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.
Mega Meganium ex
Mega Meganium ex is joining the fray with Ascended Heroes, and honestly when you combine this with existing cards it could be an absolutely behemoth of an attacker. “Giant Bouquet” does 50 more damage for each grass energy attached to Meganium. That may not sound great, but combine this Meganium with the one we got in Mega Evolution and suddenly you can scale that attack to insane degrees. From a gameplay standpoint, this Mega Pokemon ex is the one I’m looking forward to most from the set.
Mega Feraligatr ex
Mega Feraligatr ex looks like an absolutely nuts attacker. All you have to do is spread a little damage around via the likes of Munkidori and you can easily swing for 400 damage – enough to knock out anything you’ll face down. While Feraligatr ex lacks any other sort of gimmick, it doesn’t need frills when you hit that hard.
Mega Emboar ex
Mega Emboar ex doesn’t hit nearly as hard as Mega Feraligatr ex, doing 320 damage no-strings-attached is still more than solid.
Mega Froslass ex
While this Mega Froslass actually has some cool attacks and could be teched into decks like Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex that like to run a Froslass evolution line anyways, the thing that really excites me about this card being officially revealed via the Pokemon TCG UK X account is that it means we are even more likely to get the beautiful SIR version of the card from Japan’s Mega Dream ex set in English!
New Pokemon ex join the fray in Ascended Heroes
Lest you think Ascended Heroes is all about Mega Pokemon – don’t overlook the new Pokemon ex we are also getting!
Koraidon ex
First up we have a Tera Koraidon ex – the first Tera version of Koraidon ex to date. This is pretty special as it shows that even in the Mega Evolution of the Pokemon TCG, Tera types (a hallmark of Scarlet and Violet) continue to get added attention and support.
A the same time, Tera Pokemon also get something of a check on their power thanks to a card we’ll be looking at further down called Nighttime Mine – a Stadium that directly targets Tera type Pokemon and making their attacks more difficult to get off.
Azumarill ex
Auzumarill ex is just a regular Pokemon ex, not Tera type. But it still has a powerful abiliyt/attack combo, letting you easily accelerate energy onto it while hitting harder for each Psychic energy attached to it. You could see this Pokemon popping up in Gardevoir ex decks as another attacker, although probably being a Stage 2 will limit its popularity – Stage 2 Pokemon are considerably harder to set up and play versus the typical retinue of easy-to-evolve attackers that Gardevoir ex decks like to partner with.
Ascended Heroes single prize Pokemon
While the Mega Pokemon ex and 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 single prize Pokemon cards from the main set.
Erika’s Tangela
Getting an Erika’s Pokemon is pretty cool – even if it is Tangela. Erika’s Pokemon were around way back in the day, and Erika is an OG Pokemon Trainer known by many. Tangela seems like a solid card, too, for building a deck around. It could mean a lot more fun new strategies to try out once Ascended Heroes releases, and that’s something I’m always down for.
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.
Snorunt
Revealed via the Pokemon TCG UK X account, Snorunt is worth highlighting not only because it’s an English spoiler, but also because it hints at the Mega Froslass ex we are likely to get in Ascended Heroes as well. In Pokemon lore, Snorunt can only evolve into Froslass if it is a female and you use a Dawn Stone on it. Luckily in the Pokemon TCG, no Dawn Stone is required!
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.
Team Rocket’s Exeggutor
Turns out N’s Pokemon aren’t the Trainer’s Pokemon getting a boost in Ascended Heroes. Team Rocket’s Pokemon seem to be getting some added support. Although I’m not so sure how helpful this Pokemon is going to be. While the Tr Kinesis attack effect is cool, good luck hitting those three heads!
Groudon
Rayquaza
Rayquaza is up there as one of Pokemon’s most bankable characters. While a simple rare like this won’t be enough to drive much value, featuring this fearsome dragon is almost enough to turn heads even for a main set Pokemon card. It’s Breakthrough Assault attack is also pretty interesting, and it could be a solid tech for electric decks looking for a single prize attacker.
