Pokémon Trading Cards: 15 Cards That Broke The Game (And Had To Be Banned)
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The Pokémon Trading card game has lost some powerful cards. These are the craziest cards that had to be banned.
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Ah, the Pokémon Trading Card Game. For me, this is like tiny cardboard slices of nostalgia. If you’re a 90s child, I’m sure it’s probably just the same for you. I was in my early years of high school when Pokémania first hit the world, and man was I instantly captivated.
I was introduced to Pokémon at the same time I was introduced to Pythagoras’s theorem in math class, and needless to say, I made my darn choice and I stuck with it. Today, I’m hopeless at mental arithmetic, but you can bet your butt that I can still recite the entire theme song and Pokérap from memory. Zero regrets about my life decisions, friends. ZERO.
Back to 90s high schools, though, we all know how that story went. Principals banned Pokémon cards, such was the distraction of the phenomenon. This had little effect; actually serving to foster the growth of the greatest underground black market since prohibition. It was like freaking Bugsy Malone with Charmanders and Pinsirs in my school.
Over two decades later, the Pokémon TCG has seen cards banned for all sorts of reasons. The game doesn’t have a true banlist, in the sense that games like Yu-Gi-Oh! do, but still. There are a select few cards that have been banned from tournament play. They are cards that were forbidden for other reasons, too, and still more that probably should have been.
Strap yourselves in and let’s check out some of the most controversial cards out there.
15 Sneasel, Of All The Darn Things
Now, don’t get me wrong here. I totally dig Sneasel. Weavile is one of my favorite Pokémon of all. Over the years, this claw-brandishing little Dark/Ice weasel has appeared on just about every team I’ve ever made. It’s my signature Pokémon, and it’s generally called Wolverine because I have slim to bupkuss creativity.
Do you know what it isn’t, though? OP, that’s what. This thing’s strong, but it’s frail enough to be knocked out by a gnat’s fart, and that goes double for its baby form, Sneasel.
The Sneasel card from the Neo Genesis collection was way too good, though. It was banned from the Modified format for a while, and maybe taking a look at it will tell you why. With a full bench, that was 120 damage from Beat Up. Does that sound like a good time? That’s because it wasn’t.
14 Ancient Mew: Because Google Translate Hadn’t Been Invented Yet
Now, if there’s one thing that the Pokémon series excels at, it’s pushing the brand. Hawking the merchandise. Yu-Gi-Oh! magazines and DVDs often include exclusive promotional cards, and Pokémon has gotten in on this action many times too.
Ancient Mew is but one example of this. In the year 2000, The Power of One hit theaters. Those who bought tickets to the movie in that opening week were given one of these super-fancy cards.
In my humble opinion, this is one of the best-looking TGC cards ever made. Check this bad boy out. It’s like Snoop Dogg’s pimped it out with a couple of gold rims. Sadly, though, the card’s strange runic text caused ruling snafus, and so it was officially banned. Even from the Unlimited format, making it one of only two cards ever to be given this distinction.
13 How The Heck Does Pikachu Know It’s Your Birthday?
Which was the other card to be banned from the Unlimited format as well as Modified, you ask? Gather round, friends, and I’ll tell you a story of the infamous Birthday Pikachu.
Now, technically, this card is actually named _’s Pikachu, in an attempt to make it the player’s own Pikachu. There have been a lot of super shady cards released for promotions, with a range of special effects, but this one is definitely up there with the strangest.
This cheery celebration Pikachu has an attack with a chance to deal over double the usual damage, if it’s the holder’s birthday. This is certainly novel (read: batcrap crazy), but it’s also a real logistical problem. How likely is that to happen? How does the player prove it? Because of these sorts of things, Birthday Pikachu had to get the boot too.
12 When Slowking Makes You Hate Your Life
Again, generally speaking, I have no beef with Slowking. Its Pokédex entry is super disturbing, what with that Shellder constantly pumping venom into its head and all, but we’ve had to come to terms with those things. This poison has the side effect of making Slowking highly intelligent, after all, so it’s nothing to complain about really.
