The Great Know-It-All: Ways to Utilize Mew From Fates Collide

Hello readers! This will be my second PokeBeach blog article. My last article involved looking at modified rules I saw at the very beginnings of the game. This article here will be the opposite: I shall analyze a future card that I believe will be one of the most versatile and metagame-shaking cards in the Standard Format. So without ado, let’s begin!

The 50 HP Powerhouse

Mew – Psychic – HP50

Basic Pokemon

Ability: Beginning Memories
This Pokemon can use the attacks of each of your Basic Pokemon in play. (You must still have the necessary Energy to use each attack.)

[C] Encounter: Search your deck for a Pokemon card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Shuffle your deck afterwards.

Weakness: Psychic (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 0

In Fates Collide, there are many powerful new cards: Carbink, which can ignore damage from Pokemon-EX, Regirock-EX, which adds even more power to already powerful fighting-type support we have, Serperior, which just sounds awesome to build a rogue deck around, and even a Barbaracle card that can induce special energy denial. But after looking into things, most of these cards pale in comparison to the effect that this Mew, shown here, could have in the competitive scene. (I say that even though I want to make Serperior work real badly! >_<)

So why, then, do I believe this one card could change the metagame forever? First, let’s analyze this card:

It can copy any of your Basic Pokemon’s Attacks

For many of you who have played this game for a while, this effect may remind you of the great Mew-EX, introduced in Black & White: Dragons Exalted, and rotated out of Standard play. That card, however, could copy an attack from any Pokemon, both yours’ and your opponents’, evolved or not. Because of that, this new Mew looks quite limited in what it can do in comparison… But despite that, the new Mew has other things going for it that make it much more playable than the original EX, as you’ll find out.

A Non-EX Basic

This is one major advantage it has over Mew-EX, and makes it very appealing to play: By being a Non-EX basic, your opponent only takes one prize card if it gets knocked out.

This, combined with the ability, is huge. It can use any of the awesome attacks from a Big Basic EX on your bench, yet have the prize denial of a Non-EX! The Basic clause also means it still takes advantage of many perks that have been given to them lately, like Max Elixir  and Fighting Fury Belt . That gives it so many opportunities to shine in many decks.

Psychic Type

If anything, this was the main reason Mew-EX got played, and for this new Mew, this is no exception. By being psychic type, Mew can be played as secondary type to use in a Deck strategy, hitting for weakness many powerful Pokemon in the metagame.

But that’s not the biggest strength to use it for: The typing allows you to utilize Dimension Valley, one of the most powerful stadiums in the game, to reduce the energy cost of attacks. With this stadium, Mew can attack with moves that normally require two energy with just one mere energy. Sometimes you can use this power to attack for free as well! The perks Mew has just keep stacking up, and open even more possibilities to the user.

Of course, with the typing, there is a Drawback: There are many Dark and Steel Pokemon that have resistance to the Psychic Type. Just keep that in mind when you decide to attack with it.

No Retreat Cost

This part, I believe makes this Mew much more broken than the old Mew-EX, which had one energy retreat. 0 Retreat is a rare, yet powerful attribute for a Pokemon to have in this game. It allows an incredible amount of versatility to literally any deck! Think of why almost every competitive deck you’ll see runs at least one Float Stone, or at least some way to retreat with few problems. With all the powers Mew has, it also has the power to switch around easily, built into the card?! I’m just baffled to why the card creators gave this card such power.

50 HP

Okay… This is the biggest problem this card has. The minuscule HP is even lower than a Pumpkaboo, and this makes it a big target for bench snipers like the notorious Crobat or Trevenant BREAK. A Fighting Fury Belt can help Mew a lot, giving it 90 HP. But even then, it is quite bound to being 1 Hit KO’d much more than, say, a 180 HP Big Basic EX. This makes Mew oftentimes a ‘glass cannon,’ and one that I probably wouldn’t recommend attaching any more than 2 energy to attack with it.

It Attacks with an Effect of an Ability

This is the other major problem: This meta has an incredible amount of ability hate right now – and Hex Maniac, Silent Lab, and Garbodor are cards to look out for. This is why you must take caution, and have plans to attack with your other Pokemon that you derived the attacks for Mew to use. Otherwise, 1 Hex Maniac could potentially shut down your entire strategy.

Fortunately, there’s at least some good news on that front. Wobbuffet doesn’t effect Mew’s Ability, due to its typing. Plus, since Mew has free retreat, switching to another different attacker shouldn’t be too difficult to do.

So… What on earth do I pair with it?

OH! THAT’S EASY! NIGHT M-

OH, SHUT UP! We’ll get to that later.

