The Prince and the Pauper: The Two Tanks of Mythical Island

As the flagship EX Pokémon for Mythical Island, Mew EX came into the meta with heavy expectations. The first impressions were, to the best of my memory, as follows

• “I can run this in Mewtwo EX to kill my opponent’s Mewtwo EX in the mirror!”
• “I can run this in Mewtwo EX to kill my opponent’s Charizard EX, and that matchup really sucks so that’s great!”
• “I can run this in Mewtwo EX to be a better tank than Baby Mewtwo!”
• “...Why did Mewtwo EX need a buff??”

Mew EX has definitely found its expected home in Mewtwo EX decks as a pretty clean upgrade over Baby Mewtwo, thanks in part to its higher HP pool and Genome Hacking revenge kills. The real question now is not just how good Mew EX is paired with its genetic lookalike, but whether it can find its home in other archetypes.

Mew EX: the universal tank?

After all, it's not unprecedented to run an off-type tank in decks that need some bulk. Recall that Blastoise EX at one point was running baby Mewtwos because it had two important qualities over competing tanks like Kangaskhan:

1. Baby Mewtwo has 120 HP, which survives pretty relevant attacks that 100HP doesn’t quite tank – notably, Starmie EX’s Hydro Splash and Pikachu EX’s Circle Circuit with Giovanni. It also doesn’t get two-shot by Mewtwo EX’s Psychic Sphere.
2. It retreats for 2 instead of 3. Instead of completely conceding a point, this opens up one energy + X-Speed or double X-speed lines to get Mewtwo out of the line of fire to rotate to a new basic and either push damage to the opponent or soak damage across multiple Pokémon we have in play.

Now, the notable downside to this defensive utility and efficient retreats (well, efficient compared to Kangaskhan) is that Baby Mewtwo is completely passive in the Blastoise EX deck. Blastoise EX can’t afford to run Psychic energy to enable Baby Mewtwo to attack, so the only thing Mewtwo is doing is tanking.

Let’s compare to our new EX friend:

1. Mew EX has 130 HP, which actually pushes past even *more* relevant breakpoints. As an example, a Blaine’d Ninetales still can’t break through a healthy Mew EX. Arcanine EX now needs a Giovanni to kill in one hit.
2. Mew has a retreat cost of 1. 1 isn’t just twice as good as 2, it’s much easier to make infinitely better thanks to a single X-speed enabling a completely free retreat.
3. Instead of attacking for 4 energy (of which 2 has to be a specific color, and also needs to be discarded), Mew attacks for as little as 1 energy in decks that can play Psychic, and 3 completely generic energy otherwise. Genome Hacking also enables incredibly relevant one-shots either as a revenge kill or an outright race-winner; the most notable being Mewtwo EX and Charizard EX, two flagship tier 1 decks of the Genetic Apex meta.
4. Mew EX brings a friend, Budding Expeditioner. Consider that Koga+Weezing is considered good enough to run in decks that don’t run Dark energy and requires a stage one evolution and a Supporter for the turn and six slots in our deck. Being a Basic, our deckbuilding cost for running Expeditioner + Mew EX is… running a basic that can attack in any deck no matter what, assuming you decide that giving Mew EX 3 energy is the winning line.
5. The sole negative quality is that Mew EX is worth 2 points if/when it dies. The price we pay for power and flexibility is, well, risk. Given that Budding Expeditioner sometimes just has six potions to give to Mew EX for free, I’d say it’s a risk worth taking in exchange for the relatively small deckbuilding cost.

Given all of these qualities, surely there are homes for Mew EX that aren’t just “Mewtwo EX, But More Annoying.”

The Poor Man’s Dragon: Druddigon

Even with all these positive qualities, Mew EX isn’t the only tank in town. Druddigon entered the set sneaking in under the radar, having not been spoiled in the previews for Mythical Island. Druddigon looks weaker than Mew EX at first glance:

1. At 100HP, it frankly does not take *as large* of a hit as Mew EX or even baby Mewtwo can. The aforementioned Starmie EX and Pikachu EX still smite our poor dragon friend with the help of Giovanni.
2. Its retreat cost of 2 is still better than Kangaskhan but much worse than Mew EX’s 1. This is offset somewhat by the introduction of Leaf in Mythical Island, enabling us to retreat for free even with a higher base retreat cost. That said, this does require your Supporter for the turn.
3. Dragon Claw is both expensive and absurdly hard to use, requiring you to run to even think about using it.

