The official Japanese and international pages reviewed for this guide list no card-by-card bans in Standard play. Specific cards are restricted outside Standard: Japan runs its own list under Extra Regulation, and the international game separately maintains an Expanded-format ban list.
Those two lists are not the same, but they overlap in several places. This guide lays out what is prohibited where, sourced from the two official rules pages (pokemon-card.com for Japan, pokemon.com for the international list), both checked September 3, 2026. In this rules context, “banned” means “not legal to play in one specific tournament format,” not “illegal to own.”
No Pokemon card is currently banned in Standard format, in Japan or internationally, as of today’s fetch. Japan’s Extra Regulation format names specific cards as prohibited, with Medicham V added from February 20, 2026; the international Expanded format separately bans 27 cards. Some card names appear on both lists. None of this touches current Standard-legal product such as our SV9-Battle Partners Japanese Pokemon Booster Box, currently listed at ¥10,094 (~$63).
Sourced from pokemon-card.com’s official regulation page and pokemon.com’s official banned-card list, both fetched September 3, 2026. Both lists are revised periodically by official rules updates — treat every figure here as “as of” that date, not permanent. Yen figures convert at ¥159/USD (September 2026).
Is Any Pokemon Card Banned Right Now? The Short Answer
As of today’s fetch, the answer is no for Standard format. Japan’s Standard Regulation shows no card-by-card ban list as of January 23, 2026; the rule there is about which regulation marks are legal at all (more on that below). Internationally, the official banned-card list states plainly: “No cards are currently banned in the Standard format,” and the same wording appears for the Unlimited format.
The place both regions do restrict specific cards is a secondary format: Japan’s Extra Regulation, and the international game’s Expanded format. Those are two separate rule sets in two separate regions, so the sections below cover each one on its own terms.
Japan’s Extra Regulation: The Officially Prohibited Cards
Extra Regulation (扰張レギュレーション) is Japan’s wider format — it allows older regulation marks that Standard has rotated out, but in exchange it names specific cards as prohibited (使用禁止). The official regulation page and the notice effective February 20, 2026 identify the following examples:
| Card (Japanese / English) | Type | Reason flagged on the page |
|---|---|---|
| アップリュー (Flapple) | Pokemon (Ability) | Ability “Apple Drop” (アップルドロップ) named |
| アーケオス (Archeops, BW2 print) | Pokemon | Named outright |
| フラダリの奥の手 (Lysandre’s Trump Card) | Trainer (Supporter) | Named outright |
| 巨大植物の森 (Forest of Giant Plants) | Trainer (Stadium) | Named outright |
| マツブサの隐し球 (Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick) | Trainer (Supporter) | Named outright |
| アンノーン (Unown, SM8 print) | Pokemon | Damage/hand-disruption ability flagged |
| こわいおねえさん (Delinquent) | Trainer | Named outright |
| ムサシとコジロウ (Jessie & James) | Trainer (Supporter) | Named outright |
| リセットスタンプ (Reset Stamp) | Trainer (Item) | Named outright |
| マーシャドー (Marshadow) | Pokemon | Named Ability (やぶれかぶれ) |
| フラベベ (Flabébé) | Pokemon | Ability “Cut-in Evolution” (ぬけがけしんか) named |
| ムウマージ (Mismagius, SM10 print) | Pokemon | Named outright |
| レッドカード (Red Card) | Trainer (Item) | Named outright |
| ザクザクピッケル (Chip-Chip Ice Axe) | Trainer (Item) | Named outright |
| Medicham V | Pokemon | Added to Extra Regulation from February 20, 2026 |
The official page lists further cards beyond this table — check pokemon-card.com’s regulation page directly for the complete, current version before relying on this list for tournament play. Entries include Trainer cards and specific Pokemon prints; a species name alone does not identify every print of that Pokemon as prohibited.
Separate from Extra Regulation, pokemon-card.com defines a points-based Hall of Fame Regulation. It assigns 1 to 4 “points” to certain cards and caps how many total points of those cards a single deck may include — a deck-building limit, not a prohibition. A small number of cards sit outside the points system entirely and are banned outright under Hall of Fame Regulation, including Kecleon (カクレオン) and Lysandre’s Trump Card. It is a separate regulation, not a points system within Extra Regulation.
The International Ban List: Standard, Expanded, Unlimited
Pokemon.com’s official banned-card list covers three international formats, and as of today’s fetch it states outcomes for all three plainly:
| Format | Status (as of today’s fetch) |
|---|---|
| Standard | No cards are currently banned. |
| Expanded | 27 cards banned. |
| Unlimited | No cards are currently banned. |
The official page does not display an explicit “last updated” date, so treat “as of September 3, 2026” as the correct qualifier for the Expanded figures below rather than a permanent count. The Expanded ban list currently includes 27 cards. The complete category split shown below is 13 Pokemon cards and 14 Trainer cards:
| Category | Cards named on the official list |
|---|---|
| Pokemon | Archeops, Duskull, Flabébé, Flapple, Marshadow, Medicham V, Milotic, Mismagius, Oranguru, Sableye, Shaymin-EX, and two Unown variants |
| Trainer | Chip-Chip Ice Axe, Delinquent, Forest of Giant Plants, Ghetsis, Hex Maniac, Island Challenge Amulet, Jessie & James, Lt. Surge’s Strategy, Lysandre’s Trump Card, Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick, Puzzle of Time, Red Card, Reset Stamp, Scoop Up Net |
This 27-card count applies to the international Expanded format specifically. The international page lists no bans for Unlimited; separate Japanese Extra Regulation restrictions must be checked on pokemon-card.com.
