aroramage |
...you're probably looking at this
and thinking to yourself one of two things: "Why is this
little guy all the way up so high on this list?" or
"Yep, saw that one coming."
The long and short of it is pretty
simple when you get right down to it, and by the end of
this, we'll all be groaning for why Mew's at #4 on our
list. He's nothing special at first - 50 HP on a Basic
non-EX is pretty low though, making his Psychic Weakness
not even matter that much at all. Meanwhile he's got
free Retreat - always a plus - but there's also the
matter of his Ability and attack.
The attack won't be much of
anything - Encounter just adds a Pokemon from your deck
to your hand. It's a nice thought to be sure, but with
no damage output, Mew can't be expected to do more than
tutor a Pokemon and then get sent to the discard pile,
giving the opponent a free Prize. It's not worth it at
all to use - but his Ability is what has brought him to
the list today.
His Ability is Memories of Dawn,
which lets him enact his might as the ancestor of all
Pokemon and recall any attack out there...so long as
it's on your Bench and from one of your Basic Pokemon.
That seems like a major restriction, but considering
Mew-EX (DEX) could do the same thing with his Versatile
attack, it would be pretty ridiculous to expect him to
do so much. But then what can one do? Including the
restrictions of what Pokemon it can come from, you still
need the Energy to make the attack work.
This might throw some people off at
first. Unless Mew's charging up over a couple of turns,
chances are the most Energy he'll get is 1 specific
Energy or 1 DCE. Seismitoad-EX's Quaking Punch and
Mewtwo-EX's X-Ball/Lugia-EX's Aero Ball come to mind,
but they don't seem like decks that need Mew. What deck
runs Basic Pokemon with a cheap up to 2 Colorless Energy
attack that can do massive damage?
The answer...is Night March.
Mew is #4 on our list because of
Night March.
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (under normal
circumstances, I'd be giving this card a 2/5, cause if
it weren't for the very existence of Night March, this
card wouldn't be that great at all)
Expanded: 4/5 (as it is, it's
another Pokemon to throw into the deck as an alt
attacker to benefit from those 4 copies of Joltik you
run)
Limited: 2/5 (but put it in a
vacuum outside of Night March, and this card can only do
so much)
Arora Notealus: I don't like that
Mew ended up on our list like this. There's no question
that it's a good card, kinda like its predecessor before
it, but that saw play in a great variety of decks before
it was eventually retired. I'd rather see what players
can do other than copy the dominant strategy of the
format, and once we get to that point, we'll see where
Mew goes from there. After all, he does still combo well
with Dimension Valley...
Next Time: A hulking beast is only
as strong as his strongest attack...
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Otaku |
Just missing our top three is… oh, before that I should mention
that I did indeed write a review
yesterday,
I just was incredibly late. Now both mine and the
grovyle kid’s CotDs should have joined aroramage’s.
Yes, I also made the grovyle kid late as well. Even if
you read aroramage’s review, we didn’t all agree on the
card so why not see the differing analysis? I also
touch upon why it is important that last weekend was the
first for the Spring 2016 regionals.
Back on track, our fourth place finisher for our XY: Fates
Collide Top 10 is Mew (XY: Fates Collide
29/124). It is a Psychic Type, which means hitting a
large chunk of the Fighting and Psychic Types for double
damage via Weakness, but also having to deal with
Resistance on nearly all Darkness and Metal Types. I am
unaware of any expressly anti-Psychic Type cards;
instead countering them usually involves exploiting
whatever Weakness that card has or taking advantage of
their often lower HP scores (we’ll discuss what applies
to Mew in a bit). As will become clear as we
look at the rest of the card, being a Psychic Type may
have been the only option for a Mew but it serves
it well. Relevant, explicitly Psychic Type support that
will aid it are Dimension Valley and Wobbuffet
(XY: Phantom Forces 36/119; Generations
RC11/RC32); the former for lower attack costs by [C] and
the latter just because its “Bide Barricade” Ability
doesn’t affect other Psychic Types as well as some added
synergy since they are both Psychic Types. Speaking of
added synergy, the Psychic Type has some pretty strong
examples like the classic Mewtwo-EX (BW: Next
Destinies 54/99, 98/99; BW: Black Star Promos
BW45; BW: Legendary Treasures 54/113) which
can work in just about any deck, but can do a bit more
when on Type.
