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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Top 10 BREAKthrough

- #3 - Mr. Mime

- BREAKthrough

Date Reviewed:
November 24, 2015

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Standard: 3.8
Expanded: 3.8
Limited: 3.65

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being horrible.  3 ... average.  5 is awesome.

Back to the main COTD Page


aroramage

Breaking the mold of our Top 3 is none other than Mr. Mime, who's back again with a new Fairy Typing! You may recall that we've brought up Mr. Mime occasionally in the past, usually referring to his Bench Barrier Ability and its power to keep spread damage from...well, spreading. And now he's back in action! 

Bench Barrier works the same as before, preventing your Benched Pokemon from taking any damage from attacks. This is useful against stuff like Primal Kyogre-EX, who can hit Benched Pokemon-EX for 30 damage with his main attack, or like Kyurem-EX's Glaciate that deals 30 damage to everything on your field period! Needless to say, it's had its fair share of fame in the past, and Mr. Mime getting brought back into Standard is a nice face to see! 

But compared to his counterpart from Plasma Freeze, what's changed? Well, the rebranded Fairy-typing helps Mr. Mime out against Dark-types, since he gains a Resistance to them. He loses out on all the Psychic support like with Dimension Valley and Mystery Energy, taking in Wonder Energy instead...not that you'd probably be using either of their attacks. The old Mr. Mime's Psy Bolt was only a 2-for-20 strike with a 50/50 shot of Paralyzing while the new Mr. Mime's Juggling costs the same amount to flip 4 coins and deal 10 damage for each heads. Needless to say, neither is functional as an attacker. 

Other than that, Mr. Mime is pretty much the same - same HP, same Retreat cost, same Ability. So does it matter which one you run in your deck? Not particularly, at least to me. If you're playing Standard, you're gonna stick with this guy since the Plasma Freeze copy isn't legal anymore, but even in Expanded, it's not a major difference one way or the other. If you like hanging onto your old Mr. Mime, go for it, but if you like Mr. Mime cleaning your windows from WAY too high up, give this guy a try! 

Either way, your Bench is safe. 

Rating 

Standard: 4/5 (if you're facing trouble with your Bench getting protected, give this guy a try!) 

Expanded: 4/5 (either way, it doesn't matter which one you use here) 

Limited: 2.5/5 (...I uh...I don't recall there being too many Bench attacks in this set, actually...Gengar, Chesnaught, there might be a couple of others...) 

Arora Notealus: One of my earlier decks when I jumped back into the game was actually a spread deck, centered around the old Kyurem's Glaciate to deal damage to multiple Pokemon. The problem with that though was that it'd take too long, and since I didn't think of the strategy to build up an attacker - since this was also back before Pokemon-EX were a mainstay in most decks and before Blastoise came back with his Deluge - I would end up losing pretty badly. Not that Mr. Mime made it easier to use that deck, but there ya go. 

Next Time: OH BABY A TRIPLE!!

 

Our number three pick is… Chiaotzu? 

Silly me, that’s Mr. Mime (XY: BREAKthrough 97/162)!  As a Fairy-Type, it only gets to exploit Weakness when attacking XY-era Dragon-Types, but so far never has to worry about Resistance or “anti-Type” cards.  The Fairy-Type has some support that explicitly only works for Fairy-Types but it the best example I can see is Wonder Energy among those, which is merely “okay”.  Better is the Stadium Fairy Garden but that only refers to [Y] Energy, so non-Fairy-Types can use it so long as they have a basic Fairy Energy card or a Special Energy card such as Rainbow Energy attached.  Aromatisse (XY 93/146) is probably the biggest piece of support the Type has and it’s “Fairy Transfer” Ability is also focused on [Y] Energy, and as that includes things like the aforementioned Rainbow Energy it has been used not only in support of other Fairy-Types but for Toolbox decks with a variety of off-Type attackers.  As such, this seems like one of the weaker Types to me though it does have its benefits. 

Being a Basic on the other hand is pure win right now; Basics are easy to play and require minimum deck space while also having a natural synergy with certain card effects plus a few pieces of Basic Stage support.  Yes, there are “anti-Basic” cards in the metagame, including one (Silent Lab) that is pretty easy for many decks to include.  The 70 HP is… iffy.  If Mr. Mime plays a role where it either safely sits on the Bench or functions as a glass cannon, it will do though 90 HP would have left it still Level Ball compliant but ever-so-slightly more durable.  If it doesn’t do either of these things, Mr. Mime will be in trouble.  The Metal Weakness means that 70 HP will be just a bit more frail, but as there aren’t a lot of splashed in, low damage Metal-Type attackers, especially compared to things that simply will hit for 70 in one hit anyway, the Metal Weakness is relatively benign.  The Darkness Resistance could come in handy but not too often; -20 only goes so far especially on 70 HP.  The single Energy Retreat Cost is nice and easy to pay, plus recovering from spending a single Energy isn’t overly difficult most of the time. 

Mr. Mime has no Ancient Trait but an incredibly familiar Ability: “Bench Barrier” is back!  This Ability prevents all damage done to your Benched Pokémon by attacks; doesn’t matter whether the damage is from an attack by your own Pokémon or your opponent’s Pokémon, it gets stopped and it only works for your Bench and not both players.  This has appeared before (more on that in a bit), and is established as being useful due to removing the drawback of certain useful attacks (protecting your Bench from your own attacks) but mostly to protect your Pokémon from your opponent’s Bench hits, especially smaller Pokémon.  This protection is not perfect however as anything that isn’t an attack (such as an Ability, Pokémon Tool, etc.) can still damage your Bench and attacks that place or move around damage counters still function as well.  The attack is “Juggling” for [YC], which lets you flip four times, scoring 10 damage per “heads”.  This is a poor, flippy filler attack and should only be used when desperate, if then. 

