Hi there. In this Pokemon TCG post I cover the set reveal cards from the dual sets Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia.
The reveal was from the Japan Champions league tournament on June 21, 2025.
There was a teaser reveal of Mega Lucario ex & Mega Gardevoir ex with a few cards a while back. This set reveal has more cards to be released too.
The English Mega evolution set is to be released on September 26, 2025. These Mega evolution cards release close to the Legends: Z-A video game. We transition from the Scarlet & Violet era and into the MEGA block of cards. (I guess after this MEGA block we get the new generation of Pokemon in the video game and trading cards.)
This post is long. Read what you want.
Topics
- Bulbasaur + Ivysaur
- Mega Venusaur ex
- Vulpix & Ninetales
- Sobble + Drizzile
- Inteleon
- Pachirisu
- Ralts + Kirlia
- Mega Gardevoir ex
- Makuhita + Hariyama
- Riolu
- Mega Lucario ex
- Mega Latias ex
- Latios
- Trainer Cards
Bulbasaur + Ivysaur
Bulbasaur is a 80 HP Basic Grass Pokemon with 2 retreat cost and Fire weakness. The Bind Down attack deals 10 damage from 1 Grass Energy. The Defending Pokemon on the opponent's side cannot retreat during your opponent's next turn. This retreat lock attack can be useful in some cases in order to stall for more turns.
Ivysaur is the Stage 1 evolution from Bulbasaur. It is an okay attacker. Two Grass Energy for Razor Leaf's 60 damage.
Mega Venusaur ex
Mega Venusaur ex is the evolved form of Ivysaur. You don't need Venusaur ex to evolve into the Mega version. Whenever a Mega Pokemon ex is knocked out, your opponent gains 3 Prize cards instead of 2. You need 6 Prize cards as one regular way to win the game.
This Mega Venusaur ex has a bulky 380 HP, 4 retreat cost and Fire weakness. The Jungle Dump attack requires 4 Grass Energy to deal 240 damage and heal 30 from itself.
The ability on this is pretty good. Solar Trans can be used as many times during your turn. You may move 1 Grass Energy from 1 of your Pokemon to another 1 of your Pokemon. The Pokemon don't have to be Grass Pokemon when you transfer Grass Energy. Even though this Mega Venusaur has a costly attack, the ability makes up for it in a way.
One combination I see with Mega Venusaur ex is running multiple Teal Mask Ogerpon ex. The Ogerpon ability lets you attach Grass Energy to draw cards. Then you can transfer Grass Energy from Teal Mask Ogerpon ex to Mega Venusaur ex for its attack.
Will this Mega Venusaur ex see competitive play? Maybe. Grass is a good type against Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex and the Tera Dark type Charizard ex.
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The big weakness to Mega Venusaur ex is Fire decks. You can easily lose to a inexpensive Ethan's Typhlosion deck.
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Vulpix & Ninetales
This Vulpix and Ninetales evolution line is not very good. Ninetales first attack is not that good. Using a Supporter card as an attack is not that powerful.
Sobble & Drizzile
Sobble and Drizzile are nothing too special. You need them for the Inteleon final evolution.
Inteleon
Inteleon is the final Stage 2 evolution of Sobble & Drizzile. This has 150 HP, one retreat cost and Lightning weakness. The second attack of Water Shot requires 1 Water Energy to deal 110 damage with the drawback of discarding 1 Energy from Inteleon.
The first attack of Bring Down is interesting. It requires 1 Water Energy for its attack. The Pokemon in play (other than this Inteleon) with the lowest HP remaining is Knocked Out. This is an auto knockout attack but be careful in not knocking out your own Pokemon.
Using the whole Inteleon line seems sub-optimal. Too many cards required to my liking. I can see Inteleon being used as an option in rogue Slowking decks.
Pachirisu
This Pachirisu is interesting but it is also not very good. The opponent can bypass this attack's effect by hand attaching Energy to one of their Benched Pokemon. That way would avoid the 8 damage counters.
Ralts & Kirlia
As we have Mega Gardevoir ex there are new versions of Ralts & Kirlia. The new Ralts is not a great attacker but it can let you draw a card from the Collect attack.
The new 100 Kirlia is interesting. For one Psychic Energy, the Call Sign attack lets you search your deck for up to 3 Pokemon, reveal them and put them into your hand. (Then shuffle deck.) As long as your hand does not get hand disrupted then the Call Sign search attack is pretty good.
