Post by goldensandslash on Jan 30, 2018 0:42:28 GMT
Pokémon TCG comes in three formats.
Standard (formerly known as Modified) = You can only use cards printed from the current generation, minus a banlist. [Cards banned while in Standard were: Sneasel (Neo Genesis #25), _____'s Pikachu (Wizards Promo #24), Slowking (Neo Genesis #14), Lysandre's Trump Card (Phantom Forces #99), Lysandre's Trump Card (Phantom Forces #118)]
Expanded = You can only use cards from Gen 5 onwards, minus a banlist. [Cards currently banned in Expanded: Lysandre's Trump Card (Phantom Forces #99), Lysandre's Trump Card (Phantom Forces #118), Archeops (Noble Victories #67), Forest of Giant Plants (Ancient Origins #74)]
Unlimited = You can use any card.
Now, unfortunately, Unlimited is a format that sees no play whatsoever. The reason for this is two-fold. One, Nintendo refuses to support it. You will never find any Unlimited tournaments anywhere. You're more likely to find a Yugioh Traditional tournament or a Magic Vintage tournament (by which I mean, Paper Magic. I know that Vintage is played a lot more frequently on Magic Online).
The second thing is... the cards aren't compatible. The rules of the Pokémon TCG have changed so much over the years that you run into all sorts of rules complications. This isn't like Magic or Yugioh or Hearthstone where every card does work with every other card. As far as Nintendo is concerned, every card only needs to work with those in its Standard environment. Compatibility with old cards doesn't matter because you shouldn't be playing with old cards. (Though, now that Expanded Format exists, this is looking like it won't be the case anymore going forward.)
So, yeah, Unlimited is basically non-existent.
Or is it?
Inspired by the people who made Commander format in Magic the Gathering, one group of fans took it upon themselves to make their own Pokémon TCG format (they were growing bored with the at-the-time Standard), called "Pokémon 150" which aims to make all the cards legal. It uses various rules changes and errata to get it to work, and it looks fun. Here's how you play:
BASIC RULES
1. Because this is inspired by Commander, deck construction is 100-card singleton. Yes, you must have 100 cards in your deck rather than 60. And no two cards, other than basic Energy, can be the same. However, here's where we run into a new issue: Pokémon cards don't always do the same things if they have the same name. Each Bulbasaur, for example, is different. And in this format, that matters. You are allowed to play up to 4 Bulbasaur in your deck, and as long as each one is a different Bulbasaur, you are not violating the singleton rule. Note that the four-per-card rule still exists, though, so you can only have up to four. Also note that this rule looks at function. If you have two Bulbasaur that are functionally identical, but are just different artwork or different printings, you are violating the singleton rule.
2. You play with eight prize cards, rather than six. 100 cards makes the game go a bit longer. Also, during set-up, you get one "free" mulligan. That is: you can mulligan your opening hand, even if you have a basic Pokémon in it, if you want to. But you can only do this once per game. You can still mulligan as often as you like if you do so because of a lack of basic Pokémon. That does not count as your one free mulligan.
3. On each player's first turn, all attacks do no damage (any other effects of attacks still happen).
4. Any fully-evolved Pokémon with more than 80 HP that was printed as a Pokémon Prime counts as a Pokémon-EX. Any holo rare Pokémon with more than 80 HP that was printed in a set from Black & White onwards also counts as a Pokémon-EX. To be clear, ever since Gen 3, Pokémon TCG has experimented with a "stronger" version of various Pokémon. The current one is Pokémon-EX, and has been since Black & White. A Pokémon-EX is considerably stronger than a regular Pokémon, but the downside is that if they are Knocked Out, the opponent gets to take two prize cards. This just brings some of the early stuff up to the modern era.
POKEMON POWERS / POKE POWERS / POKE BODIES / ABILITIES
So, when the game first started, we had Pokémon Powers. Starting in late Gen 2 and moving into Gen 3 and 4, these were split into two categories: Poké-Powers and Poké-Bodies. The Poké-Bodies were the "always-on" static abilities. The Poké-Powers were the ones that you had to choose to activate. Then in Gen 5, they were merged back into one term: Ability (presumably to match the video game). For the purposes of getting all the cards to function, they are split into Poké-Powers and Poké-Bodies once again. For the Pokémon Powers and Abilities, just classify them as appropriate based on whether they are activated abilities or static/triggered abilities. And as such, anything that affects either Poké-Powers or Poké-Bodies affects them as well. Anything that affects Pokémon Powers or Abilities is considered to affect both Poké-Powers and Poké-Bodies.
