M6 Storm Emeralda: the Stadium you can't play on its own, and four Mega Evolution ex

How do the Stadiums that come in two halves work?

M6 has three Stadium cards you cannot play on their own: Legendary Trench (伝説の海溝), Legendary Summit (伝説の山頂) and Legendary Lava Cave (伝説の溶岩洞). The rule printed on each one says you must combine two different halves of that card from your hand and put them into play together, as a single Stadium. Once it is down it behaves like any other Stadium — one in play at a time, on the side of the Active Spot, discarded the moment anyone plays a different one.

That "both halves" condition is the real cost of these cards, and it is worth being blunt about. A normal Stadium asks you to draw one card; these ask you to hold two particular ones at the same moment. So the turn you want it and don't have it is not bad luck — it is the deal you signed when you put it in the deck. The publisher's own tournament note is worth reading twice here: the two halves count together toward the four-copy limit, and the official deck-building tool registers them one for one, so what you register and what you actually sleeve have to match.

Two Pokémon in the set pay you back for getting one down. Kyogre (150 HP) attacks with Raging Vortex for 100 damage, and if a Stadium with "Legendary" in its name is in play, it also puts 50 damage on each of your opponent's Benched Pokémon — the Bench doesn't apply Weakness or Resistance, so that 50 lands as 50. Groudon (150 HP) does the same trick in one place instead of five: Raging Earth does 100, plus 170 more under the same condition. That is 270 damage for two Fighting and one Colorless Energy, and it is only there because you paid the two-card price first.

What each of these Stadiums actually does once it is in play is not something we can read. The publisher's card database lists Trainer cards without their rules text, so that effect is simply not among the things we could read, and a hole is worth more here than a guess. What the announcement itself says — in the publisher's words, in our translation, not checked against a card — is that while Legendary Summit is in play, a Colorless Pokémon Knocked Out by an attack gives up one fewer Prize card. If that holds, it turns Mega Rayquaza ex from a three-Prize liability into a two-Prize one, which is a very large sentence. Treat it as the publisher's claim until the card text is readable.

What makes Mega Rayquaza ex the card everyone will build around?

Mega Rayquaza ex is a Basic Colorless Pokémon with 280 HP. Its Ability, Conqueror's Roar, fires when you play it from your hand onto your Bench during your turn: you look at the top 4 cards of your deck, attach one Basic Energy card from among them to it, and put the rest face down on the bottom of your deck. Its attack, Storm Emeralda, costs one Fire, one Lightning and one Colorless Energy, and does 50 damage for each Fire and Lightning Energy attached to all of your Pokémon.

Read that last line again, because it is the whole card. Most attacks that count Energy count the Energy on the Pokémon making the attack. This one counts across your entire side of the field. A Benched Pokémon sitting quietly with two Fire Energy on it is adding 100 damage to an attack it is not making. Building around Storm Emeralda is therefore not about loading up one attacker — it is about never leaving a Fire or Lightning Energy in your hand at the end of a turn.

Three cards in the set point straight at that plan, and one of them we can read in full. Mega Rayquaza Cap (066/076) is a Trainer card that grants the attack Delta Gift for a single Colorless Energy: attach a Basic Energy card from your deck to each of your Pokémon that has Mega Rayquaza Cap attached, then shuffle. That is Energy going onto several Pokémon at once, which is exactly what Storm Emeralda counts. The other two — Zinnia's Trust (ヒガナの信頼) and Adventure Lantern (ぼうけんのランタン) — we only know from the announcement, which describes the first as switching your Active Pokémon with a Benched one and moving one Energy across with it, and the second as putting the two Energy types Storm Emeralda needs into your hand. Their printed text is not in the database, so those two descriptions are the publisher's, not ours.

Talonflame ex (280 HP, Stage 2) is the other half of the engine, and it is read off the card. Its Ability, Excite Dive, lets you play it from your hand straight onto your Bench once during your turn, provided you already have a Colorless Mega Evolution ex in play — no Basic to place first, no two turns of evolving, it simply arrives. Its attack, Talon Hunt, does 150 damage for two Colorless Energy and lets you search your deck for up to 2 cards of your choice and put them into your hand.

How much HP do the Mega Evolution ex carry, and what do they cost you?