Mega Gardevoir ex
Here is Mega Garedevoir ex. This evolves from Kirlia. Gardevoir players can evolve Kirlia into this Mega Gardevoir ex or the popular Gardevoir ex.
The Overflowing Wishes attack for 1 Psychic Energy provides major Psychic Energy acceleration for your Benched Pokemon. This setups a lot of Energy for the second attack.
Mega Symphonia is the second attack. For 1 Psychic Energy, this attack does 50 damage for each Psychic Energy attached to all of your Pokemon. Having 6 Psychic Energy in play yields 300 damage.
I don't know the likelihood of this but you could have both Gardevoir ex and Mega Gardevoir ex in play. The Psychic Embrace ability can theoretically charge a lot of Psychic Energy to your Psychic Pokemon.
Counters To Mega Gardevoir ex
Darkness Pokemon are the biggest weakness to Mega Gardevoir ex. Watch out for Roaring Moon ex, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex and maybe the single prize Roaring Moon in Ancient decks.
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There are players out there (me included) who are sick of Gardevoir ex being in the top tiers of the competitive metagame. Since the release of Gardevoir ex, Gardevoir ex decks have accumulated 1 million USD in big tournament prize money after the latest North American International Championships 2025. A good handful of top players play this deck. In addition, prize pools have grown as of late.
This deck's strategy is to setup your way into Gardevoir ex and start attacking. Its early game can be weak to aggressive decks but it makes up for it with single prize attackers, Munkidori abuse, Counter Catcher abuse, Scream Tail bench snipe attacks and Iono comeback plays. This deck does often play slow especially online. Me personally I don't enjoy playing against it as the games are long and the comeback wins against you are kind of dumb. They play passively and then counterattack win from behind.
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Mega Gardevoir ex in theory adds more dangerous attackers to an already top tier archetype. I do think there will be players who will be hostile against Gardevoir ex and the Mega version. Darkness decks could see a rise as a major counter play.
Makuhita & Hariyama
Makuhita is a generic Basic Fighting Pokemon. 80HP is not great as you cannot search it out with Buddy Buddy Poffin.
Hariyama is kind of interesting. The Wild Press attack requires 3 Fighting Energy to deal 210 damage and 70 damage to itself.
The Sumo Catcher ability is similar to the Supporter Boss's Orders. Once during your turn, when you play Hariyama to evolve one of your Makuhita, then you may switch one of your opponent's Benched Pokemon with their Active Pokemon.
Riolu
Although this Riolu is good as a starting attacker, you cannot use Buddy Buddy Poffin to search this out. One Fighting Energy to deal 30 damage is good in the early game even if you cannot use the Accelerating Stab attack again during your next turn.
Riolu is needed for Lucario or Mega Lucario ex.
Mega Lucario ex
This is Mega Lucario ex, the evolved form of Riolu.
For one Fighting Energy, the Aura Jab deals 130 damage and it provides Fighting Energy acceleration. You can attach up to 3 Basic Fighting Energy cards from your discard pile to your Benched Pokemon in any way you like.
The Mega Brave attack requires 2 Fighting Energy to deal 270 damage. During your next turn, this Pokemon cannot use Mega Brave. 270 damage is okay for 2 Fighting Energy. It one hit knocks out most Basic Pokemon ex and a good handful of Stage 1 Pokemon ex attackers.
One major weakness with this Mega Lucario ex is that it is weak to Psychic Pokemon. With Gardevoir ex very popular in the metagame, it is super risky to play Mega Lucario ex. You don't want to give an easy 3 Prizes to your Gardevoir ex opponent.
Mega Latias ex
Here is Mega Latias ex. This Basic Mega Pokemon ex has 280 HP, dragon typing, 1 retreat cost and no weakness.
For one Energy cost, the Strafe attack deals 40 damage and you can switch this Pokemon with 1 of your Benched Pokemon.
The Mirage Pulse attack requires one Fire Energy, one Psychic Energy and one Colourless Energy to deal 300 damage. Its drawback is discarding all Energy from this Mega Latias ex.
Even though this Mega Latias ex has no weakness, it is weak to Lillie's Clefairy ex. Lillie's Clefairy ex allows Psychic Pokemon to hit Dragon Pokemon for weakness.
One deck idea is to use this Mega Latias ex with the Poison Brute Bonnet, Ancient Booster Energy Capsule and Pecharunt. Posion the opponent's Active Pokemon ex, hit and run with Mega Latias ex and then bring in Pecharunt for additional Poison damage.
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You can add the Perilous Jungle stadium as well for even more Poison damage. This hit & run Poison type of deck is not new but it is not popular. People tried this with Noivern ex but it is not top-tier.