TRAINERS / ITEMS / STADIUMS / SUPPORTERS
Oh boy. So, when the game first started, we had Trainer cards. They were all of the non-Pokémon non-Energy cards. Then, later in Gen 1, we got Stadiums. Stadiums were a sub-category of Trainer cards. They stayed in play and had overarching effects that affected the board, which is different from a regular Trainer card that was discarded after use. Later parts of Gen 2 added another sub-category: Supporter. Supporter cards worked exactly like regular Trainer cards, except that you can only play one Supporter card per turn. In Gen 4, these subtypes became actual card types, and as such, there were now three different types of non-Pokémon, non-Energy cards: Trainers, Supporters, and Stadiums. And, sure enough, the Gen 4 Supporter/Stadium cards do not say the word "Trainer" anywhere on them. Then Gen 5 reversed this decision and grouped Supporter and Stadium cards as a subset of Trainer cards. The traditional Trainer cards were also given their own subtype: Item.
In this format, we are separating the trio once again. Each of these is a different card types: Trainer, Supporter, and Stadium. They can only have one of these types, so any Supporter cards do not count as Trainer cards, and as such, anything that affects Trainer cards will not affect a Supporter card. Anything that affects Item cards will affect Trainer cards.
Know that the rule about Supporters has changed over the years. Originally, when you played a Supporter, it stayed in play until the end of the turn, just as a way to mark that you have played your one Supporter per turn. Starting in Gen 5, though, you put them directly in the discard pile and you just have to manually keep track of whether you've played a Supporter or not. This does produce some functional changes with how cards that interact with the discard pile work, since the Supporter will not be there for the older cards, but will be there for the newer ones. As such, we are reverting back to the way these cards worked originally: you keep them in play until the end of the turn.
Lastly, some early Trainer cards have been re-classified as Supporters. For example, the card Bill lets you draw 2 cards. Originally, this was a Trainer, but it was been reprinted as a Supporter later. Because this is a functional change, this is basically a new card. As such, your deck can have both versions.
Ace Specs work the same way. Ace Spec cards were very powerful Item cards that were printed during the end of Gen 5. The downside is that these cards come with a restriction: you can only include one in your deck. That does not mean "one of each". That means one. Total. Period. That's it. That's all you get. Some original Trainers were reprinted as Ace Spec cards, and they follow the same rule as the ones reprinted as Supporters: you can have one of each version.
LIMITATION REMOVAL
If a Pokémon's attack includes the phrase "You can't add more than X damage in this way" or "You can't put more than X damage counters", then you can ignore that bit of text.
EVOLUTIONS
For the purposes of evolving your Pokémon in this format, all that needs to be the same is the species. You can ignore any prefixes or suffixes such as a Trainer's Name or the word "Dark". This allows for more flexible evolutions by allowing you to play more cards from different generations together. For example, Erika's Oddish -> Dark Gloom -> Vileplume is a completely valid evolution line.
The one exception is the "M" that appears before a Mega Evolution. Mega Evolution is considered to be a different part of the game, and it is treated as such. The "M" there is part of the name, not a prefix.
Pokémon SP and Pokémon "Star" are an exception to the new evolution rule. They can never evolve or Level Up (if you are using the LV.X cards) into any other Pokémon and they will never evolve or level up from any other Pokémon. The exception is that a Pokémon SP can Level Up into a Pokémon SP LV.X, as was intended. The Japan-only cards from Pokémon VS are considered to be Pokémon SP for the purposes of this format.
If you have a Pokémon-EX in play and you Level Up or BREAK evolve it, then it still counts as a Pokémon-EX.
You are allowed to Mega Evolve a Pokémon after you have Level Up or BREAK evolved it.
