Pokémon Pitch Black Set Guide: Card List & Best Cards

Mega Evolution — Pitch Black releases worldwide on July 17, 2026, carrying set code ME05 and regulation mark PBL. It contains 84 main-set cards plus 36 secret rares — 120 in total, a count confirmed against the full database. Thematically it adapts the Mega Dimension DLC of Pokémon Legends: Z-A, which is why brand-new Mega Evolutions share space with DLC characters like Gwynn and Jett.

It is also the international version of Japan's Abyss Eye (M5) — we broke that set down card by card in our Abyss Eye (M5) set guide, and we compare the two lists near the end of this article. Catching up on the wider Mega Evolution era? Our Chaos Rising set guide is the companion read.

Timing matters more than usual: prereleases run July 4–12, so the final prerelease weekend is happening as you read this. Every price here was captured July 11, 2026 — six days before street date. A snapshot of peak-hype pricing, not gospel.

Mega Darkrai ex appears four times — Double Rare #048, Ultra Rare #101, Special Illustration Rare #116 and the gold Mega Hyper Rare #120. The SIR #116, illustrated by Akira Egawa, commands $400–600 in presales ($599.69 on July 11; European copies at €280–330). The gold #120 lists just under $1,000, and its Japanese equivalent has already cleared that mark.

Behind Darkrai, the SIR block holds the money: Mega Chandelure ex #115 (~$224), Mega Zeraora ex #114 (~$171), Gladion's Final Battle #118 (~$120) and Gwynn #119 (~$100). Watch Gwynn — in Japan her SIR has been outperforming the Mega Zeraora SIR, and the English market has not priced that in yet. Morpeko ex SIR #117 had no settled presale price as of July 11: the wild card of the block.

Two more radar items: the Mega Darkrai ex Double Rare #048 (~$12.49) is the copy players actually need, and the stamped Zarude Illustration Rare never appears in boosters — Elite Trainer Box only. Add your targets to your Swaptio wishlist now so trade matches find you when launch-week duplicates start circulating.

Every pull rate below is an early estimate built from prerelease openings and the Japanese print run; the numbers firm up in the weeks after July 17.

Illustration Rares are landing at roughly 3 per booster box (about 1 in 9 packs). Special Illustration Rares run about 1 per 5–6 boxes — and a specific SIR more like 1 in 20–30 boxes. The gold Mega Hyper Rare is the cruelest of all at an estimated 1 in 45 boxes.

Do the math before buying a case: at presale box prices, one SIR costs roughly $800–900 of sealed product on average — even the $600 Darkrai SIR is cheaper as a single, and cheaper still as a trade. Ripping packs is entertainment, and that is a fine reason to buy a box. It is not an acquisition strategy.

The Elite Trainer Box ($49.99 MSRP) wears Mega Darkrai ex art and is the only place to get the stamped Zarude Illustration Rare promo — an in-set IR in Japan, cut from English boosters entirely and moved here. The promo has no booster-pull equivalent, which makes this ETB more interesting than most.

The Pokémon Center ETB ($59.99) ups the ante with 11 packs and two Zarude promos. It sold out on day one of presales, and secondary listings sat near $185 on July 11 — roughly triple MSRP. Our advice: let it cool. Sold-out-day-one products almost always resurface cheaper after restock waves.

Booster boxes hold the standard 36 packs. The Japanese Abyss Eye box runs about ¥13,500 (~$86); English presale boxes list meaningfully higher — the usual English premium amplified by launch hype. For specific cards, the singles-versus-sealed math above applies double.

This is literally your last weekend to play Pitch Black before street date — prereleases run July 4–12 at local game stores, and each Build & Battle Box carries one of four stamped promos: Miraidon, Slowbro, Dhelmise or Bastiodon.

None of the four is a money card today, but prerelease promos have a history of quiet appreciation — their print window is a single week. Miraidon has the name recognition; Dhelmise and Bastiodon are the oddballs collectors hunt years later. Duplicates are classic trade bait and move fast on Swaptio's offers feed during launch windows.

One practical note: prerelease attendees hold the first legal copies in circulation — partly why playable uncommons like Rust Syndicate Grunt ($2.99) already price above their rarity.

Every retail promo this launch wears a cosmos holo treatment with a 30th-anniversary stamp: Primarina at Hot Topic, Barnes & Noble and BoxLunch; Zarude at GameStop and EB Games; Armarouge at Best Buy and JB Hi-Fi — each with a qualifying purchase of $15 or more.

Anniversary-stamped promos are an interesting long hold: the stamp costs nothing beyond a purchase you might make anyway, scattered distribution suppresses complete-run supply, and 30th-anniversary memorabilia will have an obvious story in a decade. Primarina is the standout — her Illustration Rare is already the set's most expensive IR.

Near only one of these retailers? Grab your local promo, list the spares, and trade toward the other two — low-cost, regionally scattered cards are exactly what peer-to-peer swapping was made for.

