End Rewards. Hot Tip: Set the deck you want to use as your Active Deck to use that specific deck

One of the most enjoyable things to do in any card game is to create your own deck, and you can easily start that process by utilizing the deck tab. PTCG Live gives players quite a few semi-competitive decks to start off with, and those cards are also added to your collection for you to play around with. If you want, you can use these ready-to-play Pokemon TCG decks and test them out against your friends or play them on the ranked ladder to jump right into the action. If you’ve redeemed any codes, earned cards from the Battle Pass, or acquired cards in any way, you might wanna create your own deck. Click on Create a Deck, and you can either freely make a new deck or import a deck from your clipboard. If you want some inspiration for meta decks, tournament successful lists, or wanna see different strategies, look at the completed results from a recent Late Night Event here: https://play.limitlesstcg.com/organizer/194. You can import a deck from one of those events by copying it to your clipboard and pasting it right into PTCG Live. If you want to freestyle your own deck, you can create a new one from scratch. Hot tip: click on the filters button and under “show cards”, and select “all”. This will allow you to see the cards you own and the cards you don’t - your deck might require a mix of both! With your filters selected like that, you can easily breeze through creating a deck and even crafting cards.

Instead of spending hours trading for cards, PTCG Live has introduced a new crafting system that makes deck building easier. Let’s say I want to build a new Charizard VSTAR [Brilliant Stars] deck from scratch, but I don’t own every single card I need for the deck! Once you search for Charizard VSTAR in the Card Library (remember to filter your cards to all so that you can see all owned and unowned cards), it should pop up to see if you own any. You might own different variations of the art, and you can expand your options by clicking “available”. Once you select the desired art, you can add however many you want into your deck and see if any are missing (the missing copies will be greyed out). You’ll have the option to exchange your credits for the missing card (s), and you can add them to your collection. There are many different rarities/variations of cards on PTCG Live, so be cautious of the amount of credits you are spending because some cards might cost more or less than others. Speaking about credits, this would be a great time for me to explain how the currency system works in PTCG Live!

PTCG Live has its own currency that is broken up into three categories: Coins, Gems, and Credits! This is a completely new system from PTCGO so let me explain what each different currency does.

Coins are acquired by redeeming codes in the “shop” tab and going over the amount that PTCG Live can hold. As of right now, you can redeem 4 of each promo code, 4 of each deck code, 20 of each Build and Battle kit, and 400 of each Pokemon TCG set. You can also buy Coins with Gems in the Shop! You’ll get a varying amount of Coins from the above method, and you can also unlock them from the Battle Pass and Daily Quests. Coins are used to unlock Deck Boxes, Deck Sleeves, Flipping Coins, and Aesthetics for your Character.

Gems are acquired by migrating your PTCGO account to PTCG Live and having a certain amount of packs transform into gems in the process. You’ll get a varying amount of Gems from the above method, and you can also unlock them from the Battle Pass and Daily Quests. Gems are used to unlock the Battle Pass, the Premium Battle Pass, Packs, Bundles, and other high-value items.

Credits are acquired by redeeming codes in the shop and having more than the max copy of each card/item in the game. You’ll get a varying amount of Coins from the above method, and you can use these to craft any available cards in the game!

Your profile allows you to share your personal style by customizing your character! You can customize your face shape, hairstyle, glasses, hat, top, bottom, and shoes, choose a fun catchphrase, and even pose! You can view your Pokemon TCG Live stats here, which show the amount of games played, your win/loss record, and even your winning streak! If you click on the friend's tab, you can add a friend into PTCG Live by typing in their username! Once you have successfully added your friend, you can challenge them to a game of Pokemon from here.

If you have any Gems on your account, you can spend them in the Shop. Remember, Gems are acquired by migrating your PTCGO account to Pokemon TCG Live and having a certain amount of packs transform into gems in the process. Additionally, you’ll unlock Gems from the Battle Pass and/or Daily Quests. If you don’t have enough Credits to acquire your desired cards, you can always pick up a bundle, booster pack, or anything else! Plenty of great bundles feature fully constructed decks that could see decent success on the PTCG Live ladder!

You can always check out how much of a certain set you’ve accumulated by selecting that specific set. You can click on the most current set to see how many cards you’ve collected out of each set. You can also click on “view card gallery” to see the cards you have and the cards you haven’t collected yet! Both players and collectors can rejoice by crafting the cards that they are missing from their collection to fill up a set list and put the finishing touch on their deck.

When it comes to redeeming code cards that you get from the PoTown store, you can only redeem 400 codes per set to add to your collection! I recommend redeeming 400 codes per set to maximize your chances of completing the set and earning some valuable credits! You are limited to redeeming only 10 codes at once, and you can either copy and paste the typed-out codes, type them out yourself, or scan them via your camera. There is also a link that will share the drop rates for each set and explain how the system for opening packs works on PTCG Live.

The Pokemon TCG Live Battle Pass is the best way to grow your collection for free while playing in a competitive environment. The basic Battle Pass is free for everyone and resets every few months (be sure to check when the premium pass ends). You’ll have a few daily quests that refresh once you complete them, and those can earn you Coins, Battle Pass XP, and Gems. As you fill your XP bar to level up on the Battle Pass, you can earn Packs, Credits, Bundles, and more! The Premium Battle Pass does cost Gems, but you can usually replenish those Gems with the rewards you receive (as long as you unlock enough tiers in Battle Pass). The rewards are usually better than the normal Battle Pass, and you can unlock Bundles, Credits, Coins, Accessories, Packs, and more! Start playing right away!

This is where you can Migrate your PTCGO account to PTCG Live, adjust the sound volume and some battle options, and change the language.

What are you waiting for? Click on one of the download links and start playing Pokemon TCG Live today! The game gives you a great selection of free cards/decks to play with, and you can always expand upon your collection here at the PoTown store! Be sure to stay tuned for more articles from me in the future to quickly start your collection through migration and earning more credits, decklists, and more! I’ll catch up with all of y’all later! Happy playing!

Zach Lesage is a contributing writer for PoTownStore.com. As a Toronto local, he has been playing the Pokemon Trading Card Game since 2005 and creates Pokemon content as his full time career. With multiple prestigious accomplishments in the game, such as 2020 Players Cup 2 Champion and 2020 Oceania International Championships Finalist, he has proven his success in the game. Outside of the game, he travels the world, enjoys the culture of designer streetwear, and is a professionally trained chef. You can catch him at most Pokemon events and follow him on Twitter @ZachLesagePTCG.