Mega Gengar ex 284/217 leads Ascended Heroes at $721.81 on Cardboard Alpha's October 20, 2026 evaluated prices, and one copy of every card costs $3,903.82, more than the five other Mega Evolution Series expansions from Mega Evolution to Pitch Black combined.
Mega Gengar ex 284/217, the Special Illustration Rare (SIR), is the most valuable card in Ascended Heroes. Cardboard Alpha's evaluated price for a raw Near Mint copy was $721.81 on October 20, 2026, the latest day with final prices when this guide was written, ahead of Pikachu ex 276/217 at $655.30.
One copy of all 295 cards in their main printing cost $3,903.82 that day. The top card holds 18.5% of it, the top two 35.3%, the top ten 76.5%, and the 22 SIRs together 79.7%.
Ascended Heroes released in English on January 30, 2026, as part of the Mega Evolution Series, per The Pokémon Company International's launch alert. TCGplayer calls it the first special set of 2026 and the largest English-language Pokémon set ever released, drawn from the Japanese sets MEGA Dream ex and Start Deck 100 Battle Collection, with alternate-art reprints of chase cards from the preceding year.
Cardboard Alpha's catalog lists 295 cards in one run, 217 numbered and 78 secret, with no separate gallery subset, matching TCGplayer's breakdown. The set also brings the Mega Attack Rare to English, a rarity that prints the attack name in Japanese katakana as part of the art.
Numbered 1 to 217: Commons, Uncommons, Rares and 39 Double Rares.
Illustration Rares 218 to 250: 33 full-art cards of non-ex Pokémon.
Ultra Rares 251 to 264: 14 full-art Pokémon ex and Trainer cards.
Mega Attack Rares 265 to 271: 7 alternate-art Mega Evolution Pokémon ex.
SIRs 272 to 293: 22 cards, 19 Pokémon ex and 3 Supporters.
Mega Hyper Rares 294 and 295: gold Mega Charizard Y ex and Mega Dragonite ex.
At launch, the alert listed one product on sale, a Tech Sticker Collection. Elite Trainer Boxes, Collections and Mini Tins followed on February 20, Premium Poster and Pin Collections on March 20, and a Booster Bundle and Mega ex Boxes on April 24, 2026.
Every price is Cardboard Alpha's evaluated price for a raw Near Mint copy on October 20, 2026: one number per card per day, built from recorded sales, live asking prices, quoted guide values and the card's prior evaluation. It can sit above or below any single marketplace's displayed price.
All 15 prices rest on recorded sales. One used five or more same-day sales, eight blended two to four with a 30-day median and the best ask, two blended a single sale with asks and the prior evaluation, and four, Mega Gengar ex among them, are TCGplayer's one-day sold bar holding one reported sale each.
Across all 295 main prints, 114 rest on at least one recorded sale and 181 on a quoted marketplace guide. Those 181 total $56.21, 1.4% of the set, and none exceeds $1.65.
Where the set's value concentrates
Share of Ascended Heroes' one-of-each cost held by its top cards
Top card (Mega Gengar ex 284)18.5%
Top 2 cards35.3%
Top 5 cards59.6%
Top 10 cards76.5%
Top 20 cards88%
Cardboard Alpha evaluated prices, raw Near Mint, October 20, 2026. One main print per card, $3,903.82 total.
The top five cards hold 59.6% and the top twenty 88.0%. The median card costs $0.38, 211 of the 295 cost under $1.00, and only 8 reach $100. The 217 numbered cards total $94.81, 2.4% of the set, so the 78 secret cards carry the other 97.6%.
Twelve of the top 15 are SIRs; the exceptions are the two Mega Hyper Rares and Psyduck. The three starter Megas run from Mega Feraligatr ex at $76.09 (10th) and Mega Meganium ex at $64.17 down to Mega Emboar ex 273/217 at $36.55 (20th), and three Supporter SIRs are among the four cheapest SIRs: Canari 291/217 at $23.54, Iris's Fighting Spirit 292/217 at $20.95 and Surfer 293/217 at $15.98.
The Gengar, Pikachu and Dragonite chase
Mega Gengar ex led TCGplayer's January 23, 2026 preview, "The 10 Cards Everybody Wants from Ascended Heroes," and it leads on price. Its $721.81 is a single reported sale, the only one in TCGplayer's sold bar that day.
Pikachu ex has two SIRs. The 276/217, illustrated by booota, was $655.30 and the 277/217, by James Turner, was $270.00. If all SIRs are equally common, as TCGplayer assumes, pull odds cannot explain that 2.4 times gap.
Special Illustration Rare, evaluated raw Near Mint $655.30 on October 20, 2026, second in the set.
Pokémon
Double Rare
Mega Attack Rare
Mega Hyper Rare
SIR
Mega Gengar ex
$2.51
$30.99
none
$721.81
Mega Dragonite ex
$4.43
$24.11
$153.85
$438.95
Mega Charizard Y ex
$5.69
none
$239.90
none
Pikachu ex
$3.29
none
none
$655.30 and $270.00
Cardboard Alpha evaluated prices, raw Near Mint, October 20, 2026.