If you evolve a Pokémon into a Pokémon-GX, your turn immediately ends (just as though you had Mega Evolved it). Note that a Pokémon-GX does still follow the Pokémon-EX rule (since they have the same rule printed on the cards).
OTHER RULES
A Pokémon-ex (from Gen 3) and a Pokémon-EX (from Gen 5+) are both treated as the same thing. A Pokémon-GX also counts as a Pokémon-EX.
Any card that is errata'd to be a Pokémon-EX per the rules above is treated as though it had "EX" written on the card. Anything that only affects a Pokémon-EX will affect it.
No errata is given to any cards beyond the scope of these rules. For example, Item Finder, as originally printed, could only get back a Trainer card. At the time, this would have included Supporters and Stadiums, but here, it doesn't.
Foreign language cards are allowed. Silver-bordered cards (from the Championship Decks) are allowed. However, you must have a way to reference what the card does in your local language (such as bringing it up on your phone).
Art alters are allowed, but if any text is covered, you must have a way to reference what the card does.
One of the rules states "Any holo rare Pokémon with more than 80 HP that was printed in a set from Black & White onwards also counts as a Pokémon-EX." Because the cards that are classified as holo rares are different in Japan compared to the rest of the world, use the list appropriate to your country. (So, if you're playing in Japan, use the Japanese list, and if you're playing anywhere else, don't.)
FUNCTIONAL ERRATA
Gen 4 introduced the concept of the "Lost Zone". It was essentially a second discard pile that could not be interacted with in any way (similar to exile from Magic or banish from Yugioh). Four powerful Trainer cards from Gen 1 have received errata in this format to go to the Lost Zone after their effects resolve, because otherwise recursion is too powerful with them. They are: Energy Removal, Super Energy Removal, Gust of Wind, and Goop Gas Attack.
Slowking (Neo Genesis #14) has its Japanese Pokémon Power: it only works while Slowking is your Active Pokémon.
Fossils are maddening because the rule about how fossils work has changed more times than anything else in the TCG. So here's how the format works: If the fossil is assigned to a specific Pokémon (such as Dome Fossil with Kabuto), then it counts as a Basic Fossil. You can use four of them in your deck. You can also use four Mysterious Fossil. Mysterious Fossil can evolve into any Fossil Pokémon, including Revived Pokémon. Other Fossil cards such as Holon Fossil and Buried Fossil are still limited to one per deck. The terms "Evolves from a Fossil" and "Revived Pokémon" are considered to be the same.
If a card says "You may have as many of this card in your deck as you like", then it is immune to the singleton rule, and you can have multiples, even if they are the same printing.
Archie's Ace in the Hole and Maxie's Hidden Ball Trick can now only affect Basic Pokémon.
BANLIST
Anything that is a Basic Pokémon that has more than 150 HP is banned.
Any card with "Spirit Link" in its name is banned.
The following cards are banned:
Dusknoir (Diamond & Pearl #2)
Entei (Ancient Origins #14)
Espeon (Aquapolis #11)
Forretress (Legends Awakened #28)
Garbodor (Guardians Rising #51)
Gardevoir (Secret Wonders #7)
Greninja (BREAKpoint #40)
Greninja BREAK (BREAKpoint #41)
Mesprit (Legends Awakened #34)
Miltank (Flashfire #83)
Muk (Fossil #13)
Muk (Fossil #28)
Muk (Legendary Collection #16)
Sableye (Dark Explorers #62)
Shuckle (HeartGold & SoulSilver Promos #15)
Trevenant (XY #55)
Wobbuffet (Phantom Forces #36)
Wobbuffet (Generations #RC11)
In addition, the following lists are a "pair ban". That is, you are allowed to have cards from the first list only if your deck contains no cards from the second list, and you are allowed to have cards from the second list only if your deck contains no cards from the first list.
