Mewtwo & Mew-GX – Unified Minds
Date Reviewed: August 15, 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 4.00
Expanded: 4.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
8th-Place in our countdown goes to Mewtwo & Mew-GX (SM – Unified Minds 71/236, 222/236, 242/236; SM – Black Star Promos SM191). This is a TAG TEAM Pokémon, meaning it is also a Pokémon-GX and a Rule Box Pokémon. TAG TEAM Pokémon feature two Pokémon instead of one, in this case the G1’s legendary of legendary Pokémon, Mew and its altered clone, Mewtwo. As you would expect, the name means it does not count as a Mew, Mewtwo, Mew-GX, or Mewtwo-GX card, but its own thing. Pokémon-GX come with some massive baggage. Like regular Pokémon-GX, they are excluded from certain beneficial effects, and included in certain harmful ones. Unlike them, they are worth three Prizes when KO’d. Yeah, just like big ol’ Pokémon VMAX. There examples of TAG TEAM support, as well as TAG TEAM counters, to consider as well.
TAG TEAM status does come with some very real perks, however. Not relevant to Mewtwo & Mew-GX, TAG TEAM Pokémon are always Basics, even when based partially or wholly on Evolutions. What is relevant to Mewtwo & Mew-GX is that being a Basic is the best! A lot of effects like search and bounce naturally work better for Basics, and they already enjoy requiring minimal space in your deck and time to hit the field. Another perk of TAG TEAM-dom is a massive HP score. The smallest TAG TEAM Pokémon have HP scores of 240, the largest temporarily held the record with 300 HP, and Mewtwo & Mew-GX clock in exactly in between at 270. This is not an easy card to OHKO, though power creep means it isn’t as difficult as it once was.
We’ll come back to the other benefits of being a TAG TEAM Pokémon. Instead, let us focus on Mewtwo & Mew-GX being a Psychic type. This means they are searchable by both Mysterious Treasure (still Standard-legal when they debuted) and Fog Crystal (Standard-legal now). In Expanded, it means they can tap Dimension Valley for an attack discount. In both Formats, it means most SM-era Psychic types fear them, as TCG Psychics based on VG Psychics used to be Psychic Weak, as were TCG Psychics based on VG Poison types. This changed with the type shuffling that occurred in as we transitioned to the Sword & Shield series, but it is still decent for punishing TCG Fighting types based on VG Fighting types.
As Mewtwo & Mew-GX are themselves TCG Psychics based on VG Psychics, released during the SM-series, it should come as no surprise they are Psychic Weak. Thanks to their HP, it still means an opponent’s Psychic type has to do 140 damage to OHKO them after Weakness doubles that to 280, but 140 is a lot easier for attackers to hit than 270. It also means that, as long as Mewtwo & Mew-GX are strong, there will always be a deck that can exploit their weakness (themselves). No Resistance also shouldn’t be a surprise; it is the most common and was the norm for TCG Psychics based on VG Psychics. With its massive HP, as long as it was a Resistance to something that saw competitive play, the -20 could have helped… but it still isn’t a big deal. The Retreat Cost of [CC] is neither low enough to be a bonus nor high enough to be a real detriment.
Okay, now onto more perks from being a TAG TEAM Pokémon. Simply put, their tend to have better effects. “Better” is a relative term; some TAG TEAM Pokémon aren’t particularly good, but their effects were still probably better than the equivalent non-TAG TEAM card would have had. This also doesn’t mean that the TAG TEAM versions of a Pokémon duo are better either of their individual counterparts. It just means that TAG TEAM Pokémon seem to get more bang for their buck, or rather, their Energy (and other) costs when it comes to their effects. Mewtwo & Mew-GX possesses an Ability and a GX-attack, which almost seems like they were shortchanged when compared to other Pokémon-GX…
…except that Ability is “Perfection”. Literally, that is the Abilities name. It almost lives up to it as well, as this Ability allows Mewtwo & Mew-GX to copy and use the attacks found on any Pokémon-EX/GX that you have on your Bench or in your discard pile. No, it doesn’t work with the current multi-Prize, Rule Box Pokémon of the SW-era (Pokémon V), but working with what was current when it releases, plus the prior generation’s main gimmick, was great and still is very good. It is especially important to note that you can copy not just from your Bench, but your discard pile. Toss an Evolved Pokémon-GX and access its attacks without having to wait to evolve! Even still having to pay the printed Energy cost for the attack, this gives Mewtwo & Mew-GX quite the arsenal of attacks.
Mewtwo & Mew-GX can copy GX-attacks with Perfection, but they also have their own. [PPC] pays for Miraculous Duo-GX, which does 200 damage. While not brilliant, even at the cost of your GX-attack this is solid damage for the Energy. If you have even one Energy over the printed attack cost attached to Mewtwo & Mew-GX, Miraculous Duo-GX’s bonus effect kicks in, and heals all damage from all your Pokémon! While still not always worth it, if your opponent is trying to use spread tactics, or you can just keep retreating injured attackers without your opponent forcing it Active via Boss’s Orders to finish it off, you can potentially heal a lot of damage. Even just healing whatever is on the attacking Mewtwo & Mew-GX would be good enough, given the minor added cost to access the effect.
Mewtwo & Mew-GX’s Perfection Ability has led to multiple variants arising with it. It also means it can function as either the main or a backup attacker. Most recently, it has been showing up in Weavile-GX builds, but another notable example has been Welder decks. Not only can Welder help with covering [C] Energy costs, in addition to [R] Energy costs, but you’ve got attackers like Charizard-GX (Hidden Fates 9/68, SM – Black Star Promos SM211) that probably wouldn’t have seen play without this combo. You can discard Charizard-GX, then you just need to get [RRCC] worth of Energy on Mewtwo & Mew-GX to use Charizard-GX’s “Flare Blitz-GX” for a big, reliable 300. Remember, that used to be enough to OHKO anything based on printed HP scores, and still does so with most of the cardpool.
Another great, and fundamental, combo for Mewtwo & Mew-GX has been Quick Ball. Not just to fetch them from the deck, but to toss a Pokémon-GX into your discard pile. A second, relatively generic combo is Rainbow Energy (before it rotated) and Aurora Energy (both now and then). Even if you don’t have great Energy acceleration to go with them, this makes it so much easier to use a variety of attacks in the same deck. Now, even though Mewtwo & Mew-GX was, maybe still is great… I didn’t have them as my 8th-Place pick. Nor were they higher on my list. Instead, it was my 15th-Place pick. Why? Let’s say there was a shocking reprint of Mewtwo & Mew-GX with one of the new Regulation Marks keeping it Standard-legal. What happens then?
For Mewtwo & Mew-GX, probably nothing, because there are no longer any other Pokémon-GX in Standard! Maybe some Psychic Energy using deck, especially something focused on healing, would squeeze one in to try and use its GX-attack, but that’s as good as Mewtwo & Mew-GX could hope for. More than any other card that made my list, Mewtwo & Mew-GX loses all the support it needs once rotation happens. In Expanded, expect to see Mewtwo & Mew-GX for a little while. Well, “expect” may be a bit strong, given my lack of data. Given all the extra support – relative to what it currently enjoys in Standard – the TAG TEAM has in Expanded, even facing added counters (like Silent Lab), I think odds are good something will find a use for Mewtwo & Mew-GX. Possibly something downright broken down the road.
Ratings
- Standard: 4/5
- Expanded: 4/5
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