About Timeless
What is Timeless?
Timeless is a fan-created Pokémon TCG format built around one big idea: every card should have a home. With the largest legal card pool in Pokémon history, Timeless is a 100-card singleton format that lets you dig through decades of cards and build something entirely your own. Whether you’ve been collecting since Base Set or just cracked your first pack last week, there’s a deck in here waiting for you.
Where Did It Come From?
Timeless started as a love letter to U-150, a format that was too fun to let fade away. When support dried up and the community moved on, a small group of us — Sogg, D, Ben, and myself — refused to let it die. We picked it apart, rebuilt it, renamed it, and rebuilt it again. It went through more iterations than we can count, pulling inspiration from Legacy, Commander, and plenty of ideas that didn’t survive the cutting room floor. Eventually it became something distinctly its own, and once the name “Timeless” came out, nothing else even came close. It just fit.
How Does It Work?
You build a 100-card singleton deck, meaning only one copy of each card is allowed (with some exceptions for Pokémon — you can run up to four different versions of the same Pokémon). On top of your deck, you choose a Signature Pokémon. This is your centerpiece — an EX, GX, or V that sits outside your deck in a special Signature Spot, ready to be drawn whenever you choose instead of your normal draw for the turn. It shapes your strategy and gives every deck a sense of identity.
At the start of each game, you draw 15 cards, pick 8 to set aside as prize cards, and keep the remaining 7 as your opening hand. You still need a basic Pokémon to start, and mulligan rules follow the current standard format. On the first turn, you can attack, but your opponent is under a “Safeguard” — no damage or effects will apply to them. It keeps games from ending before they start.
What About Balance?
Playing with nearly every card ever printed means some combinations are going to be more powerful than others — and that’s okay. We’ve done our best to reel it in, but with a card pool this massive, there will always be power imbalances. That’s part of the fun. We actually encourage you to try and break the format. Go for it. Just know that if you find something truly degenerate, we may just need to assign some stars. ;)
The star power system is how Timeless keeps things in check without banning half the card pool. Certain cards are assigned a star value, and your deck has a total star budget depending on the power level your group agrees to play at. The standard power level is 12 stars. You can still play strong cards, but you have to make choices — you can’t stack every broken combo into one list. It’s a system designed to let people play at the level they want, from casual kitchen table games to competitive tournaments.
There’s also a suspect list of cards being monitored as the format grows. Some will eventually get a star rating, others will stay as they are. The goal is a format that evolves with every new set release while staying balanced enough that creativity matters more than just raw power.
The Vision
Timeless is exactly what its name suggests — a format that never gets old as long as Pokémon keeps making cards. The vision is bigger than just deckbuilding. It’s a format that can support tournament series, dedicated leagues, and maybe one day, side events at official Pokémon gatherings. But at its core, it’s about giving people a reason to pull out their old cards, sit down with their closest friends, and make memories that stick around long after the game ends.
Timeless. Fun.