Pokemon TCG Pocket was released earlier this week, and players are already falling in love with a certain Pokemon. It’s cute, powerful, and has great deck utility (and great duck utility)… it’s Farfetch’d!
For those who don’t play Pocket, it’s basically a card collecting/pack opening simulator with the ability to play a stripped down version of the Pokemon TCG. The rules are simpler, the battles are shorter, and due to free-to-play and the availability of boosters for players who do not spend any money, it is much easier to build an engaging competitive deck.
Currently, there is only one “set” of collectable cards available in Pocket, called Apex Evolution. It’s a great idea to start them all with one set from scratch, so that at launch the playing field is fairly even and the meta is still messy. But as spotted by ComicBookFarfetch’d has risen above the rest as a component of almost any deck you want to build thanks to its unique combination of advantages.
First of all, it is a base Pokemon, so you can play it from the very beginning of the game without having to evolve it. Secondly, like most other Basic Pokemon, it has an attack that only costs one Energy, so it can attack almost immediately without any buildup. But more importantly, this attack (Leek Slap) deals a whopping 40 damage, which is a huge amount for one energy cost, a Pokemon’s basic move. As a regular card, Farfetch’d is simple for anyone to get, so getting one or two in your deck doesn’t require much expense or much effort. Finally, since Farfetch’d is a “colorless” card, it can be added to any deck and consume any type of energy, making it very versatile.
Of course, Farfetch’d is ultimately not the winner of the long game. This is great if you want to play aggressively because you can get him on the board quickly, deal a lot of damage, and then retreat at the cost of a single energy he already had before his 60 HP gets too low. But in the Pokemon TCG, this is usually enough. Farfetch’d can keep your opponent busy while you build bigger monsters on your bench, and can support stop your opponent from making similar massive moves as quickly as possible. A truly powerful bird and fans praise it accordingly.
Back in September, we previewed Pokemon TCG Pocket. As our peep wrote, it’s “mostly a place to collect cards, and maybe that’s all it should be.” But with Farfetch on your team, it might be worth diving into the battles after all. When will we get full art of this guy or an EX version?
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Her posts can be found on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Have a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
