Ghost Tour

Hello again readers, I’m back with you for my third and final article in August. I’m coming off of a rather mediocre and disappointing finish at Worlds where I played a deck that only one other person played in Day 2. I played Gengar & Mimikyu-GX/Omastar TEU because I knew that no matter what deck I played, I would have to high-roll to make Top 8. MimiGar was the deck that I decided on because if people do not know how to play against it, almost any matchup is winnable.

Today, I am going to go in depth on MimiGar and give detailed descriptions of the deck’s matchups, as well as why the cards that are in my list were chosen. Let’s jump right into it.

MimiGar (Worlds List)

This is the list that I finally settled on playing in Day 2. A couple of my friends played similar lists in Day 1, but unfortunately, neither of them ended up making Day 2. When I was sent the initial list on Wednesday night, I was super intrigued and I set about optimizing it.

Card Choices

2 Omastar TEU, 2 Unidentified Fossil, 2 Rare Candy

I’ve actually been questioned over this choice by multiple people. Everyone assumes that your game plan in every matchup is to establish the lock, which then translates to “why not more Omastar/Fossil?” Well, there are really only three matchups where establishing the lock is necessary to win. This means that I cannot justify devoting more than the 6 slots I already have to the lock. Yes, having the extra copy of either of these cards could be nice, but there are so many more cards that I would attempt to fit in the list first.

2 Bill’s Analysis

8 Supporter cards wasn’t enough for this deck to function, so we turned to Bill’s Analysis to fill the extra Supporter slots. MimiGar is easily the most combo-based deck in the game right now, so shuffle draws such as Cynthia are pretty terrible in the deck unless your justification for them would be recovering from Reset Stamp. Bill’s allows you to find some of the pieces necessary for you to take those big KOs on TAG TEAMs or gust up an optimal target. Yes, it’s a strictly worse Green’s, but you can use it with Omastar in play, and you can’t exactly play 6 Green’s in a deck.

4 Surprise Box

Someone questioned me about playing 4 of these. I cannot fathom playing less copies, and dearly wish I could play more. This card is essentially an Electropower for +50 damage rather than +30. Yes, you’re giving your opponent resources back, but half of the time they’re not going to be able to play them anyway. Giving your opponent multiple Supporters that aren’t Cynthia at once is something that can easily secure +50–150 damage for multiple turns because they are unable to play them all. Basically, this card is one of the only reasons this deck functions as well as it does.

4 Mixed Herbs, 2 Great Potion, 2 Choice Helmet

I was initially skeptical of the heavy healing in this deck, but once I realized that it makes Malamar, PikaRom, Blacephalon, and Mewtwo Box 50/50 or better, I decided that I would never cut the healing cards. Against, Malamar, they’re either spamming Giratina and not doing much damage after the heals, or they’re using a Pokémon-GX to attack and do more damage. Either of these is acceptable because you either (A) outheal them or (B) take more Prizes. PikaRom thrives on 2-shots in this format, especially when you add in Item lock preventing Electropowers. The healing cards make that 2-shot into a 3- or 4-shot. Mixed Herbs also has the benefit of healing Paralysis and Confusion, which makes Raichu TAG TEAM less effective and Bursting Burn a waste of a turn.

Choice Helmet falls in the same vein as the healing, but has additional use against ReshiZard, eventually preventing Flare Strike from ever taking a 1HKO when paired with Shrine of Punishment. It also makes Blacephalon and Ultra Necrozma require an extra Energy to 1HKO a MimiGar. As an added bonus, Choice Helmet prevents Weavile-GX from taking a 1HKO if your opponent is forced to use it, granted Dark Box is a lost cause anyway.

2 Cherish Ball, 2 Pokémon Communication

These are here to get Omastar out. Once you have the Fossil in play, all you need is to either (A) Green’s Exploration twice or (B) naturally have one of the pieces in hand. The theory is that between 3 extra MimiGar, 2 Omastar, 2 Cherish Ball, 2 Pokémon Communication, and 2 Rare Candy, you’ll always have one of the three pieces required to drop Omastar in one turn.

2 Energy Spinner

Multiple people asked me about cutting one of these, and I outright told them the deck is terrible without multiple copies of Energy Spinner. Being able to use Bill’s or Green’s to search an Energy out is invaluable and makes the deck run much more smoothly than it would otherwise. There have been games where I used 2-of my Green’s to get both Spinners on turns 1 and 2, knowing that I would use Horror House-GX to replenish my hand.

