CMT (TCG)

CMT
Celebi Prime and Mewtwo-EX Types used Major cards Mewtwo-EX, Celebi Prime, Tornadus Era 2012

CMT was a highly successful and popular deck archetype in the Pokémon Trading Card Game during the second half of the 2011-2012 organized play season. It focused on Celebi Prime's Forest Breath Poké-Power for energy acceleration, combined with Skyarrow Bridge and Switch to switch into an attacker. The deck won multiple State and Regional Championships, and several variants finished highly at the 2012 U.S. National Championships.

Strategy

The deck aimed to open with Celebi Prime. Ideally, the CMT player would be able to attack as early as turn one or turn two with either Tornadus or Mewtwo-EX. This was possible through the energy acceleration Celebi Prime's Forest Breath provided, combined with Double Colorless Energy to fulfill the energy requirements for Tornadus's Hurricane or Mewtwo-EX's X-Ball. To get Celebi Prime out of the active position and begin attacking, the deck utilized either Switch or Skyarrow Bridge depending on availability. In the event that the CMT player found him- or herself with a dead hand at some point, Smeargle's Portrait Poké-Power often provided an out. Like Celebi Prime, Smeargle worked well with Switch and Skyarrow Bridge, as the player could often avoid discarding to retreat after a Portrait.

CMT was most potent early in the game. Many other archetypes of its time, such as Zeel and Quad Terrakion, were incapable of doing much damage the first few turns, so CMT thrived on outspeeding the opponent. After getting a Tornadus or Mewtwo-EX into the active position, the deck focused on taking easy knockouts off the opponent's weak Basics and support Pokémon. Although this of course benefitted CMT by giving it prizes, knocking out Pokémon so early in the game could also slow or even cripple the opponent's setup. Pokémon Catcher was especially helpful in this regard by extending the deck's reach to benched potential threats. Against decks such as Zeel, CMT aimed to knock out as many Tynamo as possible before they evolved into Eelektrik, thus denying Zeel its energy acceleration.

If an opposing deck managed to set up fully, CMT was often far enough ahead that it could win with its few remaining resources. As with many decks, CMT could use N to drop both players' hands should the game become close near the end. The deck played an unusually large number of Supporter cards as well as Smeargle, so it often had a better chance to draw an out than the opposition after a late game N.

Key cards

• Celebi Prime -
• Mewtwo-EX -
• Tornadus -
• Junk Arm -
• Pokémon Catcher -
• Dual Ball -
• Switch -
• Skyarrow Bridge -
• Double Colorless Energy -

Typical decklist

The deck list appearing below is not official; it is meant to represent an average build of the archetype, not specifically constructed for any regional metagame. Being that this is merely an archetype, a player may wish to change any part of this deck when building his or her own version. The list shown assumes a HeartGold & SoulSilver through Next Destinies format. Potential later additions may be listed in the Possible tech cards section.

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
4×	Celebi Prime
3×	Mewtwo-EX
3×	Tornadus
1×	Regigigas-EX
1×	Smeargle
4×	Professor Oak's New Theory	Su
4×	Professor Juniper	Su
3×	N	Su
4×	Junk Arm	T
4×	Pokémon Catcher	T
4×	Dual Ball	T
4×	Switch	T
3×	PlusPower	T
2×	Pokégear 3.0	T
2×	Skyarrow Bridge	St
4×	Double Colorless Energy	E
10×	Grass Energy	E	—

Possible tech cards

• Terrakion - After the release of the Dark Explorers expansion in May 2012, CMT needed a way to deal with Darkrai-EX. Darkrai-EX resisted Mewtwo-EX and was capable of knocking out any Pokémon in the deck in two attacks. Because its Night Spear attack also hit a benched Pokémon for 30 damage (in addition to the 90 it dealt to the Defending Pokémon), Darkrai-EX could knock out a benched Celebi Prime in two attacks. Although the addition of Terrakion, along with Fighting Energy to power its attacks, somewhat decreased CMT's consistency, it greatly improved the deck's matchup against Darkrai/Terrakion, DMT, and other Darkrai-EX-based archetypes.
• Tornadus-EX - Tornadus-EX effectively took the place of Tornadus from Emerging Powers upon the release of the Dark Explorers. Builds utilizing Tornadus-EX tended to run a higher count of Skyarrow Bridge than those that did not. Although Tornadus-EX was a two-prize liability against Zeel and other Lightning-type decks, it was more powerful than the Emerging Powers Tornadus and gave CMT a greater ability to donk.
• Random Receiver -
• Shaymin -
• Shaymin-EX -
• Energy Exchanger -