Mega Dragonite ex, the set's headliner per TCGplayer, shows the ladder most fully. The gold Mega Hyper Rare is the rarer tier as a group, about 1 in 540 packs, yet Mega Dragonite ex's SIR costs 2.9 times its Mega Hyper Rare.
Special Illustration Rare, evaluated raw Near Mint $438.95 on October 20, 2026, third in the set.
Mega Charizard Y ex, the other Mega Hyper Rare, was $239.90, fifth. TCGplayer's preview said it had a good chance of being the set's most expensive card, but it sat behind Mega Gengar ex, both Pikachu ex SIRs and the SIR Mega Dragonite ex.
Mega Hyper Rare, evaluated raw Near Mint $239.90 on October 20, 2026, fifth in the set.
Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex 281/217, illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita, was $209.16, sixth. TCGplayer's preview ranked it fifth and framed it as a new-art version of a 2025 chase card.
Special Illustration Rare, evaluated raw Near Mint $209.16 on October 20, 2026, sixth in the set.
The same preview picked Psyduck 226/217 as the one Illustration Rare likely to become a chase card. At $43.95 it is the top Illustration Rare and 14th overall, with Team Rocket's Mimikyu 238/217 next at $14.45 and Erika's Tangela 218/217 at $10.07.
Illustration Rare, evaluated raw Near Mint $43.95 on October 20, 2026, the top Illustration Rare.
Rarity tiers and pull odds
TCGplayer's Authentication Center opened more than 2,000 packs after the February 20, 2026 Elite Trainer Box release and published the study on February 24. It puts Double Rares, Ultra Rares and Mega Attack Rares in a pack's rare slot and Illustration Rares and SIRs in its second reverse holo slot.
Rarity
Cards
Combined
Share
Median
Odds for one card
SIR
22
$3,111.32
79.7%
$46.55
1 in 1,533 packs
Mega Hyper Rare
2
$393.75
10.1%
$196.88
1 in 1,080
Illustration Rare
33
$203.25
5.2%
$4.36
1 in 293
Mega Attack Rare
7
$76.72
2.0%
$4.80
1 in 202
Double Rare
39
$48.60
1.2%
$0.77
1 in 191
Ultra Rare
14
$23.97
0.6%
$0.96
1 in 291
Common, Uncommon, Rare
178
$46.21
1.2%
$0.19
not reported
All cards
295
$3,903.82
100%
$0.38
Cardboard Alpha evaluated prices, raw Near Mint, October 20, 2026; odds per TCGplayer.
TCGplayer's per-card odds assume every card in a rarity is equally common, as pull rates explained describes. Odds alone do not set price: a specific Ultra Rare (1 in 291) and a specific Illustration Rare (1 in 293) are equally likely, yet the Illustration Rare median is more than four times higher. A Delta Reign binder watchlist prices four other Mega sets' Illustration Rares the same way, also on October 20, 2026.
TCGplayer's margin of error on a specific SIR is larger than the estimate itself, and it found no god packs, which hold three Mega Attack Rares and seven SIRs, so its odds leave them out. What each rarity tier means separates the tiers.
Mega Attack Rares against SIRs
Seven Mega Evolution Pokémon ex exist as both a Mega Attack Rare and a SIR. The SIR cost 5.6 to 23.3 times the Mega Attack Rare of the same Pokémon on October 20, a median of 9.2 times.
Pokémon
Mega Attack Rare
SIR
SIR multiple
Mega Gengar ex
$30.99
$721.81
23.3x
Mega Dragonite ex
$24.11
$438.95
18.2x
Mega Froslass ex
$5.90
$52.93
9.0x
Mega Diancie ex
$4.80
$34.52
7.2x
Mega Hawlucha ex
$4.23
$38.91
9.2x
Mega Eelektross ex
$3.40
$18.93
5.6x
Mega Scrafty ex
$3.29
$38.80
11.8x
Cardboard Alpha evaluated prices, raw Near Mint, October 20, 2026.
TCGplayer's preview said Mega Attack Rares fell somewhere between Illustration Rares and SIRs in scarcity and price in Japan's MEGA Dream ex. In English their median is $4.80, close to the Illustration Rare median of $4.36, and only the Mega Gengar ex and Mega Dragonite ex versions outprice the four cheapest SIRs.
Mega Attack Rare, evaluated raw Near Mint $30.99 on October 20, 2026.
Special reverse holos
Pokémon Commons, Uncommons and Rares also come as bonus reverse holos, per TCGplayer: one with an Energy symbol matching the Pokémon's type and one with a Poké Ball or, for Team Rocket's Pokémon, the Team Rocket logo. TCGplayer's product catalog names five ball designs: Poké, Dusk, Love, Friend and Quick Ball.
