Eternal Format Ban List
Introduction
The goal of this document is to create a copy of the Pokemon TCG Eternal Format ban list that includes explanations for why each card is banned. Many cards that are banned in the format are understandably not seen as overwhelmingly strong to someone trying out the format for the first time, given that the setup for a game-breaking combo often uses old and obscure cards.
Even after personally playing the format for quite a while now, there are bans included on this list that I was unfamiliar with and/or had to discuss with veterans of the format about the specifics of how to break them. The beauty of this format comes from the creativity of deck building and complex interactions that cards from entirely different eras can have, but with that complexity there is often confusion as well. I think it would be extremely beneficial to have a reference to fall back on when discussing the specifics of any individual ban.
When discussing bans in this format, it is important to keep in mind what the purpose of this format is. While I am not in a place to say officially what that is, my understanding is that the format is meant to replicate the pacing and feeling of gameplay that many standard formats previously have had, while allowing players to use as much of the TCG's card pool as possible. The aim seems to be to create a meta that maximizes diversity and playability of as many archetypes as possible. There is a balance there between allowing strong decks to be strong, while also not allowing any one deck to be too strong. Another primary goal is to simply have a good time and ensure that potential decks which don't allow for this don't see play. This is a difficult balance to manage, but we try our best.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Table of Contents
- Oppressive Lock
- Hand Lock
- Cheat Into Play
- Ruling Nightmares
- Self-KO
- Over-Tuned Consistency
- Resource Manipulation
- Scoop Up Effects
- Energy Denial
- Baby Rule Pokemon
- Overpowered Attackers
- Extra Turn Effects
- Prize Card Manipulation
- Alternate Win Conditions
- Miscellaneous
Banned Cards
Oppressive Lock
The cards included in this section are all characterized by being able to consistently lock a player out of key parts of the game, dramatically warping gameplay. Some forms of lock are a normal and healthy part of the game, but these ones in particular have been deemed too overwhelming and unenjoyable to be healthy for the format
Evolution Lock
The ability to completely prevent the play of evolution cards is an auto-win into many evolving decks, drastically warping the format and discouraging the play of a substantial amount of cards in the card pool.
It is worth noting that both Banette and Bronzong can be brought into play on turn 1 due to Banette's Delta Evolution and a Bronzor with the Adaptive Evolution Ability.
Trainer Lock
Trainers have come to make up the majority of modern decks. Cards that then lock a player out of playing that majority of cards tend to be incredibly strong.
Some cards in this category lock a player out of playing Trainer cards as a whole, while a few only lock items. There are versions of both of these effects which are not banned in eternal (primarily the latter), but these ones are easier to pull off than those that remain legal.
The following cards require a coin flip to pull off the trainer lock, but this drawback can be easily remedied completely with Will CEC 208 or, to some extent, with Victini NVI 14
Seismitoad-EX and Vikavolt V lock only items with an effect of an attack. This is relatively common and accepted to be a healthy part of the game. The issue with these is that they are big basics, making them extremely difficult to KO if they are item locking you as soon as turn 2. With little to no opportunity to get set up, taking out a big basic can be an impossible task
The drawback of Walrein CEC lies both in the fact that the card is a stage 2 as well as the fact that Cold Snap is not able to be used on consecutive turns. Both of these can be side-stepped by using attacks that copy the effect of Cold Snap, such as the one on Slowking SCR. This way the attack being used is the copying attack (Seek Inspiration in this example) and not Cold Snap.
Houndoom UF started out as legal until eventually being banned in August 2023. Passive Trainer lock (excluding supporters) was eventually found to simply be too strong of an effect for a Stage 1, even with the caveats that Houndoom has. It saw particularly scary results in Banette ex.
Gengar & Mimikyu-GX is slightly different than the rest of the cards in this category since it's locking attack can only be used once per game. It is not banned only for this attack, but also for being a high hp basic and having a very strong Poltergeist attack as well. Due to being a basic, this card simply allows a player to pull too far ahead too quickly.
Power/Ability Lock
Hex maniac being a supporter allows for use and reuse on demand with things like VS Seeker, unlike the unbanned Goop Gas Attack. Muk FO, unlike Garbodor DRX, has little to no counter play. Where Windstorm or Faba are common Garbodor counters, there are no such common counters for Muk.
