Pokémon TCG Formats, Rotation and Regulation Marks

Pokémon TCG rotation is the yearly removal of older cards from the Standard format, and it is decided by the regulation mark, the single letter printed in the bottom-left corner of cards since 2020. As checked on 17 October 2026, Standard allows cards marked H, I and J (and any later letter), while cards marked G left Standard on 10 April 2026 for in-person official events. Expanded did not change in 2026 and still runs from the Black & White series onwards, and Unlimited allows any card.

Choose the format you intend to play

Official tournaments are sanctioned by Play! Pokémon, the organised play programme run by The Pokémon Company International, and its TCG Tournament Handbook recognises three Constructed formats and three Limited formats. Constructed decks are exactly 60 cards, with no more than four copies of any card by its English name (Basic Energy aside), and matches are played for six Prize cards. Limited decks are exactly 40 cards built at the event from the packs you open, with no copy limit unless a card says otherwise, played for four Prize cards. If you are still learning the turn structure, start with how to play Pokémon cards.

Standard is the format most people mean by "a deck", and the only one that rotates each season. Expanded is a much larger card pool with its own banned list. Unlimited allows any expansion or promo released in the United States. The official Alternative Play Handbook adds variants, the best known being Gym Leader Challenge: 60 cards from the Expanded pool, one copy of each card except basic Energy, every Pokémon of one type, and no Pokémon with a Rule Box or ACE SPEC cards. The handbook says some groups keep their own extra ban lists, so ask before you build.

Read a regulation mark

Look at the bottom-left corner of the card face. On cards printed since 2020 there is a single capital letter there, and that letter is the regulation mark. On Scarlet & Violet series cards the same corner also carries the expansion code, a short set abbreviation in a small box: white text on black normally, black text on white for parallel foil cards. The official rulebook's card diagram labels the expansion code and the collector card number as separate parts, and neither decides legality. The set symbols guide covers identifying the set itself.

The rarity symbol is a third, unrelated mark. From Scarlet & Violet onwards, a solid black circle, diamond or star means common, uncommon or rare, two black stars mean double rare, and shiny gold or foil stars mark the higher rarities. It has no bearing on legality, and the rarity symbols guide explains each one.

Cards printed before 2020 have no letter at all. Such a card only counts as Standard legal if a printing with a current mark exists under the reprint rule below.

Check current Standard eligibility

As of 17 October 2026, checked against the 2026 rotation announcement (posted 9 January 2026) and the TCG Tournament Handbook (last revised 1 September 2026), Standard accepts regulation marks H, I and J, and any later mark. The G mark rotated out on 10 April 2026 for in-person events and on 26 March 2026 in Pokémon TCG Live. The handbook gives the dates each current mark became legal: H on 5 April 2024, I on 11 April 2025 and J on 6 March 2026.

Legality goes by the letter on the card, not the set it came from; the announcement says even a card from a recent expansion has to be checked by its mark. New cards are not legal on the day they go on sale. The handbook makes them legal on the second Friday after the product first goes on sale in the United States. Where a set's products arrive on different days, the two weeks run from whichever comes first of the booster display, booster bundle or sleeved booster pack. Promo cards have their own dates on the official Promo Card Legality Status page.

We found no announcement of the next rotation in the Pokémon TCG news on pokemon.com when we checked on 17 October 2026. The 2026 change was announced on 9 January, three months before it took effect.

Handle reprints, errata and exceptions

Section 4.1.3 of the handbook says any version of a card may be played if the name is identical and all printed text is functionally identical. The rotation announcement gives two examples. Rare Candy from Sun & Moon is still playable in Standard because the Rare Candy in the Mega Evolution expansion carries an I mark. Boss's Orders from Sword & Shield Rebel Clash has a D mark, long rotated, but the Mega Evolution printing carries I, so the older copy is allowed too.

"Functionally identical" is narrower than it sounds. The handbook treats Copycat from Celestial Storm and Copycat from Team Rocket Returns as identical, because only the wording changed. It treats Rainbow Energy from Celestial Storm and Rainbow Energy from Team Rocket as different, because placing a damage counter and doing 10 damage are separate mechanics.

Errata are official corrections to card text, and you play the corrected text, not what is printed. The TCG Errata document (last updated 17 August 2026) says that from the Scarlet & Violet series onwards Pokémon Tool cards are their own kind of Trainer card rather than Items, and that this applies to older Tools too. It also corrects individual cards. Rare Candy, for example, can no longer evolve a Basic into a Stage 1 and cannot be used on your first turn or on a Basic Pokémon put into play that turn.

Banned cards are the last exception. Standard and Unlimited have none at the time of checking. Expanded bans specific printings, for example Shaymin-EX from Roaring Skies and Lt. Surge's Strategy from Unbroken Bonds and Hidden Fates.

Check the rules for an event

For a sanctioned event, the rules come from the official handbooks and from what the Organizer posts. The official Event Locator, linked from play.pokemon.com, lists local tournaments. Most local play is League Challenges, entry-level events that award a small number of Championship Points, and League Cups, which are similar in scale but often bigger and award more. If you do not have a Player ID yet, the official How to Get a Player ID guide walks you through creating one in Pokémon Trainer Central.

Prerelease events give you a new expansion's cards before it reaches shelves. Pokémon's article for the Mega Evolution Delta Reign prerelease describes a Build & Battle Box holding four booster packs of the new set, a 40-card ready-to-play deck and one of four foil promo cards, with games played for four Prize cards instead of six.

Only genuine cards are allowed, and a proxy is used only when a judge makes one for a card damaged during the tournament. For Championship Series events in the Europe rating zone the legal languages are English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Japanese cards count as marked at Play! Pokémon tournaments because their backs differ from every other language, one of the practical points in Japanese vs English Pokémon cards.

Every sleeve in a tournament deck must hold one card completely, match the others in colour, design, condition, size and texture, and have edges in one solid colour. The handbook recommends opaque backs, since clear sleeves can expose wear and get a card treated as marked. Our sleeves page covers sizes.

Championship Series events also require a deck list, brought on paper or submitted online at registration depending on the event, and an A4 deck list form is published on the official documents page. We are an independent shop and do not run sanctioned events, so ask the Organizer if anything is unclear.

Update a deck after rotation

When a letter leaves Standard, work through the deck in this order:

• Sort the deck by the letter in the bottom-left corner and pull every card with a rotated mark (G, since 10 April 2026), plus every card with no mark.
• For each pulled card, look for a current printing with the same name and functionally identical text. If one exists, the old copy can go back in.
• Read the errata document for any card you keep, in case the play text differs from the print.
• Check the banned list for the format you are entering.
• Count back to exactly 60 cards, with no name more than four times except Basic Energy.
• Confirm the deck still has at least one Basic Pokémon and that every evolution line you kept is complete.
• Write the new deck list and check your sleeves still match.

G-mark cards are still legal in Expanded, which is also the pool for Gym Leader Challenge, so an old deck can often be played there with changes. When we open, our sealed range is where you will find packs from current sets to fill the gaps.

The most useful next step is how to build a Pokémon deck, which covers Energy counts and Trainer ratios for turning a stack of legal cards into a 60-card deck.