2 Peeking Red Card

I was asked if this card was legal, had it translated twice, and confused a lot of people with it. Decks such a GardEon and ReshiZard will fill their hands with Energy or other non-Trainers, and Peeking Red Card punishes that. I can make you shuffle that 8-card hand with 6 Energy in and you will potentially draw 8 Trainers because of how many your deck plays. The card also serves as a Hand Scope because it allows me to pick and choose my opponent’s hands. I can know for sure when my opponent will have enough Trainers to be KO’d, or I can leave them with a completely dead hand and take a 2HKO. I can also force them to shuffle in particularly good hands in hopes of preventing them from doing anything too annoying.

1 Reset Stamp

“But Alex, putting your opponent at a lower hand size is counterproductive.” Yup. That’s why we’re the only deck that is going to use Reset Stamp to give our opponents more cards in their hand rather than less. In the early game, your opponent will sometimes be able to play their hand down to 1–3 cards and Peeking Red Card is pretty much useless there. Reset Stamp sends them up to 6 new cards, which is enough for Peeking Red Card and Surprise Boxes to manipulate their hand into 1HKO material.

3 Power Plant, 1 Lysandre Labs

A turn 1 Power Plant is one of the most annoying things possible for a few decks. Power Plant forces your opponent to have a counter Stadium or their Abilities that could clear out their hands don’t work. Power Plant can cripple PikaRom and makes Mewtwo Box have a hard time if they’re not prepared. Lysandre Labs is in the deck to deal with Fairy Charm P and potentially turn off a Spell Tag or Escape Board in Malamar.

Potential Inclusions

Wait and See Hammer

This is a card that we joked about a lot, but never actually bothered to test. I think that there are a few applications for the card in this deck, but I don’t know if I can justify the slot that would be required to play it. Against GardEon, if you go second, you can Hammer and then Horror House-GX, which would prevent them from searching any Energy on their turn 2, and when you more than likely KO them, they’ll have no Energy in play. Against PikaRom it does something similar, but could actually allow you to pass rather than use Horror House-GX. I’ll go into that particular situation later.

Lusamine

Having pseudo-infinite Power Plants and Lysandre Labs is something that is certainly intriguing, but I found that Lusamine is too slow and that you’ll almost always need more than just a Stadium to keep yourself in the game. It is also technically an out to a Supporter after a Reset Stamp, but that seems mediocre and I would rather play Cynthia if I decide I need another out.

Giant Bomb

I could see cutting one of the Choice Helmets for this because it is so good against Green’s Blacephalon and Dark Box, two of the deck’s worst matchups. I haven’t tested this yet, but I plan to.

The Matchup Spread

So, there are a lot of decks in UPR-on, aren’t there? This is a good thing for the game, and it makes me happy to see so many viable options out there.

Before I go into anything else, I need to stress how important it is to know a general range of Trainer counts for every deck. For instance, a good Green’s ReshiZard will always play somewhere between 40–42 Trainer cards. This knowledge is vital when trying to determine the odds of whether you take a KO or whiff.

First things first, I’m going to go over which matchups it is important to get Omastar out in. Malamar, PikaRom, Dark Box, and Blacephalon/Naganadel are all matchups where the Item lock is vital. Every other matchup can either keep a small Bench or isn’t affected by the lock enough for it to matter.

PikaRom: 50/50

This is the matchup that I felt the most scared of going into Worlds because it could easily go either way. Even though it was the most played deck, I managed to avoid playing against it for the entire event, which was definitely a good thing. This matchup is fairly straightforward: establish the lock, take KOs, and try to not lose before you win. Power Plant is one of the most important cards in the deck when it comes to this matchup. PikaRom plays around 35 Trainer cards on average, so keep that in mind when playing against it. Luckily, your opponent will likely be benching multiple Pokémon, as well as playing a lot of Energy down, so there shouldn’t be more than 10–15 non-Trainers in their deck after turn 3.

Your goal in this matchup is to KO whatever Pokémon they decided to put their Energy on first; usually this is a PikaRom. Going first, your goal should be to find a Fossil and an Energy—maybe a Choice Helmet, too—but past that you need to build up your hand with Rare Candy, Omastar outs, Custom Catchers, a Peeking Red Card, and Surprise Boxes. On your second turn, assuming they didn’t Full Blitz on turn 1, you will Horror House-GX to make them draw cards. They’ll likely have 4–5 Trainers in their 8-card hand, so go ahead and Peeking Red Card to check. If there’s 4 or 5, and you have a Surprise Box to make them go up to 5 in the case of 4, let them keep their hand unless it it unusually gross. At this point you’ll likely have to choose between Omastar and Custom Catchers. If their hand wasn’t too disgusting, you can safely go for the Catchers and get Omastar the following turn unless you get Stamped. If there’s a high chance of Stamp, it may be best to get the lock and KO whatever is Active instead. The hardest thing for you will be closing out the game because they’ll likely be using a Raichu TAG TEAM, and 6 Trainers can be difficult in the late game, depending on how long the lock has been in play. Watch out for Paralysis, and play well, and it should be fine.

