aroramage |
Breaking the mold of our Top 3 is
none other than Mr. Mime, who's back again with a new
Fairy Typing! You may recall that we've brought up Mr.
Mime occasionally in the past, usually referring to his
Bench Barrier Ability and its power to keep spread
damage from...well, spreading. And now he's back in
action!
Bench Barrier works the same as
before, preventing your Benched Pokemon from taking any
damage from attacks. This is useful against stuff like
Primal Kyogre-EX, who can hit Benched Pokemon-EX for 30
damage with his main attack, or like Kyurem-EX's
Glaciate that deals 30 damage to everything on your
field period! Needless to say, it's had its fair share
of fame in the past, and Mr. Mime getting brought back
into Standard is a nice face to see!
But compared to his counterpart
from Plasma Freeze, what's changed? Well, the rebranded
Fairy-typing helps Mr. Mime out against Dark-types,
since he gains a Resistance to them. He loses out on all
the Psychic support like with Dimension Valley and
Mystery Energy, taking in Wonder Energy instead...not
that you'd probably be using either of their attacks.
The old Mr. Mime's Psy Bolt was only a 2-for-20 strike
with a 50/50 shot of Paralyzing while the new Mr. Mime's
Juggling costs the same amount to flip 4 coins and deal
10 damage for each heads. Needless to say, neither is
functional as an attacker.
Other than that, Mr. Mime is pretty
much the same - same HP, same Retreat cost, same
Ability. So does it matter which one you run in your
deck? Not particularly, at least to me. If you're
playing Standard, you're gonna stick with this guy since
the Plasma Freeze copy isn't legal anymore, but even in
Expanded, it's not a major difference one way or the
other. If you like hanging onto your old Mr. Mime, go
for it, but if you like Mr. Mime cleaning your windows
from WAY too high up, give this guy a try!
Either way, your Bench is safe.
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (if you're facing
trouble with your Bench getting protected, give this guy
a try!)
Expanded: 4/5 (either way, it
doesn't matter which one you use here)
Limited: 2.5/5 (...I uh...I don't
recall there being too many Bench attacks in this set,
actually...Gengar, Chesnaught, there might be a couple
of others...)
Arora Notealus: One of my earlier
decks when I jumped back into the game was actually a
spread deck, centered around the old Kyurem's Glaciate
to deal damage to multiple Pokemon. The problem with
that though was that it'd take too long, and since I
didn't think of the strategy to build up an attacker -
since this was also back before Pokemon-EX were a
mainstay in most decks and before Blastoise came back
with his Deluge - I would end up losing pretty badly.
Not that Mr. Mime made it easier to use that deck, but
there ya go.
Next Time: OH BABY A TRIPLE!!
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Our number three pick is…
Chiaotzu?
Silly me, that’s Mr. Mime (XY: BREAKthrough
97/162)! As a Fairy-Type, it only gets to exploit
Weakness when attacking XY-era Dragon-Types, but so far
never has to worry about Resistance or “anti-Type”
cards. The Fairy-Type has some support that
explicitly only works for Fairy-Types but it the best
example I can see is Wonder Energy among those,
which is merely “okay”. Better is the Stadium
Fairy Garden but that only refers to [Y] Energy, so
non-Fairy-Types can use it so long as they have a basic
Fairy Energy card or a Special Energy card such
as Rainbow Energy attached. Aromatisse (XY
93/146) is probably the biggest piece of support the
Type has and it’s “Fairy Transfer” Ability is also
focused on [Y] Energy, and as that includes things like
the aforementioned Rainbow Energy it has been
used not only in support of other Fairy-Types but for
Toolbox decks with a variety of off-Type attackers.
As such, this seems like one of the weaker Types to me
though it does have its benefits.
Being a Basic on the other hand is pure win right now;
Basics are easy to play and require minimum deck space
while also having a natural synergy with certain card
effects plus a few pieces of Basic Stage support.
