aroramage |
No, you're not reading that wrong,
we are reviewing Mewtwo-EX twice...just two different
forms of Mewtwo-EX!
The first copy of Mewtwo-EX, #61,
was originally printed in the Blue Shock set in Japan,
hence why it's got a blue coloration to it as opposed to
its brother, #62, which has more of a red coloration due
to being printed in the Red Flash set. For simplicity's
sake and so you don't have to keep wondering which one
I'm talking about, I'm gonna stick to calling them
Redtwo (#62) and Bluetwo (#61).
Bluetwo isn't a particularly
exciting variation, wielding only two attacks, one of
which is a vanilla strike. Yep, you heard me, there's a
Pokemon-EX with a vanilla attack. You can see why I'm
not terribly excited about this one, and considering its
vanilla attack is the more expensive 4-cost Psyburn that
does 120 damage (which, to its credit, is pretty good),
I'm not going to hold my breath when this one turns out
to be the lesser of the two. At least Photon Wave is
cheap and flexible, at 2-for-30 and given the ability to
reduce any damage by 30. In a way, this is the
"defensive" form of Mewtwo.
Redtwo on the other hand is much
happier dealing out a ton of damage. Scatter Shot can
deal an explosive amount of damage in a short amount of
time, starting out at a cheap 1 Energy and dealing 30
damage for every Energy attached to Redtwo. In a way,
this makes him a more balanced version of the older
Mewtwo-EX, dealing more damage but also limiting its
output by restricting it to just Energy attached to
itself. And if he's ever in danger of getting KO'd, you
can just use Damage Change to put all the counters on
him onto your opponent's Pokemon instead! Or at the very
least, make sure your opponent has more damage counters
than you do.
So at the end of the day, I'd
personally be picking Redtwo over Bluetwo, but both are
relatively viable. Their weaker attacks make them
usable, and their larger attacks, while not strictly
foolproof, are useful in their own ways - Bluetwo's
being an offensive power, and Redtwo's making up for
what Scatter Shot might not be able to do. Combine these
guys with a M Mewtwo-EX, and well, things could get
really nasty really quick.
Rating
Mewtwo-EX #61 (Bluetwo)
Standard: 2.5/5 (his defensive
power lets him stick around a little longer than normal,
but he's still a decent pick)
Expanded: 2/5 (course it's hard to
compete with the original Mewtwo-EX)
Limited: 5/5 (no question about it,
you'd play him here)
Mewtwo-EX #62 (Redtwo)
Standard: 3/5 (Scatter Shot is a
powerful, cheap, explosive type of attack that needs
time to become really strong)
Expanded: 2.5/5 (but Damage Change
is a really nice addition to keep him around a bit
longer)
Limited: 5/5 (OF COURSE YOU RUN
THIS GUY)
Arora Notealus: It's always
interesting to see the comparisons between rivaling EX's
in the same set. It's definitely a rare opportunity when
it's the same name but a different card entirely!
Next Time: Mewtwo Mega Evolves into
his final form!!...man, he looks buff!
|
Otaku |
We have
a double feature today, covering Mewtwo-EX (XY:
BREAKthrough 61/162, 157/162, 163/162) and
Mewtwo-EX (XY: BREAKthrough 62/162, 158/162,
164/162). Why? The only difference between
the two relevant to game mechanics are their different
attacks: they have all the same attributes so if we
reviewed one (and I thought we ought to at least look at
one) then covering the other won’t even take me
that much extra writing.
