Mewtwo and Mew GX is probably my favorite card coming out from Unified Minds mostly because it offers a high level of versatility. It can be splashed into any deck simply for things like weakness coverage (i.e. to not auto lose to water if you're a fire deck) and having a lot more HP (i.e. Blacephalon GX only having 180 HP which makes it easy to OHKO, but Metwo and Mew GX have 270 to stick around longer), and thanks to Cherish Ball and Mysterious Treasure - mostly Cherish Ball - basically any deck can utilize it consistently.
I feel like building a deck completely around Mewtwo and Mew GX is very powerful because the tools you can run with it can challenge just about any deck.
I'm still working on finding the best solution to getting energy, but that's why it's a WIP
Pokemon x14
Mewtwo & Mew GX x3
Garchomp & Giratina GX x2
Solgaleo GX Promo x2
Latios GX x1
Naganadel GX x1 (Unified Minds)
Dragonite GX x1
Jirachi GX x1
Dedenne GX x1
Mew x1 (Unbroken Bonds)
Giratina x1 (Lost Thunder)
Supporter x11
Lillie x4
Cynthia x4
Hapu x3
Item x22
Mysterious Treasure x4
Cherish Ball x4
Acro Bike x4
Great Catcher x3
Switch x3
Tag Switch x3
Reset Stamp x1
Stadium x3
Viridian Forest x3
Energy x10
Psychic Energy x6
Fighting Energy x4
Gonna run down the reasonings like I usually do. Please see further posts for explanations of list changes.
Mewtwo & Mew GX - The core of the deck. I think 2 copies is just fine since the deck has 4/4 Mysterious Treasure/Cherish Ball, giving you little to no risk of losing it to prizes and 10 ways to see it. The main reason to run it is the ability to access any other GX Pokemon's attack from either the bench or the discard pile, but the GX attack is pretty solid too.
Garchomp & Giratina GX - Every GX Pokemon from here on out is played at 1 copy to be part of Mewtwo & Mew's toolbox. They can all stand on their own, and the ones that can be played onto the bench can also attack if needed. This card is really strong with both a decent 1 energy attack option to place some damage onto a future potential threat to later follow up with the attack that swings for 240 for only 3 energy and no other downsides than simply needing damage on something already. This card is supported by the Giratina from Lost Thunder which can passively put damage counters onto 2 of your opponent's essential Pokemon, which make both of them become at risk of getting followed up on by Garchomp & Giratina.
Latios GX - This is an offensive/defensive utility inclusion. The only thing Tag teams are really in threat to get OHKO'd by is...other Tag Teams for the most part. Any exception has only 180 HP and can be dealt with with other cards in this list, so this card is included for any Tag Team match ups. The best part about running Latios with Mewtwo & Mew GX is that they won't carry the ability that Latios GX has that only allows it to attack with 5+ Pokemon in play. Latios GX also has free retreat, which makes it a great starting Pokemon in a Malamar based list if you so happen to see it in your opening hand.
Naganadel GX - This is included to be able to hit 170 damage anywhere on the field. Combine this with Giratina, and you can "OHKO" snipe 2 benched Blacephalon GX back to back for 4 prizes. Most often I would see this as a way to close games by simply KOing someone's Dedenne GX, since basically every deck will have at least one on their bench by the time 4 prizes have already been taken. This card will never be played actively and simply take advantage of Mewtwo & Mew GX's ability to get the attack.
Dragonite GX - Again taking advantage of the discard pile portion of Mewtwo & Mew GX's ability, this unlocks the ability to swing for 270 (Up to 280 if you play Giratina in advance), which allows you to OHKO any meta relevant Tag Team GX in the game...except if Wailord & Magikarp become meta relevant. The attack is very highly costed, but it also grants a very high reward. There will be a time & place where this is the best course of action.
Jirachi GX - Basically here to prevent me from getting steamrolled by any other Psychic deck and other decks that are teching Mewtwo & Mew GX. I don't think there's any exception to playing this in this deck for the anti-psychic weakness. The GX attack is also a viable attack to be used on Mewtwo & Mew GX to force your opponent into attacking something else.
Dedenne GX - I don't think this needs explaining.
4/4 Malamar Line - This is where I'm sort of doubting my choices a bit. 4/4 Malamar is a lot of cards that take up a lot of space just for the purpose of energy acceleration, and even then you still need cards like Switch and Tag Switch to get the energy where it needs to be. You might have noticed Tag Switch in the list. The goal is to Malamar a bunch of energy onto a Tag Team GX on my bench, then Tag Switch it onto my active. The other alternative is to play regular switch so I can just move the Pokemon and energy all at once, since the only Tag Team GXs in the list right now are ones I would actually attack with. A lot of attacks that I utilize in this list discard energy from attacking, so this is a good way to keep energy passively moving to stream attacks. But again, this method of energy acceleration is completely bottlenecked by seeing Switch or Tag Switch even when I already have all the energy I need on the board. This list only ever really needs 2 Malamar in play to accomodate for everything, but you have to play 4/4 to maximize the consistency, IMO. I almost want to increase counts of Giratina and Garchomp & Giratina GX and rely on an attack that doesn't discard energy as often so that I can run a thinner Malamar line.
