METHOD
What this checker knows — and what it does not.
A pass means “no known issue in the data we have.” It is not a judge ruling.
Rules
Standard format for the 2026 season uses regulation marks H, I, and J. The rotation took effect on 2026-04-10 for in-person Play! Pokémon events. Source: official rotation announcement.
Basic Energy is always legal. An older Trainer or Special Energy can be used when the same card has a legal H/I/J reprint by name. Pokémon must carry a legal mark themselves. The MVP does not cover event-specific head-judge exceptions. The 2026 rotation guide walks through the three checks.
Languages
The checker supports English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese deck compositions. Event language policy is taken from the official rating-zone table and the event level:
- US/Canada and Oceania: English
- Latin America: English, Spanish
- Europe: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
- International/Worlds: English plus the player’s home-country language; Japanese cards cannot mix with any other language.
Event-specific exceptions are not fully modeled. If the event page says something different, the event page wins. See the deck-language guide for the practical version.
Data sources
- Event dates, deadlines, venue, fees: RK9 events (public event pages).
- Rules and legal languages: Play! Pokémon TCG Tournament Handbook and Rules & Resources.
- Card names, sets, numbers, regulation marks: Pokémon TCG Data (public dataset, commit 39a26a1).
Last rules check: 2026-10-22T10:30:00+08:00. Event pages show their own last-verified time. If event data is older than 24 hours, or rules data older than 7 days, the result is downgraded to UNKNOWN.
Limits
- Standard only. Expanded, GLC, and Unlimited return UNKNOWN.
- Current MVP snapshot: 5 upcoming majors. More will be added as RK9 announces them.
- No card images, no official logo, no account, no deck upload.
- No guarantee of legality. Always verify with the official event page and head judge.
- ACE SPEC and other special deck restrictions are flagged only when the card metadata identifies them; otherwise verify manually.