So both
Mewtwo-EX are Psychic-Type Basic Pokémon-EX with
170 HP, Psychic Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat Cost
[CC], no Ancient Trait and no Ability. Being a
Psychic-Type means you can exploit Weakness against many
Psychic-Types and Fighting-Types, but you must deal with
Resistance against nearly all Darkness-Types and
Metal-Types. It also means don’t have to worry
about any explicitly anti-Psychic-Type cards while also
enjoying some Type-specific support. Since there
isn’t much I’ll just name them: Dimension Valley,
a Stadium that reduces the Energy Cost of attacks on
Psychic-Types by [C]; Gardevoir (BW: Next
Destinies 57/99; BW: Dark Explorers 109/108),
a Stage 2 Pokémon with an Ability (Psychic Mirage) that
causes basic Psychic Energy to provide [PP]
instead of just [P], Mystery Energy, a Special
Energy that can only be attached to Psychic-Types which
provides [P] and reduces a Psychic-Type Pokémon’s
Retreat Cost by [CC] while attached; and Wobbuffet
(XY: Phantom Forces 36/119; which shuts down
Abilities while Active, except for Abilities on
Psychic-Types. There are also some cards that are
easier to use in a Psychic-Type deck but which aren’t
restricted to them for effective use, and may indeed be
better elsewhere, such as Sigilyph (BW:
Dragons Exalted 52/124; BW: Plasma Freeze
118/116; BW: Legendary Treasures 66/113).
Being a
Pokémon-EX means these cards will give up an extra Prize
when KOed, will be excluded by a few card effects, and
also will be the target of certain,
detrimental-to-the-Pokémon-EX effects. It also
usually means better attributes (mostly HP) and effects,
but this isn’t hardwired into the cards. 170 HP is the
lower of the two most common HP scores for Basic
Pokémon-EX; nothing is guaranteed to survive any and all
attacks, but 170 HP is will survive a good deal.
Of course, not when Weakness is factored in, and that
Psychic Weakness can be quite dangerous: Night March
decks, Mewtwo-EX (really, any version), etc.
Lack of Resistance is typical so while it may have been
nice, I won’t dock either of these cards for lacking it.
Retreat Cost [CC] is low enough you can afford to pay it
often enough, nor is it so high you’ll always be
struggling to recover from having paid it, but it is
still high enough I’d prefer an alternative to
retreating at full price. Fortunately, quite a few
options are available and likely already in your deck:
Switch, Mystery Energy, etc.
Mewtwo-EX
(XY: BREAKthrough 61/162, 157/162, 163/162) has
“Photon Wave” for its first attack, at a cost of [CC].
It does 30 damage while also placing an effect on the
Defending Pokémon that reduces the damage by 30
before applying Weakness and Resistance. So in
a mirror match, if one Mewtwo-EX (XY:
BREAKthrough 61/162, 157/162, 163/162) smacks
another copy of itself with Photon Wave, that second one
will not be able to damage the first since again, the
damage is reduced before Weakness. The
second attack on this version of Mewtwo-EX is “Psyburn”
for [PPCC], doing 120 damage. While not brilliant,
this seems like a decent enough return for that much
Energy. If this card had nothing else to offer, it
would be a concern but this is an Evolving Basic
Pokémon-EX so this likely wouldn’t be your main reason
for using the card. The attacks have some basic
synergy in that you have the smaller attack leading into
the larger attack (including with compatible Energy
costs, even factoring in common Energy acceleration),
plus Photon Wave should help Mewtwo-EX survive
longer, allowing you to build to Psyburn.
Mewtwo-EX
(XY: BREAKthrough 62/162, 158/162, 164/162) on
the other hand can use the attack “Scatter Shot” for
[P]. The attack does 30 damage times the amount of
[P] Energy attached to itself. This is a good
attack, though not great. It allows you to scale
the damage based on how much [P] Energy you have
attached to this Mewtwo-EX: 30 for [P], 60 for
[PP], 90 for [PPP], 120 for [PPPP], etc. Getting
more than two [P] Energy attached seems difficult, but
if you do you get an okay return. The second
attack is “Damage Change”, priced at [PPC]. This
allows you to switch all damage counters from this card
and the opponent’s Active. So if this Mewtwo-EX
has 150 damage on it and the opponent’s Active has 40,
then you’ll end up with 40 on Mewtwo-EX and 150
on the opponent’s Pokémon after using Damage Change.
