>>40340302There used to be TCG cards in the anime, but the dubbers made them stop because they had to paint edit them out due to burger laws.
But in general, it's just because the TCG is, lore-wise, just about two trainers having a Pokemon battle, with various current stuff from the games being featured on the different cards. The anime is already showcasing all that stuff and isn't really going to win anyone over by going "hey, Pokemon battling is cool, but you know what would be even cooler? If we just battled with cards that had pictures of Pokemon on them".
