Articles

First takes on Expanded – Mewtwo variants, ZoroGarb, Archie’s Blastoise, and Turbo Dark

We all need a little guidance in the new Expanded format with multiple new sets released and about 4 months since the last major Expanded event. This article is here to give you a look at some of the decks that are predicted to be in the Top Tier. This piece is meant to give veteran Expanded players a refresher on the format and an introduction into the format for new Expanded competitors. This piece will have sections on the general strategy of each deck, but does not cover specific match ups. At the moment it seems like the meta is not defined enough to know what match ups need to be understood, making it more important to understand decks in a general sense. This is a fairly short piece, but tomorrow there will be a new article covering Turbo Dark that has more substance to it.

Let’s start with the newcomer: Mewtwo.

Mewtwo Variants

First, we should identify which Mewtwo variants are out there. As far as I can tell, the variants that people are talking about are the following:

  • Mewtwo Vileplume
  • Handlock Mewtwo
  • Mega Gardevoir Mewtwo

The variants I am looking at, outside of what is being hyped are:

  • Mewtwo Noivern Dialga
  • Fire Mewtwo
  • Porygon-Z Mewtwo

This article has lists for the three variants that are gaining attention right now, but I will cover the other three versions I am working on in a later piece. Be sure to check this post regularly because I post first-draft lists and updates on there a lot of the time before full articles come out. Before we get into each of the decks, let’s look at a list of the most powerful GXs and EXs that could be combined with Mewtwo.

Mewtwo attackers

  • Jolteon EX
  • Alolan Marowak GX
  • Mega Gengar EX
  • Tsareena GX
  • Charizard GX (SM60)
  • Naganadel GX (Stinger)
  • Naganadel GX (Venom Shot)
  • Mewtwo EX (62/162)
  • Sylveon GX
  • Altaria GX
  • Noivern GX
  • Mega Mewtwo EX
  • Honchcrow GX
  • Espeon Deoxys GX
  • Glaceon EX
  • Seismitoad EX
  • Garchomp Giratina GX
  • Alolan Raticate GX
  • Dragonite GX (152/236)
  • Espeon EX
  • Registeel EX
  • Latios EX
  • Houndoom EX
  • Lucario Melmetal GX
  • Buzzwole Pheromosa GX
  • Mega Alakazam EX
  • Mega Audino EX
  • Mega Gardevoir EX
  • Necrozma GX

This list is limited to the cards that would work in a Mewtwo deck that relies on Prism/Rainbow Energy and Dimension Valley, whereas the list would be a bit longer if it included cards that work in specific dedicated Mewtwo variants. For example, Magicarp Wailord works well in Archie’s but is not on the list because that archetype is a dedicated Water deck. I can’t promise that list has every attacker that works well with Mewtwo decks relying on Prism Energy and Dimension Valley, but after looking through over 70 pages of EXs and GXs on Pokemon’s Trading Card Database, I doubt there is more than two or three not listed. Now that we know what we can include in Mewtwo, let’s look at the first list.

Mewtwo Vileplume

private accessYou must have a Stage 2 Membership or greater to see the rest of this post. If you don't have a Stage 2 account, you can Sign Up for one here.