Alakazam Slam

[CraptheAlakazam]

Alakazam Slam​

Introduction:​

Alakazam is my favorite pokemon ever since gen 1. Now getting back to the pokemon scene i wanted to create a team around my favorite mon. His diverse movepool and great ability Magic Guard made him and great candidate as a great late game sweeper. Since the new meta is based around weather I decided to be unique and make it a Sand Team.
Enjoy and Leave me some advice as this team is far from perfect​

Team Building Process
​

First and foremost i needed a diverse attacker that could take out alot of alakazams threats and Tyranitar was perfect being tanky and can put a dent in anything​

Good ole Skarmbliss a classic D/P wall combo that i adore both are immune to toxic(Well blissey has natural cure) not to count for my alakazams magic guard making my team anti stall​

​

Lastly I added a painsplit Gengar to demolish Chansey/Blissey and a mixed scarfed infernape to revenge kill Terrakion and Scizor etc​

A Closer Look​

Alakazam​

@Focus Sash
Timid
Magic Guard
252 Speed 252 SpA 4 Health

Psyshock
Focus Blast
Hidden Power(Ice)
Shadow Ball
​

The thing my team was built around the Alakazam. I run focus sash on him over life orb because my team doesnt need the raw power it provides. The focus sash lets me kill Moxie Mence, Weakened Dragonite ,Terrakion and Conkeldurr with ease. Due to my Magic Guard I am guaranteed to not be harmed by entry hazards making a spinner on my team not needed.

Tyranitar

@Leftovers
Adamant
Sand Stream
252 Health 252 Attack 4 SpD

Pursuit
Stealth Rock
Earthquake
Stone Edge

This Pokemon is my lead and gets the stealth rocks up every game. This thing is so bulky in the sand its very suprising what hits can OHKO him that are not fighting. I use pursuit over crunch to kill Gengar Latios/Latias Alakazam and potentially kill things that i wall on the switch.​

Blissey

@ Leftovers
Bold
Natural Cure
252 hp 252SpD 4 Defense
Wish
Protect
Toxic
Seismic Toss
​

Your typical blissey set nothing special here can wall pretty much anything that isnt physical all the EVs are in hp and special defense to make it as bulky as possible def EV's are not needed due to me having a skarmory and a Tyranitar. Wish can pass to alakazam if im expecting a switch i can get alakazam back to full health to kill another person or keep my weather inducer alive.​

Skarmory

@Shed Shell
Impish
Sturdy
252 health 252 Def 4 SpD
Roost
Spikes
Whirldwind
Drill Peck
​

One of my guys that sets up entry hazards and the phazer of my team. Shed Shell is so i can avoid magnezone.Im running Drill Peck because of no leftovers i cant afford to use Brave Bird.​

Gengar

@ Life Orb
Timid
Levitate
252 Speed 4 health 252 SpA
Pain Split
Shadow Ball
Focus Blast
Substitute​

This guy is an animal and synergizes well with the sandstorm. The idea is to switch in on a wall and set up with a sub. With Pain split he can outstall all blisseys because of the resdiual damage from life orb and sandstorm pain split is turned into a 3rd attack pretty much making this guy my primary wall breaker​

Infernape

​

@ Choice Scarf
Naive
Blaze
252 attack 252 speed 4 SpA
Fire Blast
Close Combat
Stone Edge
U-Turn​

Revenge kills alot of common threats such as moxie gyarados can outspeed and suprise things that would normally kill it. Can also destroy genesect and with the all so common steel type hes too good to pass up.

Well let me know what you think in the comments i want to know what everybody thinks this is also my first rmt so sorry if the format is wrong.​

 

[EspeonX]

Nice stuff so far. It looks pretty well planned.

Anyways, Shed Shell isn't really required, as with Team preview, you can predict and plan about how to kill their Magnezone, should they have one. I recommend Leftovers on Skarm, so that you gain better recovery. Brave Bird would be better if you went with Lefties, and the recoil won't hurt too much because of Roost.

Also, Scizor kinda hurts your team when Ape goes down, so I'd recommend HP Fire over HP Ice on Alakazam, so you can take it down with easier...ease should you lose Infernape. It helps to have backup on any team for Scizor.

Otherwise, neat stuff.

 

[CraptheAlakazam]

thanks for the advice ill do some more testing nothing is set in stone

 

[Trinitrotoluene]

Alright. My fever's gone, so I'm back.

