Mewtwo & Mew-GX #6 – Top 12 Pokemon Cards of 2019

Vince

When I see Mewtwo & Mew-GX to be the 7th best card of the Unified Minds expansion, I can’t help but to think that it should be rated even higher than that. If any Mew related cards taught me something, it’s that it is pretty versatile! That holds true to the games as well, where it can learn any TM in the game. The TCG always did the best they can to make Mew do something similar: being able to copy any attack from any Pokémon. Granted, you have to have the Pokémon in play, in discard pile, or even in the Lost Zone AND you must have the necessary energy to use any attack. For the most part, that’s TCG way of keeping some cards in check.

Unless I’m missing something, Mewtwo & Mew-GX is the only versatile card available in the Standard format. It’s Perfection ability allows Mewtwo & Mew-GX to use any attacks from any of your Pokemon-EX and Pokemon-GX in your Bench or in your discard pile (so that means Basic EX, Basic GX, Stage 1 GX, Stage 2 GX, and Mega Evolutions are legal candidates to copy their attacks). It may not be copying any other card’s attacks, but those categories see a good amount of play. And best of them all is that you don’t have to put those EX or GX Pokémon into play, you can put them in the discard pile and they still will copy those attacks. There’s a lot of potential of things to copy, but very few attacks are worth copying when you factor in the amount of deck space needed simply to copy those attacks and that hopefully your Pokémon didn’t get forced in play during in game setup. Stage 1 GX, Stage 2 GX, and Mega Evolutions does avoid being forced into play due to not being Basic Pokémon.

It’s 270 HP body is very well worth the 3 prizes, unlike other versatile users whose HP is too low to be even worth a single prize. 2 prize liabilities include Marshadow-GX and Mew-EX, which had 150 and 120 HP respectively. Single prize users such as Mew from XY Fates Collide and/or Mew Prime have around 50-60 HP. They may not have any repeatable attacks from its own card, but it does have a one time GX move. Miraculous Duo is pretty situational, dealing 200 for 3 energy, and if you have an extra energy attached to it, it heals all of your Pokemon. If you don’t have other potential GX attacks to copy and you can afford some basic Psychic energies, then it’s not a bad attack to invest in. Ultimately, they will fit into any deck due to its copying ability while being a Psychic Type to exploit weakness and get easily searched by Mysterious Treasure.

If there’s anything to take away from Mewtwo & Mew, it would be future potential and existing problems. Ability lock still exists, but there are ways to play around those locks. Also Mewtwo & Mew cannot copy attacks from Pokemon-V or V-Max. There aren’t any attacks from those kinds of cards yet that would make Mewtwo & Mew wish they have copied them. Mew-EX would be far more versatile than I give credit for!

Ratings:

Standard: 4/5

Expanded: 3.5/5

Limited: 1.5/5 (You really need a second GX Pokemon or they are not worth using. As I said before, they don’t have a repeatable attack to keep using in case they’re alone.)

aroramage

I mean really, has copying other Pokemon ever not been on a Top X list? Pretty sure Mew-EX started this trend, and it just kept going…okay, maybe not Mew-EX specifically, it goes as far back as the promotional Mew with Psydupe, but still! As far as I’ve been around and paying attention to the competitive landscape, there’s always some kind of Mew with a copy power that ends up in a lot of people’s lists.

And who can blame them? Mewtwo & Mew-GX is super-powerful because of this! With Perfection, it copies any other attack from a Pokemon-EX/GX that’s on your Bench or in your discard pile – which is good for it, since it doesn’t have any other regular attacks, but you’ll still need the right Energy attached to them to make it work. Miraculous Duo-GX is great for keeping everything in play, but as a one-off attack, it’s not that great, so what do you do? 

Ultimately there are a LOT of combinations with which you can bring out Mewtwo & Mew-GX’s power, but one combination is using Reshiram & Charizard-GX alongside Fire support such as Welder and Giant Hearth. There’s also Solgaleo-GX – no, not the main set one, there’s actually a promo with Prominence-GX. And since both of its attacks are Colorless, the Energy requirement is a non-factor. Surprisingly, there’s even Charizard-GX (HIF) to consider – some people will put in a copy to have a couple of unrestricted strong vanilla attacks, and it’s hard to argue against using a 4-for-300 Flare Blitz-GX over anything on Mewtwo & Mew-GX. Other popular options include stuff like Mega Lopunny & Jigglypuff-GX for their Jumping Balloon attack – useful against GX-heavy decks – and even Espeon & Deoxys-GX for a more Psychic-heavy variant.

Throw in a Cherish Ball to grab whatever it is you want, and Mewtwo & Mew-GX ends up striking at the top of the game. Currently it’s the most popular deck of the format – no surprises there – and that says a lot about a card that’s only been out for about half a year. So keep Mewtwo & Mew-GX in mind going forward, since Pokemon-V may become its biggest competitors yet.

