Rhyperior LV.X (Legends Awakened LA 145) – Card of the Day

Mew Prime was released in the latest set, Triumphant (Call of Legends isn’t out as of the writing of this article). When scans of Mew were first shown, experts and novices alike began testing out various cards that could effectively be abused by Mew. Jumpluff, Gyarados and Machamp were the most common, at least at first. Mewperior was never really recognized by the Pokémon community as a viable deck, but all that changed when it took first place at a City Championship this year. For today’s review, I’ll be looking at one of the cards that make this deck possible, Rhyperior LV.X.

Now, I’m not going to jump into this review acting like the only deck that can run Rhyperior LV.X is Mewperior, when in fact an actual deck based around Rhyperior is possible. We’ll start with the basics:
For starters, Rhyperior has 170 HP- good, but not amazing for a Stage 2 Level Up- a Fighting Type (I’ve been over the pros and cons of being a Fighting type so many times that I’m getting tired of writing it). How good or bad a Water Weakness is will really depend on the popularity of LostGar. If it dies down after the first week, then Lucario/Palkia/Mesprit and Gyarados decks will be played a lot more than if LostGar is seeing heavy play. Kingdra decks see such little play nowadays that it isn’t a concern.

The -20 Lightning Resistance is good, making it impossible for any Lightning Pokémon apart from Magnezone Prime to 1HKO it. My god, the Retreat Cost is so high that it looks as if Rhyperior has a Colorless Resistance.

pokegym.net“Hard Crush” is the reason it fits so well in Mewperior decks. By discarding the top 5 cards of your deck, this attack does 50 damage times the number of Energy that were discarded… all for free! Since Mew Prime needs P Energy to get Pokémon into your Lost Zone, Rhyperior works perfecting since it doesn’t require you to run additional Energy types.

Rhyperior does have a second attack, “Upthrow”. For FFC, it does 60 damage and takes all F Energy in your discard pile and shuffles them back into your deck. Obviously the original design of the card was for you to alternate between discarding Energy with “Hard Crush” and returning them to your deck with “Upthrow” (by doing so, you also make your deck heavily populated with Energy, which increases your damage output). However, this attack is one that is rarely used by Mew Prime because it has a steep cost.

My Recommendation: I, like most players who have played with Mewperior for any given amount of time, believe that it is certainly a fast, powerful and unexpected deck, but not Tier 1.

My Rating: 3.25/5 (In my opinion, while Rhyperior LV.X is certainly an important part of Mewperior, Mew Prime is the card that does most of the work. Sure, “Hard Crush” can be a good attack, but it is in no way broke.

Reader Interactions

5 replies

  1. Anonymous

    I think this one was spot-on. You might want to have Adam fix “-20 lightning WEAKNESS to resistance” but that’s it.

    I think that with the rotation (possibly a mid season one, who knows any more…) that this guy will be replaced by something else heavy. Mew has lots of options, for sure, and it’s silly to write him off even after said rotation. Regardless, though, Rhyperior makes one fun deck even by himself.

    • Dakota Streck  → Anonymous

      Yeah, odds are that Mew Prime will be in the next 2-3 formats, so the chance of a new, perhaps even better partner being released is very high.

      Note to an Editor: If you can, please change the -20 Lightning Weakness into Resistance.

  2. Andy S

    This was always a card I liked, but being a Stage 2 LV.X with a retreat cost of 4, it desperately needed a partner, and Mew Prime gave it that.

  3. Matthew Tidman

    Biggest problem I see with the deck and why it will never be tier 1 is the fact that Mew Prime has such pitiful HP. It’s very unlikely that Mew will survive 2 turns meaning your opponent will take a prize for every prize you take as long as he or she is running something the has at least decent recovery. Of course there’s also the 1,505.8 pound gorilla in the room known as Dialga G Lvl. X, and by the time it’s rotated, Rhyperior will be also. Truly a shame because it such a fantastic idea.

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