My City Championship Report + Deck Analysis: Mime Jr. Lock

Hello SixPrizes, this is Grant Manley with my second article. On Saturday January 7th I went to a City Championship with my awesome rogue deck, Mime Jr. Lock. I was planning on going to a tournament on the 8th as well, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to.

Going into this tournament I was confident in my deck’s locking ability, but not sure if the matches would take too long and I would lose on time. Turns out I was scared of the clock for no reason. Time was amazingly not called in any of my matches! Alright, brace yourselves for this extremely crazy deck…

Pokémon – 20 4 Sneasel UD 3 Weavile UD 2 Slowpoke HS/CL 2 Slowking HS/CL 4 Mime Jr. CL 2 Mr. Mime CL 1 Spiritomb TM 1 Cleffa HS/CL 1 Tyrogue HS/CL

Trainers – 40 4 Pokémon Collector 4 Twins 4 N 4 Seeker 3 Judge 2 Professor Elm’s Training Method 4 Junk Arm 3 Pokémon Catcher 3 Pokémon Communication 2 Lost Remover 2 Crushing Hammer 2 Revive 2 Switch 1 Lost World

Energy – 0

Now, before you exit this page thinking that this deck is garbage, I want to let you know that everyone who saw it also didn’t think it would work and were proven wrong.

The strategy with this is to get the Slowking and Mime Jr. combo out and lock your opponent to either deck them out or place six Pokémon in the Lost Zone. Weavile, Spiritomb, and the various disruptive T/S/S are great for helping control your opponent’s field.

The Pokémon

Mime Jr. is your main (and hopefully only) attacker. It is a baby and therefore has the same stats as one. Of course, it also has the amazing Sweet Sleeping Face Poké-Body which makes it that much more awesome. Its attack, Sleepy Lost, requires no Energy (Yay for no energy decks!) and it sends the top card of your opponent’s deck to the Lost Zone.

Mr. Mime has a boss Poké-Power, Trick Reveal, which makes each player show each other their hand. The downside of your opponent seeing your hand isn’t really a downside because they shouldn’t be able to do anything about it. This Poké-Power is great for letting me know if I should Claw Snag (Weavile’s Poké-Power, more on that later.), or use something like Judge or N to change their hand.

It’s just useful in general for letting me know what they have which greatly affects how I play that game. Its attack, Juggling, doesn’t matter because the deck doesn’t run any Energy, but I’ll say what it does anyway. For PC it lets you flip four coins and for each heads you do 10 damage.

It’s very bad, but one time I used it with my Lostgar deck and got four heads! I had already basically lost, but I attacked with Mr. Mime anyway for fun. It has a retreat (cost) of one Energy. The good thing about that is that it doesn’t matter in this deck if a Pokémon has one retreat or ten because it has no Energy.

The downside is that the deck has no Energy so you have to rely on Switch to get it out of the Active Spot. Its weakness to Psychic and absent resistance don’t really matter. Its 70 HP isn’t great nowadays for a Basic, but it’s better than Mime Jr.

Slowking is the key tech to this game. Without Slowking, you lose, period. It has a Poké-Power called Second Sight. It lets you look at the top three cards of either player’s deck and rearrange them as you like. This is obviously the key to locking because you partially control your opponent’s top decks and partially control what you Lost Zone with Mime Jr. which is extremely helpful.

I will go over the attacks of most of the Pokémon in this deck even though it runs no Energy. Slowking’s attack, Psyshock, does 30 damage for PC and has a 50% chance of Paralyzing the Defending Pokémon.

The attack can be decent for stalling but again, it doesn’t matter because this deck runs no Energy. It has basically the same Weakness, lack of Resistance, and Retreat as Mr. Mime except for having two retreat which doesn’t make a difference. So, you have to rely on Switch if you start with Slowpoke or if a poke/king gets Catchered up. Also, it has 10 more HP than Mr. Mime.

