Mewtwo & Mew-GX #7 – Top 11 Pokemon Cards in Unified Minds

Otaku

Our 7th-place selection is Mewtwo & Mew-GX (SM – Unified Minds 71/236, 222/236, 242/236).  Does it bring enough to compensate for giving up three Prizes when KO’d?  The [P] Typing is likely good; I’m not sure how it will work out with respect to Weakness or Resistance, but with Ultra Ball gone Mysterious Treasure is that much more useful.  Being a Basic is still likely the best, and 270 HP is impressive.  I’m still not sure if it will last longer or not in the new metagame: we can no longer engage in Acerola shenanigans, but decks won’t have Choice Band anymore either.  [P] Weakness is likely to be a problem, as Malamar (SM – Forbidden Light 51/131; SM – Black Star Promos SM117) decks are expected to be strong.  Resistance would have been very handy with that HP, but this card has none, so we’ll move onto the Retreat Cost of [CC]; not too bad to pay, but still high enough Mewtwo & Mew-GX might need an assist.

Mewtwo & Mew-GX has an Ability and a GX-attack, but outside of the Limited Format, that isn’t as bad as it sounds.  That is because the Ability is “Perfection”, and it almost lives up to the name as it allows Mewtwo & Mew-GX to use the attacks from your Pokémon-EX/GX on your Bench or in your discard pile.  This takes one of Mew’s preferred tricks (even in the TCG) and possibly does it better than it ever has been done before.  You still have to pay the Energy (and anything else) required to use the attack, and Pokémon-EX/GX are the minority in the cardpool, the fact they can be any Stage is good, and that they can be on the Bench or in the discard pile is amazing.  As for the GX-attack, it is “Miraculous Duo-GX” for [PPC], doing 200 damage.  If you have at least one extra Energy attached when using the attack, Miraculous Duo-GX also heals all of your Pokémon.  For three and four Energy, respectively, it’s a good deal.

There a few deck ideas floating around for this card.  Almost guaranteed is that Mewtwo & Mew-GX will be in a Malamar variant; the only reason I won’t guarantee it in all of them is because they do have so many options.  Still, Mewtwo & Mew-GX means you have a “floating copy” of all your Pokémon-GX, and you may even be able to run some you normally would have to skip.  I’m not sure if it will actually materialize, but this is one of the attackers being tossed around with Porygon-Z (SM – Unbroken Bonds 157/214); drop up to four Rainbow Energy and/or the various Unit Energy cards onto Mewtwo & Mew-GX, then use the attacks of whatever Pokémon-GX you want.  Yeah, even the ones you can easily field as well; Mewtwo & Mew-GX can still work with those and not just ones you have in your discard pile.

Any deck with compatible Energy acceleration ought to consider this card; big Fire can use this to dodge [W] Weakness, and perhaps also to access normally awkward attacks.  Pity Charizard-GX (SM – Burning Shadows 20/147, 150/147, SM – Black Star Promos SM60) rotated; we finally have a relatively easy way to use “Raging Out-GX.”  At least Magacargo-GX and its Burning “Magma-GX”.  Which isn’t to say Mewtwo & Mew-GX has no use in Expanded; Battle Compressor, additional forms of Energy acceleration (including Dimension Valley) make it tempting.  In fact, in either Constructed Format, Mewtwo & Mew-GX might be useful just to have a [P] Type attacker, so long as the deck already has a Pokémon-EX/GX worth copying or can squeeze such a thing in alongside it.

Wait, what about anti-Ability effects?  A definite concern, but the best such cards are in Expanded and counters to them exist in both Standard and Expanded, including Stealthy Hood.  As we don’t worry about Unlimited – and for all I know, there’s a killer combo there – the only place where Mewtwo & Mew-GX are likely disappoint is in the Limited Format.  You’ll need to pull another Pokémon-GX worth copying, as well as the cards to either field it or get it into the discard.  It is possible, but hardly guaranteed.  Without that, you still might consider Mewtwo & Mew-GX if your deck runs on mostly or only [P] Energy, but you’re just using this card for its GX-attack.  Do not run it solo!

Ratings

• Standard: 4.5/5
• Expanded: 4/5
• Limited: 3/5

Mewtwo & Mew-GX is one of the best cards in this set.  I’m a bit disappointed it clocked in this low but I am operating on Theorymon.  I think this card will either spawn at least one new deck or work its way into an existing one, and it could even become a loose staple a la Marshadow-GX.  On my personal list, this was my second place pick!

Vince

Mew and Mewtwo, two of the most powerful Pokémon in RBY that they were both in Ubers, oh how the times drastically changed. Both have been made a Tag Team card, which is very fitting in terms of lore and card effects (which is gonna be the bulk of this review). Lores aside, while Mew offers flexibility, Mewtwo does a one-punch Attack when you really need it.

