Pokemon Pitch Black Set Guide: Cards, ETB & Release Date

The fifth English Mega Evolution era set is locked in for Friday 17 July 2026. Mega Evolution—Pitch Black is the smallest set of the era so far and the most chase-heavy in tone, headlined by Mega Darkrai ex and tied directly to the Mega Dimension DLC of Pokemon Legends: Z-A. After four Mega Evolution releases that all sold out at full price within hours, this one is on the same trajectory.

Here is what is confirmed so far, what is worth chasing, and how the UK preorder window is shaping up.

What Is Pokemon Pitch Black?

Pitch Black is the English adaptation of Japan's Abyss Eye expansion, which released on 22 May 2026. The set carries the official set code ME05, follows directly from Chaos Rising in May, and contains over 115 cards in total: four Mega Evolution Pokemon ex, four standard Pokemon ex, eleven Illustration Rares, eighteen Ultra Rares, and six Special Illustration Rares. Roughly 35 cards across the set carry premium full-art treatment.

The set name is a direct nod to Darkrai's Pokedex epithet. Darkrai is known in lore as the Pitch-Black Pokemon, a Mythical Darkness-type that haunts dreams and cloaks itself in shadow. It is the first Dark-type Mega Evolution in the English TCG since Mega Gengar ex in Phantasmal Flames, and the broader theme leans on abyss imagery, void textures, and the dream-corruption arc from Pokemon Legends: Z-A.

Prerelease events run from 4 to 12 July at participating game stores, with Build & Battle Boxes the first physical Pitch Black product out of the box. TCG Live picks up the digital release on 16 July, one day before retail.

Confirmed Cards So Far

With Abyss Eye out in Japan since 22 May, the full chase tier is locked in. Pitch Black is built around four Mega Evolution Pokemon ex, but Mega Darkrai ex carries the set on its own with two premium prints: a gold Hyper Rare and a Special Illustration Rare illustrated by Akira Egawa. The figures below are early Japanese-market ungraded sales, so read them as a ranking guide rather than a UK price. English prints land on 17 July.

Only three of the four Megas earned a Special Illustration Rare. Mega Zeraora ex and Mega Chandelure ex both landed one, but Mega Excadrill ex is the odd one out, topping at an Ultra Rare with almost no secondary heat. The deeper chase tier leans on non-Mega cards instead: a Morpeko ex SIR and two Trainer chases in Gwynn and the Misty Supporter, all outpricing the Excadrill and Zeraora-line Ultra Rares. Zarude is the ETB promo in both the standard and Pokemon Center boxes. The takeaway holds across every source. Darkrai is the runaway chase and nothing else is close.

Why Pitch Black's Smaller Card Pool Matters

Pitch Black is unusually small for an English expansion. Most English sets are stitched together from two or three Japanese subsets, padding the card pool to 180+ cards. Abyss Eye has no companion subsets feeding into it, so Pitch Black will arrive at roughly 115 cards. That is the same compact footprint Phantasmal Flames and Chaos Rising ran with.

For collectors, that compression matters in two directions. Pull rates per box should improve, since the set is not bloated with filler Trainer reprints. But the secondary-market pressure on the headline cards intensifies. With only six Special Illustration Rares to chase and Mega Darkrai ex carrying the entire set's lore weight, expect the Mega Darkrai SIR to anchor the chase tier the way Mega Greninja ex did in Chaos Rising or Mega Gengar ex did in Phantasmal Flames. Sealed product values tend to track the strength of the headline chase, not the average card.

Pitch Black Product Lineup

The full retail lineup is confirmed, and preorders are already live. Pokemon Center opened its own preorders on 10 June and the site buckled within minutes under demand. Evol Vault is taking Pitch Black preorders now across the core SKUs, with drop alerts for any restock.

• Booster Box: 36 booster packs, 10 cards per pack. The serious collector and ripper SKU.
• Elite Trainer Box (Standard): 9 booster packs, Zarude promo card, dice, sleeves, energy cards, player's guide. Standard retail ETB.
• Pokemon Center ETB: 11 packs, a PC-stamped Zarude Illustration Rare promo on top of the standard Zarude promo, plus premium accessories. The exclusive of the lineup.
• Booster Bundle: 6 booster packs. The light-touch entry option, and our bundle vs box breakdown covers which suits you.
• Booster Pack: 10 cards, single pack.
• Check Lane Blister: 1 pack, 1 promo card, 1 collectible coin.
• Premium Check Lane Blister: 1 pack, 3 promo cards, 1 coin.
• Build & Battle Box: 4 booster packs, 40-card prerelease deck. Available 4 to 12 July at prerelease events only.

The PC exclusive ETB is the SKU to watch. Across the previous Mega Evolution releases, every PC ETB has sold out at full price within hours of going live on Pokemon Center UK. The Phantasmal Flames PC ETB, Perfect Order PC ETB, Ascended Heroes PC ETB, and Chaos Rising PC ETB are all sold out at source. Pitch Black on a smaller print run will not break that pattern.

The Pitch Black Pokemon Center ETB carries a stamped Zarude promo and 11 packs. Every prior Mega Evolution PC ETB sold out at source.

Should You Preorder Pitch Black?

Three things make Pitch Black a stronger preorder than a typical set. First, the smaller print run that comes with a thinner Japanese parent set means fewer SKUs at retail and less margin for late buyers. Second, Mega Darkrai is a sticky character. Darkrai SIRs and full-arts have outperformed the wider market in every print era they have appeared in. Third, the Mega Evolution era is now five sets long, every prior PC ETB has sold out, and the pattern is unlikely to break on a smaller and more chase-heavy set.

The Japanese data has now answered the open question. Pitch Black is a single-dominant-chase set, not an evenly-spread one. Mega Darkrai ex runs away with the tier the way Mega Greninja MUR did in Chaos Rising, which historically pulls sealed product values up with it. The risk that cuts the other way is print run: if Pokemon prints Pitch Black heavily for the English market, sealed prices soften regardless of how strong the chase is.

For UK collectors deciding now, the playbook is simple. Preorder one Pokemon Center ETB for the stamped promo and best chase-per-pack odds, one Booster Bundle if you rip for fun, and a Booster Box if you collect for value. Skip the Premium Collections and tins if they appear later, since they rarely outperform the core ETB or box on a chase-card-per-pound basis. Set a drop alert for any restock once the first preorder window closes.

For deeper context on how Pitch Black slots into the rest of 2026, our late 2026 preorder guide compares it side by side with the 30th Celebration and Storm Emerald releases, and our Mega Evolution era ranking tracks how each prior set has performed post-release. If you are shipping internationally, the UK customs duties guide covers VAT and HMRC thresholds for sealed product imports.