Regulation mark

How to read it

The Pokémon Company International (TPCi) added the letter starting with the Sword & Shield Series and, from the 2022 season, linked tournament legality to it rather than to the expansion a card came from. Not every card in one expansion necessarily has the same letter, TPCi notes. Card Gamer describes the mark as a single black capital letter in a white box at the bottom left, first printed on the first Sword & Shield cards in 2020. The first English letter was D, not A, to match Asian sets, which were already on their fourth letter; before that, players worked out a card’s legality from its set symbol.

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Which letters are legal

The legal letters have changed with each season’s rotation. For the 2022 season, D and E were legal, and TPCi said the 2023 rotation would remove D. For 2024, TPCi took E out of Standard from 5 April at in-person events, leaving F, G and H legal, as Card Gamer also reported that April. In 2025 TPCi dropped F, leaving G and H, and said players should expect the oldest legal letter to rotate out whenever a new one is introduced. For 2026, from 10 April at in-person Play! Pokémon events, cards marked G are no longer legal in Standard; H, I and J are, as are any later letters. TPCi says legality no longer depends on the expansion: even a card from a recent set is checked by the letter on its bottom.

Older cards and other formats

TPCi lets an older printing without a regulation mark be used if the same card is legal in a newer printing. TPCi keeps the Expanded format unchanged in 2026: the Black & White Series and later. Card Gamer adds that in casual games, outside organised play, any cards can be used if the opponent doesn’t object.

Look-alikes

The set code, also at the bottom left, is a short code in a black box, three letters on recent sets according to Dexerto; the regulation mark is one letter in a white box.