Pokémon card guides — the rules, and what is printed on the card

Q: How many Pokémon cards are there in English?

This site holds 20,444 English cards on file, across 174 expansions released between 9 January 1999 and 17 July 2026. That is the number every figure in these guides is counted against.

Q: How many Pokémon cards can I actually use in Standard?

2,917 of them , or 14.3% of everything on file. Expanded allows 14,489, and Unlimited allows all 20,444.

Q: Which regulation marks are Standard-legal right now?

Marks H, I and J . The mark is the single letter near the bottom of a modern card. 8,194 cards on file carry one and 12,250 carry none — a card with no mark can only be played in Unlimited.

These 5 guides quote the official rulebook and tournament handbook, then check every claim against the 20,444 English cards this site holds on file.

5 guides · 20,444 cards counted · 174 expansions · read 3 August 2026

Which Pokémon card guide should I read first?

If you are about to play or buy, start with formats: only 2,917 of the 20,444 English cards on file are Standard-legal, which is 14.3% of them. If you are holding a card and want to know what it is, start with the symbols guide — every mark printed on the card is named there. If you are worried a card is fake, the counterfeit guide sets the official guidance beside 174 expansions you can check a printing against.

Rules are quoted from official Pokémon documents; card counts are our own, read from openly published card files on 3 August 2026.

Pokémon card guides at a glance

Three cards that cost nothing to retreat. Hover a card to lift it out of the fan.Press and hold a card to lift it out of the fan.

Middle card · Gengar PsychicHP 130Rare Prime Card no. 94HS—Triumphant Printed 2010

Guides published

5pages

Each answers a different question against the same card files.

Standard-legal cards

2,917

14.3% of everything on file — the rest still play elsewhere.

Cards with a regulation mark

8,194

12,250 carry no mark at all.

Cards counted

20,444

Read from the published card files on 3 August 2026.

Expansions on file

174

Grouped into 17 series.

Illustrators credited

397

Named on the printed card and recorded with it.

Distinct rarities printed38 Series the expansions fall into17 Regulation marks recorded7 Expanded-legal cards14,489Cards with a retreat cost17,244First release counted9 January 1999

Which guide do I need5 pages, one question each Can I play this card14.3% of them are Standard-legal What is the letter on my cardH, I and J are Standard today What does retreat cost mean17,244 cards carry the value Show me the actual cardsSorted by what they cost to retreat Where do these numbers come fromCounted on 3 August 2026

14.3%of 20,444 cards

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If a card is Standard-legal it is one of 2,917 — 14.3% of the 20,444 English cards on file. The other 17,527 are still real cards and still playable, just not at a Standard event. That single gap is what most of the questions on this page turn out to be about.

Standard-legalthe format almost every event uses2,917 cards14.3% of all 20,444 on file
Expanded-legalevery card back to the Black & White series14,489 cards70.9% of all 20,444 on file
Carries a regulation marka mark means the card was printed in 2019 or later8,194 cards40.1% of all 20,444 on file
Costs at least one Energy to retreata cost of zero is still a printed value16,330 cardsof the 17,244 Pokémon cards that print the value — a different denominator

Three of the four bars are measured against all 20,444 cards on file. The last one is measured against the 17,244 Pokémon cards that actually print a retreat cost, which is why its label carries its own denominator. Counted on 3 August 2026.

The same figures with the denominator each average was taken against
What is printed	Distinct values	Cards	Average	Denominator
Expansion	174	20,444	118	20,444 ÷ 174
Rarity	38	20,444	538	20,444 ÷ 38
Illustrator	397	20,444	52	20,444 ÷ 397
Regulation mark	7	8,194	1,171	8,194 ÷ 7
Retreat cost	6	17,244	2,874	17,244 ÷ 6

Scroll the table sideways

How far one printed value narrows a card down
What is printed	Distinct values	Cards it is printed on	Average cards per value
Expansion	174	20,444	118
Rarity	38	20,444	538
Illustrator	397	20,444	52
Regulation mark	7	8,194	1,171
Retreat cost	6	17,244	2,874

Scroll the table sideways

The value that narrows a card fastest is the illustrator, at about 52 cards per value. The slowest is the retreat cost, at about 2,874 — that is the figure marked in the last column. In practice the expansion and card number are still the quickest to read, because they are printed larger than anything else on the card.

