What is Ascended Heroes?
Ascended Heroes (Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution—Ascended Heroes, distributor code Mega Evolution 02.5) is a special expansion in the Mega Evolution era, released January 30, 2026. It follows the holiday-set format of releases like Crown Zenith and Paldean Fates: its booster packs aren't sold in traditional booster boxes, only inside Elite Trainer Boxes, collections, and other specialty products. The set celebrates the stars of Scarlet & Violet alongside the dawn of Mega Evolution — first-partner Pokémon from Pokémon Legends: Z-A Mega Evolve, Trainer's Pokémon return, and a new Mega attack rare card type debuts. In Japan the parent set is the High Class Pack Mega Dream ex.
What's in the set
Ascended Heroes is a 295-card set: 217 cards in the printed, numbered portion and secret rares numbered past it. The rarity spread runs 84 commons, 69 uncommons, 25 rares, 39 double rares, 33 illustration rares, 14 ultra rares, and 22 special illustration rares, plus two card types new to the era — 7 Mega attack rares and 2 Mega Hyper Rares. Those two Mega Hyper Rares are the gold-treatment top tier: Mega Charizard Y ex (#294) and Mega Dragonite ex (#295), both illustrated by aky CG Works. Mega Gengar ex, a pair of Pikachu ex, and a deep run of special illustration rares fill out the premium layer.
Which cards to chase
Mega Gengar ex's special illustration rare, by danciao, is the top card of the set, trading into four figures in the launch window. Right behind it is a Pikachu ex special illustration rare from booota, and the set's headline Mega — Mega Dragonite ex by DOM, the card the whole expansion was marketed around — sits just below. The two gold Mega Hyper Rares, Mega Charizard Y ex and Mega Dragonite ex, are the scarcest pulls in the set. For a Trainer's Pokémon pick, Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex by Mitsuhiro Arita is the one to watch. Remember these are launch-window prices: a fresh set is at its most expensive in the first weeks, and early numbers can move as more product reaches shelves through the staggered spring releases.
Have the binder ready
Once packs are open, the layout is simple math. The 217-card printed set fills twenty-five 9-pocket pages — twenty-four full pages plus one card on the twenty-fifth, leaving eight empty pockets. The full 295-card master set, secret rares included, takes thirty-three pages, so a 360-card zip binder holds it with room to spare. Set-number order is the standard sort for a single set; sleeve your pages and decide penny-sleeve-or-double-sleeve before you start sorting the hits. One heads-up for master-set collectors: because this special set carries a heavy run of variant printings, a true everything binder runs far larger than the 295 numbered cards.
The whole set, page by page
How a 9-pocket page of these cards would look in a real binder. Pick a page layout:
Build your own layout in the Binder Planner →
295 cards = 33 pages of 9-pocket, or 19 pages of 4×4.
Ascended Heroes on NinePocket
The full set page is live: every one of the 295 cards with market prices, illustrator credits, and card-by-card detail. The most-valuable Ascended Heroes ranking is up as well, and the printables — binder dividers, a master-set checklist, and placeholder cards — are free to download. Everything is ready to use now that the set has released.