Mew - Between the new Naganadel GX and PikaRom's GX attack, Dedenne GX is at a lot of risk of just losing you the game outright to some free bench damage. Latios GX and Jirachi GX have similar weaknesses. Having Mew prevents these auto loss conditions against decks that have the ability to effortlessly spread damage around.
Giratina - The ability is pretty good in this list. It helps hit numbers and enables Garchomp & Giratina GX on two of your opponent's Pokemon. This will become even better when Great Catcher release in Remix Bout so you can immediately capitalize on it.
Not going to explain Lillie or Cynthia since I consider them to be no brainers.
Sightseer - This deck benefits from both Pokemon and energy being in the discard pile. Full hand dumps to stock up on both departments is a huge win for this deck.
4/4 Mysterious Treasure/Cherish Ball - Max consistency. Treasure gets your Malamar Line and other Psychic techs, Cherish Ball gets everything else.
Acro Bike - An amazingly good card in this deck since, like the reasoning with Sightseer, you can gain advantages from the card that gets thrown out if you see either a GX Pokemon or energy in one of the two cards you pick up.
Switch - With no free retreat options, you have to run Switch to prevent yourself from getting caught by Custom Catcher or any other gusting effects, or just to a really unideal starting Pokemon. Also just gets prepped attackers into the active since Malamar only puts energy on the bench.
Tag Switch - No regular energy switch because between the 3 Tag Teams in this deck and the 8 cards that search them, you should never be in a situation where you aren't putting energy on your Tag Teams to move around by the time you get a Malamar or two in play. Saves on deck space compared to moving only 1 energy at a time, and enables turn 2 attacking.
Viridian Forest - Helps you get that pesky Fighting Energy run at low counts just to enable Garchomp & Giratina GX's attacks. Also a discard outlet that can put Naganadel/Dragonite GX and energy in the discard pile. Also stadium wars.
9/3 Energy Split - A good portion of attacks in this deck involve a colorless energy, so running a few extra Fighting energy doesn't really hurt at all to use them as your attach for turn. 12 energy should be more than enough to see the deck through since no attack in the list costs more than 5 energy.
This is a list I'm going to have to sit on for a while to decide everything that I want in it, but I think the basic principles are there. The deck can hit all relevant numbers to all points of the field, even without gusting, while offering anti-damage sources to keep yourself safe. The deck's biggest weakness is to prizing the exact 1 of I needed for the exact match up, but that's a weakness for all toolbox decks.
Biggest question for me is the best way to put on energy in relation to how often I'll be using certain attacks.
I feel like building a deck completely around Mewtwo and Mew GX is very powerful because the tools you can run with it can challenge just about any deck.
I'm still working on finding the best solution to getting energy, but that's why it's a WIP
Pokemon x14
Mewtwo & Mew GX x3
Garchomp & Giratina GX x2
Solgaleo GX Promo x2
Latios GX x1
Naganadel GX x1 (Unified Minds)
Dragonite GX x1
Jirachi GX x1
Dedenne GX x1
Mew x1 (Unbroken Bonds)
Giratina x1 (Lost Thunder)
Supporter x11
Lillie x4
Cynthia x4
Hapu x3
Item x22
Mysterious Treasure x4
Cherish Ball x4
Acro Bike x4
Great Catcher x3
Switch x3
Tag Switch x3
Reset Stamp x1
Stadium x3
Viridian Forest x3
Energy x10
Psychic Energy x6
Fighting Energy x4
Gonna run down the reasonings like I usually do. Please see further posts for explanations of list changes.
Mewtwo & Mew GX - The core of the deck. I think 2 copies is just fine since the deck has 4/4 Mysterious Treasure/Cherish Ball, giving you little to no risk of losing it to prizes and 10 ways to see it. The main reason to run it is the ability to access any other GX Pokemon's attack from either the bench or the discard pile, but the GX attack is pretty solid too.
Garchomp & Giratina GX - Every GX Pokemon from here on out is played at 1 copy to be part of Mewtwo & Mew's toolbox. They can all stand on their own, and the ones that can be played onto the bench can also attack if needed. This card is really strong with both a decent 1 energy attack option to place some damage onto a future potential threat to later follow up with the attack that swings for 240 for only 3 energy and no other downsides than simply needing damage on something already. This card is supported by the Giratina from Lost Thunder which can passively put damage counters onto 2 of your opponent's essential Pokemon, which make both of them become at risk of getting followed up on by Garchomp & Giratina.
Latios GX - This is an offensive/defensive utility inclusion. The only thing Tag teams are really in threat to get OHKO'd by is...other Tag Teams for the most part. Any exception has only 180 HP and can be dealt with with other cards in this list, so this card is included for any Tag Team match ups. The best part about running Latios with Mewtwo & Mew GX is that they won't carry the ability that Latios GX has that only allows it to attack with 5+ Pokemon in play. Latios GX also has free retreat, which makes it a great starting Pokemon in a Malamar based list if you so happen to see it in your opening hand.
