Mega Starmie Has Begun Terrorizing Yet Another Side Of The Pokémon Community

Mega Starmie, the long-legged starfish alien(?) mega-evolved Pokémon that debuted in Pokémon Legends: Z-A has been a surprising breakout star since October. Many fans couldn’t stand the thing’s goofy design, but it’s actually kind of a beast in the game, so folks are coming around on the meme machine. However, after making its horrific anime debut, Mega Starmie has now made its way to another side of the Pokémon community where it has started wreaking havoc: competitive TCG play.

© The Pokémon Company / Bulbapedia

The Mega Starmie ex card launched as part of the Japanese Nihil Zero booster set last week, and in just a few short days, it’s becoming a staple in competitive tournaments overseas. As Wargamer lays out, the card is consistently helping players place in Japanese tournaments thanks in no small part to its Jet Blow attack, which does a whopping 120 damage to the opponent’s active Pokémon as well as 50 damage to one on their bench. As such, Mega Starmie ex puts constant pressure on your opponents in a way that sounds kind of broken.

Some are even using it alongside the Risky Ruins stadium card which damages monsters on the bench for an additional 20 HP, so you can feasibly wipe out some benched cards pretty quickly with the right combo. Mega Starmie itself is pretty bulky, too, with 330 HP, so knock it off the field can take some time, and by then, you might already have taken too much damage.

Mega Starmie’s off-putting design and weirdly human mannerisms give it the air of an absolute gremlin troublemaker, so I guess it makes sense that every time it shows up in a different Pokémon game it’s a menace. The Mega Starmie ex card has three variants, including a secret illustration that makes it look like some kind of kaiju monster stomping over a city. It’s fun to see The Pokémon Company leaning into this thing’s chaos energy.