Hand Lock
Another way to lock an opponent out of the game is by ensuring that they have no playable cards in hand. The following cards are banned on the basis of making this strategy far too easy to pull off.
Hand Size Reduction
These cards force the opponent to reduce the size of thier hand. These are banned in part because they enable a complete hand lock when used in conjunction with other cards that further remove cards from the hand. They can also be used on their own to significanly reduce the number of cards a player has in hand, sometimes as soon as turn 1. This makes it extremely difficult to do anything, and allows the opponent to pull too far ahead. Some cards here are also banned due to having supporter-level effects on an item.
Used with Will CEC 208, Tickling Machine can be used to guarantee a hand lock on the opponent. There are also mulitple ways to loop the effect and ensure that the opponent is unable to break the lock.
Targeted Hand Disruption
The following cards are similar to some of those in the previous subsection, but they tend to be stronger due to the fact that their effects allow a player to target either specific cards in the opponent's hand, or a subset of cards in their hand.
In the modern game, these cards effectively remove most playable cards from the opponent's hand. Lass can be used on the very first turn of the game, quickly shutting the opponent out of the game. Ghetsis can't be used on the first turn, but it is a 1 sided effect and even provides the player with draw power.
Top Deck Manipulation
The following cards are banned due to their effects allowing a player to manipulate what card the opponent draws at the beginning of their turn. Often used in combination with cards that reduce a player's hand size, they can be used to effectively lock a player out of the game, ensuring that there won't even be a lucky top deck to save them.
Cheat Into Play
Stronger effects in this game are typically given to cards that have some drawback. A very common drawback is being an evolution Pokemon, thus not being able to enter play until turn 2 at the very earliest. There are some cards whose purpose is to circumvent this drawback and bring evolution Pokemon into play with ease. The vast majority of these cards are deemed too strong and are found in this category of bans.
"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." - JustInBasil Website
Used in conjunction with a Basic Pokemon with the Barrage ancient trait, these Technical Machines can allow a player to cheat into play stage 2 Pokemon with ease.
These Duskulls are banned not due to there being a particularly good Dusclops, but due to there being multiple incredibly good Dusknoirs. Allowing them to get a buff with these Duskulls would make them too strong.
The reasons for these cards being banned is a bit more direct and clear. Clefairy could evolve into Clefable PLS, allowing even more cheat into play effects. Flabébé could evolve into Floette CEC, enabling turn one hand locks.
Eevee SSP got its ban more recently than most other cards on this list due to none of the evolution immediately standing out as being overwhelmingly strong. The combo that was found was to use this Eevee along with any one of three of the Eeveelutions with the “Undevelop” power. Then, using Po Town, you would be able to evolve and devolve at will, knocking yourself out and forcing the opponent to take prize cards, then allowing the use of Roxanne. From there it is possible to hand lock the opponent out of the game as early as turn 1.
Giovanni is another card that was banned very late, due to there being no obvious targets for the effect. The issue comes though in the persistence of the effect. Rulings suggest that the effect remains on a Pokemon even after it evolves or devolves. The way to break the effect is then to use it on a Giovanni's Pokemon, Ninja Boy and turn it into something else, then continually devolve and evolve to abuse an ability that triggers on evolution (namely Shiftry NXD).
Ruling Nightmares
These cards are characterized not necessarily by their power, but by their difficulty of play in this format. Many early cards in particular had effects that were poorly defined or had unintuitive rulings even within their own formats, and once you release that effect into a card pool with nearly every other card ever printed, rulings get even more messy and it has been decided that these cards are more work than it is worth to play correctly. Some of these cards also have a spiritual successor that was printed later on, giving them even less reason to exist in this format.
These cards were all banned due to a mistranslation. The phrase “and anything else required to use that attack” was not in the original Japanese, but opens up a world of difficulty in deciding what that actually means. In any case, with that phrase, these cards are also very powerful.
Self-KO
Cards in this category of bans have effects that knock out the user. In standard formats this is often a huge drawback, putting the opponent one step closer to their win condition of taking six prize cards. This means that any of these effects are created to be very strong, making up for this large drawback. The issue is that in the Eternal format, there are many cards that are only allowed to be played when a player is behind in the prize race, nullifying much of the drawback of these cards. Also, in the Eternal card pool, there are often many stronger ways to take advantage of the strong effects of these cards than what the original intention of the card in its standard format was.