Yes, there are “anti-Basic” cards in the metagame,
including one (Silent Lab) that is pretty easy
for many decks to include. The 70 HP is… iffy.
If Mr. Mime plays a role where it either safely
sits on the Bench or functions as a glass cannon, it
will do though 90 HP would have left it still Level
Ball compliant but ever-so-slightly more durable.
If it doesn’t do either of these things, Mr. Mime
will be in trouble. The Metal Weakness means that
70 HP will be just a bit more frail, but as there aren’t
a lot of splashed in, low damage Metal-Type attackers,
especially compared to things that simply will hit for
70 in one hit anyway, the Metal Weakness is relatively
benign. The Darkness Resistance could come in
handy but not too often; -20 only goes so far especially
on 70 HP. The single Energy Retreat Cost is nice
and easy to pay, plus recovering from spending a single
Energy isn’t overly difficult most of the time.
Mr. Mime
has no Ancient Trait but an incredibly familiar Ability:
“Bench Barrier” is back! This Ability prevents
all damage done to your Benched Pokémon by attacks;
doesn’t matter whether the damage is from an attack by
your own Pokémon or your opponent’s Pokémon, it gets
stopped and it only works for your Bench and not both
players. This has appeared before (more on that in
a bit), and is established as being useful due to
removing the drawback of certain useful attacks
(protecting your Bench from your own attacks) but mostly
to protect your Pokémon from your opponent’s Bench hits,
especially smaller Pokémon. This protection is not
perfect however as anything that isn’t an attack (such
as an Ability, Pokémon Tool, etc.) can still damage your
Bench and attacks that place or move around damage
counters still function as well. The attack is
“Juggling” for [YC], which lets you flip four times,
scoring 10 damage per “heads”. This is a poor,
flippy filler attack and should only be used when
desperate, if then.
There three other versions of Mr. Mime available:
BW: Plasma Freeze 47/116, XY 91/146 and
XY: Primal Clash 101/160. All are still Basic
Pokémon with no Ancient Traits. XY 91/146 and
XY: Primal Clash 101/160 have a lot in common: both
are Fairy-Types with 80 HP, Metal Weakness, Darkness
Resistance, Retreat Cost [CC], no Abilities and two
attacks. XY 91/146 can use “Massage” for [YC] to
heal 60 damage from one of your Benched Pokémon or for
[YCC] use “Slap Down” to hit for 40 damage plus 20 per
“heads” from the two coin flips the attack requires you
perform. These attacks are poor; Massage means
you’ll give up an attack and two Energy to heal 60 when
you could give up just one Energy to use Super Potion,
while Slap Down only hits adequately for the Energy with
two “heads”. it received a review
here.
XY: Primal Clash 101/160 has a somewhat
interesting first attack (Trick) that requires [C] that
allows you to move a Pokémon Tool attached to one of
either player’s Pokémon and move it to another of said
player’s Pokémon (no moving Tools from one player’s
Pokémon to the other player’s Pokémon). Its second
attack (Lock Up) needs [YC] to hit for 30 and prevent
the Defending Pokémon from retreating on your opponent’s
next turn. These effects are useful though the
damage output seems a bit low, but Mr. Mime is
probably getting KO’d after using them, so it doesn’t
seem quite worth the Energy.
Mr. Mime
(BW: Plasma Freeze 47/116) is only available in
Expanded and is very similar to today’s subject: same
name, same Stage, same HP, same Retreat Cost, same lack
of Ancient Trait, same Ability. Word for word,
this Mr. Mime has Bench Barrier as well and is
why we know the effect to be so useful. This
Mr. Mime is a Psychic-Type with Psychic Weakness and
no Resistance and a different attack (Psy Bolt) though
the cost of [PC] is similar to that of Juggling and does
20 damage plus (on a coin flip) inflicts Paralysis on
the opponent’s Active. This one has been reviewed
twice before, one
here
and then a
second time
as part of our Top 10 list for 2013. Psy Bolt
isn’t great but it is better than Juggling, but unless
your deck cares about Mr. Mime being a
Psychic-Type or you fear having Metal Weakness more than
Psychic Weakness (seems unlikely to me), this isn’t as
good as the new version, but the differences are minor.
