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dumb draft of a constructed pokémon format I made up in my spare time
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4-point-singleton.markdown

4-Point Singleton (4PS)

4-Point Singleton is a Pokémon TCG format centered around building a 60-card singleton deck from cards released in Expanded-legal sets.

Bans are used sparingly, prefering to give overpowered cards a point value instead. Your deck cannot contain more than 4 points' worth of cards. (Your deck may contain one 4 point card, two 2 different point cards, four different 1 point cards, etc...)

This is similar to how the 殿堂 (Hall of Fame) format played in Japan functions, except played as a singleton format, and with legality starting from Black & White.

Work in Progress

This format is still in an early experimental phase and is a work in progress. This ruleset was written by a very casual Pokémon TCG player who hasn't played seriously since the original Team Rocket set in 2000. The points list was lifted wholesale from another format with a larger card pool and no singleton restriction as a starting point, but as more playtesting occurs, it will likely change significantly.

For the moment, please do not buy cards specifically with the intent of playing this format. While the intent is to make the format a stable, welcoming home for cards that have rotated out of Standard, mistakes and missteps are inevitable as we figure out what works and what doesn't. In the meantime: use your existing collections, proxy cards, use online simulators, and help us playtest and make this something cool.

The Singleton Rule

In TCGs, traditionally a singleton format is one in which only one card with a given name can be in your deck at a time. Because the same name is repeated across functionally unique cards in the Pokémon TCG, the singleton rule must be clarified:

  • There can only ever be one copy of any functionally unique card in your deck.
  • Pokémon: Your deck may still contain up to 4 Pokémon cards of the same name as in other sanctioned PTCG formats, but each of them must be functionally unique. For example, Charizard (TEU) and Charizard (VIV) can coexist in the same deck, but Charizard (SM226) and Charizard (TEU) may not, as the rules text on them is the same.
  • Supporters: As in other sanctioned Pokémon TCG formats, the following rulings apply when choosing which supporters to include in your deck:
    • A deck may only contain one of the three following cards: Professor Juniper, Professor Sycamore, and Professor's Research (regardless of the professor name in the top right of the card).
    • A deck may only contain one of the two following cards: Lysandre and Boss's Orders (regardless of the villain boss name in the top right of the card).
  • If your region allows mixing cards of multiple languages (or your playgroup allows the usage of foreign language cards), please choose a single language to verify how often a name appears in your decklist.

Design Goals

  • Give players the widest card pool possible. By pointing cards to limit how effective an overpowered deck archetype can be instead of banning cards outright, this format should be a home where all (or 99%) cards remain legal to play with, but in the worst case, not all cards are legal within the same deck. Players shouldn't fear that bans will invalidate their deck.
  • No format-specific errata. Aside from regular errata, all cards played should behave as described on the card itself. While adding format-specific errata or rules changes (see U150) may facilitate balancing to some degree, it can very quickly spin out of control and become daunting to new players curious about the format.
  • Be viable both in paper and PTCGO. Given that this format was born during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important that it be easily playable both online or on tabletop. This format should therefore consist purely of deck building restrictions played atop the standard PTCG rules system, as that guarantees that it will be playable within PTCGO, and as mentioned in the previous point, makes it more approchable to first-time players.

Points List

For the moment, 4-Point Singleton borrows the points list from the ババロコ殿堂 (Babaloco Hall of Fame) format, a variant on the Hall of Fame format played at the バトロコ (Batoloco) card shop in Takadanobaba, Tokyo. Only cards from Expanded-legal sets in this list are taken into consideration.

Babaloco Hall of Fame is a casual derivative of the officially sanctioned Hall of Fame format born out of frustration with how little attention it is getting from The Pokémon Company, which points newer cards more aggressively. As a non-sanctioned format, Batoloco encourages the use of proxies for older, hard-to-find cards, and the store has a number of loaner decks available to encourage people to play the format. It's real cool!

1 Point

2 Points

3 Points

4 Points

None from Expanded-legal sets.

Banned

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