Something genuinely exciting came out of Champion's League Aichi this weekend. Several cards from the upcoming Japanese set Abyss Eye were revealed, and the headliner is Mega Chandelure ex, a 350-HP Stage 2 Psychic powerhouse built around one of the most interesting new mechanics in recent memory: the Ghost Veil chain.
Abyss Eye drops in Japan on May 22nd. Its cards will feed into the English Pitch Black set arriving in July, so Western players have a fairly short wait. Here is a full breakdown of what was revealed, how the combo works, and whether this archetype has teeth in competitive play.
Mega Chandelure ex: the card at the center of it all
Mega Chandelure ex is a Stage 2 Psychic Pokémon with 350 HP, evolving from Lampent. That is a big number, and the attacks back it up. Its ability, Cursed Flame, passively increases the Retreat Cost of your opponent's Active Pokémon by one Colorless Energy. Annoying on its own. Absolutely brutal when you read the attack.
Phantom Maze costs two Psychic Energy and deals 130 damage, then adds 50 more for each Colorless Energy in the opponent's Active Pokémon's Retreat Cost. Do the math: against a Pokémon with a two-cost retreat (common in today's meta), Cursed Flame bumps that to three, and Phantom Maze hits for 280 damage. Against a naturally heavy retreater like Wailord ex or Snorlax, you are already looking at numbers that one-shot nearly anything in the game.
The Mega Evolution ex rule applies: when it gets Knocked Out, your opponent takes 3 Prize cards. That is the standard tradeoff for Mega Evolution ex cards, and Chandelure has enough bulk to make it a worthwhile bet.
What is the Ghost Veil chain, and why does it matter?
The reveal did not come alone. A whole squad of Psychic and Grass-type Pokémon share the same Ghost Veil ability, and that shared keyword is the core of the archetype's engine.
Ghost Veil makes the Pokémon it is on completely immune to effects from opponent's attacks and abilities. Not just damage reduction. Flat immunity to effects. Targeted discard effects, forced switches, damage counter placements from abilities? None of it sticks. That makes the following Pokémon nearly impossible to disrupt while they sit on your bench:
- Poltchageist (Basic, Grass, 30 HP) - Ghost Veil + puts 1 damage counter on opponent's Active
- Sinistcha (Stage 1, Grass, 60 HP) - Ghost Veil + Matcha Spin: places 4 damage counters on each opponent's Pokémon if you have 6 or more Ghost Veil Pokémon in discard
- Shuppet (Basic, Psychic, 50 HP) - Ghost Veil + 10-damage filler attack
- Banette (Stage 1, Psychic, 80 HP) - Ghost Veil + Doll Catch: 80 damage and search your deck for any card
- Dhelmise (Basic, Psychic, 140 HP) - Ghost Veil + 30+ damage scaling to 170 with 4 Ghost Veil Pokémon in discard
- Marshadow (Basic, Psychic, 90 HP) - Ghost Veil + 30x damage times opponent's Active Pokémon's Retreat Cost
- Litwick and Lampent - the evolution line feeding into Mega Chandelure ex
The goal is simple: get Ghost Veil Pokémon into the discard pile as fast as possible. Each one sitting in the graveyard becomes fuel for the combo payoff cards.
Spiritomb and Sinistcha: where the deck actually wins
Two cards stand out as the payoff pieces that could define whether this archetype is tournament-viable or just a fun gimmick.
Spiritomb (Basic, Psychic, 60 HP) has a single attack called Soul End. If you have 13 or more Pokémon with Ghost Veil in your discard pile, it lets you choose two of your opponent's Pokémon and quadruple the number of damage counters on each of them. No damage cost. No energy requirement beyond one Psychic. Quadruple. Existing damage counters.
That is not a win condition buried under layers of setup. That is a board wipe if you can land it. A Pokémon sitting on 6 damage counters suddenly has 24, which Knocks Out almost anything in the format. The challenge is obvious: you need 13 Ghost Veil Pokémon in the discard. In a 60-card deck, that means heavy redundancy and a dedicated discard engine.
Sinistcha's Matcha Spin is the mid-game bridge. Six Ghost Veil Pokémon in discard (far more reachable early) lets it place 4 damage counters on every single one of your opponent's Pokémon. That is spread damage that adds up across a multi-turn game, and it sets up Spiritomb's Soul End perfectly.
Gwynn: the new supporter that ties it all together
A new Trainer supporter was revealed alongside the Pokémon: Gwynn. The effect is clean: discard up to 2 non-Rule Box Pokémon from your hand, draw 3 cards for each one discarded. That is up to 6 cards of draw power while simultaneously loading your discard with Ghost Veil Pokémon.
Honestly, Gwynn might be the most important card in the entire reveal. Without a reliable way to fill the discard quickly, the Ghost Veil deck is too slow. With Gwynn, you have a Supporter that does exactly what the deck needs, no filler, no compromise. Whether it proves consistent enough against the speed of current Mega Evolution ex decks remains to be seen, but the infrastructure is clearly there.
Pair Gwynn with Banette's Doll Catch (which tutors any card on 80 damage) and you have a searchable engine that builds itself through combat.
Release timeline: Japan now, English in July
Abyss Eye launches in Japan on May 22nd, 2026, alongside the English Chaos Rising release. Mega Chandelure ex and the full Ghost Veil roster will not appear in the English Chaos Rising set. They are earmarked for Pitch Black, the next English set after Chaos Rising, scheduled for July 17th.
That gives competitive players roughly two months to test the archetype in Japanese format before it hits English tournaments. For collectors, Abyss Eye already promises strong pull appeal: Mega Chandelure ex Secret Rares are likely, and the Ghost Veil Pokémon's artwork has a distinctly haunting aesthetic that tends to drive secondary market demand. Check the other Abyss Eye reveals heading into Pitch Black for the wider context of what the set contains.
For the full rundown of what else is coming in July, the full Pitch Black product lineup has been detailed separately, including Elite Trainer Boxes, booster bundles, and special collection sets featuring Mega Darkrai ex.
Is Mega Chandelure ex competitively viable?
Short answer: probably yes, but not the moment Pitch Black drops.
The Ghost Veil archetype is a combo deck at heart. Combo decks in the Pokémon TCG live or die by consistency, and right now we do not know what other support cards Abyss Eye includes. If there are additional discard enablers beyond Gwynn, the deck could be genuinely threatening. If the format offers too many ways to disrupt a developing discard pile, Spiritomb's Soul End condition (13 Pokémon, remember) might be too ambitious.
What is harder to dismiss is Mega Chandelure ex as a standalone attacker. The Phantom Maze damage scaling is legitimate. Cursed Flame stacking with Marshadow's damage multiplier creates real burst potential even without setting up the full combo. A more aggro build using Chandelure as the primary attacker with Marshadow as cleanup might actually be the stronger approach in competitive formats that move too fast for the discard-pile win condition.
Either way, this is one of the most mechanically interesting card designs to come out of the Mega Evolution era so far. If you want to stay on top of every new reveal and keep your collection organised, the best Pokémon card apps are worth bookmarking before Abyss Eye hits shelves. And if you want a dedicated app to track your Pokémon TCG collection and card values, Pokeman for iOS is built exactly for that.
Abyss Eye could be one of the more interesting Japanese sets of the year. Keep an eye on the Champion's League Aichi results. If Ghost Veil decks start placing in the top cut before the set even officially releases, expect prices to move fast once Pitch Black hits English shelves in July.