Blog · Mega Evolution & Modern Sets
Chesnaught Collector's Guide 2026: Kalos Grass Starter, Chaos Rising, and Every Entry Point
By Dexhaul Team · September 29, 2026
Chesnaught landed in ME06 Chaos Rising this year as a supporting holo, not the headliner. That placement, and the 12-year gap in dedicated English sealed products that led to it, tells the whole story of what it means to collect this Pokémon right now.
The Kalos Grass starter has one of the more unusual TCG histories in Generation 6. It received an EX in 2014 and a BREAK evolution in 2016. Then the line went quiet.
No GX, no VMAX, no VSTAR, and no ex in any English Scarlet and Violet main set through September 2026. The result is a collector landscape where a 12-year-old tin promo remains the most recent time Chesnaught starred on a box.
Here is how each tier of that history looks today, from the cheapest entry to the current ceiling.
The Chaos Rising Starting Point (2026)
The newest English Chesnaught card is 007/086 in ME06 Chaos Rising, released in 2026 as part of the ongoing Mega Evolution series. It sits in the standard holo slot at $0.23 to $0.71 raw, well below the Greninja cards that headline the same set.
Chaos Rising's box features Greninja as the chase card, with Chesnaught and Delphox appearing as standard holos in the same set. That asymmetry mirrors the current sealed-product landscape: Greninja has a dedicated ex Box in the 30th Celebration lineup, while Chesnaught's only headlining sealed item in English is still the 2014 collector's tin. The $0.71 Chaos Rising reverse holo is where most collectors will start their Chesnaught pile today.
The holo version without the reverse treatment runs even cheaper at $0.23 from the same set. For a species with a 2014 promo tin as its historical ceiling product, that floor price is the clearest signal of where demand currently sits.
The XY Debut and the Promo EX (2014)
The original Chesnaught TCG card is 14/146 from the XY Base Set, released in February 2014. It's a Grass-type Holo Rare with 160 HP, the first English card for the Kalos Grass starter. Raw NM copies from that set run $4 to $20 depending on condition and seller, with the PokeOrder listing at $19.99 representing the current ask for a clean copy.
The XY Kalos Starter Set (2014) also produced a standalone promo: Chesnaught 5/39. This was an introductory 39-card deck distributed to showcase the three Kalos starters at the XY launch, and it's available today at $10.95 to $11.95 through Second Home. It's a separate printing from the Base Set card, with distinct artwork and set numbering.
Chesnaught EX XY18 is the ceiling for the entire XY era in English. This XY Black Star Promo was packaged in a Chesnaught EX Collector's Tin in 2014, giving the Grass starter its one moment as a named headliner on a sealed product.
At $9.28 from Fusion Gaming today, the card itself is accessible. It's also the only EX designation Chesnaught has received in English through 2026.
The $9.28 promo EX being cheaper than the $19.99 XY Base Set holo illustrates a pattern common to the XY era: Black Star Promos were produced in large quantities through mass retail tins, while XY Base Set cards carry the collector premium of a set that is now over a decade old. A complete Chesnaught XY era collection means owning both.
BREAK Era and the Modern V (2015–2022)
XY BREAKthrough (November 2015) gave Chesnaught its second holo rare slot: card 11/162, currently at $2.00 to $2.50. BREAKpoint in February 2016 added Chesnaught BREAK (12/122), the line's only BREAK evolution and one of the few starter-line BREAK cards in the XY series.
After BREAKpoint, Chesnaught went quiet for most of a decade. No GX in the Sun and Moon era, no VMAX or VSTAR in Sword and Shield. Chesnaught V 15/195 from Silver Tempest (November 2022) is the highest-rarity English Chesnaught card in print as of today at $2.17 from Deck Out Gaming.
No ex designation has appeared in any English Scarlet and Violet main-series set through September 2026.
The Japanese equivalent is the Paradigm Trigger S12 009/098 Double Rare at $3.69 from AKIBA JUNKY. The V card at $2.17 sits below the $9.28 EX promo from eight years earlier: the modern tier is cheaper because Chesnaught received no ex upgrade and no dedicated sealed treatment in the SV era.
The Sealed Product Gap: What's Missing
This is the most useful fact for collectors tracking Chesnaught.
Among the three Kalos starters, Greninja has a dedicated ex Box in the 30th Celebration lineup and appeared as the Chaos Rising Premium Collection headliner. Delphox received a TCG-exclusive Mega Evolution form in ME05 Pitch Black. Chesnaught's last headlining English sealed product remains the 2014 XY18 tin.
When a Chesnaught ex Box or Premium Collection does appear, it will be the first English product with Chesnaught's name on the box since the XY era was current.
Plush Options
The Pokémon Fit is the starting point for Chesnaught plush collecting. It's a 2-inch seated-pose plush in the format used across the full National Pokédex, currently available at $24.00 from Ichiba Japan and $24.99 from Collector Store LLC.
Pokémon: Pokémon Fit Chesnaught No.652 Plush (Japanese Pokémon Center Exclusive)
$24.99 USD
A Pokémon Stuffed Toy version in the 33 cm range is also currently listed at $22.11 from Japan Figure Store. The larger-format standing-pose Poké Plush at 12 inches runs $54.99 through Dick and Jane's for collectors who want the full-scale display piece.
Chesnaught shares the Pokémon Fit format with Greninja and Delphox, putting all three Kalos starters in the same plush tier at comparable prices. The three together represent the complete Kalos starter set in the most widely available current format.
Legends Z-A and What Comes Next
Pokémon Legends: Z-A launches October 16, 2026, returning to Lumiose City at the heart of the Kalos region. PKM.gg already lists a Chesnaught [Legends Z-A] preorder at $7.99, an early placement tied to the game's confirmed setting.
What that means for the TCG depends on which Kalos Pokémon receive featured cards in the tie-in releases. The Scarlet and Violet series has not given Chesnaught an ex designation yet.
A game-era ex card tied to Legends Z-A would be the first new dedicated premium English Chesnaught product in over a decade. The XY18 tin gap makes that moment, when it arrives, a collector event with no comparable in recent memory.
Until then, the price ladder is clear: $0.23 Chaos Rising holo as the entry, $2.17 Silver Tempest V as the modern standard, $9.28 XY18 promo as the XY era ceiling, and the $19.99 XY Base holo as the debut piece for a complete collection.
Find Chesnaught cards and plush from independent shops at DexHaul. DexHaul is independent and unofficial, not affiliated with Nintendo, Game Freak, or The Pokémon Company.