There is also another piece of competition in the form
of Mountain Ring, a Stadium reviewed
here;
it also blocks Bench damage but for both players.
This will rarely be the best choice but sometimes Bench
space is more valuable than a Bench slot or more likely,
you are doing something that shuts down Abilities.
Not every deck will need this card, but every deck
wishes it had room to run one just to cut off the often
annoying and sometimes game winning Bench hits.
Decks with smaller attackers or that damage their own
Bench and have nothing worth using that damage to fuel
should run one of either Mr. Mime with
Bench Barrier. Multiples are usually unnecessary:
the Ability doesn’t stack in any manner so extras only
serve to avoid it being stuck in Prizes (most decks are
fast enough to just use Town Map to avoid that
and gain other benefits) or as insurance if one is KOed
(most decks are also fast enough that the turn an
opponent spends doing that is compensation enough).
If you need an example of a deck that should rarely - if
ever - lack a Bench Barrier Mr. Mime, it is
probably Night March. Not only are you dealing
with mostly or all Basic attackers (and support) that
have low HP scores allowing small Bench hits to quickly
add up, but specifically you’ve got Joltik (XY:
Phantom Forces 26/119) and its mere 30 HP: 30 damage
is the typical “good” bonus Bench hit amount and even
the smallest hit (10) just needs three shots to score
the OHKO. Pumpkaboo (XY: Phantom Forces
44/119) is the other Night Marcher that actually hits
the field, and its 60 HP isn’t much better.
Mr. Mime
(XY: BREAKthrough 97/162) is more valuable to
Standard play than Expanded because in the latter where
we still have Mr. Mime (BW: Plasma Freeze
47/116), who has been covering our Bench for the last
year and a half. That doesn’t mean the new version
is meaningless here; in fact it is just a smidge better
because the Psychic-Typing of its elder sibling only
matters in a select few decks where Mr. Mime can
attack on those rare occurrences where it is worth using
in that manner. Possibly a few decks also have a
rather poor match-up against Metal-Types and similarly
would prefer something that lacks Metal Weakness.
Most of the time, Psychic Weakness is a bigger concern,
leading me to favor the new Fairy-Type version even in
this older format, though it is quite, quite close as we
are getting down to almost a trivial level of details.
For Limited play, only leave out Mr. Mime if you
are running a +39 deck (a deck built around a single,
powerful Basic Pokémon); while most decks will lack a
Bench-hitter, it tends to be a more valuable trait here
and there are some in this set. As is often the
case I expect Limited decks to have more room for such
tricks (both hitting the Bench and having a Bench-sitter
just to counter it) than in constructed formats even
though Limited decks are only 40 cards: you just aren’t
likely to pull enough “other” useful cards to fill up
the slots with something better.
Ratings
Standard:
3.65/5
Expanded:
3.6/5
Limited:
4.8/5
Summary:
If decks were far roomier or Bench damage the dominant
strategy, Mr. Mime would be a staple as a single,
and as is it is one of those cards you’ll keep until
you’re forced to cut it for space and will need to keep
no matter what if your deck is especially vulnerable to
Bench hits, such as Night March. Scoring is
difficult because I’m drawing a blank on potent Bench
hits for Standard; all the things I am most worried
about defending against are in Expanded where again, we
already have a nearly identical option.
It also is a bit awkward because at least so far, our
cards are all tightly clustered when it comes to scores;
it makes me want to score some things higher or lower to
force a progression. I do approve of Mr. Mime
placing this highly: it was my number three pick as
well! It also tied with second place and only beat
fourth place by two voting points.
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