Pokemon: Sword and Shield may have introduced the frankly grotesque Eternamax Eternatus, but back in my day the strongest Pokemon was always Mewtwo. Whether you were playing the games, trading the cards, or – as I did – quite literally pretending to be Pokemon with your friends, Mewtwo's place was well-established as the greatest of all time.
Such is the case in Pokemon TCG Pocket, where all of sudden, every opponent you face in 1v1 seems to have the same identical deck: two Mewtwo EXes, two Gardevoirs, and maybe a Chansey that they barely touch. This combination is proving almost impossible to beat, with twin Gardevoirs piling two free psychic energies per turn into Mewtwo EX, whose Psydrive attack for 150 HP (which ordinarily discards two energies per use, so takes some time to build back up) can then be used every single turn.
Responses online have ranged from the pragmatic – calls for a nerf, attempts (largely in vain) to come up with counter decks – to the downright furious, with one particular Reddit thread simply titled: "WE GET IT YOU LIKE THE MEWTWO EX DECK!!!" Overall, the consensus seems to be that once you see a Ralts popping up in the bench behind a Mewtwo, you might as well concede.
Even some of the game's most powerful individual cards can't hope to compete. A Lilligant and Venusaur EX deck, for example, is plenty powerful against almost any enemy, keeping pace and quickly building up for a row of punishing Giant Bloom attacks, and healing as they go. When facing a Mewtwo EX flanked by Gardevoirs, this combination doesn't work so well. Within three turns, your Lilligant will be knocked out, by which point – if you're lucky – it will only have attached one energy to Venusaur EX (who will still be an Ivysaur at this stage). It's a mess, and it doesn't leave much room for retaliation.
Psydrive-ing me up the wall
There are counters to the deck, but they rely largely on luck and lots of water. A quick evolution to Gyrados from Magikarp with a very lucky Misty Supporter Card coin flip, might grant you one shot early in the game and stall the energy gathering of your psychic opponent, but chances are that by the time you've evolved and energized your big hitter enough to try a Hyper Beam, you've already been Psydrived for your full 150 HP. Nidoking in a dark energy deck plays pretty much identically, could do a decent amount of damage given Mewtwo's weakness, but leaves itself open to a one-hit with its 150 HP.
Blastoise EX is much the same, but with a slight twist. Blastoise takes longer to evolve, and would need to be benched briefly while you get your ducks in a row, beefing up its energy with some Misty flips or pure patience, using another card upfront as an aggro starter or damage sponge. Hydro Bazooka does up to 160 damage with five energy attached, but can be deployed for 100 damage at just three energy, so there's potential to turn this around if the opponent's hand doesn't quite play how they had hoped.
A Dragonite paired with a lucky Misty flip could also cause issues for a Mewtwo EX/Gardevoir deck, but once again relies on chance to get it right. In some ways, the odds are better, as Dragonite's 160 HP can survive one Psydrive (assuming a Giovanni Supporter Card isn't in play) with 10 HP to spare. If by this point you've managed to attach a couple of electric energies, a positive Misty flip might top you up to the requisite water/electric mix. In other ways, though, the odds are worse. Unless your opponent's bench is looking sparse, the randomized Draco Meteor attack might miss Mewtwo EX or Gardevoir entirely. I have seen it take out a Mewtwo EX in one hit, however, so the idea isn't worth dismissing entirely.
Some secret part of me is glad to see Mewtwo back up to his old tricks
Potentially the best counter to this ridiculously overpowered deck is actually not a water deck at all: it's the Moltres EX and Charizard EX double whammy. Although it has to be played with care – and again, a significant amount of luck – you can pose a real challenge to psychic decks startled by that whopping 200 damage. With your Moltres EX up front (it's a Basic, so you can play it immediately), spam Inferno Dance while Mewtwo EX powers up and Gardevoir goes through its three-stage evolution. This should buy you some time, especially if their rogue Gengar EX blocks the straightforward evolution path. Chuck all your extra fire energies into a benched Charmander, who you'll then evolve quickly into a Charmeleon and finally a Charizard EX. Once your opponent kills off your Moltres EX (or with a swap-in, if you got really lucky in the coin flips), pull in your Charizard EX and blast Mewtwo EX with Crimson Storm.
Even then, you'll need to play everything else off flawlessly to even stand a chance at a win. It's a lot to ask, and I can't help feeling the deck being so overpowered takes some of the joy out of VS battles. Not so much if all you want to do is rack up wins, but the real spirit of the game seems to be lost somewhere. At the heart of the Pokemon TCG is creativity – showcasing flexibility and fast-thinking, coming back with an impossible counter and surprising your opponent… It's all part of the joy.
I don't begrudge people looking to collect winners emblems – after all, collecting is the name of the game. But eventually people are just going to concede the moment they see psychic energy, which seems like something to be addressed in a future update. Rather than a straight-up nerfing of this set, which admittedly took some brains to put together and demonstrably does work, I'd like to see more competition, especially across dark energy decks. As a counter to psychic, dark energy is one of the hardest to farm, with no dedicated energy-boosting card, so perhaps this could shift things in the future.
Some secret part of me is glad to see Mewtwo back up to his old tricks, however. Maybe it's time we let the world's most powerful Pokemon have his moment before the game's next booster packs arrive.
Here's a breakdown of all the rarest cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket.