List A:
Alakazam (Base Set #1)
Alakazam (Base Set 2 #1)
Alakazam (Legendary Collection #1)
Reuniclus (Black & White #57)
Reuniclus (Dragons Exalted #126)
List B:
Jumpluff (Dragons Exalted #3)
Lopunny (Flashfire #85)
Masquerain (Plasma Blast #2)
Mismagius GL LV.X (Rising Rivals #110)
Porygon2 (Unseen Forces #12)
Standard (formerly known as Modified) = You can only use cards printed from the current generation, minus a banlist. [Cards banned while in Standard were: Sneasel (Neo Genesis #25), _____'s Pikachu (Wizards Promo #24), Slowking (Neo Genesis #14), Lysandre's Trump Card (Phantom Forces #99), Lysandre's Trump Card (Phantom Forces #118)]
Expanded = You can only use cards from Gen 5 onwards, minus a banlist. [Cards currently banned in Expanded: Lysandre's Trump Card (Phantom Forces #99), Lysandre's Trump Card (Phantom Forces #118), Archeops (Noble Victories #67), Forest of Giant Plants (Ancient Origins #74)]
Unlimited = You can use any card.
Now, unfortunately, Unlimited is a format that sees no play whatsoever. The reason for this is two-fold. One, Nintendo refuses to support it. You will never find any Unlimited tournaments anywhere. You're more likely to find a Yugioh Traditional tournament or a Magic Vintage tournament (by which I mean, Paper Magic. I know that Vintage is played a lot more frequently on Magic Online).
The second thing is... the cards aren't compatible. The rules of the Pokémon TCG have changed so much over the years that you run into all sorts of rules complications. This isn't like Magic or Yugioh or Hearthstone where every card does work with every other card. As far as Nintendo is concerned, every card only needs to work with those in its Standard environment. Compatibility with old cards doesn't matter because you shouldn't be playing with old cards. (Though, now that Expanded Format exists, this is looking like it won't be the case anymore going forward.)
So, yeah, Unlimited is basically non-existent.
Or is it?
Inspired by the people who made Commander format in Magic the Gathering, one group of fans took it upon themselves to make their own Pokémon TCG format (they were growing bored with the at-the-time Standard), called "Pokémon 150" which aims to make all the cards legal. It uses various rules changes and errata to get it to work, and it looks fun. Here's how you play:
BASIC RULES
1. Because this is inspired by Commander, deck construction is 100-card singleton. Yes, you must have 100 cards in your deck rather than 60. And no two cards, other than basic Energy, can be the same. However, here's where we run into a new issue: Pokémon cards don't always do the same things if they have the same name. Each Bulbasaur, for example, is different. And in this format, that matters. You are allowed to play up to 4 Bulbasaur in your deck, and as long as each one is a different Bulbasaur, you are not violating the singleton rule. Note that the four-per-card rule still exists, though, so you can only have up to four. Also note that this rule looks at function. If you have two Bulbasaur that are functionally identical, but are just different artwork or different printings, you are violating the singleton rule.
2. You play with eight prize cards, rather than six. 100 cards makes the game go a bit longer. Also, during set-up, you get one "free" mulligan. That is: you can mulligan your opening hand, even if you have a basic Pokémon in it, if you want to. But you can only do this once per game. You can still mulligan as often as you like if you do so because of a lack of basic Pokémon. That does not count as your one free mulligan.
3. On each player's first turn, all attacks do no damage (any other effects of attacks still happen).
4. Any fully-evolved Pokémon with more than 80 HP that was printed as a Pokémon Prime counts as a Pokémon-EX. Any holo rare Pokémon with more than 80 HP that was printed in a set from Black & White onwards also counts as a Pokémon-EX. To be clear, ever since Gen 3, Pokémon TCG has experimented with a "stronger" version of various Pokémon. The current one is Pokémon-EX, and has been since Black & White. A Pokémon-EX is considerably stronger than a regular Pokémon, but the downside is that if they are Knocked Out, the opponent gets to take two prize cards. This just brings some of the early stuff up to the modern era.
POKEMON POWERS / POKE POWERS / POKE BODIES / ABILITIES
So, when the game first started, we had Pokémon Powers. Starting in late Gen 2 and moving into Gen 3 and 4, these were split into two categories: Poké-Powers and Poké-Bodies. The Poké-Bodies were the "always-on" static abilities. The Poké-Powers were the ones that you had to choose to activate. Then in Gen 5, they were merged back into one term: Ability (presumably to match the video game). For the purposes of getting all the cards to function, they are split into Poké-Powers and Poké-Bodies once again. For the Pokémon Powers and Abilities, just classify them as appropriate based on whether they are activated abilities or static/triggered abilities. And as such, anything that affects either Poké-Powers or Poké-Bodies affects them as well. Anything that affects Pokémon Powers or Abilities is considered to affect both Poké-Powers and Poké-Bodies.
