Every Banned Pokémon Card (& Why It Happened)

The Pokémon Trading Card Game has been printing cards since 1996. During that time there have been some insanely powerful cards that needed to be banned from competitive play. Cards have gotten a lot more powerful since Charizard was king of the playground. Charizard isn’t even the most expensive Pokémon card anymore. He’s been replaced by the new guard.

In the ‘standard’ format of the Pokémon Trading Card Game there are no banned cards, but looking little further back there are cards so powerful they needed to be banned in the ‘Expanded’ format. The Expanded format allows players to play any card from Pokémon Black & White onward, so these cards are powerful enough to be banned over a list of thousands of other cards.

Every one of the following cards is currently banned in the Expanded format. Pokémon like Kadabra can’t be printed in the TCG, but all of these cards were printed, then later realized to be mistakes. Some of them are so powerful they simply couldn’t let players use them.

Archeops: Black & White – Noble Victories

Archeops is banned for its ability ‘Hidden Power’ that stops both players from playing a Pokémon from their hand to evolve a Pokémon. This ability was almost always ended up winning the game for the player who used it, as it would prevent their opponent from playing a Pokémon that would be powerful enough to defeat Archeops. Additionally, many decks rely on evolution to win the game, so matches would become incredibly lopsided as soon as Archeops entered play.

Chip-Chip Ice Axe: Sun & Moon – Unbroken Bonds

Chip-Chip Ice Axe itself isn’t absurdly powerful alone, but it was banned from the Pokémon Trading Card Game in the 2019 attempt to lower the power of ‘hand control’ decks that would focus on removing all of an opponent’s options instead of playing more proactive cards. These decks dominated the Expanded format, and Chip-Chip Ice Axe was a roleplayer that made sure opponents couldn’t draw out of a ‘hand lock’ by making sure they always drew their worst card.

Delinquent: XY – Breakpoint and Red Card: XY

Delinquent and Red Card together were part of a turn 0 combo that almost assured the player would win the game. Playing ‘Red Card’ followed by Delinquent would leave their opponent with only one card on their first turn of the game, something that is almost impossible to come back from. Delinquent was banned in January 2019 to break the combo, and Red Card was banned in October 2019 as part of the same ban wave as Chip-Chip Ice Axe. The fact that this combo was playable on turn 0 made it similar to the most expensive card in Magic: the Gathering, which is impressively powerful.

Flabébé: Sun & Moon – Forbidden Light and Marshadow: Shining Legends

Both Flabébé and Marshadow were part of the Chip-Chip Ice Axe banning to get rid of ‘hand attack’ decks. Marshadow was a backup Red Card for the hand attack players, allowing them to limit their opponent’s resources before their opponent had a chance to play any cards. Flabébé was the answer those decks had to not winning the pre-game coin flip, as evolving into Floette would let them start attacking their opponent’s hand with a powerful evolved Pokémon on their first turn.

Forest of Giant Plants: XY – Ancient Origins and Wally: XY -Roaring Skies

Forest of Giant Plants, when it was around, almost guaranteed that grass decks would be the only viable options in the Pokémon TCG. Evolving on the first turn allowed players to bring out powerful Pokémon with abilities that were only supposed to be in the game after several turns. An example was Trevenant who, when evolved from the grass type Phantump, stopped opponents from playing ANY item cards, on turn one.

Wally had a similar combo with Trevenant that was popular after Forest of Giant Plats was banned, so he was axed soon after. Both of these cards needed to be banned if the Pokémon Company wanted to print any grass-type Pokémon with powerful abilities in the future.

Ghetsis: Black & White – Plasma Freeze and Hex Maniac: XY – Ancient Origins

Ghetsis and Hex Maniac were banned together for the same reason; they allowed for a player to ruin the turn one of many decks before they had an opportunity to play. Playing Ghetsis early was oppressive against decks that relied on item cards as their strategy, and playing ‘Hex Maniac’ did the same for decks that relied on their Pokémon. Having both of them in the format made for un-fun gameplay where players could lose before the game began, and only having one would have assured the death of item or Pokémon-based decks, so they both got the ban hammer.

Island Amulet: Sun & Moon – Cosmic Eclipse, Lt. Surge’s Strategy:  Sun & Moon – Unbroken Bonds and Reset Stamp: Sun & Moon – Unified Minds

Island Amulet and Lt. Surge’s Strategy were banned as part of Pokémon‘s attempt to slow down ‘Amulet Lock’ decks. These decks would play Island Amulet, instantly fainting their active Pokémon and giving up a prize card. Then, once they were down a prize card, they would play Lt. Surge’s Strategy to play multiple copies of cards like Delinquent that would remove every card from their opponent’s hand. This ended up locking one player out of the game completely.

