Top 10 Banned and Censored Pokémon Cards

Set

Rocket Gang (Japanese) · No. 088

Released

1997 (Japanese)

Pictured here in its Japanese original, Grimer peers up through a manhole with its pupils angled toward the skirt of the girl walking past above. The English release kept the same illustration and quietly moved the pupils, so Grimer stares straight ahead instead. The artist later said the upward gaze was never intentional.

Set

Challenge from the Darkness (Japanese)

Released

1999 (Japanese)

The Japanese first printing, pictured here, carries an omote manji in the artwork, a Buddhist symbol with centuries of history that happens to mirror the shape of a swastika. The symbol was removed from the English release entirely, and later Japanese print runs corrected it too, so this first printing is the only version that still shows it.

Set

Yamabuki City Gym Theme Deck (Japanese)

Released

February 26, 1999 (Japanese)

In the Japanese original, pictured here, Sabrina holds a Master Ball in front of her face with her middle finger resting on the center button, a pose that reads very differently in the West. The English release replaced the illustration altogether, giving her a Poké Ball throw instead, and the Master Ball pose never left Japan.

Set

Expansion Pack (Japanese) · No. 124

Released

1996 (Japanese)

Jynx originally had a black face, as on this Japanese first printing. After the design was condemned in January 2000 as a negative racial stereotype, the recolor to purple rolled out across the whole franchise. Every English printing is already the edited version. The original Jynx survives only on Japanese printings like this one.

Set

Hanada City Gym Theme Deck (Japanese)

Released

April 26, 1998 (Japanese)

The most famous censored art in the hobby, pictured here in its Japanese original. Ken Sugimori drew Misty as a bare silhouette embracing a Staryu, an image that was never going to survive the trip overseas. The English release did not edit it. It scrapped the art entirely and started over with a crying close up while a Squirtle wipes the tear away. The card was never banned from play. Only the picture was.

Set

Wizards Black Star Promo · 24

Released

2000 (English)

Collectors know it as Birthday Pikachu. Its attack, Birthday Surprise, hits harder when the day is your birthday, and since any player could simply claim that it was, Wizards banned the card from tournament play on release in both Unlimited and Modified. It is one of only two cards ever banned from Unlimited, and easily the most cheerful ban in the history of the game.

Set

Pokémon The Movie 2000 promo

Released

2000 (International)

Every word on this card is printed in a cipher of runes and glyphs, so nobody at the table could read its HP, its attacks, or anything else about it. Wizards banned it from all sanctioned play, making it one of only two cards ever banned from Unlimited. Early Japanese printings even misspell the copyright line, printing Nintedo where Nintendo should be.

Set

Neo Genesis · 14/111

Released

December 16, 2000 (English)

In Japanese, Slowking's Mind Games power only works while Slowking is the Active Pokémon. The English translation dropped that one sentence, so the power worked from the Bench and stacked with every Slowking in play, strangling the opponent's Trainer cards. Wizards banned it from the Modified format in 2003. The Japanese card was never broken, because the Japanese text was never wrong.

Set

Phantom Forces · 99/119

Released

November 5, 2014 (English)

This one card shuffled both discard piles back into their decks. That erased running out of cards as a way to lose, and it let players recycle their strongest Trainers forever while games stretched on and on. Pokémon banned it from all sanctioned tournaments in June 2015, in Japan as well as the West. It is the defining competitive ban of the modern era.