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🃏 Pokémon🌐 English

Which Pokémon Cards Can You Actually Use? Standard, Expanded and Unlimited Explained

2,917 of 20,444 English cards are Standard legal — mark H, I, J.

Counted by this site on 3 August 2026. Rules quoted from official Pokémon documents.

Which Pokémon cards are legal in the Standard format?

A Pokémon card is Standard legal if the small letter printed near the bottom of the card — the regulation mark — is H, I, J. Counting the English cards ourselves, 2,917 of 20,444 qualify (14.3%), spread across 17 expansions.

Everything older still has a home: 14,489 cards are playable in Expanded, and all 20,444 are playable in Unlimited. Nothing you own stops being a Pokémon card — it simply moves to a wider format.

Legal marks as announced by The Pokémon Company for the 2026 Standard format; card counts taken from our own copy of the English card files on 3 August 2026.

Pokémon card formats at a glance

Pokémon card formats in short

  • A format is a card pool, not a rulebook. The way the game is played is identical in all three; what changes is which cards you are allowed to bring.
  • Standard is decided by one letter. The regulation mark near the bottom of the card — one of the printed marks every Pokémon card carries. Right now H, I, J are legal, covering 2,917 cards.
  • Rotation happens once a year. For the 2026 season the G mark left Standard on 10 April 2026 for in-person events and 26 March 2026 on Pokémon TCG Live, moving 1,634 cards out.
  • Expanded keeps the Black & White era alive. 14,489 cards — 70.9% of everything we count — remain playable there.
  • Unlimited excludes nothing. All 20,444 English cards across 174 expansions, from 9 January 1999 onward.
  • Cards older than the regulation mark are not lost. 12,250 cards have no mark at all; they are judged by the expansion they were printed in, and a reprint with a current mark can bring the same card back into Standard.

What the Standard format allows right now

Standard is the format almost every organised event uses, and it is deliberately narrow: a small, current pool that changes once a year. One printed letter decides whether a card belongs to it.

The marks that are legal

The Pokémon Company’s rotation announcement for the 2026 season states: “Cards with ‘H,’ ‘I,’ and ‘J’ regulation marks will be legal to use (as will any future regulation marks that may be released).” A card with any other mark, or with no mark at all, is not Standard legal unless the same card has been reprinted with a current mark.
The Pokémon Company — 2026 Pokémon TCG Standard Format Rotation Announcement

Reprints carry the newer mark

The same announcement makes clear that an older printing is not dead the moment its mark rotates: “Older versions of cards that don’t have a regulation mark can still be used if the card is currently legal for play.” If a card has been reprinted into a currently legal expansion, your older copy of that card is playable too.
The Pokémon Company — 2026 Pokémon TCG Standard Format Rotation Announcement
Pikachu exAscended HeroesParadise ResortScarlet & Violet Black Star PromosMega Dragonite exAscended HeroesMega Charizard X exPhantasmal FlamesMega Darkrai exPitch BlackMega Greninja exChaos Rising

Six more Standard-legal cards, two from each of marks H, I, J — different printings from the ones pictured in the mark chart further down this page.

Every expansion that contributes Standard-legal cards, oldest first
ReleasedExpansionMarksStandard-legal cards
1 January 2023Scarlet & Violet Black Star PromosH53
22 March 2024Temporal ForcesH218
24 May 2024Twilight MasqueradeH226
2 August 2024Shrouded FableH96
13 September 2024Stellar CrownH167
8 November 2024Surging SparksH252
17 January 2025Prismatic EvolutionsH151
28 March 2025Journey TogetherH/I189
30 May 2025Destined RivalsH/I242
18 July 2025White FlareI173
18 July 2025Black BoltH/I171
26 September 2025Mega EvolutionH/I188
14 November 2025Phantasmal FlamesH/I130
30 January 2026Ascended HeroesH/I/J295
27 March 2026Perfect OrderI/J124
22 May 2026Chaos RisingI/J122
17 July 2026Pitch BlackI/J120

Counted from our own copy of the English card files on 3 August 2026. An expansion can appear with two marks because the mark changes partway through a season, so the same expansion may hold both. Bar shading in each column is sized against the largest value in that column.

Why the number is smaller than people expect

2,917 cards sounds small next to 20,444, and that is the point of the format. A narrow pool means a new player can learn what they are likely to face, and it means a card bought this year is not competing against twenty-seven years of accumulated printings.

It also means the pool grows through the season. The newest expansion in our files, Pitch Black, was released on 17 July 2026 and adds 120 cards on its own.

A narrow pool does not mean a plain one: the same 2,917 cards still span the full range of rarities a Pokémon card can be printed at, from the commonest to the scarcest.

Back to the summary

What a regulation mark is, and when each one became legal

The regulation mark is a single capital letter printed in small type near the bottom of the card. It is not a rarity, a set code or a card number — it exists for exactly one purpose, which is to tell you at a glance whether the card is still in the current pool.

Where to look, and what it decides

Play! Pokémon describes the mark this way: “Pokémon TCG cards rotate out of the Standard format based on their regulation mark, a letter found on the bottom-left corner of all cards starting in 2020.” Cards printed before that carry no mark, which is why the letter alone cannot judge an older card.
Play! Pokémon — Competitive Pokémon Rules and Formats

When each recent mark became tournament legal

1
2023-04-14

Mark G becomes legal

The tournament handbook records 14 April 2023 as the legality date for the G mark. 1,634 cards in our files carry it. It left Standard three years later.

2
2024-04-05

Mark H becomes legal

Legal from 5 April 2024. 1,283 cards carry the H mark across 13 expansions, and it is the oldest mark still in Standard.

3
2025-04-11

Mark I becomes legal

Legal from 11 April 2025, covering 1,215 cards in 10 expansions.

4
2026-03-06

Mark J becomes legal

The newest mark, legal from 6 March 2026. Only 419 cards carry it so far, because it has appeared in just 4 expansions.

5
2026-04-10

The 2026 rotation takes effect

From this date the G mark is no longer Standard legal at in-person Play! Pokémon events. Pokémon TCG Live applied the same change on 26 March 2026.

Every regulation mark we hold, with where it can be played
MarkCardsExpansionsPrinted acrossStandardExpanded
D1,2612415 November 2019 – 20 January 2023NoLegal
E1,2021615 November 2019 – 20 January 2023NoLegal
F1,1801115 November 2019 – 20 January 2023NoLegal
G1,634131 January 2023 – 18 July 2025NoLegal
H1,283131 January 2023 – 30 January 2026LegalLegal
I1,2151028 March 2025 – 17 July 2026LegalLegal
J419430 January 2026 – 17 July 2026LegalLegal

Dates are the release window of the expansions carrying each mark, not the date the mark became tournament legal — those are in the timeline above. Bar shading in each column is sized against the largest value in that column.

Most cards ever printed have no mark at all

Only 8,194 of the 20,444 English cards we count carry a regulation mark — 40.1%. The other 12,250 were printed before the mark existed, so the letter test simply does not apply to them.

For those cards the question becomes which expansion they came from, and that is what the Expanded and Unlimited sections below answer. The expansion is identified by the set symbol, which is one of the marks printed along the bottom of every card.

Back to the summary

What the 2026 rotation took out, and what it did not

Rotation is the yearly moment when the oldest mark leaves Standard. It is announced in advance, it takes effect on a named date, and it touches one format only.

What changed, and exactly when

The announcement is explicit on both points: “Cards with the ‘G’ regulation mark will no longer be legal for play in the 2026 Standard format.” On timing, “For in-person Play! Pokémon events, the Standard format rotation will go into effect on April 10, 2026,” while “For digital play on Pokémon TCG Live, the Standard format rotation will go into effect on March 26, 2026.”
The Pokémon Company — 2026 Pokémon TCG Standard Format Rotation Announcement

Expanded was left alone

The same announcement adds: “The Expanded format will remain unchanged, maintaining the Black & White Series and forward.” Rotation is a Standard-only event — a rotated card loses one format and keeps the other two.
The Pokémon Company — 2026 Pokémon TCG Standard Format Rotation Announcement
  • Charizard — SWSH Black Star Promos, regulation mark D
    Regulation mark D — Expanded only 1,261 cards · pictured: Charizard
    1,261
  • Umbreon VMAX — Evolving Skies, regulation mark E
    Regulation mark E — Expanded only 1,202 cards · pictured: Umbreon VMAX
    1,202
  • Gengar — SWSH Black Star Promos, regulation mark F
    Regulation mark F — Expanded only 1,180 cards · pictured: Gengar
    1,180
  • Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat — Scarlet & Violet Black Star Promos, regulation mark G
    Regulation mark G — Expanded only 1,634 cards · pictured: Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat
    1,634
  • Umbreon ex — Prismatic Evolutions, regulation mark H
    Regulation mark H — Standard legal 1,283 cards · pictured: Umbreon ex
    1,283
  • Mega Gengar ex — Ascended Heroes, regulation mark I
    Regulation mark I — Standard legal 1,215 cards · pictured: Mega Gengar ex
    1,215
  • Mega Charizard Y ex — Ascended Heroes, regulation mark J
    Regulation mark J — Standard legal 419 cards · pictured: Mega Charizard Y ex
    419