So what describes better than the word “Versatile” from Mew-EX? Perfection, of course! And it does live up to the ability, as it allows you to use any attack from Pokémon-EX and Pokemon-GX that’s on the Bench or your discard pile as well as needing the necessary energy to use its attacks. It’s been a while since I saw cards like this, and it exerts multiple emotions, and it can be both positive and negative. Excitement (by reading the effects), motivation (building a deck based on such toolbox), frustration (too many to experiment and play test), and finally tiredness (some strategies might work or not work, and you may have to do the same process all over again).

Pokémon-EX and Pokémon-GX comes in various forms, including Basic Pokémon-EX, Mega Evolutions, Basic GX, Stage 1 GX, Stage 2 GX, and Tag Teams. When you realize how much it can cover, that’s when ideas start to brainstorm! Take a moment to look at all of the EX Pokémon from Black & White Next Destines to XY Evolutions and GX Pokemon from Sun & Moon to the present, and also look at every single attack (not abilities because Perfection won’t copy those). Some attacks are good while others are bad, and you can rule out most cards and find the best of the bunch to tech with. Ultimately, the options are pretty low, even with all the options available. To give you an idea for the entire Expanded card pool…

-Noivern-GX’s Distort attack. I was gonna mention Seismitoad’s Quacking Punch but Noivern hits harder while doing the same thing, preventing your opponent from playing item cards on their next turn. With its bigger 270 HP body, it leaves more room to heal with Max Potion if they were in the brink of being KOed.

-Jolteon-EX’s Flash Ray and Glaceon-EX’s Crystal Ray are useful for taking no damage against Basic or Evolution Pokemon, forcing your opponent mind games and making them have to switch out their Active Pokemon, or vise versa, just to deal damage from a different stage. 70 damage for LCC or WCC also gives pressure to your opponent. Unfortunately, since they’re basic Pokémon, you may be forced to start with them if you also didn’t get Mew & Mewtwo-GX in your opening hand.

-Mega Rayquaza-EX’s Dragon Ascent. This is perhaps the best attack that does 300 damage. While various Charizard cards have attacks that deal 300 damage as well (Wild Blaze, Crimson Dive, and Crimson Storm), their drawbacks are worse than Dragon Ascent. Discarding the top 5 cards of your deck, doing 50 damage to itself (or 100, in Mew & Mewtwo-GX’s case due to being weak to itself, and self-damage does apply weakness and resistance), or discarding three Fire energies can’t compare to Dragon Ascent needing to just discard 2 energy. Usually cost RRRLC, it’s Psychic typing can help shave off C via Dimension Valley. There is a cheaper alternate, with Solgaleo-GX’s Sunsteel Strike, which does 230 for 3 energy (or MM if Valley is present), but you will fall short of KOs. Heck, even 300 damage isn’t the overkill we once knew and even 300 damage can fall short of OHKOs (if you’re up against Lucario & Melmetal-GX with Full Metal Wall activated).

-Gardevoir-GX’s Infinite Force. This is the best damage scaling attack, much superior than Mewtwo’s X Ball, Yveltal’s Evil Ball, or Lugia’s Aero Ball. 30x for each energy attached to both Active Pokemon isn’t something to underestimate, and it’s Psychic typing provides more coverage than Gardevoir can cover.

-Shred variants. Perhaps the strongest shred attack goes to Kommo-o-GX, which costs LFCC for 130 damage. It also bypasses any effects placed on the Defending Pokemon, getting past some obstacles that keep them from damaging them. Safeguard style users like Alolan Ninetales BUS/TEU and/or Hoopa Shining Legends will still take damage from Shred, OHKOing them!

-Variety of GX attacks. Some of the GX attacks from Ultra Beasts are pretty insane, manipulating Prize Cards. Kartana-GX’s Blade is perhaps the funniest one, letting you take a Prize card and maybe win the game!

I think I’ll stop with these examples, as I can’t think of any card that is just as good as the examples mentioned above. One might wonder how Mew & Mewtwo is going to meet various attack costs and it’s pretty simple: Rainbow Energy. Combined with Porygon-Z’s Crazy Code Ability, and you can get those Pokémon from zero to 4 Rainbow energies, ready to use any attack! Their GX attack, Miraculous Duo, cost PPC for 200 damage, and if there is one extra energy attached to it, then you heal all damage from all of your Pokemon. It’s a nice attack that can help in a pinch. As they have no other attacks besides their GX attack, some problems might arise.

If there was anything to take away from them, it’ll be turning off abilities. That’s the only thing that can stop them from functioning. While ability denial isn’t prevalent in Standard (Glaceon-GX lost sleep due to losing Energy Evolution, and Slaking is a Stage 2), it is still a problem in Expanded. Alolan Muk is its worst enemy, not Garbodor. Power of Alchemy make every Basic Pokémon’s abilities nonexistent, and it doesn’t need a Tool, unlike Garbodor. And for Limited, unless you pull multiple GX Pokemon, it’d be hard to capitalize using its ability.