Given the card’s power, some of you might think there is… just 1 type of deck that has about… 1 card that Mew can pair with most properly. It might be because the original Mew-EX was most notoriously used predominantly in that said deck. It had so much less usage in other decks out there, and any other deck it was used in were often classified as rogue decks. But this new Mew is different, and is in a very different metagame now. There are many ways it can integrate into well known decks in the format, as well as perhaps creating a new deck archetype of its own! So let’s get started, shall we?

Night March

Okay, okay… I’ll get the most obvious and annoying deck out of the way and done and over with. Yes, this is the deck that made the old Mew-EX a popular card to play. For one thing, it allowed players to knock down EX’s, one by one, with one single basic energy attachment, a Dimension Valley, and a Joltik in on the bench. It had 120 HP, so it was harder than those frail Night Marchers to knock out, and by using basic energy, it escaped all the Special Energy hate that had been – and still is – incredibly prominent in the game.

Now, what about this new Mew in Standard? I think it will see some play, but I’m not sure if every Night March deck will use it… At least not in the same way. That’s because as much Special Energy targeting there is, Night March even now can play around it! This deck has gotten incredibly streamlined to a point that many competitive builds are very pure – tech-free in terms of pokemon, perhaps except for that stray Jirachi to troll the Seismitoad-EX or Giratina-EX decks out there. They also are really heavy in the amount of trainer cards, sacrificing all basic energy in order to put in a bunch of nasty items and whole set of Puzzle of Time to get out anything they need from the discard pile to burn down opponents.

The big issues I see with Mew for Night March are that it doesn’t bring as much to help this existing crazy deck as the older Mew-EX, and can even conflict in the deck’s ambitions. 50 HP means it is just as Frail as any other Night March attacker, so you might as well have yet another Joltik or Pumpkaboo in your deck, in that it is easily targeted by the great horde of Bats and Ninja Frogs. And since it uses an ability to attack, the Night March player’s ambition of using Hex Maniac to counter other strategies means shutting down Mew itself from attacking – you will still have to send the Joltik out to the active spot, and still play Double Colorless Energy in your deck.

That said, perhaps one or two of them could fit well within this deck. The free retreat is a luxury in this game, and with them out, the player has less to worry about having all Night Marchers in his or her discard pile, except for a lone Joltik on the bench, given that Mew acts as an extra duplicate attacker for the team. There’s nothing wrong with that choice, in my opinion.

Manectric EX

Mew could pair very well with a Manectric-EX / Crobat Deck. For one thing, if you play Dimension Valley, it doesn’t harm the deck that much, and can even let the Bats attack for free. Secondly, Mew gives Manectric more type coverage against the many Fighting Pokemon, like Gallade and Lucario-EX, that have been the bane of this electric dog for quite a while.

The third part, though, is the most amazing thing: Mew can utilize Manectric’s attacks perhaps even better than Manectric itself. With the Dimension Valley in play, It can use Manectric’s Assault Laser for only one Lighting Energy – and can use its Overrun move for free! And only giving up one prize card… It’s time for the Cats and Dogs to work together here.

Seismitoad-EX

My least favorite card in the game… Why should I even analyze how horrid its cruel item locking move, and the chaos it created last rotation? No picture in this article for you! T_T

Well, in regards to options players have, it can pair with pretty well as a tech in many Mew-based decks that could be played. Remember that Mew can call out any attack from basic Pokemon, and at a much more economic attack cost with Dimension Valley. Thus, with the Seismitoad-EX of Doom, you can induce the item lock with any single basic energy with Mew. So insomuch as I don’t like old Red-Eyes, it still is a good stalling option that many players can use in any Mew based deck – even in the Manectric-EX deck mentioned before.

Sceptile-EX

Just like Manectric-EX/Crobat, Mew could add more power to the old Sceptile/Ariados gimmick that lives by a single hair in the current meta. Mew can use Sceptile’s Unseen claw move with but one Grass energy with the Valley of Warped-ness. With Ariados out to Poison foes, it can put plenty of damage and pressure on opponents, all while you charge up your Sceptiles on your bench.

By helping with the prize trade, Mew could really help bring this deck back into the spotlight. With the crazy Fighting support in the next set, Sceptile-EX is the best weakness-based counter to deal with it – and having a Psychic type partner alongside it makes this deck even better to take down this threat.

Durant

It was interesting to see how people reacted to Durant when it was introduced in the Breakpoint expansion. A move that could discard 4 cards from the opponent’s deck was real frightening to many players, with some thinking it would bring mill decks back into the competitive forefront. Sadly, this did not happen, as the Scrape Down attack required 2 energy, one of which preferably Rainbow Energy, in order to use it. It appears that doing that – and keeping the frail miller alive – was much harder to do than it appeared!