However, lots of people have complained about the card from the Neo Genesis set. And with darn good reason, too, because it makes me feel a little nauseous just looking at it. Mind Games? Instantly negating all of the opponents’ trainer cards, and dumping them on the top of the deck where they’re drawn again next turn? Those are the worst mind games I’ve seen since my crazy ex-girfriend, right there.
It’s no surprise, then, that this guy was also banned from the Modified format in 2002.
11 Lysandre: Still Being A Pain In The Butt With Lysandre’s Trump Card
Now, there’s a lot to dislike about Lysandre. That whole end-of-humankind-and-Pokémon-so-only-Team-Flare-survive thing? That’s the kind of thing I just can’t get on board with. The way this great orange a-hole’s story escalated, from concerned and rational scientist to mass-murderous maniac, totally baffled me in X and Y.
We all know that megalomania is generally on the uncool side, but it’s nothing compared to what Lysandre unleashed on us in the TCG. When Lysandre’s Trump Card hit with the Phantom Forces expansion, it quickly became the first card to be officially banned in almost a decade. While not exactly overpowered, per se, this card just stalls the game, and as the beloved meme says, ain’t nobody got time fo dat.
Shuffle all cards from the discard piles into the decks? No. Stop that.
10 The Only Place In The World Archeops Is OP
In some Bizarro World parallel universe somewhere, Archeops could well be an amazing Pokémon, competitive-wise. After all, if Doctor Who has taught me anything, it’s that there are many, many parallel universes. Theoretically, anything’s possible. There could be one where I’m Mister Universe, but that’s probably pushing the boundaries of physics right there.
In the main game, this fossil Pokémon has impressive power and speed, but was nerfed into oblivion by its awful ability, Defeatist. In the trading card game, it was deemed way too good, due to its Ancient Power ability. This prevented players from evolving their Pokémon, which is a core mechanic of the game and central to so many decks. For this reason, the ancient bird had to go and lie down in a darkened room for a while, and contemplate its actions.
9 Having a Bad Time In The Forest Of Giant Plants
Typically in the main series Pokémon titles, Grass-types get a bad rap. Along with Ice and Rock, Grass is usually seen as one of the worst types of all. For all three, it’s the imbalance in terms of weaknesses and resistances that leaves them lagging behind. Ice, for instance, is hit super effectively by four different types, while resisting only itself.
Grass may have five different weaknesses, but it became godlike in the TCG thanks to the batcrap crazy Forest of Giant Plants. That stadium card enabled all manner of grass-based shenanigans, including an OTK before the opponent could even take a turn. There were a number of broken strategies and combos you could initiate with this, none of which your mama would have approved of. Off Forest of Giant Plants went from Expanded play.
8 Professor Oak, The OG, Is OP (Or Is He)
A key component of just about any trading card game is draw power. There’s always an element of randomness in these games, and being able to draw more gives you more chance of getting your hands on the cards you need. Most importantly, when you need them.
You can’t drop a Yugi Moto ‘heart of the cards’ during a match, can you? No, no you can’t, because you’ll look like a bozo.
Over in Yu-Gi-Oh!, the card Pot of Greed is banned because it’s an instant two free cards. This is an incredibly powerful effect, and it’s this sort of thing that has made the original Professor Oak card so controversial.
Was he overpowered? Was he not? This debate has been going on since the game was introduced, really, and that’s testament to the power of good ol’ Oak.
7 Vileplume: “Nice Deck. Be A Shame If Someone… SHUT IT ALL DOWN”
Damn it, Vileplume. Why do you have to be like this?
Now, I’m going to be entirely frank here. Vileplume is, without a doubt, my favorite Grass-type Pokémon ever. I’m not quite sure what it is. It’s partly the design, I think. Not as out there as some Pokémon designs, but still unique and creative enough to make its presence known. It’s fairly versatile, as well, able to take defensive or offensive roles depending on the team’s needs.
In the card game, however, it’s just a royal pain in the ass. Much like Slowking from the Neo Genesis set, this thing restricts a lot of other cards simply by being on the field. It sucks all the fun out of the game, and it sucks it with all the combined force of a Dyson showroom. It’s darn controversial.