In isolation this Mega Latias ex does not seem great. With some combos, this attacker can be annoying. Let's see what Japan comes with first. (Then the rest copies.)
Latios
Latios is a 130 HP Basic Dragon Pokemon designed to work with Mega Latias ex. This Latios has 1 retreat cost, zero weakness, one ability and one attack.
The Dragon Claw attack is a generic looking attack that requires one Water Energy, one Psychic Energy and one Colourless Energy. It does 130 damage with no additional effect.
The Luster Assist ability can be used once during your turn. When your Mega Latias ex moves from the Bench to the Active Spot, you may move any number of Energy from your Benched Pokemon to that Active Pokemon. This ability is pretty good in powering up Mega Latias ex and its 300 damage attack.
Combos around this Latios and Mega Latias ex will involve energy acceleration cards. These energy acceleration cards could involve Crispin, Glass Trumpet with Terapagos ex, Team Rocket's Spidops (maybe), Armarouge and maybe Xatu.
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Trainer Cards
There are new Trainer cards in this set. They are kind of interesting.
Premium Power Pro
Fighting Pokemon get a good boost with this card. During this turn, attacks used by your Fighting Pokemon do 30 more damage to your opponent's Active Pokemon (before Weakness and Resistance). You can stack multiple copies of this card for more damage if needed.
Fighting decks are not seen much right now. Maybe this card gives that big boost to have Fighting decks in the competitive metagame.
Mega Signal
Mega Signal is a good Item search card dedicated for Mega Evolution Pokemon. Search your deck for 1 Mega Evolution Pokemon ex, reveal it and put it into your hand. (Then shuffle deck.) Note that it has to be a Mega Evolution Pokemon ex and not a Basic Mega Pokemon ex. Mega Latias ex does not work here. Use Nest Ball or Ultra Ball instead to get Mega Latias ex.
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Wally's Compassion
This card is a powerful healing card for Mega Evolution Pokemon ex. (Note that it is Evolution Mega Pokemon ex and not Basic.)
Heal all damage from 1 of your Mega Evolution Pokemon ex. If you do heal then you put all Energy attached to that Pokemon back into your hand.
Maybe this card can see some play in Mega Evolution decks right away or later in the year. We also have Professor Turo's Scenario to remove weak Pokemon from in play into the hand. The Turo card can bring vulnerable targets into the hand to prevent easy win conditions for the opponent.
Lillie's Determination
Lillie's Determination is a somewhat better version of the not so used Youngster. Shuffle your hand into your deck. Then draw 6 cards. If you have 6 Prize Cards remaining then you draw 8 cards instead.
This card is pretty good in the early game. If your starting hand is bad or low in hand size then you can play this and get a new 8 card hand. Even if you don't have 6 Prize cards, restarting your hand and get 6 cards is okay.
We do have Lacey in the G, H, I regulation standard format. Lacey lets you draw 8 cards if the opponent is close to winning at 3 Prize cards or less left. Lillie's Determination is good for early game while Lacey is for late game.
Mystery Garden
Mystery Garden is an interesting Stadium card. Once during the player's turn you may discard 1 Energy card from the hand. If you do discard an Energy card, then that player draws as many cards in hands as they have Psychic Pokemon in play.
If the player has 4 Psychic Pokemon in play then that player can discard 1 Energy card and then draw 4 cards. This Stadium provides good draw support for Gardevoir ex players. (Not that they need more support as it is a top 3 competitive deck.)
Closing Notes
Mega Evolutions provide a good shake-up to the card game as 3 Prize Pokemon return. The last time we had 3 Prize Pokemon were VMAX Pokemon from 2 years ago in the F regulation block and E regulation block.
For collectors, Mega Pokemon ex could bring some nostalgia feelings and get people hooked.
As a player I am not too thrilled about Gardevoir ex decks getting more supporter. Having Mega Gardevoir ex releasing is one thing but the Mystery Garden stadium just provides major support to an archetype that is already good. I see blatent favourtism for Gardevoir ex from the card designers and higher ups.
There could be more reveals from these two Mega sets. Mega Gengar ex and Mega Diancie ex to be released soon. Maybe those cards are good for gameplay and can counter the domainance of Gardevoir ex.
The TCG physics cards always looks more powerful and impresive than the digital cards!
The physical Pokemon TCG does have some power creep. HPs are much higher compared to Pocket.
Yeah i see that and exist a lot of different cards too! the meta is really big