Ahead of the release of the Pokemon TCG’s new Cosmic Eclipse expansion set, a post on Pokemon.com notified players that several cards will be banned in the Expanded format starting on November 15, including a card that isn’t even out yet.

Pokemon: Amulet Hand Combo Cards 8 IMAGES

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The card in question is Island Challenge Amulet which is part of the upcoming Cosmic Eclipse set, out November 1. When the Tool card is attached to a Pokemon GX or EX, it lowers its HP by 100 in exchange for giving up one less Prize when that Pokemon is knocked out. It may not sound powerful enough to ban, and by itself it’s not, but when it’s used as part of a larger hand disruption strategy in a dedicated control deck, the result is downright nasty.The combo goes like this. Putting an Island Challenge Amulet on a Jirachi EX automatically knocks it out because it only has 90 HP. After doing this a few times and activating a couple Mismagius, the opponent will have taken several Prizes. The next step is to play Lt. Surge’s Strategy to use N to shrink their hand and then Mars to make them discard a card, leaving them with few or no cards in hand.Following that up with top-deck controlling cards like Chip-Chip Ice Axe and Hiker ensures the opponent only draws dead cards, essentially leaving them unable to make a move. From there, it’s easy to quickly end the game as the controlling player repeatedly attacks a helpless opponent.It’s an incredibly toxic deck known as “Amulet Hand” that can end the game before it even gets started by pulling off the combo on the first turn, which is precisely why Pokemon imposed the ban.For more Pokemon, check out our video preview after getting some hands-on time with Pokemon Shield:“Most of these card bans are an attempt to weaken strategies that involve disrupting or destroying an opponent's hand. These cards contribute to several combos that result in a player having to discard their entire hand before they get to take a turn,” the post on Pokemon’s website explained of the bans of Island Challenge Amulet and other cards in the combo. “The Expanded format currently has a reputation for being dominated by hand-disruption decks, which many players dislike. Hopefully these card bans will promote a more enjoyable environment and change that reputation.”For proof that these bans were deserved, one need only look to the CL Tokyo Extra tournament in Japan back on September 22 where a whopping five Amulet Hand decks dominated the Top 8 playoffs and player Takuto Itagaki went on to take first place with it.Japan receives cards ahead of the rest of the world, so in a way their metagame can be observed to judge whether new cards are too strong. This ban was imposed in Japan after it was made clear how overpowered the combo was, and now the same ban is coming to the US.While Island Challenge Amulet won’t be playable in Expanded, it will still be legal in the Standard format where Jirachi GX and a host of other powerful hand disruption cards are no longer legal, meaning the Amulet Hand strategy can’t be implemented in Standard.Standard is the most commonly used format for competitive play and it’s typically the format for the annual World Championships. Still, there are several big tournaments throughout the year that use the Expanded format, so it’s still notable when cards are banned from that format.This isn’t the first instance of Pokemon banning a card this year. Read about why Pokemon banned a weird card for a weird reason at the Pokemon World Championships 2019.

Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN