Sealed format (TCG)

The Sealed format (Japanese: シールド戦) of the Pokémon Trading Card Game is one of the 3 Limited formats officially-sanctioned for Play! Pokémon events.

In a Sealed event, players will receive sealed TCG products which hold randomly assorted cards such as booster packs, Build & Battle Boxes or randomly-assembled starter decks at the beginning of the event. Players will then have to construct their decks with only cards pulled from the products they opened or provided separately by event organizers, and use the constructed decks to start their games.

Rules

Detailed rules of the Sealed format as specified in Play! Pokémon Tournament Rules Handbook are listed as follows:

5.5 Limited Tournament Formats

The deck construction rules for Constructed formats are as follows:

• The deck must contain exactly 40 cards.
• There is no limit to the number of cards with the same name that can be included, provided there is no restriction detailed in the card text itself.
• Matches are played for 4 Prize cards.

5.5.1 Sealed

In a Sealed event, players receive either a Build & Battle Box or a predetermined number of booster packs (usually between four and six) from the Organizer at the beginning of the event.

5.5.1.1 Deck Construction

Players open their booster packs at a signal from the Organizer and construct a 40-card deck using only those cards (including any cards in their Build & Battle Box) and any basic Energy cards provided by the Organizer. Players have 30 minutes to construct their decks.

In Japan, South Korea or other Asian regions, Sealed tournaments were held with rules mostly matching Play! Pokémon Tournament Rules, but with some minor adjustments:

• In some tournaments, players are required to prepare their own sealed products and/or Energy cards.
• Some tournaments were played with 60-card decks and 6 Prize cards.
• As booster packs released in Asian regions contain less cards per pack, players will receive 10 or 15 packs depending on the tournament held.
• Some tournaments were played with randomly-assembled starter deck products.
• Some tournaments provides players 45 minutes to construct their decks.
• Players are not allowed to include more than 4 copies of cards with the same name in their decks except Basic Energy cards.
• Some tournaments give out Supporter cards as participation prizes, and allow players to include those cards in their decks.

Compatible expansion sets

Since the introduction of Sealed format in 2017, The Pokémon Company releases at least one expansion set each year which is officially endorsed for Sealed play:

• Shining Legends in 2017
• Thunderclap Spark in 2018
• Remix Bout in 2019
• Legendary Heartbeat in 2020
• Skyscraping Perfection and Blue Sky Stream in 2021
• Incandescent Arcana in 2022
• Triplet Beat and Raging Surf in 2023
• Crimson Haze in 2024

All sets listed above have specially-designed product specifications to ensure that players can construct decks out of the set's booster packs without troubles. These specifications include:

• All evolved Pokémon in the set must have their pre-evolved species listed in the same set.
• The card list includes reprints of trainer cards commonly used in games such as Switch.
• In Legendary Heartbeat, booster packs which include Pokémon VMAX cards are guaranteed to have their pre-evolved Pokémon V card in the same pack. Skyscraping Perfection and Blue Sky Stream however didn't follow the same guarantee.

Sealed tournaments

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it.

Sealed tournaments in other Asian countries

Taiwan and Hong Kong

• Battle for Victini (Traditional Chinese: 比克提尼爭奪戰): October 2 - November 5, 2023. Players compete to win a promo Victini ex card.

See also

• Standard format
• Expanded format
• Hall of Fame format
• Unlimited format
• Legacy format

External links

• Play! Pokémon Rules & Resources
• Japanese Sealed format webpage
• シールド戦とは

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