Gengar & Mimikyu-GX – Pokemon Review

Vince

“Trick or treat?”

“Sorry, I ain’t got candy to spare.”

“Too bad, cause now you’re gonna get the scare of your life!”

That pretty much sums up what Gengar & Mimikyu-GX does. Halloween theme aside, this card can’t do much on its own, as it needs support from other cards that can help facilitate what those Tag Team Card does. Poltergeist is their main attack, as it cost PP and does 50 damage for each Trainer card your opponent has in their hand. It takes six (or five backed with Choice Band) to OHKO anything in the game. In order to deal sufficient damage, one must find a way to make your opponent hold that many trainer cards and not play them.

Omastar from SM Team Up comes to mind as it locks your opponent from playing item cards as long as you have fewer Pokémon in play than your opponent. That lock can be played around. Kabutops, also from SM Team Up, has an ability that locks your opponent from playing Supporters as long as Kabutops is Active. Again, that can be played around. Perhaps the best partner for Expanded is Vileplume from XY Ancient Origins, as it is a double sided lock for both players from using items.

Ultimately, there are better ways to KO instead of manipulating your opponent’s hand to get the desired result. It is actually more vulnerable like Pikarom, it’s Dark weakness and 240 HP means Zoroark-GX can OHKO it as long as the Zoroark player is fully loaded on Benched Pokemon and without any boost needed. Choice Band and Devoured Field makes the job even easier. Still, decks need Trainer cards to function, and with many decklists running between 30 to 40 trainer cards, there will be more opportunities to hit for high numbers.

“Sorry buddy, you ain’t scaring me with this card. Nice try, though!”

Ratings:

• Standard: 2.5/5
• Expanded: 2.5/5
• Limited: 3/5

aroramage

Ghost-types are so cool, aren’t they? They don’t have to be a specific kind of ghost, they can take over a lot of different forms, and they’ve usually got some sort of gothic aesthetic going on. Ahhh, Ghosts…alright let’s get this over with.

Genger & Mimikyu-GX is a Basic Psychic Tag Team Pokemon-GX, 240 HP, with a Darkness Weakness, a Fighting Resistance, and a Retreat Cost of 2 – one for each of them. Poltergeist is the only move they’ve got, and it’s a 2 Energy cost to get your opponent to reveal their hand, then it deals 50 damage for every Trainer card there. Then there’s Horror House GX, which only costs 1 Energy and prevents your opponent from playing any cards from their hand during their next turn. If you’ve got an additional Psychic Energy – useful since that’s exactly Poltergeist’s cost – both players can draw until they have 7 cards.

…yeah, excited as I was to see Gengar and Mimikyu partnering up onto a Tag Team card, this is without a doubt the worst of the lot. Poltergeist is extremely dependent on what your opponent’s got in their hand, which is likely to be hardly any Trainers. Supporters are the most likely to get stuck in their hand, since Items can be played right away, and Tools and Stadiums only really get stuck in duplicates. That’s where Horror House GX is supposed to help, but you’re still letting your opponent draw cards to try and power up your Poltergeist for the next turn. And that’s not even factoring in Pokemon and Energy, which you’ve now prevented them from getting rid of.

In short, Gengar & Mimikyu-GX shares a common trait with Latias & Latios-GX: it’s reliant on its GX attack to get somewhere, but at least you’re guaranteed to get the payoff from the regular attack with the latter, while the former gives your opponent a few cards to try and load their hand with Trainers to damage with. Chances are this is going to be the absolute lowest the Tag Team GX will be at in terms of power, or at least I hope that’s going to be the case.

Seriously, make a better Gengar & Mimikyu-GX, or I’ll start being the Poltergeist of this game.

Rating

Standard: 2/5 (Poltergeist should still get some mileage, but definitely not because of its own power)

Expanded: 1.5/5 (and you really don’t want to let your opponent draw here)

Limited: 3.5/5 (even if it’s to damage them)

Arora Notealus: Gengar and Mimikyu make for a great pairing – one’s a living shadow, the other’s a mysterious entity trying to disguise itself as a famous Pokemon. How can you not imagine them teaming up to take on the world? So it’s a real shame the card isn’t that great. At least it’s got great art, collector’s value is still valuable!

Weekend Thought: Think of any cool spots you can put this week’s cards into? Think of any cool ways to use these cards in your decks? What are your thoughts on the GX of this set? Do you think the game’s headed more towards a focus on smaller Pokemon that don’t cost as many Prizes but can still deal lots of damage, or is it in favor of the stronger and more powerful GX?

Otaku

We close the week with Gengar & Mimikyu-GX and I did not leave myself enough time to go into my usual level of detail. So I’ll be relatively brief; this is another massive monster of a Tag Team, less durable than the others because of its unfortunate [D] Weakness, which hurts when you’re 240 HP, worth three Prizes and Zoroark-GX is still a reasonably popular play. The reward from going for broke is that its first attack should hit fairly hard for two Energy, especially if you can “overpay” for the GX-attack and use it to lead into Poltergeist. Still, this is a one-time combo spread over two turns, and if your opponent already has a strong offense ready or a Zebstrika (LOT) on the Bench it may not work at all. It isn’t that crazy to add this to something like a Malamar (FLI) deck, where it’s just another attack option.

The other approach is to actually build your deck around Gengar & Mimikyu-GX, including enough control/disruption Poltergeist is able to safely go for OHKO’s and 2HKO’s. I have run into this deck by Omastar (TEU) and when the combo works it is agony but setting it up and maintaining it seems almost as painful for the person trying to run the deck as the one facing it! I do fancy it in the Expanded Format, where you might partner it with Vileplume (AOR) and just learn to live without your own Items… but there’s a difference between me being fond of the concept and having proof it works. Normally something this big would be an auto-run as a +39 deck for the Limited Format, but not this time. There is too great a chance your opponent will have no Trainers in hand, and for several turns. If you have a deck that can work in the Psychic Energy, then slap it in, and try to save it for when you can combo Horror House-GX into Poltergeist for the win…  or maybe force them to deck out!

Ratings

• Standard: 3/5
• Expanded: 3.2/5
• Limited: 3.2/5