If you have lots of duplicate cards in Pokémon TCG Pocket, you can spruce up cards with flair. These cosmetic effects are entirely optional, and just a perk for getting duplicate cards.

You may want to snag some flair for cards, as doing so will help you complete the advanced missions for more Pack Hourglasses. (Though you should be able to complete the nine required missions without having to do this, as long as you do some other stuff instead.)

Below we explain what flair is and how it works in Pokémon TCG Pocket.

What is flair in Pokémon TCG Pocket?

Flair is a cosmetic effect you can add to your cards once you get enough duplicates of the card. The flair differs depending on the rarity of the card, as well as the card’s theme.

For example, a regular ol’ two-diamond rarity Kirlia card has some sparkles and stars show up as flair options, but the one-star rarity full-art Mewtwo ex card has options for purple bursts and hexagons.

Image: Creatures, DeNA/The Pokémon Company via Polygon

There are also two types of flair, one that adds an effect over the card called “cosmetic flair” (like shining stars or glitter, as shown with the Kirlia example above) and one that shows an effect when you play the card in a battle called “battle flair” (as shown with the Mewtwo card above).

How to get flair in Pokémon TCG Pocket

To unlock flair for a card, select the card from the “my cards” page and tap the “obtain flair” button. You’ll be prompted with instructions that note you’ll need to exchange duplicate cards and Shinedust, a currency you get for getting duplicate cards.

Lower, diamond rarity cards have to unlock the first cosmetic flair option before you can unlock the battle options, whereas the higher, star rarity cards only have battle flair options.

Lower rarity cards require more duplicate cards and less Shinedust, whereas higher rarity cards, like the aforementioned Mewtwo ex, will only require one duplicate card but a whole ton of Shinedust.

There are also some exceptions:

• The promo Pikachu card that you can get in the Premium shop does not require any duplicates in order to get flair for it. You just need to provide Shinedust.
• 2-star trainer cards (like a full art Brock card) do not have any flair options for it. You can only use duplicates of these cards to get Special Shop Tickets, as of writing this.

Other than that, the flair costs are as follows. Note that you need this number of cards in addition to how many the game says you need to have leftover. For example, to trade your duplicate 2-diamond Kirlias for flair, you’ll need to trade two cards in and have two cards leftover to keep. This means you technically need four Kirlia cards to get the flair.

(Thanks to Serebii.net for helping us fill in the blanks on some of the above information.)

How to equip flair in Pokémon TCG Pocket

Image: Creatures, DeNA/The Pokémon Company via Polygon

When making your deck, you will see a little flair icon on any card you have flair for. Simply tap that button to select the flair you want on your card to spice up your decks.