Slowpoke evolves into Slowking and makes a horrible starter; nothing more.

Weavile is another very neat tech that has 80 HP, FREE retreat (which is so sweet), Psychic Resistance (also sweet), and a Weakness to the more rare than ever Donphan Prime. Its attack called Feint Attack snipes anything for 30 for DC. Rather weak, but could be useful in decks that also happen to have Energy. (I know decks with energy are so hard to find!)

Its Poké-Power, Claw Snag, is a really good and disruptive Drop-Power. When you play Weavile from your hand to evolve Sneasel, you can look at your opponent’s hand and discard a card there. As mentioned before, it is good with Mr. Mime because with Trick Reveal you can see if there is anything worth Claw Snagging.

Sneasel evolves into Weavile (as if you don’t already know that) and makes a great starter other than the babies because of its free retreat. I’m surprised that Pokémon made this card an exact reprint of the Sneasel from Neo Genesis that got banned due to being broken. (Like Sabldonk!) The only difference between the one from Undaunted and the one from Neo Genesis is that the Sneasel from Undaunted has a Fighting weakness.

Spiritomb makes a nice tech and a horrible starter. It’s a 60 HP basic with a nice absent Weakness, Resistance to Colorless, and one Retreat. It has a Drop-Power called Spooky Whirlpool which makes your opponent shuffle their hand into their deck and draw six cards; no more, no less. This is only good extremely early game or extremely late game.

It can be used on T1 (turn 1) when your opponent has a good hand or late game when your opponent has 7 cards in his/her hand and deck combined. Your opponent has to draw six and you can get rid of the last with Mime Jr. It just helps with disruption. Its attack called Color Tag lets you put one damage counter on each of your opponent’s Pokémon of the type of your choice.

Now for another Lostgar (Mewgar) story; I was battling a Durant deck and I used Spiritomb’s Color Tag seven times to Knock Out all four Durant! My opponent recovered all four anyway and I lost that game only because my sole Gastly was prized. When I got the prized Gastly with Spiritomb it was already too late. Back to the analysis!

Cleffa, the most commonly used baby. In this deck it is solely to be used to get you out of an absolute garbage hand. It can also be used as a sacrifice to activate Twins.

Tyrogue is only to be used to get donks on lone babies. Otherwise it can be used as Junk Arm fodder.

The Trainers, Supporters and Stadium

Lost World is the only stadium in this deck. It is not your primary way of winning but can be used to win against heavy Pokémon decks and things like Mew Box. It is nice for giving your opponent the illusion that you’re only way to win is through this card.

Lost Remover and Crushing Hammer are great and extremely useful tools (Not really, they’re items. Whatever, you get my point.) for not letting your opponent benefit from the few energy they get to attach. Lost Remover automatically sends one of your opponents Special Energy to the Lost Zone, and Crushing Hammer lets you flip a coin and if it’s heads, then you can discard one of your opponent’s Energy cards.

Revive is for keeping up the Mime Jr. Hopefully and logically you should not have to resort to this, but it is also nice for Catchered and killed Slowpokes.

Professor Elm’s Training Method may seem weird in a deck like this, but it is useful for getting Slowkings and Weaviles.

Switch is an extremely (I cannot stress that enough) good card in this deck. It can be used if you start with a Pokémon with a Retreat Cost or if a Pokémon with a Retreat Cost is Catchered up because you have no other way to get those Pokémon back to the bench. It can also be used to wake up a Mime Jr.

Pokémon Catcher is the most expensive staple that is also the most expensive card in this deck! Most decks don’t rely on this card for the decks strategy, but just use it to stall or claim easy prizes. This deck, however, sort of revolves around Catcher. This is another key card to keep up the lock.

It’s great for this deck that Eelektrik NVI is in the BDIF now as well as many other rogue-ish decks because of that glaring two retreat. Typhlosion Prime is another great target for this because it also has two retreat and the Reshiphlosion player should not be able to get any R Energy in the discard for them to Afterburner.

