Ascended Heroes English Spoilers and Card List
Looks like Pokemon TCG fans will be starting 2026 out with a bang thanks to the next special set, Ascended Heroes, scheduled to release on January 30, 2026. This special set appears to have a lot going for it, but can it compete with last January’s special set – the phenomenal Prismatic Evolutions which still tops the list for best Pokemon packs to buy right now?
From the looks of early Ascended Heroes spoilers leaked online, we have a lot to be excited about in this set. Favorites from recent sets (both Mega Evolutions and recents from the Scarlet & Violet era of the TCG) return with new alternate artworks. Meanwhile, Mega Dragonite ex will be making his debut in the Pokemon TCG.
Below, we’ll be looking at each and every Ascended Heroes card revealed in English to date. Make sure to come back often as I’ll be updating this guide with each card that gets leaked as we get closer to the release date.
Ascended Heroes set details
“Marvel at the awesome potential as Mega Dragonite ex takes flight, leading a gathering of all-star Pokémon to battle! Trainer’s Pokémon and Stellar Tera Pokémon ex join returning and newly discovered Mega Evolution Pokémon ex, including some with special artwork showing off their biggest and boldest attacks. Celebrate the stars of Scarlet & Violet and the dawn of Mega Evolution with the Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution—Ascended Heroes expansion!”
Over 290 cards
More new Mega Evolution Pokémon ex
Over 30 Trainer cards
More than 30 Pokémon and Trainer cards with special illustrations
New Mega Pokemon ex cards revealed in Ascended Heroes
Although many of the cards we get in this set will be alternate artworks of our favorites from past sets, we are also going to be getting brand new Mega Pokemon ex as well, including Mega Dragonite and Mega Charizard Y.
Mega Charizard Y ex
Mega Charizard Y ex was officially revealed by the Pokemon website, and it looks amazing, following the same style as Mega Charizard X ex by showing the full artwork behind the card’s boarder. This creates a highly engaging effect with the Mega Charizard Y seeming to be literally coming out of the card to breath fire at you.
That’s not where the coolness of this card ends, however. While Mega Charizard Y never reached quite the same heights of success as its Mega Charizard X counterpart, hopefully we get an alternate art for this card at least in a similar league as the gorgeous SIR chase from Phantasmal Flames.
Collectability aside, Mega Charizard Y ex brings yet another solid attacker into the fold for a Charizard ex deck. This card easily fits into your Mega Charizard X ex deck, giving you the power to snipe opposing Pokemon on the bench with a truly insane 280 damage. Truly no Pokemon is safe, and this grants Charizard players a powerful finishing move if they use it into a two-prize Pokemon with low HP.
Mega Dragonite ex
Mega Dragonite ex was originally revealed during Pokemon Worlds 2025. Although we didn’t know back then when this card would come out in English or the name of the set (as you can see the card above is omitting the set lettering in the bottom left corner), we will certainly be getting this card in the Ascended Heroes set. Although not offcially confirmed (yet), Mega Dragonite is featured prominently on the marketing for Ascended Heroes (just look at the image at the top of the article), and is also included in the parallel set released in Japan – Mega Dream.
With all of that being said, Mega Dragonite ex looks like a solid attacker that could easily make up its own deck. While its odd combination of energies might pose a challenge to get it powered up (a standard for Dragon type Pokemon cards), assuming it gets some decent energy acceleration support, its Ryuno Glide is an insane attack that deals 330 base damage. At the same time, Sky Transport grants solid pivoting that would make any deck happy.
Ascended Heroes single prize Pokemon
While the Mega Pokemon ex may be the most exciting new additions to the game, we’ve also been given a sneak peek at a couple of new Pokemon cards from the main set.
Entei
First up is this rather gorgeous looking Entei. And as cool/epic as the artwork is, I wouldn’t mind seeing Entei depicted in a different setting rather than yet another volcano. We had a very epic volcano-themed alt for Entei come out back in Crown Zenith, and it’s probably time to explore another side of this memorable Pokemon other than it’s apparent, fiery nature.
Moving on from my critique of the artwork, however, and let’s dive into the card itself. It is, admittedly, strong. While this Entei has three retreat cost (for whatever reason Entei in the Pokemon TCG tend to have unusually high retreat costs), it makes up for that with a solid (for a basic single prize Pokemon) 140 HP. Meanwhile, its “Flare Fall” attack is what truly makes it stand out, and could end up being the main reason plenty of fire type decks will look to run it as a handy attacker.
Attacking for 120 damage versus any Pokemon for just two fire energy is very solid from a single prize Pokemon, enabling a solid play into a variety of situations you might find yourself in. And while it does require having plenty of fire energies in play, that’s not very hard to do especially in Charizard decks that have access to very reliable energy acceleration.
N’s Vanilluxe
The coolest thing about this card is that it shows that there is hope that we can get additional support for trainer’s Pokemon. As solid as some of the owner’s Pokemon decks were from both Journey Together and Destined Rivals, the fact that they are based around specific owners’ Pokemon makes them inherently difficult to work with the newer stuff that comes out if it’s not directly aimed at them.
Here, however, we have a very interesting attacker that doubles the number of damage counters on each of your opponent’s Pokemon, creating a very spread-heavy deck strategy that could certainly be interesting to try out. However, I could see this card being leveraged in other decks besides just N-focused ones. For example, it could work well in any deck that runs Froslass like the powerful Marnie’s Grimmsnarl.
