Set Preview
Pokemon TCG Mega Evolution Chaos Rising: Everything Confirmed for the May 22 Release

The fourth English Mega Evolution set lands May 22, 2026. Set code CRI (ME04). 122 cards. Four Mega Evolution ex chase pieces. A Lumiose City storyline that has Mega Floette ex causing the chaos and a quartet of Mega Evolution Pokemon battling back. Pre-release window opened May 9 with Build and Battle Boxes at local game stores.

This is a release-day set preview. We cover what is confirmed, what to look out for, and what Catchinary will track on the per-card data side once the boosters open.

Key takeaways

• Pokemon TCG Mega Evolution Chaos Rising releases worldwide on May 22, 2026.
• Set code is CRI, internal code ME04. Fourth English Mega Evolution set after Perfect Order.
• 122 cards total: 5 Mega Evolution Pokemon ex, 5 standard Pokemon ex, 11 Illustration Rares, 18 Ultra Rares, 6 Special Illustration Rares.
• The four chase Mega Evolution ex cards are Mega Greninja ex, Mega Pyroar ex, Mega Floette ex, and Mega Dragalge ex.
• Japanese parallel set Ninja Spinner has been out since March 13, 2026. Two months of Japanese price action is the leading indicator for the English release arc.
• Prerelease events ran May 9 through May 17 at local game stores. Build and Battle Boxes were the early entry point.

What is in the set

Chaos Rising is built around the Lumiose City storyline. Mega Floette ex is causing the chaos. Mega Greninja ex, Mega Pyroar ex, and Mega Dragalge ex are the responders. The set leans into the Mega Evolution mechanic that Perfect Order introduced earlier this Mega Evolution arc.

Set composition by rarity (see our rarity symbol guide for what each tier actually means):

• 5 Mega Evolution Pokemon ex (the four named chases plus one additional)
• 5 standard Pokemon ex
• 11 Illustration Rares
• 18 Ultra Rares across Pokemon and Trainer slots
• 6 Special Illustration Rares (the top-tier alt-art slot)
• Common, Uncommon, and standard Rare fill the rest of the 122-card index

Booster pack configuration is 10 cards plus one Basic Energy per pack. Booster Display Boxes contain 36 packs. Elite Trainer Boxes, the Build and Battle Box, and the standard Premium Collection round out the SKU lineup.

The four Mega Evolution ex chase cards

These are the cards Reddit is already debating before the set lands. Pre-release pulls of the Mega Greninja Special Illustration Rare hit the front page of r/PokemonTCG with 4,286 upvotes on May 9, the day the Build and Battle Boxes dropped. Community attention is heavily weighted to Greninja right now, but the actual price arc post-release tends to redistribute as collectors run pull-rate math on the rest of the set.

The four Mega Evolution ex cards in the set:

• Mega Greninja ex. Water-type, the current Reddit chase favorite, also the central character in the set artwork.
• Mega Floette ex. Fairy-type, the antagonist of the Lumiose City storyline. Mechanical question worth tracking: it is not a Stage 1, which some players have flagged as unusual.
• Mega Pyroar ex. Fire-type, design and rarity placement consistent with the other Mega chases.
• Mega Dragalge ex. Dragon/Poison-type, the rarest of the four Mega Evolution Pokemon in pull rate based on Japan's Ninja Spinner equivalent so far.

The set also ships with Mega Evolution Trainer cards. The Fennekin Illustration Rare is the ETB exclusive promo this run.

The framing on the radar: Mega Greninja wins on demand and liquidity (Reddit attention is doing the heavy lifting). Mega Floette is the more interesting card on the upside axis if you weight unique mechanics and storyline placement. The full pull-rate-adjusted EV math will be a follow-up post once retail singles trade.

What the Japanese Ninja Spinner data already tells us

Ninja Spinner released in Japan on March 13, 2026. It is the parallel set to Chaos Rising. Two months of Japanese price data exists and serves as a leading indicator for the English release arc.

We are publishing the full Japanese-to-English forecast as a follow-up post this week. The short version: the Japanese Mega Greninja SAR has held a premium over the other three Mega ex chases by roughly 2 to 3 times since release. If the English arc tracks the Japanese one (it usually does for parallel sets), Mega Greninja will sit at the top of the chase tier with the other three clustered behind.

