No changes have been made to the ban list for the Eternal format for the set release of Journey Together. As always, cards will continue to be observed to identify problematic interactions that may cause a degradation in the gameplay experience for the Eternal format.
The following cards, and any alternate printings they may have, are now banned in the Eternal format, effectively immediately.
Area Zero Underdepths. Simply by targeting your own solitary Tera Pokémon in play, this card can be used in conjunction with a few other cards to create infinite and pseudo-infinite loops in the game, like using, discarding, and then reusing Giratina LOT 97’s in a loop to eliminate your opponent’s bench with very little counterplay.
Because a similar and less-exploitable card exists in the form of Sky Field, this card is not much of a loss to the format anyway.
Celebi P2 17. This card was exploitable in the same way as the card Puzzle of Time, a card already banned in both the Eternal and Expanded formats. It made it possible for decks that ran the card to be able to use and reuse extremely powerful cards with no real expense or tradeoff. For example, a player using this card in a Tsareena V deck could use and then easily reuse Prime Catcher six or more times over the course of a single game.
Thus, for the same reasons as Puzzle of Time, Celebi P2 17 has now joined the Eternal format ban list.
Dragonair SUM 95. Because Dragonair made it possible to attach any sort of Energy to your Pokémon on your following turn, Dragonair SUM 95 was part of an OTK deck that abused a variety of Holon’s Pokémon like Holon’s Magneton and Holon’s Electrode to constantly reattach a Basic Energy and then bounce it with one of the Holon’s Pokémon to have a very large quantity of “rainbow” Energy to execute any high demand combo, like that of Togepi & Cleffa & Igglybuff-GX’s Supreme Puff-GX, before the opponent has a chance to engage in any meaningful degree of counterplay.
Further, because of its combination with the Energy-bouncing effect of Holon’s Pokémon, this Pokémon is also exploitable in the same way as the banned combination of Shuckle HGSS15 and Espeon AQ 11. The player plays a drawing Energy card like Speed Lightning Energy, Draw Energy, or Enriching Energy, draws cards from their deck, bounces that Energy back to their hand with the effect of the Holon’s Pokémon’s attachment, and then once again reattaches the Energy with the card-drawing effect start the same cycle anew, drawing again and again until the Dragonair player has as much of their deck as they need to complete their combo.
A Change to Time Rules for the Eternal Format
If, after time has been called in a round, a judge notes that a player’s turn is taking an excessive amount of time (five or more minutes) to complete a turn, the judge may initiate the Countdown Rule, which is this:
The judge begins a timer immediately for the current player and then for each player’s turn as soon as that player draws a card. Players will have five minutes to complete their turns before their turn ends and the turn automatically passes to their opponent.
This new rule is being made available to judges of the Eternal format to break cycles of excessively lengthy strings of actions that could prevent an Eternal format tournament from advancing to the next round in a timely manner.
The following cards, and any alternate printings they may have, are now banned in the Eternal format, effectively immediately.
Dragapult ex TWM 130
This card has caused the entire format to warp around it. While it was initially believed that this card was just “especially strong” and that it had adequate counters in the format, the truth has proved to be the opposite: Dragapult ex’s true only counter in the Eternal format is itself. Other bans were considered in this card’s place—including Double Dragon Energy. However, Stellar Crown introduced Sparkling Crystal and Crispin, both cards that also facilitate the nightmares this card is adept at creating.
To finally let the format breathe, this card is now banned in the Eternal format.
Green's Exploration UNB 175
Green’s Exploration is an extremely fun card and was fairly balanced during its heyday in the Standard format. In the Expanded format, decks often find that it’s just too slow to be useful in a super turbo meta. However, flexibility offered by Pokémon Powers, including Poké-Bodies and Poké-Powers, meant that even decks that wanted to lean into the “turbo” side of the format could take advantage of Green’s Exploration.
After the banning of PokéDrawer + back in November 2022, it appeared that it would be safe for Green’s Exploration to return to the format—and, such initially appeared to be the case. However, as the format has developed, it’s become clear that the strength of Pokémon Powers (Powers, Bodies) entirely takes away what is intended to be Green’s downside. The result is that Green's is too exploitable if you just use older cards with the same effect as an Ability, and stall, mill, and control decks in particular benefit excessively from such a card.
As such, Green’s Exploration is now returning to the ban list for the Eternal Format: a place is it now unlikely to ever leave again.
Magneton SSP 59
This card joins a host of other cards like it that give up Prize cards in exchange for some specific advantage. Like Mismagius from Unbroken Bonds before it—and a whole host of various Electrode—Magneton joins the ban list to prevent it being exploited: the combination of extremely potent Energy acceleration and forcing your opponent to take a Prize card is simply too easily exploitable in a format with this degree of consistency.
Naganadel-GX FLI 56
This card can be used in a handful of combinations that create unpreventable checkmate situations. To break this unstoppable combination, Naganadel-GX FLI 56 itself had to be added to the ban list: Stinger-GX was the culprit here.