Enter Mew into the picture: With it, you just need to find a way to get one Rainbow Energy attachment and the Dimension Valley out, and you can start milling away.  I do see many issues, though: Finding that single rainbow energy is could be quite a hassle to do, and Mew is an even more frail card to mill with than Durant. The Dimension Valley could end up permanently in your stadium slot, so other useful stadiums, like Team Magma's Secret Base and Parallel City  couldn’t be used very well. It also conflicts with Delinquent, a card that I’ve found works wonders with a milling deck.

Either way, I’ve seen some people attempt to create a theoretical deck in the forums with Mew as a miller in mind. No doubt, I’m quite curious about how it could work in practice, and I’m going to watch out for it in the coming months!

Latios-EX

Imagine this situation…

You’re in a tournament, with everyone all full of pressure to win as many games as possible. Your first match, and you got to go first. Your opening hand seems pretty reasonable – a Mew, some other nice Basic for Mew to utilize, a Rainbow Energy, a Muscle Band, and even an Ultra Ball! Feeling confident you put Mew up on the active spot. Then you and your opponent flip cards over, and the game starts.

Then, to your dismay – your opponent reveals an annoying metagame wrecking deck strategy with nothing on the bench, and one single Pokemon on the active spot: A Joltik or Pumpkaboo! A Froakie or a Remoraid a Phantump or Wobbuffet! An Oddish or Combee! Maybe even a Mew to mirror yours… In your mind, you go, “Ugh! Why can’t anyone here be creative these days?!”

You find that there’s no supporter in your hand… But if you bring Shaymin-EX out with the Ultra Ball, no doubt it will get targeted by these annoying decks. What to do? Just so you don’t get a dead hand, you use the Ultra Ball…

But then as you search through your deck you notice that single Latios-EX catching your eye. “Where did that come from,” You wonder. You then just play that, attach the Band and the energy to Mew, and win the first game of the match.

You grin like crazy afterwards.

Okay, this does sound like a very improbable situation, but not as improbable as you think. The main reason Latios-EX isn’t used so much nowadays is because to utilize its notorious Fast Raid “Donk” capabilities, you literally have to build your entire deck around the card – and even then, you have to hope you go first. And if it fails to donk, Latios as a deck otherwise just can’t keep up with the crazy-broken meta right now.

So why would it work with Mew? Easy: Mew can utilize multiple Pokemon in multiple strategies. Think: a deck with 4 Mew in it equals a chance of having 4 of any basic Pokemon you want – and some of them have a role in tech situations. In that way, even if you cannot donk your opponent for several reasons, that’s okay. Just go to another strategy you want use Mew for, whether it be with any of the other partners around it. Latios-EX was only a tech anyways!

Lugia-EX

Ah, yes… Remember the time when this one and only Mewtwo-EX from Next Destinies destroyed everything in it’s wake in the old Black and White meta? Now, you can re-emulate the destruction with Lugia-EX and Mew! Lugia’s Aeroball is but a colorless clone of X-Ball, hitting for no weakness – But with Mew’s Psychic typing, it brings back the “X” in the “X-Ball”!

Of course you may wonder… Why would you want to do something like this, other than the type change? Mew is so bound to be knocked out with ease, so the energy investment could easily be in vain. I wouldn’t know myself, other than to reinvent a gag, though it can do some decent damage. Cheap thrills, I guess.

Jirachi (Roaring Skies)

Just think: You have a situation where your opponent’s Pokemon is pretty much stuck in the Active Spot. Not that this often happens, but it can. With Mew, you can use Jirachi’s notorious Doom Desire move, with it’s attack cost cut down to one meager Metal Energy, and have a chance of an automatic knockout!

This indeed can be scary… Though as I said, the meta values maneuverability quite a lot, and dodging this trick is easily done. Yet maybe with Vileplume out… I wouldn’t discount a Doomsday Mew too much.

Conclusion

As you can see, Mew from Fates Collide has some great uses to power up many decks in the standard format. It just takes removing your sentiment of the older Mew-EX to find what the uses are. In fact, there are probably even more cards and strategies out there that Mew can partner with than I really know. I could see it in a Snorlax/Hypno deck that has yet to come out. Perhaps a Dark Deck could utilize its free retreat and typing coverage with its attacks. Maybe even in Bronzong  and Aromatisse Fairy Toolboxes could you find it terrorizing opponents. I seriously believe Mew is that good, so be prepared to see this card being played a lot, competitively.

If you can think of other strategies this card could buff up, or even create all on its own, feel free to talk about them in the comments.

Thank you for reading!