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SwSh Let's Talk Mr. Mime (and Mr. Rime)

Enzap

No thoughts, head empty
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Pronouns
  1. He/Him
  2. They/Them
One of the most baffling Galarian variants to me is Mr. Mime. Now I actually really like the design of the new form, and Mr. Rime for that matter. But how they perform in battle is just very strange to me. This is going to be a bit long, so hang on tight while I explain my case...

These are Kantonian Mr. Mime's stats:
Screen Shot 2020-07-04 at 12.30.38 PM.png


It's always been a pretty useful Pokémon, especially in game. It hits hard, is moderately fast, has a huge movepool, and can take special hits like a tank. Though it is highly versatile, its moveset largely suggests it's a supportive Pokémon, bolstering your teams defenses with screens, safeguard, quick and wide guard, power and guard swap, etc.

Then this is what they gave Galarian Mr. Mime to work with:
Screen Shot 2020-07-04 at 12.38.39 PM.png


So typically if a regional variant has different stats than the original form, the changes reflect the physiological changes to the Pokémon and the role they play on a team. In many cases, the changes also improve on the original to a degree. For example, Alolan Sandslash is bulkier in both physical and special defense, but has lower special attack, which it would never make use of anyway.

Galarian Mr. Mime has possibly the most dramatic changes of any regional variant, with only its defense staying the same. The end result is, in my opinion, an awkward balance without any real standout stats. The extra speed is nice, but the Pokémon that benefit most from this tend to be strong sweeper Pokémon, which this Pokémon is not thanks to that diminished Special Attack. Its special defense also took a huge hit, though the increased HP helps... a little. But then the strangest part is that 20 point buff to attack. While Mr. Mime has some decent physical attack options, even with a buff that stat is downright pitiful. And perhaps the most baffling part is its new ability Screen Cleaner actually works opposite to the original defensive gimmick of Mr. Mime. G-Mime still learns most of those defensive moves, but if you switch it out and in again after setting up your screens, then they immediately end. This ability doesn't seem to be inspired by its new design or role in battle, it's just a gimmick to set it apart from the original somewhat awkwardly slapped on to this Pokémon.

So while Kantonian Mr. Mime was a versatile toolbox that could do many things well, Galarian Mr. Mime seems overly balanced and doesn't do any one thing any better than its predecessor. Well, except for one thing. Because G-Mime can evolve, it can be a very effective user of the Eviolite item. I suspect this is the reason they felt it necessary to cut its special defense so much, it may have been nearly indestructible while still being a fast, effective attacker otherwise. While it does make good use of this strategy, I don't think access to a single item should make or break a Pokémon. G-Mime just feels underdeveloped without it, at least to me.

Now let's see how its evolution manages without access to this powerful item:
Screen Shot 2020-07-04 at 1.26.11 PM.png


The way I see it, Game Freak took an already slightly overbalanced Pokémon and made it even more overbalanced through evolution. Despite being an evolved form, I would argue that Mr. Rime is only on par, if not worse, than the original Mr. Mime. Its special attack is only slightly higher, so it has some trouble competing with other powerful Ice or Psychic type offensive Pokémon. All that extra speed that G-Mime got is now gone, leaving Mr. Rime with only 10 points faster than Mime Jr. To compare it to Pokémon outside its evolutionary tree, its Ice/Psychic counterpart Jynx has higher special attack, significantly higher speed, and nearly as high special defense.

As I said at the very beginning of this post, I really do like this Pokémon conceptually. I'm just failing to see what this Pokémon is supposed to actually do.

Was this post just an excuse for me to rant about some weird Pokémon for a while? Maybe a bit. But now I am very curious what other people think about these oddballs. Do you agree with me that their stat distribution and roles are strange? Have you found a way to make this fully-evolved and talented tapdancer the star of your team? Does Mr. Rime give you the creeps more than Mr. Mime ever did? Please share your thoughts in this thread!
 
here's how i see things. keep in mind that for this post i'm going to be talking about mr. rime specifically and not mr mime/g-mime because i feel like that's a whole different discussion. i'd like to mention that g-mime i guess can be given eviolite to help defensively, buuuuuuuuuuut that's not exactly the first item that comes to mind. if we're talking strictly competitively here, repeatedly taking passive damage through stealth rocks and being weak to toxic spikes as well as regular spikes hurts galarian mr mime a lot. mr-rime does share these same issues, so it's not better at all in this regard, but it does a few things going for it. i'll break this down to make this post easier to read.