The four Mega Evolution ex in M6 hold the highest HP totals in the set — Mega Golurk ex at 350, Mega Golisopod ex at 340, Mega Malamar ex at 320 and Mega Rayquaza ex at 280 — and the rule printed on every one of them says your opponent takes 3 Prize cards when it is Knocked Out. That is the trade the whole set is built on: the biggest Pokémon on the board is also half of your opponent's six Prize cards.

Mega Golurk ex has the highest HP total in the set at 350, and an Ability that reads like a warning label. Startup Limit stops it from attacking unless you have 10 or more cards in your hand — ten is a hand you have to work to keep, so this is a Pokémon you build a hand around rather than one you simply play. When it does attack, Goliath Punch does 300 damage for two Psychic Energy, and puts 30 damage on Mega Golurk ex itself.

Mega Golisopod ex (340 HP, Grass) asks a different question, and asks it cheaply. Finishing Blow costs a single Grass Energy and does 60 damage — unless your opponent's Active Pokémon already has damage counters on it, in which case it does 160 more, for 220. One Energy for 220 damage, and the condition tells you exactly how to earn it: put damage on first, finish second. Its other attack, Quad Hold, does 160 for three Colorless Energy and stops the Defending Pokémon retreating on your opponent's next turn.

Mega Malamar ex (320 HP, Darkness) counts your opponent's Bench instead of your own board. Psycho Marionette does 70 damage for each of your opponent's Benched Pokémon, for two Darkness Energy — nothing at all against an empty Bench, and 350 against a full one of five. That is a card whose damage your opponent chooses for you, which cuts both ways.

Which cards do the work when a Mega isn't attacking?

M6 has a short list of Pokémon whose job is tempo rather than damage. Raikou ex (200 HP) can use Cloaked in Lightning on the very first turn of the player who goes first — the exception is written into the attack itself — to search an Energy card out of your deck, attach it to Raikou ex, and shuffle. Heat Rotom ex (190 HP) uses Re-reheat to reveal every Basic Fire Energy in your discard pile, does 30 damage for each card revealed, and then shuffles those cards back into your deck.

Two cards without the ex box deserve the same attention, because they only hand your opponent one Prize card. Steelix (190 HP, Stage 1) has High-Density Armor: while it is at full HP, it takes 60 less damage from your opponent's attacks. Read the condition, not just the number — the reduction is on for as long as nothing has stuck to Steelix, so an attack that would do 60 or less does nothing at all and leaves the reduction switched on for the next one. The moment something gets through, it is off until you heal. Kommo-o (160 HP, Stage 2) is the other one: its Ability, Scale Beat, lets you look at the top 6 cards of your deck once during your turn, choose as many Basic Energy cards as you like from among them, and attach them to your Dragon Pokémon however you want.

Wishiwashi ex (260 HP, Water) is the defensive option. Its Ability, Ocean Gain, heals 50 damage from it once during your turn — but only while it is in the Active Spot. So it is a wall you have to leave standing in front of everything else, not something you park on the Bench and forget about.

Questions people ask

When did M6 Storm Emeralda come out in Japan?

M6 Storm Emeralda went on sale in Japan on 31 July 2026. The publisher announced it at 200 yen including tax for a pack of 5 cards.

How many cards are in the M6 set?

The numbers printed on the cards run up to 076, and that is the size of the base set — the one you play. After that the publisher adds secret cards numbered beyond the total, and those often turn up weeks after release. The grid below shows the ones we have read off the publisher's database, one by one, and it grows every time more of them appear. One thing about the three Stadiums that come in two halves: the publisher gives the pair a single entry, with both halves drawn side by side on one image. Numbers 072, 074 and 076 are those second halves. They are real cards, they are bought separately, and we cut the image so you see the one you are looking at.

How do you put a card like Legendary Trench into play?

You cannot play one on its own. The rule printed on the card says you combine two different halves of Legendary Trench from your hand and put them into play together, as a single Stadium.

What does Mega Golurk ex's Ability do?

Startup Limit stops Mega Golurk ex from using an attack unless you have 10 or more cards in your hand.

Why does Raikou ex's Cloaked in Lightning matter?

Because it can be used on the very first turn of the player who goes first, which almost no attack can. It searches an Energy card out of your deck, attaches it to Raikou ex, and then you shuffle your deck.

Does M6 exist in English?

Not yet, but it is coming. These cards reach us on 6 November 2026, in a set announced as Delta Reign. Nothing is printed for now, so the date can still move. Until then, the English names on this page are ours.

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.

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