What's inside M5 “Abyss Eye”, the new Japanese set
A set is the batch of brand new cards the game's publisher puts out in Japan first. M5 “Abyss Eye” brings 118 cards, and it has been on sale over there since 22 May 2026. In Japan it is called アビスアイ. “Abyss Eye” is our own reading of that name — the publisher has not given it an English one yet. We read every one of those cards on the publisher's own database, so we can tell you what is inside.
- 118 cards in M5, 96 of them Pokémon.
- The biggest HP bar in the set belongs to Wailord ex: 380 HP. The bigger the bar, the more turns it takes to bring it down, and while a Pokémon is still standing your opponent does not get the Prize card that comes with it.
- 21 Pokémon in the set have an Ability — a power printed on the card that you use without attacking.
- Out in Japan since 22 May 2026.
These cards are out in English
Good news: the waiting is over. This set landed here on 17 July 2026, under the name Pitch Black. The code printed at the bottom of the cards is PBL.
It is the same set this page has been telling you about from the top, wearing a different name on the box. The HP and the attacks have not moved by a single digit. When you go hunting for one of these cards in a shop or on a marketplace, that is the name to type in. The Japanese one will find you nothing.
Since 14 August 2026, the names and texts you read on these cards are the ones printed on the real English cards. Wherever you still spot our little mark, we could not match that card with complete certainty, so ours stays in place until we can.
The decks playing these cards
These cards turn up on real tables. Before a tournament every player hands in the list of their sixty cards, and we have read 7,182 of them. Here are the decks that dig into Pitch Black.
- Alakazam / Dusknoir →
Gwynn, Pikipek, Toucannon
115 of 115 lists · 76 tournaments
- Dhelmise →
Banette, Dhelmise, Shuppet, Sinistcha and 3 more
96 of 96 lists · 87 tournaments
- Seaking →
Gladion's Final Battle, Goldeen, Gwynn, Voltaic Lightning Energy
91 of 91 lists · 79 tournaments
- Mega Manectric ex / Eelektrik →
Manectric, Voltaic Lightning Energy, Electrike, Mega Zeraora ex and 2 more
90 of 93 lists · 80 tournaments
- Toucannon →
Pikipek, Toucannon, Trumbeak, Backtrack Badge and one more
90 of 90 lists · 79 tournaments
Open one of those deck pages: it says how many copies of each card the lists put in, and what that deck struggles against.
Wailord ex
ホエルオーexIts attacks
Surfなみのり
120Falling Downフォーリングダウン
270This Pokémon is now Asleep.このポケモンをねむりにする。
ポケモンexがきぜつしたとき、相手はサイドを2枚とる。
What is in the M5 set?
M5 “Abyss Eye” brings 118 cards. 96 of them are Pokémon. 19 are Trainer cards, the ones you play from your hand to draw or to go and fetch the card you are missing. The last 3 are Energy cards.
The two biggest HP bars in the set: Wailord ex at 380 HP, and Mega Chandelure ex at 350 HP. That is the first number anyone checks on a new card: it tells you how many times your opponent has to attack before they can take their Prize card.
21 Pokémon in the set have an Ability. An Ability is a power printed on the card that you trigger without attacking: using it does not cost you your attack for the turn, and it is often the real reason to play the card at all.
21 cards carry a printed special rule. That is the line at the very bottom of the card, the one that changes a rule of the game for that card alone. The most common one: when a Pokémon ex goes down, your opponent takes two Prize cards instead of one. That is what a big Pokémon costs.
When does M5 come out in Japan?
M5 “Abyss Eye” came out in Japan on 22 May 2026.
Questions people ask
- When did M5 come out in Japan?
- M5 “Abyss Eye” came out in Japan on 22 May 2026.
- How many cards are in M5?
- 118 in all. 96 of them are Pokémon. 19 are Trainer cards, the ones you play from your hand to draw or to go and fetch the card you are missing. The last 3 are Energy cards.
- Does M5 exist in English?
- Good news: the waiting is over. This set landed here on 17 July 2026, under the name Pitch Black. The code printed at the bottom of the cards is PBL.
What the publisher puts forward
What the publisher wrote, quoted and translated. We don't add our own opinion to it. The card names are the ones from the catalogue above, and the original Japanese sits under every quote.
Where all of this comes from
Official announcement: www.pokemon-card.com/ex/m5/
The game values — HP, Energy costs, damage — are read off the publisher's own Japanese database, and they depend on no translation at all. The English names signed working translation are ours, and they give way to the official localisation the day it ships; the Japanese name stays right beside them. We tell you what is on the cards. What they will be worth in tournaments is not something we guess ahead of time.
This article is about a set that only exists in Japan so far. If a word went past you on the way — the set code, the little letter at the bottom of the card — we've written whole pages on exactly that. Those ones stay put.
- ReadJapanese 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.
- ReadSet 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.
- ReadUpcoming sets and release datesThe next expansion already exists — it has been on sale in Japan for weeks. Here is what is in it, and the window our measured Japan-to-here gap puts it in. Plus every past release with its real date on both sides.
