Competitive Pokemon History - Mewtwo Quiz

Answer: Ubers

Ubers or, the Uber tier, would see Mewtwo joined by its rival, Mew, before the generation ended. It was disgustingly overpowered for Generation 1 standard play, and was an easy choice for a ban from the tier.

A Pokemon isn't inherently overpowered if it has no hard counters, but Mewtwo didn't even really have any checks in OU. The closest you could get would be Chansey, Slowbro and Exeggutor. The latter two failed to check Mewtwo (or even come close) if it packed the proper coverage for them. Chansey was under a similar distinction, though Mewtwo rarely ever brought Submission to destroy Chansey with. Chansey was the probably the most 'consistent' check, but if even the slightest thing went awry, it would fail to do this job. Also, if Amnesia Mewtwo was able to boost three times, it would annihilate all three of the aforementioned Pokemon. The only way to stop it from doing so was to either freeze Mewtwo with getting extremely lucky using repeated Ice Beams, or to paralyze Mewtwo, pray to Arceus it wasn't running Rest, and then revenge kill it with, say, Tauros if Mewtwo was weakened enough.

Clearly, if this was Mewtwo's "counterplay", it had no place in the tier.

Answer: Sweep with a physically offensive set

Mewtwo's set consisted of Curse/Submission/Recover/Shadow Ball or Thunderbolt. Curse was the obligatory boosting move, Submission annihilated Tyranitar, Umbreon, Snorlax and Blissey, Recover let Mewtwo boost multiple times, while Shadow Ball hit Ghosts and Psychics which resisted Submission. Mewtwo could also run Thunderbolt for a harder hit on Skarmory, who walled this set and could easily check it otherwise.

While Mewtwo's Special Attack stat was still a ludicrous 154, Ubers this generation consisted of Pokemon who had massive special defense stats and/or resistances to the Psychic typing. Combine this with the massive nerf Amnesia and the Special stat, and Mewtwo was far better off trying a physically sweeping set than a specially offensive one.

Mewtwo was still far too strong to be allowed in OverUsed, and it was an excellent force in Ubers as well. It just wasn't as ridiculously braindead easy to use as it was in the previous Generation.

Answer: Seven

Mewtwo had, in no particular order: a classic Substitute + Calm Mind set, a SubPunch set, an offensive Calm Mind + BoltBeam set, a Bulk Up set, a Choice Band set, an offensive stallbreaker set, and it even had a defensive stallbreaker set! Mewtwo had no shortage of options, and if the opponent guessed wrong on what set they were dealing with, it was extremely unlikely that they would prevent Mewtwo from blasting a hole in their team, or even just outright winning the game. This gave Mewtwo and its trainer lethal mindgame potential and solidified Mewtwo's status as the best Pokemon in all of Generation 3.

Hard Countering Mewtwo was clearly impossible, but the counterplay wasn't as extremely limited as its Generation 1 iteration was. Deoxys-D and Blissey could usually at least try to scout the Mewtwo's set without instantly dying, but both of them lost to over half of Mewtwo's viable sets one-on-one, so they were definitely not safe checks. Metagross could do okay if it wasn't up against Choice Banded Mewtwo locked into Earthquake, or a Mewtwo with a Fire type move. Deoxys-A could get in safely and, with a Choice Band, OHKO most Mewtwos with Shadow Ball, but it absolutely did not have the bulk to take a hit at all, meaning that by the time it came in to try to finish Mewtwo off, the damage would've been done, and the game would likely be in hand for the Mewtwo user anyway. Ho-Oh might've been the most consistent Mewtwo check, as Choice Banded Ho-Oh could OHKO offensive Mewtwos which hadn't used Bulk Up with a Shadow Ball, and Ho-Oh had the bulk to take a hit first except for Self-Destruct or the rare Rock Slide.

Answer: No

Mewtwo could be a special sweeper, special wallbreaker, supporter, stallbreaker, it could be tailored to check literally any threat in the entire tier, and it could even perform the roles of physical or special wall with its amazing base stats and filthy rich movepool. There were no team archetypes that Mewtwo couldn't fit on, as its versatility was unrivaled. With a number of important threats joining the Uber tier, Mewtwo could hypothetically account for any of them, and it could account for a massive number of threats or strategies in general. Its movepool and stats allowed it to do anything it wanted, once again holding down the status of being the best and easily most versatile Pokemon in the game by a mile.

While Mewtwo could defeat anything it was tailored to beat, it still only could equip four moves at a time. This meant that there were Pokemon who could defeat Mewtwo one-on-one if it did not pack a move specifically designed to defeat it. Choice Scarf Darkrai could revenge kill a non Scarfed Mewtwo if it was moderately weakened, though Scarfed Mewtwo just laughed at Darkrai if it tried to do this, before destroying it with Aura Sphere. Groudon and Kyogre could usually afford to take a hit and KO Mewtwo in return, but Groudon could be defeated one-on-one by Ice Beam or Grass Knot Mewtwo, while Thunder or Grass Knot could be used to remove Kyogre if needed. Blissey could stall Mewtwo out if it wasn't a Substitute or Taunt set, but those two moves would allow Mewtwo to run Blissey over like nothing.

