The 2025 Pokemon World Championship has come and gone, and with this prestigious event’s celebration and passing, TPCi (The Pokemon Company International) has revealed a plethora of new Mega Evolution Pokemon.
Mega Charizard X ex
Despite Charizard as a whole being one of the more beloved Pokemon on the roster, Mega Charizard X ex is coming under a lot of scrutiny. This is due to its overall design being similar to current meta frontrunners Gholdengo ex (from Paradox Rift) and Raging Bolt ex (from Temporal Forces).
Between the three, Mega Charizard X ex has the highest damage multiplier of x90 vs Raging Bolt ex’s x70 and Gholdengo ex’s x50. Unfortunately, Mega Charizard X ex has the combined issues of both cards; needing specific energy cards already on the board to discard and being a Stage-2 Pokemon.
Some members of the online community are already wondering if this version of Charizard is even worth using in a competitive tournament.
At the moment, compared to its tournament-legal peers, Mega Charizard X ex suffers from requiring a little too much set-up, and this is on top of its inherent risk of losing three prize cards at the moment of knockout.
More optimistic fans are following the train of thought that Mega Charizard X ex may be TPCi’s attempt at preparing the competitive environment for next year’s card pool rotation.
By 2026, the standard tournament format will be saying ‘farewell’ to any card with a ‘G’ regulation mark; this includes tournament staples like the aforementioned Gholdengo ex, but also Charizard ex (Obsidian Flames) and even Gardevoir ex (Scarlet & Violet).
Oricorio ex
Oricorio ex’s presence is TPCi tipping their hand that they won’t be leaving Mega Charizard X ex without some form of support. Unfortunately, Oricorio ex is probably drawing a lot more raised eyebrows than Mega Charizard X ex was by comparison.
This is in large part due to all the comparisons Oricario ex is having to Ethan's Ho-Oh ex, a Pokemon that could technically fill in for any Fire-type deck’s energy accelerant role with a little help from N’s Plan and the numerous copies of Ethan’s Adventure.
Other criticisms levelled against Oricorio ex are that it specifically needs to have an allied Fire-type Mega Pokemon on the field for its ability. This puts Oricorio ex in a rather tight bind for potential compatible targets at the moment, as the only other Fire-type Mega Pokemon we’ve seen thus far is Mega Camerupt ex.
Now, while Oricorio’s prerequisite isn’t something wholly unique, building up a board to the point of activating its ‘Excited Turbo’ ability presents a wholly different challenge in and of itself.
Mainly, it is the fact that Nest Ball is in danger of rotation, and there has been no word of any reprint. Without Nest Ball in the card pool, easy and consistent access to a basic Pokemon like Oricorio ex may prove a lot more difficult.
The biggest issue some fans are taking umbrage with when it comes to Oricorio ex is its 190 health. With Dragapult ex (Twilight Masquerade) still competitively legal for at least one more year, players are not enthused by how easily Oricorio ex slips into one-shot territory.
That said, if TPCi can release another Fire-type Mega Pokemon, one that can be a lot more enticing for players to run, then there’s a chance for people to look on more favorably on Oricorio ex.
Mega Dragonite ex
It seems that TPCi has finally decided to make generically powerful abilities less generically accessible. Mega Dragonite ex’s ‘Sky Transport’ ability could be comparable to Latias ex’s ‘Skiliner’, but instead of being limited to just Basic-Stage Pokemon, Mega Dragonite ex has a wider breadth of targets.
Of course, this goes without saying that a player interested in using Mega Dragonite ex would have to heavily invest into bringing a Stage-2 Pokemon out vs a Basic-Stage one like Latias ex.
This kind of utility comparison would end up boiling down to player preference, though.
Latias ex does have its advantage during the early stages of a match, where Basic-Stage Pokemon are a lot more bountiful. As the match progresses, however, having the capability of switching out any of your Pokemon to protect your prize cards, especially for free, could help the controlling player buy some breathing room for a clean-up sweep, depending on how far the board has evolved for the current game.
That said, Mega Dragonite ex does have a pretty hefty attack on it if it can be activated. So far, Mega Dragonite boasts one of, if not the, highest consistent attack output from all the currently revealed Mega Pokemon for the Trading Card Game (TCG).
Like Charizard, Dragonite has its own fanbase amongst Pokemon’s audience. It wouldn’t be surprising for players to just play Mega Dragonite ex as a deck’s actual win condition while reaping the benefit of its ability to manipulate the board.