Mew Moment
Top 8 at Orlando Regionals with Mew VMAX/Aerodactyl VStar
Top 8 at Orlando Regionals with Mew VMAX/Aerodactyl VStar
Hello Ian’s Conspiracy readers! My name is Grant Hays, and I’m happy to be bringing you a tournament report today. For those who don’t know me, I’m from the St. Louis area and started playing in early 2015. My accomplishments in Masters include a handful of Regional Top 8’s, with the most recent being at Orlando Regionals earlier this month. Today I’m going to walk through my thought process with landing on Mew VMAX, card choices, my rounds, and the deck’s position moving forward.
Friday
After getting top 64 at San Diego with Arceus VSTAR/Duraludon VMAX, I felt confident in just running it back. Lost City was the innovation we missed, and the weeks after San Diego showed it to be a strong inclusion in the deck. However, after Europeans majorly picked up the Canceling Cologne + Irida package in their Lugia VSTAR lists at Liverpool, I was concerned that Cologne would appear in the states. After some copium games to see if Big Charm was the answer, I dropped Duraludon VMAX from the rotation. I’d spent a lot of time on a Lost Box archetype with Zamazenta as well, but that deck wasn’t feeling great either. I was uncertain on Friday until Lucas Xing messaged me saying Mew VMAX was a strong play for the weekend.
Explaining the idea of a “Mew Moment”
It’s a unique phenomenon in Pokemon sometimes that players will see a deck does well and sort of write it off because of the deck specifically. A good example of this has been the success of Vikavolt V, which got 1st/2nd at three straight Regionals and still wasn’t talked about/countered much. And the thing is, this reaction is correct overall because Vikavolt V is not a very good deck. When I told my friends that we should look at Vikavolt V more, they all disagreed. This concept carries over to Mew VMAX because Mew VMAX is without a doubt a “run hot” deck. It’s coin flippy and easy to write off, and I think after Mew’s 2nd place at San Diego and win at Liverpool, many people just considered it a “Mew moment” for lack of a better term. I think anyone could look at my 60 in a top 8 with six Lugia VSTARs and just think “Mew moment,” and I wouldn’t blame them. All of this is to say we thought people wouldn’t be caring about Mew VMAX as much as they should have been, and we wouldn’t see much Drapion V. While this was true overall for me, Lucas didn’t get so lucky. He still went 6-3, so our list proved to be solid overall.
Decklist
The PTCGO import can be found here1
Interesting inclusions
1-1 Aerodactyl VSTAR LOR
The Aerodactyl line was something Xander Pero made the world aware of with his “Advanced Technology” Mew list at San Diego. We figured it was right to have a silver bullet answer to Lugia VSTAR, and Aerodactyl made it possible to essentially win the game if we went first against Lugia VSTAR and set up normally. The card also has niche uses in shutting off Drapion V’s ability and other abilities we thought could be relevant, like Goodra VSTAR’s Moisture Star. The Aerodactyl line won me 4-5 games against Lugia VSTAR, so it pulled its weight.
1 Big Charm SWSH
The Big Charm was included to survive an OHKO from Lugia VSTAR easier and prevent an OHKO from a Choice Belted Regigigas’ Gigaton Break. The card didn’t do much overall against the Regis I hit, but it was nice insurance.
Cyllene + Pal Pad
One thing we were concerned about with the list was running out of gas as the game went longer. The Pal Pad allowed for us to discard supporters like Boss and Roxanne more liberally and still have access to them later in the game. Cyllene was niche, but it also allowed for recursion with cards that were needed for the specific turn, such as Double Turbo Energy, Power Tablet, or switching cards.
2 Rotom Phone CPA
Rotom Phone was an insane consistency boost. Definitely would not cut, and I want to see about space for a third. Most Mew VMAX lists currently play a full four Cross Switcher, which, in addition to Lost Vacuum and the stadiums, can clog your hand a lot of the time. By forgoing Switchers, we had less potential for explosive turns, but a smoother setup overall. Good trade.
Exciting exclusions
A lot of the exclusions will make sense when you consider that we started with Xander’s base list and worked from there. For any of the cards below, either Xander didn’t have it in the first place or we cut it.
0 Collapsed Stadium BRS
This card didn’t come up much for me, and we honestly didn’t even think of it. Probably would have been good to discard Aerodactyl or a damaged Mew VMAX. Would consider it for the future.
0 Choice Belt & 0 Big Parasol
These cards were absent because of a certain tool that’s explained in more detail below. However, every round I wished I had a Choice Belt, and Parasol would’ve been good to answer Yveltal amazing rare, which took a lot of free VMAX KO’s throughout the weekend.
0 Manaphy BRS
Xander had a Manaphy in the list to make the Kyogre matchup better, but we figured Manaphy sucked against everything else and nobody would play Kyogre besides the same 3-4 people who’ve played it this whole format (they didn’t play it for this event anyway). We also traded Kyogre off back and forth playing games against our list, and we found triple Judge made it a 50/50. L Manaphy.
0 Echoing Horn BST
I think Horn has sucked in every deck that’s played it besides Palkia VSTAR. This is because Horn is only good on the last turn of the game, and Palkia VSTAR has a lot of ways to search for Horn at the right time. Even in this deck, which can draw a lot of cards but not search as reliably, Echoing Horn feels win-more at most. In some games on Friday, Lucas would show that his hand was dead with a Horn in it, and I suggested we cut it for a third Judge and not look back. In addition, opponents can play around Horn in games 2 and 3 even if they don’t expect it in game 1, making it lose value. The card probably just isn’t worth it.
