Ascended Heroes Set Guide

Overview

Ascended Heroes is the Mega Evolution series' large special set, the slot that 151 and Prismatic Evolutions filled in the Scarlet & Violet years. The catalog numbers it me2pt5, between Phantasmal Flames and Perfect Order, rather than as a main expansion of its own.

Its 295 cards lean on two ideas. The first is trainer's Pokémon, named for the character who owns them: Erika's Vileplume ex, Ethan's Ho-Oh ex, Lillie's Clefairy ex, Iono's Bellibolt ex, Cynthia's Garchomp ex, N's Zoroark ex and more. The second is Team Rocket, with Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex at the top and a full set of Team Rocket's Trainers to support it.

The set also mixes regulation marks. Most cards carry an I, 68 carry a J and 51 carry an H, which matters to a player checking Standard legality and not at all to a collector.

Cards and rarities

Ascended Heroes has 295 cards. Every card shows its number over the printed total along the bottom, as in "001/217", next to the set code ASC.

The printed total is 217, so the 78 cards from 218 to 295 are secret rares. Set completion in TurnZero HQ counts a set against its printed total and keeps the secret rares apart, so finishing the main set and chasing the cards above it read as two separate goals. How set completion works →

Headline Pokémon

Thirteen Mega Evolution ex are printed at Double Rare in Ascended Heroes, alongside 26 regular Pokémon ex. A Mega Evolution ex gives up three Prize cards when it is Knocked Out, one more than a regular ex, so each one has to hit hard enough to be worth that risk.

Mega Gengar ex

Ascended Heroes #125

350 HP Stage 2. Shadowy Concealment makes your opponent take 1 fewer Prize card when their Pokémon ex Knocks Out one of your Darkness Pokémon.

Mega Charizard Y ex

Ascended Heroes #22

360 HP. Explosion Y discards 3 Energy to do 280 damage to any one of your opponent's Pokémon, Benched ones included.

Mega Dragonite ex

Ascended Heroes #152

370 HP. Sky Transport switches your Active Pokémon once a turn, and Ryuno Glide does 330.

Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex

Ascended Heroes #79

Can't attack unless you have 4 or more Team Rocket's Pokémon in play, then does 160 plus 60 for each Energy you discard from your Bench.

Mega Gardevoir ex

Ascended Heroes #89

Overflowing Wishes fills your Bench with Psychic Energy from the deck; Mega Symphonia does 50 for each Psychic Energy you have in play.

N's Zoroark ex

Ascended Heroes #137

Trade discards a card to draw 2, and Night Joker copies an attack from one of your Benched N's Pokémon.

Trainers worth knowing

The Trainers split between the Team Rocket package and general cards. A few worth knowing:

Mega Signal

Ascended Heroes #193

An Item that searches your deck for a Mega Evolution Pokémon ex.

Team Rocket's Giovanni

Ascended Heroes #204

Switches your Active Team Rocket's Pokémon to the Bench, then drags one of your opponent's Benched Pokémon into the Active Spot.

Lillie's Determination

Ascended Heroes #192

Shuffle your hand in and draw 6, or 8 if you still have all 6 Prize cards.

The chase card: Pikachu ex

Pikachu ex

Ascended Heroes #276

Rarity Special Illustration Rare

Card number 276/217

Market price, September 30, 2026 $936.56

Illustrator booota

The Special Illustration Rare Pikachu ex is the card Ascended Heroes is opened for. At $936.56 on September 30 it was the most valuable card in the set, and the only one above $900.

It isn't alone at the top. The Mega Gengar ex Special Illustration Rare (284) was within $80 of it at $861.49, and a second Pikachu ex Special Illustration Rare (277) sold for $304.56. A pack with any of the three is a very good pack.

The same Pokémon is printed three times in the set, and the gap between them is the whole reason for chasing: the Double Rare Pikachu ex everybody pulls was $3.55.

Every Pikachu ex in Ascended Heroes

Only the exact version is worth its price. The number at the bottom of the card and the rarity symbol beside it tell you which one you pulled. Reading the number and rarity symbol →

Chase cards and prices

Ascended Heroes has the most valuable chase cards of any 2026 set by a long way, and most of that value sits in the Special Illustration Rares and the two Mega Hyper Rares.

These are each card's headline TCGplayer market price on September 30, 2026. Prices can move a long way, most of all in a set's first months, so treat them as a snapshot. Each card's page shows today's price for every variant and its 90-day chart. How Pokémon card prices work →

What a complete set costs

One copy of every card in Ascended Heroes, bought as singles, cost $4,898.70 on September 30, 2026. That is the most expensive of the five sets released in 2026.

The three most valuable cards, Pikachu ex, Mega Gengar ex and Mega Dragonite ex, come to $2,336.95, or 48% of the total. Without them the set costs $2,561.75. Of the 295 cards, 224 were under $2.00, together $71.03; the other 71 add up to $4,827.67.

Each card is counted at its cheapest priced variant, a Normal copy rather than a Reverse Holofoil where both exist, at its TCGplayer market price. This is what it costs to buy the set as singles. It is not what opening packs returns, and not what a complete set would sell for, which after fees and the many cards worth cents would be noticeably less.

Playing it

Every card in Ascended Heroes carries an H, I or J regulation mark, and Standard has allowed those three marks since April 10, 2026. The H cards are the ones to watch: H is the oldest mark still legal, so it is the likeliest to leave at the next rotation.

The Team Rocket's cards only work together. Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex needs four Team Rocket's Pokémon in play before it can attack, so the package is a deck of its own rather than a few cards to add to another one.

Standard, Expanded and deck building rules →

Frequently Asked Questions