Over-Tuned Consistency
Eternal offers a plethora of options when it comes to choosing cards that will help a deck run smoothly, but it should be of no surprise that some consistency cards of the past were deemed too strong for Eternal. Keep in mind that the old “TRAINER” cards seen here are treated as Items, often allowing Supporter levels of draw power in what is effectively an Item card.
"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." - JustInBasil Website
While it does seem like these have a downside, when used in conjunction with Claydol GE or other similar draw engines, that downside is almost entirely negated.
Multiple Supporter Use
These cards all allow a player to use multiple Supporter cards in a single turn. This has been found to be too strong for consistency reasons, but also allows the use of a Supporter that does aid in consistency, and another that has some other effect, which is incredibly strong.
Resource Manipulation
The game is balanced around the idea that cards in the discard pile will generally stay there. Of course recovery from discard is a commonplace effect, but the cards below either have recovery effects that are far too strong, or completely mess with the discard pile in some way. Some of these cards could also be considered “Over-Tuned Consistency” as well.
"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." - JustInBasil Website
Scoop Up Effects
The following cards return a Pokemon to the player's hand. This effect is fine when it is on a supporter and does not also return the attached cards to a player's hand, but is far too strong when the effect is on an item (or stadium in the case of Narrow Gym) and/or does return all cards attached as well. This is because there are plenty of Pokemon with effects that occur when they enter play, and being able to reuse them with nearly no downside is far too strong. In the case of the supporters, these can often be used with a bulky wall, forcing a win if they opponent is unable to OHKO.
Energy Denial
A very easy route to a terrifying control deck is to build on the list on the basis of removing all of the opponent's energy from play, which will often result in the opponent being unable to play the game at all. These cards would make this strategy incredibly easy to pull off
Baby Rule Pokemon
All Pokemon with the Baby rule are banned due to their effect being overpowered, bad for the game, and not fun. Their Baby rule makes all attacks, even those that do no damage, happen on a coin flip. While not overtly overpowered, it makes for a terrible gameplay experience and would likely see play in control style decklists
Overpowered Attackers
These Pokemon have been banned due simply to their power level being too high.
"Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX has proved itself especially potent in the Eternal format meta, being a Pokémon that, in terms of consistency and deck building space, is functionally a Stage 1, with a number of partners and tools like Garbotoxin Garbodor, Cessation Crystal, and Lost City, to make any Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX deck that could eventually get setup impossible to counter for any deck not solely focused on big basics. Similar to its former partner-in-crime Dragapult ex, this card—and, by extension—deck has forced the meta to warp around it. Multiple attempts at reining in this deck's power level—including the banning of Green's Exploration—have proved to be insufficient and unsuccessful. This card was originally scheduled to be banned alongside Dragapult ex in the Surging Sparks ban list update, but after a brief stay of execution, now joins its dragon friend on the list. Especially now that similar but fairer decks exist in the format in the forms of Greninja ex and Salamence ex, it's time for this card to say sayonara. - JustInBasil Website
"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." - JustInBasil Website
Quoted from the ban list update: "The sheer volume of attacks that Regidrago VSTAR has access to with its Apex Dragon attack in the Eternal format has proven to been too much because it can use that wide variety of attacks for an easily paid-for [G][G][R]. Rather than ban half a dozen of Regidrago VSTAR's favorite attacking partners, its forms of Energy acceleration, or other cards the deck uses to set itself up and wait for new partners to once again break the card and its archetype, the card itself has been removed from the format."
Meloetta is not overly threatening to the format on its own, but becomes problematic when combined with Technical Machine: Blindside PAR. Combined with cards like Iron Valiant ex PAR, donking or just ruining an opponent's board state becomes very easy.
The high cost of Kyogre's attack makes up for its strong spread effect. The ban occurred with the release of Slowking SCR, allowing the use of this effect for a significantly lower cost.
With a plethora of ways to put cards in the lost zone, this card essentially allows a player to use any attack that they would like with a single prizer, while also having the option to reduce the cost of that attack with Dimension Valley.
"we will be rebanning Mewtwo V-UNION. It has come to our attention that with the recent print of Wondrous Patch, it is becomes incredibly trivial for Mewtwo to, during it's first turn going second, use Psysplosion and wipe a bunch of Pokemon from the opponents board. And that's without mentioning it can also Final Burn for 300. For those reasons, Mewtwo V-UNION is returning to its place outside of Eternal." - Legendary (Falinks Dealer)
Extra Turn Effects
The ability to take an extra turn is incredibly strong in this format, so is only made legal in the event of the cost of the strategy being incredibly high.
