Published August 10, 2026 · 10 min read
Mega Delphox ex is the Mega Evolution treatment of the Kalos starter's final form, printed as card #008 in *Mega Evolution — Pitch Black* (set code ME05). It carries the Double Rare rarity — two black stars — which makes it a real, tournament-legal card rather than a display-only chase print, and puts it at the accessible end of a set otherwise known for a four-figure gold card.
People search for Mega Delphox ex for two reasons that don't always overlap. Some are longtime fans of the Fennekin line — Delphox debuted back in the XY era and has kept a loyal following ever since — curious about its first Mega form. Others are players who need the actual playable copy for a Standard deck and don't want to overpay for art they don't need. This guide covers what the card is, what Double Rare means on Pitch Black's rarity ladder, why it's worth treating as a player's card and not just a shelf piece, where it sits in the wider set, and why $0.46 is a completely normal price for a card this in-demand.
Pitch Black belongs to the Mega Evolution era of the Pokémon TCG, the block currently legal in Standard play under regulation mark PBL. Its defining gimmick gives select Pokémon a Mega prefix and a matching alternate form, tied thematically to the Mega Dimension DLC storyline from *Pokémon Legends: Z-A*. Mechanically, these are all ex Pokémon: like every ex card since the mechanic returned, they give up two Prize cards instead of one when knocked out, so the deck built around them is expected to earn that cost back with stronger stats or a stronger effect than a regular Pokémon would carry.
Every Mega X ex card in a set like Pitch Black is printed more than once. There's the plain, standard-frame version most players actually sleeve into a deck, and then a run of increasingly elaborate art treatments — Illustration Rare, Special Illustration Rare, Hyper Rare — that carry the exact same rules text. Mega Delphox ex is no exception. #008 is simply that standard printing: the version built to be played, not the one built to be admired under a screen protector. Knowing which print is which matters at trade time too — two people quoting "Mega Delphox ex" without a card number could be talking about wildly different prices for the same in-game card.
Double Rare — two black stars — is the entry point of the modern "premium" tier, sitting above a regular Rare and below Ultra Rare's two silver stars. It's the default rarity for essentially every ex Pokémon and Supporter in a Scarlet & Violet-descended set that doesn't get a gold or alternate-art treatment, which is exactly the slot Mega Delphox ex fills at #008. If you want the full symbol-by-symbol breakdown — Rare through Hyper Rare, plus the Japanese letter codes — our rarity symbols guide covers the whole ladder in one place.
Within Pitch Black specifically, Double Rare is also the print with by far the highest relative pull rate of the premium tier. Every booster pack that lands an ex slot is more likely to produce a Double Rare than an Illustration Rare, Special Illustration Rare, or Hyper Rare of that same character. That supply gap — far more Double Rares enter circulation per box than any rarer art treatment — is the main reason Double Rare prices across the set, #008 included, cluster near the floor of the premium ladder while the fanciest print of the same Pokémon can be worth a hundred times more. None of that changes what's printed on the card — the gap is entirely about how many copies of each version exist, not about which one is "more" Mega Delphox ex.
It's worth saying plainly: Mega Delphox ex is a playable Standard card, not only a collectible. Because every rarity of the same card shares identical rules text, the Double Rare print is functionally everything a competitive player needs — there's no reason to pay collector prices for a copy you intend to shuffle into sixty cards and sleeve for a tournament. A lot of the search volume around #008 comes from exactly that: people filling out a decklist, not people chasing an art slot.
The character helps here too. Delphox has carried a dedicated fanbase since the Fennekin line debuted in the XY era, and its first Mega form gives that group a genuine reason to care beyond nostalgia — a fire-type Mega Pokémon slots naturally into fire-leaning Standard builds released alongside Pitch Black. If you're weighing #008 against the set's pricier prints for an actual deck rather than a binder, our Pitch Black set guide breaks down where it fits next to the set's headline attacker, Mega Darkrai ex.
This is also the practical reason Swaptio's catalog treats every rarity of a card as the same underlying Pokémon with different prints, rather than as unrelated listings: whether a trade partner offers you the Double Rare, the Illustration Rare, or the Hyper Rare version of Mega Delphox ex, you're evaluating the same deck slot, just at very different price points.
*Mega Evolution — Pitch Black* (ME05, regulation mark PBL) is the international release of the Japanese set Abyss Eye (M5), both built on the Mega Dimension DLC of *Pokémon Legends: Z-A*, and it released worldwide on July 17, 2026. The set's face is Mega Darkrai ex, backed by a supporting cast of Mega Zeraora ex, Mega Chandelure ex, Mega Excadrill ex and Mega Slowbro ex — a darker line-up than recent expansions, with Mega Delphox ex as one of the few lighter-themed names in the mix.
