Competitive Pokemon History - Mew Quiz

Answer: Learn every teachable move in the game

Mew's power in the first generation largely owed to its ability to learn literally every teachable move in the entire game. Clearly, this meant it had a rather large amount of versatility.

Answer: Yes

Mew was by far too strong for standard play. It had absolutely no counters, as anything you think might stand a chance could just get wrecked if Mew had the right move for it. While normally that alone doesn't make a Pokemon too powerful, there were very few Pokemon that could actually go one-on-one with a Mew, even if it didn't have a specific move for them. Mew had access to Swords Dance, a low distribution move that practically nothing viable actually had access to. Well, a move which doubles a Pokemon's power in the hands of a legendary with great stats is a lot more threatening than it is in the hands of, say, Beedrill or Kingler. With a single boost, Mew was ready to clean. It could go for more boosts if it wanted, as it also had access to instant healing in the form of Softboiled. This meant that offensive teams often failed to pressure Mew enough, while defensive teams had virtually nothing that could stave it off, especially after a couple boosts. As if Mew didn't have enough options, it could also just use Explosion to wipe something out if the trainer's team needed that threat eliminated.

Ultimately, since Mew had virtually no actual counterplay, the decision to ban it was quite easy. It went on to join its rival Mewtwo in the Uber tier, the only two Pokemon who would inhabit the tier during the first generation.

Answer: Swords Dance based sweeper

While Mew's unfathomably large movepool lent it the tools to theoretically do all of these roles, it mainly took advantage of its rare access to Swords Dance (the only Pokemon banned to Ubers who could use the move) to take up a sweeping role. Swords Dance could not only out-boost Curse, but it could do so without having to inherit the nasty speed drop that Curse entails, meaning Mew could win boosting wars with threats like Mewtwo, Lugia and Snorlax, and then proceed to sweep. To make matters better, Mew still had Softboiled, which trumped the more widely distributed Rest/Sleep talk, which enabled Mew to have room for two attacking moves. Here, Mew often ran Submission to take out Dark types and Snorlax, along with Shadow Ball to have an even better matchup with Mewtwo and Lugia. Of course, it could theoretically be running pretty much whatever it wanted for its three other moves. It could even drop Softboiled, as Mew didn't always need the healing to sweep teams, which gave it the ability to run a whole slew of options for its three moves aside from Swords Dance.

Mew's ability to quickly threaten all kinds of team archetypes, generate offensive momentum faster and more efficiently than anything else and have no actual counters meant that it was probably the best Pokemon in the entire game for the second generation.

Answer: All of these

Base 100s across the board was merely above average by third generation standards. Considering that Ubers is frequently composed of Pokémon who are disgustingly powerful overall, "above average" doesn't usually cut it. Still, Mew's massive movepool let it work functionally in the tier, though it was a far cry down from its dominance in the second generations. Mew could still boast that it was the only Pokémon with access to both Swords Dance and an instant healing move, which was actually pretty cool.

Unsurprisingly, a bulky Swords Dancer became Mew's best set; Swords Dance/Softboiled/Shadow Ball/Thunderbolt, Rock Slide, Hidden Power Fighting or Explosion. This set could boost fearlessly in front of passive Pokémon, and depending on your fourth move, could either sweep or blow up on something to clear the path for a teammate. The problem with this set is that it needed a defensive spread, so that it could boost in front of balanced or offensive teams. This meant it was generally quite slow, was immensely passive before boosting, and needed to boost multiple times to become legitimately threatening. It faced a lot of competition from Groudon as a straight up Swords Dancer, as well as numerous other set up sweepers, even though none of them had instant recovery. Mew's only reason for use was said recovery, which often constrained its coverage due to taking up a moveslot. This meant Mew was still quite easy to check, and depending on its fourth move, it either had hard counters, or Pokémon that forced Mew to explode on them, as sacrificing itself was Mew's only way to get past them. Without Thunderbolt, Skarmory had nothing to fear, while Tyranitar and other Dark type pals beat the crap out of a Mew with no Hidden Power Fighting. Even though it was weak to Shadow Ball, Lugia took the move from Mew with ease, and could even put up a Reflect to survive a boosted Explosion, if running the move. Simply put, the set had flaws, but it also had the benefit of injecting fear into stall teams, as it could get to +6 quite easily against them.

Mew was grossly outclassed by Mewtwo in pretty much any special attacking capacity, and even encountered competition from Mewtwo on the physical end; Mew's access to Swords Dance and instant recovery let it distance itself from Mewtwo, though.

Answer: Supporter

Mew's bag of tricks was now pretty much overflowing with the advent of the fourth generation. Here, it gained access to jaw dropping new goodies in the form of Baton Pass, Rock Polish, Nasty Plot, Stealth Rock and U-Turn, which significantly bolstered its viability and let it take on two different types of supporting roles.

The most common supporting role was a set of Baton Pass/Nasty Plot or Swords Dance/Rock Polish/Taunt. This set turned sweepers like Groudon, Rayquaza and even its old rival Mewtwo into frighteningly powerful sweepers which would annihilate teams in the blink of an eye. The premise of this set was simple; bring Mew in on something when you're ready for your sweeper to do its job. If you're up against an offensive foe, boost first with Rock Polish, so that Mew can get the speed advantage. If Mew can't take another hit without fainting, Baton Pass out to your sweeper. This was the worst case scenario: your sweeper gets a +2 Speed boost to work with. The best case? If Mew can afford to take another hit, boost with Nasty Plot or Swords Dance, then Baton Pass the next turn. Now your sweeper has a boost to both speed and the attacking power of their choice, and the game is pretty much over at that point. Taunt was there so that Mew could block attempts to Whirlwind or Roar the boosts away, which was a large annoyance for stall teams which relied on this to check sweeping threats.