The Poncho
I’ve definitely played bad cards in my deck at regionals before. Not intentionally, usually, but it happens. Hindsight 20/20. The real reason for Leafy Camo Poncho, in addition to being able to Techno Blast for another turn as some videos/podcasts have mentioned, is to combo with Aerodactyl VSTAR. We wanted an insane answer for Lugia with Canceling Cologne, which we figured everyone would be playing. The idea with LCP is this: on the turn that you Ancient Star, assuming you combo it with Judge + Path, your Lugia opponent probably will not find their raw 1-of-Cologne. Past that turn, if you put a Poncho on Aerodactyl and retreat, they now need Boss’ Orders + Cologne + Lost Vacuum to even use their VStar. With Cologne and Vacuum being 1-of’s in those lists, we figured the chance of a Summoning Star happening was approximately 0. This was good in theory, but in practice, Aerodactyl usually won the game on its own, or Judge + Path in combination with it was enough to seal the deal. Poncho was way overkill and 100% should’ve been a Choice Belt. I doubt you can hear it during the VOD, but there’s a turn in game 3 against Isaiah where I said “Well, there’s a Leafy Camo Poncho on my active instead of a Choice Belt, so I need 4 Power Tablets to knock you out” (I hit the 4 tablets that turn anyway- Mew moment).
Tournament report
R1: Palkia/Inteleon LL
R2: Zeraora V/Inteleon Rapid Strike WW
R3: Lost Zone Goodra LWT
R4: Lugia WLW
R5: Zoroark Stage 1 Box LWW
R6: Lugia WW
R7: Lugia WW
R8: Mew WLT
R9: Lugia WW
6-1-2 into day 2
Day 1 Recap
Outside of getting Drapion’d a bunch in round 1, day 1 went pretty well. I definitely did some throwing to tie Goodra VSTAR, and the stream game went as I expected. My Lugia games in day 1 were either Aerodactyl, them bricking from Judge + Path, or me winning/losing a long double archeops game. I was pretty pleased with going 4-0 against the biggest deck in the room, and after getting dinner at the world’s biggest McDonald’s, I got a few hours of rest for day 2.
Day 2
R10: Lugia/Flying Pikachu VMAX WW
R11: Lugia (Isaiah) LWL
R12: Kyurem/Palkia WLW
R13: Regis WW
R14: Mew/Fusions LWW
R15: Turbo Lost Box WT (won game 1 then hit time)
11-2-2, 7th seed into top 8
Top 8: Lugia (Isaiah) LWL
I was surprised I was able to run it from 6-1-2 to 11-2-2 to be honest, especially after losing round 11. I was able to skillfully Judge + Path or Roxanne + Path my opponents a lot, which mattered in my later rounds. As you can see, Isaiah was the only one to take me down in day 2. In swiss, I actually got Aerodactyl off game 1, and he was still able to manually power up a belted Lugia and knock it out. The Aerodactyl VSTAR obviously works better if you 1) go first and 2) they don't do that. I think the game on stream was pretty representative of the matchup, as I quickly fell behind without Choice Belt and the defensive answer of Big Parasol when I couldn’t just steal the game with Aerodactyl VSTAR. I’ve played Isaiah three times, and each set has been a fun and well-played match (that’s a nice way to say I am currently 0-3 against him).
Overall, the deck definitely exceeded my expectations, especially with the handicap of a completely dead Leafy Camo Poncho. I walked away with another top 8 under my belt, some prize money, and over double the amount of Championship Points I started the weekend with, so I can’t complain too much.
Overall results and Mew moving forward
This top 8 was another Lugia fest, even more than Arlington and especially San Diego. I think given the sheer size of this event, everyone opted for the safest and widely considered best option, which was Lugia. No real surprises in Lugia beyond Wash Energy starting to be played as an answer to Lost Box and the fall off of Canceling Cologne since its dominance in Europe. I think the meta may shift a bit for Bochum and Knoxville given OCIC this weekend, but it’s probably more likely that everyone rolls up to Australia with pretty stock Lugia lists and nothing shifts. With seven more regionals throughout the world in this format, I think I would get used to playing the Lugia mirror well.
As far as Mew’s position and changes to the list, I would cut Leafy Camo Poncho and Big Charm from my list for Choice Belt and Big Parasol. These are just better tools overall, and they should make it where the Lugia VSTAR matchup is at least playable going 2nd into double Archeops. I don’t think my top 8 changed how much people will care about Mew, and it’s possible people care less and cut Drapion V since Mew VMAX didn’t do as well as it did in San Diego and Liverpool. I think the deck definitely has strong matchups and is still a strong play, so I wouldn’t discount it for the next few events.
Conclusion
Orlando was a great weekend for me, and I wasn’t expecting to come out with a top 8 with a deck I picked up Friday night somewhat out of panic. I skipped all the North America regionals until Arlington because of conflicts with covid, a hurricane, and exams. This finish was big for me to stay on pace for my invite, and with the news of dropping the requirement to 350 for NA, I should be in great shape to finish things off before the semester ends. I’ll see you at Knoxville, Vancouver, Charlotte, and EUIC. For more thoughts from me, my Twitter is @grant_hays1.
Until next time,
Grant
PTCGO Import: