Mewtwo ex – Genetic Apex
Date Reviewed: January 21, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
The best Pokémon of Genetic Apex is Mewtwo (Genetic Apex 129/226, 262/226, 282/226, 286/226)! Its a (P) Type, Basic Pokémon ex. Mewtwo ex has 150 HP, (D) Weakness, (C)(C) Retreat Cost, no Ability, and two attacks. For (PC) it can use “Psychic Sphere” to hit the opponent’s Active for 50 damage. (P)(P)(C)(C) pays for “Psydrive”; this does 150 damage to your opponent’s Active, but also forces you to discard two (P) Energy from itself. Mewtwo ex is available as at the ♦♦♦♦, ★★, ★★★, and 🜲 rarities.
The only way this is a surprise is if you factor in how often I overthink and/or try to surprise you with picks. Mewtwo ex is the star of its own top tier deck, with multiple archetypes to boot. We covered Pikachu ex (Genetic Apex 096/226, 259/226, 281/226, 285/226) yesterday, and the other current, top tier deck stars Gyarados ex (Mythical Island 018/068, 076/068) is from the next set. It could be argued that some supporting Pokémon deserved the slot, but then Mewtwo ex would have had to show up lower on the list.
As a Pokémon ex, Mewtwo ex is worth two points when KO’d. Tauros (Mythical Island 060/068) can hit it for 120 damage (instead of 40) with its attack, and Mewtwo ex it helps justify the other stats and attacks on this card. In terms of mechanics, while we recognize a connection between cards named “Mewtwo ex” and “Mewtwo”, the game sees them as no more alike than any other card with similar stats and/or effects. Still, we’ll take a quick look at “baby” Mewtwo (Genetic Apex 128/226; Promo Series A 010/P-A) later on, because its stats and attack are similar enough to those of Mewtwo ex as to make the comparison worthwhile.
Being a (P) Type is great! In terms of raw amount, the Psychic Type is near the middle. In terms of exploiting Weakness, only 45.9% of (F) Types are Psychic Weak, those corresponding to the video game Psychic Type. Just 17 out of 37 Pokémon, assuming I didn’t miss any1. Among those, we can remove the ones that would be OHKO’d even if they weren’t (P) Weak, and should ignore those that don’t really matter to competitive play. That leaves… zero.
Fortunately, Giovanni usage is common enough to re-check with that included, which brings Hitmonlee (Genetic Apex 154/226), Mankey (Genetic Apex 141/226)2, Marshadow (Mythical Island 047/068, 074/068) into OHKO range. What makes the (P) Type great are two pieces of type-specific support – Mythical Slab (Mythical Island 065/068) and Gardevoir (Genetic Apex 132/226) – plus some worthwhile Psychic Type attackers or supporting Pokémon that just have better synergy with fellow Psychic Types.
Being a Basic is still the best. No waiting to evolve. No extra cards you have to run to put Mewtwo ex into play. Though there’s one card you should already be running that helps it (Poké Ball), and another to consider in Psychic decks (Mythical Slab). So is the 150 HP, at least when were sticking to Basic Pokémon. Only two Stage 1 Pokémon ex, four Stage 2 single point Pokémon, and all Stage 2 Pokémon ex have more. This is enough to soak all but extra heavy and the highest heavy attack, at least before combos and Weakness.
Mewtwo ex’s own Weakness is (D). Koga Decks are competitive, even if there’s debate about which attacker is the best. In terms of strict OHKOs, from proven decks, Mewtwo ex is safe. The devil is in the details. Arbok (Genetic Apex 165/226) goes from 3HKO to 2HKO and its attack prevents Mewtwo ex from retreating out of it. Muk (Genetic Apex 175/226) and Scolipede (Mythical Island 055/068) score bonus damage against a Poisoned opponent. With Weakness, this means they do 140 damage, so the Poison finishes Mewtwo ex off during the Pokémon Checkup phase. If that sounds like a reach…
…Weezing (Genetic Apex 177/226, 243/226) can Poison via its Ability; doing that then either using Koga to bounce or a combination of Leaf, X Speed, and/or Energy to manually retreat so another attacker can come in is the focus of Koga decks. Plus, as Weezing does 30 for (D) with its own attack, it can setup for a 2HKO even when not paired with one of the preceding attackers! If Mewtwo ex is Poisoned, or otherwise Active when you want it on the Bench, the Retreat Cost of (C)(C) is decent. Even lowered to (C) it’d be substantially better… but it’d be much worse if it was (C) higher. Right now, a double X Speed or lone Leaf zeros it out completely.
Psychic Sphere is a solid attack. You can find similarly priced attacks that are better or worse than it. Articuno ex (Genetic Apex 084/226, 258/226, 275/226) is also a Basic, Pokémon with two attacks and the first attack costs (W)(C). As a (W) Type, Articuno ex has access to Misty, which may be why it only does 40 damage for that price, instead of 50. Psychic Sphere is not why you run Mewtwo ex, but it is a good option if you have to attack with Mewtwo ex before Psydrive is ready. If Mewtwo ex is stuck up front, it’ll still have a decent offense.
