2022 Season Pokémon TCG Format Rotation announced

The Pokémon Company International has announced the format rotation for the 2022 Season of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. The 2022 Standard format rotation will officially begin on September 10, 2021.

Starting with the Sword & Shield Series, cards have a letter on the bottom of the card, called the regulation mark. From the 2022 season onward, regulation marks will be used to signify if a card is legal for tournament play, rather than by expansion release.

For the 2022 season, cards with “D” and “E” regulation marks are legal for use (as well as future regulation marks that may be released). New cards will remain to be made tournament legal, after typically two weeks from their release date. Grouping cards by regulation mark will make it clearer which cards are legal to be used in Standard formats.

Due to the removal of the Fairy type in the Pokémon TCG starting from the Sword & Shield Series, basic Fairy Energy will no longer be legal for use in the Standard format.

Cards that were released in the Cosmic Eclipse expansion and before will be legal if a card with the same name are currently legal for play. For example, Switch from the Sun & Moon expansion can still be used because the card Switch from the Sword & Shield expansion has a "D" regulation mark.

The Expanded format for the 2022 Season remains unchanged; from the Black & White expansion onward.