#150: Mewtwo

Ok, that's a mad few weeks over (thank the Lord Helix) and now hopefully things will settle down. Some filler info: I've been to Sheffield and had some fun with some of my work friends, which involved a lot of drinking, no blogging and no Pokemon, then when I returned, Lizzie was off on holiday, my dad visited for the Easter weekend and so no blogging was done when hanging out with my dad, work was busy gearing up for the Southampton conference (my PhD sponsors are a major company and book out a lot rooms in a very fancy hotel, with nice food, horrible local beer and a very disappointing presentation performance from yours truly). After getting back from all this, I spent a few days readjusting to seeing Lizzie for the first time in like 2 weeks, as well as getting back to work, and visiting Lizzie's family at the weekend, but now I'm back and ready to carry on writing. It's a shame we didn't finish Gen One before the break, but we've got a real classic here...

If you haven't heard of Mewtwo: what the hell? Seriously? One of the most famous and iconic Pokemon ever, and deservedly so, it has been the star of films, included in Smash Bros (and now again), and looks like Frieza from Dragon Ball Z. This is a psychic-type legendary with two rather mundane abilities: pressure (which comes as standard) doubles the usage of PP by the foe whilst unnerve (hidden) prevents the foe from eating berries. Mewtwo was the original badass (Pokemon Jesus, according to some theories), and has the stats to back that up. 106HP isn't bad (actually really good considering you're kind of a sweeper), and 90 in the defences means you can take hits better than most Pokemon. 110 attack is pretty awesome, but utterly irrelevant since you have 154 special attack (that's rather impressive, and there's more to come), plus 130 base speed means not that many things can keep up.

I'm going to kill Vegeta, blow up Vegeta and then kill Vegeta... Wait, what?

As far as damage dealing moves go by level up, there aren't as many as you'd first think. To start off with, you get confusion (base 50 psychic special with the chance to confuse the foe) which can damage foes and if they survive leave them reeling, whilst you also get disable (stops the foe from using that move anymore against you) and safeguard (prevents the team from getting status afflictions for 5 turns). Thereafter you get the normal special move swift (base 60) which bypasses the accuracy check (so only misses if they protect or are flying or whatever), which is then followed by future sight, which is cripplingly powerful (base 120 psychic special) but hits a few turns down the line, meaning it allows the foe to swap in a dark-type to take the hit (so immunity swapping, basically). Psych up copies the foe's stat changes (so great if you wanna mess with a baton pass team), but beware that it does still copy negatives. Miracle eye can be a great choice since it removes the immunity to psychic attacks that dark-types possess, as well as resetting the foe's evasion to normal. Psycho cut is a base 70 physical psychic move with an increased critical hit ratio. Power swap trades the changes to the offensive stats with the target, so this could be used to cripple the foe, or to transfer boosts from a teammate, and guard swap does the same but with defensive stats (as if you couldn't guess).

So we march ever on and get to level 50 (which is probably below where you meet this beast), and you'll get recover, which can recover (oh, I get it) 50% of your HP. I don't feel as though I need to remind you much of the move psychic (base 90 special), whilst barrier buffs the defence by two stages. Aura sphere is an interesting move (for now it's coverage, but you'll see in a few), which is a fighting special move, base 80 in power, no accuracy check as well as hitting anyone in a triple battle (it also gets a boost when you have mega launcher, which Mewtwo doesn't unless you skill swap it). Amnesia buffs your special defence by two stages (heaven forbid they give you calm mind or nasty plot, the former boosting both specials by a stage and the latter being a two stage boost to special attack). Mist shrouds your team and prevents stat changes for a while (can be lifted by defog), and me first steals the foe's move with 50% interest back at them ONLY if they are using a damaging move AND you are faster than them (so you don't get priority and you can't steal priority moves, but I guess you can take focus punch). Lastly, at level 100, you get access to the big brother of psyshock, psystrike, which is more powerful (base 100) as a psychic special move that hits the foe's defence, meaning that a special sweeper that can mess up a special wall. Great move.

TM time! Psyshock is rather pointless since you get psystrike, but I guess that may come a little late, so you could take it for a bit. Calm mind is here, so that's good, and there are a lot of general ones that pop up all over the show, like hail, return, blah, basically all the 90/110 things like thunder/bolt, flamethrower/fire blast, ice beam/blizzard, hidden power, solar beam, earthquake, shadow ball (ghost special base 80), brick break (base 75 physical fighting that can break screens and is of use under certain conditions as I dangle this again), focus blast (base 120 fighting special but with crap accuracy), energy ball, low sweep, charge beam, incinerate, stone edge, rock tomb, bulldoze, poison jab, dream eater, grass knot, dive and strength, basically. No breeding here, since legendary, y'know...

The tutor is causing me grief here: far too many moves for an already long entry... You get standards like focus punch, magic coat and room, drain punch, fire punch, ice punch, thunder punch, icy wind, aqua tail, foul play (pretty cool), iron tail, recycle, role play (copies the foe's ability) and in the same mould is skill swap, shockwave, signal beam, zen headbutt, wonder room and trick. I've detailed these before across my other blogs, so go read them. I'll wait...

Back? Good. Mewtwo got made better in generation six with the introduction of 2 megas, which means not only do you get a power boost, but there are options to keep the foe guessing. We'll start with Mega Mewtwo X. There are no move list changes, so this is nice and brief.

Mega Mewtwo X adds fighting-type to the resume (have been hinting at that the whole time), along with a new ability of steadfast (boosts speed when flinched), and some nice stat changes, boosting the defences by 10 a piece to 100 and the physical attack by 80 (yup, eighty) to a beastly 190. 106HP, 130 speed and 154 special attack remain. Scary, huh?

"Yeah, been working out! What of it, maggot?"

Mega Mewtwo Y (which is the one I have) stays as mono-psychic, but you swap the ability for insomnia, so no being put to sleep by the enemy. Attack goes up by 40, so big whoop, but special attack also goes up by 40 (so 150 and 194 respectively), with a drop in defence to 70 and a boost to special defence (now 120), as well as a touch more speed (now 140). Yeah, special sweeping time...

So what if you cut of his tail? He's got a pony-tail now.

Do you really need me to state my opinion on this one? It's amazing!! Seriously, I love this Pokemon, it's one of my favourites because of the design, the backstory and the horror it gives.

(All artwork presented by Ken Sugimori, taken from the Bulbapedia image archives)