We have already written about the new Mewtwo’s moves (New Mewtwo moves analysis: Thunderbolt, Flamethrower and Ice Beam), but before we re-run our counters calculations we couldn’t accurately measure how much has Mewtwo influenced the overall meta and counter selection across the entirety of Gen 1 – 3 Pokemon.
Earlier today we have silently released a new version of our database website, containing updated counters listings and new Mewtwo’s move sets, and started to explore how much has changed before and after. In a word: a lot. It suffices to say that Mewtwo is now one of (if not the) most commonly found counters across all Pokemon listed on the database site.
Why and how did this happen, and how come Mewtwo is becoming the go-to option for countering almost everything that’s not a direct counter to it?
You can’t put a price on elite stats or good typing
Simply stated, Mewtwo is a stat monster with 300 Attack, 193 Stamina and 182 Defense. Mewtwo is also a pure Psychic-type, which makes it take increased damage only from three other types: Bug, Dark and Ghost.
Because of this, Mewtwo is such a strong contender that no matter what moves you give it, or which Generation you’re looking at, or which match up you’re observing, Mewtwo will always be a strong Pokemon.
Mewtwo’s move pool is actually… incredible
When Niantic gave Mewtwo three new moves, Mewtwo became a god. Equipped with all the tools it needed to reign supreme, there is now a Mewtwo move set that can deal neutral or Super Effective damage to almost every Pokemon in the game.
Not only that, Mewtwo is commonly found in the top 12 counters for literally anything that doesn’t straight out counter it. Name a few random Pokemon in your head. Let’s say you name…:
- Weezing. Guess what counters Weezing? Confusion / Psychic Mewtwo.
- Porygon? Focus Blast Mewtwo.
- Rayquaza? Ice Beam Mewtwo.
- Kyogre? Thunderbolt Mewtwo.
- Hell, let’s go weirder, Tyranitar! Focus Blast Mewtwo.
- C’mon, Venusaur? Confusion / Flamethrower Mewtwo.
Not to mention the INSANE NEUTRAL DPS of a Shadow Ball (and even Hyper Beam to an extent) Mewtwo.
Additionally, Mewtwo’s new moves allow it to actually be better against some of the Pokemon that could threaten it:
- Focus Blast > Tyranitar, Houndoom, Absol
- Psychic / Shadow Ball > Gengar, Banette
- Flamethrower > Scizor, Pinsir
- Ice Beam > Rayquaza, any other Dragon
- Thunderbolt > Gyarados, any other Water type with Bite
See what we’re getting at? This is not a move pool, this is a move gold mine.
If Mewtwo was clay, TMs would be the sculptor
With the new move pool, Niantic has managed to create a perfect Pokemon. A Pokemon which can fit into any team and any role, provided you have enough fast and charged TMs to modify it to your needs.
And the “sculpting” process is really not that complicated:
- Want more charge move usage? Spend 1 Fast TM for Psycho Cut.
- Want a particular move set? Spend X-amount of Charge TMs for it.
What’s happening with the meta then?
Here’s what’s happening right now:
- Ice Beam Mewtwo is now the best Ice type attacker in the game, and will likely stay strong throughout Generation IV
- Thunderbolt Mewtwo is actually Zapdos, but with better typing. Raikou is still better, but who cares honestly?
- Flamethrower Mewtwo can be used against Grass, Bug and Poison Pokemon easily, but there are already good options for that.
- A Mewtwo is a good counter to almost everything in the game.
What about Deoxys? Of course, Shadow Ball Mewtwo deals Super Effective damage to it, so you can expect to see some usage out of Mewtwo here also. Actually, we expect the counters list to be fairly similar to Alakazam’s.
What about Gen IV? Well… most of legendary Pokemon in Gen IV have crazy complicated / wide resistance charts (except for Regigigas), which means that picking counters will mostly depend on what moves they get and that most counters will be mono-typed attackers that exploit only a particular weakness (Pokemon like Counter / Close Combat Machamp, etc.).
And that’s it. We wanted you to be aware of Mewtwo’s power and to provide some background into the updated counters lists on the Database website. Check it out:
