If you want to buy a Mewtwo EX right now, it’d run you about $8.
That is, if you’ve been living under a rock and didn’t know that a new Mewtwo EX guaranteed for release from Next Destinies is going for preorder sale at SIXTY FIVE dollars each, or over $250 for a playset of four. Regardless of whether or not Mewtwo EX is actually worth that much, you cannot deny that it is likely the most hyped un-released card in the history of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
Mikey concluded his article yesterday with a very fitting question for today’s that happened to fit perfectly with what I’d been writing, so I found it only fitting to start today:
“As I said in my last article, I will leave you with a question; this time more directed at Pokemon:
Mewtwo EX has gained a lot of hype in the past few weeks. Looking ahead, do you think it will live up to the hype? Or will it be this year’s Gengar Prime? You guys tell me!”
Does Mewtwo EX live up to the hype? I’ve been extensively testing it in several different proxied deck concepts, and I’m beginning to develop my own opinion on the debate. Once I realized that I had another article during City Championships scheduled in January (even though it’s very close to the end of things), I decided I’d be best off working together a concepts and ideas to begin prepping you guys for States.
However, without knowing the complete set of Next Destinies, I couldn’t go into full detail on how our entire format is going to change. However, I do know that at least one guaranteed card is going to make an impact.
Today’s article is dedicated to the most expensive card in our format (aside from Tropical Beach), and how it’s looking to change (or not change) things up as we move ahead from City Championships into States.
The first step is to simply look at Mewtwo EX conceptually. Why would he excel in our current format? What could give him trouble right off the bat based on what’s being played right now in Cities? Let’s take a look:
The Good
Versatility
If there’s any main reason that Mewtwo EX would go high in price, it’s that he can fit into so many decks very easily. X-Ball functions on two Colorless Energy, allowing Mewtwo to function with every legal form of Energy acceleration and have potential through that alone. Celebi Prime, Pachirisu CL/Jirachi UL + Shaymin UL, Eelektrik NVI, Typhlosion Prime, and Emboar BLW 20 are all candidates right off the bat.
There is also a Gardevoir (not yet confirmed for Next Destinies) that doubles Psychic Energy value on Psychic Pokémon, and that’ll apply too.
Heck, even the fact that X-Ball functions in DCE makes him a viable attacker in any deck that runs DCE in it. All those options combined, and Mewtwo might find itself comfortably fitting in a large handful of popular decks.
Then, of course, there’s the never-ending cycle that stems from the fact that Mewtwo EX is one of the best counters to Mewtwo EX. If Mewtwo EX is popular, than it’ll become more popular. That’s just silly.
X-Ball
It sounds really dumb, but being able to do 40 damage for one energy is actually a big deal for a Basic Pokémon. Forgetting all other possibilities to add damage for Mewtwo EX early in the game, the list of prevalent Basic Pokémon that fall to Mewtwo EX+DCE->X-Ball is actually pretty significant, including the 30/40 HP Tynamo, 40 HP Oddish, 40 HP Voltorb, 30 HP Solosis, and of course the 30 HP Cleffa. A lot of these Pokémon play heavy roles in most of the major decks played right now, and being forced to go down a prize immediately is going to hurt.
If I had to compare it to anything, it seems to me like this could be very similar to the random immediate wins that Sableye SF could take with a Special Darkness Energy using Overconfident (before the rule change). Granted, Mewtwo doesn’t guarantee that you go first like Sableye did, but the same conditions (low HP opposing starter, need specific Basic and Special Energy to attack) definitely remind me of it.
In addition, you’re not too far off from taking cheap shots at most of the other powerful setup Basics in the format. One PlusPower adds Magnemite, Litwick, and plenty of others to your list of turn 1 KO’s. If you’re going second, your opponent also needs to be careful who they attach to — giving you the X-Ball for 60 to whoever received an Energy on turn 1.
As a Magnezone player who knows how useful it is to get an Energy on Magnemite the turn before you evolve to Magnezone, I could see this becoming really frustrating.
Beyond that, X-Ball is an attack that can easily grow into huge amounts of damage based on specific situations, because it includes energy on your opponent’s Active Pokémon, too. If your opponent has just 2 Energy on their Active Pokémon, that’s +40 damage to X-Ball right away. 3 Energy and you’re up to +60.
On your own end, Energy acceleration and DCE makes being able to have 3-4 energy on Mewtwo EX fairly common, giving you 60-80 damage to start with before you begin to add the extra damage your opponent will give you. It might not always add up perfectly to a OHKO, but being able to churn out high damage quickly makes X-Ball a great attack.
Massive HP
170 HP on a basic is just stupid, and is now officially the second-highest HP for any Basic Pokémon (behind just Groudon and Regigigas EX, neither of which confirmed for Next Destinies yet). Being a Basic Pokémon makes him Eviolite eligible, extending that padding to as high as 190 HP, putting him far outside OHKO range from everything short of a few specific Pokémon.
Aside from Magnezone and Psychic types (another Mewtwo EX, Mew Prime hitting for 90-100 damage, or something really obscure like Weezing HS), Mewtwo makes a pretty effective wall.
All of the new EXs are going to have absurdly high HP, but combining this high HP with a combination of versatility, a fast attack, and minimal weaknesses will more often than not lead Mewtwo EX to taking his worth of 2 prizes before giving them up. He’ll also make a great potential option in Ross/Truth variants because of this.
The “Okay”
Retreat
2 retreat cost isn’t the worst it could be, but it still isn’t exactly convenient. The prevalence of Catcher makes retreating to the bench a much weaker option than it used to be for preventing prizes on damaged Pokémon, though, so I don’t know how much it really matters.
Rarely will I find myself upset that Zekrom has 2 retreat instead of 1 because I’m usually just going to be attacking with him. Same story for Mewtwo EX.
Psydrive
On first glance, Psydrive seems much better than it actually is. Dealing 120 damage for 3 energy and discarding only one makes it seem like an instantly more efficient version of the already proven strong Blue Flare. However, not having access to a very consistent form of Psychic Energy acceleration makes using Psychic Energy at all in a deck pretty sub-optimal.
Jirachi CL can retrieve a few energy from the discard, but you’ll still need Shaymin on top of that to move the energies to Mewtwo, and that whole process is sloppy.
The only situation where I could buy using Psydrive would be if Gardevoir is released. In this new scenario, Mewtwo could use Psydrive on two Psychic Energy instead of three. Even considering this, having Gardevoir in play along with two Psychic Energies would still mean that you’d be hitting with X-Ball for a base damage of 80 (your 2 energy now count as 4).
If your opponent has 2 energy of their own, you’re already going to be hitting for the same amount of damage as Psydrive, and you won’t have to discard an energy.
Psydrive isn’t the worst attack ever, but most decks including Mewtwo EX will rarely be using it.
Psychic Type
Being Psychic has always been weird. You’re weak to yourself, making for some awkward mirror matches, but you’re never really abusing that type against anything else. No resistance either, so I can’t exactly give Mewtwo EX a reward for that.