Naganadel GX - This is included to be able to hit 170 damage anywhere on the field. Combine this with Giratina, and you can "OHKO" snipe 2 benched Blacephalon GX back to back for 4 prizes. Most often I would see this as a way to close games by simply KOing someone's Dedenne GX, since basically every deck will have at least one on their bench by the time 4 prizes have already been taken. This card will never be played actively and simply take advantage of Mewtwo & Mew GX's ability to get the attack.
Dragonite GX - Again taking advantage of the discard pile portion of Mewtwo & Mew GX's ability, this unlocks the ability to swing for 270 (Up to 280 if you play Giratina in advance), which allows you to OHKO any meta relevant Tag Team GX in the game...except if Wailord & Magikarp become meta relevant. The attack is very highly costed, but it also grants a very high reward. There will be a time & place where this is the best course of action.
Jirachi GX - Basically here to prevent me from getting steamrolled by any other Psychic deck and other decks that are teching Mewtwo & Mew GX. I don't think there's any exception to playing this in this deck for the anti-psychic weakness. The GX attack is also a viable attack to be used on Mewtwo & Mew GX to force your opponent into attacking something else.
Dedenne GX - I don't think this needs explaining.
4/4 Malamar Line - This is where I'm sort of doubting my choices a bit. 4/4 Malamar is a lot of cards that take up a lot of space just for the purpose of energy acceleration, and even then you still need cards like Switch and Tag Switch to get the energy where it needs to be. You might have noticed Tag Switch in the list. The goal is to Malamar a bunch of energy onto a Tag Team GX on my bench, then Tag Switch it onto my active. The other alternative is to play regular switch so I can just move the Pokemon and energy all at once, since the only Tag Team GXs in the list right now are ones I would actually attack with. A lot of attacks that I utilize in this list discard energy from attacking, so this is a good way to keep energy passively moving to stream attacks. But again, this method of energy acceleration is completely bottlenecked by seeing Switch or Tag Switch even when I already have all the energy I need on the board. This list only ever really needs 2 Malamar in play to accomodate for everything, but you have to play 4/4 to maximize the consistency, IMO. I almost want to increase counts of Giratina and Garchomp & Giratina GX and rely on an attack that doesn't discard energy as often so that I can run a thinner Malamar line.
Mew - Between the new Naganadel GX and PikaRom's GX attack, Dedenne GX is at a lot of risk of just losing you the game outright to some free bench damage. Latios GX and Jirachi GX have similar weaknesses. Having Mew prevents these auto loss conditions against decks that have the ability to effortlessly spread damage around.
Giratina - The ability is pretty good in this list. It helps hit numbers and enables Garchomp & Giratina GX on two of your opponent's Pokemon. This will become even better when Great Catcher release in Remix Bout so you can immediately capitalize on it.
Not going to explain Lillie or Cynthia since I consider them to be no brainers.
Sightseer - This deck benefits from both Pokemon and energy being in the discard pile. Full hand dumps to stock up on both departments is a huge win for this deck.
4/4 Mysterious Treasure/Cherish Ball - Max consistency. Treasure gets your Malamar Line and other Psychic techs, Cherish Ball gets everything else.
Acro Bike - An amazingly good card in this deck since, like the reasoning with Sightseer, you can gain advantages from the card that gets thrown out if you see either a GX Pokemon or energy in one of the two cards you pick up.
Switch - With no free retreat options, you have to run Switch to prevent yourself from getting caught by Custom Catcher or any other gusting effects, or just to a really unideal starting Pokemon. Also just gets prepped attackers into the active since Malamar only puts energy on the bench.
Tag Switch - No regular energy switch because between the 3 Tag Teams in this deck and the 8 cards that search them, you should never be in a situation where you aren't putting energy on your Tag Teams to move around by the time you get a Malamar or two in play. Saves on deck space compared to moving only 1 energy at a time, and enables turn 2 attacking.
Viridian Forest - Helps you get that pesky Fighting Energy run at low counts just to enable Garchomp & Giratina GX's attacks. Also a discard outlet that can put Naganadel/Dragonite GX and energy in the discard pile. Also stadium wars.
9/3 Energy Split - A good portion of attacks in this deck involve a colorless energy, so running a few extra Fighting energy doesn't really hurt at all to use them as your attach for turn. 12 energy should be more than enough to see the deck through since no attack in the list costs more than 5 energy.
This is a list I'm going to have to sit on for a while to decide everything that I want in it, but I think the basic principles are there. The deck can hit all relevant numbers to all points of the field, even without gusting, while offering anti-damage sources to keep yourself safe. The deck's biggest weakness is to prizing the exact 1 of I needed for the exact match up, but that's a weakness for all toolbox decks.
Biggest question for me is the best way to put on energy in relation to how often I'll be using certain attacks.
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