Changes made to TCG set legality rules

Expansions now to be legal 21 days after English release
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  • Saturday, May 31, 2014

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Organized Play director Dave Schwimmer announced on the Pokémon Organized Play Professor forums that a significant change has been made to the TCG set legality rules. Starting August 2014, the month of the 2014 World Championships and release of the Furious Fists expansion, TCG sets will be legal only after 21 days have passed since the English release date, instead of immediately. Only the English release date, not international language release dates, affect the legality of the cards worldwide. The full quote can be read below.

May 30, 2014— Beginning with the Pokémon TCG release in August 2014, Play! Pokémon will now set the tournament legality date of all new TCG sets for 21 days after the official street dates in all markets worldwide at three weeks after the official release date.

This means that if a TCG set releases on the 7th of a given month, that the first day that cards from that set will be legal for play in sanctioned tournaments would be the 28th of that same month. Sanctioned limited format events will not be affected, as the product for these events is provided by the organizer.

Sets will be legal for play in TCG Online general play, and casual tournaments as of the release date, offering players an opportunity to test cards and decks in the weeks leading up to the tournament legal date.

The tournament legal date is based off of the U.S. release date, and will not change based on shifted international market release dates. Play! Pokémon will publish a worldwide tournament legal date for each set prior to its release.

These rules will also be added to the tournament documents on www.pokemon.com shortly.

  -- Dave Schwimmer