By now, you've probably got at least one promotional Mew card.  What is the
most effective way to use this card, you might ask?  Well, the Devolution
Beam sounds like a pretty keen idea, you've probably already envisioned
turning your opponent's Venusaur into an Ivysaur, to a great gnashing of
your opponent's teeth.  But how does this harm your opponent?  Not really at
all, I'm afraid, because that opponent can evolve on his or her next turn
and attack or use Transfer at will.  So how to turn this weird new attack to
your advantage?  I can so far think of only one major use for Mew (beyond
pulling 10x opponent's attached energy attacks), and it's a doozy:  Mew can
make the Trainer card "Pokemon Breeder" into a useless piece of cardboard.
Suppose you have a guy with four Bulbasaurs, four Ivysaurs, and four
Venusaurs, backed up by four Scythers and four Pinsirs.  To assure that he
gets a Venusaur out as soon as possible, he includes four Breeders in the
deck.  He evolves into Venusaur on his second turn, so you send out one of
your Mews and devolve Venusaur (works on benched pokemon too).  The Breeder
card has been neutralized, and the best this guy can hope for now is an
Ivysaur this turn.  Those Breeders are taking the place of nice versatile
Trainers and pokemon, and you just made one worthless!  A small victory, but
if you add small victories together, you get bigger ones.

Alison
mailto:fries@hog.net