Discussion A completely unusable card in Standard

ShaQuL

@KabutoKingTCG
Member
I've been sorting my cards out today, moving out of rotation cards into boxes, out of my binders. I just spotted a card that as far as I'm aware, is completely unusable (physically unusable, not just bad haah) in Standard, even though it is legal: Hydreigon 33/70, Dragon Majesty. A very forgettable card, since it was a reprint of the Hydreigon in Crimson Invasion. However, only Hydreigon was included in Dragon Majesty, not its pre-evolutions... now that Crimson Invasion is rotated, and there hasn't been another Hydreigon line printed, there is no way to play this card. Since it's a Stage 2, it cannot be played onto Ditto, there hasn't been any of it's pre-evolutions released as Promos... I thought it was interesting that TPCi hasn't thought it through when releasing Dragon Majesty.

Has something like this happened before? I collected the cards when I was young but didn't actually know how to play the game in the pre-BW era and only got back into playing when Ultra Prism came out, so I thought it was interesting.
 

Vom

livin' in a lonely world
Forum Mod
Member
The closest thing I can think of is that, if it wasn't for the fact that TPCi always seems to incorporate some built-in way to skip the Stage 1, every single Stage 2 Alakazam would be unplayable since the last Kadabra card was printed over 10 years ago, and Kadabra cards in general are banned so definitely no chance for a reprint anytime soon.
 

Scoop

Literally a sheep
Member
There have been a few instances of this happening before, actually. These are called "Orphaned Cards" to some people. The first time it happened was with Neo Destiny Dark Crobat, which could only be played if you used Dark Golbat-which was printed in Rocket. Neo Destiny was in a format where Rocket wasn't in standard, thus, Dark Crobat was unplayable in like 2002 or something.

There was also an Ampharos promo in BW that was legal in 2015, despite the Mareep and Flaaffy cards that were its only options being rotated out from DRX.

More recently, there were a few others:
-Shiny M Gengar was standard despite there being no Gengar EX in rotation at its release.
-Crobat BREAK was impossible to play before Sun and Moon in standard, as the only other Crobat at the time was from Phantom Forces, which rotated.
-Lucario Spirit Link was standard only, being introduced after Luc-EX rotated.
 

The Almighty Bidoof

Just your everyday MtF trans Bidoof worshipper
Member
There have been a few instances of this happening before, actually. These are called "Orphaned Cards" to some people. The first time it happened was with Neo Destiny Dark Crobat, which could only be played if you used Dark Golbat-which was printed in Rocket. Neo Destiny was in a format where Rocket wasn't in standard, thus, Dark Crobat was unplayable in like 2002 or something.

There was also an Ampharos promo in BW that was legal in 2015, despite the Mareep and Flaaffy cards that were its only options being rotated out from DRX.

More recently, there were a few others:
-Shiny M Gengar was standard despite there being no Gengar EX in rotation at its release.
-Crobat BREAK was impossible to play before Sun and Moon in standard, as the only other Crobat at the time was from Phantom Forces, which rotated.
-Lucario Spirit Link was standard only, being introduced after Luc-EX rotated.
Don't forget Haxorous from DEX
 

Frost

Ice/Fairy Stan Account
Member
That is an orphan card for the set (cards like that happen a lot more often actually), but not for the rotation which is more the focus here. Axew and Fraxure cards came in Dragon Vault so there was never a point where Dark Explorers Haxorus was officially unplayable.
 
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