Now even moreso, thanks to the Mythical Island pack launch.

I have a vicious love-hate relationship with Pokemon TCG Pocket. It is, without a doubt, my favourite mobile game released this year. It is a wonderful game, taking a snapshot out of the physical TCG and morphing it into this easy to endearing virtual collectathon. It has, also, manifested a side of me I thought died once I turned 21 years old. An angrier me, with a visceral hatred for strangers around the world.

Pokemon TCG Pocket has me up at 2AM on the regular, at an age where doing so has become far less appealing. I go to bed annoyed, and wake up with the ghost of that still haunting me. Drinking coffee on a beautiful morning thinking about Mewtwo EX decks, and how carried those who play them obviously are. This isn’t the sign of a bad game. Quite the opposite. Only a truly great game demands such emotional investment.

A while ago we wrote about how the game needed some form of competitive ranked match, some way to try your might against other pokemon trainers across the world. Since then, the game has featured something that isn’t quite what we wanted, but got competitive juices flowing nonetheless. First, a basic PvP mode that rewarded players for earning wins. Only a few weeks ago, a similar mode that required consecutive wins. This last one sank its hooks into me.