Pokémon Communication is another way to get Slowking, Weavile, and even Mime Jr. if you have to! As mentioned before, Slowking is crucial so you need to get it out fast. Communication helps to just that. Not to mention, It can also give you an extra turn against Durant decks by failing it and giving you more time to play.

Judge is yet another very key card in this deck. It provides early disruption and can really screw people up, unfortunately, that also means it can screw you up. I don’t care though, otherwise I wouldn’t run three! (And you can usually work with any four given cards)

Junk Arm is a very situational card. Ah, what am I saying, this card is EXCEPTIONAL! To be able to re-use any of your Item cards four times is amazing! I usually find myself re-using the energy removers or Switch, but also commonly re-using Catcher. Rarely will you have to re-use Communication or Revive.

N is in the same boat as Judge except to more extremes and is usually better. Judge is for early-game and N is for late-game. It always acts as a PONT for you (Unless you’re battling an Electrode Prime deck) and can really screw your opponent up if they have taken a few prizes. Unfortunately, it can sometimes slow down your decking-out process if your opponent had more cards in hand than prizes so you have to use it carefully.

Seeker is nice for re-using Drop-Powers and for making your opponent picking up a Pokémon that you possibly would want to Claw Snag. Especially if you go first and your opponent can only get out two Pokémon; let’s just say a Litwik and an Oddish. Then, you would definitely want to use the Seeker + Claw Snag combo to get rid of that Oddish.

Seeker is also great against decks that run Kingdra Prime which try to kill your Mime Jr. with Spray Splash. Once they get two damage counters on a Mime Jr., just retreat for another one and use Seeker to heal. Rinse and repeat. This is why the seemingly dangerous Kingdra Prime is not much of a threat. Once you run out of Seekers, so what, they still have 6 Prizes to take!

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Pokémon Collector is probably the most common staple. Get three basics. Typically, depending on what you start with in your starting seven, you would want to get a Sneasel/Mime Jr., a Mr. Mime, and a Slowpoke.

Twins is last, but certainly not least! This card is usually what gives you game changing cards when your opponent takes a Prize card. The best part is, you want your opponent to take a prize, and they don’t have a choice if they want to win!

This come-from-behind Supporter really puts a spark in your step and can really turn a game around. In fact, when I only need one card at any given time; I usually get the card I need with Twins, and get another Twins!

Major Pros

~ Rarely has to rely on Sleep flips. If Mime Jr. stays asleep too long then you can use Switch which can easily be fished out with Twins or Junk Arm. You usually want to wake up immediately because your opponent should never be in a position where they can attack.

~ Can usually always get a complete lock by T2 or T3. The only reason you wouldn’t be able to do this is if you get ridiculously unlucky and draw absolute garbage.

~ Annoys opponent.

Major Cons

~Annoys opponent.

~ Whatever is prized, stays prized.

Testing Results

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I brought this deck to league the week before the tournament. Here is how it did:

• 2 losses to VVV (Vanilluxe/Vileplume/Victini) because I got nothing and he got Vileplume UD out which screws this deck over 354 times.
• 2 losses to Durant NVI which is (should be) an auto-win. The Durant deck that I battled ran an unusually high energy count and ran Switch and Cheerleader’s Cheer which surprised me and more than once I was forced to give him what he wanted.
• 1 win against Jumpluff HS; successful lock.
• 1 win against CoKE; successful lock.
• 1 win against EelZone; successful lock.

Uh-Oh, 3-4, that’s no good.

I brought it to the tournament anyway.

The really good players in Seniors in my area who make top 4 frequently are: Tad Miller, Ben Alexander, Tristan Lackey, and myself. The other good Seniors in my area who don’t top cut as frequently, but are still a challenge are: Wesley Collier, Brandon Stewart, Allison Hamilton, Samantha Shaw, David Shaw, and Ethan Wilson, so you know when I reference them when I battle them.

