New Pokémon Pocket Deluxe Pack ex update is a rip off

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 30/09/2025

The latest Pokémon TCG Pocket Deluxe Pack ex update is out now, but a lot of players are feeling let down.

Some are disappointed that the Pokémon Pocket Mega Evolution expansion and its leaked release date aren’t sooner.

However, the main frustration is how publisher DeNa has handled the new Deluxe Pack ex update.

Instead, the new limited-time packs only offer reprints and new versions of old cards from previous expansions with a guaranteed rare card.

Community furious over Pokémon Pocket Deluxe Pack ex update

The idea from DeNa makes sense, as the game prepares to add an all-new set with the upcoming Mega Evolution expansion.

But unnecessary hurdles have been put in the way of the player base.

For starters, despite being nearly a year old, Pokémon Pocket still has some glaring UI issues which make the user experience miserable.

As usual, the new packs have brought a ton of new rental decks and challenges – all of which have to be painstakingly accepted one by one.

This is especially annoying after DeNa added a collect all button for items like shop tickets, yet this goes unchanged.

And it’s particularly egregious for the Deluxe Pack ex expansion, which has brought 353 ‘new’ cards into the game.

New is in air quotes because, as a reminder, all of these cards are repeats from previous expansions but with different art or an odd new foil filter.

These new cards work for the expansion’s challenges and will show up under versions of unowned cards you’re looking for.

Yet, cruelly, these new cards are part of a new Pokédex and therefore apply to everything except completing Dex challenges.

The new cards do not count when trying to finish previous expansions’ Pokédex collections.

And while old cards work for missions and spam you with notifications, they don’t count towards the giant 353-card Dex with a one-month time limit.

All while downsizing these limited-edition packs from five cards to four. That is a rip off – pardon the pun.

Some of the community thought the cards not working for Pokédexes was a glitch but the official Japanese Pokémon Pocket Twitter has confirmed it’s intended.

Pokémon Pocket Deluxe Pack ex new cards

While some frustrating choices have been made, the expansion does at least offer some exciting new versions of previous cards.

A crown-rare Rare Candy, full-art Professor Oak, and an immersive Pikachu EX which looks at all the cover-art stars of previous packs are particular highlights.

The cards from this expansion with rare new art are as follows:

• Crawdaunt (☆)
• Farfetch’d (☆)
• Floragato (☆)
• Gardevoir (☆)
• Greninja (☆)
• Slurpuff (☆)
• Arceus ex (☆☆)
• Buzzwole ex (☆☆)
• Charizard ex (☆☆)
• Dialga ex (☆☆)
• Eevee ex (☆☆)
• Ho-oh ex (☆☆)
• Lugia ex (☆☆)
• Lunala ex (☆☆)
• Palkia ex (☆☆)
• Pikachu ex (☆☆)
• Mewtwo ex (☆☆)
• Mew ex (☆☆)
• Solgaleo ex (☆☆)
• Professor’s Research (☆☆)
• Lillie (☆☆)
• Lusamine (☆☆)
• Darkrai ex (shiny)
• Giratina ex (shiny)
• Rare Candy (🜲)

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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