The hype is not just Akira Egawa's artwork. Mega Darkrai ex's signature attack, Abyss Eye, automatically Knocks Out Pokémon affected by Special Conditions — no damage math, no HP checks, just an instant KO if the condition sticks. That turns every sleep, poison and burn enabler in the format into a potential execution tool.

Auto-KO effects warp deckbuilding in both directions. Expect early lists built entirely around landing a Special Condition and pulling the trigger — and expect counterplay, because it has already started: Hydrapple ex is being discussed as the format's answer. That duel decides whether Mega Darkrai ex is a tier-one engine or a scary-looking trap.

For your wallet: the competitively relevant copy is the Double Rare #048 at ~$12.49 presale, not the $600 art piece. If Darkrai delivers, #048 climbs and the SIR follows; if Hydrapple ex smothers it, the art cards keep a collector floor while the base rare drifts. One more reason to trade into position rather than buy the top.

The set opens with Grass and Fire, headlined by Lurantis ex and the new Mega Delphox ex. All prices below were captured July 11, 2026, six days before launch — expect movement.

Water carries Primarina — whose Illustration Rare is the priciest IR in the set — while Lightning delivers the first true headliner, Mega Zeraora ex, alongside a freshly demoted Miraidon.

The Psychic run leans into ghosts — Banette, Spiritomb, the Chandelure line — before Fighting brings the Rampardos fossil package and a demoted Koraidon. Two of the four prerelease promos come from this stretch.

The heart of the set, thematically and financially: Mega Darkrai ex leads a Darkness block of tricksters, thieves and one very hangry hamster. If you trade for only one page of this set, make it this one.

Metal brings the Bastiodon fossil line and Mega Excadrill ex; Colorless closes the roster with Alolan birds and Gladion's partner, Silvally. Quiet price territory — which makes it cheap territory for completion trades.

The trainer suite is where Pitch Black's story lives — Gladion's farewell, newcomers Gwynn and Jett, the Rust Syndicate — plus two Special Energy cards. Several uncommons here are pricing like playables; the market is telling you something.

Eleven Illustration Rares, all non-ex Pokémon, at an estimated three per booster box. The spread is unusually wide — from a $10 Toucannon to an $80 Primarina — so know which page you are chasing before you trade.

Eighteen Ultra Rares split between ex Pokémon and trainers — several with no regular printing in this set at all. The classic launch-week value trap: flashy enough to feel special, common enough to fall fast.

Six cards, the set's crown jewels — roughly one SIR per five to six boxes by early estimates, a specific one closer to 1-in-20-to-30. Every card here is a legitimate chase, and every price here is a launch premium.

One card sits alone at the top — the gold Mega Hyper Rare Mega Darkrai ex, estimated at around one copy per 45 booster boxes.

Presale and week-one prices are set by the most impatient money in the hobby, and then supply arrives: hyped launch singles historically shed 30–50% of their value in the first weeks as boxes get cracked. The $600 Darkrai SIR and the $75 Misty UR are prices from a market with almost no supply and maximum attention. That imbalance ends July 17.

The sealed math is just as unforgiving: at one SIR per 5–6 boxes, the average SIR costs $800–900 in sealed product to pull — and probably not the one you wanted, since a specific SIR runs 1-in-20-to-30 boxes. Opening packs is a joy and we will never tell you not to. As a way to acquire a $224 Chandelure, though, it is roughly a 4x overpay with extra steps.

Which leaves the third option, and the reason Swaptio exists. Launch week means thousands of people simultaneously opening product and pulling hits they did not want; the ripper who pulled Gwynn but wanted Darkrai and the collector who worships Gwynn solve each other's problem at zero premium. Think in three trade-value bands: premium (the SIR block and the gold, $100+ — trade only against equivalent hits), solid (IRs, URs and the Mega Double Rares, roughly $5–80 — the liquid middle) and bulk-plus (the throw-ins that balance a deal). Price both sides of a trade on the same day; numbers move daily this week.

The playbook: list every duplicate hit on your offers page while the launch premium still inflates trade value, and put targets on your wishlist so matches find you. Trading a $170 Zeraora you did not want for $170 of cards you did costs nothing — during the one week when everything is overpriced together, the inflation cancels out. Sellers love launch week; traders should love it more.

Pitch Black is a near 1:1 adaptation of Japan's Abyss Eye (M5) — same story, same Mega quartet, same SIR lineup — with changes worth knowing, especially if you own Japanese copies or followed our Abyss Eye set guide. The English set folds extra material into one 84-card main list, so numbers do not map one-to-one; cross-reference by card name and rarity.

The headline differences: Mega Delphox ex (#008), Mega Slowbro ex (#031) and Jett (#079) are integrated into Pitch Black's main numbering; the Zarude Illustration Rare was cut from boosters and became the stamped ETB promo; and Miraidon, Koraidon and Zarude all took rarity demotions to ordinary Rares — which quietly makes the English master set cheaper to complete.

For price forecasting, Abyss Eye is the best crystal ball available. Japanese singles have had months to settle, and two signals stand out: the gold Darkrai holding above $1,000, and Gwynn's SIR outrunning Mega Zeraora's. The markets never converge exactly, but direction travels even when magnitude does not.