Ideally you’ll find something with no damage and
shift enough damage from Mewtwo-EX to score a
OHKO, but the reality is you may simply end up hitting
your opponent’s Active as hard as it just hit you (if
Mewtwo-EX survived the hit). You need to be
careful as these attacks can clash if used in order of
damage costs: if you plan on using Damage Change, don’t
pepper the opponent with Scatter Shot while building
(unless it will score a KO). Otherwise you’ll just
have damage to move back onto Mewtwo-EX.
Now using Scatter Shot to finish off something that
survived Damage Change can be necessary.
Both of
today’s Mewtwo-EX are competing against the
original Mewtwo-EX in Expanded, released as
BW: Next Destinies 54/99, BW: Next Destinies
98/99, BW: Black Star Promos BW45 and BW:
Legendary Treasures 54/113. Once again, we
have the exact same attributes:it’s a Psychic-Type Basic
Pokémon-EX with 170 HP, Psychic Weakness, no Resistance,
Retreat Cost [CC], no Ancient Trait and no Ability.
It also has two attacks, in this case “X-Ball” for [CC]
and “Psydrive” for [PPC]. The former does 20
damage times the total amount of Energy attached to
itself and the Defending Pokémon, while the
latter hits for a flat 120, but requires you discard an
Energy from Mewtwo-EX (that is, itself). If
you’re new, this is great and was once incredible: we
reviewed this card
here
as the number one place for our Top 10 for BW: Next
Destinies, as the number one new card in our Top 10
countdown for 2012
here,
then a third time
here
as the fourth most important card reprinted in BW:
Legendary Treasures and finally
here
as the eighth most important card lost to the last
Standard set rotation. Even with the increased
competition for doing what it does, it remains a great
card, though it is no longer shaping the format.
Any deck running Double Colorless Energy or with
a similar trick to allow you to X-Ball for a single
Energy attachment can make use of it as a good-to-great
attacker, and if you’ve got a means of attaching more
Energy then it can become an amazing OHKO machine.
We also
have two potential Mega Evolutions, M Mewtwo-EX (XY:
BREAKthrough 63/162, 159/162) and M Mewtwo-EX
(XY: BREAKthrough 64/162, 160/162). Both
are Psychic-Types with Psychic Weakness, no Resistance,
no Ancient Trait, no Ability but one single attack.
They also can each use Mewtwo Spirit Link to
avoid the turn ending drawback of Mega Evolution. M
Mewtwo-EX (XY: BREAKthrough 63/162, 159/162)
has 230 HP, Retreat Cost [CCC] and the attack “Vanishing
Strike”. Vanishing Strike costs [PFFC] and does
150 damage, plus if there is a Stadium in play an
additional 50 (so 200 damage) while ignoring Resistance
or any other effects on the opponent’s Active.
We’ll get into this more
tomorrow,
but the short version is that this is a pain to afford
the Energy cost but pretty good once it gets going.
The big issue is supply the last 20 to 50 damage needed
to OHKO anything in the format (that lacks boosted HP;
that wouldn’t get ignored). M Mewtwo-EX (XY:
BREAKthrough 64/162, 160/162) has 210 and Retreat
Cost [CC] with the attack “Psychic Infinity”. For
[CC] it does 10 damage plus 30 per Energy attached to
both Active Pokémon, but ignores Weakness. This is
still a great damage return as for two Energy you hit
for 70, three you hit for 100, for four Energy you hit
for 130… and as you count the Energy attached to both
M mewtwo-EX itself and the opponent’s Active, four
or more Energy isn’t unreasonable. The more
resource laden the opponent’s Active, the harder you’ll
hit it. This one was reviewed
here
as fourth place pick for the Top 10 of XY:
BREAKthrough.
