Expanded format (TCG)
The Expanded format (Japanese: エクストラレギュレーション Extra Regulation format) of the Pokémon Trading Card Game is one of two formats used for officially-sanctioned Play! Pokémon events. It was added to the Standard format in the 2014-2015 season. It allows a greater number of expansions than Standard format but is not as unpredictable in card combinations as Unlimited format.
Expanded is one of the formats playable in Pokémon Trading Card Game Live. However, as Pokémon Trading Card Game Live does not currently support all of the cards that are legal in Expanded, the format is instead called Expanded (Beta), and only allows cards legal in Expanded that are usable in the client. (Currently, this includes the Scarlet & Violet, Sword & Shield, and Sun & Moon series.) Prior to its discontinuation, it was also used in the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online. Pokémon Trading Card Game Online always supported every card in the full Expanded format.
It remains to be seen if Play! Pokémon will ever rotate sets out of the Expanded format, as they currently do with Standard format. Additional expansions are added to the current Rotation three weeks after they are released in the United States. Starting from 2016, they were added to the current Rotation on the third Friday in the month of release.
If a card in an Expanded-legal expansion is a reprint of an older card, all prints of the card can be played in an Expanded-legal expansion-legal deck (e.g. Aquapolis Energy Switch). However, some cards significantly differ in wording between older prints and newer prints (e.g. Pokémon Fan Club from Aquapolis compared to its Ultra Prism iteration); those cards cannot be used in sanctioned tournaments. The exception is cards that have received errata (e.g. Base Set Potion); all printings of cards with errata may be used in sanctioned tournaments.
Play! Pokémon requires players to play with cards printed in their region's official language (for example: players in the United States are restricted to English cards only, whereas players in Canada can use both English cards and French cards).
As of 2025, there has not been an official Expanded tournament in Play! Pokémon regions since 2020, and the format is not yet fully supported in Pokémon Trading Card Game Live. It is currently unknown if Play! Pokémon will continue to support the format. In Japan, the Extra Regulation format does still see occational tournament support, with the annual Aichi Champions League running an Extra Regulation side-bracket along with the main Standard Regulation event.
List of Expanded formats
- 2014-15 — Black & White onward
- 2015-16 — Black & White onward
- 2016-17 — Black & White onward
- 2017-18 — Black & White onward
- 2018-19 — Black & White onward
- 2019-20 — Black & White onward
- 2020-21 — Black & White onward
- 2021-23 — Black & White to Cosmic Eclipse, and all Regulation Marks
- 2023-24 — Black & White to Cosmic Eclipse, and all Regulation Marks
- 2024-25 — Black & White to Cosmic Eclipse, and all Regulation Marks
Banned Cards
Certain cards[1][2] are banned from the Expanded format due to the large number of available cards causing unintended combos. Several of these bans are in response to strategies that allow the player going first to win before their opponent performs an action.[3] Strategies involving hand disruption have also been a cause for bans.[4]
In other languages
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References
See also
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This article is part of Project TCG, a Bulbapedia project that aims to report on every aspect of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. |