Smeargle N2 11
Like Clefairy and Clefable before it, this card’s mistranslation without an errata has landed it on the ban list. Unfortunately, the wording “except for its Energy costs and anything else required to use that attack” does not properly convey the intended use of the Sketch attack and does so in ways that can break the game.
Tatsugiri ex SSP 142
A turn 1 Cinnabar Lure seems like an improbable situation until you combine the Eternal format’s consistency with Double Dragon Energy and acceleration cards like Max Elixir or Crispin. This, combined with the large variety of deck manipulation cards available in the format meant that Tatsugiri ex could bring out oppressive Pokémon on the first turn of the game if its player goes second.
While effects like these are incredibly cool, they unfortunately tend to be a bit much for the format.
Walrein CEC 52
The wording of this card's Cold Snap attack is intended to create a game state check that prevents the Trainer lock effect from being spammed turn after turn. However, card-copying effects like that on Alakazam Star and Slowking SCR mean that it is not Cold Snap that these Pokémon used, but Skill Copy and Seek Inspiration, respectively. This results in both of these copying Pokémon being able to copy that effect turn after turn, spamming Trainer lock in a way that was not intended to be possible.
Because of the potency of full Trainer lock and the inability of the game’s logic to check for (the effect of) Cold Snap having been used after being copied, this card had to be hit to avoid games devolving into who can get Walrein’s Cold Snap attack copied first.
Additionally, the following cards, and any alternate printings they may have, are unbanned from the Eternal format, also effective immediately.
The following cards, and any alternate printings they may have, are now banned in the Eternal format, effectively immediately. Unreleased cards are represented by their justinbasil.com proxy image.
Additionally, the following cards, and any alternate printings they may have, are unbanned from the Eternal format, also effective immediately.
In addition to the ban list updates affecting the 345 format, the Eternal format, and the Aceless format, various other alternate formats have been impacted by ban list changes.
In the Dream, Pauper, Quick Draw, Type Focus, and Alola Formats
The following card is no longer banned in the listed formats:
In the Dream, Quick Draw, and Type Focus Formats
The following cards, and any alternate printings they may have, are now banned in their respective formats, effectively immediately. Unreleased cards are represented by their justinbasil.com proxy image.
In the Alola Format
The following cards, and any alternate printings they may have, are now banned in the Alola format, effectively immediately.
In the Pauper Format
The following cards, and any alternate printings they may have, are now banned in the Pauper format, effectively immediately. Unreleased cards are represented by their justinbasil.com proxy image.
The following cards, and any alternate printings they may have, are now banned in the Aceless format, effectively immediately. Unreleased cards are represented by their justinbasil.com proxy image.
The following cards, and any alternate printings they may have, are now banned in the 345 format, effectively immediately. Unreleased cards are represented by their justinbasil.com proxy image.
Additionally, the following cards, and any alternate printings they may have, are unbanned from the 345 format, also effective immediately. These cards were previously placed on the ban list due to the hidden ‘multiplier’ rule. That rule has now been discarded and is no longer factored into decisions regarding the banning of cards in the format.
- Alcremie BRS 71
- Blacephalon UNB 32
- Chandelure UNM 30
- Charizard TEU 14
- Cinccino TEF 137
- Dewgong LOR 34
- Electrode MEW 101
- Galarian Mr. Rime BST 35
- Gourgeist EVS 77
- Grafaiai PAL 146
- Groudon CEL 17
- Ho-Oh LOT 160
- Infernape BRS 26
- Kyurem EVS 116
- Lucario BRS 79
- Lunatone PGO 34
- Magikarp PGO 21
- Malamar CRE 70
- Maractus FST 12
- Morpeko FST 179
- Onix PGO 36
- Primeape BST 67
- Sandaconda BST 82
- Shaymin {*} TEU 10
- Spiritomb UNB 112
- Turtonator DRM 50
- Wishiwashi EVS 46
- Zeraora UNB 60
The following cards, and any alternate printings they may have, are now banned in the Eternal format, effectively immediately. Unreleased cards are represented by their justinbasil.com proxy image.
Additionally, the following cards, and any alternate printings they may have, are unbanned from the Eternal format, also effective immediately.
The Alternate Format Hall of Fame page has been updated with the results of the 12 July 2024 Eternal format tournament.
The tournament's results were as follows:
Kaleidophoenix - Luxray ex
PianoLegPete - Palafin ex
BirdNerdTCG - Dragapult ex
ameliababa - Mismagius / Buzzmosa
Click here to visit the updated Alternate Format Hall of Fame page and join us next month on August 2nd for the next alternate format tournament!
The Alternate Format Hall of Fame page has been updated with the results of the 14 June 2024 345 format tournament.
The tournament's results were as follows:
jollyboli - United Wings
PianoLegPete - Unown Hand
ThatUnlimitedProfessor - Cloyster
Ketsuban - Castform
Click here to visit the updated Alternate Format Hall of Fame page and join us next month on July 5th for the next alternate format tournament!