Mew is a Basic Pokémon as it always has been; this means it can be
your opening Pokémon, it can be put into play without
any other effects, no waiting to Evolve, and some
effects even work a bit better for Basics than other
Stages (like Super Scoop Up). There are some
anti-Basic effects out there, but there is also Basic
Stage support; in the end it all is very much in favor
of the Basic Stage. Mew only has 50 HP; this is
tiny and means it is almost as fragile as it can be; for
actual Pokémon (not some Item cards which could fake
being Pokémon) the lowest printed HP score is 30, only
20 points less. In the Active slot 50 is an almost
guaranteed OHKO, only better than 30 or 40 in a select
instances, but on the Bench it matters a bit more; bonus
Bench damage tends to be more like 10, 20, or 30 damage
so Mew is outside of incidental bonus OHKO range
of things like the “Hammerhead” attack on Landorus-EX
or a single use of the “Surprise Bite” Ability found on
Crobat (XY: Phantom Forces 33/119).
Psychic Weakness is typical for TCG Psychic Types based
on the video game Psychic Type, even though there
Psychic resists Psychic. What it means for Mew
is that it is extra fragile against its fellows and as
this Type is actually more about sneaky tricks than raw
damage (with notable exceptions) instead of being
pointless overkill, the Weakness can really matter.
Lack of Resistance is typical and even if Mew
had it, it probably wouldn’t do it much good thanks to
its low HP. What will do Mew a lot of good is a
perfect free Retreat Cost; most decks are running
something to fake having a free Retreat Cost, but this
lets you save your Float Stone or Mystery
Energy for something else.
Mew has one attack and one Ability and if you’ve looked at the card,
it is the Ability that we really care about… so I’m
going to cover the attack first to get it out of the
way. If you have to use the attack printed on Mew,
“Encounter” actually isn’t bad. It costs [C] and allows
you to search your deck for a Pokémon to then add to
your hand. It isn’t great as your opponent can hit you
with a hand disrupting effect like N or do
something (like take a KO) that makes whatever you got
no longer relevant to the field, but Dimension Valley
can allow Mew to use this attack for free and if
you’re in a pinch, this can grab a Jirachi-EX or
Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 77/108,
106/108) to try and restart your deck. It can be any
kind of Pokémon as well. Now, what about that Ability?
“Memories of Dawn” allows Mew to use the attacks
of any of your Basic Pokémon in play, though you still
have to meet the Energy costs for those attacks. This
can all get far more complicated than it seems, based
upon what all Memories of Dawn is interacting with (both
attached to Mew and in play).
-
Memories of Dawn cannot copy attacks
from anything but Basic Pokémon, but if
the attack Memories of Dawn is copying
can itself access attacks from something
other than your in play, Basic Pokémon,
that is okay. Example:
Sudowoodo is a Basic Pokémon with
the attack “Watch and Learn” which can
copy any attack the opponent’s Pokémon
used the turn before. Memories of Dawn
can copy Watch and Learn because
Sudowoodo is a Basic, and Watch and
Learn can copy whatever your opponent
just used to attack, even if it is no
longer in play!
-
The above only works with attacks that
copy attacks; if one of your Basic
Pokémon in play can use the attack of
something else because of an Ability,
attached Pokémon Tool, etc. then
Memories of Dawn cannot copy that
attack. Example: Memories of
Dawn cannot copy attacks that
Mew-EX has access to because of its
“Versatile” Ability, nor Memories of
Dawn copy the attack “All Cells Burn”
because even if Power Memory is
attached to Zygarde-EX, the
attack itself is from the Pokémon Tool.
-
Memories of Dawn cannot copy attacks off
of Basic Pokémon that are in the discard
pile, under their Evolved forms, etc. Example:
…any Basic under an Evolution of any
kind is off limits.
-
“This Pokémon” will refer to Mew
now instead of what was being copied.
Example: Durant (XY:
BREAKpoint 9/122) has an attack
called “Scrape Down” that discards four
cards from the top of your opponent’s
deck, but only if “this Pokémon” has at
least one damage counter on itself. If
Mew copies that attack through
Memories of Dawn, then Mew has to
have a damage counter on itself in order
to discard four cards.
-
Effects or conditions that reference a
specific Pokémon name will still refer
to that Pokémon. Unless you are using
older cards, this should not be
confusing. Example: Durant
(BW: Noble Victories 83/101) has
an attack called “Devour” that discards
the top card of the opponent’s deck for
each Durant you have in play. If
Mew uses Memories of Dawn to copy
and use Devour, it will still count the
number of Durant you have in
play.
