aroramage |
A bit strange that we're reviewing
a card that's the same card as before again, but its
reprint makes it just recent enough to include it in
Standard. So what potential decks can use it now that
Night March is out of the way?
Well keeping in mind the same
parameters as before - Versatile allowing Mew-EX to use
any attack in play and Replace giving him any Energy he
needs for said attacks - there may be merit in his usage
in a couple of decks. Using the popular ones here in
today's format, he could be used as an alternate
attacker or as a counter against M Mewtwo-EX, though
most of these decks will frequently run Garbodor (BKP)
to nullify it. It's about the only obvious input though
- M Gardevoir-EX might also make use of Mew-EX as an
alternate attacker, but she'd rather have bench space
for discarding Pokemon with come into play effects to
benefit most off of recycling them. In a pinch, a M
Gardevoir-EX could switch with Mew-EX and discard it,
but that's all I can think of in terms of combinations.
Other than that, there's not a lot
to look around at. Volcanion-EX and Greninja don't
really need any other Pokemon that would otherwise
clutter the deck and make them slower, Vileplume and
Giratina decks are more focused on locking down the
opponent's moves, and Rainbow Road...well, I suppose
there's another deck for Mew-EX to fit into, if one has
the room for it.
Mew-EX still has a lot of
versatility, and chances are strong that a deck could
come around with just the right attack to take advantage
of - I can already think of using him with a certain bat
Pokemon's attack. We'll have to see though if he'll be
usable with GX attacks - since those are only once per
game, I wonder what the ruling is on copying it?
...then again, he is technically
using it...
Rating
Standard: 2.5/5 (the current flow
of Standard has made Mew-EX pretty weak)
Expanded: 4.5/5 (but that's simply
the nature of his card - he'll have ebbs and flows)
Limited: N/A (by which I mean he'll
be great sometimes and bad at others)
Arora Notealus: I'd hang onto your
Mew-EXs, cause he'll continue to be a popular pick in
some decks. And given that he has limitless potential,
it wouldn't surprise me to see him get paired with
another Pokemon and dominate the scene. We just need to
find the right Pokemon.
Next Time: Chances are it's not
this next one...but who knows?
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Otaku |
Today we will once
again discuss Mew-EX (BW: Dragons Exalted
46/124, 120/124; BW: Legendary Collections
RC24/RC25; XY: Black Star Promos XY126).
Why cover it again? It was our ninth place pick
for BW: Dragons Exalted, giving Mew-EX its
first review
about four and a half years ago. When it was
re-released in BW: Legendary Treasures, it
received its
second review,
just over three years ago. Thanks to being
re-released as a promo, Mew-EX is going to remain
Standard legal at least until the next rotation,
probably September 1, 2017, as set rotation has been
pretty consistent the last few years. This promo
is numbered so that it immediately falls before the
pre-release promos for XY: Fates Collide, so at
this point, I am guessing odds are even that it will
either survive another rotation or leave. Plus… I
missed the second review and thought we hadn’t looked at
it since the card was new. As only Baby Mario
weighed in that second time and it was still
three years ago, I probably could have skipped
confessing my error, but I like to set the bar low
be honest. So let’s run through the fundamentals
of the card, then discuss how it has been/currently
is/may soon be used.
Psychic Weakness is
found on many Psychic and Fighting Type Pokémon and
exploiting it is a major benefit for Mew-EX.
Psychic Resistance is quite abundant, found on most
Darkness Type Pokémon and nearly all Metal Types, but is
usually a small hurdle and not a major wall. The
best Psychic Type support - Dimension Valley - is
only legal in the Expanded Format. Being a Basic
Pokémon is the best, as far as Stages of Evolution go.
This is the best-supported Stage in terms of game
mechanics and possibly actual support cards (hello
Fighting Fury Belt!), to the point that even the
better counters like Jolteon-EX and Silent Lab
can’t bring them down. As a Pokémon-EX, Mew-EX
is worth two Prizes when KO’d and has to deal with
effects that punish Pokémon-EX usage. Mew-EX
does get a few benefits from that, like its HP of 120.
This is much lower than the typical scores found
on Basic Pokémon-EX but it is also a sizable
increase over what contemporary Mew cards
possess: Mew (XY: Black Star Promos XY192)
is the largest of these at 70 HP, while Mew (XY:
Evolutions 53/108) with only 40. So that means
a +50 to a +80 HP bonus, and varying from nearly double
to actually tripling its HP. The Psychic Weakness
is a concern, but perhaps not from where you would
expect; damage focused Psychic Type attackers won’t need
it for a OHKO, but the more technical ones focused on
attack effects will. Lack of Resistance is
typical, so even though it would help at least a little,
it isn’t a major issue. The Retreat Cost of [C] is
easy to pay, both up front and in the long term; good
for Mew-EX.
