Formats

[u/Hefty-Locksmith-7451]

Hello all. What are all the formats for tcg? Coming from other card games such as magic, I know there are different formats like standard, modern, etc…
And is there a website out there I can track and view all those decks being played in the different formats? And possibly where can I find out when the rotations happen for the most up to date format. Thanks.

[u/Iamzarg]

In Pokémon the only competitive format is the standard format. limitlesstcg.com is the place to go for decks and tournament results. 

Expanded format and Gym Leader Challenge are the two other popular formats, but at least currently they are purely casual formats. For sites for these there’s  dowsingmachine.com for expanded and gymleaderchallenge.com and cardboardwarriors.com for Gym Leader Challenge.

For standard, rotation is generally every April, but officially it’s announced on a yearly basis.

[u/GREG88HG]

Standard is the only competitive format, it's like... MTG Standard 😅

Expanded was a thing but as happened with MTG Pioneer... Pokémon killed it 😔. It was like MTG Modern. I used to play it a lot. Still played in Japan a lot, not overseas.

Gym Leader Challenge is a singleton format, where you use only only one type of Pokémon with the Expanded cardpool but disallows any card with rule box, so only Pokémon that give one prize. Kinda Pauper+Commander.

Build and Battle is the prerelease format, like MTG Sealed, but we get a premade deck out of 4 and booster packs.

Lastly, some people play old formats with the rules of the year the format was on standard. Like tournaments with cards from the first 3 expansions with old rules. No MTG equivalent, as Premodern uses modern rules, mostly like retro Yu-Gi-Oh formats.

Some people have Pokémon Cubes, thats the only way to draft in Pokémon TCG.

[u/callirome]

The only true format for Pokemon is standard. There is GLC (Gym Leader Challenge) and expanded but they aren’t supported and are rarely played.

[u/Hare_vs_Tortoise]

Read this post on rotation for everything you need to know about official formats, rotation and where to look up exceptions to rotation.

For decklists you need both Limitless sites, the Japanese City League results on Limitless TCG and Pokecabook which you'll find linked in the resources list on my profile. Which site you use will depend on where in the tournament/set release/rotation cycle things are. You'll also find You Tubers linked to check out as well and it's also very much worth reading Pokebeach regularly also.

In the resources list you'll find a link to Pokemon.com's rules & resources area where you'll find information on alternative formats like GLC. Worth reading the rulebook and the tournament handbook there as well.

Edit: If you are going to be playing Expanded on PTCGL then be aware that it's a contracted version covering Sun & Moon Base onwards and not the full version of Black & White base onwards due to not all cards being available in PTCGL.

[u/Bright_Sport2299]

Alt formats and casual play are actually where Pokemon TCG struggles the most. TPCi doesn't support alt formats in any official events and it's completely up to your local card store to host them. Pokemon TCG is incredibly cheap to play and you can build most competitive decks for 40-80 bucks, and as a result people basically jump straight into playing the top decks. No reason for playing low-power decks when the high power decks are so easy to get.

Expanded format is the most popular secondary format, and uses most cards released from around 2011 onwards, with a small banlist.

There's also GLC (Gym Leader Challenge) format that turns pokemon into a singleton format with only one type and no rulebox cards. Some high-level players keep trying to push this incredibly limited format but it heavily alienates the vast majority of the community due to it being significantly harder and not really playing into the strengths of what makes the TCG fun for many people.

Both of these formats are supported in TCG Live (the online client) but are not complete. TCG Live is missing every card from before sun and moon.

Then there's the Unlimited format that allows for every card ever playable in standard format with no banlist and the only limitation being a max of 60 cards and 4 copies of any card with the same name. INCREDIBLY broken and unbalanced, most do not play this.

There's also super niche retro formats that aim to capture specific points in history. Whimsicast on youtube has a pretty great video on that topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYMwLb9mUus

TL;DR, play standard. It's the only format people are really playing. If you really like how pokemon plays and wanna try other formats, you'll need friends who also wanna do it with you, becuase there's not much support for any of them.

[u/Some_Tiny_Dragon]

There's no gameplay warping formats like Commander. But there is:

Standard -Play with the approved sets in rotation.

Expanded -All sets from Black and White's base onward are legal (almost like modern.)

Gym Leader Challenge -Like expanded but you can only have one type, is singleton and does not allow rulebox cards.

Unlimited -Not officially supported but is just using all cards.