There's a detail worth knowing if you're comparing the English and Japanese lists: Mega Delphox ex is one of three cards added to Pitch Black's English edition that do not exist in the Japanese Abyss Eye checklist, alongside Mega Slowbro ex and the Supporter Jett. In other words, this isn't a straight reprint of a Japanese card — Pitch Black's English printing is the card's original appearance. That distinction is easy to miss when you're skimming a checklist, but it's the kind of detail that matters if you're trying to figure out why a number doesn't line up between the two versions of the set. For the full 120-card list, presale-to-launch price movement, and how the English and Japanese numbering diverge, see the Pitch Black set guide.
As of today, Mega Delphox ex #008 trades at $0.46 on Swaptio's catalog snapshot. That's a steep drop from where it opened: during Pitch Black's prerelease window, #008 traded in the higher single digits, close to $10, as early hype and thin supply pushed presale prices up across the whole set. Once Pitch Black hit shelves on July 17 and boosters started flowing through stores, that presale premium came off fast — the same cooldown pattern that hit nearly every card in the set, from the gold Mega Hyper Rare all the way down to the other playable Double Rares.
The deeper reason a popular character can still be this cheap comes back to pull-rate math. A Double Rare like #008 shows up far more often per booster box than an Illustration Rare, Special Illustration Rare, or Hyper Rare of the same Pokémon, so the supply of copies simply outpaces demand within a few weeks of release — however strong that character's fanbase is. That's not a flaw in the card; it's the entire point of a playable print. A Double Rare's job is to be affordable enough that anyone who wants to run four copies in a deck actually can, while the scarcer art treatments carry the collector premium instead. Seen that way, $0.46 isn't a sign the card is unwanted — it's a sign the print is doing exactly what a Double Rare is supposed to do.
A $0.46 card is close to ideal for a first trade. If something goes sideways — a print arrives in worse shape than described, a trade partner is slow to respond — the amount at risk is negligible, which makes #008 a low-pressure way to learn how a full swap works on Swaptio before you move on to the set's pricier prints. Demand for it is also steady rather than spiky: because it's a genuinely playable card, there's an ongoing stream of players who need a copy for a deck, not just collectors chasing a specific print run, so it tends to move.
If you're new to trading altogether, our beginner's guide to starting a Pokémon collection walks through the basics — sets, rarities, condition — before you dive into your first swap. And whichever side of a Mega Delphox ex trade you're on, it's worth confirming the print's condition before you agree to anything; a $0.46 card is cheap enough that a condition mismatch is more of an annoyance than a real loss, but it's still worth getting right.
The entry below is the exact print discussed in this guide — Pitch Black, English, Double Rare, #008.
Double Rare · Market price: $0.46
Double Rare, $0.46 today — the standard, tournament-legal printing of Mega Delphox ex, and one of three cards added to Pitch Black's English edition that don't exist in the Japanese Abyss Eye checklist.
Swaptio is a peer-to-peer exchange, not a store — so if you need #008 for your deck, search for it on /busca instead of paying storefront markup, and if you already have duplicates sitting in a binder, list them on /ofrece so they reach the players actually looking for one. At $0.46, it's also a low-stakes way to run your first full trade loop on Swaptio before tackling the set's pricier prints.
Whichever side of the trade you're on, take a minute to check the card's condition before agreeing to swap. Our condition guide explains what separates Near Mint from Lightly Played and the rest of the grading scale, so both sides of the trade are describing the same card the same way.
It's tournament legal and shares identical rules text with every rarer print of the same card, so it plays exactly the same whether you own the $0.46 Double Rare or the priciest alt art. Delphox carries a loyal fanbase from its Kalos-starter days, and a fire-type Mega Pokémon has an obvious home in fire-leaning Standard builds — though Pitch Black's headline attacker is Mega Darkrai ex, so treat #008 as a solid role-player rather than the format's defining threat.
Because Double Rare is the highest-pull-rate print in Pitch Black's premium tier — far more copies of #008 enter circulation per booster box than any Illustration Rare, Special Illustration Rare, or Hyper Rare of the same Pokémon. Combine that supply with the post-launch cooldown every card in the set went through after its presale peak, and a genuinely popular character can still land near the floor of the price ladder.
Yes — every rarity of Mega Delphox ex shares the same attacks, Ability and stats. The only differences are artwork, foil treatment and price. If you want to play the card, the Double Rare is the practical choice; our rarity symbols guide breaks down how each art tier differs visually.
Pitch Black's English edition added three cards that don't exist in the Japanese Abyss Eye checklist: Mega Slowbro ex, the Supporter Jett, and Mega Delphox ex. So #008 isn't a reprint of a Japanese card — Pitch Black is its original, and so far only, printing.
Yes — the low price means little is at stake if a trade doesn't go smoothly, and because the card is genuinely playable, demand from players stays steady rather than spiking and vanishing like a pure collector chase. It's a reasonable first swap while you learn how Swaptio works before trading into the set's pricier prints.