TRAINERS / ITEMS / STADIUMS / SUPPORTERS
Oh boy. So, when the game first started, we had Trainer cards. They were all of the non-Pokémon non-Energy cards. Then, later in Gen 1, we got Stadiums. Stadiums were a sub-category of Trainer cards. They stayed in play and had overarching effects that affected the board, which is different from a regular Trainer card that was discarded after use. Later parts of Gen 2 added another sub-category: Supporter. Supporter cards worked exactly like regular Trainer cards, except that you can only play one Supporter card per turn. In Gen 4, these subtypes became actual card types, and as such, there were now three different types of non-Pokémon, non-Energy cards: Trainers, Supporters, and Stadiums. And, sure enough, the Gen 4 Supporter/Stadium cards do not say the word "Trainer" anywhere on them. Then Gen 5 reversed this decision and grouped Supporter and Stadium cards as a subset of Trainer cards. The traditional Trainer cards were also given their own subtype: Item.
In this format, we are separating the trio once again. Each of these is a different card types: Trainer, Supporter, and Stadium. They can only have one of these types, so any Supporter cards do not count as Trainer cards, and as such, anything that affects Trainer cards will not affect a Supporter card. Anything that affects Item cards will affect Trainer cards.
Know that the rule about Supporters has changed over the years. Originally, when you played a Supporter, it stayed in play until the end of the turn, just as a way to mark that you have played your one Supporter per turn. Starting in Gen 5, though, you put them directly in the discard pile and you just have to manually keep track of whether you've played a Supporter or not. This does produce some functional changes with how cards that interact with the discard pile work, since the Supporter will not be there for the older cards, but will be there for the newer ones. As such, we are reverting back to the way these cards worked originally: you keep them in play until the end of the turn.
Lastly, some early Trainer cards have been re-classified as Supporters. For example, the card Bill lets you draw 2 cards. Originally, this was a Trainer, but it was been reprinted as a Supporter later. Because this is a functional change, this is basically a new card. As such, your deck can have both versions.
Ace Specs work the same way. Ace Spec cards were very powerful Item cards that were printed during the end of Gen 5. The downside is that these cards come with a restriction: you can only include one in your deck. That does not mean "one of each". That means one. Total. Period. That's it. That's all you get. Some original Trainers were reprinted as Ace Spec cards, and they follow the same rule as the ones reprinted as Supporters: you can have one of each version.
LIMITATION REMOVAL
If a Pokémon's attack includes the phrase "You can't add more than X damage in this way" or "You can't put more than X damage counters", then you can ignore that bit of text.
EVOLUTIONS
For the purposes of evolving your Pokémon in this format, all that needs to be the same is the species. You can ignore any prefixes or suffixes such as a Trainer's Name or the word "Dark". This allows for more flexible evolutions by allowing you to play more cards from different generations together. For example, Erika's Oddish -> Dark Gloom -> Vileplume is a completely valid evolution line.
The one exception is the "M" that appears before a Mega Evolution. Mega Evolution is considered to be a different part of the game, and it is treated as such. The "M" there is part of the name, not a prefix.
Pokémon SP and Pokémon "Star" are an exception to the new evolution rule. They can never evolve or Level Up (if you are using the LV.X cards) into any other Pokémon and they will never evolve or level up from any other Pokémon. The exception is that a Pokémon SP can Level Up into a Pokémon SP LV.X, as was intended. The Japan-only cards from Pokémon VS are considered to be Pokémon SP for the purposes of this format.
If you have a Pokémon-EX in play and you Level Up or BREAK evolve it, then it still counts as a Pokémon-EX.
You are allowed to Mega Evolve a Pokémon after you have Level Up or BREAK evolved it.
If you evolve a Pokémon into a Pokémon-GX, your turn immediately ends (just as though you had Mega Evolved it). Note that a Pokémon-GX does still follow the Pokémon-EX rule (since they have the same rule printed on the cards).