Ascended Heroes Secret Rare cards
Special Pokemon sets are notorious for being jammed packed with plenty of gorgeous alternate art cards to chase. Given this set has a pretty insane high number of cards (290 in total versus just 175 in Prismatic Evolutions), odds look good that Ascended Heroes will be no exception.
Just in case you missed it back at the top, this set has an incredible 30 SIR cards to go after, which is pretty incredible in its own right.
And one of the first cards spoiled for the set is the anticipated Mega Gengar ex Special Illustration Rare.
Mega Gengar ex – Special Illustration Rare
This haunting specter should be a massive draw to many, with Gengar always being a pretty bankable and popular character. The last time we had a Gengar alt of this magnitude was all the way back in the Sword and Shield era with Fusion Strike where we got the now somewhat legendary Gengar VMAX alt.
Today that Gengar is worth an insane amount of money – well over $700. Could this Mega Gengar ex see the same kind of price tag associated with it? I doubt it, but we’ll have to wait and see to know for sure!
Ascended Heroes promo cards
Some of the hottest cards to collect won’t just be available in packs, however – they’ll also be promos. And much like how Phantasmal Flames had one of the best promos in recent Pokemon TCG memory in the Mega Charizad X ex Ultra Premium Collection, the promos for Ascended Heroes look hot, as well.
N’s Zekrom – ETB Promo
Goodluck finding any Ascended Heroes Elite Trainer Boxes at your local card shop. This promo is legititamtly crazy good, and undoubtedly one of the best ETB promos we’ve had in a modern set. Not only is the artwork crazy good, but it’s yet another N’s Pokemon, bringing an extraordinary new attacker into N’s deck lineup.
Combine that with the fact that – unlike main sets – Ascended Heroes won’t have any booster boxes available making ETBs one of the products with the most packs available to buy and you have a recipe for totally sold out TCG aisles.
Also for those unfamiliar – the N’s Zekrom Promo with the Pokemon Center stamp is only available via the Pokemon Center exclusive ETBs.
Ascended Heroes Premium Poster Collection promos – Mega Gardevoir ex and Mega Lucario ex
Just in case you were wondering if the crazy promos stopped at N’s Zekrom – they do not. We also have already been granted a look at two more “Mega Attack” Pokemon promo cards that are very similar stylistically to the Mega Charizard X ex promo in the Ultra Premium Collection.
These will be included in the Premium Poster Collection along with a very cool poster with the corresponding Pokemon on it.
These products should be “mega” popular as they don’t only contain the epic promos and nice posters – they also have a healthy number of packs (10) included, too. Meaning you have more chances to pull the gorgeous and rare alternate art cards promised in Ascended Heroes!
Ascended Heroes products and release schedule
While we’ve already touched on several of the products you can get with the Ascended Heroes set, below we’ll go into each product in more detailed, as well as sharing when the product will be available in stores.
Before diving into the products themselves and their actual release dates, I do have to warn you that this set’s release schedule is particularly staggered. Perhaps the Pokemon Company has learned from the Prismatic Evolutions fiasco last year that it’s best to control the flow of products in order to help manage the demand. But whatever the reason, Ascended Heroes products will be getting released on a rolling basis throughout 2026.
And while some products have been promised but not announced yet, we do have release dates for those products which have been confirmed. We’ll start with the ones coming out on release day, January 30, 2026.
January 30, 2026 release day products
Admittedly, Ascended Heroes release day product lineup is fairly limited, with only three different products available. None of the three, however, contain many packs, and you can bet competition for these blister collection style products to be intense, and for early card prices to be absolutely nuts given the limited nature of product availability.
With all that being said, the products that will be available on January 30, 2026 are:
Ascended Heroes Collection
Ascended Heroes Tech Sticker Collection
February 20, 2026 – Ascended Heroes Elite Trainer Box and Mini Tins
The second wave of Ascended Heroes products is admittedly much better. This is when the amazing-looking Elite Trainer Box will be getting released – both the regular one and the Pokemon Center Exclusive.
At the same time, there will also be a good group of mini tins you can collect – many featuring very popular Pokemon with some admittedly gorgeous artwork on them.
March 20, 2026 – Ascended Heroes Premium Poster Collection
March 20th is the date for the Ascended Heroes Poster Collection – and it’s going to be a big one. While we’ve already looked at the promos and talked about the contents, you can see the actual product images for both Premium Poster Collection products below. Again, these should be very popular as they contain the Mega Attack promos and a high number of packs.
April 24, 2026 – Ascended Heroes Booster Bundle
Last but not least we have the Ascended Heroes Booster Bundle releasing late April. Complete with six booster packs, this product may lack the frills of some of the others on this list, but it’s still one of the best ways to get a bunch of packs with a decent bang-for-your-buck.
Ascended Heroes has all the trappings of yet another blockbuster Pokemon TCG set. With highly desirable alternate art cards, some interesting new mechanics, a new Charizard card, and clearly a well thought-out product lineup, we should see insane hype for this set just like all the other recent Pokemon TCG sets. We’ll see if the wide product spacing helps alleviate allocation, or if it simply drives further demand due to a perceived scarcity in its earliest days.