Pokémon card rules at a glance

What these guides are. 5 written pages that quote the official Pokémon rulebook and the Play! Pokémon tournament handbook. Where a rule can be counted, we count it ourselves rather than repeating a figure.
What they are counted against. 20,444 English cards across 174 expansions, released between 9 January 1999 and 17 July 2026.
Formats. Standard allows 2,917 cards, Expanded 14,489, and Unlimited every one of the 20,444 on file. Standard is the format almost every event uses.
Regulation marks. The single letter on a modern card decides rotation. Marks H, I and J are Standard-legal today; 12,250 older cards carry no mark and are Unlimited only.
What is not here. Card prices, graded populations and pack odds are not part of these guides — the rules pages stay rules pages, and prices live on the card and group pages.
When it was counted. The figures on this page and in every guide come from the card files as they stood on 3 August 2026. Tournament legality can change on a date the rights holder announces.

Source: Counted from 20,444 cards across 174 expansions

Every Pokémon card guide on this site

Each guide answers one question and carries the figure it is built on, so you can tell from here which one you need.

Standard, Expanded and Unlimited formatsWhich of your Pokémon cards you are allowed to play, and how the yearly rotation decides it.2,917 Standard-legal cards How to build a Pokémon deckThe 60-card rules straight from the official rulebook, checked against the cards that are actually legal.60 cards exactly Pokémon card rarity, countedEvery rarity printed on an English Pokémon card, with how many cards carry it.38 rarities counted What the symbols on a Pokémon card meanEvery mark printed on the card — energy, weakness, retreat, set symbol and regulation mark.20,444 cards read How to tell a fake Pokémon cardWhat the official guidance says, plus the printed details you can check against a full catalogue.174 expansions on file

They are written to be read in any order

None of these guides assumes you have read another. Where one needs a rule that belongs to a different page, it links there rather than repeating the explanation, so you can start wherever your question actually is.

The figure beside each title is what that guide is built on — 2,917 Standard-legal cards, 174 expansions on file, and so on. If a number looks out of date, the count date on every page tells you when it was read.

Back to the summary

Which Pokémon cards each format lets you play

The three tournament formats are nested: everything Standard allows, Expanded also allows, and Unlimited allows everything ever printed in English.

Standardwhat almost every event uses2,917

Expandedback to the Black & White series14,489

Unlimitedeverything ever printed in English20,444

Bar length is measured against the longest bar, which is Unlimited at 20,444 cards. Legality is worked out from the regulation mark and the official rotation announcement, not from the legality field in the source files — that field is a snapshot and does not follow a rotation. Counted on 3 August 2026.

14.27Standard-legal

Standard-legal2,917 · 14.3%Not Standard-legal17,527 · 85.7%

What makes a card Standard-legal

It carries one of the regulation marks H, I and J.
It is one of the 2,917 cards on file that qualify today.
It was printed in an expansion the rights holder has not rotated out yet.

What does not make it legal

Being rare, expensive or graded — none of those is a legality rule.
Being recent is not enough on its own: 8,194 cards carry a mark, but only 2,917 are Standard-legal.
12,250 cards on file carry no regulation mark at all, and a card with no mark can only be played in Unlimited.

The narrow one

Standard

2,917 cards, 14.3% of everything on file. This is the format almost every organised event runs.

The middle one

Expanded

14,489 cards, 70.9% of the file. It reaches back much further, so a card that has rotated out of Standard often still has a home here.

The whole file

Unlimited

All 20,444 cards. Nothing is excluded, which also means nothing about a card being playable here tells you it is playable anywhere else.

Rotation is why the first bar is so much shorter

The gap between the bars is the whole point of rotation: 14.3% of the cards on file are Standard-legal, so most of a long-standing collection cannot be taken to a Standard event even though every card in it is genuine and undamaged.

Which letters count changes each year. Today the Standard-legal marks are H, I and J; the guide on formats explains how the announcement works and what happens to the marks that drop out.

Back to the summary

The regulation mark, and what it tells you about a Pokémon card

A single letter near the bottom of a modern card decides whether it rotates. 8,194 cards on file carry one and 12,250 do not.

How many cards each mark was printed on. Press a bar to see the figures behind it.

Bar height is measured against the largest mark. All 8,194 marked cards on file are covered, counted on 3 August 2026.

Why the mark is the fastest thing to read

A card with a mark was printed in 2019 or later — that is what the letter records. So the presence of the mark alone already separates 8,194 cards from the 12,250 that came before it.

Today the Standard-legal marks are H, I and J. The rest are still legal in Expanded, and every card on file is legal in Unlimited.

