The last time you looked at your Pokemon cards you were still taking spelling tests. You’ve been out of the game for years. You’ve dug out your old psychic deck from the shadows underneath your bed. Now you want to crush some ten year old poke-face. In your years of maturing the game has changed. It is time to hit yourself with a max potion and get your grade school edge back. This is what you need to know.

While you were going to homecoming and graduating from college the owner of the Pokemon Card game changed. Which is good for the game but terrible for that old psychic deck. With a change in ownership the format for the game eliminated all of the older cards. The new format, standard, plays with cards currently from the Heart Gold Soul Silver block and forward. DON’T THROW OUT THE OLD STUFF YET! Lots of people still love to collect and if you’re sly you can trade off that Delta Series Charizard for a good chunk of what you will need to build a new deck. There is an extended format that allows you to play any and all cards but there is little to no tournament support for this format.