I'm so confused @_@

[Wilford111]

Hello everyone :)
I'm new to this forum but I've been casually playing the Pokemon TCG ever since I was in elementary school. It was only recently, after playing the Pokemon TCG Online, that I decided I wanted to start playing competitively.
However, there's one thing that I've just become aware of. Outdated cards that are no longer tournament legal. It was quite the wake-up call, as I learned this during my first irl Pokemon TCG tournament.

So, I want to know exactly what cards are tournament legal and which ones are not. After roaming around on the internet for hours, I found a list of legal expansions:

Next Destinies
Dark Explorers
Dragons Exalted
Boundaries Crossed
Plasma Storm
Plasma Freeze
Plasma Blast
Legendary Treasures
Dragon Vault
Kalos Starter Set
Black Star Promos BW33+
McDonalds Collection

And so after sorting all my cards to only fit the ones that were released in those expansions, I found another list informing me that even old cards can be used in tournaments, talking about erratas etc. (What is an errata anyway?)

I'm so confused right now. Aren't they contradicting each other? I would be glad to sort my cards all over again if only just to use the cards I was originally going to use from the beginning.
Thanks!

 

[donavannj]

They aren't so much contradicting as they are just not giving the whole story.

Here's a list I wrote up on it that I try to keep as accurate as possible, and I've tried to give as full of an explanation as I can: https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/309435

Errata is corrections made by the rules team to the printed text on a card after the card has been printed (meaning the card is now intended to function differently than the text on the card itself states it functions). These are typically issued when a new version of the rulebook is released or when a new set has been released/announced.

This help at all?

 

[Wilford111]

Thanks, it helps, but I still have a question -
Is there a list of all the pokemon from outdated sets that I can still use? One that's kinda like the trainer list? That would be so helpful and would save a lot of time :)

 

[donavannj]

Thanks, it helps, but I still have a question -
Is there a list of all the pokemon from outdated sets that I can still use? One that's kinda like the trainer list? That would be so helpful and would save a lot of time :)

Not really one that I know of, but the vast majority of Pokemon are not ever reprinted as exact reprints anyway. The criteria I listed for Pokemon reprints and getting familiar with the cards of the recent sets should be able to help you figure it out pretty easily, since it does have to be basically an exact match.

 

[Wilford111]

Okay, thank you very much :)