Summary
ThePokemon Trading Card Gamehas an expansive history of competitive play, with some ups and downs over the years. As more cards enter the playable pool of cards to build decks around, there are bound to be a few that are a bit too powerful to allow in the meta.
Among these cards are some very powerful Supporters, Stadiums, Items, and even Pokemon. Not every card is always immediately understandable as to why it was banned, but it was done after carefulconsideration of the meta of the competitive scene.If you’re looking for the complete ban list of the Pokemon TCG, we’ve got you covered.
What Are Pokemon TCG’s Formats?
Just A Quick Refresher
There are three main formats in the Pokemon Trading Card Game, each one with its own ban list. The three formats are Standard, which comprises sets released (roughly) within the past few years, Expanded, which incorporatesall sets going back to the Black & White Base Set, released back in 2011, and then Unlimited, which lets players play with any card in the game.
For both Standard and Unlimited, there are no banned cards, players are free to build decks from whatever cards they want, using whatever combos they see fit or synergies they want to build around. That isn’t to say that everything is all good in the Pokemon Trading Card Game meta, but just that it’s healthy enough to not require a ban on any specific card in those formats. There’s always a chance that some new card will be released in an upcoming set that completely turns the meta on its head, requiring The Pokemon Company to revisit the ban list once again.
It is once we hit Expanded that the ban list starts to come into place.
What Are Expanded’s Banned Cards?
There May Not Be Many, But They’re Needed
Looking at Expanded, the Pokemon Trading Card Game brings in 23 cards that game designers determined to be either too powerful or too game-breaking to allow in competitive matches.
Sometimes the decision is made to reflect changes in a meta too far in one direction or another, or sometimes these decisions are preventative, with the team recognizing what could be a problem in the near future and what might not be.
Set It Released In
Archeops
Black & White - Noble Victories, 67/101;Black & White - Dark Explorers, 110/108
XY - BREAKpoint, 98/122, 98a/122, and 98b/122
Black & White- Plasma Freeze, 101/116 and 115/116
XY - Ancient Origins, 75/98 and 75a/98
Sun & Moon - Cosmic Elipse, 194/236 and 265/236
Hidden Fates, 58/68 and 68/68
XY - Phantom Forces, 99/119 and 118/119
XY - Primal Clash, 133/160 and 158/160
XY - Flashfire, 23/106
XY - BREAKpoint, 109/122
XY, 124/146;Generations, 71/83
Sun & Moon - Unified Minds, 206/236, 206a/236, and 253/236
XY - Roaring Skies, 77/108, 77a/108, and 106/108
Why Are Some Of These Cards Banned?
Looking At You Maxie And Lysandre
Some cards are immediately obvious why they got banned. Let’s take a look at two Supporters real quick,Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick from XY Primal Clashand Lysandre’s Trump card from XY Phantom Forces. Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick returns a Fighting Type Pokemon from your discard pile directly to your bench, and then lets you draw five new cards. This is a huge catch-up ability that can be easily abused to get you free Pokemon to your bench while still ending the turn with a solid number of cards.
Similarly, Lysandre’s Trump Card ensure that the game will never end by continuously cycling cards back into your library. Being able to return all the cards you’ve discarded, played, or had faint over the course of the game practically ensures you never run out of resources.
Other cards, like the Basic Pokemon Unknown 91/214 from Lost Thunder has a powerful ability that has the potential to be exceptionally not fun to play against. The unique Ability on Unknown, called HAND, states that once during your turn, before you attack, if Unknown is in your active spot and you have 35 or more cards in hand, you can use this ability to just win the game.
This ability has the potential to close out a game before your opponent even gets to draw a card under the right circumstances, so in order to avoid this scenario, they preemptively banned the card before it became too reliable.
