The Pokemon TCG Pocket flair and Shinedust mechanics are how you apply cosmetic effects to your cards to show off in battle. Flair in TCGP is usually some sort of sparkly effect, hologram image or similar that sits on top of the card, creating some sort of effect either when you play it or just illuminating it generally.
Flair is one of Pokemon TCG Pocket's most nuanced - and poorly explained - features, with players often finding it confusing to understand, or getting given Shinedust long before they're actually told what it's used for. Don't worry though - we'll explain Flair below and how it works, so you can dazzle up your cards to their utmost degree.
How does Flair in Pokemon TCG Pocket work?
The Pokemon TCG Pocket flair system and mechanics for getting card cosmetics works in the following way:
- As you collect cards, you'll eventually start to get duplicates and multiple copies of the same card.
- Select a card you have duplicates of in the "My Cards" tab. There'll be a button underneath it that says "Obtain Flair"
- By removing a certain number of the duplicates from your collection, as well as spending some Shinedust, you can obtain a visual flair effect that can be applied to one of that card.
- The amount of duplicates you need to delete for Flair, as well as the cost in Shinedust, will depend on the rarity of the card.
- You cannot burn duplicates for flair effects if it would leave you with less than two duplicates total (the maximum amount that can be put in a deck).
- Each flair effect you unlock for a card unlocks another subsequent one that can be unlocked, a little progression tree for each card.
- You can apply flair effects to your cards in the decks you build, by pressing the little white box icon that appears on those cards that have cosmetics available now that you've purchased them.
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Obtaining duplicates for cards is simply the same process as obtaining cards normally, and there'll be certain cards that come up a lot. Shinedust, on the other hand, is tied to opening packs, levelling up, and as special mission, challenge and quest rewards like those tied to the Pokemon TCG Pocket Lapras ex event.
It's likely that Shinedust isn't going to be an issue or bottleneck for most players - speaking personally, I have more of the stuff than I could possibly spend, and it's finding duplicates of the cards you want to add flair to that's far more of a challenge. Finding some of the Pokemon TCG Pocket rare cards is more of a challenge - especially if you want those duplicates.
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