Announcement Date: March 4, 2021
Effective Date: April 2, 2021
Standard format
No changes have been made to the banned card list for the Standard format.
Expanded format
No changes have been made to the banned card list for the Expanded format.
The list of banned cards for the Standard and Expanded formats can be found here.
Rule Changes
All previous versions of Energy Recycler (XY—Ancient Origins, 72/98; Sun & Moon—Guardians Rising, 123/145; and Sun & Moon—Forbidden Light, 143/131) will receive errata to be updated with the following card text:
Shuffle up to 5 basic Energy cards from your discard pile into your deck.
Next Announcement Date: June 3, 2021
Details of Changes
The latest version of Energy Recycler from Sword & Shield—Battle Styles has different text than older versions. Previous versions forced the player to shuffle 5 basic Energy cards into their deck if there were at least 5 in the discard pile, but the new text allows the player to choose up to 5 instead. (As a reminder, that means any number from 1 to 5.)
No cards were banned from the Standard format. It will be an extremely rare occurrence for cards to be banned from the Standard format.
No cards were banned from the Expanded format. The effects of the previous card bans are still being determined.
Tournament results and community feedback will continue to be analyzed to maintain a healthy play environment. In particular, the Expanded format will be aggressively monitored because there are so many cards and potential combinations available to use.
