Pokemon TCG Pocket Just Added a Shiny Mewtwo Ex Card Locked Behind a $23 Pay Wall

Pokemon TCG Pocket's recent expansion, Shining Revelry, just gave up this week. While fans are enjoying the new shiny Pokemon card of all colors of the rainbow, there is still one who causes some sort of division: a shiny Mewtwo Ex card for players who pay $23 for real money.

What's going on: Mewtwo Ex is a card that already exists in many forms in the game. It adds gene apex to the first group, which has a “regular” version, an “immersive rare” version, where Mewtwo breaks the closure, and a “golden crown” version on the gold background. These three versions have exactly the same action and power levels, so it doesn't matter which one you use in the match. But they are all rare to varying degrees, so it is crucial for those who want to “catch everyone” to track down these three.

The Mewtwo Ex in question is another version of the same card with the same effect. The difference is a cosmetic: this Mewtwo Ex is “shiny”, so it's green, not pink, with a different background. However, in the new Shining Revelry extension, it also takes up a separate slot in your card collection, which means collectors want to 100% finish the collection and need it.

Here, he is in all his shining glory:

Unfortunately, the card is available only in one way: paying $22.99 in real money by bundling a store containing Oke Gold, a bunch of other Mewtwo-themed cosmetics (such as coins, players, etc.) and the card itself. There is no other way to get it by wrapping or Wonder Pick or anything else.

Some players have poor reactions to the news.

Their frustration is understandable. Pokemon TCG pockets have been on sale for several months and have experienced four different expansions in different sizes as well as multiple activities. While the paying players have had some advantage in the speed of collections and other cosmetic rewards until now, this is the first time a card has been locked behind a Golden Beam paywall. More importantly, this is a bundle that itself is worth much more than the card, as it includes other items such as currency.

That is, some fans opened their eyes wide during the controversy. Some people point out that the card is purely cosmetic – it's no different from other Mewtwo you can get, and if you don't need to switch on some option in the settings, you won't even see it missing in the collection. Others point out that in the past, some other promotional cards were locked behind having a premium membership, which itself was a paid monthly subscription (although $12/mo, there are other benefits).

However, the biggest concern of players may be the slippery slope of all this. If the Pokemon TCG pocket was willing to board the Mewtwo in this way, would it board on other cards? If the game eventually starts to lock on brand new cards with new effects behind the paywall, what if the player wants to have a specific effect on the deck and actually asks the player to pay? Even if there are no signs of this happening, some people are still worried that it may happen over time.

IGN contacted Pokemon Company to comment on this change, criticism and the possibility of future cards.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior journalist at IGN. You can find her post on bluesky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Is there a story tip? Send it to [email protected].