Prize Card Manipulation
The prize race is an integral part of the game, and these bans are on the basis of skewing the prize race either too heavily in the player's favor, or to too heavily out of the opponent's favor.
"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." - JustInBasil Website
The Time Control attack on this card is extremely strong, adding 2 prizes to the opponent's side of the board. This can be used as a very strong stall tactic with recovery cards and ways of accelerating energy like Bronzong PHF or Metal Saucer to repeat the effect or just as a means of slowing the opponent down enough too much for them to have a chance at winning. Legal cards with similar effects are only usable once per game, whereas this has no limits.
Alternate Win Conditions
Over the years, these alternate win conditions have gained too many tools that would allow players to pull off these effects much more quickly than the typical win conditions of the game occur.
Lost World was balanced in the era it was from, but over time, there have been too many more ways to put opponent's Pokemon in the lost zone, making pulling off a win with this card very easy.
One potential way to achieve a win with this card is through the use of Gapejaw Bog combined with any Pokemon that can be attached as a tool to another Pokemon from the bench (eg. Unown Q) and them moving damage and repeating this effect with Alakazam BS and Weavile STS.
Because this format simply has a lot of cards that let you draw, pulling off a 35 card had and winning the game with Unown's ability is relatively easy.
Miscellaneous
This Kecleon was briefly legal in the format, but quickly found to be overpowered when used with Sylveon VMAX, or now there would also be the option of using a single prizer, Toxtricity OBF. There is also now the option to abuse this card with Radiant Eevee.
"there have been repeated issues with the Giratina from Lost Thunder that continue to plague the format in ways that none of us on the JIB team could have imagined. From Tsareena V to the newer Hydreigon lists, Giratina remains a menace to low - medium HP decks and with it's repeated Distortion Door triggers every single turn. We gave him a chance to straighten up, but he has not and so joins the ban list." - Legendary (Falinks Dealer)
When used in combination with cards that give a player unlimited amounts of energy acceleration, it allows unlimited and repeated use of effects that occur when an energy is attached from hand.
Used in conjunction with a card that gives a player unlimited amounts of energy acceleration, Shuckle converts that acceleration to draw power, which becomes especially overpowered with cards like Energy Reset.
By using Dark Porygon2, a player could infinitely recycle Holon Circle. With Palkia in the active your opponent cannot play a counter stadium. Repeating this process will prevent your opponent from attacking. The decklist featured won the JustinBasil Eternal tournament on 2/4/2023 and Holon Circle was subsequently banned.
Because of rulings on the specific wording of Dragonair's Dragon's Wish attack, a player could attach as many Holon's Pokemon as Energy as they wanted per turn. This would allow a player to easily draw their whole deck with Enriching Energy by returning it to their hand with the effect of the Holon's Pokemon and reattaching it. Then you could easily reach the high energy cost of the Baby Trio's GX attack and win the game. The decklist featured won Tech's Eternal Format Series #17 on 1/5/2025 and Dragonair was subsequently banned.
This card was banned primarily due to its cost. Due ot being such a versatile card, there was fear that if it did see a significant amount of play, it would be extremely difficult to get a hold of for anyone wanting to use it. Now with some equally expensive and rare cards seeing some play, primarily the Star pokemon from the RS-PK sets, it is debateable whether or not price is grounds for banning.
Gust effects are commonly seen in the format, but are typically used on Supporters. Even in those cases, the effect is very strong, allowing KOs on supporting Pokemon that the opponent relies on, or just allowing a KO on a multi-prizer that has been sitting on the bench. Having the effect on an item card is simply too strong. In the case of Double Gust, there are multiple ways for a player to give all of their Pokemon in play free retreat, making the opponnent's gust effect almost entirely negated.
This card was originally banned over Mew Prime when Lost Origin released, as it was really good at enabling both Mew Prime and Mirage Gate, and was therefore the most logical Lost Zone related card to be banned. Nowadays, Mew Prime is also banned, but it is still too good at enabling Mirage Gate, or even a turn 1 Sableye LOR Lost Mine.
"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." - JustInBasil Website