The symbols guide names every other mark printed on a card — the expansion symbol, the rarity mark in the corner, the set code and the card number. This page only counts the one that decides tournament legality, because that is the one that changes what you can do with the card. All figures read on 3 August 2026.

Back to the summary

The Pokémon rules these guides quote, and how far each one reaches

A rule is quoted exactly as it is written. What we add is how many cards on file it actually touches.

“Retreat your Active Pokemon (only once per turn).”Official Pokémon rulebook, on the retreat cost printed on a card

“You can attach Energy just once each turn!”Official Pokémon rulebook, on attaching Energy during a turn

“Some Pokemon have Weakness or Resistance to Pokemon of certain types, marked in the lower-left corner of the card.”Official Pokémon rulebook, on the Weakness and Resistance corner

Step 1Read the number under the cardIt sits with the expansion total beside it. That pair alone places the card in one of 174 expansions on file.

Step 2Read the mark in the bottom cornerThis is the rarity. There are 38 distinct rarities across the file, and a card carries exactly one of them.

Step 3Look for a single letter near the edgeThat is the regulation mark, and it only exists on newer cards — 8,194 carry one, 12,250 carry none.

What is countedThe printed retreat costA number of Energy, printed on the card itself. It does not change over time.Which cards carry it17,244 Pokémon cardsOnly Pokémon cards have the value at all.So what is excluded3,200 Trainer and Energy cardsThey have no such value, so counting them into the denominator would understate every share below.

This is why the figures in this section are measured against 17,244 cards and not against all 20,444 on file. Where a guide quotes the rule itself, the wording is the rulebook's, not ours.Wording pending for rules we do not hold

0 Energynothing to pay914 cards · 5.3% of the cards that print the value

1 Energy8,503 cards · 49.3% of the cards that print the value

2 Energy4,926 cards · 28.6% of the cards that print the value

3 Energy2,168 cards · 12.6% of the cards that print the value

4 Energy729 cards · 4.2% of the cards that print the value

5 Energy4 cards · 0.0% of the cards that print the value

Retreat cost across the 17,244 cards on file that print one. Counted on 3 August 2026.

The value counts Energy cards, not Energy types — a cost of two is paid with any two Energy attached.

Every retreat cost that appears on a Pokémon card17,244 cards · counted 3 August 2026

Retreat cost, how many cards print it, and one card that does
Cost	Cards	Share of those cards	Example card
0	914	5.3%	Mew ex
1	8,503	49.3%	Pikachu ★
2	4,926	28.6%	Umbreon VMAX
3	2,168	12.6%	Lugia
4	729	4.2%	Magikarp & Wailord-GX
5	4	0.0%

The highlighted row is the most common value on file, at 8,503 cards. The example in each row is the dearest card on file at that cost, and it links to that card's own page.

All 6 costs that appear are in this table — nothing is hidden behind a page link.By costNot split into pages

The two ends of the same rule, on two real cards.

Costs nothing to retreat · 914 cardsMew exHP 180 · Paldean FatesIt can leave the Active spot on any turn without discarding anything.

Four Energy apartCost 0 VS 4
HP 180 VS 300
Cards at that cost 914 VS 729

Costs four Energy · 729 cardsMagikarp & Wailord-GXHP 300 · Team UpFour Energy have to be discarded before it can step back.

What is the same

Both print the value

Both are among the 17,244 cards that carry a retreat cost at all.

What differs

What leaving costs

One walks away free; the other pays four Energy to do the same thing.

How the Standard-legal Pokémon divide by evolution stage2,448 cards · counted 3 August 2026

Basic1,356 Standard-legal cards · 55.4%

Stage 1814 Standard-legal cards · 33.3%

Stage 2278 Standard-legal cards · 11.4%

Why the stages thin out

Basic — 1,356 cards, 55.4% of the Standard-legal Pokémon.
Stage 1 — 814 cards, 33.3% of the Standard-legal Pokémon.
Stage 2 — 278 cards, 11.4% of the Standard-legal Pokémon.

Every rule quoted above is reproduced word for word from the official documents, and every count beside it is our own. We do not paraphrase a rule: where we do not hold the original wording, the figure stands alone and the guide says so.

Back to the summary

The Pokémon cards behind these figures

Each count on this page is a count of real printings. These are some of them.

Cards on file that cost nothing to retreat, dearest first. There are 914 of them in all.

