Mewtwo - Pokemon TCG

Pokemon was what first got me into trading card games. I don't know what it was that attracted me to it, but something about Pokemon cards drew me in, before I even knew about the video games. From there I discovered the Game Boy games, the anime, and a whole new world opened up for me. Pokemon was the first card game I started to seriously collect, and while I'm a bit behind with the six plus new generations of Pokemon, something about the card and the game still calls out to me.

We're looking back at the cards that first got me into gaming, all from the first Pokemon set released in the states, the Base Set. Starting with...

The anti genetic modification Pokemon...

Mewtwo is one of the first legendary Pokemon. The backstory behind it is scientists found DNA from a Pokemon called Mew, at the time believed to be the first Pokemon to exist. Now with all the Poke-gods roaming about, that statement is severely debatable. Anyway, the scientists, taking inspiration from Jurassic Park, tried to create a clone from the existing DNA, and ended up with this fellow. Also following Jurassic Park's script, things went horribly wrong and Mewtwo escaped.

Mewtwo was the primary antagonist for the first Pokemon movie, back in the days where Pokemon films were shown at the cinemas instead of direct-to-video releases. Having seen the movie as a kid, I remember very little of it, and I had no desire to watch it a second time because it was depressing. The anime had a knack for making children cry, which is part of why I stopped watching it. In the film, Mewtwo essentially has developed a hatred for humanity because of hoe it was treated by the scientists and built a villain fortress and cloned the protagonist's Pokemon, blah, blah, blah. He turns good in the end though, because plot convenience.

That all said, take a look above. Does this card evoke "legendary Pokemon" or "something we slapped together at short notice"? Mewtwo is a marquis Pokemon yet this card doesn't do it any justice. Barrier was useless since it dealt no damage, and while it prevented damage your opponent wasn't about to go for an all out attack because they know the barrier is up. Psychic is slightly more decent, being a cheap attack that could potentially cause massive damage, but it still feels a bit lack luster an escaped genetic experiment with awesome psychic powers. This card was one of my first holo rares, but at the time nothing told me it was a powerful and legendary creature.