For context on how vintage chase tiers have played out long-term, our deep dives on Shining Tyranitar and Mewtwo Gold Star walk through what 20+ years of price arc looks like on a chase rarity once the set is fully indexed.

Catchinary's Markets page will start tracking Chaos Rising prices the day the set goes live on TCGplayer, and our weekly movers post will likely feature Chaos Rising cards heavily through May and June.

Where to buy

The official channels are Pokemon Center (released preorders on April 13, with significant scalper traffic per the 1,149-upvote r/PokemonTCG announcement thread), Amazon, Target, Walmart, and your local game store. Local game stores were the only channel for the May 9 Build and Battle Box prerelease window and have a more even distribution of stock for retail day on May 22. The scalper-versus-retail tension here mirrors what we covered in the card show sealed ban story earlier this month.

Before you buy at scalper markup, it is worth running the pull-rate expected value math on what is actually in a booster pack. The hobby's community-collected pull rates show that for hyped sets, the average pack sits well below the markup.

Prerelease window ran May 9 through May 17. Build and Battle Boxes contained four boosters plus a 40-card evolution-line deck. Standard retail launch is May 22. The sealed product lineup at retail launch:

• Booster Display Box. 36 booster packs at 10 cards plus one Basic Energy each.
• Elite Trainer Box. 9 boosters, energy pack, dice, sleeves, condition markers.
• Pokemon Center Elite Trainer Box. Exclusive cover art version with Mega Greninja ex card promo.
• Build and Battle Box. 4 boosters plus a 40-card evolution-line deck (the prerelease entry product).
• Booster Bundle. 6-pack sealed bundle, the smallest sealed unit at retail.

What Catchinary will track post-release

Once Chaos Rising lands on TCGplayer and our daily price snapshot pipeline indexes the new cards, we will track:

1. Day-by-day price arc on each of the four Mega Evolution ex chase cards, raw and PSA 10.
2. CIV strength scores for every Chaos Rising card. Pre-release CIV vs Day 30 actual price gives us a forecasting scorecard.
3. Booster Box vs single-card EV as the secondary market settles. The math on buying sealed at $210 versus chasing singles changes within the first 30 days, and our card valuation methodology walks through the per-card side of that equation.
4. Pull-rate-adjusted expected value for Mega Greninja vs Mega Floette vs Mega Pyroar vs Mega Dragalge. The Reddit-favorite chase is not always the best mathematical pull. See our community pull-rate data for the framework.
5. Comparison to Perfect Order, Ascended Heroes, and Mega Evolution (the three prior English Mega Evolution sets). We will publish the set-on-set arc once Chaos Rising has its first 30 days of data.
6. Fake-detection guide updated for Chaos Rising prints. Major new sets are also when high-quality counterfeits start surfacing, so our fake Pokemon card identification guide stays the relevant playbook.

Related Catchinary reading

• Valuation How to Value a Pokémon Card The four-step framework Catchinary uses on every card. Identify the print, pull the live market price, adjust for condition, decide whether to grade. The same methodology will apply to every Chaos Rising card.
• Grading How to Grade Pokémon Cards: Break-Even Analysis When PSA 10 actually pays. The modern bulk trap section is especially relevant for Chaos Rising chase cards. Grading is not always worth it for fresh sets.
• Data Pokémon TCG Pull Rates from 23,000+ Tracked Packs Community-collected pull-rate data with implied expected value math. Useful before you decide whether $210 for a Chaos Rising booster box is the right buy at retail launch.
• Reference How to Spot a Fake Pokémon Card Three-tier authentication checklist. Hype-cycle sets like Chaos Rising are exactly when high-quality counterfeits start surfacing. Worth a refresh before the May 22 retail rush.
• Card Value Shining Tyranitar: The Quiet Chase Card That Climbed 534% This Week A worked example of how vintage chase cards build a price arc over decades. Useful framing for what Chaos Rising chase cards might do over the next 5 years.
• Weekly Data Pokémon Card Movers: Week of May 11 to 17, 2026 The current week's top gainers and losers from Catchinary's index. Chaos Rising cards will start appearing here in the May 24 edition.

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