The same cards seen as printings

17,244 cards print a retreat cost. This list shows the dearest at each value — the group pages hold every one of them.Cost1 2 3 4 5

Costs 0 Energy to retreat914 cards on file · 5.3% of those that print the value

1Mew exPaldean Fates1802024 · Special Illustration Rare

2GengarHS—Triumphant1302010 · Rare Prime

3MewSouthern Islands302001

4Gengar LV.XArceus1402009 · Rare Holo LV.X

Show the other 6 on file at this costDearest first, HP shown beside each name6

5Dark EspeonNeo Destiny602002 · Rare Holo

6MewHS—Triumphant602010 · Rare Prime

7CrobatSkyridge802003 · Rare Secret 8Infernape E4 LV.XRising Rivals1102009 · Rare Holo LV.X

9EspeonNeo Discovery802001 · Rare Holo

10PichuNeo Genesis302000 · Rare Holo

Costs 1 Energy to retreat8,503 cards on file · 49.3% of those that print the value

1Pikachu ★Holon Phantoms602006 · Rare Holo Star

2Latias & Latios-GXTeam Up2502019 · Rare Ultra

3Flareon ★Power Keepers702007 · Rare Holo Star

4Raikou ★Unseen Forces802005 · Rare Holo Star

Show the other 6 on file at this costDearest first, HP shown beside each name6

5Alakazam ★Crystal Guardians802006 · Rare Holo Star

6Vaporeon ★Power Keepers702007 · Rare Holo Star

7UmbreonAquapolis802003 · Rare Holo

8Suicune ★Unseen Forces802005 · Rare Holo Star

9Pikachu with Grey Felt HatScarlet & Violet Black Star Promos602023 · Promo

10Pikachu exAscended Heroes2002026 · Special Illustration Rare

Costs 2 Energy to retreat4,926 cards on file · 28.6% of those that print the value

1Umbreon VMAXEvolving Skies3102021 · Rare Rainbow

2GengarSWSH Black Star Promos1202019 · Promo

3Gengar & Mimikyu-GXTeam Up2402019 · Rare Ultra

4Umbreon exPrismatic Evolutions2802025 · Special Illustration Rare

Show the other 6 on file at this costDearest first, HP shown beside each name6

5Gengar exFireRed & LeafGreen1502004 · Rare Holo EX

6LugiaNeo Genesis902000 · Rare Holo

7Rayquaza VMAXEvolving Skies3202021 · Rare Rainbow

8Gyarados ★ δHolon Phantoms802006 · Rare Holo Star

9Charizard δCrystal Guardians1202006 · Rare Holo

10Mega Gengar exAscended Heroes3502026 · Special Illustration Rare

Costs 3 Energy to retreat2,168 cards on file · 12.6% of those that print the value

1LugiaAquapolis802003 · Rare Secret

2Shining CharizardNeo Destiny1002002 · Rare Shining

3CharizardPlasma Storm1602013 · Rare Secret

4Gengar VMAXFusion Strike3202021 · Rare Rainbow

Show the other 6 on file at this costDearest first, HP shown beside each name6

5Groudon ★Delta Species902005 · Rare Holo Star

6M Charizard-EXFlashfire2302014 · Rare Secret

7Charizard ★ δDragon Frontiers902006 · Rare Holo Star

8Metagross ★Delta Species902005 · Rare Holo Star

9BlastoiseBase1001999 · Rare Holo

10Ho-ohSkyridge802003 · Rare Secret

Costs 4 Energy to retreat729 cards on file · 4.2% of those that print the value

1Magikarp & Wailord-GXTeam Up3002019 · Rare Ultra

2GolemSkyridge1002003 · Rare Secret

3Snorlax LV.XRising Rivals1302009 · Rare Holo LV.X

4Team Aqua's Kyogre-EXDouble Crisis1902015 · Rare Ultra

Show the other 6 on file at this costDearest first, HP shown beside each name6

5Team Magma's Groudon-EXDouble Crisis1902015 · Rare Ultra

6Shining SteelixNeo Destiny902002 · Rare Shining

7BlastoisePlasma Storm1402013 · Rare Secret

8GroudonCall of Legends1002011 · Rare Holo

9Primal Kyogre-EXAncient Origins2402015 · Rare Secret

10Groudon-EXDark Explorers1802012 · Rare Ultra

By expansion174 expansions on file By illustrator397 names credited By regulation mark7 marks recorded By rarity38 distinct rarities

Each of those pages holds the whole record, sorted on a different printed value.

Every card on this page is one of the 20,444 on file, read on 3 August 2026.

