Mimikyu – Cosmic Eclipse Pokemon Review

Vince

Ratings:

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

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Mimikyu from Cosmic Eclipse has a pair of interesting attacks that could help get your setup going. It also has a secret rare version as it has Acerola in the background, which is quite fitting as she specialize in Ghost types, and Mimikyu was one of the Totem Pokemon that you would have to face eventually. Having +1s in every stat plus the Disguise ability makes it safe from anything sans Status conditions, and it’s fast enough to do anything in one turn without repercussions.

Anyways, both of Mimikyu’s attacks cost only one energy, one of them is colorless and the other being Psychic energy. Impersonation makes me think of Sableye from DP Stormfront, as it has the Impersonate attack. While Sableye’s Impersonate is a free attack and lets you discard a Supporter card from your deck and gain that effect, Mimikyu’s Impersonation lets you discard a Supporter from your hand and lets you get that effect as the effect of this attack. Either way, that makes you gain the benefit of the effects from two Supporter cards even though you can only play one. That’s because you manually play one and the other one was being used via attack. Even with the upcoming turn one rules, if you go second, you can still reap the benefit from two Supporter cards. It does matter if you go first because you can’t use a Supporter card……..and you still cannot attack turn one, making it useless.

While this is one of the best setup attacks, it does have a damaging route. Mischievous Hands lets you put 2 damage counters on 2 of your opponent’s Pokemon. This acts like putting two Giratina LOT down but better because it can affect the Defending Pokémon and doesn’t take up Bench space, albeit giving up your other attacks that you could’ve use.

Mimikyu was being suggested because it has seen success, and with those attacks, I can see why. However, it’s gonna get compared to other starting Pokémon like Jirachi TEU to see which one does better.

Ratings:

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

Conclusion: Mimikyu provides two good setup attacks, but thanks to the change in turn one rules, I don’t know if it’ll remain a good card, but I still think it would be…..as long as you choose to go second. It seems like nowadays, there’s several disadvantages of going first except that your Pokémon can evolve on your next turn; even the player going second cannot evolve either.

Also, this is probably going to be the last time maintaining my review style. I finally got burned out trying to write what would be an essay, trying to have lots of paragraphs, followed by ratings, and then conclusion m. There were several occasions where I would have a lot of write about, but I sometimes got lost halfway through and stop. Future reviews will have me list the scores first before giving you the details…if I can think of any reason why I rated this in a certain way. Plus, a new generation is about to arrive, so I gotta change my style as well.

If at any time I actually made a fully fledged essay of a certain card, then I’ll temporarily revert to my older style. But for now on, I’ll try to be as concise as I can be.

Otaku

We’re so very close to the beginning of the Sword & Shield cards… but we aren’t there quite yet.  Today we look at Mimikyu (SM – Cosmic Eclipse 97/236).  This is a Pokémon defined by its Ability, so we’re going to start with that, then explore the rest of the card in light of it.  “Shadow Box” states that any Pokémon-GX – yours or your opponent’s – has no Abilities if it has any damage counters on it.  Besides single-Prize Pokémon, Shadow Box does not affect Pokémon-EX – let alone anything older – and it will not affect the new Pokémon V.  We’ll also get “Tail Trickery”, the card’s attack, out of the way: [CC] does 20 damage and lets you flip a coin.  “Heads” means your opponent’s Active is also Confused, while “tails” means you only do the 20 damage.

So we’ve got Ability denial that – provided you can get damage counters where you want them – can be either selective or blanket denial, but could also still backfire and shut off an Ability you want to keep working.  Only for Pokémon-GX, though, which is in itself both a pro and a con.  It is nice that the Attack can work using any Energy, as it means it is available to just about any deck, but unlike the Ability, it often won’t be worth it.  In a pinch, however, it can still do some damage while maybe stalling for time; you’ll need to flip correct and your opponent has to fail to remove the Confusion while flipping poorly.  Tail Trickery would still be filler if it were priced at [C], but at least it’d be easier to use in Standard.

Being a Basic is the next most important thing about this card.  It makes Mimikyu easy to run, whether as TecH, a full four count, or something in between.  Next is the Retreat Cost of [C]; you probably don’t want Mimikyu Active, so it is good that it is easy to get out of the way.  We established it is an emergency attacker only, so the 70 HP mostly matters on the Bench or when Mimikyu does get stuck up front.  Its a very easy OHKO while Active; it is a little safer on the Bench (assuming no Bench protection), but only a little.  Mimikyu has the best Weakness and the worst Resistance: none!  With its HP, neither stat particularly matters.  Mimikyu’s name matters a tiny bit as well, because other Mimikyu cards have made good.  Fortunately, neither they nor this one needs to be maxed out (from what I’ve seen), so they can coexist in the same deck reasonably well.

Theoretically, almost any deck could try and make use of it, but negating the Ability of an opponent’s Pokémon-GX after attacking it kind of limits the benefits.  You could use Rainbow Energy on something like Latios-GX, to disable its “Power Bind” Ability so it can attack regardless of your Bench size.  Fortunately, there are many ways to spread damage counters around the field, in both Standard and Expanded.  Blacephalon (SM – Cosmic Eclipse 104/236; SM – Black Star Promos SM221) requires precise timing, but dumps a lot of damage counters quickly.  Giratina (SM – Lost Thunder 97/214; SM – Black Star Promos; SM – Black Star Promos SM151) and the soon-to-release Galarian Zigzagoon eat up Bench space but are otherwise easy to use.  Koffing (SM – Cosmic Eclipse 76/236, 243/236) and/or Weezing (SM – Cosmic Eclipse 77/236) require Roxie, but are another proven example.

In the Limited Format, Mimikyu is still a solid pull.  Pokémon-GX are going to be few and far between, and you’ll probably lack the combos needed to negate their Abilities while they are on the Bench.  However, the nature of the Limited Format means things that weren’t good attackers before can be good or even great here.  Mimikyu becomes an “okay” attacker here, where being easy to run off-Type and inflicting Special Conditions command a premium.  All the Pokémon-GX who with Abilities that aren’t good attackers in Constructed Format play become so here, and their massive HP means they could last several turns in the position… so Shadow Box can still prove valuable.

Ratings

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

Just about any deck can use today’s Mimikyu, but only certain decks can use it well, namely those that can spread damage counters easily or – at least – strategically.  Other forms of Ability denial may crowd it out, even in spread decks, but it definitely has a place in the current metagame.  Sword & Shield won’t change that, at least not right way.  This Mimikyu should survive the next set rotation; we’ll have to see how many Pokémon-GX with Abilities are still worth countering at that time.