Search for "banned" Pokémon cards and you get a few Trainer cards from the Gym sets, a purple Jynx and a Kadabra that disappeared for 20 years. Collectors use the word for art that changed between the Japanese and English prints, and for one Pokémon that stopped getting new cards, so we went through the record card by card.
We checked these sources on October 29, 2026.
Key takeaways
- The official Pokémon TCG banned list bans nothing in Unlimited and names none of these cards. "Banned art" is collector slang for changed art.
- Several Japanese cards got new or recolored art in Wizards of the Coast's English prints. Wizards answered fans about three of them in 2000; fans and wikis supplied the other reasons.
- Jynx had a purple face in the first English Base Set in January 1999, and Wizards printed Jynx with a black face in English again in 2001 and 2003.
- Uri Geller sued over Kadabra and lost. Pokémon then printed no new Kadabra for about 20 years and has given no reason we could find.
Banned, changed or withheld
The official banned card list names none of the cards below. Collectors use "banned art" for two things:
- Altered art. The Japanese card shows one picture and the English print shows another, or the same picture recolored or cropped.
- A withheld Pokémon. Kadabra went 20 years without a new card. Its old cards stayed legal in Unlimited play.
Wizards of the Coast published the English cards until 2003. If a reason comes from fans or wikis, we say "changed" and name the source.
Most of the Japanese originals below come from The Pokémon Company's own 30th anniversary card archive. It has Japan's 1996 Kadabra and the corrected Koga card, but no entry for the 1996 Jynx, Sabrina's Jynx, Misty's Tears, the first Koga print or the original Moo-Moo Milk, Slot Game and Card-Flip Game, so we describe those in words.
The art edits, card by card
In a September 2000 chat, Wizards' customer service put art changes down to cultural differences, licensor requests or cards printing darker.
| Card (English print) | Japanese art | English art | Reason on record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sabrina's Gaze, Gym Heroes 125/132 | Sabrina close up, a Master Ball on one raised finger | New Ken Sugimori art, the ball over an open hand | None; fans read a rude gesture |
| Misty's Tears, Gym Challenge 118/132 | A silhouette that Bulbapedia says appears unclothed | Misty crying, a Squirtle reaching for the tear | Wizards, 2000: the art would change |
| Koga's Ninja Trick, Gym Challenge 115/132 | A small red manji, top left | A round red crest | Nintendo of America, 1999; Wizards, 2000 |
| Grimer, Team Rocket 57/82 | Pupils raised toward a passing Lass in a short skirt | Pupils looking forward | Wizards, May 2000: changed on purpose |
| Moo-Moo Milk, Neo Genesis 101/111 | A Sentret at an udder that Bulbapedia likens to a cow's | Miltank milk churns in a barn | None |
| Arcade Game and Card-Flip Game, Neo Genesis 83 and 92 | Rows of machines in a Game Corner styled like a casino | One machine each; Slot Game renamed Arcade Game | None |
| Magmortar, Dragons Exalted 21/124 (2012) | Arm cannon aimed out of the card at you | Cannon raised | None |
Sabrina's Gaze first came out in Japan's Yamabuki City Gym deck in February 1999, and Ken Sugimori drew both versions. We found no company statement about the change.
Misty's Tears stays in words here: Misty is a child character, and we won't show the Japanese art. In its March 2, 2000 chat, Wizards told a fan the art would change before release. Later answers stayed general: Wizards said it worked to avoid cards that would offend the public or upset parents.
Koga's Ninja Trick has the clearest paper trail. Sumiyoshi Kizuki's Japanese art puts a small red omote manji, a Buddhist mark of good luck that mirrors the Nazi swastika, in the top left corner above a Ditto. In late 1999 a boy of 11 in Cortlandt, New York found the card in an imported Japanese pack, and his family and his friend's family objected. The Associated Press reported on December 3, 1999 that Nintendo of America would discontinue the card, saying what suits one culture may not suit another, and that the licensed English maker would print it without the symbol. In April 2000 Wizards called the mark a Japanese luck symbol that would come off to avoid confusion. Japan corrected its own later print runs as well.
Grimer lifts a manhole cover as a Lass walks past in Kagemaru Himeno's 1997 art. Wizards said in May 2000 that it changed the art on purpose, and a week later told a fan that anyone who knew the Japanese card would understand why. Bulbapedia says Himeno denied any joke but cites nothing, so treat that as rumor.
Japan adopted the English art of Moo-Moo Milk. Tomokazu Komiya drew both versions, and his barn scene replaced the original in Japan's Pokémon VS reprint in July 2001. Bulbapedia says the original could seem inappropriate for young players. That reason is the wiki's. No company has given one.
Magmortar is the 2012 case. Akira Komayama drew both cards: the Japanese Dragon Blade print (March 2012) aims the cannon at you, and the English Dragons Exalted card (August 2012) raises it. PokéBeach spotted the swap in July 2012 and floated the gun idea as speculation. Pokémon's own databases list both cards (English, Japanese) without comment, and the Korean print keeps the original pose.
