By Xander Pero, contributing writer
Trainers, the year is 2025, and it’s finally time for Mega Evolution Pokémon to make their return to the Pokémon Trading Card Game! Fittingly, the latest series name is Mega Evolution. I’m sure we can expect to see more impressive Mega Evolution Pokémon debut in due time, but for now, let’s focus on some of the cards we can expect to see making waves in tournaments this fall.
The first card I’ll highlight is Lillie’s Determination. The normal effect of Lillie’s Determination is to shuffle your hand into your deck and draw 6 cards. Cards with this exact same text have seen play in the past: Professor Oak’s New Theory was a staple Supporter card from HeartGold & SoulSilver back in 2010, and Cynthia was another solid choice during the 2018 season. Lillie’s Determination outdoes these cards in one regard: if you have all six Prize cards remaining, you can draw 8 cards! I’m convinced that Lillie’s Determination would have seen competitive play even without this added effect, but now it’s an absolute certainty.
Lillie’s Determination will fit into modern Supporter engines in two ways. First, some decks that would’ve used Professor’s Research in the past may now benefit from Lillie’s Determination, both to avoid the discard effect as well as to draw an additional card. Dragapult ex decks are the most concrete example of this. While decks likely will still include Professor’s Research because it’s the best Supporter card, Lillie’s Determination would give another option that doesn’t discard resources, lessening the need for many copies of Night Stretcher. Moreover, Lillie’s Determination gives these decks a third drawing Supporter option when they may have played a card like Brock’s Scouting instead. Decks like Gardevoir ex can make strong use of Arven due to Technical Machine: Evolution, but that is not the case with Dragapult ex.
Second, Lillie’s Determination will probably become the primary Supporter choice once the next Standard format rotation happens, which will sunset Iono. Iono is not only incredible at drawing many cards at the beginning of the game but also at hindering the opponent at the end. Even though Lillie’s Determination draws two additional cards, it’s hard to beat the fact that Iono can greatly improve the odds of winning games, even when players fall behind at the start.
Forest of Vitality is another card that brings back something akin to what we’ve seen in Forest of Giant Plants! That Stadium card had the same effect: Grass-type Pokémon could evolve during the first turn they were put into play. This is a huge advantage for Grass-type decks because players can swarm opponents with powerful Evolution Pokémon without waiting one or more turns. Forest of Vitality will change how Grass-type decks are built and may even nurture Grass-type decks into powerhouses in the Standard format.
One thing we must consider with a card like Forest of Vitality is that it is only as good as the Pokémon that can use it. Thankfully for us, the Mega Evolution set has a few Pokémon options. Mega Venusaur ex is the most obvious choice. Its Solar Transfer Ability lets you move Basic Grass Energy amongst your Pokémon as often as you like during your turn. With Mega Venusaur ex, you can move Grass Energy to an undamaged Pokémon, then make use of Professor Turo’s Scenario to pick up the Pokémon you previously attacked with. Then, using Forest of Vitality, you can fully evolve that same Grass-type Pokémon, move all the Energy back, and begin attacking again!
Some other Grass-type Pokémon worth calling out are Yanmega ex, Crustle, Toedscruel ex, and Toedscruel. These examples can round out a deck, providing some much-needed Energy acceleration or defensive options. With Forest of Vitality, we don’t have to worry about Basic Pokémon being Knocked Out before you can evolve them.
While I’m not fully certain the best way to build a deck with Forest of Vitality, it would be remiss not to call out the Bulbasaur released in the new set. Some decks in Standard are greedy, playing few or zero switching effects. This dearth of switching effects means if you’re able to trap a supporting Pokémon the opponent cannot attack with in their Active Spot, it’s possible to win the game without taking all six Prize cards. So, be careful of any Bulbasaur hiding beneath the mighty Mega Venusaur ex!
Lunatone by itself might not look too special, but when combined with Solrock, it bolsters the supporting engine for decks that utilize Fighting Energy. Lunatone’s Lunar Cycle Ability, provided you have Solrock in play, lets you draw 3 cards for the measly cost of discarding 1 Basic Fighting Energy. This discard effect can even be seen as a benefit for some decks that retrieve Energy from the discard pile. More on that later.
One thing that’s all but required for decks to succeed in the Pokémon TCG is Pokémon-based draw. Budew, released in Scarlet & Violet—Prismatic Evolutions, forced Standard decks to ditch Items in favor of Supporter cards, slowing down the format. Having more Supporters allows Pokémon with Abilities that draw cards to excel, especially as a game can be lost on the spot with an unlucky opening hand and an opposing Itchy Pollen. Most decks have needed to rely on Evolution Pokémon like Noctowl, Gholdengo ex, Drakloak, or Pidgeot ex to shore up this need. Now, Raging Bolt ex may be able to lean on Lunatone and Solrock instead of Noctowl. Lunatone and Solrock may also catapult other Fighting-type variants to succeed, which may have been previously gatekept by their lack of any type of Pokémon-based draw.
