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Reference guideNext: ME, out in Japan 31 July 2026 · window 19 September 2026 to 9 October 2026

The next Pokémon TCG set: what is coming, and when it lands

Here is the thing almost nobody tells you when you ask when the next set is coming out: it already exists. Every international expansion is a Japanese set that shipped over there first, and by the time you are wondering what is next, the cards have been on shelves in Tokyo for weeks. So the question stops being "what will be in it" and becomes "how long is the wait" — and that one we can answer, because we measured it on 22 expansions, one pair of dates at a time.

Published Data updated
THE SHORT VERSION
  • The wait, measured rather than guessed: 56 days between the Japanese release and ours, about 8 weeks. That is the median across 22 expansions where we know both dates.
  • It is not a clock. The fastest was Paradox Rift (PAR) at 7 days, the slowest 151 (MEW) at 98. But 12 of the 22 landed between 50 and 70 days, which is tight enough to plan a birthday around.
  • Next up is ME Starter Set ex, out in Japan on 31 July 2026 with 58 cards. Our measurement puts it here somewhere between 19 September 2026 and 9 October 2026.
  • Every date on this page that comes from us is a calculation, and it is labelled as one. The publisher announces the real ones, and when it does, they replace ours.

The next set is ME. It is already out — in Japan.

ME Starter Set ex (スターターセットex) went on sale in Japan on 31 July 2026 with 58 cards. Its international release has no date. The publisher has not announced one, and nobody else has it either.

What we can do is put the arithmetic in front of you rather than behind you. Across the 22 expansions where we know both release dates, 56 days went by between the Japanese release and ours. If that held, ME would arrive around 25 September 2026.

If you would rather have a window than a single day: 12 of those 22 releases landed between 50 and 70 days after Japan. Applied to ME, that opens a window from 19 September 2026 to 9 October 2026.

Now the part to keep straight, because it is the sort of sentence that gets remembered wrong. Those three dates come out of our own measurement of past releases. The publisher has said nothing. It has changed its pace before and it will again. Do not book anything on this. The day a real date is announced, it replaces our arithmetic and we will not be sad about it.

The cards themselves are not speculation though. They have been played in Japan since 31 July 2026, and the numbers printed on them — HP, damage, Energy costs — are the numbers that will be printed here. We read them one at a time from the publisher's Japanese database and write up what we find in the Journal.

Why we can see the next set coming, and most sites cannot

Because we are not waiting for an announcement. The set is already printed, already sold and already being played, in Japan. Reading it is a matter of going and looking, which we do every night for the Journal.

The publisher releases in Japan first and internationally afterwards. That is not a leak or a rumour, it is simply how the product works, and it has worked that way for as long as anyone reading this has been playing. So there is a period of about two months where the entire next expansion is a matter of public record on one side of the world and a mystery on the other.

We read the publisher's own Japanese card database, card by card, and publish what we find. The numbers need no translation at all: HP, damage, Energy costs and Retreat costs are printed as digits, and they are identical to the ones that will ship here. Only the sentences have to wait, and where we have had to machine translate one, we say so on the card.

What that gives you is not a spoiler, it is a head start. If you are deciding what to build for the season after this one, knowing that a particular Pokémon is about to arrive with 300 HP and a two-Energy attack is worth considerably more than knowing the box art.

Every release so far, with both dates and the real gap

22 expansions with a Japanese origin we could verify and a date on both sides. The most recent one to land here is Pitch Black (PBL), on 17 July 2026.

The table runs newest first, and it tells a story if you read down it. Over the "Scarlet & Violet" series, the 16 releases we measured spread across 7 to 98 days — nobody could have planned anything on that. Over "Mega Evolution", the 6 releases run 49 to 70 days. The spread has narrowed a great deal, and that is the only reason the arithmetic on this page holds up at all today. It would not have held up three years ago.

Take the extremes seriously rather than as trivia. Paradox Rift came out in Japan on 27 October 2023 and here on 3 November 2023 — 7 days. 151 took 98, from 16 June 2023 to 22 September 2023. That is a three-month spread between the two ends, on the same product line.

Some expansions have no Japanese set beside them, and that is information rather than a hole in our data. A few products only ever existed here: basic Energy sets, promo collections, expansions assembled out of pieces of several Japanese releases at once. Where we could not verify a single Japanese origin, the cell is left empty instead of filled with the likeliest guess.

