Jason Klaczynski's Mewtrick Deck Strategy

By Michael Martin

Jason Klaczynski is no stranger to competing and succeeding at top-level Pokémon events. He won the 2000 Tropical Mega Battle in Hawaii at the age of fourteen. So, as one of the winners of the World Championships this year, when he defends his title next year, it will be the second time that Pokémon will have sent him to Hawaii!

His "Mewtrick" deck is named for its two main components, Mew ex (EX Legend Maker, 88/100) and Manectric ex (EX Deoxys, 101/107). Mew ex is just an amazing Pokémon card. Its Poké-Power allows you to copy the attack of any Pokémon that is in play, either your own or your opponent’s. Naturally, the deck has a variety of Pokémon with useful attacks for Mew ex to access. Meanwhile, Manectric ex’s first attack does moderate damage, but it also stops your opponent from being about to play any non-Supporter Trainer cards. This disruption can be very powerful, slowing your opponent down in his or her development or preventing your opponent from mounting a comeback. Its second attack not only does a more impressive 80 damage, but it also allows you to do it to any one of your opponent’s Pokémon, even on the Bench. Electrike (EX Deoxys, 60/107) has multiple uses as well. Aside from evolving into Manectric ex, its Recharge attack allows Mew ex to get powered up quickly by pulling a Lightning Energy card from the deck.

You usually don’t want to have a lot of single Pokémon in your deck, but Mew ex’s Poké-Power allows you to use this deck like a Swiss Army knife. You’re able to drop a Pokémon onto your Bench and use any attack immediately, without having to take time to power that Pokémon up because Mew ex does the attack for you. For instance, put in one Roselia (EX Legend Maker, 42/92) to disrupt decks that revolve around Blastoise ex (EX FireRed & LeafGreen, 104/112). Its Flick Poison attack drags Blastoise ex up to be the Active Pokémon and shuts off its Poké-Power by making it Poisoned. Further, Regirock ex (EX Hidden Legends, 98/101) is in the deck specifically to counter decks that center on Raichu (EX Holon Phantoms, 15/110), one of which won the U.S. National Championships this year. Regirock ex has a Poké-Body that neutralizes Raichu’s Zzzap attack and can take it out in one attack, as Raichu has a Weakness to its type. But because the deck depends so heavily on Pokémon-ex, it’s vulnerable to Pokémon that have the Safeguard Poké-Body. This Poké-Body gives immunity to attacks from Pokémon-ex! So, the Mewtrick deck includes a Deoxys ex (EX Emerald, 93/103) to counter this threat. Its attack Fastwave ignores Safeguard and effects like it and gets right through. Jason came up against a Safeguard deck in his first match and was very happy that he had added the Deoxys ex to his Championship-winning deck!

The Mewtrick deck works very well at disrupting and using your opponents’ strategies and strengths against them, but it takes a lot of skill to use this deck properly. It will be well worth your time to learn some of its tricks!