The Pokemon TCG has revealed the date for its upcoming Standard rotation, which changes which expansions are playable in its most popular format, Standard.
Most years see a new Standard rotation, to help keep the game fresh. This April, we’ll be saying goodbye to all E-marked cards, which includes some of the top-performers in the game’s meta.
In an announcement on the official Pokemon site, the date set for Standard rotation was revealed to be April 5, 2024. From that date, the oldest cards in the format – those with the E regulation mark in the bottom left corner – will no longer be playable.
Essentially, this takes out the remaining cards still legal in Shining Fates, and everything in Battle Styles, Chilling Reign, Evolving Skies, Celebrations, and Fusion Strike. The oldest expansion still legal in Standard is now 2022’s Sword & Shield: Brilliant Stars.
A few cards released in later expansions are also now no longer legal. For instance, the entire Trainer Gallery from Brilliant Stars was either D or E regulation marked cards, and so things like Rapid Strike Urshifu V and Acerola’s Premonition are now gone as well.
The last two years of the game are still mostly legal, though, as are older copies of any card currently printed with an F or later regulation mark. The upcoming set Paldean Fates is already on G regulation cards, meaning anything you pick up today will still be playable in Standard for a long time to come.
While the rotation officially happens on April 5, meaning you’ll be able to play Shining Fates, Battle Styles, and other cards alongside the newly-announced Temporal Forces for a few weeks in paper, the same won’t be true for Pokemon TCG Live, the digital client. There, rotation is coming into effect on March 21 – likely to fit both the new expansion and the rotation update in one download, but also to give you time to try out new decks with the new Standard.
Alongside the confirmation of the Standard rotation, we also got word that the Expanded format still isn’t being touched. Expanded can use any expansion since base set Black & White, and, while the Pokemon Company has always reserved the right to rotate it when needed, it’s never done so, and clearly has no plans to do it any time soon.
This rotation is going to be a particularly meaty one, as it gets rid of one of the game’s top-performing decks: Mew VMAX. Both Mew and its partner in crime, Genesect V, were printed in Fusion Strike and have dominated Standard ever since. It’ll be interesting to see how the dust settles on the format when they finally leave, even if other decks like Lost Zone Box will still play a big role for a little longer.
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