-
If an attack being copied has a
mandatory cost, Mew must pay as
much as Mew is able, but the
attack will still be copied. Example:
Using actual cards, this requires a
complicated combo. So as a generic
example know that if an attack tells you
to discard more Energy cards (either
overall or of a specific Type) than you
have attached to Mew, you just
discard as many as you are able.
-
Remember that phrases like “...or this
attack does nothing.” mean that if you
cannot meet that condition, while you
still perform the attack, it will do
nothing! Example: Lugia-EX
(BW: Plasma Storm 108/135,
134/135; BW: Black Star Promos
BW83; BW: Legendary Treasures
102/113) has the attack “Plasma Gale”
which states that if you can’t discard a
Plasma Energy from “this Pokémon”
the attack does nothing. That still
goes for Mew if it is copying
Plasma Gale via Memories of Dawn.
-
If there is an optional cost for an
alternative or improved effect, you must
still meet that cost to access that
effect. Example: Landorus-EX
has the attack “Land’s Judgment” that
does 80 damage but states you may
discard all [F] Energy attached to it so
that the attack does an additional 70
damage. If Mew were able to copy
this attack without any [F] Energy
attached (I don’t know if that is
possible) then Mew could only
choose to do the base 80 damage. As
long as Mew has at least a single
[F] Energy attached, then Mew may
choose to discard all of them and do 150
(70+80) damage with Land’s Judgment.
Memories of Dawn is an amazing and potent Ability, but before we
explore how best to use it let’s see what the other
Mew are like, in case they compliment or compete
with today’s. There are two - BW: Black Star Promos
BW98 and XY: Black Star Promos XY110 - and both
are Basic, Psychic Type Pokémon with Psychic Weakness,
no Resistance, and Retreat Cost [C]. BW: Black Star
Promos BW98 is only legal for Expanded play and has
60 HP, the Ability “Psyscan”, and the attack “Psychic
Exchange”. Psyscan is a once-per-turn effect you can
reuse if you have multiple copies of it in play, but it
also only works while the Pokémon with it (in this case
Mew) is Active. Which is a bit of a shame
because it has an effect that might have helped it see
some competitive play if it worked from the Bench:
Psycan forces the opponent to reveal his or her hand to
you. This isn’t a continuous thing, just a single good
look. The attack might have been good if the designers
hadn’t made so many fast, powerful attacks that they had
to revamp the first turn rules to take away first turn
attacks: Psychic Exchange shuffles your hand into your
deck then allows you to draw six cards. So we have two
effects that weren’t great, but could have been solid if
circumstances were a bit different. So we don’t have to
worry about fighting this version for space, but neither
does it compliment today’s either.
XY: Black Star Promos XY110 has 70 HP;
while still fragile it is incrementally better than 50
or 60. This Mew has two attacks instead of an
Ability and attack like the other two Mew. For
[C] it can use “Clairvoyance” to make your opponent
reveal his or her hand (again, just looking at it once,
not forcing the opponent to play with a revealed hand),
while for [PCC] it can use “Psychic” to do 40 damage
plus 10 more for each Energy attached to your opponent’s
Active. These are old, familiar attacks and not
particularly good. Obviously Clairvoyance is just
Psyscan as an attack, and rarely will an effect be
better as an attack than an Ability. Psychic isn’t
hopeless, just not enough to cut it in most situations
as even something loaded with four Energy still only
takes 80 damage, and a reliable 80 for three Energy (on
your own Pokémon) would be mediocre; situational is
clearly worse. Unless your opponent is someone like me
who would be distracted by it being a pretty Full Art,
it isn’t going to help you enough to be worth running.
Again, skip it.
While not a direct competitor because it has a different name,
Mew-EX is quite relevant. We’ve reviewed it
twice
before;
a Psychic Type Basic Pokémon-EX with 120 HP, Psychic
Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat Cost [C], the Ability
“Versatile” and the attack “Replace”. Replace rarely
gets used as for [P] it just allows you to move around
your Energy in play (can be handy in a pinch though);
Versatile made this card because it allowed Mew-EX
to use the attacks of anything else in play (your
Pokémon or your opponent’s). Mew (XY: Fates
Collide 29/124) reverses the trend as instead of
Mew-EX being a beefier version of Mew, Mew
is a scaled down version of Mew-EX. Then again
even older iterations and variations of Mew have had
this trick in the TCG. This means we hit the ground
running, knowing what to look for when using today’s
Mew; in fact it may even replace Mew-EX in
some Expanded decks. Mew only can copy Basic
Pokémon and those on your side of the field, so you
won’t be able to toss it up front to “X-Ball” the
original Mewtwo-EX or “Quaking Punch” an
opponent’s Seismitoad-EX, unless you also have
your own copies of those cards on your side of the
field. The decks where Mew-EX is, was, or (were
it still Standard legal) would be copying attacks from
your own Basic Pokémon? If you don’t mind it being an
all but guaranteed OHKO, now you can give up only one
Prize instead of two while replicating it.
