I built an animated Pokémon TCG Simulator with Next.js & Tailwind

bigBenQin — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 12:54:50 +0000

Hey developers! 👋

I've been working on a side project for the past few weeks, and I'm excited to finally share it with you all.

TL;DR: I built PokeSuite, an all-in-one Pokémon toolkit that focuses on UI/UX and satisfying animations instead of just static text lists.

🚀 I just launched on Product Hunt today! If you like the project, I'd really appreciate your support:
👉 Support PokeSuite on Product Hunt

💡 The Motivation

As a long-time Pokémon fan, I noticed that most "randomizers" or "team generators" out there are functionally great but look like spreadsheets from 2005.

I wanted to build something that felt like a modern web app—responsive, dark mode by default, and interactive.

🛠️ The Tech Stack

I built this using the modern React ecosystem. Here is what's under the hood:

Framework: Next.js 14 (App Router) – For SEO and performance.
Styling: Tailwind CSS – Made building the dark mode UI incredibly fast.
Data Source: PokeAPI – The holy grail for Pokémon data.
State Management: React Context + LocalStorage (No login required for users).
Deployment: Vercel – Zero-config deployment.

✨ Key Features

TCG Pack Simulator: This was the fun part. I used CSS animations to mimic the feeling of ripping open a booster pack.
Competitive Team Builder: It includes filters for VGC and Smogon tiers (OU/UU), which required some complex data filtering logic.
Spinning Wheel: A physics-based wheel to pick random Pokémon.

🧠 The Challenge

The hardest part was handling the massive amount of data from PokeAPI without slowing down the UI. I had to implement efficient caching strategies and optimize the images to ensure the "Pack Opening" animation remained smooth on mobile devices.

🔗 Try it out

It is completely free, open to everyone, and requires no sign-up.

Live Site: https://www.pokesuite.com
Product Hunt: 👉 Support us on Product Hunt