A rule only becomes concrete once you can see the cards it applies to. That is why this section exists: every figure above this point can be walked back to an actual printing.

Back to the summary

What these Pokémon card guides are counted against

A rule is only as trustworthy as the record it was checked against. This is that record.

What the guides on this page are counted against
What was counted	Figure
English cards on file	20,444
Expansions	174
Series the expansions fall into	17
Distinct rarities printed	38
Illustrators credited	397
Cards carrying a regulation mark	8,194
Cards with no regulation mark	12,250
First release counted	9 January 1999
Most recent release counted	17 July 2026

Every figure in every guide is drawn from this same set of cards, read on 3 August 2026. Where a guide gives a number, it is counted here rather than quoted from elsewhere.

The three kinds of card in that count
Kind of card	Cards	Share
Pokémon	17,244	84.3%
Trainer	2,806	13.7%
Energy	394	1.9%

Trainer and energy cards have no HP, attacks or weakness, so any guide figure about those values counts only the Pokémon cards.

The same cards, sorted so you can walk through them

These guides explain a rule; the group pages show you the cards it applies to. The same record is sorted by the expansion each card was printed in, by the illustrator who drew it, and by the regulation mark that decides rotation.

Back to the summary

Pokémon card rules — frequently asked questions

How many Pokémon cards are there in English?

This site holds 20,444 English cards on file, across 174 expansions released between 9 January 1999 and 17 July 2026. That is the number every figure in these guides is counted against.

How many Pokémon cards can I actually use in Standard?

2,917 of them, or 14.3% of everything on file. Expanded allows 14,489, and Unlimited allows all 20,444.

Which regulation marks are Standard-legal right now?

Marks H, I and J. The mark is the single letter near the bottom of a modern card. 8,194 cards on file carry one and 12,250 carry none — a card with no mark can only be played in Unlimited.

Are these Pokémon card rules official?

The rules themselves are quoted from the official Pokémon Trading Card Game rulebook and the Play! Pokémon tournament handbook, and those documents are the authority — every guide links to them. The counts beside the rules are our own: we read the openly published card files and count them, so you can see how far a rule reaches.

How often are these Pokémon card guides updated?

The counts were read on 3 August 2026 and are re-counted when new expansions are added to the card files. The rules themselves change only when the rights holder announces a change, and rotation is announced ahead of the date it takes effect.

Do these guides tell me what my Pokémon cards are worth?

No. These pages are about rules and printing, not money. Prices live on the individual card pages and on the group pages, where each figure is read from public marketplace listings and dated.

Where these Pokémon card rules come from

Primary official source

First-party official sources — the body that issues the data itself, such as a government agency, a statutory register or a rights holder publishing its own records.

The Pokémon Company / Play! Pokémon — publisher of the official rules, tournament regulations and card database www.pokemon.com

Industry source

Second-party sources — marketplaces, trade associations, research institutes and companies that compile data about the market.

Pokémon TCG Data repository — the raw card and expansion files published openly for that API, which is what our counting script reads github.com

How we count

Card counts on this page — this site keeps its own copy of the openly published English card and expansion files and counts them directly; the figures above were counted on 3 August 2026 across 174 expansions

Before you rely on these figures

Note: Rules quoted on this page are taken word for word from the official Pokémon Trading Card Game rulebook and the Play! Pokémon tournament handbook, and the wording of those documents is the authority. Card counts are our own: we read the openly published English card files ourselves and counted 20,444 cards across 174 expansions on 3 August 2026. A count can only describe the cards those files contain, so a very new expansion may not be included yet, and tournament legality can change on a date the rights holder announces. Before a tournament, check the card itself against the official rules rather than this page.

Last updated: 3 August 2026

Pokémon card guides — the rules, and what is printed on the card

Which Pokémon card guide should I read first?

Pokémon card guides at a glance

Pokémon card rules at a glance

Every Pokémon card guide on this site

Which Pokémon cards each format lets you play

The regulation mark, and what it tells you about a Pokémon card

The Pokémon rules these guides quote, and how far each one reaches

The Pokémon cards behind these figures

The same cards seen as printings

What these Pokémon card guides are counted against

Pokémon card rules — frequently asked questions

How many Pokémon cards are there in English?

How many Pokémon cards can I actually use in Standard?

Which regulation marks are Standard-legal right now?

Are these Pokémon card rules official?

How often are these Pokémon card guides updated?

Do these guides tell me what my Pokémon cards are worth?

Where these Pokémon card rules come from

Before you rely on these figures

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