Pattern
Cards
Combined
Median
Highest
Energy symbol
140
$47.74
$0.28
$2.99 (Rayquaza 153)
Ball designs
130
$41.55
$0.26
$1.12 (Silcoon 012)
Team Rocket
10
$6.58
$0.46
$1.77 (Team Rocket's Exeggcute 077)
The 280 together add $95.87, taking main prints and special reverse holos to $3,999.69, and 240 of the 280 prices rest on a quoted guide. TCGplayer's preview said the Poké Ball and Team Rocket versions were slightly more valuable in Japan; here the ball or Team Rocket version was higher for 60 of 140 cards, lower for 73 and level for 7.
Against five other Mega Evolution sets
Measured the same way, one copy of every Ascended Heroes card costs more than one copy of every card in the five other Mega Evolution Series expansions from Mega Evolution to Pitch Black combined, $3,872.30.
Set
Cards
One-of-each
Top card
Ascended Heroes
295
$3,903.82
Mega Gengar ex 284, $721.81
Mega Evolution
188
$1,360.44
Mega Lucario ex 188, $214.25
Phantasmal Flames
130
$1,013.25
Mega Charizard X ex 125, $607.44
Pitch Black
120
$575.84
Mega Darkrai ex 116, $141.59
Perfect Order
124
$464.19
Mega Zygarde ex 124, $90.00
Chaos Rising
122
$458.58
Mega Greninja ex 116, $115.99
Cardboard Alpha evaluated prices, raw Near Mint, one main print per card, October 20, 2026.
Graded copies: raw cards only, so no PSA, CGC or BGS price or population appears.
Sealed product: no pack, bundle or box prices are quoted.
Other versions: regular reverse holos, the seven cosmos-foil versions and Pokémon Center stamped cards are excluded from every total.
Rarity labels: the catalog tags Mega Attack Rares as Ultra Rare, so this guide splits them using TCGplayer's rarity names.
Every figure is one dated read, not a trend, and covers English cards only. The Ascended Heroes set page tracks these cards daily, and the master set checklist follows every version.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most valuable Ascended Heroes card?
Mega Gengar ex 284/217, the Special Illustration Rare. Cardboard Alpha's evaluated price for a raw Near Mint copy was $721.81 on October 20, 2026, ahead of Pikachu ex 276/217 at $655.30 and Mega Dragonite ex 290/217 at $438.95. The $721.81 rests on a TCGplayer one-day sold bar that recorded a single sale.
How much does a complete Ascended Heroes set cost?
One raw Near Mint copy of all 295 cards in their main printing came to $3,903.82 on Cardboard Alpha's October 20, 2026 evaluated prices. Adding the 280 Energy, ball and Team Rocket pattern reverse holos brings it to $3,999.69. Regular reverse holos, cosmos-foil versions and Pokémon Center stamped cards are not counted.
Is there an Ascended Heroes booster box?
No booster box appears in The Pokémon Company International's product list for the set. At launch on January 30, 2026 the only product on sale was a Tech Sticker Collection, followed by Elite Trainer Boxes, Collections and Mini Tins on February 20 and a six-pack Booster Bundle on April 24, 2026.
How hard is it to pull a Special Illustration Rare from Ascended Heroes?
TCGplayer's Authentication Center opened more than 2,000 packs and found a Special Illustration Rare of any kind in about 1 in 70 packs and put one specific card at about 1 in 1,533. The margin of error on a specific card, plus or minus 0.11 percentage points on a 0.07% estimate, is larger than the estimate, and god packs are not reflected in the sample.
What is a Mega Attack Rare worth?
A Mega Attack Rare is an alternate-art Mega Evolution Pokémon ex with its attack name printed in Japanese katakana, a rarity new to English with this set. The seven of them had a median evaluated price of $4.80 on October 20, 2026, from $3.29 for Mega Scrafty ex 270/217 to $30.99 for Mega Gengar ex 269/217. The Special Illustration Rare of the same Pokémon cost 5.6 to 23.3 times as much.
How does Ascended Heroes compare in cost with other Mega Evolution sets?
One copy of each Ascended Heroes card cost $3,903.82 on October 20, 2026, more than one copy of each card in the five other Mega Evolution Series expansions from Mega Evolution to Pitch Black combined ($3,872.30). That is $13.23 a card against $5.66 across those five sets' 684 cards.
Rochelle Lee writes price guides and set coverage for Cardboard Alpha. Rochelle works in sales as an account executive serving escrow and mortgage teams, a field where a price means little without comparable sales behind it, and brings that comps-first instinct to cards: what individual cards are worth, how whole sets and eras have held their value, and how a card's sold history differs from what sellers are currently asking. Each guide is built from published pricing and population data first, cites every source inline, and is fact-checked against those sources before it is published.
Rochelle Lee's articles describe card and set values using published pricing and population data. They are informational and are not personalized investment advice.
