Pokkén Tournament Open Up your Closed Heart - Shadow Mewtwo General Discussion

[CatRaccoonBL]

I noticed we didn't have a general thread for Shadow Mewtwo yet. As a person who wants to at least secondary Shadow Mewtwo, I felt this section needed it.

So how does everyone feel about the character?

 

[Spirst]

I feel he has the potential to be quite good and IS quite good but his frailty coupled with self-damage makes him quite hard to be effective with against competent players. He has everything a character could want. He has a teleport, tons of mixups, high damage output, fast burst buildup, an awesome wakeup counter attack (up A), good speed, good projectiles, and a strong combo game (the last two being enhanced by miracle eye). But because of that, he NEEDS something to keep him in check or he'll just obliterate the rest of the roster. 480 total HP with Miracle Eye doing a consistent -20 (Psywave-Vortex does -50), basic Y combo doing -40, and teleporting doing -20/40 HP really hurts a lot since he doesn't have HP to spare in the first place and naturally, he's going to get hit which further accentuates the dilemma.

Between him being unlocked last after doing the tedious Ferrum League, being a new character, being Linkin Park Mewtwo, and consistently hurting himself while having low HP to begin with, I can see why not many people play him. I personally love him and think he's great but I recognize that he is quite polarized and in some games, he'll go down in approximately 10 seconds. Recover helps mitigate the self-damage issue as it was intended to(I think it heals like 50-60 HP?) but even so, the only time you'll get to really use it is after a grab/phase change (holding it while doing so). This costs him positioning and slows down any momentum he may have had. Not to mention it can still be punishable. I like to use Cresselia with Synergy cheer. Some games, I can get Synergy burst twice within the same round which is nice considering how wide a range his burst attack extends.

I think he's a good example of a well-designed glass cannon character which means he's definitely not for someone trying to start out.

Edit: I neglected to mention that his Recover can indeed be held while moving around/shielding/grabbing/doing non A moves. It's cool and I need to play around with it more but holding the controller optimally for that is weird.

 

[CatRaccoonBL]

I do find a lot of fun in Shadow Mewtwo. I fee with the low hp and fact he does damage to himself, his move can be a lot move flashy and over the top. I mean, fire and ice sword hands. The ability to use thunder, earthquake, and flame thrower. That giant yellow pillar with the angelic singing.

I also love synergy bursts, so being able to essentially use it twice in one match is also fun to do with Shadow Mewtwo. And what a synergy burst it is making some of his attacks even more ridiculous, (like making his dive kick also spawn a giant yellow pillar when he lands). And then there is of course the burst attacks which can easily catch the opponent doing anything that isn't shielding from anywhere on the map and do a lot of damage.

And since he is a Shadow Mewtwo, I like to pretend he is a reference to coliseum. I mean, the story mode pretty much confirms he isn't, but I can dream.

I think the only thing that could use some work is in the personality department. A lot of his intros all kinda boring. He is suppose to be the ultimate powerful being, but I don't really get that from him. He kinda just walks/teleports into the battle. The only one I find kinda cool is the one where he shoots a shadow ball.

I overall hope to see more Shadow Mewtwo players come out and see what they can do with the character. He really is interesting with a lot of options.

So who is probably better though? Regular Mewtwo or Shadow Mewtwo?

 

[Spirst]

Yeah, his personality is a bit bland. It highlights his Evanescence-listening teenage angst more than it does his abilities as a supremely powerful being. In a similar vain, I also find Mewtwo's personality to be rather dull in Pokken. Smash Mewtwo is characterized as being apathetic and like he doesn't even need to really try to fight to win. Pokken Mewtwo takes from Shadow Mewtwo but with less character and is just there.

At the moment, I think regular Mewtwo is ultimately better but Shadow Mewtwo has a higher potential ceiling. Mewtwo's options, while less varied and slower, are very powerful and he's much more durable than Shadow Mewtwo is. Hyper Beam alone is nuts and does 150 dmg (180 with rage). On the down side, Mewtwo will seldom get synergy bursts other than round 3 because his moves use synergy points instead of HP like Emotwo and he's up there with Gengar for slowest buildup; so it is a mentality change cycling between the two as he can't often make that one last stand with burst.

In short, Mewtwo is easier to use and is still really powerful while Shadow Mewtwo has the potential to be more powerful but is harder to use since he has the defensive capabilities of a wet paper bag.

 

[CatRaccoonBL]

Good to see the infinite is being patched out. Though I'm curious how they will handle it. Will the give the move lag after using it, more start-up, or something else.