Otaku |
Mewtwo
(XY: Evolutions 51/108) is our ninth place
finisher, and is a reimagining of Mewtwo (Base
Set 10/102; Base Set 2 10/130), which has
never officially been reviewed, probably because the
only reason it had more than a joke deck back in the day
was the combination of general card and knowledge
scarcity. Which lead people like me to mistake
“Mulligan’s Mewtwo” for a real deck (Sadly not my
most embarrassing mistake from back then). Once
again, I’ll be comparing and contrasting the original
with its successor throughout the review.
Both are Psychic Type, Basic Pokémon with Psychic
Weakness, no Resistance, two attacks, and no other
effects. Psychic Weakness is found on many other
Psychic Types as well as many of the Fighting Type
Pokémon, while Resistance is near universal on both the
Darkness Type and Metal Type; if Resistance wasn’t less
impactful, this would be very bad for the Psychic Type…
but Resistance is far less useful than Weakness is
problematic so the Psychic Type isn’t hurting for this
(maybe it even comes out a little ahead). What about
Psychic Type specific support? Not overly
abundant, but we’ve got some solid tricks in the form of
Dimension Valley and Mystery Energy (too
bad both are Expanded only). There is also
Wobbuffet (XY: Phantom Forces 36/119;
Generations RC11/RC32) which is Standard
legal, but it becomes indirect support as Mewtwo
has no Ability for it to not shut down.
There is some synergy with other Psychic Types, such as
Mew (XY: Fates Collide 29/124) and
Mew-EX, which can make use of the same Energy and
Type support. I am unaware of any cards that are
explicitly anti-Psychic Type. That doesn’t mean
there is no way to counter Psychic Types; usually the
trick is just countering their Weakness and/or whatever
strategy it is said Psychic Types support.
Being a Basic was the best back then and it’s still the
best now, though for those who didn’t experience it
there were times in the middle where being a Basic
usually meant the card was going to be bad. Both
then and now being a Basic meant requiring the least
deck space, minimum time and effort to put Mewtwo
into play, the capacity to be your opening Pokémon,
Basic Stage support, and a natural synergy with certain
card effects. It took a few sets before we got the
first anti-Basic cards if I remember correctly, and now
such things are the only knock against being a Basic
Pokémon. Mewtwo (XY: Evolutions 51/108)
has 130 HP, only 10 HP under the maximum we’ve seen
printed on a Basic Pokémon which lacked a specialty
mechanic (like being a Pokémon-EX), and was the maximum
until Snorlax (XY: Fates Collide 77/124).
This is much better than the original Mewtwo,
which only had 60 HP (half the maximum printed on
anything back then). With 130, Mewtwo
(XY: Evolutions 51/108) has a decent chance of
soaking a hit, especially if it is bolstered with
Fighting Fury Belt. That Psychic Type Weakness
provides one of the most common exceptions and is
dangerous though not the worst Weakness a Pokémon can
have right now. Lack of Resistance is a bit
disappointing but expected and not a major loss. Mewtwo
(XY: Evolutions 51/108) has a Retreat Cost of
[CC], low enough you can probably pay it up front but
high enough you’ll also probably feel the loss of Energy
before the game is over. Pack a little something
to help with that. Still, this is an improvement
over the original Mewtwo as it had a [CCC]
Retreat Cost!
Both Mewtwo have the same attack names, and they
work in a similar manner, but the costs and specifics of
the effects are definitely different. Mewtwo (XY:
Evolutions 51/108) has “Psychic” for [CC], doing 20
damage plus another 20 per Energy attached to the
opponent’s Active. Poor return against something
with no Energy, a little underwhelming against something
with just one, but past that it starts to pay off
(especially when attacking something Weak). The
original’s Psychic cost [PC] and did just 10 plus 10 per
Energy, so both the cost and damage output have improved
substantially. The second attack is “Barrier”, and
it costs [PP] on both versions of Mewtwo. XY:
Evolutions 51/108 can use the attack to protect
itself from all effect of attacks (including damage!)
during your opponent’s next turn, but the attack states
you cannot use it if you used Barrier the previous turn.
The original offered the same protection, but instead of
being unable to use Barrier the next turn, the original
required you discard a [P] Energy from Mewtwo.
The “can’t use twice in a row” effect is a much better
deal than the Energy discard, but the attack is mostly a
desperately play as your opponent can cancel it out with
Pokémon Ranger, for up a new Active with a card
like Lysandre or Escape Rope, or use an
attack that hits the Bench or ignores the effects on the
opponent’s Active. Of course, some of those are
more likely than others. If you need a single turn
stall, though, it isn’t a horrible option.
So back in the day, the joke deck Mulligan’s Mewtwo was
built using 59 basic Psychic Energy cards and one
Mewtwo (Base Set 10/102; Base Set 2
10/130). An unprepared opponent could actually
lose, and even if there was a way to reset the effect of
Barrier (no official ruling on it yet but based on
something related, I am thinking “no”), it wouldn’t be
worth it. Having a big, Basic Pokémon worth a
single Prize which can punish Energy hogs might be,
however. So the real competition for this card
comes not from other Mewtwo but from attackers
with a similar niche. In Standard, this means
Lugia-EX (XY: Ancient Origins 68/98, 94/98)
and Yveltal-EX for notable examples, while
Expanded adds in Dedenne (XY: Furious Fists
34/111), Meloetta (BW: Legendary Treasures
78/113), and Mewtwo-EX (BW: Next Destinies
54/99, 98/99; BW: Black Star Promos BW45; BW:
Legendary Treasures 54/113). Why use Mewtwo
(XY: Evolutions 51/108) over any of these?
