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Ascended Heroes: The Mega Attack Reaches the World

Released on January 30, 2026, Ascended Heroes is the first special expansion in the Mega Evolution series of the Pokémon TCG. It represents the English-language counterpart to the Japanese set Mega Dream, which was released in November 2025. It includes 217 unique cards and 78 secret rares with alternate artwork, for a grand total of 295 cards, the most that any international set ever contained. In the same way as the Japanese expansion Nihil Zero, Ascended Heroes is primarily based on Pokémon, characters and events seen in the 2025 Nintendo Switch video game Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Being part of the Mega Evolution series, it includes both new and reprinted Pokémon in their Mega Evolution form.

Very Loud Attacks

Ascended Heroes follows the example established by Mega Dream and introduces for the first time in an English set the brand new type of rarity bearing a never-before-seen special treatment with a truly arresting aesthetic. The so-called Mega Attack Rares depict in a pop art style one of the Pokémon executing its signature attack while "calling" it through a large comic-book-like text that's stretched all across the artwork. But if the Japanese cards from Mega Dream displayed the name of the attack in English, the opposite is true for the English localization itself, which instead uses Japanese kanji for the otherwise translated cards. This linguistic cross-pollination generates some striking results such as the electrifying Mega Eelektross ex with its Disaster Shock, the kicking lizard Mega Scrafty ex showing off its Outlaw Leg, and the freezing Mega Frosslass ex creating Absolute Snow. The Mega Attack Rares in the set are seven in total, as they also feature Mega Diance ex, Mega Hawlucha ex, Mega Gengar ex, and Mega Dragonite ex.

In a departure from Mega Dream, both Mega Lucario ex and Mega Gardevoir ex aren't actually featured as Mega Attack Rares (they're just double rares), while Mega Charizard X ex was removed altogether from the set and replaced by another Mega Evolution of Charizard, Mega Charizard Y ex. This is also one of the two cards in the set to receive the gold-etched Mega Hyper Rare treatment, the other one being an alternate version of Mega Dragonite ex. Something that remains unchanged from Mega Dream, instead, is the presence of two parallel holofoil variants on lower-rarity cards, either featuring a motif of a Poké Ball or the energy symbol matching the type of Pokémon the card represents.