Surging Sparks Eternal Format Ban List Update
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.