Rating

Standard: 5/5 (super strong and copies off of the strongest cards available right now)

Expanded: 5/5 (with the extension of Pokemon-EX as well, makes huge waves here)

Limited: 5/5 (as long as you get another Pokemon-GX, he’s pretty strong here too)

Arora Notealus: Remember when dual-typing was a big part of the game? Like with Delta Species or more recently with cards like Volcanion-EX? Yeah my seventh wish is just to bring it back in some form. I always felt like that really mixed up the gameplay in a good way, especially with how they did it in Steam Siege! With Volcanion-EX, he counted as 2 Types, but he only required 1 Type for Energy, and that made him really strong not only against anything Weak to Fire but also anything Weak to Water. Delta Species were an older version of this, but they only hybridized with the Metal type, and I think we could have some really exciting combinations put into the game to spice things up a bit. And it can help add some color to decks outside of, “This is the Fire deck,” “This is the Grass deck,” “This is the Blue deck.” You get the idea!

Next Time: Time to bring out the new beginning with the new stamp!

Otaku

Sixth-place in our countdown of the best of 2019 goes to Mewtwo & Mew-GX (SM – Unified Minds 71/236, 222/236, 242/236; SM – Black Star Promos SM191).  This is one place higher than the first time we reviewed Mewtwo & Mew-GX, and that might seem like an oversight.  Mewtwo & Mew-GX is one of the top decks right now, and has been since it released.  Mewtwo & Mew-GX’s calling card is their Ability, “Perfection”.  They can use the attacks from any Pokémon-GX (TAG TEAM or otherwise) that you have in play or in your discard pile.  It won’t let you tap their stats or Abilities, and you still have to meet the Energy costs for the attacks, but this is pretty incredible.

Mewtwo & Mew-GX support this Ability by being a Basic Pokémon with 270 HP.  That means, not only is Mewtwo & Mew-GX going to have as much or more HP than all but a handful of existing Pokémon-GX, but also as fast or faster.  Whether it is a Stage 1 or Stage 2 or (now) old-school Mega Evolution, just find a way to discard it (usually pay for a different card’s effect) and you can access its attack.  As it doesn’t really need Mysterious Treasure due to other search and discard opportunities, its Typing is mostly relevant for combining with its Weakness to potentially make Mewtwo & Mew-GX its own worse enemy.

No Resistance is typical, and probably warranted; imagine not only having to deal with this card, but while also doing -20 less damage than normal.  Similarly, a Retreat Cost of [CC] is common, and that point where it is neither easy nor hard to pay.  [PPC] covers the printed attack cost for Mewtwo & Mew-GX’s own GX-attack, “Miraculous Duo”.  This deals a solid 200 damage and – if you’ve got at least one extra Energy attached – heal all damage from all of your Pokémon.  Even being a TAG TEAM and a Pokémon-GX is as helpful as it is a drawback, thanks to cards like Tag Call and Cherish Ball; though remember it comes with being all-but-shutdown by Power Plant.

Mewtwo & Mew-GX has the potential to back up just about any Pokémon-EX/GX, though much of the time it probably shouldn’t bother.  It can’t benefit from Type support, Stage support for Evolutions, or support for other mechanics (like Ultra Beasts).  It earned its place on this countdown, though, by starring in its own deck.  A varying selection of fellow Pokémon-GX – some which can serve as back-up or alternate attackers, others Evolutions that only exist for use via Perfection – accompany Mewtwo & Mew-GX.  Their Energy needs are chiefly met by Welder (attaching basic Fire Energy) and Rainbow Energy (attached through conventional means).  You’ll also likely see a Weakness Energy, because that is a serious vulnerability.

Mewtwo & Mew-GX are even tearing things up in Expanded, where they not only have access to more Pokémon-GX and all Pokémon-EX, but to classic powerhouse plays.  Besides the general stuff like Guzma and VS Seeker, there’s Dimension Valley; any attack being copied will have its price reduced by [C], unless it doesn’t have any [C] Energy requirements in it.  You can use attack’s like Noivern-GX’s “Distort” for just [D], locking down Items while doing 50 damage!  The place where Mewtwo & Mew-GX is lacking is the Limited Format.  Unless you are lucky enough to pull another Pokémon-GX to copy, Perfection will do you no good.  As long as you’re running at least partially on Psychic Energy, Miraculous Duo-GX is still worth it even as a one time deal.

Ratings

Standard: 4.5/5

Expanded: 4/5

Limited: 3/5

I only had Mewtwo & Mew-GX as my 11th-place pick, and was also using it as kind of a stand in for all TAG TEAM Pokémon, because they’ve pretty much been a serious force in the metagame since they released, and usually the dominant one.  I’m not mad that Mewtwo & Mew-GX showed up this high in our collective countdown, though: I would have ranked them higher myself if they hadn’t missed most of the year and weren’t a relatively deck-specific card (at least in their successful use).  There were just 10 other cards that were similarly strong and/or more widely used and/or prominent for more of 2019!