Speaking of Fighting-type variants, let’s say hello to Mega Lucario ex! With 340 HP, Mega Lucario ex has similar bulkiness to the bigger Stage 2 Pokémon ex that are popular today, like Dragapult ex and Charizard ex. However, Mega Lucario ex is a Stage 1 Pokémon, meaning you can avoid some of the theatrics from Technical Machine: Evolution or Rare Candy. It has two Energy-efficient attacks, Aura Jab and Mega Brave. The former does a solid 130 damage and accelerates 3 Fighting Energy from your discard pile to your Benched Pokémon, which then sets up for a strong attack on the following turn. The latter will be your finishing option: it does 270 damage off the bat, and when it’s combined with damage modifiers like Black Belt’s Training, Kieran, or the newly released Premium Power Pro, the damage can be pushed up to 330, the magic number for Knocking Out Pokémon ex.
At a conceptual level, Mega Lucario ex resembles a hybrid of Garchomp ex and Cynthia’s Garchomp ex. Aura Jab is a near copy of Garchomp ex’s Hydro Lander, and Mega Brave fills a similar niche: high damage output for 2 Fighting Energy. Draconic Buster is Cynthia’s Garchomp ex’s similar attack. The inherent trade-off here is that Mega Lucario ex is worth 3 Prize cards when Knocked Out but has access to the best of both worlds for a Stage 1 Pokémon.
The most glaring downside for Mega Lucario ex is its Weakness to Psychic types, which time and time again have proven to be among the strongest in Standard. Gardevoir ex has won countless tournaments since the rotation last April, and it shows no signs of ending its dominance anytime soon. Moreover, because Dragapult ex has been so dominant, a fair chunk of decks employ Lillie’s Clefairy ex to deal with it, such as Flareon ex / Noctowl variants, Joltik box, or Tera Box builds, which include many different Tera Pokémon with a Noctowl engine. Unfortunately for the Aura Pokémon, it still faces the Weakness issue that has prevented many other Fighting-type Pokémon from succeeding.
For that reason, I predict the best way to play Mega Lucario ex—at least in the immediate future—will be as a secondary attacker in a deck built without Fighting-type Weakness. Some Fighting-type Pokémon are weak against Grass rather than Fighting—Cynthia’s Garchomp ex is just one example. If you construct a cohesive deck that can balance between the two strategies, you can effectively choose the right path forward against each opponent. There’s also nothing stopping you from pairing Mega Lucario ex with non-Fighting-type Pokémon. One example is Iron Hands ex, which can utilize Fighting Energy to fulfill the Colorless Energy requirements for Amp You Very Much. I’m hopeful that players can figure out ways to cover for its Weakness. Lucario is my personal favorite Pokémon, so I’ll at least try!
The final card I’ll mention today is one of the most hyped cards from the newest set, Mega Gardevoir ex. Its Mega Symphonia attack does 50 damage for each Psychic Energy attached to your Pokémon and synergizes well with Gardevoir ex, which of course has the notorious Psychic Embrace Ability that unloads Psychic Energy onto the board. In today’s Standard format, Mega Gardevoir ex could serve as a heavy-hitting option with more HP than Drifloon while also being less susceptible to anti-Tool cards, like Jamming Tower or Tool Scrapper.
While I’m on the topic of Psychic-type Pokémon, I’d like to mention the new Stadium card, Mystery Garden. With it, you can discard an Energy card and draw until you have the same number of cards in hand as the number of Psychic-type Pokémon you have in play. Artazon is the prime Stadium slot for Gardevoir ex decks now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Gardevoir ex decks employ a single copy of this card for the added consistency boost.
Now, back to Mega Gardevoir ex. I expect this card to cause more (psy) waves once Gardevoir ex leaves the Standard format. Gardevoir ex is so powerful that it’s hard to justify playing a three-Prize Stage 2 when you can establish a Gardevoir ex and do a similar amount of damage with Drifloon and Bravery Charm. Gardevoir ex’s greatest strength is that it’s a facilitator rather than a main attacker, so it can safely sit on the Bench while powering single-Prize Pokémon and Munkidori. It’ll be useful to pick up a copy or two of Mega Gardevoir ex when the set drops, although I’m more excited to see how it’ll perform next April.
I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the Standard format with the release of Mega Evolution. Three-Prize Pokémon are a hotly debated topic, but I think their presence as both Basic Pokémon and Evolution Pokémon will result in a different story than Tag Team Pokémon. On the same note, powerful Pokémon ex like Gholdengo ex and Raging Bolt ex that can trade favorably exist, and making use of their uncapped attacks can Knock Out all Pokémon with a single attack. Only time will tell how tremendous the impact of these new cards will be!
Xander Pero is a contributing writer for Pokemon.com. He was an avid Pokémon fan even before discovering sanctioned tournaments in 2009. He has since won three Regional Championships and finished third at the 2017 World Championships and third at the 2025 Europe International Championships, all in the Masters Division. He continues to compete in tournaments often, but he now focuses on working as a data analyst in New York City. You can find him at various tournaments, as well as on X at @xanderpero.