Green’s ReshiZard and GardEon: 80-20

I’m going to talk about these two at the same time because they’re basically the same thing. They cannot 1HKO you, play tons of Trainers, and require multiple turns to do much. An early Horror House-GX is a must, and Custom Catchers on whatever the threat is is vital. Remember that they play 40–42 (Reshi) or ~46–48 (Gardy) Trainers, so if you go first and Horror House-GX to make them draw, it’s likely they have 6 or more unless you saw them grab multiple Energy from their deck. Peeking Red Card is great in this scenario, and if you use a Surprise Box too, you’re going to take a KO. Be careful of Stamp, but past that, these matchups should be a breeze. Remember: Omastar is strictly bad against both of these decks.

Malamar/Giratina: 60/40

This matchup is straightforward, so I won’t talk about it all that much. Basically, get the lock up, spam healing cards, and be careful of Mimikyu SM99 or their own MimiGar. This means that building up massive hands is super risky and you should be paying attention to your own Trainer count. Using their Viridian Forests to manage you own hand is incredibly helpful, but don’t let them discard too many Trainers because they have one of the lower Trainer counts, depending on their list.

Ultra Necrozma or TinaChomp Malamar: 50/50

These two are a lot more difficult to beat because they both have high damage potential, and your out to beating Malamar is typically through healing. Choice Helmet and your Lysandre Labs are both vital cards in this matchup. The Helmet makes Ultra Necrozma require an extra Energy to 1HKO you, which isn’t easy to achieve under Item lock. Tina/Chomp requires previous damage to KO you, which is usually in the form of Spell Tag, so use your Labs well, and don’t feel overly safe with a little bit of damage on a Gengar. On, the bright side, both of these alternate attackers give up multiple Prize cards, so them being benched can also be a boon for you.

Blacephalon/Naganadel: 55/45

This matchup can be close because of how fast they can get Energy into play. Sticking your Choice Helmet, Power Plant, and Item lock are all vital to this matchup because every Energy you can force them to burn under Item lock is another Energy they can’t use to return-KO your MimiGar. Omastar is absolutely necessary here, so don’t be afraid to focus on it at the expense of an early KO. A well-timed Horror House-GX can completely stall your opponent for a turn and buy you the time you need to get Omastar out. Watch out for Confusion because if you’re unprepared, you can get severely punished for it.

Green’s Blacephalon: 30/70

Basically, this is a Blacephalon deck that you can’t Item lock very often. The 30% of games you’re winning are due to the fact that they can easily miss another Basic Pokémon in the early game, and you can steal a win by benching them. Choice Helmet is good here, but don’t be surprised to lose this matchup.

Dark Box: 20/80

Yes, shocking. I lose to the deck that 1HKOs me easily, has a bunch of HP on its attackers, and plays minimal Trainers. Bite me. On occasion you’ll win because you got the lock at a good time, but by no means should you win a best-of-three match. I learned this in Round 2-of Worlds when I hit one of two Dark Box in the event. Oops.

Ability ReshiZard: 40/60

This matchup is almost identical to PikaRom, but they are a strictly better deck and play more ways to 1HKO you. I’m not going to waste anyone’s time by going over the same strategy again.

Mewtwo Box: 70/30

Gotta end the matchup section on a high note: This deck absolutely smacks Mewtwo Box. Horror House-GX + Power Plant is almost 100% a 3-Prize combo. After that, your opponent will either fizzle out or find another Mewtwo & Mew-GX that turn and you’ll be forced to either (A) Custom Catcher around it twice or (B) play all 4 Catchers at once to bring the Mewtwo & Mew-GX back to the Active Spot, while still removing the effect of Tag Purge. If you ever stick a 2nd Power Plant, you will automatically win the game, but that it unlikely at best.

Final Thoughts

I haven’t mentioned Hidden Fates yet, have I? Well, the set is awful in so many ways. Unfortunately, the format is going to be adversely affected by Jessie & James. I don’t think it makes too much of a difference for MimiGar though, so it is still one of my top choices for any events in the next month or so.

Well, that’s all I have for today. I’m certainly very excited to continue testing this format and playing events in my free time. I’ll be back in exactly a week to bring you my thoughts on the format as a whole and talk about what I would play in Sheffield if I were going.

As always, feel free to message me with any questions that you might have about anything related to Pokémon. I also now offer coaching! Either email me (alex.schemanske@gmail.com) or PM me if interested.

Until the next one.

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