Mew-EX
has one Ability and one attack, with the former being
the reason the card is used. “Versatile” allows
Mew-EX to use the attack of any Pokémon in
play: Active or Benched, any Stage, and either player’s
side of the field. Mew-EX does have to
pay the costs to use said attacks, but the variable
nature of what it can do is usually its strength,
whether you’re finding a way to more effectively use the
attack found on something on your side of the field, or
frustrating your opponent as suddenly what he or she
puts into play may backfire. The attack, “Replace”
costs [P] and allows you to move around the Energy you
have attached to your Pokémon. This is far less
useful but not useless; it is a good failsafe for
when Versatile is offline and you are stuck attacking
with Mew-EX, namely allowing you to at least
salvage the Energy attached to it and move them
elsewhere. The big issue is actually that it costs
[P] and not [C]; not every deck that runs Mew-EX
runs a source of [P] Energy and even those that do might
not have one in a bind. In fact, most decks
where I remember Mew-EX playing a role lack
[P] Energy.
Mew-EX
is the best of the attack copying Pokémon
currently available. Let us look at some of these
rivals. Mew (XY: Fates Collide 29/124),
which also copies attacks via Ability but only
from your own Basic Pokémon. Zoroark BREAK can
use its “Foul Play” attack to copy without paying the
usual Energy cost up front, but is restricted to copying
from your opponent’s Active and is the BREAK Evolution
of a Stage 1 card (a Stage 2 without all the perks). Clefairy
(XY: Evolutions 63/108) can use its “Metronome”
attack to do the same thing, but instead of being a
pseudo-Stage 2 and paying [D] you have a Basic that must
pay [CCC]. I believe this leaves plenty of room
for Mew-EX, given its historic usage. While
in Standard play we won’t have Dimension Valley
to get an immediate, easy discount of [C] off of attack
costs, or Prism Energy to avoid self-damage,
copying from Evolutions on your side of the field can
still provide a nice, nice discount. It just saves
you on cards played versus Energy spent, and this was a
pretty big deal for certain lock decks, like those based
on Accelgor (BW: Dark Explorers 11/108). Mew-EX
used to see play in Night March decks, copying from
Joltik (XY: Phantom Forces 26/119) so it
could use the “Night March” attack for just [CC]
without being a 30 HP Basic or having Dimension
Valley in play. If you did have that Stadium,
then the cost dropped to just [C]! Mew (XY:
Fates Collide 29/124) might be a better fit due to
its stats and the focus on copying your own Basics, but
something like Vespiquen (XY: Ancient Origins
10/98) may want to give Mew-EX a try.
Maybe… I’m not sure if I’ve actually seen someone do
that before.
If you can’t tell,
I am drawing a bit of a blank on current Mew-EX
usage. Allowing otherwise non-Psychic decks to
exploit Psychic Weakness, Accelgor locks, and
being in Night March are probably the notable entries on
this card’s resume. A bit of a stretch, but it
could/can be quite handy when facing off against an
attack based lock: Seismitoad-EX and its “Quaking
Punch” are probably the best example because
Seismitoad-EX decks were often Item heavy, Quaking
Punch only does 30 base damage, and it only costs [CC].
What has me curious about this card’s future are GX
attacks. It is not about getting extra GX
attacks off because that doesn’t work; we already
have an official ruling that copying a GX attack with a
card like Mew-EX or the others named above
does use up your GX attack for the game. No,
the key here is (appropriately enough) versatility.
This may be from catching your opponent off guard as a
Basic Pokémon, potentially easier to power up than the
Pokémon-GX in question, performs the move, especially
if you are copying from your opponent. It is still
hard to say because the SM-era cards to feature the GX
attack mechanic aren’t out in force yet; as a PTCGO
player, I’ve only had to deal with Snorlax-GX so
far. Mew-EX doesn’t seem too likely to copy
“Pulverizing Pancake GX” given the attack costs [CCCCC]
and Snorlax-GX is also a Basic Pokémon, so you
cannot get much of a card investment savings. Some
of the pending Pokémon-GX are Evolutions, and some have
low-cost GX attacks, so this could be the future for
Mew-EX in Standard play.
So that basically
explains what I see for Mew-EX in Standard play.
In the Expanded Format Mew-EX can assume the
various roles it has held in the past, sometimes still
be the best choice, and may be handy for having
potential access to a GX move without actually running a
Pokémon-GX. Unlike the other cards this week,
Mew-EX has appeared in the Limited Format, as
all but the latest release were part of TCG expansions.
It isn’t the kind of Pokémon-EX around which you build
an entire, but it is something you’ll include in almost
any deck; basically anything that is not built
around a different Basic Pokémon-EX to the point
it runs no other Basic Pokémon. Given that
Pokémon-GX are replacing Pokémon-EX, a true future
re-release isn’t on the table, and as the sets where
Mew-EX is included are quite old, you probably won’t
be able to enjoy it in Limited play anyway.
Ratings
Standard:
3.35/5
Expanded:
3.5/5
Limited:
4/5
Summary:
Mew-EX is a famous glass cannon, even though it
must borrow the attacks in question from another source.
Reviewing it yet again reminds us that it can be
awesome, or it can just sort of be there: functional but
impractical. We’ll see if something new - like
Pokémon-GX - make Mew-EX into a major power
player, give it another successful niche deck, or
whatever else may come. At least if you were
unaware, you know it was reprinted again and thus is
Standard legal.
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