Deck Tech: Mewtwo-VStar - Theories & Possibilities

Opening this article with analyzes of possible deck conjectures and with the coming of the Pokémon GO TCG special collection, I will elaborate analysis for a possible Mewtwo VStar deck in the Standard.

Deck Analysis

We have here a theoretical experimentation of a Mewtwo VStar deck, which can be modified according to the reader's taste. It may be a bit unexpected to have the absence of Quick Ball SSH 179, usual for any deck to have, we will take a chance with the list replacing it with Fog Crystal CRE 140, which we will quote below shortly.

The deck's main attacker is Mewtwo-VStar to perform its "Psy Purge" attack (description: (P)(C) 90 x base damage. You discard up to 3 Psychic Energy from one of your Pokémon for its attack cost, and if you do, it's 90x for each energy discarded this way).

For this to occur, it is necessary that you, in the first round, be the player of the second turn because it will match Cresselia CRE 64, which refers to the old days of Volcanion UNB 25 for fire Pokémon – only it stops psychic Pokémon thanks to its first attack, Crescent Glow, which for a psychic energy (P), you can search your deck for a psychic energy (P) from your deck and attach it to one of your Pokémon.

However, if you start in the first round of the game on the second turn (which is the turn you can attack within the first round), instead of an Energy, you can attach three Energy to one of your Pokémon, which revs up your Mewtwo for a massive attack in Turn 2.

To filter this search, we have contact with the trainer card Fog Crystal CRE 140, which allows you to choose to search for a Psychic-type Pokémon or a Psychic Energy from the deck and put it in your hand. This will help fetch a Mewtwo.

And having Mewtwo powered up, enough in case you don't have any other Pokémon on the bench, assuming there's a scenario where you have 1 Cresselia CRE 64, 1 Mewtwo-V and 1 Galarian Articuno EVS 63 in hand: the ideal is to play Cresselia CRE 64 and Mewtwo first.

Use Cresselia CRE 64 for quick power-up. In the second round onwards, Galarian Articuno EVS 63 comes in as the power-up option for his ability, Cruel Charge, where if played from your hand to the bench, can attach two psychic energies that are in your hand directly to it. Having the option of choosing when to evolve your Mewtwo-V into Mewtwo-VStar, you use the energies of Galarian Articuno EVS 63 as the cost of the attack. And using the item Scoop Up Net RCL 165, you preserve your Galarian Articuno EVS 63, but discarding the cards attached to it, which in this case would be the energies, which will enter a loop to preserve the Pokémon and make the effect as soon as possible.

But, given the use of the stadiums mentioned in the list? How to use them to make your combos?

1st Situation: With Training Court RCL 169, where it rescues an energy from the discard pile and puts it in your hand, creating a loop with another Galarian Articuno EVS 63 by the passive effect, always guaranteeing an energy in the turn, preserving the Pokémon to not be knocked out and being part of this key synergy of the power-up process.

2nd situation: With Old Cemetery CRE 147, with any non-Psychic Energy attached to Psychic-type Pokémon, they will take 2 damage counters — which can help with pending damage that can be closed during the match.

On top of that damage closure, you can put yourself in a situation where you can snipe Galarian Articuno EVS 63, with the Psylaser, where you discard all psychic energies attached to it, and choose an Opponent's Pokémon dealing 120 damage (not applying opponent's Bench Weakness or Resistance); this is all on top of the fact that Mewtwo-VStar's V-Star attack, the Star Raid (description: (P)(C) This attack does 120 damage for each of your opponent's Pokémon V, and this damage is unaffected by weakness or resistance (you cannot use more than one VStar attack/ability per game).

So, in addition to dealing generous damage in the current format with the Pokémon V-focused Metagame, 120 caused by Mewtwo-VStar, plus that 120 caused by Galarian Articuno EVS 63, could have a total of 240 damage, knocking out almost any Pokémon-V: from the basic ones that need to evolve into a VMax or a VStar, to the support Pokémon-V like Crobat V DAA 104, Eldegoss V RCL 19, Genesect V FST 185 or Lumineon V BRS 40.