First off, I like how your team looks, but I feel that its performance can be vastly improved with a few tweaks to some of the EVs. For your Blissey, I'd recommend an EV spread of 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD and a Calm nature. This gives your Blissey more overall durability, and grants it the ability to take on Specs Politoed and Rotom-W while retaining a respectable amount of physical bulk, allowing Starmie to face down certain threats with Psyshock, such as Latios and Starmie, that could otherwise run through your team. For Skarmory, I think the use of 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe on your Skarmory would be better. While you lose a minuscule amount of physical bulk, the listed EV spread gives you the ability to outpace max speed Wobbuffet, which is important if you want to try out Leftovers over Shed Shell. I also agree with the above rater that Skarmory should use Brave Bird over Drill Peck. This allows you to score a much heavier hit on fighters that Skarmory will inevitably confront. Finally, I'd recommend the use of Crunch over Earthquake and Fire Blast over Stone Edge. I don't like making such drastic changes to an individual Pokemon's moveset, but the changes are justified. Crunch grants Tyranitar the ability to beat down bulkier Psychics inclined on staying in on a weak Pursuit, while Fire Blast gives Tyranitar the ability to eliminate Ferrothorn and unsuspecting Scizor / Genesect. I'd also recommend the use of a Brave nature over the Adamant nature. This ensures that other weather inducers outpace Tyranitar, allowing it to get the sand up first before other weather inducers. A summarized list of changes can be seen below.

Nitpicks:

Adamant ----> Brave
Earthquake ----> Crunch
Stone Edge ----> Fire Blast

Bold ----> Calm
252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD ----> 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD

252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe ----> 252 HP / 232 Def / 24 Spe
Drill Peck ----> Brave Bird
Optional: Shed Shell ----> Leftovers

With all that said, good luck with your team!

 

[Skyfall]

I agree with Trinitrotoluene on Blissey and Skarmory's EVs, but I think you should have a bold nature on Blissey. I also agree with their moveset changes. I think that you should use Overheat over Fire Blast on Infernape for the immense power. Finally, you are without a single water resistance, which leaves you very weak to the now common hyper-offense rain teams. This leads to the possibility for Gastrodon to replace Blissey.

I recommend a spread of:

Gastrodon @ Leftovers
Nature: Calm
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtt / 252 SDef
Ability: Storm Drain
Toxic
Recover
Scald
Earth Power

 

[Electrolyte]

hi,

this is a pretty nice team- I love the pictures. Still, your team has very notable weaknesses to Water and Electric type moves- you have not a single resist but 3 pokemon weak to Rotom-W's STABs. This also means that Rain teams are going to give you a whole lot of trouble: Tornadus, Thundurus, Rotom-W, and Keldeo are all massive threats to this team. I see that you're using Tyranitar, but your team isn't exactly a Sand team. Only Skarmory and Alakazam are actually immune to the sand, and it wears down Infernape and Gengar especially fast because they lack reliable recovery. The only pokemon in your team using the SpDef boost provided by Sand is Tyranitar, but you're not running the SpDefensive set, so Sand isn't really necessary. To help alleviate your weakness to Rain, I suggest you try Choice Scarf Thundurus-T. It provides your team with an extremely useful Electric immunity, as well as a pretty solid answer to a lot of Rain sweepers.

Thundurus-T @ Choice Scarf
4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid nature
~Volt Switch
~Focus Blast
~Thunderbolt
~Hidden Power Ice

Thundurus-T is a great sweeper out of Rain too- it you use Volt Switch, it can also act as a pivot with Infernape. It provides very useful coverage on your team- taking out Bulky Waters and Flying types (Tornadus in particular)

Now that you've lost your Stealth Rocker for a Scarfed Revenge killer, I think you should change Infernape's set.

Infernape @ Life Orb
252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive nature
~U-Turn
~Close Combat
~Overheat
~Stealth Rock / Stone Edge / Mach Punch

Infernape keeps it's power, and trades it's speed for the ability to change it's attacks. It's still pretty fast though, frying fairies with Overheat and U-Turning out. Overheat is preferred over Fire Blast because of the extra power; you won't mind the SpA drop because you will most likely only ever need to use it once. It can provide Rocks for you, or Stone Edge to hit Dragons. Mach Punch can also be used to finish off weakened opponents.

That's all for now. Don't forget to make the set changes some other people suggested, because a lot of them are correct! Good luck!