Ratings:

• Standard: 3.5/5
• Expanded: 3/5
• Limited: 2/5

aroramage

I think at this point, I generally agree with all of the cards up here, in some form or another, so I’m not gonna pretend like I’m surprised that they’ve made it onto the list.

That being said, WHO WOULD’VE EXPECTED MEWTWO & MEW-GX TO BE ON THE TOP X LIST????

Everybody.

That’s who.

Mewtwo & Mew-GX, outside of bringing together the two representatives of some of the most competitive cards in the game in recent years, is a Basic Psychic Tag Team Pokemon-GX, 270 HP, with a Psychic Weakness, no Resistance, and a Retreat Cost of 2. They only have an Ability and a GX Attack, and they are both pretty strong. Perfection isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, you can thank any version of Mew for this part, cause it lets the duo copy any attack from EX or GX in your discard pile or on your Bench, provided of course that you have the right Energy for the attack you’re copying. I think the immediately obvious answer to that unspoken question is yes, you can copy other GX Attacks, but you can still only use 1 of them per game. Speaking of which, Miraculous Duo GX isn’t too bad, a 3-for-200 that lets you heal all damage from all of your Pokemon if you’ve got at least 1 more Energy attached.

Pretty sure you’re only going to see this card for the Ability, so let’s figure on what partners Mewtwo & Mew-GX could copy stuff from, especially in what’s relevant to Standard. There are a few “cute” ideas, copying stuff like Banette-GX or Alolan Raticate-GX or Dragonite-GX (DRM) for cheap and easy damage, or you can copy things like Altaria-GX or Latios-GX for protection from attacks. I’ve got some ideas myself of what could be done with these guys, so lemme break it down like this:

1) Colorless attacks – there are a few Pokemon-GX with completely Colorless moves, some of which are better than others. Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX has a decent 3-for-60 Claw Slash, but it’s got no effects unlike Incineroar-GX, whose Crushing Punch not only does more damage but discards Special Energies too! There’s also Persian-GX’s Vengeance which gets strong, but it’s also limited by a damage ceiling.

2) Energy accelerators – some of the attacks you can copy can charge up Mewtwo & Mew-GX or even some of your other Pokemon with Energy! Lucario & Melmetal-GX lets you attach Metal Energy for only 2 Colorless, though DCE isn’t around at the moment; Reshiram-GX’s Flame Charge can help for Fire Energy. You can also use Zygarde-GX’s Cell Connector for Fighting Energy, so long as it’s in your discard pile first, but the best one for sure is Pikachu & Zekrom-GX that lets you attach 3 Lightning Energy to whatever Pokemon you want – include a Pikachu & Zekrom-GX in play!

3) Big Moves!! – as much as I’d like to recommend Mega Sableye & Tyranitar-GX’s Greedy Crush here for the extra Prize cards you get from KOing EX/GX, it’s not really that practical to go for 5-Energy costs. Think more along the lines of moves that can do a lot of damage all at once, like Blacephalon-GX’s Mind Blown, Reshiram & Charizard-GX’s Outrage, or even Ultra Necrozma-GX’s Photon Geyser. Not only do these two work out well in these decks cause of this Ability, but they can even account for an additional Type for more advantage against certain decks!

There is one other Pokemon I want to highlight with regards to these two, and that’s Silvally-GX. Low-key, I think this is going to be a great partner for Mewtwo & Mew-GX, not only because of its own attacks being Colorless or the fact that it can use Memories to change its own Typing, but there’s also the Gyro Unit that gives all Basic Pokemon a free Retreat. And you know what Tag Team Pokemon-GX are? Big Basics!

Needless to say, Mewtwo & Mew-GX are going to have a lot of longevity in the format, just as Mew-EX did in its time. And that one Mew card with the memories. It’ll be interesting to see how this card works out in the long run with all of these Pokemon-GX coming out.

Rating

Standard: 4/5 (probably a good thing they limited it to just EX/GX, cause there are probably some broken interactions around otherwise)

Expanded: 4/5 (notably here – imagine Night March on a 270 HP body? insanity!)

Limited: 4/5 (very strong, but also really needs another GX to be worthwhile here)

Arora Notealus: Mewtwo & Mew-GX has a lot of potential to be sure, but it’s ultimately dependent on what you combine it with. Just like how Mew-EX and Mew were! Of course we’re lacking in DCE in Standard at the moment, so not every attack is going to be a flawless success, and even in decks with Energy acceleration, it may take some working to get around to it, but there’s likely a strong deck with an open slot for these two!

Next Time:…could you uhhh…could you do me a quick favor?