Orphaned card

An orphaned card is a card that has little or no practical use due to restrictions placed on the pool of legal cards by the tournament format. Often these are evolution cards whose Basic Pokémon or Stage 1 Pokémon is not available, though occasionally Trainer cards will fall into this category as well.

Name	Reason	TCG Set	Picture
Venusaur	The only Bulbasaur and Ivysaur at the time were out of rotation in the first (2001-2002) Modified Format. Until Bulbasaur was reprinted in Legendary Collection, it could only be indirectly played with Brock's Ninetales.	Wizards Black Star Promos
No Removal Gym	The only Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal cards were out of rotation in the first Modified Format.	Gym Heroes
Dark Crobat	The only Dark Golbat at the time was out of rotation in the first Modified Format. Until Pokémon Breeder was reprinted in Legendary Collection, it could only be indirectly played with Brock's Ninetales.	Neo Destiny
Pidgeot	The only Pidgey and Pidgeotto at the time were out of rotation in the first Modified Format. Until these were reprinted in Legendary Collection, it could only be indirectly played with Brock's Ninetales.	Southern Islands
Ivysaur	The only Bulbasaur at the time was out of rotation in the first Modified Format. Until Bulbasaur was reprinted in Legendary Collection, it could only be indirectly played with Brock's Ninetales.	Southern Islands
Exeggutor	The only Exeggcute at the time was out of rotation in the first Modified Format. Until another Exeggcute was printed in Neo Destiny, it could only be indirectly played with Brock's Ninetales.	Southern Islands
Tentacruel	The only Tentacool at the time was out of rotation in the first Modified Format. Until Tentacool was reprinted in Legendary Collection, it could only be indirectly played with Brock's Ninetales.	Southern Islands
First Ticket	The rule change which took place on November 8th, 2013, made it so that the player who goes first is decided before cards are drawn.	Dragon Vault
Ampharos	The only Mareep and Flaaffy cards from the Black and White series went out of rotation in the 2015-2016 Standard Format, where it could only be indirectly played with Cradily.	BW Black Star Promos
Heliolisk	The only Helioptile cards in the Standard format went out of rotation in the 2016-17 Format.	XY Black Star Promos
Blissey	The only Chansey card in the Standard format went out of rotation in the 2016-17 Format. Another Chansey was later printed in Evolutions, though.	XY Black Star Promos
M Blaziken-EX	The only Blaziken-EX card went out of rotation in the 2017-18 Standard Format. It could only be indirectly played with Ho-Oh-GX when Burning Shadows was released.	XY Black Star Promos
M Swampert-EX	The only Swampert-EX card went out of rotation in the 2017-18 Standard Format.	XY Black Star Promos
M Gengar-EX	This card was released outside Japan when there was no Gengar-EX in the Standard Format.	XY Black Star Promos
Crobat BREAK	The only Crobat card in Standard format went out of rotation during the 2016-17 Format. Another Crobat was later printed in Sun & Moon, though.	XY Black Star Promos
Lucario Spirit Link	This card was released when there was no Lucario-EX in the Standard Format.	XY Black Star Promos
Hydreigon	The only Deino and Zweilous cards in the Standard Format went out of rotation in the 2019-2020 Format. Another Deino was later printed in Darkness Ablaze, but there were no sanctioned tournaments to use these cards together.	Dragon Majesty
Machamp	The only Machop and Machoke cards in the Standard Format went out of rotation in the 2019-2020 Format. It remained orphaned in the 2020-2021 Format until another Machop was printed in Champion's Path.	Detective Pikachu

This article is part of Project TCG, a Bulbapedia project that aims to report on every aspect of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.