And now, without further delay, I present to you my City Championship report!

Seniors had 15 players so we had four rounds and were one person shy of a top 4 cut… sigh.

Round 1 vs. Krookodile Emerging Powers Theme Deck

youtube.comWhen I realized what he was playing, I just envisioned my plummeting resistance in my head. He started with no Energy which is a huge shock for a theme deck even though I shuffled it well. I got a turn two lock and maintained it. He complained a little how he couldn’t get any Energy and I’m like; notice how I’m controlling what you draw and there are like 15 Energy in your Lost Zone!

I won off the Lost World when he had three cards left in his deck. A nice way of saying how bad I beat him is to say that I wasn’t able to utilize my Twins that game.

To my opponent of that round: I don’t remember your name, but if you’re reading this, please don’t take that the wrong way.

Record: 1-0

Round 2 vs. Brandon Stewart w/ Jumpluff

This was the same deck that I battled at league. His deck ran a couple Pichu HS, Virizion NVI, and 2-2 Sunflora HS. It was kind of annoying that he had no Pokémon with 2 retreat or higher. I got the lock out, but I don’t remember what turn. Probably T2. He played N one turn and later that turn he played Professor Juniper and attacked with Virizion to claim a prize.

I realized a split-second after he took his prize that he played 2 Supporters. I called the judge over and he tried his best to undo everything involving Professor Juniper. I am pretty sure that everything was done correctly as I trusted in Brandon’s honesty as to what was his Prize card and what he drew with Juniper.

The judge was going to give him a prize loss penalty but I asked the judge to only give him a warning because if he gave a prize loss then I wouldn’t be able to use my Twins. I believe I used Twins to get Catcher and Weavile, but I’m not sure. I claw Snagged his Juniper and Catchered up his Sunkern. (Or was it Sunflora?) I then locked him for the rest of the game.

Record: 2-0

Round 3 vs. Tad Miller w/ Raichu Prime/Eelektrik

pokemon-paradijs.comI’m like; great!, auto-win! Hold up, before I go any further, I would like to say that nothing is auto-win if you draw absolute crap (sorry for using Durant’s name in vain) the entire game. Alright, I will resume. He got a decent start and I didn’t get anything besides a Weavile and a Mime Jr. I got garbage with the two Judges I got, but got no form of draw-power the whole game other than the Judges. Even a Collector for a Cleffa would’ve been nice!

He got down to six cards in his deck though! At about mid-game he started attacking with Eelektrik! He is a smart player and always adapts to my rogue decks despite not having seen them before. He covered his benched Tynamo and Raichu so nothing would be Catcher-bait.

Record: 2-1 (sadness)

Round 4 vs. Allison Hamilton w/ EelZone

This is the same deck I versed at league. (Glad I got my practice in!) I got out the lock relatively late and she Catchered up my first Slowpoke and KO’ed it by flipping three heads with Magneton’s Tri Attack! I revived Slowpoke and she Catchered it and killed it with Tri Attack again!

I finally got my other Slowpoke out and proceeded to lock. I believe that she got 3 Prizes, but I’m not sure. When I got the lock out it was over.

Record: 3-1

I was pretty bummed about that loss against Raichu, but things happen… sigh.

Recap

• Ben played ZPST and got second.
• Tad won with his Raichu deck (How it beat ZPST, I do not know).
• I think Tristan placed fifth or sixth with his Chandelure deck; which is funny because I just said in my last article that no plays Chandelure in Seniors!
• David went 2-2 with a Hydreigon/Dragons build. Don’t ask me how it works because I have no idea.
• Samantha placed 3rd with ZPST.
• Ethan went 1-3 with his neat Donphan/Terrakion/Dragons build.
• I think Wesley placed 5th with Kyugatr.
• Brandon and Allison went 2-2.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this article enough to try out the deck yourself and all comments, questions and constructive criticism will be appreciated.

Three cheers for rogue!