Art Gallery Booster Pack Simulator! All Sets!

pokemonsim

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Hi all! Not sure if this is the right place for it, but I started a side project to simulate Pokemon TCG booster packs because I couldn't find any packs near me and ended up having tons of fun on the way.

Check out pokemonsim.com here!

You can even see a gallery of cards that you've collected along the way.

It's awesome to get back into the TCG after many years away.

So what do you think? How are the pull rates?
 

Charmaster:)

Collecting, playing, & making family memories.
Member
Pokémon TCG Pack Simulator Review

I’ve done just a little digging so far, and although I can’t speak as to the historical accuracy of the pull rates just yet, you seem to have the number of cards per pack down pat! The pack simulator that I had previously tried gave you ten cards from every pack, which was not only inaccurate, but also made me skeptical as to how accurate the pull rates were. It didn’t help that I was consistently pulling Alterate Arts as much as other hits from the Chilling Reign pack simulator. In this simulator, however, I can already see that you at least know how many cards were in a pack. What sets had 11 card packs, what sets had 9 cards packs, what sets had 10 card packs. I was relieved to see that the McDonalds packs were one card packs (except for the 25th anniversary, which is 4 cards). Celebrations was also four cards like it is supposed to. I was a little confused at first by the fact that Double Crisis was a 7 card pack, but when I looked it up I saw that 7 cards was correct.



I then proceeded to open some packs of Celebrations. I opened a few and the pull rates seemed about correct based off of my research, and the same applied to the handful of Shining Fates packs I opened.



I then opened 180 (give or take) packs of Deoxys, and here were my pulls:

  • 2 Pokémon Star (Rayquaza, Latias)
  • 5 Pokémon ex (Crobat, Deoxys Speed, Deoxys Defense, Salamence, and Sharpedo)
  • 46 Holo Rare (excluding reverses)


Total of 53 hits across 180 packs. That’s a 29.4% hit rate, which seems close.



https://www.flipsidegaming.com/blog...rehensive-review-of-rarity-in-the-pokemon-tcg



Now, my source for pull rates in the Pokémon TCG for specific classes of cards from older eras is this article, which says that the approximate pull rate for Pokémon Star is about one every two boxes (which checks out), and the approximate pull rate for Pokémon ex was 1:12-18 (which is two to three times more than what I got). Of course, I have to realize that my sample size, though it may seem large, is actually rather small. Also, this experience is less like opening 5 booster boxes and more like opening 180 loose packs.



https://www.flipsidegaming.com/blog...-review-of-rarity-in-the-pokemon-tcg-part-two

(Here is part 2 of the article posted above.)



For specific pull rates for more modern sets, I use CardZard. CardZard analyses the pull rates of tremendously large samples of each new set as it comes out, specifically analyzing pulls from Booster Boxes and Prerelease Kits for the most accurate results. Just look up “Pokémon CardZard [set name]” and you’ll see an image with the set logo (not symbol, logo), the words “Pull Rate”, a dark gradient background, and some simplified statistics with card images. Click on that and scroll down to see some more specific statistics. Here is the link for the Vivid statistics. ( https://cardzard.com/blogs/news/vivid-voltage-pull-rate-data)

The website states that the confidence level for the Vivid Voltage statistics is 95% with a 2% margin for error, taken out of a sample of 2184 packs from Booster Boxes and Build and Battle Boxes. This adds a lot to the credibility of the site.

CardZard has data compilations for Champions Path, XY Evolutions (ETBs only), Hidden Fates, Vivid Voltage, Shiny Star V (a Japanese set, so you don’t have to worry about it), Shining Fates, the McDonalds 25th Anniversary promotion, Battle Styles, and Chilling Reign. I’ve also seen CardZard “thumbnail tables” for Evolving Skies and Celebrations, but those aren’t listed on their website for some reason.



I noticed that you included a basic Energy in the Sun and Moon packs like in the official TCG, which is nice, but for some reason the same doesn’t apply to the Sword and Shield packs. I mean, it isn’t a very big deal, but it may matter to someone.



Some recommendations for potential future features (if you’re interested):

  • Weighed Packs. Until Pokémon started creating different types of codes to make packs all weigh the same, people could weigh packs to figure out if they included any hits. When I say “weighed packs”, I’m saying it might be nice to be able to have an option for opening a pack that is guaranteed to have a hit (“heavy”) or guaranteed to not have one (“light”), partly to help people figure out the odds of pulling a certain card in a heavy or light pack (or just figuring out how different hits compare to each other in rarity) and partly because someone may want to use this simulator for a custom draft or something and may want to control the number of packs with hits.
  • It would be neat to be able to open the card packs from Prerelease Kits/Build and Battle Boxes. That way people could simulate Prerelease Tournaments. Which would be a neat experience.
  • Along the topic of simulating drafts, could it be possible to allow members to sort the cards in their collection into folders of their own creation? That would certainly increase the versatility, convenience, and user-friendliness of the program.


Overall I really enjoyed using this program. It’s already a great program, but it also has a lot of potential for becoming by even better!



