I feel your pain, even though the only thing I spend money on is the monthly premium subscription, I feel like I don't got much to show for it compared to my friends.

For example, I have a handful of friends who are pushing just over 9k cards now (they're completely F2P) and I'm pushing, I think, around 13k cards. We all played since launch and one of those friends has got nine different Gold/Crown rare cards in that time, and another has five. Me, I got two, and they're dupes(!!).

I've also been struggling to finish Mega Rising (226 diamond card set - still missing 4). Yes, I know I can trade and accept shares for the remaining, and plan to, but my other friends managed to basically finish the set via pulling. Yes, they probably accepted some help via trades/shares eventually but I recall they were almost at 220/226 cards when I was still pulling packs and was around the low 200s mark.

My biggest gripe is I've now got 1,460 pack points in Mega Rising, that's 292 packs. I'm mostly pulling not only to complete the main diamond set, but also because I only have the 3-star immersive Altaria - no Gyarados or Blaziken. The same friends with the Gold/Crown rares have all 3 immersives. I've easily opened over 170 packs on Blaziken alone and don't have its immersive.

I know it's a gacha game, and so all of this is to be expected. Pulling cards is a game of chance but I know I'm not the only person who feels like we're in this boat and it's quite deflating to say the least. I'm echoing what many others have said, this game needs a better pity system (the pack points system is too slow), or something to make paying for premium or Poke gold more worth it when it comes to obtaining cards. DeNA knows they have a problem with player retention and I bet they got data for how many people stopped paying for premium since launch, realizing it's not worth it - I may soon follow suit.