Every expansion with its Japanese release, its international release, and the gap between them
CodeSetJapanese setOut in JapanReleasedGap
PBLPitch BlackM5 Abyss Eye22 May 202617 July 202656 days
CRIChaos RisingM4 Ninja Spinner13 March 202622 May 202670 days
PORPerfect OrderM3 Nihil Zero23 January 202627 March 202663 days
ASCAscended HeroesM2a MEGA Dream ex28 November 202530 January 202663 days
PFLPhantasmal FlamesM2 Inferno X26 September 202514 November 202549 days
MEGMega EvolutionM1L + M1S Mega Brave + Mega Symphonia1 August 202526 September 202556 days
BLKBlack BoltSV11B Black Bolt6 June 202517 July 202541 days
WHTWhite FlareSV11W White Flare6 June 202517 July 202541 days
DRIDestined RivalsSV10 Glory of Team Rocket18 April 202530 May 202542 days
JTGJourney TogetherSV9 Battle Partners24 January 202528 March 202563 days
PREPrismatic EvolutionsSV8a Terastal Festival ex6 December 202417 January 202542 days
SSPSurging SparksSV8 Super Electric Breaker18 October 20248 November 202421 days
SCRStellar CrownSV7 Stellar Miracle19 July 202413 September 202456 days
SFAShrouded FableSV6a Night Wanderer7 June 20242 August 202456 days
TWMTwilight MasqueradeSV6 Mask of Change26 April 202424 May 202428 days
TEFTemporal ForcesSV5K + SV5M Wild Force + Cyber Judge26 January 202422 March 202456 days
PAFPaldean FatesSV4a Shiny Treasure ex1 December 202326 January 202456 days
PARParadox RiftSV4K + SV4M Ancient Roar + Future Flash27 October 20233 November 20237 days
MEW151SV2a Pokémon Card 15116 June 202322 September 202398 days
OBFObsidian FlamesSV3 Ruler of the Black Flame28 July 202311 August 202314 days
PALPaldea EvolvedSV1a + SV2P + SV2D Triplet Beat + Snow Hazard + Clay Burst14 April 20239 June 202356 days
SVIScarlet & VioletSV1S + SV1V Scarlet ex + Violet ex20 January 202331 March 202370 days

What to actually do with a two-month head start

Three things, and none of them is buying anything early. Watch what the format is about to lose, watch what is about to replace it, and hold off on the expensive card until you know which of the two your deck needs.

Start with what leaves. A new set arriving is only half the story — roughly once a year the oldest regulation mark stops being legal, and that takes far more cards out of your deck than any single expansion puts in. Knowing what is coming is worth much less than knowing what is going.

Then look at the Trainer cards in the new set rather than the big Pokémon. That is the advice nobody gives you because it is not exciting. Trainers are cheap, they slot into every deck you will ever build, and a new Supporter that draws an extra card changes more games over a season than a 340 HP attacker does.

And be patient about buying. Prices on a brand new set move a lot in the first few weeks, in both directions, and we have no price data to guide you with — we would rather say that than pretend. What we can tell you is that the card will still be legal for years, and that the rush is entirely manufactured.

Questions people ask

When is the next Pokémon TCG set coming out?
The publisher has not announced a date, and we will not invent one. What we can tell you is that the set exists: ME Starter Set ex has been on sale in Japan since 31 July 2026, with 58 cards. Across 22 past expansions the gap to the international release was 56 days, which would put it here around 25 September 2026 — a calculation of ours, not an announcement.
How long after the Japanese release does a set come out in English?
About 56 days, or 8 weeks. That is the median measured on 22 expansions where both dates are known, and the individual gaps run from 7 days to 98. 12 of them fell between 50 and 70 days, so two months is a reasonable working assumption and a bad promise.
Where do these upcoming set dates come from?
From arithmetic, and we would rather show it than hide it. We take the Japanese release date, which is public, and add the gap we measured on past expansions. No date on this page comes from the publisher unless the set has already shipped. When an official date is announced, it replaces ours.
What is the newest Pokémon TCG set right now?
Pitch Black (PBL), released on 17 July 2026. That is the most recent expansion in our set table, and the table is rebuilt whenever the catalogue is, so this answer moves on its own rather than being retyped.
Is the Japanese set the same as the international one?
Not exactly, and it matters if you are trying to work out what is coming. Japanese sets are smaller and ship more often, and an international expansion is often assembled out of two or three of them with the numbering redone from scratch. The cards are the same cards, but the set they arrive in is a different product.

Where all of this comes from

Release dates on both sides come from poko's own set table, built from the public TCGdex API for the international expansions and from the publisher's Japanese database for the Japanese sets. The gap is measured pair by pair on the 22 expansions where both dates are known, and we publish the median rather than the average because two near-simultaneous releases would drag an average down. The gap is measured from the most recent MAIN Japanese set of a pairing: a subset partially reused would have come out much earlier and would stretch the wait artificially. Projected dates are additions we did ourselves, shown as such, and they carry no announcement from anyone.

READ THIS NEXT

These pages are about the same corner of the game. If you came away from this one still wondering about something, start with one of them.

Rarity symbols, countedThe symbol at the bottom of your card tells you which pile it came out of. Everyone shows you the symbols. We counted how many cards carry each one, set by set, so you can tell at a glance whether the card in your hand is one in three or one in eight hundred.Read→Japanese cards: reading them, and what they really areThey come out first, they come in smaller sets, and the numbers on them read without any translation at all. Here is the card field by field, the words that come back on every one of them, and the measured gap between a Japanese release and ours.Read→Set symbols and codesThree capital letters on a decklist, a small symbol at the bottom of a card. Here is every set with its printed code, its release date, how many cards it holds — and the Japanese set it was built from, which is the column nobody else publishes.Read→