Hope that this feedback is helpful! I had a lot of fun opening the packs, so I’m probably going to make an account so I can start saving my pulls. Also, without a program like this, I could probably never open any packs for older sets like Base Set, Deoxys, or Skyridge that cost several hundred dollars a pack. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to authentically experience the opening of these packs online.
 

pokemonsim

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Pokémon TCG Pack Simulator Review

I’ve done just a little digging so far, and although I can’t speak as to the historical accuracy of the pull rates just yet, you seem to have the number of cards per pack down pat! The pack simulator that I had previously tried gave you ten cards from every pack, which was not only inaccurate, but also made me skeptical as to how accurate the pull rates were. It didn’t help that I was consistently pulling Alterate Arts as much as other hits from the Chilling Reign pack simulator. In this simulator, however, I can already see that you at least know how many cards were in a pack. What sets had 11 card packs, what sets had 9 cards packs, what sets had 10 card packs. I was relieved to see that the McDonalds packs were one card packs (except for the 25th anniversary, which is 4 cards). Celebrations was also four cards like it is supposed to. I was a little confused at first by the fact that Double Crisis was a 7 card pack, but when I looked it up I saw that 7 cards was correct.



I then proceeded to open some packs of Celebrations. I opened a few and the pull rates seemed about correct based off of my research, and the same applied to the handful of Shining Fates packs I opened.



I then opened 180 (give or take) packs of Deoxys, and here were my pulls:

  • 2 Pokémon Star (Rayquaza, Latias)
  • 5 Pokémon ex (Crobat, Deoxys Speed, Deoxys Defense, Salamence, and Sharpedo)
  • 46 Holo Rare (excluding reverses)


Total of 53 hits across 180 packs. That’s a 29.4% hit rate, which seems close.



https://www.flipsidegaming.com/blog...rehensive-review-of-rarity-in-the-pokemon-tcg



Now, my source for pull rates in the Pokémon TCG for specific classes of cards from older eras is this article, which says that the approximate pull rate for Pokémon Star is about one every two boxes (which checks out), and the approximate pull rate for Pokémon ex was 1:12-18 (which is two to three times more than what I got). Of course, I have to realize that my sample size, though it may seem large, is actually rather small. Also, this experience is less like opening 5 booster boxes and more like opening 180 loose packs.



https://www.flipsidegaming.com/blog...-review-of-rarity-in-the-pokemon-tcg-part-two

(Here is part 2 of the article posted above.)



For specific pull rates for more modern sets, I use CardZard. CardZard analyses the pull rates of tremendously large samples of each new set as it comes out, specifically analyzing pulls from Booster Boxes and Prerelease Kits for the most accurate results. Just look up “Pokémon CardZard [set name]” and you’ll see an image with the set logo (not symbol, logo), the words “Pull Rate”, a dark gradient background, and some simplified statistics with card images. Click on that and scroll down to see some more specific statistics. Here is the link for the Vivid statistics. ( https://cardzard.com/blogs/news/vivid-voltage-pull-rate-data)

The website states that the confidence level for the Vivid Voltage statistics is 95% with a 2% margin for error, taken out of a sample of 2184 packs from Booster Boxes and Build and Battle Boxes. This adds a lot to the credibility of the site.

CardZard has data compilations for Champions Path, XY Evolutions (ETBs only), Hidden Fates, Vivid Voltage, Shiny Star V (a Japanese set, so you don’t have to worry about it), Shining Fates, the McDonalds 25th Anniversary promotion, Battle Styles, and Chilling Reign. I’ve also seen CardZard “thumbnail tables” for Evolving Skies and Celebrations, but those aren’t listed on their website for some reason.



I noticed that you included a basic Energy in the Sun and Moon packs like in the official TCG, which is nice, but for some reason the same doesn’t apply to the Sword and Shield packs. I mean, it isn’t a very big deal, but it may matter to someone.



Some recommendations for potential future features (if you’re interested):

  • Weighed Packs. Until Pokémon started creating different types of codes to make packs all weigh the same, people could weigh packs to figure out if they included any hits. When I say “weighed packs”, I’m saying it might be nice to be able to have an option for opening a pack that is guaranteed to have a hit (“heavy”) or guaranteed to not have one (“light”), partly to help people figure out the odds of pulling a certain card in a heavy or light pack (or just figuring out how different hits compare to each other in rarity) and partly because someone may want to use this simulator for a custom draft or something and may want to control the number of packs with hits.
  • It would be neat to be able to open the card packs from Prerelease Kits/Build and Battle Boxes. That way people could simulate Prerelease Tournaments. Which would be a neat experience.
  • Along the topic of simulating drafts, could it be possible to allow members to sort the cards in their collection into folders of their own creation? That would certainly increase the versatility, convenience, and user-friendliness of the program.


Overall I really enjoyed using this program. It’s already a great program, but it also has a lot of potential for becoming by even better!



Hope that this feedback is helpful! I had a lot of fun opening the packs, so I’m probably going to make an account so I can start saving my pulls. Also, without a program like this, I could probably never open any packs for older sets like Base Set, Deoxys, or Skyridge that cost several hundred dollars a pack. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to authentically experience the opening of these packs online.

Yowza! What a thorough review! Thank you so much! (And sorry it took me so long to reply, I saw this, but was working on a bunch of new features like a crazy person).

I don't have much experience playing the game in recent years, so I wouldn't know about the draft experience, but your ideas are interesting. Can I DM you to talk about details and other things?
 
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