The second supporter was also a deadly one in its own way. It was a suicide entry hazard set with a movepool of Stealth Rock/Explosion/Taunt/U-Turn with Lum Berry for an item. This set was also pretty simple; bring Mew in as your lead. Stealth Rock if the opponent is faster than you, and/or is likely not going to use a support or boosting move to start off. If they are a slower Pokémon who is going to try to put up their own entry hazards or boost, like Groudon, Taunt them to block this. Once Stealth Rock is up, Mew can do one of two things; U-Turn into a teammate, or use Explosion to do heavy damage and gather offensive momentum, providing a teammate like Rayquaza with a free switch-in and entry hazards to pressure the opposing team with.

The latter was actually thought to be what inspired similar suicide leads in generations to come. Mew happened to be the first Pokémon to have the moveset to pull it off. Even within the fourth generation, in OverUsed, Pokémon like Azelf, Froslass and even Skarmory began to use similar sets with decent degrees of success.

Answer: UnderUsed

While Mew remained viable in Ubers, it was now deemed to be toned down enough for fifth generation OverUsed. In fact, Mew was even deemed to be UnderUsed worthy. Mew's good-but-not-great base 100 stats across the board finally caught up with it. It did not have the bulk to continually withstand hits, especially from dangerous rain and sun teams in OverUsed, nor were its offenses overwhelming by any stretch, even if it could boast unparalleled versatility in dishing them out.

In UnderUsed, Mew was an amazing Pokémon. It could actually utilize Nasty Plot and Rock Polish, moves it gained in the fourth generation, to generate offenses on its own. Alongside access to Swords Dance, Mew could sweep or wallbreak from either side, which made it difficult to deal with once it got going.

The Baton passing and suicide entry hazard setting roles from the fourth generation were still quite viable for Mew here. However, the latter was somewhat spoiled by the newly added Team Preview, which could expose Mew's role on a team and allow for easier counterplay on the opponent's end.

Answer: Banned from UnderUsed play

Mew acquired a new set in the sixth generation which allowed it simultaneously stallbreak and harass offensive teams, making it a clear staple on balanced teams. The set was Taunt/Knock Off/Will-o-Wisp/Soft Boiled. Taunt + Will-o-Wisp let Mew inflict irreparable passive damage onto Pokémon like Blissey and Skarmory, and they would eventually succumb to the burn damage and Knock Off spam if they stayed in. With Mew's good bulk, it could also burn physical attackers on offensively oriented teams, crippling them immensely. It could Knock Off Leftovers and Life Orbs, to reduce the passive healing and offensive supplements certain Pokémon enjoyed from them. Finally, Softboiled was typical instant healing, and was used so Mew could continue its shenanigans over the course of a long battle.

This set was found to be unfit for UnderUsed play; offensive teams weren't adequately equipped with consistent answers to this set, while stall teams were flat out invalidated by it and rendered unviable almost solely because of it. As such, Mew was an easy ban candidate from the tier.

Answer: Yes

Defog was available as a Hidden Machine in fourth generation games. As Mew can learn every teachable move in all of existence, this meant it could learn the move. Actually acquiring a Mew with Defog was quite cumbersome for most players, however; it was only available in fourth generation games by an event giveaway, which had long since ended at the time.

The only people who could acquire Mew with Defog were people who just so happened to have their event Mews on their old fourth generation games.

They could teach it Defog, then transfer it along a one-way street to their sixth generation games for use. Clearly, acquiring a Mew with Defog alone was hard enough, but doing it with the correct nature and IVs was practically impossible.

Answer: Mewnium-Z

Mewnium-Z bolstered Mew's OverUsed viability by quite a lot, restoring its status as a viable offensive Pokémon. When running the move Psychic, Mew could activate Mewnium-Z and acquire two things: one-time access to the gargantuan nuke Genesis Supernova, and Psychic Terrain, for Mew and its team to enjoy. Genesis Supernova was an absolutely ridiculous nuke, capable of OHKOing bulky Steel types like Heatran after a Nasty Plot boost. You could only comfortably 'take the hit' with Dark types, for the most part. Mew could then utilize the Psychic Terrain boost to its STAB attack to continue sweeping or wallbreaking.

It was immensely difficult to stop this set once it got going, but it was also practically impossible to stop it from KOing something unless you wanted to play a deadly game with your own Dark type Pokémon. For this reason, Mew frequently was run alongside Fighting types like Terrakion, or a natural Dark type check like Mega Scizor. If the Mew player predicted a Dark type switch in, they could double-switch in their answer to said Dark type and claim a ton of momentum in the process.

Answer: All of these

Base 100s in every stat made Mew a force to be reckoned with for the first two generations. After that, the actual value of this stat build began to decline as more powerful threats, offensively and defensively, began to appear. As the power levels of Ubers began to rise, Mew found itself incapable of taking hits from offensive teams, while it also found it increasingly difficult to stand out as an offensive Pokémon as well.

It has always been a solid standard play contender because of its gargantuan movepool, but it's this movepool which gives it that status; its stats are neither good nor bad for the tier, and don't help Mew's viability too much.