Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm writing about a card that I've heard a lot
of discussion about lately. That card is the Mew card (promo #8). I put a
few in every psychic deck I make for a few reasons. First of all I don't
have that many good psychic Pokemon so I need something to fill out the deck
and I've got around 30 of these cards thanks to some hippy at Borders that
gave me a couple big chunks of them to me and my GF. Well, lets look him
shall we...

Mew - 50 HPs (That kinda sucks since he has no evo, but it sure is better
than retarded Abra and Basic Gastly. Gastly makes me wanna puke.)

Retreat Cost - 1 (Kinda sucks too since he is such a wuss, Dodrio can help
out. But you dont want a damaged Mew on the bench because he becomes a
severe liability.)

Resistance - None (Not a big deal as most psychic have no resistance)

Weakness - Psychic (Not much of a surprise here either.)

Attacks - This is where it gets interesting, and this is where many of the
debates about the viability of this card pop up. I guess I'll talk about his
first attack first...

Psywave -1 P Energy- {10 Damage times the # of Energy cards attached to the
defender}. (Hmmmm. I like MewTwos better cause you get a bonus 10 added on,
but for 2 energy. This is a pretty bad early game attack when the defender
will have only 1 or 2 energy limiting you to 10 or 20 damage<yikes>. In most
cases Mew will be offed even before he can take out a basic. Machop will
punch his little face in and Ratatta will chew his ankles off. In general I
think it ain't too usefull vs. Basics(unless something that needs much
energy to operate, a GOW Snorlax?. Watch out for DCE. Against evolved
pokemon its a different story. Seems to me that weaknesses aside Mew can
only dish out 40 damage a turn, unless someone is pulling some wacky
Executor stunt or is planning a SER or super potion. I've noticed it is also
useful when some is expecting you to SER them. A few times I've searched or
scavenged a SER out of my deck and when my opponent sees it he adds a extra
energy to his defender expecting to lose some of the slack cards. This is
when Mew shines through. Since the Psywave only costs you one P Energy you
can hold him in yer hand until the time is right to surprise an especially
energy laden pokemon. Hopefully it is damaged already and GOW can't hurt
either. Better make sure your surprise attack works out or Mew is friggin
dogfood next round. Cause anyone with 4 energy on 'em is gonna cause serious
trouble. Keeping a Mew on yer bench can also cause your opponent to play
differently to adjust to Mew. So I recommend holding him till the time is
right. Well, I guess I covered this attack as much as I can stand. In
General- Psywave is a good surprise attack for 1 P energy, but sucks vs.
many many cards that deal ok damage for a low energy cost.

Devolution Beam -2 P Energy- {Choose an evolved pokemon anywhere in play and
remove the top evolution to owners hand} (Hmmmm... Obviously would rock if
the evo was discarded, otherwise it is only useful in very specific
situations. Situation #1 is when a pokemon of your opponent has evolved and
has accumulated enough damage to K.O. it's lower level pokemon. Gyrodos and
Magikarp is an obvious example. Good targets are pokemon with a large
discrepancy between HPs. You'd better kill it or your opponent will just put
it right back together on his turn. Good to really lay the smackdown on a
deck that relies on a few Pokemon Breeders. Remember you can whack retreated
evos too, right on the bench. Better used as a surprise but it'll take 2
turns to power up, but can still off all those tuffguys waiting for a
healing or hiding. Good Bench killing power if used correctly. Situation #2
is when you have a pokemon you want to de-evolve. Can cure poison and
confusion but if Mew is active then others are benched and exempt from that
status. So how is he useful? I like to use him to pull a devo on a
damaged(not too heavily) pokemon and evolve a different copy of same
pokemon. So I can swap my one and only Gengar around. I guess you could swap
around Eevee evolutions as needed based on weaknesses and resistances. Same
deal with Dragonair and Dragonite to access old powers or different
resistances. Or pull a stunt like powering up a benched Omanyte or Kabuto
only to turn it into an Aerodactyl. Pretty lame idea unless in a very
specific situation. In general, Mew's Devo Beam is a wacky attack that can
only help you once in a while. I'd rather do damage than devo my own
pokemon, unless I've have some really crazy plans a brewing.

I'm sure I left out a bunch of uses for this card, feel free to e-mail me or
post any other ideas you can come up with. In general Mew can be useful if
you are careful with him, and watch out for his low HPs. Most useful when an
opponent isn't expecting him to pop-up. I got to go make some coffee so I'll
catch you guys later.

Rollins-X justinbrollins@hotmail.com
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