However, Druddigon has seen a fair amount of success due almost entirely to its Ability, Rough Skin. Druddigon represents damage from our tank slot with 0 energy investment, enabling us to put all of our energy on the stuff we actually want to attack with. It’s almost like the card itself is telling you to ignore its attack entirely by making it obnoxious to actually use! As a bonus, Druddigon cannot be hit for weakness. This functionally gives it much more tanking ability than Kangaskhan against Fighting attacks, while also avoiding the annoying 2-shot that baby Mewtwo ran into vs Weezing (Tackle x2 + Poison ticks). Finally, Druddigon goes back to being worth 1 point when the opponent does KO it, meaning that we can chain Druddigon into Druddigon in situations that call for it.

When to play Mew EX or Druddigon?

Druddigon and Mew EX tank differently, and thus require different approaches in deckbuilding. Either way, playing either Druddigon or Mew EX means you’re in the market for a generic tank that sits there and looks pretty while you’re building to a win condition.

Previously, the biggest win conditions were Mewtwo EX and Charizard EX, which won the game by Just Killing You with giant attacks. Therefore, Druddigon and Mew EX either need to fit in those existing archetypes or else solve the problem of getting killed by the existing endgame sweepers.

Mew EX solves the Charizard EX and Mewtwo EX issues by threat of revenge kill. While this is a clean answer to the problem, it requires that you attach three energy to Mew EX. Meanwhile, Druddigon decks should be looking to utilize its 0-energy chip damage to act as a pair of free Giovannis and muscle past breakpoints; therefore, we want Druddigon in decks where energy is at more of a premium.

As an extra deckbuilding note: Leaf is not an option; it is a requirement to running Druddigon. We really really want to be able to retreat Druddigon to either put a fresh replacement in or start our sweep ASAP, and energy + x-speed is just too slow in these circumstances. We need the more powerful effect of Leaf and we are willing to lose some flexibility to get it. This means if we were already running Leaf anyway, Druddigon is much easier to include.

Let’s look at some sample homes for Mew EX and Druddigon.

Home for Mew EX #1: Mewtwo EX

No points for guessing this one! This list from Uwill finished 3rd out of a whopping 688 entrants for Pocket Legends League #12. Notably, this runs the full 2 copies of Mew EX as well as a Budding Expeditioner. Even more notably, Mew EX contributed to 0 losses to Pikachu EX throughout their entire run, showing an additional matchup that the 130 HP basic can shore up, especially in conjunction with Budding Expeditioner. This list goes even further on using Basics to tank, opting to run 2x Leaf in order to use Mewtwo EX as a supplementary tanking option before it starts chucking out Psydrives.

Home for Mew EX #2: Celebi EX

Credit to KMBest/KMPocket for this list, Mew EX/Budding Expeditioner come in to shore up our Mewtwo EX matchup, while also enabling lines against aggressive decks such as Blaine to buy time to ramp to the Serperior+Celebi EX “combo.” Dhelmise is more “flavorful” and “clever” as a tank slot since it synergizes more directly with Serperior, but Mew EX does, in fact, Just Kill Charizard EX/Mewtwo EX. As a consequence, we might not require the extra Stage 2 line:

We’ll be coming back to this deck idea later, but cycling basics cheaply, as well as having Erika and Budding Expeditioner as bonus durability, means we can use Mew EX to let us simply put energy on Celebi EX “the fair way”. This list from Top8Gamer finished 2nd in Pocket League #6, only losing to, well, larger Celebi EX decks running Serperior. However, this is likely the way forward to give flexibility in other matchups; most notably, Mewtwo EX.