Night March may be the best example; fitting about everything I
just stated. Obviously Mew won’t increase Night
March damage directly, but as with Mew-EX it
allows you to stretch the effective amount of Night
Marchers you have in play while also hitting for a
single Energy if Mew copies Night March from
Joltik (XY: Phantom Forces 26/119) - which
normally costs [CC] - and reduces that cost by [C]
thanks to Dimension Valley. In Expanded I don’t
think it will completely replace Mew-EX since
part of the appeal of Mew-EX is being a fallback
for when you have to copy an attack off of an Evolution
or opposing Basic, plus thanks to Fighting Fury Belt
Mew-EX can reach 160 HP. While 160 is small for
a Basic Pokémon-EX, compared to today’s Mew and
the Night Marchers, it is massive. Beyond Night March,
Mew has potential as a Psychic splash in an
otherwise non-Psychic deck. Where it is more important
to use Type specific support, like in many Fighting
decks, this isn’t as appealing, and especially in
Expanded you have other options (Mew-EX and even
Mewtwo-EX in some cases) that will work as well
or better. Then we get to decks like those
hypothetically featuring the Durant from earlier.
Durant (BW: Noble Victories 83/101) isn’t
that much more durable than Mew, but if you can
force your opponent to KO Mew instead of
Durant, it will be much easier to keep four
Durant in play. Durant (XY: BREAKpoint
9/122) seems tailor made for Mew, as Dimension
Valley drops Scrape Down to a single Energy cost
while a Rainbow Energy simultaneously damages
Mew while fueling the attack. I don’t know if
either can discard the opponent’s decks fast enough to
be competitive, but they still demonstrate the
principles.
Unless a deck is really lacking for its Basics, Mew will
provide a variable attacker. If it has good enough
attacks to copy, it becomes a variable glass cannon,
going for a big hit even though it will be KO’d the next
turn. That free Retreat Cost is also useful; while
Mew and Psychic support is different enough from
Hawlucha (XY: Furious Fists 63/111) that the
two cannot be used exactly the same, even in decks of
their own Type. Hawlucha has, however, helped
remind many of us how important a natural pivot Pokémon
(not relying on Abilities or Trainers for its free
Retreat Cost) can be in a deck. Even copying just a few
solid Basic attacks to be the splashed in Psychic Type
and pivot Pokémon should give Mew strong general
usage, to go with the more deck specific ones, in
Standard and Expanded play. In Limited Format play,
this does not change, though the exact emphasis does: no
the free Retreat Cost is the main deal while copying
attacks is the sometimes helpful secondary purpose.
Unless you fail to pull a Mew (likely) or pull
something like Zygarde-EX and decide to run it
solo (very unlikely), Mew belongs in your Limited
deck.
Ratings
Standard: 4.25/5
Expanded: 4/5
Limited: 4.35/5
Summary: Mew seems like it has great potential. Its 50 HP may be
more of a risk than its free Retreat Cost is a help, but
thanks to Memories of Dawn Mew can be adequate in
decks which are not built around it, and can strengthen
or possible start some decks which are indeed build to
optimize its usage. In Expanded it is a bit less
important; now you can choose between this Mew
and Mew-EX for copying your own stuff, with the
usual regular versus Pokémon-EX tradeoffs (which in this
case also includes being able to copy a wider selection
of attackers).
As you can tell by my gushing I was very impressed by this card; so
impressed that it was the number one pick on my own
personal Top 10 for XY: Fates Collide. There are
cards which are just as good, if not better than it, but
the catch is that they are Double Colorless Energy,
N, Strong Energy, and Ultra Ball
and as reprints they weren’t eligible for this list.
The overall group obviously thought differently than
myself about Mew (but probably would agree with
me about those four reprints), and so it only managed 28
voting points. In the end I can understand Mew
only taking fourth place; its most likely contribution
is to strengthen something already reasonably strong.
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