Often shadowed by the success of its video game counterpart, the Pokémon TCG is a fairly sizable and popular offshoot of the popular franchise that players were first introduced to back in 1996. It’s still going strong, with various tournaments, expansions, and a strong competitive scene. There are a multitude of different card types, with basic Pokémon, Trainer, Stadium. and Energy cards to name some. There are thousands of different🥂 Pokémon cards out there with tons of different ones released every year. With so many cards out there and such a strong competitive scene, there are bound to be some cards that are deemed too troublesome for competitive use.

A card can be banned for a number of reasons. It could have an easily exploitable ability, be used in tandem with another troublesome card or just not leave many options open for your opponent to counter. Either way, if it affects the player’s creativity when strategizing or just hurts the flow of the game in general, it’s gone. Be it a Pokémon, Trainer or Support, any card that threatens the TCG’sꦓ balance has likely b💦een banned for some period of time while the Meta reworks itself. Some of these cards were barred years ago while others are more recent – and therefore relevant – bans.

So with that in mind, let’s go and l🉐ook at 25 Pokémon cards so powerful they got banned.

25 Insert Name Here Pikachu

The idea behind this card is actually pretty neat. But its ability does make it kind of brok🐻en – if only once a year. Commonly referred to as Happy Birthday Pikachu, this card normally does 30 damage – except on the users birthday, where they then flip a coin and if heads, add on another 50 damage to the attack.

You can imagine how that k🧜ind of ability would’ve gotten out of hand quick. The card was quickly banned ൲seeing as any given player could claim that it was their birthday whenever they felt like it.

24 Wormadam

It’s funny to think that a Pokémon as fundamentally mediocre as W🐼ormadam found a niche within the TCG. First released aﷺs part of the Secret Wonders expansion, Wormadam was banned from the 2008 North American Professor Cup.

The card’s Sandy Cloak ability prevented all effects of attac🔯ks done to it – with the exception of damage. Its Push Over attack was also fairly tricky to deal with as it did 40 damage on the spot, with an additional𝓡 10 for each Fighting Energy attached to Sandy Cloak.

23 Sneasel

This next card was banned for a pretty long time when the first TCG modified format de🗹buted back in 2001. At its peak this Sneasel card was in pretty much everyone’s deck – and for good reason, as iꦍt could tip the scales pretty quickly.

The card did massive amounts of damage given all the set-upꦓ needed was done correctly and everything went smooth༒ly. With the ability to do an average of 80-140 damage per turn you can see why it was singled out so quickly.

22 Delinquent

This next card is a support that ♛was banned due to its use in tandem with some other cards. When used along with Red Card and Peeking Red Card, they would create ඣa situation where the game was essentially won (or lost) after the first few turns.

It was a strategy that could be pulled off successfully most of the ti🦋me and whenever things like that become commonpl❀ace it just takes the fun and challenge out of whatever you’re doing. So the ban here is justified.

21 Puzzle of Time

Here’s yet another card that was banned due to how it was used in tandem with some others. First released as a part of the BREAKpoint expansion, Puzzle of Time was banned last August ꧃because it could be used to shut down opponent’s decks pretty easily.

The idea behind banning the card was so that players who relied on it for the afo♐rementioned combos would reconsider how to structure their decks and thus, give the Expanded format a fresh take.

20 Slowking

This next card seemed to cause problems due to a stipulation changing between the Japanese and English versions of the TCG. The Neo Genesis Slowking has an ability called Mind Games that in the Jap💯anese version was only activated if Slowking was the player’s active Pokémon.

With the removal of this stipulation in the English release, players were ab🤪le to overuse this ability. Often times players would use the ability from the bench with multiple Slowking cards. This greatly affected how successfully your opponent would be able to play a Trainer Card. The problems it caused made it an easy choice for banning in 2002.

19 Hex Maniac

A fairly usefꦇul Supporter Card, Hex Maniac has a pretty annoying ability that can really mess up some players out the gate. In fact, it was banned due to the fear that it would limit how creative players coul﷽d be when playing the game.

The card essentially nixes any Pokémon’s ability until the opponents next turn. Seeing as how so many different strategies, combos, and plays are reliant on Pokémon card abilities, the decision to ban this card was probably 🐓a good one.

18 Jumbo Unova Starters

These next cards weren’t really banned due to their inherently broken abilities,🌠 but their monstrous size. These Jumbo Unova starter cards are more novelty than anything else. Though if you look at their abilities you can guess they wouldn’t have been too fun to deal with if they were put out there as normal cards.

The ♑Oshawott card is by far the most broken of the bunch as it deals 100 damage to your opponents benched Pokémon. The other two’s abilities aren’t near🃏ly as impressive.

17 Unknown

This next entry seems like it was put into circulation for the sole purpose of being banned after a while. The Unkown have always been a creepy and mysterious ဣbunch, but it doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out why this card was banned. All you have to do is look at its ability.

The ability can be used once per tu꧒rn before you (the player) attacks. It states that if you have a total of 66 or more damage counters on your Benched Pokémon, you can activate the ability and end the game right there. That doesn’t sound fun for anybody involved.

16 Shiftry

This next card was banned 𝐆in due part to its potential use with another banned card that we’ll cover a little later. The Next Destinies Shiftry never really saw much competitive use, a﷽nd you can thank its quick ban for that one.

Using Shiftry along with Forest of Giant Plants made it so that players could spam its Giant Fan ability. ಌThat ability makes it possible to flip a coin and if heads, force your opponent to shuffle one of their Pokémon and the cards attached to them back into their deck.