Psydrive is the main event. It is a very pricey attack at not only four Energy, but discarding two (P) Energy as well with each use. You’ll need a steady supply of Psychic Energy if you want to use it over and over again. With the raw damage output, even just pulling off one Psydrive may be enough to secure the win. It’s just below the extra heavy damage range, so only those Pokémon I mentioned as beating Mewtwo ex’s HP score can survive Psydrive. Barring other card effects, of course.
Before covering how Mewtwo ex is used, let’s compare and contrast it with Mewtwo (Genetic Apex 128/226; Promo Series A 010/P-A). It’s also a Basic (P) Pokémon with (D) Weakness and a (C)(C) Retreat Cost. Besides not being a Pokémon ex, baby Mewtwo has 120 HP and one attack is awfully familiar. “Power Blast” has the same Energy cost as Psydrive, including the double (P) Energy discard cost. It does 120 damage, instead of 150.
It’s kind of funny that baby Mewtwo hits hard enough to OHKO itself, just like Mewtwo ex. Baby Mewtwo lets us know that being a Pokémon ex is what scored Mewtwo ex +30 HP, its first attack, and +30 damage for its second attack. Baby Mewtwo does see some competitive play, alongside Mewtwo ex, with both being feed additional (P) Energy from Gardevoir (Genetic Apex 132/226). Yes, Gardevoir is a Stage 2, so it eats up a lot of your deck space and will take time to setup. It’s also relatively fragile, tied with Serperior (Mythical Island 006/068, 070/068) for the lowest HP on a Stage 2.
Gardevoir’s “Psy Shadow” Ability is the key to making Mewtwo ex insane. Once, during your turn, Psy Shadow let’s you attach a (P) Energy from your Energy Zone to your Active (P) Pokémon. This is in addition, to whatever Energy you can manually attach from your Energy Zone. It also stacks; if you have a second copy of this Gardevoir in play, you can attach up to two (P)(P) to your Active (P) Pokémon. As it happens individually, you can – for example – attach a (P) Energy to the Active, retreat to a different Pokémon, then use your other Psy Shadow to attach to the new Active.
Unless you’re running Gardevoir and Mewtwo ex in a multi-Energy Type deck, your opponent can discard an Energy from your Mewtwo ex, or your Mewtwo ex gets KO’d, you’ll be able reload Psydrive and use it turn after turn. If Mewtwo ex didn’t have any Energy when first promoted, you’ll have to rely on Psychic Sphere for a turn, first. A lot of decks don’t have a good answer for this. Besides the few attackers that can discard an Energy from the opposing Active, the main thing is to just KO Mewtwo ex…
…which brings us back to its 150 HP. This is one of the reasons Mew ex (Mythical Island 032/068, 077/068, 083/068, 086/068). It’s main claim to fame is its “Genome Hacking” attack for (C)(C)(C). It copies an attack (your choice if there’s more than one) on the opponent’s Active. Mew ex doesn’t have to worry about the attack’s printed Energy cost, but it does still have to worry about things like coin flips, discarding its own Energy, etc. Simply put, Mew ex is an anti-Mewtwo ex card… and handy for other reasons, but we’ll discuss that when we review it.
Before giving Mewtwo ex its rating, let me mention a few other cards it sees play alongside. Like Mew ex. Yeah, what’s good for countering Mewtwo ex happens to be a good partner for it as well. Especially once a Gardevoir or two are in play; Mew ex can be played from the hand, the current Active retreats to the Bench, then your manual Energy attachment plus two Psy Shadow let you use whatever your opponent’s Active can do.
I’ll mention baby Mewtwo again, as Gardevoir’s Psy Shadow is almost as useful for it as it is for Mewtwo ex. Almost? While its 120 HP is still good, it isn’t as durable as Mewtwo ex’s 150. The last major partner worth mentioning is Jynx (Genetic Apex 127/226). Much smaller than baby Mewtwo, but still bigger than most evolving Basic Pokémon, it needs (P)(C) to use its “Psychic” attack. Psychic does 30 damage plus 20 per Energy attached to the opponent’s Active Pokémon.
While you can just leave it up front to take hits while getting set up, it can’t take many… but Jynx’s real purpose is as a backup attacker. Whether because Mewtwo ex isn’t showing up so you just have to attack with something, or because Mewtwo ex has already done its thing, but is in danger of being KO’d (or already was). Odds are good that whatever manages such a feat has a good amount of Energy attached. Jynx is also handy in the mirror, since it can still do solid damage to a Mewtwo ex that just used Psy Drive.
Ratings: 4.5/5
Mewtwo ex is just a great Pokémon. If you’re wondering why I didn’t dock it for needing Gardevoir, Mewtwo ex is functional without it. It isn’t as good on its own as Articuno ex is when Misty fails, or doesn’t show up in time, but its still good. It at least sometimes shows up in Psychic decks that aren’t running Gardevoir, and you could risk running it in a multi-Type deck. I wouldn’t recommend that last one, but it could be done. Mewtwo ex just has the HP and attacks do pull it all off.
1Actually did miss one my first try, and that was using an automated search feature. I’m not sure why Mankey (Mythical Island 041/068) was being ignored.
2I believe this to be the least played Mankey of the three.
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