There three other versions of Mr. Mime available: BW: Plasma Freeze 47/116, XY 91/146 and XY: Primal Clash 101/160.  All are still Basic Pokémon with no Ancient Traits.  XY 91/146 and XY: Primal Clash 101/160 have a lot in common: both are Fairy-Types with 80 HP, Metal Weakness, Darkness Resistance, Retreat Cost [CC], no Abilities and two attacks.  XY 91/146 can use “Massage” for [YC] to heal 60 damage from one of your Benched Pokémon or for [YCC] use “Slap Down” to hit for 40 damage plus 20 per “heads” from the two coin flips the attack requires you perform.  These attacks are poor; Massage means you’ll give up an attack and two Energy to heal 60 when you could give up just one Energy to use Super Potion, while Slap Down only hits adequately for the Energy with two “heads”.  it received a review here.  XY: Primal Clash 101/160 has a somewhat interesting first attack (Trick) that requires [C] that allows you to move a Pokémon Tool attached to one of either player’s Pokémon and move it to another of said player’s Pokémon (no moving Tools from one player’s Pokémon to the other player’s Pokémon).  Its second attack (Lock Up) needs [YC] to hit for 30 and prevent the Defending Pokémon from retreating on your opponent’s next turn.  These effects are useful though the damage output seems a bit low, but Mr. Mime is probably getting KO’d after using them, so it doesn’t seem quite worth the Energy. 

Mr. Mime (BW: Plasma Freeze 47/116) is only available in Expanded and is very similar to today’s subject: same name, same Stage, same HP, same Retreat Cost, same lack of Ancient Trait, same Ability.  Word for word, this Mr. Mime has Bench Barrier as well and is why we know the effect to be so useful.  This Mr. Mime is a Psychic-Type with Psychic Weakness and no Resistance and a different attack (Psy Bolt) though the cost of [PC] is similar to that of Juggling and does 20 damage plus (on a coin flip) inflicts Paralysis on the opponent’s Active.  This one has been reviewed twice before, one here and then a second time as part of our Top 10 list for 2013.  Psy Bolt isn’t great but it is better than Juggling, but unless your deck cares about Mr. Mime being a Psychic-Type or you fear having Metal Weakness more than Psychic Weakness (seems unlikely to me), this isn’t as good as the new version, but the differences are minor.  There is also another piece of competition in the form of Mountain Ring, a Stadium reviewed here; it also blocks Bench damage but for both players.  This will rarely be the best choice but sometimes Bench space is more valuable than a Bench slot or more likely, you are doing something that shuts down Abilities. 

Not every deck will need this card, but every deck wishes it had room to run one just to cut off the often annoying and sometimes game winning Bench hits.  Decks with smaller attackers or that damage their own Bench and have nothing worth using that damage to fuel should run one of either Mr. Mime with Bench Barrier.  Multiples are usually unnecessary: the Ability doesn’t stack in any manner so extras only serve to avoid it being stuck in Prizes (most decks are fast enough to just use Town Map to avoid that and gain other benefits) or as insurance if one is KOed (most decks are also fast enough that the turn an opponent spends doing that is compensation enough).  If you need an example of a deck that should rarely - if ever - lack a Bench Barrier Mr. Mime, it is probably Night March.  Not only are you dealing with mostly or all Basic attackers (and support) that have low HP scores allowing small Bench hits to quickly add up, but specifically you’ve got Joltik (XY: Phantom Forces 26/119) and its mere 30 HP: 30 damage is the typical “good” bonus Bench hit amount and even the smallest hit (10) just needs three shots to score the OHKO.  Pumpkaboo (XY: Phantom Forces 44/119) is the other Night Marcher that actually hits the field, and its 60 HP isn’t much better. 

Mr. Mime (XY: BREAKthrough 97/162) is more valuable to Standard play than Expanded because in the latter where we still have Mr. Mime (BW: Plasma Freeze 47/116), who has been covering our Bench for the last year and a half.  That doesn’t mean the new version is meaningless here; in fact it is just a smidge better because the Psychic-Typing of its elder sibling only matters in a select few decks where Mr. Mime can attack on those rare occurrences where it is worth using in that manner.  Possibly a few decks also have a rather poor match-up against Metal-Types and similarly would prefer something that lacks Metal Weakness.  Most of the time, Psychic Weakness is a bigger concern, leading me to favor the new Fairy-Type version even in this older format, though it is quite, quite close as we are getting down to almost a trivial level of details.  For Limited play, only leave out Mr. Mime if you are running a +39 deck (a deck built around a single, powerful Basic Pokémon); while most decks will lack a Bench-hitter, it tends to be a more valuable trait here and there are some in this set.  As is often the case I expect Limited decks to have more room for such tricks (both hitting the Bench and having a Bench-sitter just to counter it) than in constructed formats even though Limited decks are only 40 cards: you just aren’t likely to pull enough “other” useful cards to fill up the slots with something better. 

Ratings 

Standard: 3.65/5 

Expanded: 3.6/5 

Limited: 4.8/5 

Summary: If decks were far roomier or Bench damage the dominant strategy, Mr. Mime would be a staple as a single, and as is it is one of those cards you’ll keep until you’re forced to cut it for space and will need to keep no matter what if your deck is especially vulnerable to Bench hits, such as Night March.  Scoring is difficult because I’m drawing a blank on potent Bench hits for Standard; all the things I am most worried about defending against are in Expanded where again, we already have a nearly identical option. 

It also is a bit awkward because at least so far, our cards are all tightly clustered when it comes to scores; it makes me want to score some things higher or lower to force a progression.  I do approve of Mr. Mime placing this highly: it was my number three pick as well!  It also tied with second place and only beat fourth place by two voting points.


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