Home for Mew EX #3: Arcanine EX

Hey, remember how we were running Charizard EX in our Arcanine decks to try to cover Mewtwo EX and Charizard EX? Wow, we had to run a whole Stage 2 Evolution Line and demolish our consistency! Good thing Mew EX is here to, well, cover our Charizard EX/Mewtwo EX matchups! Notably, Leaf comes in clutch as generally more usable here over the second Expeditioner, since she reduces Moltres EX’s retreat cost to 0, enabling more flexibility while the Good Boy EX gets ready to Inferno Onrush to start our sweep. This list from BaileyD won the aforementioned 688-entrant Pocket Legends League #12, while an almost identical list from Manaa (dropping the Expeditioner for an extra Giovanni) finished 2nd at Ursiiday’s Pocket Weekly #8.

Speculative home for Mew EX: Exeggutor EX

This is the decklist (with some potential tweaks) that I plan on bringing to future events. Similar to the 2 Celebi/2 Mew list, the plan is to attack with “fair” Celebi EX. I’m opting to run Exeggutor EX to apply extra pressure in the early game and put more threats in range of our smaller Celebi EX compared to the Serperior variants. Notably, I’ve done fairly well in testing against Mewtwo EX, thanks partially to the early pressure from Exeggutor, and partially due to the Genome Hacking plan B.

Home for Druddigon #1: Gyarados EX

This list from Lazyy finished 5th at Ursiiday’s Pocket Weekly #8, with an incredible 9-1 record in the swiss rounds. The chip from Druddigon synergizes beautifully with Greninja’s Water Shuriken ability, enabling our Gyarados EX to go on a rampage. Notably, either Water Shuriken or Rough Skin enables Gyarados EX to push past Mewtwo EX and Charizard EX; Mewtwo EX at 160, and Charizard EX at 180 thanks to Zard’s water weakness. Note the 2 copies of Leaf, letting us cycle Druddigons relatively easily. We also open up some niche lines where the Gyarados can get an early kill and then rotate back to our Druddigon.

On a spicier note, this list from Harian at the same event finished top 16. Using Butterfree, Potion, and Blue in lieu of the Greninja line, our Druddigon and Gyarados gain a ton of durability. This puts much more of the burden on Druddigon to provide chip damage, but if you want a “Druddigon deck”, this is a great way to showcase its strengths.

Home for Druddigon #2: Brock

NinoLeo took down Ursiiday’s Pocket Weekly #8 with a beautifully-crafted high-synergy no-EX deck that fully showcases the strength of Druddigon! Note the 2 copies of Leaf that we want to run anyway; one of the bigger problems facing Brock decks in the past was the crippling retreat costs on everything in the Golem line. Druddigon’s chip damage also enables us to run the new Golem, since we no longer need to hurt ourself to one-shot Mewtwo EX; Rough Skin + Giovanni enables the new Golem to crest the 150 damage breakpoint. Hitmonlee adds extra chip damage and a way to bench-snipe Magikarps, while Marshadow rounds out the support staff by adding its massive Revenge to dissuade our opponent from killing our Druddigon. Charizard EX is harder to crack with this deck than with Gyarados, and requires either extra chip from Hitmonlee or for us to get online slightly faster with Brock’s energy cheating.

Speculative home for Druddigon: Blastoise EX

It comes full circle to Blastoise EX! This list from Hyomvy took down a small 46-entrant event on December 20th, and might be the overall solution to a fully-loaded Charizard EX for Druddigon archetypes; a 5 energy Hydro Bazooka one-shots the lizard. Even not accounting for the Water-weak Charizard EX, Rough Skin + Hydro Bazooka represents 180 damage, which is an absurd number only tanked by the incredibly rare Venusaur EX. With the help of Druddigon, a non-fully loaded Blastoise can still revenge kill Pikachu EX. Chatot is a cool inclusion, giving slightly more consistency towards finding our stage-2 beatstick. The only change I would consider is swapping out a copy of x-speed for the second Leaf, but this might give Blastoise EX decks the extra bit of juice they need to be competitive.

The Ramifications

Druddigon and Mew EX represent a shift towards more lethality out of the tank slot. One of the best ways to improve a slower deck, especially one that needs to draw and build energy on a stage 2 evolution, is additional pressure to counter-punch against faster archetypes.

Going forward, it is hard to justify a fully passive tank such as baby Mewtwo. I look forward to seeing what endgame strategies get more breathing room thanks to our new toys!