Twitch Plays Pokémon (TPP) is a social experiment in which commands representing buttons on a Nintendo handheld are entered into a chat on Twitch, and then translated into a game of Pokémon via an IRC bot. In short, hundreds of people are fighting over a controller. Throughout its life, Twitch Plays Pokémon has spawned hilarious characters, memorable moments, and even a few religions.
This particular run is actually an intermission of Pokémon Trading Card Game, played between major runs starting after Twitch Plays Pokémon XD. This run stars, rather fittingly, Yugi, as he attempts to become the King of the Pokemon TCG. Naturally, that means it's time to d-d-d-d-duel, with many "Heart of the Cards" jokes and abridged series quotes abound.
Naturally, like the previous run, Pokémon Trading Card Game is played in alternating order with Twitch Plays Pokémon: Arena, an intermission of Pokemon Battle Revolution where players bet on either Red or Blue teams in Pokemon battles and control what the computer may choose for them. The way both games work is, after a battle has been concluded, people have 50 seconds to vote for a command where the one with the most votes gets that command inputted. Those who voted also have a chance to win tokens, in which they can either place them in a pool, use them to create custom matches or play custom music, or gamble them in a slot machine.
In the days before Twitch Plays Pokémon Crystal Anniversary, it was changed to the Main Run input system, and the mob was able to finish the game early a few hours into February 14, 2016. Following the completion of the first game, the mob was immediately thrown into the game's sequel, now with a new character named Mint. This run was on standby for a while, but returned again after Twitch Plays Pokémon Crystal Anniversary ended.
See also here
for the archived status of the TCG run, here for the archived status of the TCG2 run. See here for archived progress of the first game in screenshot form.
Note: Only tropes unique to this particular run should be listed here. All tropes for the original game can be found on its own page.
Twitch Plays Pokémon Trading Card Game contains examples of:
- Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: Lore gives Yugi one of these to replace the Puzzle and the Pharaoh after the Pharaoh left at the end of the series that is commonly interpreted as how the chat talks to and guides him. Naturally, the chat doesn't exactly have the same card playing prowess as the Pharaoh did, so whether or not Yugi feels the same way about the chat as he did the Pharaoh is up to interpretation.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different:
- Who ever thought the chat would be taking control of a Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonist?
- Despite the sequel having the same male protagonist from the first game, the mob opted into choosing the female protagonist named Mint.
- Mechanics-wise, the run went through three Democracy systems: the one-input system from Arena, the tug-of-war system from Crystal Anniversary, and the token-bribing system of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.
- Crossover: With Yu-Gi-Oh!, as most lore portrays Yugi as the actual Yugi wearing Mark's clothes.
- Disc-One Nuke: A few days before Crystal Anniversary, the game's Democracy system was changed to the traditional Anarchy/Democracy system, complete with stacked inputs. Combined with the fact, at this point, the game is now played without interruptions, this allowed the mob to finish the game much faster than the Arena intermission. The same system retained for the game's sequel, or whatever the mob can finish before Crystal Anniversary starts.
- Interface Screw: In celebration of April Fools' Day 2016, the stream rotated the screen 180 degrees, making the game and the stream's HUD upside down.
- The Magic Poker Equation: Hey, considering the chat's controlling a Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonist, what did you expect? That said, this trope tends to be a bit... All over the place when it comes to play. Sometimes the chat ends up bricking rather hard, other times stuff happens that truly makes you consider the whole "Heart of the Cards" phrase. For example, in the practice duel, the chat ended up getting rather close to losing. When all hope seemed lost, the chat drew a Starmie while they had a Staryu out, managed to evolve it, and completely turned the match around.
- Took a Level in Badass: Yugi is dueling without using the Pharaoh's help or guidance in this series. While he does have the TPP chat helping, considering past history, this means Yugi is still taking a step up from his home series until the last few episodes of it where he became the new King of Games.
- To Be a Master: Lore usually has Yugi's goal as such, with him trying to become the King of the Pokemon TCG to prove himself since he no longer has the Pharaoh's help.