Where Japan and the World Agree
Line up the two lists and shared card names include:
- Archeops
- Flabébé
- Forest of Giant Plants
- Marshadow
- Mismagius
- Chip-Chip Ice Axe
- Jessie & James
- Lysandre’s Trump Card
- Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick
- Red Card
- Reset Stamp
- Medicham V
The overlap is useful for comparison, but the two regions still run separate formats (Extra Regulation vs. Expanded) with separate legal card pools. Always check the applicable official list rather than treating one region’s ruling as universal.
What This Means When You’re Buying Japanese Cards and Boxes
None of the above stops anyone from owning, collecting, or grading these cards. A prohibited or banned status is a tournament-legality rule, not a restriction on sale or ownership, and none of it touches current Standard-legal sealed product. Our current Standard-legal Japanese boxes — the SV9-Battle Partners Japanese Pokemon Booster Box, currently listed at ¥10,094 (~$63) and the SV7-Stellar Miracle Japanese Pokemon Booster Box, currently listed at ¥9,984 (~$63) — carry the H/I/J regulation marks that Japan’s Standard format currently recognises, and neither box contains a card from either prohibited list above.
Where the ban lists get more relevant is on the vintage side. Several of the Trainer cards named on the international Expanded list — Lysandre’s Trump Card, Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick, Jessie & James, Red Card, Reset Stamp — are from the same broad XY-through-Sun & Moon era that produced today’s graded vintage singles market. Our PSA10 M Steelix EX SR :1ED [XY11-2 057/054], currently listed at ¥66,000 (~$415), comes from that XY era, and our PSA10 Hilda 166/086 SR, currently listed at ¥13,200 (~$83), sits in the Black & White era just before it. Neither card is itself on either prohibited or banned list — they are Pokemon cards from the surrounding era, not the specific Trainer cards named above — but understanding which era produced the restricted cards helps explain why certain Trainer-heavy vintage decks aren’t Expanded-legal even when the graded Pokemon cards from the same sets are perfectly fine to own, play in Unlimited, or collect.
![PSA 10 M Steelix EX SR :1ED [XY11-2 057/054] graded slab](https://samuraiswordtokyo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/img_banned_ia9ser3lijxpoypfbiu32h2pwxrsyfmo7cbwp5yv-1_08457c6d413b.webp)
For more on how Japanese rarity and regulation marks work together on the card itself, see our rarity guide for graded buyers, and for the Japanese-vs-English printing differences that come up alongside format questions, see our Japanese vs English Pokemon cards guide.
If you’re building an order around graded singles, PSA10 boxes, or a mix of both, our PSA 10 graded card collection and Japanese Pokemon box collection cover both, or use Quick Order to build a mixed order in one pass. Our guide to buying Japanese Pokemon cards online covers the logistics side of ordering from Tokyo.
One more distinction worth flagging: our separate Misty Pokemon cards guide covers a specific card’s informal, community “banned” nickname and history — that’s a different subject from this article, which covers the official, currently-in-force Japan and international ban lists.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is any Pokemon card currently banned in Standard format?
No. As of today’s fetch, the official international banned-card list states “No cards are currently banned in the Standard format,” and Japan’s Standard Regulation page (as of January 23, 2026) shows no card-by-card ban list — only the H, I, and J regulation-mark rule.
What is Japan’s Extra Regulation list?
Extra Regulation is Japan’s wider tournament format, allowing older regulation marks that Standard has rotated out. It names specific cards as officially prohibited (使用禁止); the cited update effective February 20, 2026 also adds Medicham V.
What’s the difference between Japan’s prohibited list and the Hall of Fame list?
Extra Regulation and Hall of Fame Regulation are separate Japanese regulations. Extra Regulation has its own prohibited-card list; Hall of Fame Regulation assigns point values to certain cards and limits how many total points a deck may run, while also banning a small number of cards outright.
How many cards are banned in the international Expanded format?
27 cards, as of today’s official pokemon.com fetch: 13 Pokemon cards and 14 Trainer cards. Standard and Unlimited each currently show no banned cards.
Do Japan’s banned cards match the international Expanded list?
Partially. Shared names include Archeops, Flabébé, Forest of Giant Plants, Marshadow, Mismagius, Chip-Chip Ice Axe, Jessie & James, Lysandre’s Trump Card, Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick, Red Card, Reset Stamp, and Medicham V. Each list also names additional cards the other doesn’t.
Does a banned or prohibited status mean I can’t own or collect the card?
No. Both lists are tournament-legality rules for specific competitive formats. They don’t restrict buying, owning, grading, or displaying the card — they only govern whether it can be played in that particular format’s decks.
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