Pokémon Ascended Heroes is my favorite set in recent years. It's also seen huge price hikes that, whilst unsurprising, make collecting all of my chases hard. I'm not going to be paying for SIRs, especially with many of them sitting high in the triple-digit territory, so it's fortunate that there's a more cost-effective solution. So long as you don't mind Japanese Pokémon cards (which you shouldn't), Mega Dream ex booster boxes give you 10 booster packs with chances at hitting those sought-after chases - and they're actually reasonably priced.
Admittedly, "reasonably priced" is doing some heavy lifting in that sentence. While they're cheaper than most products from Ascended Heroes, Japanese Pokémon TCG products used to be way cheaper before the 'hype tax' came into play. However, most 'high-value sets' go for roughly $100 for the Japanese booster box, and considering how much hype is around Ascended Heroes, it's surprising that Mega Dream ex seems to be relatively unscathed.
My Pokémon Ascended Heroes review is extremely positive about the gorgeous artwork and sheer amount of cards to fill your binders - but that positivity is mute if none of the packs are in your price range. While not all of the chases are available in Mega Dream ex, most of them are (Mega Dragonite ex SIR for the win). And, based on my experience opening Mega Dream ex packs, the pull rates are pretty fantastic.
That (overhyped in my eyes) Mega Gengar ex SAR is here in its full glory, a gorgeous showcase of the Ghost-type Pokémon's power, and there are two glittering, gold Mega Hyper Rares to collect too, if that's your thing. The adorable little Pikachu ex SAR (not the forest one, the Terastal one) is also up for grabs here, as well as all those stunning Mega Attack cards to pull. I'm quite happy I managed to get one of those from Mega Dream ex, too - which isn't something I can say about Ascended Heroes.
Of course, like any other Pokémon product, there are odds, and there's still a high chance you'll come away with only a few IRs and a hole in your bank account. But, based on personal experience, the pull rates are better with Japanese packs, and the print quality of the cards is held to a much higher standard. If it wasn't for my job role as Wargamer's resident Pokéxpert (Matt will get fed up with this joke soon enough), I'd honestly only be collecting Japanese. But I can't do that to our dear readers; you need the full perspective between the English and the Japanese versions.
If I've sold you on getting some Japanese Pokémon cards, you can grab a Mega Dream ex booster box around the $90 mark at TCGPlayer, netting you 10 booster packs full of Ascended Heroes cards at a fraction of the price per booster. Sure, they're in Japanese, but if you're focused on competitive matches over collections, you can always wait for a later date to buy the English versions as singles at lower prices - Mega Dream ex is for the hopeless SIR chasers like me.
If you love Pokédeals, and who doesn't, make sure to join our Wargamer Discord, where we'll ping you for any retail-priced or below-market listings so you can keep filling The Pokémon Company's wallets. There's no better way to spend Pokémon's 30th Anniversary than continuing to push for capitalism, am I right?