The principle: one blurred card, six tries
Each round shows a card from Pokémon TCG Pocket, the mobile card game. At first it is blurred to the point where only masses of color can be made out. You get six tries to name the featured Pokémon: with every miss, the blur drops one level and the card gets sharper, until the full reveal at the end of the round.
The pool only contains Pokémon cards: Trainer and Supporter cards are excluded. Any card featuring a Pokémon can appear, from commons to the rarest pulls, and the expected answer is always the Pokémon itself. Whether the card is called "Charizard ex" or simply "Charizard", the answer to submit is Charizard.
Reading the clues on a card
A Pokémon card packs a lot of information, and each piece becomes a clue as the card clears up. Learning to read them turns every sharpness level into a deduction.
- The card's color: a card's background reflects its energy type. Red for Fire, blue for Water, green for Grass, yellow for Lightning, purple for Psychic, brown for Fighting, dark for Darkness, gray for Metal. Even heavily blurred, that dominant hue already narrows the field.
- HP as a proxy for the evolution stage: a basic Pokémon usually shows low HP, while a final form or a Pokémon ex shows a lot. Once the number becomes readable, it tells you whether to look for a small early-line Pokémon or a final evolution.
- The evolution stage label: knowing whether the card is a basic, a stage 1 or a stage 2 rules out entire families.
- The attacks: many cards carry the Pokémon's signature move. A readable attack name late in the round is almost a free answer.
- The illustration style: the pose, the scenery and the mood of the scene point toward a family and an era.
A bit of culture: the great TCG eras
The Pokémon Trading Card Game has existed since 1996 in Japan and 1999 in the West, and each period left its own visual codes. The Base Set and its watercolor illustrations by Ken Sugimori defined the classic imagery: plain backgrounds, simple poses, first-generation Pokémon. The ex era of 2003 introduced the first overpowered cards with a lowercase suffix, followed by LV.X, then the uppercase EX in the early 2010s.
Recent eras sped things up: GX in 2017 with Sun and Moon, V and VMAX in 2020 with Sword and Shield, then the return of the lowercase ex in 2023 with Scarlet and Violet. Pokémon TCG Pocket, launched on mobile in 2024, carries that language on: ex cards, full-frame illustrations and spectacular rarities. Knowing these landmarks helps you place an artwork and understand the labels that appear as the card unblurs.
The deduction method, level by level
The blur lifts gradually, and each level allows different readings. The winning habit is to extract everything readable before spending a try:
- Levels 1 and 2, the color masses: identify the illustration's dominant hue and the frame color. A red background with an orange mass points to a Fire family.
- Levels 3 and 4, the silhouette: the pose, the number of limbs, a tail or wings can be made out. This is the moment to choose between members of the same evolution line, often close in colors but rarely in build.
- Levels 5 and 6, the details: the HP, the evolution stage and the attack names become readable. A signature move is almost a given answer.
Finally, budget your tries: a "probe" guess on the most likely member of a family costs one level but confirms or eliminates the whole line. And remember that finding early pays more: if you are 90% sure by the second level, go for it.
Game modes and scoring
The TCG Card quiz is played in Common mode (one mystery card a day, the same for everyone, refreshed at midnight Paris time) and in Replay mode (a personal daily card). Your score depends on the number of tries used and your speed, with a bonus tied to your win streak. Winning day after day builds your streak, and a streak of seven wins unlocks the Dragonite avatar.
The TCG card also appears in the Daily Challenge and in PVP multiplayer, in the same form: one blurred card, six tries, and a blur that lifts with every guess. After each Common round, you can share your result and check the day's leaderboard.
How to play: name the Pokémon, not the card
Type a name in the search field and pick it from the list: autocomplete recognizes both English and French names. The suffix on special cards is ignored, so there is no need to add "ex". If your guess is right, the round is won instantly, even on a first try against a card that is still unreadable.
If you miss, the try is spent and the card sharpens by one level. After six failed tries, the round is lost. Either way, the full card is revealed at the end, with its exact name and its set of origin: a nice chance to discover artworks you had never seen.