Some of them are quite good cards, but Mewtwo is
the only Basic, Psychic Type that can do the job for
[CC]. In Standard play, this is especially
important because M Mewtwo-EX (XY:
BREAKthrough 64/162; 160/162) became quite popular
post rotation and seems to have at least some staying
power. Mewtwo isn’t a silver bullet counter; to
score a OHKO you’ll need to use Psychic while the
opponent’s M Mewtwo-EX has five or more Energy
attached (four if you’ve got Fighting Fury Belt
on your side of the equation).
Which in a deck that fares poorly against M Mewtwo-EX
is a somewhat reasonable occurrence. Also
reasonable is how said decks probably don’t need a OHKO
so much as they need a decent beginning or ending for a
2HKO, and Mewtwo obliges whether it is being
fueled by a Double Colorless Energy or whatever
is covering the [CC] cost. Against somewhat Energy
intensive Types (3+ Energy) or the Psychic Weak it can
still set up a 2HKO fairly well. So that is how to
use it in Standard play, but it probably isn’t needed in
Expanded. For Limited play it is a good, strong
pull you would only skip if you pulled a big, Basic
Pokémon-EX and built your entire Limited deck around
that one Basic Pokémon (and only that Pokémon).
Ratings
Standard:
3.25/5
Expanded:
2.25/5
Limited:
4.25/5
Summary:
Mewtwo is a niche attacker, punishing Pokémon
which are Energy heavy, Psychic Weak, or both.
Only in the case of the latter is the goal a 2HKO;
instead you’re hoping Mewtwo pulls off a 2HKO,
probably with an assist from your previous or next
attacker though its 130 HP might allow it to do the job
itself.
Mewtwo
managed five voting points, only beating out
yesterday’s
10th place finisher by a single point, and similarly
losing out to
tomorrow’s
8th place pick by one point.
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Zach Carmichael |
Tuesday’s Card of the Day is Mewtwo
from Evolutions. Like many of the cards in this set,
Mewtwo is a pseudo-reprint of its Base Set counterpart,
but there are a number of notable changes that warrant
it to make out Top 10 list. When I first read the card
when it was revealed through Japanese scans some time
ago, instantly I thought that it could be a viable
counter to the monster known as M Mewtwo-EX (Y) that has
continued to dominate the Standard format since the
rotation in September, but is this really the case?
I won’t get into specifics, but
there are actually five versions of this card currently
in print if you include its theme deck and Prerelease
versions – that’s a lot of love for the Psychic Pokémon!
What’s more is that the card has been considerably
buffed to compete with cards in the modern era of the
TCG. Mewtwo now has 130 HP instead of 60 HP, and its
Retreat Cost is now 2, not 3. Its attacks include
Psychic and Barrier, both of which were present on its
Base Set counterpart. Psychic’s cost is now 2 Colorless
Energy versus a Psychic and Colorless, making it a bit
easier to use in a pinch. It does 20 damage plus two
more for each Energy attached to your opponent’s Active
Pokémon. While this certainly makes it splashable in a
number of decks for some easy damage, it is not
game-changing by any means. Had it said both
Active Pokémon, then that would be another story
entirely – it would basically be a non-EX version of the
infamous Mewtwo-EX from Next Destinies (Seriously, do we
really want another Mewtwo War?)!
That said, Mewtwo suddenly becomes
merely average because of this text wording, making it
fall short of getting the OHKO on M Mewtwo-EX in most
circumstances. M Mewtwo-EX would need a whopping 4
Energy for Mewtwo to get the KO with Psychic, and that’s
assuming you have Fighting Fury Belt attached. The other
attack, Barrier, allows it to become virtually
untouchable the next turn (at least if it remains your
Active Pokémon). This would be incredibly powerful if
you could just repeatedly use the attack, but knowing
this, the card developers added some balance by
preventing you from using it two turns in a row. I’m not
100% sure on the ruling, but I would assume that Pokémon
Ranger would not get around this based on how this
caveat is worded. I can see Mewtwo being a one-of in M
Mewtwo-EX decks just as a single-price attacker to set
up for future KOs, but otherwise I don’t see a real use
for Mewtwo at the moment. Expanded is essentially the
same story. Dimension Valley makes Psychic a bit better,
but that’s about it. Perhaps Trevenant players will
embrace Mewtwo as a quick way to put damage on their
opponent’s board, but even then they will probably opt
to just let Trevenant remain Active and take a hit if it
means keeping the Item lock.
Ratings
Standard: 2.5/5
Expanded: 1.5/5
Limited: 4/5
Summary: It’s crazy how a
simple textual wording of a card can make all the
difference. Mewtwo was so close to being the M Mewtwo-EX
counter players have been waiting for, but unfortunately
this is not the case. Perhaps some decks will take
advantage of it simply for its potentially solid damage
output for just a lone Double Colorless Energy, but I
don’t see the card being popular for quite some time in
either Standard or Expanded.
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