New Mega Attack Pokemon Card Rarity Debuts in Ascended Heroes
The first Pokemon TCG set of 2026, Ascended Heroes, is releasing in just two weeks on January 30, 2026 and to help build up even more anticipation for the massive set (as if it needs it), the Pokemon Company has revealed that in it a brand new Rarity will make its international debut: Mega Attack Rare. While we’ve had Pokemon promos already released with “Mega Attacks” printed on them – like the Mega Charizard X ex promo that came in the UPC in November – Ascended Heroes will be the first Pokemon TCG set ever to have this brand new rarity included in them. And to help celebrate, Pokemon’s revealed what the first Mega Attack rare will be: Mega Diancie ex!
Why the new Mega Attack rarity is a big deal
Again, Mega Diancie ex is the first ever Mega Attack Rare Pokemon card confirmed in English for the Pokemon TCG. Although we’ve known about Mega Attack Rare cards since they were announced at Pokemon Worlds 2025, so far we’ve only ever seen them as promo cards. Cards like the Mega Charizard X ex, Mega Lucario ex, or Mega Gardevoir ex have had their signature Mega Attacks printed in Japanese on them and been revealed for English sets, but they were Black Star Promo cards, not an entirely new rarity.
This is also noteworthy as Ascended Heroes is likely to contain many of these Mega Attack Rare cards going by sister its sister sets in Japan – Mega Dream ex and Start Deck 100 Battle Collection.
Mega Rare Pokemon cards could shake up the secondary card market
Having a whole new rarity makes these upcoming Mega Rare cards a little hard to price. While we know the general pull rates for existing rarities, we have no idea what they will be for Mega Attack Rares. Will they be even more rare than Special Illustration Rare Cards? Either way, the pull rates will have a huge impact on their potential value, as will just how popular the whole Mega Attack artwork concept is to collectors and investors.
The only Mega Attack Rare Pokemon card we can compare something like the Mega Diancie ex to is the Mega Charizard X ex that came out in the Phantasmal Flames UPC.
Currently, the market price for this Charizard isn’t terribly impressive hovering around just $30. However, this Charizard was guaranteed in a product, not something that you had to pull out of a pack, meaning the prices that we’re likely to see on the secondary card market for Mega Attack Rare cards could be drastically different.
Existing pull rate data from Mega Dream ex that includes Japanese prints of these Mega Attack Rare Pokemon cards (with their attacks written in English) suggest that these cards are a step in-between Illustration Rare cards and Special Illustration Rare – meaning more rare than IR cards but not as rare as SIR cards. I would expect their value on the secondary card market to follow suit, generally landing somewhere between these two rarity types.
Regardless, it’s not every day that an entirely new rarity is added to the Pokemon TCG, and excitement for it alone could drive up value for these cards at least initially as collectors try to catch them all!
Additional secret rare Pokemon cards leaked from Ascended Heroes
In addition to the news of our first Mega Attack Rare card coming out in English, several more exciting secret rare cards were leaked by the Pokemon Company, including the anticipated Mega Froslass ex Special Illustration Rare, Mega Scrafty ex Special Illustration Rare, Hop’s Trevenant Illustration Rare, and Team Rocket’s Dugtrio Illustration Rare.
See these via the gallery below and dive deeper into these and other Ascended Heroes English spoilers via my guide and preorder your Ascended Heroes products via my partners at TCGPlayer.