OTHER RULES
A Pokémon-ex (from Gen 3) and a Pokémon-EX (from Gen 5+) are both treated as the same thing. A Pokémon-GX also counts as a Pokémon-EX.
Any card that is errata'd to be a Pokémon-EX per the rules above is treated as though it had "EX" written on the card. Anything that only affects a Pokémon-EX will affect it.
No errata is given to any cards beyond the scope of these rules. For example, Item Finder, as originally printed, could only get back a Trainer card. At the time, this would have included Supporters and Stadiums, but here, it doesn't.
Foreign language cards are allowed. Silver-bordered cards (from the Championship Decks) are allowed. However, you must have a way to reference what the card does in your local language (such as bringing it up on your phone).
Art alters are allowed, but if any text is covered, you must have a way to reference what the card does.
One of the rules states "Any holo rare Pokémon with more than 80 HP that was printed in a set from Black & White onwards also counts as a Pokémon-EX." Because the cards that are classified as holo rares are different in Japan compared to the rest of the world, use the list appropriate to your country. (So, if you're playing in Japan, use the Japanese list, and if you're playing anywhere else, don't.)
FUNCTIONAL ERRATA
Gen 4 introduced the concept of the "Lost Zone". It was essentially a second discard pile that could not be interacted with in any way (similar to exile from Magic or banish from Yugioh). Four powerful Trainer cards from Gen 1 have received errata in this format to go to the Lost Zone after their effects resolve, because otherwise recursion is too powerful with them. They are: Energy Removal, Super Energy Removal, Gust of Wind, and Goop Gas Attack.
Slowking (Neo Genesis #14) has its Japanese Pokémon Power: it only works while Slowking is your Active Pokémon.
Fossils are maddening because the rule about how fossils work has changed more times than anything else in the TCG. So here's how the format works: If the fossil is assigned to a specific Pokémon (such as Dome Fossil with Kabuto), then it counts as a Basic Fossil. You can use four of them in your deck. You can also use four Mysterious Fossil. Mysterious Fossil can evolve into any Fossil Pokémon, including Revived Pokémon. Other Fossil cards such as Holon Fossil and Buried Fossil are still limited to one per deck. The terms "Evolves from a Fossil" and "Revived Pokémon" are considered to be the same.
If a card says "You may have as many of this card in your deck as you like", then it is immune to the singleton rule, and you can have multiples, even if they are the same printing.
Archie's Ace in the Hole and Maxie's Hidden Ball Trick can now only affect Basic Pokémon.
BANLIST
Anything that is a Basic Pokémon that has more than 150 HP is banned.
Any card with "Spirit Link" in its name is banned.
The following cards are banned:
Dusknoir (Diamond & Pearl #2)
Entei (Ancient Origins #14)
Espeon (Aquapolis #11)
Forretress (Legends Awakened #28)
Garbodor (Guardians Rising #51)
Gardevoir (Secret Wonders #7)
Greninja (BREAKpoint #40)
Greninja BREAK (BREAKpoint #41)
Mesprit (Legends Awakened #34)
Miltank (Flashfire #83)
Muk (Fossil #13)
Muk (Fossil #28)
Muk (Legendary Collection #16)
Sableye (Dark Explorers #62)
Shuckle (HeartGold & SoulSilver Promos #15)
Trevenant (XY #55)
Wobbuffet (Phantom Forces #36)
Wobbuffet (Generations #RC11)
In addition, the following lists are a "pair ban". That is, you are allowed to have cards from the first list only if your deck contains no cards from the second list, and you are allowed to have cards from the second list only if your deck contains no cards from the first list.
List A:
Alakazam (Base Set #1)
Alakazam (Base Set 2 #1)
Alakazam (Legendary Collection #1)
Reuniclus (Black & White #57)
Reuniclus (Dragons Exalted #126)
List B:
Jumpluff (Dragons Exalted #3)
Lopunny (Flashfire #85)
Masquerain (Plasma Blast #2)
Mismagius GL LV.X (Rising Rivals #110)
Porygon2 (Unseen Forces #12)