N’s Zekrom
This new N’s Zekrom could be a powerful addition to the N’s Pokemon strategy that leverages N’s Zoroark ex’s “Night Joker” attack to copy any N’s Pokemon’s attack on the bench. Swinging for 250 with n’s Zoroark ex is a huge play for the N’s Zoroark ex deck – one that could help propel the deck higher up in the meta.
Larry’s Komala
Larry’s Komala was revealed thanks to its inclusion in the Ascended Heroes Blister collection (covered later in this article). This Komala is intriguging as it is the first time we get Trainer’s Pokemon featuring the Scarlet and Violet era cult favorite gym leader, Larry. Komala doesn’t look too bad either, acting as an energy acceleration engine for Larry’s Pokemon decks.
Ascended Heroes Trainer cards
We’ve had more one trainer card officially revealed for Ascended Heroes so far, with the first being this Boss’s Orders card featuring Corbeau from the Pokemon Legends: Z-A.
Boss’s Orders
It’s not the most exciting reveal by a long shot, but still a nice nod to the current Pokemon era we find ourselves and its top boss.
Team Rocket’s Giovanni
Another card featuring a famous “boss” character, this alternate artwork for Team Rocket’s Giovanni (originally released in Destined Rivals) hails from a special promo card released in Japan. This card doesn’t feature the promo stamp on it, but it will be included in Ascended Rivals.
Nighttime Mine
Here is the card I alluded to at an earlier point in this guide: the powerful new Nighttime Mine Stadium. While this card limits the power of any Tera Pokemon, it’s particularly effective into Dragapult ex – an otherwise top tier deck that will be significantly harmed by this particular tech. You could see Dragapult ex slip in popularity and play share at the top of competition once this card gets released.
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? Early prices for the top Ascended Heroes chase cards in Japan look solid, indicating that Gengar could indeed be the top chase from the set.
Mega Hawlucha ex – Special Illustration Rare
Leaked via its own unique trailer that sees Mega Hawlucha ex standing on the ropes of a wrestling ring, this is the first time we’ve had Mega Hawlucha in the Pokemon TCG. With the blue/yellow swirls and colors that are a staple of the Mega Evolution era, combined with a very unique protective ability and a strong attack, Mega Hawlucha ex will be very tempting to build around especially in fighting decks like Mega Lucario ex.
Psyduck – Illustration Rare
Apart from being an alternate art for a very playable card, I love this Psyduck card. Looking at it makes me long for summer, as well as totally blown away by Psyduck’s overwhelming cuteness. It should be a decently valuable card, too, once the set comes out.
Budew – Illustration Rare
Budew caused quite the stir when it released in Prismatic Evolutions in January, 2025. Now, about one year later we are getting an enchanting Illustration Rare for that card. This particular IR should be worth a solid amount for collectors but especially for players looking to bling out their decks with this still-popular item-locking Pokemon.
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 Blister Collection Featuring Larry’s Komala and Erika’s Tangela.
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.
March 20, 2026 – Ascended Heroes First Partners Deluxe Pin Collection
Get the starters that you can evolve into Mega Pokemon in this special collection featuring:
3 foil promo cards featuring Chikorita, Tepig, and Totodile
1 deluxe pin featuring Chikorita, Tepig, and Totodile
5 Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution—Ascended Heroes booster packs
April 24, 2026 – Ascended Heroes Booster Bundle
Complete with six booster packs, the Ascended Heroes Booster Bundle 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.
April 24, 2026 – Mega Meganium ex Box, Mega Emboar ex Box, and Mega Feraligatr ex Box
The newly revealed Mega Pokemon ex that I highlight at the top of this article will be getting featured in these three Mega Pokemon ex boxes releasing late April 2026. Presumably they will contain promo versions of the cards which have been revealed as also part of the set – meaning you can get these Mega Pokemon ex both in these boxes as well as in Ascended Heroes packs!
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.
