Expanded format (TCG)

The Expanded format of the Pokémon Trading Card Game is one of two formats used for officially-sanctioned Play! Pokémon events. It was added to the Standard format in the 2014-2015 season. It allows a greater number of expansions than Standard format but is not as unpredictable in card combinations as Unlimited format. It is also used in the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online.

It remains to be seen if Play! Pokémon will ever rotate sets out of the Expanded format, as they currently do with Standard format. Additional expansions are added to the current Rotation three weeks after they are released in the United States. Starting from 2016, they were added to the current Rotation on the third Friday in the month of release.

If a card in an Expanded-legal expansion is a reprint of an older card, all prints of the card can be played in an Expanded-legal expansion-legal deck (e.g. Aquapolis Energy Switch). However, some cards significantly differ in wording between older prints and newer prints (e.g. Pokémon Fan Club from Aquapolis compared to its Ultra Prism iteration); those cards cannot be used in sanctioned tournaments. The exception is cards that have received errata (e.g. Base Set Potion); all printings of cards with errata may be used in sanctioned tournaments.

Play! Pokémon requires players to play with cards printed in their region's official language (for example: players in the United States are restricted to English cards only, whereas players in Canada can use both English cards and French cards).