Jynx and the purple paint
Ken Sugimori drew Jynx for the Japanese Expansion Pack (October 1996) with a jet black face, large pink lips and blonde hair. The English Base Set card, released January 9, 1999, shows the face in dark purple, and we found no record of a Base Set copy printed with a black face. Someone recolored Jynx before the English cards reached stores.
That puts the change 11 months ahead of Holiday Hi-Jynx, the anime episode that aired in the US on December 11, 1999, and a year ahead of Carole Boston Weatherford's column. We think Wizards made the call, but no record we found says who did.
Weatherford, a poet and children's author in High Point, North Carolina, dated that column January 5, 2000. She said Jynx's jet black skin, huge pink lips and blonde hair denigrated African Americans, Black women in particular, and compared the design to Little Black Sambo. She returned to Jynx in The Christian Science Monitor that May. In 2009 Ferris State University's Jim Crow Museum read Jynx as a blend of the Mammy and Jezebel caricatures. We found no company reply.
The English cards after that follow no single rule:
- Base Set 2 (2000) and Legendary Collection (2002) show a lighter purple, per Bulbapedia. Print variation may explain part of that.
- Wizards recolored both Sabrina's Jynx cards in the 2000 Gym sets, months after Weatherford's column.
- Wizards printed Jynx with a black face in English again on Neo Revelation 31/64 (2001), and with a nearly black face on Aquapolis 18/147 (2003). Bulbapedia calls Aquapolis the last; we found no second source.
Game Freak later made purple official. Sources disagree on when: Bulbapedia points to the international Gold and Silver games, the Jim Crow Museum says 2002, and ScreenRant dates the anime switch to 2005. All 19 English Jynx cards in pokemon.com's card database are purple, starting with EX Unseen Forces in 2005. Bulbapedia ties the English recolor to the blackface controversy. That link is the wiki's; none of the company material we read explains the recolor.
Twenty years without a new Kadabra
Uri Geller has said he first saw Yungerer, Kadabra's Japanese name, on cards while Christmas shopping in Tokyo in 1999. In November 2000 he sued Nintendo and Nintendo of America in federal court in Los Angeles, saying the character used his name, his identity and his signature bent spoon (BBC). Nintendo answered that Yungerer, like all its characters, is fictional (Anime News Network).
He lost. VICE's German edition read the court records in 2018: the court rejected his claim over personality rights in August 2001 and dismissed the case on March 3, 2003, with each side paying its own costs (VICE). Nintendo Life also reports the suit was thrown out; the ruling dates rest on VICE alone.
Pokémon kept printing Kadabra while the case ran. Japan put one in the Split Earth set in August 2002, and it reached English as Skyridge 69/144 on May 12, 2003. Pokémon then printed no new Kadabra until 2023, about 21 years in Japan and 20 in English, and has given no reason we could find.
Players found other routes to Alakazam. In Mysterious Treasures (2007), Pokémon gave Abra an attack, Ultra Evolution, that puts Alakazam straight onto it, while the same set's Alakazam reads "Evolves from Kadabra". Basic Alakazams skipped the line: Alakazam ★ (2006), Alakazam-EX (2016), Alakazam V (2020) and Radiant Alakazam (2022).
On November 28, 2020 Geller told TheGamer he had written to Nintendo's chairman allowing a relaunch, and the same day he apologized to fans on Twitter (Siliconera). In January 2023 he told PokéBeach that suing was a mistake (NME).
Kadabra returned in Japan's Pokémon Card 151 on June 16, 2023 as Yungerer 064/165, drawn by Mitsuhiro Arita with the spoon held up in the foreground. The English Kadabra 064/165 followed in Scarlet & Violet—151 on September 22, 2023, per The Pokémon Company International's launch release. Neither that release nor either card page mentions Geller.
Telling the versions apart
PSA lists the two Japanese Koga prints as different cards and marks the corrected one REVISED. PSA's names for these Japanese Gym cards leave out the word "banned", so read the card itself.
- Koga's Ninja Trick (Japanese): look at the top left corner of the art, above the Ditto. A manji means the first print; a copy without it is Japan's corrected print.
- Sabrina's Gaze (Japanese): the Yamabuki City Gym deck copy came first and has no rarity mark in the bottom right corner. The Challenge from the Darkness pack copy carries a small circle there.
- Jynx: black on the Japanese card, dark purple on the English Base Set, paler on the Base Set 2 and Legendary Collection reprints.
- Grimer: the Japanese card has no set number and its pupils sit high. The English 57/82 looks forward, and its Poison Gas causes Sleep.
- Magmortar: a cannon aimed at you means the Japanese or Korean print; a raised cannon means the English one.
- Europe: the German Base Set Jynx we checked is purple like the English card. Outside Japan, Wizards printed Gym Heroes and Gym Challenge in English only, so treat a German or French card with art from the Gym sets as a fake unless it carries a Pokémon anniversary logo. Pokémon reprinted Rocket's Zapdos in both languages for Celebrations (2021), and Misty and Erika's Jigglypuff for 30th Celebration (2026).
Collecting the changed cards
If one of these cards comes through our shop, we name the set and print in the listing and say whether the card carries the Japanese art or the English change, so you can see what you're getting before you buy.
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