offenses: having 20 points added to its special attack and having it be 110 instead of 90 helps a lot more than you would think! base 90 is okay but it isn't the greatest. i mean kantonian mr mime nor its galarian variant hit like wet napkins but that's not to say that they can't be better, and the extra 10-20 points is appreciated. it makes things like freeze-dry and psychic hit harder, and every little amount of damage is appreciated. base 110 is also great for a choice specs set so it can hit even harder.

speed is also okay here, i think. i dunno if anyone is aware, but base 100 is quite fast in the context of gen 8 pokemon as not a ton of pokemon are super fast by any means, so that's an advantage that galarian mr mime has. that said, mr rime unfortunately goes backwards here so being 30 points slower is a pretty big deal, which means running max speed is sort of mandatory as mr rime isn't going to last very long otherwise due to being constantly worn down passively. heavy-duty boots helps with this, but if a mr rime is running hdb then it should also run rapid spin for hazards so it (and its teammates, for that matter) can come in more safely.

typing: i think this is the biggest weakness of the galarian mr mime line. ice/psychic doesn't really do it any favours here. it's weak to ghost, dark, rock, steel, fire, and bug types, so the number of pokemon it can directly come in on aren't a whole lot. i think the one thing it has going for it is its ability which is screen cleaner, but thats only effective if your opponent is running a dual screens offensive team. otherwise... i guess ice body works? if you're running a hail team or something.

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i dunno. the mime line is kind of a weird line of pokemon that i can't make much heads or tails out of. i like the theming, but they're not necessarily pokemon that i would use in battle or anything. seems like it would take a lot to make them work and i'm not going to personally expend that much effort when there may be better options for my team.
 
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here's how i see things. keep in mind that for this post i'm going to be talking about mr. rime specifically and not mr mime/g-mime because i feel like that's a whole different discussion. i'd like to mention that g-mime i guess can be given eviolite to help defensively, buuuuuuuuuuut that's not exactly the first item that comes to mind. if we're talking strictly competitively here, repeatedly taking passive damage through stealth rocks and being weak to toxic spikes as well as regular spikes hurts galarian mr mime a lot. mr-rime does share these same issues, so it's not better at all in this regard, but it does a few things going for it. i'll break this down to make this post easier to read.

offenses: having 20 points added to its special attack and having it be 110 instead of 90 helps a lot more than you would think! base 90 is okay but it isn't the greatest. i mean kantonian mr mime nor it's galarian variant hit like wet napkins but that's not to say that they can't be better, and the extra 10-20 points is appreciated. it makes things like freeze-dry and psychic hit harder, and every little amount of damage is appreciated. base 110 is also great for a choice specs set so it can hit even harder.

speed is also okay here, i think. i dunno if anyone is aware, but base 100 is quite fast in the context of gen 8 pokemon as not a ton of pokemon are super fast by any means, so that's an advantage that galarian mr mime has. that said, mr rime unfortunately goes backwards here so being 30 points slower is a pretty big deal, which means running max speed is sort of mandatory as mr rime isn't going to last very long otherwise due to being constantly worn down passively. heavy-duty boots helps with this, but if a mr rime is running hdb then it should also run rapid spin for hazards so it (and its teammates, for that matter) can come in more safely.

typing: i think this is the biggest weakness of the galarian mr mime line. ice/psychic doesn't really do it any favours here. it's weak to ghost, dark, rock, steel, fire, and bug types, so the number of pokemon it can directly come in on aren't a whole lot. i think the one thing it has going for it is its ability which is screen cleaner, but thats only effective if your opponent is running a dual screens offensive team. otherwise... i guess ice body works? if you're running a hail team or something.

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i dunno. the mime line is kind of a weird line of pokemon that i can't make much heads or tails out of. i like the theming, but they're not necessarily pokemon that i would use in battle or anything. seems like it would take a lot to make them work and i'm not going to personally expend that much effort when there may be better options for my team.
These are all some of the same conundrums I've run into lol It's like "I could use it this way, but [insert pokemon here] works better for that." It's not a terrible Pokémon, it just doesn't do any one thing well enough for it to be worth it most of the time.
 
There is a chance they made Galarian Mr. Mime weaker specifically because they knew it could use the Eviolite. They probably didn't want any of its stats being too high because of that, so they made him more well-rounded overall.

As for Mr. Rime, his stats I do not have as good an explanation for. His stats are still fairly well-rounded, though only 70 speed is not great, but it could be worse I guess. 110 special attack is also good, but seems a little low for an evolution of a regional form where the original form's special attack is only 10 lower than that. It's also weird for it to be only 110 in a generation where stuff like Cursola (another regional variant evolution) and Polteageist have insane special attack, 145 and 134 respectively. In fact, Polteageist serves basically the same purpose stats-wise, barring a slightly lower defense, and can boost those stats easier, with less weaknesses, and pretty much the same coverage potential barring ice moves. Mr. Rime's attack is also very interesting. 85 is not bad, though they do not get very much in way of physical moves, though more now that Triple Axel exists. The only problem is that even if he did get fantastic STAB and coverage moves there are so many other ice types that are faster with way higher attack that should be used over a physical Mr. Rime (Weavile and Mamoswine come to mind.) The major saving grace for Mr. Rime is that he can learn rapid Spin and Slack Off. Many Pokemon suffer competitively because they have no way of raising their speed and/or recovering health reliably, so it's fortunate that Mr. Rime can. Unfortunately, there isn't much that he can do once he gets his speed and HP up, at least nothing much he can do better than other ice or psychic types.

I also think there should have been a Galarian Mime Jr., but that might be a different discussion entirely.
 
Mr Rime's greatest crime (look at me, I'm the poet laureate) is just how boring he is. Kantonian Mime was never great, but it did have a very clearly defined playstyle and niche; tolerable offensive output backed up by a wealth of support moves including a moderately fast Encore, twinned with a very dangerous Baton Pass (and Soundproof to prevent some phasing of the chain).

But now he's just moderately bulky, moderately powerful, and somewhat slow. There's nothing interesting to work with. Defensively the typing is obviously atrocious, while there's decent neutral coverage with the STABs but at least one crucial gap in Steel. Worse yet, his stats are almost a carbon copy of the most mechanically boring Ice-type of all time, who's also present in the base game: Vanilluxe.

Vanilluxe.PNG

What do you really do with him, other than send him out on a weak target and hope to get some hits in? He won't sweep, he won't credibly tank anything other than the weakest special attackers. There was potential for a fast and dangerous Ice-type attacker here, like a far more ridiculous-looking Weavile, but that potential was squandered.
 
I really think that just 10 more special attack would have made Mr. Rime a lot more threatening and visually distinct stats-wise. That would also give him one stat that is on par with Kantonian Mr. Mime's highest stat at 120 special defense. A 530 BST is not that crazy at all for the last in a 3 stage evolutionary line, especially since you brought up Vanilluxe who would still have a higher BST. There is still a chance for GameFreak to tweak their stats in the future like they have with Pelipper, Masquerain, and others that really needed it a boost.
 
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I really think that just 10 more special attack would have made Mr. Rime a lot more threatening and visually distinct stats-wise. That would also give him one stat that is on par with Kantonian Mr. Mime's highest stat at 120 special defense. A 530 BST is not that crazy at all for the last in a 3 stage evolutionary line, especially since you brought up Vanilluxe who would still have a higher BST. There is still a chance for GameFreak to tweak their stats in the future like they have with Pelipper, Masquerain, and others that really needed it a boost.
Especially when Pokémon like Magmortar have a 540 BST. There really is no reason Mr. Rime had to be as bad as he is. And I agree with WyndonCalling, he just doesn't have a functional role. There's very little incentive to use it.
 
Here everyone's talking stats and stuff and I just wanted to come in here and say I like Galaran Mr. Mime and Mr. Rime because thanks to them I have a version of Mr. Mime that doesn't trigger my clown phobia. Like. Mime Jr.? I love that little guy. Cute little baby. Had one in gen 7. Loved him to bits. Then he evolved and I boxed him because... *shudders* that animation. That face. Aghlkshlkdht

Then here comes Galaran Mr. Mime all adorable and dancy. And so happy. And blue. SO blue.
 
Here everyone's talking stats and stuff and I just wanted to come in here and say I like Galaran Mr. Mime and Mr. Rime because thanks to them I have a version of Mr. Mime that doesn't trigger my clown phobia. Like. Mime Jr.? I love that little guy. Cute little baby. Had one in gen 7. Loved him to bits. Then he evolved and I boxed him because... *shudders* that animation. That face. Aghlkshlkdht

Then here comes Galaran Mr. Mime all adorable and dancy. And so happy. And blue. SO blue.

Oh, totes. The design doesn't really match my aesthetic sensibilities but I love the references built into Rime, especially given that Chaplin was A: English and B: renowned as a silent actor.
 
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Oh yeah, I completely agree that I think Galarian Mr. Mime's design is better than the OG design (though this does fall into the same category as the regional forms for SANDshrew and STUNfisk where their names don't really make much sense anymore, though Mr. Mime's is more due to it not really a mime anymore while the others are due their typing no longer matching their names.)
 
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