I'm sure you get the idea: there were enough Pokemon who could stand a chance against Mewtwo if it didn't pack specific coverage for specific threats. However, it clearly had no 100% surefire counters and, though counterplay was a lot more reasonable than in the past, it did not hold Mewtwo back from being the definitive best Pokemon in the entire Generation once again.

Answer: Psystrike

Psystrike was essentially a much stronger Psyshock; a Psychic move which hit the target on their physically defensive side rather than specially offensive. Now, Mewtwo no longer had to run a physically offensive set to beat up special walls, as Psystrike covered it while running off of its significantly higher Special Attack stat. Add the newfound benefits of that to Mewtwo's still unparalleled versatility, and Mewtwo was still 100% uncounterable while having just become strictly better across the board.

Answer: Unnerve

Unnerve is an ability that prevented the opposing Pokemon from using any berries while Mewtwo was on the field. That said, it wasn't terribly useful; stalling variants of Mewtwo certainly preferred Pressure to better PP stall with, and in the Uber tier, Unnerve itself really didn't have any particular matchups where it was consistently useful.

As such, Pressure was still usually preferred as Mewtwo's ability.

Answer: Mewtwo had two new Mega Evolutions

Mega Mewtwo X had the highest Attack stat in the game, at a stupidly high base 194. Mega Mewtwo Y replicated that in Special Attack. Upon coming on the field, Mewtwo doesn't even have to do anything to exert tons of passive pressure on the opponent; should I switch to my Mega Mewtwo X or Mega Mewtwo Y check? What if I switch to the former, and it ends up being a Mega Mewtwo Y? Well, the answer to that is, say goodbye to whatever wrongfully switched in. Mewtwo's movepool was already extremely varied and customizable, then it got two Mega evolutions which gave it even more versatility to abuse.

Sadly, Mewtwo was still amazing, but it was probably in its least fantastic position in the meta since Generation two. The power levels were ludicrous. Both of Mewtwo's Megas, as well as its base forme, were checked by the new king of the tier, Primal Groudon, and Mewtwo itself could have a tough time with newcomers Xerneas and Yveltal. Still, there was no surefire 100% counter to Mewtwo, it's just that it wasn't as downright dominant as it had been in generations past.

Answer: No

Newcoming cover legendary Lunala came quite close, easily defeating any Mewtwo sets that lacked Shadow Ball, or in the case of Mega Mewtwo X, Brutal Swing. While running Shadow Ball kept Lunala at bay, doing this was somewhat against Mewtwo's dynamic of being great against the whole metagame; Shadow Ball really only was for Lunala and maybe Ghost Arceus, as Ice Beam would be better for Giratina, Fire Blast was much better against Aegislash, and many of the Psychics Mewtwo attacked into had secondary typings that could be exploited by better moves than Shadow Ball.

Answer: Fire Blast

Not only was Aura Sphere not strong enough, but the most important Steels of the Uber metagame in Necrozma-DM, Celesteela and Magearna, had secondary typings which allowed them to only be neutral to Aura Sphere. So, Mega Mewtwo-Y would simply send them packing with a Fire Blast, which is something Deoxys-A and Ultra Necrozma could not do, and solidified Mega Mewtwo-Y as the deadly threat it had come to be.

Answer: The only Pokemon to always be in the Uber tier

Since its inception in the first generation, Mewtwo has been undoubtedly an Uber tier Pokemon. If allowed in OverUsed for even a day, Mewtwo would quickly lay regret to that decision and would annihilate everything in sight, practically without trying.

Mewtwo has a lot going for it in the "greatest Pokemon ever" and "greatest Psychic type ever" discussions, though neither would be objective facts. For the former, Mewtwo's only real competition for the greatest Pokemon in history would be Rayquaza and maybe Groudon. Mega Rayquaza became the first Pokemon to become too strong for even the Uber tier, and was the first to ever become banned from Ubers. Meanwhile, Primal Groudon was hands down the best Pokemon in Ubers from the sixth generation all the way through the end of the seventh, and its dominance will likely not be questioned during the eighth generation, or at anypoint soon. Primal Groudon has reshaped the Uber meta completely, to the point where every serious team runs one in some capacity. For Mewtwo's side of the argument, it was undoubtedly the most disgustingly overpowered Pokemon ever in Generation one, eclipsing even Mega Rayquaza and Primal Groudon's dominance in their respective timeframes. Supplementing Mewtwo's case is the fact that its body of work in being an amazing Uber force is significantly longer than either Rayquaza or Groudon, as Mewtwo has, in numerous generations, been the undoubted #1 in the whole entire game, whereas Groudon and Rayquaza have had their time upon the throne for much smaller periods of time.

Meanwhile, Lugia gives Mewtwo some competition for the greatest Psychic ever, though it is unlikely that many would suggest Lugia has been overall greater than Mewtwo as a whole. Lugia is pretty much the sole reason stall teams have been viable since the fifth generation in Ubers, and it is pretty much the only Pokemon ever who is pretty much immune to being taken down by just brute forcing your way through it. With Lugia's amazing mixed defenses, it is the great wall that never dies, and it has performed in this capacity for (at the time of this quiz being written) nearly twenty years. Still, Mewtwo's attributes likely slightly outweigh this, though this is in no way an objective fact.