Ready to bring it all the way back, back to the original, where there are only 151 Pokémon? If you haven’t heard about it yet, the latest Pokémon TCG set has just been released, and it features all of the original Pokémon! Scarlet and Violet: Pokémon 151 is a nostalgia overload with Charizard, Pikachu, Giovanni, and more being the star features of the set!

While this set has a huge appeal for those of us that first enjoyed Pokémon back in the 1990s, it is still a new set, and there are new strategies to be discovered. Mew ex [Pokémon 151] lives in my head rent free because it is that good! Why is it good? Should you acquire a few copies? What decks can you even play it in? Those are all great questions, and I plan on answering them in this article shortly! Stay tuned for strategy, decklists, and more! Let’s jump into why Mew ex is good!

Why Mew ex is Good! | Pokémon 151

Why is Mew ex good? That's a great question! Mew ex has strong attributes that allow it to be added into almost any deck in our Standard format! It has free Retreat, it has an attack that only requires Colorless Energy, and it has an Ability that draws cards - what more could you ask for? 

Free Retreat is a slight bonus for most decks because it gives you the opportunity of choice. You can now send Mew ex up Active, draw a card for your turn, and then decide who you want to Retreat into. The power of choice can lead you into making better decisions, gaining more info, and ultimately winning more games. 

Mew ex has an Ability called Restart that allows you to draw up until you have three cards in your hand. While it might sound like it won’t ever happen, we do have cards like Ultra Ball [Scarlet and Violet] in format that allow us to thin our hand down quite often. In most cases of normal gameplay, I can draw a card every once and a while with Restart, and the average amount of cards drawn per game has gone up slightly for the decks that run Mew ex. It might not seem like much, but cards drawn are quite often the difference between winning games, and losing games. How many times have you ever been just one card away? Restart can easily be that card at a few points during each game. The biggest use case has been using Restart to draw out of Roxanne [Astral Radiance] or Iono [Paldea Evolved] in the late game when your opponent shuffles your hand down to only a few cards. You can usually play down a card or two from the shuffle-draw, and draw a few cards from Restart. That might net a game winning Supporter, a much needed Energy, or anything that gets you out of an otherwise tough situation. Restart might not look like much at first, but it does have the capability to course correct you back into a game from time to time.

Mew ex and its powerful Genome Hacking

As if free Retreat and drawing cards wasn’t already enough, you can use any attack that you like with Genome hacking - granted that your opponent has that attack on their Active Pokémon. Using their own strategy against them sounds like a great way to play Pokémon because you can often force your opponent to play around your Mew ex by simply existing. Will they attack with Giratina VSTAR’s [Lost Origin] Lost Impact attack against your Lugia VSTAR [Silver Tempest] knowing that you can use Archeops [Silver Tempest] to simply power up Mew ex to return the KO? It's that simple.

There are so many different attacks that are ideal to copy, like Radiant Greninja’s [Astral Radiance] Moonlight Shuriken to snipe a few of your opponent's Pokémon, or even Charizard ex’s [Obsidian Flames] Burning Darkness for a late game 330 damage response. The options are nearly endless, and you can even use Boss’s Orders [Paldea Evolved] to bring up a Pokémon out of nowhere, and copy any of its attacks. Most decks in our Standard format have some way to accelerate Energy, like Archeops in Lugia VSTAR decks or Mirage Gate [Lost Origin] in Lost Zone Box decks, which allow Mew ex to shine in almost all viable decks. Genome Hacking can steal games from unsuspecting opponents, and allow you to win more games.

With all of these things going for Mew ex, I decided it's best that I share a couple of my favorite lists that utilize it well. Pokémon 151 is still early in its release, and we haven’t had any major events featuring this set outside of Japan, but I have faith that both archetypes below will see success globally soon enough. If you wanna match your Ultimate Guard products with your Mew ex, I’m a huge fan of the smooth shuffle that Cortex Sleeves offer, and the Purple Cortex Sleeves would match Mew ex in an aesthetically pleasing way! 

Deck 1: Colorless Lugia VSTAR | Pokémon

The strategy of a Colorless Lugia VSTAR deck is to get Archeops in the discard pile, usually with Professor Burnet [Sword and Shield Promo] and Ultra Ball, use Lugia VSTAR’s Summoning Star to summon them into play, and accelerate Energy to your various Pokémon. Maybe you’ll use Snorlax [Astral Radiance] with Therapeutic Energy [Paldea Evolved] to escape falling Asleep or use Drapion V [Lost Origin] against a Mew VMAX [Fusion Strike] to score a massive OHKO.

Either way, once you pull Summoning Star off, you’ll plug and play your Energy whichever way you see fit. Look for opportunities to accelerate Energy to Mew ex to copy powerful attacks from your opponent’s Active Pokémon, and try to pull ahead your opponent in the prize race. If they don’t have a powerful attack in the Active Spot, using Boss’s Orders can be a powerful strategy! Let’s check out my list that you can copy and paste directly into PTCG Live.

Looking for a sweet deckbox to put a Colorless Lugia VSTAR deck into? I like matching Lugia’s typing of Colorless to the Blue / White Synergy Sidewinder.

Deck 2: Turbo Lost Zone Box | Pokémon

Turbo Lost Zone Box has largely been a successful deck since the release of Lost Origin, and there are no signs of this deck slowing down anytime soon. The strategy of this deck relies upon Comfey [Lost Origin], Colress’s Experiment [Lost Origin], and Lost Vacuum [Crown Zenith] to pitch cards in the Lost Zone to activate various cards. Cramorant [Lost Origin] can attack for free when there are four cards in the Lost Zone, Mirage Gate can accelerate Energy once you have seven in the Lost Zone, and Sableye unlocks Lost Mine at ten cards in the Lost Zone.

You can power up a few powerful Pokémon with Mirage Gate, like Raikou V [Brilliant Stars], and we now have the opportunity to power up Mew ex in a pinch. Due to a low amount of draw Supporters in this deck, Mew ex serves a double purpose between being a great attacker, and being able to use Restart to draw out of a tough situation. Like most “box” decks, this deck won’t have a linear game plan for everything, but instead you’ll find the best attacker for each situation. Let’s check out my list:

With so many different types of Pokémon in this deck, I love pairing my Lost Zone Box decks with the 2023 Exclusive Bali Blue Sidewinder Deck Box.

Time to Play

With all of these amazing ways to implement Mew ex in our metagame, you should start exploring this great card, and even find other unique ways to add it into your decks. I know that I’m always looking for a new way to play any of the existing successful decks, and there are so many opportunities to enhance decks with Mew ex. I’m going to be playing in most Scarlet and Violet: Pokémon 151 majors so I’ll be sure to keep all of you Ultimate Guard readers up to date. Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch up with you next time!