Additionally, clever play with the Island Amulet would allow players to give their opponent most of their prize cards at the beginning of the game, only to follow up with a Reset Stamp that destroyed their hand. Even if a player was able to bounce back from a single Reset Stamp,  playing the card at any point of the game would set them back to almost no cards in hand. These cards all got the axe together to ensure the deck would never be in competitive play again.

Lusamine: Sun & Moon – Crimson Invasion

Lusamine was banned alongside Lt. Surge’s Strategy because it could make infinite combos with itself and any card that allowed the player to play additional supporter cards in their turn. In Expanded, Lusamine would allow players to set up so that they never needed to pass the turn to their opponent as they could repeatedly return Lusamine and a card that allowed them to play an extra copy of her their their hand. With Lusamine locking out games and knowing that any card that allowed a player to play multiple supporters in a turn would be broken with her, Lusamine was banned for the health of the format.

Jesse & James: Hidden Fates

Jesse & James had the significant honor of being banned in Expanded before it was ever released. Jesse & James follow the path of Delinquent, getting rid of an opponent’s hand before they are able to play their first turn. Additionally, another card printed in Hidden Fates, Wheezing, triggered additional discard effects if it was discarded  by Jesse & James. All of this lead to a strategy that the Pokémon company knew was going to be broken like Delinquent before it, especially seeing as Red Card was still legal when the dynamic duo was banned.

Lysandre’s Trump Card: XY – Phantom Forces

The PokémonTCG is jam-packed with cards that let players rummage through their deck quickly to find the answers they need. The tradeoff for these effects has always been that running out of cards was a death sentence in the TCG, meaning that players needed to be careful with how often they used cards like Sycamore and Professor. Oak.

Lysandre’s Trump Card allowed players to throw as many cards as they wanted into the discard pile and not worry about losing. The card also extended games, as usually a game of the PokémonTCG had a time limit of how many cards were in the deck, but with Lysandre’s Trump Card, games could continue way past that point.

Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick:  XY – Primal Clash

Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick had already been in hot water before it got banned. It allowed players to sneak out cards, like the banned Archeops, in the past, and made fighting type Pokémon at risk of being broken in Expanded. Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick was banned before the release of the Sun & Moon – Team Up set to prevent its abuse with Omnastar and Kabutops. The two Pokémon both had abilities similar to Archeops ‘hidden power’ and Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick was banned instead of banning both of those cards before their release. This also let Pokémon print powerful fighting type cards without needing to worry about breaking them with Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick.

Mismagius: Sun & Moon – Unbroken Bonds

Mismagius was another card put on the chopping block because of its interaction with cards like Lt. Surge’s Strategy and Reset Stamp. If a Pokémon player was able to find multiple copies of Mismagius, they could use Mismagius’ ability to draw cards, refilling their hand and giving their opponent a prize card. Once they had given away several prize cards, they would play Reset Stamp to instantly take away all of the cards in their opponent’s hand. Unlike the proper Lt. Surge’s Strategy + Island Amulet combo, this wasn’t possible on the first turn, but it was a powerful effect that was banned to get rid of that type of deck forever.

Puzzle of Time: XY – BREAKpoint

Unlike a lot of cards on this list, Puzzle of Time wasn’t banned for taking away players’ ability to play the game. It was banned because it was too efficient a tool when it came to getting resources back from the discard pile. The card was played in so many decks that it was banned to introduce some variety into the Expanded format. Specifically, the Pokémon Company said that “Removing this card from the environment will affect how many decks are constructed, which will hopefully make the Expanded format feel fresh and different.“

Unown: Sun & Moon – Lost Thunder

Both Unown were banned for the alternate win conditions in their abilities. Unlike some of the other Unown, the Unown HAND and Unown DAMAGE abilities require no interaction with the opponent. Players could win the game by playing solitaire and ignoring their opponent’s board. Though Unown DAMAGE was never powerful in tournament play, it was banned to prevent it from becoming an issue in the future.

That is the entire list of cards that are banned in the Expanded format in the Pokémon TCG. Most of these cards were banned with the express intent of removing decks that focused on attacking the opponent’s hand and preventing them from playing the game. These ‘control’ elements are a common part of card games but are rarely as powerful as these banned cards, and their power level made the expanded format un-fun to play. There are ‘control’ players in every card game, but inPokémon they had uniquely powerful tools that made them too oppressive, so oppressive that they needed bans to stop them. It seems like they’ve learned their lesson though, as no bans are from the Sword & Shield set.

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