The essence of the main strategy is this. If not, you can have one of the alternative paths:

Alternative Paths

In case this Cresselia CRE 64 power-up doesn't work, we have the alternative path of Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX CRE 75. With its ability, the Underworld Door, it performs the effect of you energizing one of your Benched Pokémon with psychic energy, and if it does, you draw 2 cards, having an excellent resource of extra draw and energy-attaching, without expending the energy of the turn. The only hazard is the Path to the Peak CRE 148 stadium, where it nullifies any Pokémon-V abilities or Pokémon that have a rule box.

And if your game is running out of resources, Lumineon V BRS 40 is the Pokémon that with its ability, the Luminous Sign, grants the search for a Trainer-type Supporter card and puts it in your hand.

For trainer cards, specifically Supporter/Supporter:

1) Roxanne ASR 150 is a card that will give a lot of headache, as it will be able to control the opponent's hand, having its power reduction and plays thanks to its effect of being activated if the opponent is winning the game with two prize cards remaining, being more dangerous than Marnie in the "control" aspect.

2) Marnie SSH 169, as usual, most decks use it for its versatility and control of the opponent's hand.

3) Boss's Orders BRS 132, which needs no introduction, is the key card to pull a Pokémon from the opponent's Bench and guarantee that precise knockout to end the game.

4) Professor's Research BRS 147, one of the best cards to get rid of a bad hand at a certain point in the game. Discarding your current hand and drawing seven new cards, filtering to your deck, depending on how the game goes.

For specific Item and Tools/Tools trainer cards:

1) Air Balloon SSH 156 as an excellent mobility card, as most Pokémon in this deck have two energy retreat as a cost, and the card pays that tribute. But for safety, there's the big Switch SSH 183, in case the opponent makes some kind of plays that removes these tools.

2) Choice Belt BRS 135 as a perfect accessory to close damage against Pokémon-V (encompassing V-Max, V-Star, V-Union, etc). With 30 additional damage, this can make a lot of difference in plenty of matchups, to prevent the opponent from getting that kind of "I survived with 10 HP remaining, so I can continue my game" kind of luck. Virtually every deck prioritizes at least one of this card (in the case of our list, the suggestion is two).

3) Fog Crystal CRE 140 as a search filter for Psychic Pokémon and Psychic Energy, which is excellent for this archetype and practically indispensable.

Advantages

Fighter decks are spread out thanks to dark type decks, the infamous “Dark Box”, like Darkrai-VStar, Hisuian Samurott-VStar, Eternatus-VMax (even though it has weakened lately). With their presence, the Urshifu-VMax (both Single Strike/Decisive Strike and Rapid Strike/Fluid Strike), Machamp-VMax, and Lucario-VStar decks are the main Pokémon that will struggle with massive and doubled damage by Psychic types.

Although these decks can have Galarian Zapdos-V, and with the potential of it being able to hit its attack of 170 and discarding a special energy before the damage effect, in addition to its ability Fighting Instinct, where it reduces the cost of colorless energies to attack based on the amount of Pokémon-V in the opponent's game, it still suffers from Psychic-type weakness.

And since this deck has no special energies, it won't be penalized by the effect of its attack, being just another target for massive damage.

Disadvantages

As the Sword and Shield block encompassed Psychic-type Pokémon in general with the Dark-type weakness, Mewtwo can still suffer from the "Dark Box" decks, which still have potential in play, the aforementioned Darkrai-VStar, Hisuian Samurott- VStar, Eternatus-VMax, and the practicality of resource acceleration items like Dark Patch or Pokémon like Galarian Moltres-V or even the “Baby” version of Galarian Moltres, Darkrai-VStar can be a headache for the player.

And Urshifu's decks, where they often use Galarian Moltres-V as a counter to Psychic-type Pokémon, which tap into that archetype's weakness to compensate for the bears' weakness to Psychic-type, will certainly be an obstacle in future games.

This deck is a theoretical analysis by Mewtwo's attacks and based on released expansions. It is good to point out that this type of content is an incentive to ideas that can (and should) be modified, adapting to changes.