Every regulation mark we hold, sized by how many cards carry it. The highlighted bars are the marks that are Standard legal today; the rest are Expanded only. The card beside each bar is one we hold on file carrying that mark, named in the line beside it. Counted on 3 August 2026.

Read the bars as a shape, not a ranking

The three Standard marks together hold 2,917 cards, while the four older marks hold 5,277. The newest mark looks tiny only because it has had a few months to accumulate cards rather than a full year — that bar grows with every expansion released this season.

The single biggest bar belongs to the mark that just left. That is normal: a mark reaches its full size at the end of its run, which is also the moment it rotates.

If rotation has just taken cards out of a deck you were using, the practical next step is rebuilding it from what is left — the deck building rules are the same, only the pool has changed.

Back to the summary

What the Expanded format allows

Expanded exists so that a card does not become unplayable the year after you buy it. Instead of a rolling window it has a fixed starting point, and it has not moved for years.

Where Expanded starts

The tournament handbook lists Expanded as one of three Constructed formats and enumerates its legal expansions by name, beginning with the Black & White series. The 2026 rotation announcement restates the boundary in one line: the format is “maintaining the Black & White Series and forward.”
Play! Pokémon — TCG Tournament Handbook §4.1 (revised 21 May 2026)

Expanded is the format with a banned list

Because the pool is so large, the handbook warns that “the Expanded format will be aggressively monitored because there are so many cards and potential combinations available to use.” A card being from a legal expansion is therefore not the whole test in Expanded — the banned list is part of it.
Play! Pokémon — TCG Tournament Handbook §4.1.4 (revised 21 May 2026)
PikachuBlack & WhiteZekromBlack & WhiteReshiramBlack & WhiteSawsbuckBlack & White

Cards from Black & White, released 1 March 2011 — the expansion that opens the Expanded pool. Printed before regulation marks existed, so they carry none; still legal in Expanded, no longer legal in Standard.

Every series we hold, and which formats reach it
SeriesPrintedExpansionsCardsReached by
Base9 January 1999 – 24 April 20006494Unlimited only
Gym14 August 2000 – 16 October 20002264Unlimited only
Neo16 December 2000 – 28 February 20024365Unlimited only
Other31 July 2001 – 3 August 202215294Unlimited only
E-Card15 September 2002 – 12 May 20033529Unlimited only
EX1 July 2003 – 2 February 2007201,766Unlimited only
NP1 October 2003 – 1 October 2003140Unlimited only
POP1 September 2004 – 1 March 20099153Unlimited only
Diamond & Pearl1 May 2007 – 1 November 20088900Unlimited only
Platinum11 February 2009 – 4 November 20094517Unlimited only
HeartGold & SoulSilver10 February 2010 – 9 February 20116545Unlimited only
Black & White1 March 2011 – 6 November 2013131,437Expanded
XY12 October 2013 – 2 November 2016161,926Expanded
Sun & Moon3 February 2017 – 1 November 2019182,973Expanded
Sword & Shield15 November 2019 – 20 January 2023253,667Expanded
Scarlet & Violet1 January 2023 – 18 July 2025183,595Expanded
Mega Evolution26 September 2025 – 17 July 20266979Expanded

Series are listed oldest first. “Expanded” means the whole series sits inside the Expanded pool; “Unlimited only” means those cards are playable in Unlimited but not in Expanded or Standard. Bar shading in each column is sized against the largest value in that column.

How much bigger Expanded really is

Expanded reaches 14,489 cards against Standard’s 2,917 — roughly 5.0 times the pool. That is why a deck that is unbeatable in one format can be unremarkable in the other: the same card has many more possible partners and many more possible answers.

A handful of promotional cards sit on a boundary the table above cannot show. The handbook admits only part of the older promo runs into Expanded — for the XY promos, numbers 158 and higher — so a promo card needs its number checked as well as its series. The number and the set symbol are read from the bottom edge of the card.

Back to the summary

What the Unlimited format allows

Unlimited is the format with no cut-off. If a card was released in the United States, it is legal, and that has one consequence people rarely expect: it is the only format with nothing banned.

The definition, in one sentence

The handbook is short about it: “Unlimited decks may contain cards from any Pokémon Trading Card Game expansions and promotional cards that have been released in the United States.” It adds, under banned cards, that “There are currently no banned cards in the Unlimited format.”
Play! Pokémon — TCG Tournament Handbook §4.2 (revised 21 May 2026)

New cards still have to wait

No format lets you play a card the day it arrives. The handbook sets the waiting period for Unlimited as follows: “Cards from each new expansion will become legal on the second Friday following that expansion’s US market release date.” The Standard and Expanded schedule follows the same two-week cadence.
Play! Pokémon — TCG Tournament Handbook §4.1.2 and §4.2.1 (revised 21 May 2026)
VenusaurBaseBlastoiseBaseGyaradosBaseZapdosBase

Cards from the original Base set, released 9 January 1999 — the oldest expansion this site holds on file. Legal in Unlimited; too old for Expanded or Standard.

What “no cut-off” looks like as a number

Our own files hold 20,444 English cards across 174 expansions, released between 9 January 1999 and 17 July 2026. Every one of them is an Unlimited card.

That span is the reason Unlimited is played casually far more often than competitively. The oldest cards in it were designed before most of the mechanics in the modern game existed, and the format makes no attempt to balance them against each other.

It is also the format where old cards from a shoebox turn up most often, which is where the question of whether a card is genuine tends to arrive. That has its own checks, and they have nothing to do with legality.

Back to the summary

The deck rules that do not change between formats

Whichever pool you build from, the shape of the deck is fixed. These three lines from the tournament handbook apply to Standard, Expanded and Unlimited without exception.

The three Constructed rules

Under the heading Constructed Tournament Formats the handbook states the deck construction rules as: “The deck must contain exactly 60 cards.” · “Decks may not contain more than 4 copies of a single card, as defined by the card’s English language translation, except for Basic Energy cards.” · “Matches are played for 6 Prize cards.”
Play! Pokémon — TCG Tournament Handbook §4 (revised 21 May 2026)

The rulebook says the same thing to players

The official rulebook puts it in plainer words: “One of the most important rules is that your deck must be exactly 60 cards; it can’t be any more or less, even 59 or 61 cards! Also, except for Basic Energy, you can only have 4 cards with the same name in your deck.” It adds one requirement the format never waives: “your deck must have at least one Basic Pokémon in it.”
The Pokémon Company — Pokémon Trading Card Game Rulebook, Deck Building
1
Step 1 — Pick the pool, not the deck
Decide the format first. Standard gives you 2,917 cards to choose from, Expanded 14,489, Unlimited all 20,444. Every later decision depends on this one.
2
Step 2 — Count to exactly 60
Not about sixty. Exactly sixty. A deck of 59 or 61 cards is not legal in any Constructed format, and a judge will not let it through a deck check.
3
Step 3 — Cap each name at four
The limit is on the printed name, not the artwork or the expansion. Four copies of a name is the ceiling however many different versions of it you own. Basic Energy is the single exception and has no limit.
4
Step 4 — Include a Basic Pokémon
A deck with no Basic Pokémon cannot start the game. This is not a format rule but a rule of the game itself, so it holds everywhere.
5
Step 5 — Check the newest cards’ dates
A brand-new expansion is not tournament legal on release day. Cards become legal on the second Friday after the expansion reaches the United States market — roughly a two-week wait.

Deck building is a large enough subject to have its own guide, including how many Energy cards the official rulebook actually recommends and what the legal pool contains once you break it down by card type.

Back to the summary

Which format do your own Pokémon cards fit?

The honest answer depends less on how good your cards are than on when they were printed. Laid side by side, the three formats answer three different questions.
What you want to know Standard Expanded Unlimited
How many cards you may choose from 2,917 cards 14,489 cards 20,444 cards
Share of every English card we count 14.3% 70.9% 100%
How a card qualifies Regulation mark H, I, J Printed in the Black & White series or later Released in the United States at any point
Does the pool shrink each year? Yes — one mark leaves annually No — the starting point is fixed No
Are any cards banned? Yes, a published list Yes, and monitored closely No banned cards
Oldest card you can bring 1 January 2023 the Black & White expansion, 1 March 2011 9 January 1999
Who it suits Anyone playing at an organised event Players with several years of collection Kitchen-table games with whatever is in the box
If you bought your cards in the last two years, they are probably Standard legal and you have nothing to work around. If your collection goes back further, Expanded is where most of it becomes usable again, and Unlimited is where all of it does.

One thing the table cannot show: an event advertises its format, and that decision is made by whoever runs it. A local shop night and a regional championship can both be Standard, and a casual league can run Expanded on the same evening. Ask before you build.

Once the format is settled, the rest is the same everywhere — sixty cards, four of a name, one Basic Pokémon.

Back to the summary

How to check one Pokémon card in a few seconds

You do not need a list. Everything the test needs is printed on the card you are holding.
1
Step 1 — Find the letter near the bottom edge
It sits in small type in the lower corner, apart from the card number and the illustrator credit. If there is a letter there, the card was printed in 2020 or later.
2
Step 2 — Compare it against H, I, J
A match means Standard legal today. A different letter means the card has rotated, and it is still fine for Expanded and Unlimited.
3
Step 3 — If there is no letter, look at the expansion instead
The set symbol tells you which expansion the card came from. If that expansion belongs to the Black & White series or later, the card is Expanded legal; otherwise it is Unlimited only.
4
Step 4 — Check whether the card was reprinted
An unmarked or rotated card can be legal again through a newer printing of the same card. Looking the name up in the official card database shows every printing it has had.
5
Step 5 — For Standard and Expanded, check the banned list
Legality by mark or expansion is the first test, not the last one. The published banned list is the second.

If you cannot find the letter at all

Two situations look the same but are not. On a card printed before 15 November 2019 there is no mark to find — 12,250 of the cards we count are in that group. On a card that claims to be recent, a missing mark is a reason to look harder at the card itself.

If you are unsure which mark you are even looking at, the full set of symbols printed on a Pokémon card shows where each one sits.

Back to the summary

Other Pokémon card guides

Pokémon card format questions people actually ask

Which regulation marks are Standard legal in the Pokémon TCG right now?

Regulation marks H, I, J are legal in the 2026 Standard format, along with any future mark released after them. In our own count of the English cards, that covers 2,917 cards across 17 expansions.

Is the G regulation mark still legal in the Pokémon TCG Standard format?

No. The Pokémon Company announced that cards with the G regulation mark are no longer legal in the 2026 Standard format, effective 10 April 2026 for in-person events and 26 March 2026 on Pokémon TCG Live. The 1,634 cards carrying that mark remain fully legal in Expanded and Unlimited.

What Pokémon cards are legal in the Expanded format?

Expanded takes in the Black & White series and everything printed after it, which works out to 14,489 of the 20,444 English cards we hold — 70.9%. Cards on the published banned list are excluded even when their expansion qualifies.

Can you still play old Pokémon cards that have no regulation mark?

Yes, in the right format. 12,250 of the cards we count carry no mark because they were printed before marks existed. They are judged by their expansion instead: Black & White onward is Expanded legal, and everything is Unlimited legal. An unmarked card also returns to Standard if the same card is reprinted with a current mark.

How many Pokémon cards are Standard legal at the moment?

2,917 English cards, counted from our own copy of the card files on 3 August 2026. That is 14.3% of the 20,444 cards in our catalogue, and the number rises with each new expansion released during the season.

When does the Pokémon TCG Standard rotation happen each year?

Once a year, on a date The Pokémon Company announces in advance. For the 2026 season the change took effect on 10 April 2026 at in-person Play! Pokémon events and two weeks earlier, on 26 March 2026, in Pokémon TCG Live. Rotation only affects Standard; Expanded and Unlimited are untouched.

Do Pokémon cards from a brand-new expansion count as Standard legal immediately?

No. New cards become tournament legal on the second Friday after the expansion reaches the United States market, which is about a two-week wait. The rule applies in every Constructed format, so a card that is unplayable on release day is unplayable in Unlimited too.

Is a Pokémon card worth less once it rotates out of Standard?

Rotation changes where a card may be played, not what it is. A card that leaves Standard is still legal in two formats and still collectible, and cards valued for their artwork or scarcity were never priced on tournament legality in the first place.

Sources — the official documents these 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.

1
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.

1
Pokémon TCG API — the open card data behind the counts on this page, covering HP, attacks, types, evolution stage, rarity, regulation mark and set membership pokemontcg.io
2
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

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. Format legality is announced by The Pokémon Company and can change on a date they set; when this page and an official announcement disagree, the announcement is right.

Last updated: 3 August 2026