Mew stays winning. It's a Mew Year, baby.
Coming off a Top 64 finish at Peoria Regionals, I was eager to get back into competition and take another step toward a Worlds Invite. After picking up my brother in Port Huron, we crossed the border on our way to Toronto. In the car, my brother and I discussed the pros and cons to each of the different decks and upon arrival, my mind was set on playing Lugia VStar. But my testing group had other ideas.
Andrew Mahone was convinced he had concocted a Mew list that beat Lugia. I couldn't believe it. From my testing to the event, Lugia had a 50/50 or better matchup into Mew. It felt like even with the Marnie / Path combo, Lugia needed only needed one turn to get a few Archeops out and completely run away with the game. He sat me down and played the matchup. Turns out, I was completely wrong. Mew won all three of the games we played and it wasn't particularly close. An early Path, or a Judge that stuck, or a late Roxanne were all components that helped solidify the matchup. Judge was a key inclusion that prevented the Lugia player from being able to stack their topdeck with Oranguru. This new technology was crucial to denying Lugia the draw power they already lack.
After some more debate, we concluded that not only did Mew have a solid Lugia matchup, but it also could beat Lost Box /Charizard by Judging 2+ times and that it had outs to fringe matchups like Regis and Stall. Mirror was always going to be an issue, but we hoped that our familiarity with the deck + the various outs we played to Path to the Peak would ultimately give us the edge.
With the deck selected and the final techs picked, the group went to bed comfortable in the choice. Here was the list we ended up on:
Day 1 & 2 Matchups
I won't go into detail on every round as there weren't many particularly notable games. I will, however, give my general thoughts on the matchups I played throughout the course of the day.
R1 - Gardevoir / Beedrill WW
R2 - Lugia LWW
R3 - Turbo Mew WLW
R4 - Regigigas LL
R5 - Lost Box Rayquaza WLW
R6 - Lugia WLW
R7 - Zorobox WW
R8 - Regigigas LWT
R9 - Lugia WLW
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R10 - Zoroark Box LL
R11 - Arceus / Inteleon WW
R12 - Inteleon / Articuno / DOUBLE DRAPION LL
R13 - Fusion Strike Mew WLL
R14 - Turbo Mew WLW
R15 - Arceus Duraludon
Final Record: 9-5-1, 61st Place
After a fantastic Day 1, I had a disappointing Day 2, which largely was out of my control. In Day 1 I faced 3 Lugia and beat them all. Day 2? Not a single one. Day 1 I was able to squeak out a win against a bad matchup in Zoroark Box. Day 2? Absolutely trounced in the matchup. I attribute this mediocre (for me) finish to a matchup spread in Day 2 that did not reflect the Day 2 metagame. Lost Box Charizard and Lugia were matchups I felt confident in and they composed 45% of the Day 2 metagame. Not seeing a single one of those really hurt my chances. Not only did I miss the good matchups, but I got paired into decks where I have a practical autoloss - especially my R12 pairing into Charlie Lockyer's Articuno deck with two Drapion V.
Lugia (3-0)
In the Lugia matchup, I only felt somewhat scared if they played V Guard energy, which most did. The V Guard's mean that Mew needs and additional modifier to OHKO a Lugia. However, this is more important in theory than in practice as often the early Judge + Path combo meant they simply couldn't get setup OR I would be able to gust a Lugia V or Lumineon V on the bench for my first two prizes. I could then fill my hand with the necessary power tablets to swing for a OHKO on Lugia VStar. It was also possible to never have to confront the Lugia as a well-timed Echoing Horn meant I always had a target on the bench to keep pace. In my rounds, we always went to 3 games, but Mew always came out ahead in the end.
Regis (0-1-1)
What I thought was a relatively favorable matchup for Mew proved to be much more difficult this time around. I had a hard time sticking them with Judge as it seemed like my opponents always had the Gift Energy attached. I was lucky to pull out a tie in my round 8 matchup, but after facing and beating 3 Regis in Peoria, I was surprised that the matchup felt so much different this time around.
One card I attribute to boosting Regis in this matchup certainly would be Serena. It's Draw or Gust combo is too good for that deck not to play in high counts. Serena allows the Regi player to get off to a fast start and then the card transitions into a fantastic late game draw after a few prizes have been taken. Though Regi didn't place anywhere in the Top 8, I will be considering this deck heading into Arlington.
Mew (2-1)
Mew is a bit hard to categorize and a deeper dive into my record against Mew showed that I was 2-0 vs the true Turbo Mew mirror and 0-1 into the Meloetta version. Ultimately, the only thing one needs to be worried about agianst Meloetta is the T1 attack, which obviously is a little more consistent thanks to Forest Seal Stone. But, if Turbo Mew can survive that first turn and even if Meloetta is able to take that KO, a Judge / Path combo can completely flip the game. In fact, I was one turn away from the win in my Day 2 matchup against Meloetta Mew but he top decked the Seal Stone to get out of the lock. Bummer.
Conclusion: All in all, I don't regret playing Mew for this event, but I was completely taken aback at the amount of respect it is still receiving. Double Drapion in Charlie's Articuno list as well as having to face multiple Zoroark Box decks with Mightyena really soured me on the deck heading into Arlington. While I do feel confident in my play with the deck, this was likely the tournament with the least amount of hate toward Mew, and I still played against some pretty anti-Mew decks.
Finishing with yet another Top 64 is something I'm proud of, but not necessarily something I aspire to. It is nice to be consistent, but I'm looking for that big tournament spike here soon. That said, my prize packs were absolute gas.
Props:
Seeing (and beating) old Canadian friends
Attended my first tournament ever with my bro!
Seeing the crew once again
The absolute HEAT from prizing
Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mint Pretzels (Thanks for packing those, Ann)
Slops:
Trash overpriced Mexican food
Seven hour road trips
No Chicken Salad