There has been a recent reveal for Pokemon Japan's next set, Storm Emeralda. This set releases in Japan on July 31, 2026. The starring Pokemon is Mega Rayquaza ex.
As usual, I do a first look of the translated cards and give short reviews.
The English version of the cards appear in the Delta Reign set on November 6, 2026. This is 3 months after the Japan set. The 30th celebration set comes before Delta Reign.
Here is Mega Rayquaza ex. Instead of the Dragon typing, it has the Colourless typing. It has 280HP, Lightning weakness, Fighting resistance and a two retreat cost.
The Champion's Roar ability activates when this Pokemon is from your hand to the Bench once during your turn. Look at the top 4 cards of your deck and attach one Basic Energy you find there to this Pokemon. (Shuffle the other cards and put them to the bottom of your deck.) This ability is kind of underwhelming for a Mega Pokemon. You could use Academy at Night or Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking but it is not great still.
The Storm Emeralda attack requires one Fire Energy, one Lightning Energy and one of any Energy. This attack does 50 damage times the number of Fire and Lightning Energy attached to all of your Pokemon in play. The minimum damage here is 100 and there is no limit for the maximum damage this can do. One major challenge is getting many Fire and Lightning energy in play in order to reach 300 or 350 damage.
Fletching and Fletchinder are not great attackers. They are needed to get to Talonflame ex if you do the regular evolution route.
Here is Talonflame ex. Instead of a the Fire typing, it is a Colourless type. Note that it has Fighting resistance, Lightning weakness and a zero retreat cost.
Claw Hunt for 2 of any Energy does 150 damage. You may search your deck for any 2 cards and put them into your hand (no need to reveal). Then shuffle your deck.
The Excitedive ability is like one of those Special Summon effects from the Yu-Gi-Oh card game. You can cheat the evolution process and Bench this Stage 2 Talonflame ex as long as you have a Colourless Mega Evolution Pokemon in play.
As of June 2026, the known Colourless Mega Pokemon outside of Mega Rayquaza ex are:
Out of the three, Mega Kangaskhan ex does see some play. Mega Lopunny decks are not so good now and Mega Audino ex is not that great.
Decks that run multiple copies of Mega Kangaskhan ex may consider running 1 of 2 copies of Talonflame ex. No need to have Fletching or Fletchinder. Watchout for Team Rocket's Watchtower though.
Adventuring Lantern lets you search your deck for 1 Basic Fire Energy and 1 Basic Lightning Energy, reveal them and put them into your hand.
This item card is much better than Energy Search. Mega Rayquaza decks or decks that have Fire and Lightning energy in their attacks benefit from this Item card.
We get a soft return of tool cards with attacks. Mega Rayquaza Cap is a tool card that allows the Pokemon with this Tool access to the Delta Gift attack.
For one energy, you search your deck for a Basic Energy and attach it to each of your Pokemon with a Mega Rayquaza Cap attached to it. You deal no damage but you do major energy acceleration.
Zinnia's Trust is a niche Supporter card that functions as a combination of the Item cards Switch and Energy Switch (sort of).
This Supporter card won't be too popular but could see use in a few niche decks.
In Japan, they call it MC's Hype. The English version from Destined Rivals has it as Emcee's Hype. The card effect is the same.
MC's Hype is not a very popular Supporter card and it is not likely that it will see play in the future.
This Stadium card is a unique one. You need to play the two parts at once and it counts as one Stadium card.
As long as Legendary Summit is in play, both player's Colourless Pokemon give up one less Prize card when it is Knocked Out by damage from an opponent's attack.
This card effect is powerful in its prize denial effect similar to Legacy Energy ACE SPEC. When it comes to stadium cards, they can be bumped/replaced by a different Stadium card during the opponent's next turn. There is also Chien-Pao to bump stadiums.
This Mega Rayquaza set looks interesting from a gameplay perspective. I don't think set will change the metagame a whole lot but there are some new cards that can improve certain decks.
Illustration rare cards have not been revealed. I am sure the card designers will make Mega Rayquaza ex look cool in the full art card versions and the special illustration rare.
Thank you for reading.
