The card English packs actually hold just got its face shown. Our October 25 report on the full Delta Reign set list told collectors that the special illustration rare Mega Rayquaza ex sits at number 138 in the secret rare run while its full art printing never made the English set. On October 30 Pokémon published its official preview of that special illustration rare, card text and artist credit included, six days before Delta Reign reaches shelves on November 6. For a set that has spent prerelease week answering questions about what it lost, this is the reminder of what it kept.

What the official preview showed

Pokémon calls the page an early look at the new special illustration rare card featuring the Legendary Pokémon, and it pairs the card with a preview video. PokePursuit TCG and Joseph Writer Anderson both describe that video as a picnic themed reveal, and both list the same supporting cards pulled from Delta Reign packs inside it. Eevee and Growlithe and Groudon and Kyogre and Mega Golisopod ex all appear alongside the headline card. The preview is an English first look at art Japanese collectors have known since Storm Emeralda launched in Japan in July, and that timing matters. The chase card of the set now has an official English face with launch less than a week away.

The card itself

The official preview credits the artwork to Kazuki Minami and names Minami as the grand prize winner of the Pokémon TCG Illustration Contest 2024. Pokémon gives the card 280 HP and the Colorless type. Its Ruler’s Roar Ability works when you play it from your hand onto your Bench and lets you look at the top four cards of your deck and attach a Basic Energy to Mega Rayquaza ex. Its Storm Emerald attack does 50 damage for each Fire Energy and each Lightning Energy attached to all your Pokémon, so a wide and well powered Bench turns this card into a very large number. PokePursuit TCG adds the frame around those headline facts. The card is number 138 in a main set of 103, and as a Mega Evolution Pokémon ex it gives up three Prize cards when it is Knocked Out.

Why this reveal lands harder than most

Most set previews are decoration. This one is a sorting tool, because Delta Reign lost a Rayquaza on the way to English. Our October 30 follow up covered the full art Mega Rayquaza ex that was cut from the set and will instead arrive as a guaranteed promo in the Mega Rayquaza ex Premium Tournament Collection on February 12, 2027. That cut leaves the special illustration rare as the only alternate art of Mega Rayquaza ex that English packs hold, aside from the Mega Hyper Rare, and PokePursuit TCG and Joseph Writer Anderson both note that the Mega Hyper Rare still has no English reveal. ScreenRant counts six special illustration rare Pokémon and Supporter cards in the full expansion, so this card also sits at the top of a very short list inside its own set.

The Japan comparison cuts both ways

Both PokePursuit TCG and Joseph Writer Anderson report that in Japan this special illustration rare trades for little next to its Mega Hyper Rare counterpart, where the gold card carries the extreme rarity premium. Anderson guesses the order could flip in English, where special illustration rare art tends to draw the premium, and he labels that read as his own guess. Our take sits one step back from his. No English price for this single has settled yet, and launch week presale asks on a card this visible are a mood rather than a market. What is solid is the structure. One alternate art in packs, one gold rarity still unseen in English, and a mascot that has carried set prices before. That structure is what gives this card its ceiling, whatever the first sales say.

What to watch next

Watch for the English reveal of the Mega Hyper Rare, which PokePursuit TCG calls the last major Mega Rayquaza ex version left to see before launch. Watch Pokémon TCG Live, where ScreenRant reports the expansion arrives on November 5, one day before paper release. Then watch November 6 itself. Delta Reign brings more than 135 cards and three Legendary Stadiums and 14 illustration rare cards alongside this chase, per Pokémon and ScreenRant, and the first real sales of the special illustration rare will tell collectors whether the English market follows the Japan order or flips it.