6 The Bowel-Loosening Wrath Of Shadow Lugia
With Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, the shady new concept of Shadow Pokémon was expanded upon. The player’s goal, as in Pokémon Colosseum, was to capture these poor corrupted souls and purify them. The hilariously-named Snag Machine was your tool of choice for doing this, and that’s really all you need to know about that.
The game hit in 2005, and it inspired perhaps the strongest Pokémon card ever created: Shadow Lugia. Granted, this thing is one of those fancy jumbo promotional cards, and was never intended to see real use, but… damn. Look at this guy. Just look at it.
That’s 1000 damage, right there. Was that a typo? Quite possibly. The only thing we know for sure is that you’re not using this thing. And not just because it’s three times the size of a standard card.
5 Just Jynx Being Jynx
Over the years, the Pokémon franchise has walked itself into some real moral minefields. Remember that one Porygon-centric episode of the anime, which made the Guinness Book of Records for most seizures caused? That wasn’t a great day in the office for the PR guys, you can be sure of that.
Another famous example would be the controversy surrounding Jynx’s original skin tone. While this bizarre humanoid Pokémon now sports a lurid purple face and hands, its skin was originally jet black. Naturally, this raised all kinds of objections, and the card was soon banned and re-released with the now-familiar purple version.
Granted, that doesn’t make this thing creep me out any less (it’s the dancing, it’s hypnotic in the worst possible way), but it’s less incriminating.
4 When Even Claydol Is OP
Trading card games are a curious thing. When they’re based on an already-existing series of games (i.e Pokémon, the Final Fantasy TCG), you never quite know which cards will be better than which. Often, characters we know to be super strong and useful in the original game will be terrible in card form, and vice versa.
Case in point: when was the last time you ever saw a Claydol on Battle Spot? Never, that’s when. This thing’s only niche is in setting Stealth Rock and spinning them away in one, and there are usually better choices for both even way down in rock bottom tiers.
The Claydol card from the Great Encounters set is the bane of many TCG players, though. Once a turn, it enables you to shuffle two cards from your hand back into your deck, and then keep drawing until you have seven. That is not cool.
3 Shiftry Is Not [REDACTED] (For Once)
And here’s yet another example of an otherwise-ignored Pokémon suddenly tearing things up in card form. The less-than-memorable Shiftry is a Dark/Grass type, which sees about as much use as its fellow Dark/Grass, Cacturne. Which is to say, slim to bupkuss.
Previously, this guy was banned from the TCG for its unique ability, Giant Fan, which gave you a chance to shuffle an opponent’s ‘mon back into the deck. This was one of the combinations that made Forest of Giants Plants so formidable, and so when the latter was banned, Shiftry was permitted in the Expanded format again.
This is often the case with trading card games. A card may not be all that overpowered in and of itself, but nasty combinations (often completely unseen by the game’s creators) can arise.
2 Battle Compressor: Still Being Hated On
Speaking of, here comes Battle Compressor. This card is the epitome of the whole that’s fine, but not in tandem with that thing that plagues trading card games everywhere.
It’s totally understandable. As more and more cards are released, it because super difficult to foresee and police the interactions between them. Canny players can breathe new life into cards by finding a new way to combine them with others, and that’s just what makes Battle Compressor such a hot-button issue. While it was never outright banned, there’s been a lot of debate on whether it should be, both from players and from the Pokémon company themselves.
On the face of it, searching your deck for up to three cards and discarding them may not sound like too much. In the right deck, though, you’ve no idea how powerful this engine can be.
1 Broken Time-Space, With A Capital B, R, O, K, E and N
On the subject of Pokémon cards that were banned, there’s one important elephant in the room that we haven’t addressed yet. He’s been here this whole time, crapping on the floor and destroying the furniture, and he’s been waiting long enough, so let’s get to it: essentially, there are hundreds of cards that are banned.
You can no longer just slap your old shiny Charizard from 1999 into a deck, as older sets cannot be used. On that note, there’s one card that is technically only banned because it’s just too old to be played. If a hypothetical reprint ever surfaced, it almost certainly would be though.
What can we say about Broken Time-Space? It’s like Forest of Giant Plants, but it works for every type. Think of the insta-EXs we’d have on our hands if this became a thing again today.
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