Mew VMAX — The Deck That Never Dies?
Hello again, everyone! Mew VMAX has been a viable deck ever since the Fusion Strike set came out over two years ago, and the only thing stopping it is rotation. The draw power provided by Genesect V‘s Fusion Strike System Ability allows you to draw a ton of cards every turn and always find an attack on turn two. Even though Spiritomb and Path to the Peak can shut off Fusion Strike System, Mew VMAX decks have found answers to both of these in Fusion Strike Energy and Lost Vacuum. Fusion Strike Energy’s effect prevents Spiritomb’s Fettered in Misfortune Ability from affecting it, however, the full Fusion Strike Energy version of Mew VMAX has fallen out of favor lately thanks to the rising popularity of Charizard ex.
Charizard ex’s Effect on the Meta
On its own, Charizard ex looks like it was built to hard counter Mew VMAX; it has a massive 330 HP, its Infernal Reign Ability powers itself up, and Burning Darkness takes a one-hit KO on Mew VMAX, even if the Mew VMAX player hasn’t taken a Prize card. Mew VMAX players did adjust to Charizard ex though, and it was found that by playing four Path to the Peak, Grabber, and Luxray V you could swing the Charizard ex matchup slightly into your favor. This strategy didn’t have the space to play Fusion Strike Energy and instead played four Double Turbo Energy like some old Mew VMAX decks. The game plan was simple; play an early Judge, play down a Path to the Peak, then use Grabber or Luxray V’s Fang Snipe attack to disrupt the Charizard ex-player’s hand, and they hopefully will be unable to put a Charizard ex into play on their turn. After this, you clean up all their Charmander with a few Boss's Orders and then the game should be simple to win from there.
This strategy was good against Charizard ex, however, it fell significantly short when you paired any deck with Spiritomb, as the Fettered in Misfortune Ability would completely shut off your Fusion Strike System Ability for the whole game. This version of Mew VMAX also struggled against Gardevoir ex, as the Gardevoir ex-player can eventually draw into Kirlia and use Mirage Step to set up multiple Kirlia. The Gardevoir ex matchup has been made significantly more difficult recently as they have been including multiple Avery, which they can use with Counter Catcher and Miracle Force to remove several Genesect V from your board at once. While Mew VMAX decks include Box of Disaster to deal with an attacking Gardevoir, the matchup is still unfavored.
Even with these problems, Mew VMAX decks are still well-positioned in the current metagame. Path to the Peak is a powerful card to have in your deck right now, as many of the top decks rely heavily on their Abilities. Mew VMAX is also the best deck at aggressively pushing an advantage, as you can find Boss’s Orders turn after turn to Knock Out whatever opposing Benched Pokemon you want. The deck also hits for 220 damage easily, as you only require one Power Tablet to push a copied Techno Blast to 220 damage, which takes a KO on most Basic Pokemon V or ex. Because the deck has so many inherent strengths to it, I decided to continue working on it and try and mitigate the issues with Charizard ex, Spiritomb, and Gardevoir ex.
This concludes the public portion of this article.
If you'd like to continue reading, consider purchasing a PokeBeach premium membership! If you're not completely satisfied with your membership, you can request a full refund within 30 days.
Each week we post high-quality content from some of the game's top players. Our article program isn't a corporate operation, advertising front, or for-profit business. We set our prices so that we can pay the game's top players to write the best content for our subscribers. Each article topic is carefully selected, goes through multiple drafts, and is touched up by our editors. We take great pride in our program!