Both
M Mewtwo-EX managed to win multiple recent City
Championships, with 60 total Top 4 finishes between the
two (and including both Standard and Expanded play). M
Mewtwo-EX (XY: BREAKthrough 64/162, 160/162)
provided 45 of those, with 39 being for Standard play
and 6 for Expanded, while M Mewtwo-EX (XY:
BREAKthrough 63/162, 159/162) having 15 of the
finishes, but only in Standard play. I’m not
seeing any results for plain Mewtwo-EX (any of
them) over on the
The Charizard Lounge. That was a bit of a surprise but only a little; even the
classic version may just be so familiar it isn’t worth
specifically listing, or because by now there are so
many alternatives that if you aren’t running a version
of M Mewtwo-EX, you should stick to something
like Lugia-EX (XY: Ancient Origins 68/98,
94/98) instead. Still that gives us our guidelines
for using today’s Mewtwo-EX (both of them).
If you can not meet the specific Energy costs,
then Mewtwo-EX (XY: BREAKthrough 61/162,
157/162, 163/162) is your best bet in Standard: it can
still use Photon Wave when M Mewtwo-EX isn’t
online. If you can meet the Psychic Energy costs,
then I’d favor Mewtwo-EX (XY: BREAKthrough
62/162, 158/162, 164/162) for its solid attack in
Scatter Shot and useful trick with Damage Change.
I can’t be certain, but I’d still probably run one
Mewtwo-EX (XY: BREAKthrough 61/162, 157/162,
163/162) as well, for those odd situations where it
would be better, assuming a fleshed out line (if you’re
only running two Mewtwo-EX in the first place,
nevermind).
For
Expanded play, the now iconic Mewtwo-EX (BW:
Next Destinies 54/99, BW: Next Destinies
98/99, BW: Black Star Promos BW45; BW:
Legendary Treasures 54/113) is still the best.
Again though I’d be tempted to work in either of today’s
versions if I had sufficient space: so room and need to
run at least three Mewtwo-EX total (if not four)
and only if I don’t need a full four copies of the
X-Ball version. That is a pretty big “if” but you
never know when you’ll be better off going on defense or
swapping out damage counters. For Limited play,
both Mewtwo-EX are strong enough to run entirely
on their own in a +39 deck. There is the usual
risk of being overwhelmed as whichever Mewtwo-EX
you go with you won’t have any other Basic Pokémon to
fall back on after it is KOed, but Photon Wave will
likely be amazing as it buys you time to build to a
Psyburn that OHKOs most of what you’ll encounter, making
it quite likely you’ll survive long enough to take four
Prizes before Mewtwo-EX is KOed… while periodic
uses of Damage Change and strong blows with Scatter Shot
accomplish the same for our other Mewtwo-EX.
Ratings
(Both)
Standard:
3.75/5
Expanded:
3.25/5
Limited:
4.75/5
Summary:
Wait, how did two cards that are so different clock in
with the same scores? Besides the fact I likely
wanted them to in order to make scoring more simple,
neither is likely to be your focus outside of Limited,
but instead are going to be stepping stones M Mewtwo-EX.
In Standard they are your only choice, but do offer
enough to be more than vapid placeholders. One
could even tailor the deck a bit to try and exploit
their unique strengths, which I did not delve into as I
don’t have proof that this is worth the effort. Mewtwo-EX
(XY: BREAKthrough 61/162, 157/162, 163/162) is
better when you can’t reliably supply [P] Energy while
Mewtwo-EX (XY: BREAKthrough 62/162,
158/162, 164/162), and I believe this is close enough to
balancing out that I’ll risk calling it that while
looking silly with my two-places-after-the-decimal-point
scores suggesting more precision. Both drop a lot
in Expanded due to superior competition, but still are
solid cards in their own right, possibly with just
enough uniqueness to still be worth considering as a
single alongside Mewtwo-EX (BW: Next Destinies
54/99, BW: Next Destinies 98/99, BW: Black
Star Promos BW45; BW: Legendary Treasures
54/113).
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