Whether you’re competing for a local or a professional tournament, learning the current Pokemon TCG rotation will help you identify the cards that you are allowed to play on your deck.
In Pokemon TCG, there are certain formats which may limit the usage of some cards to keep the game balanced and competitive.
These formats are as follows:
- Standard
- Expanded
- Theme
- Legacy
While there are other lesser-known formats in Pokemon TCG, the most common ones for official tournaments are Standard and Expanded.
Standard serves as the default format for many Play! Pokemon-sanctioned events. This format changes annually, which usually keeps the latest sets legal and bans the cards from the older sets.
Expanded format, on the other hand, provides players with more choices when building their decks. Tournaments that run the Expanded format allow the use of Pokemon cards from sets released as far as 10 years ago.
Given the massive pool of legal cards in Expanded, this format also holds the longest list of banned cards to prevent players from using extremely powerful cards that can break a match.
To see which cards are banned in the Expanded format, check out this updated Pokemon TCG Banned List.
Additional info:
Theme is a format that only allows the use of pre-made theme decks that can be purchased on a local store, while Legacy (sometimes known as Unlimited) is focused on the usage of old cards starting from the HeartGold & SoulSilver and beyond.
Related articles:
- Pokemon TCG Release Dates
- How to Redeem Code Cards in Pokemon TCG Live
- How to Get Into Pokemon Card Collecting?
- Pokemon TCG Rules
Editor’s Update (October 2025): Provided the latest changes to the Standard format for the current year.
What Is the Pokemon TCG Rotation for Standard in 2025?
For this year’s Standard rotation, tournament legal cards are no longer identified based on set, but rather on their regulation marks.
A Pokemon card’s regulation mark is the letter printed on its lower left corner. Regulation marks were first added on the base set of the Sun and Moon series, having the regulation mark A.
Pokemon TCG Standard rotation for 2025 now bans cards with the regulation mark F. These cards are present in the old sets, such as the Crown Zenith, Silver Tempest, and Lost Origin.
Please keep in mind that those sets may still contain tournament legal cards that don’t have the regulation mark F.
As of writing this article, the 2025 Standard rotation allows the use of cards with regulation marks G, H, and I. These are basically all cards from the sets belonging to the Scarlet & Violet series, as well as the Mega Evolution series.
How About the Expanded Format?
The current Expanded format allows the use of cards all the way from the Black and White series.
In other words, players for the Expanded format won’t be able to use the sets BEFORE the release of the Black and White series, like The Call of Legends, HeartGold SoulSilver, Platinum, Diamond and Pearl series, and beyond.
Other Reminders for the 2025 Standard Format
- It’s possible for a card from a newly released expansion to become banned based on its regulation mark. All cards from the Scarlet & Violet series may mostly have the regulation mark G and H (which are currently legal), but this may change in the future.
- Cards from a recently released set are only legal if the set itself is at least two weeks old.
- Old copies of a legal card can still be played in the current standard rotation regardless of their regulation marks. This rule also includes old copies of a legal card without a regulation mark, such as the Lucky Helmet from the Ancient Origins set. Since the newest reprint of the Lucky Helmet has a regulation mark H, its old copy can be played in the Standard format as well.
- The 2025 Standard rotation for all official Pokemon TCG events was already imposed in April for in-person tournaments and March for all Standard games on Pokemon TCG Live.
Pokemon TCG Rotation 2025: Conclusion
Just like other trading card games, Pokemon TCG can be played based on various formats that can prompt many players to become more creative in building their decks.
Formats like Standard and Expanded open more opportunities for the development of new strategies that can significantly affect the current meta, as well as the mechanics of the game.
So, before you start building your deck, ensure that the regulation mark of every card you’ll use is legal for this year’s Standard rotation.
We will keep updating this article every year, so feel free to save this webpage’s link in case you want to see the next Standard Rotation for 2026.
We hope this article helped you understand the nuts and bolts of two of the most well-known Pokemon TCG formats, especially the Standard rotation.
