Alakazam

Don't even mention that gargbage, in gen 3 is had a special thunderpunch.

If you need it, Alakazam has charge beam. I would not suggest it though. You are probably better off with HP electric.
 
Scarfwynaut said:
Don't even mention that gargbage, in gen 3 is had a special thunderpunch.

If you need it, Alakazam has charge beam. I would not suggest it though. You are probably better off with HP electric.
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you are probably better off using fighting+ghost neutral coverage and substitute at least IMO
 
Anyone who said that magic guard isn't that useful... Honestly, Magic Guard is on itself one of the best abilities out there! No burn, toxic, stealth rock, (toxic) spikes, life orb damage, no weather damage ETC ETC. Does this in any way look like a bad ability?! My god, i'm not trying to be a bitch, but seriously, this is in my opinion one of the best abilities, especially for a frail poke like Alakazam.

Then, answering to whoever owned me on the other page showing me the Hidden Powers aren't very important... I realize you're right, apart from HP Fighting. I keep believing it is a very valid choice over Focus Blast. It's true HP Fire and Ice etc aren't very needed, i agree, but with HP Fighting... i'd consider it. Sets like SubCM Shadow Ball+HP Fight seem very functionable in my eyes (without any testing).... but yeah
 
Captain Dragan said:
Anyone who said that magic guard isn't that useful... Honestly, Magic Guard is on itself one of the best abilities out there! No burn, toxic, stealth rock, (toxic) spikes, life orb damage, no weather damage ETC ETC. Does this in any way look like a bad ability?! My god, i'm not trying to be a bitch, but seriously, this is in my opinion one of the best abilities, especially for a frail poke like Alakazam.

Then, answering to whoever owned me on the other page showing me the Hidden Powers aren't very important... I realize you're right, apart from HP Fighting. I keep believing it is a very valid choice over Focus Blast. It's true HP Fire and Ice etc aren't very needed, i agree, but with HP Fighting... i'd consider it. Sets like SubCM Shadow Ball+HP Fight seem very functionable in my eyes (without any testing).... but yeah
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i believe zam loses some koes without focus blast, not sure though
 
Could try Gravity (it's been proven as legal with Magic Guard).

Focus Blast (and Hypnosis if you're the adventurous type) become 100% accurate for four turns.

Yeah, it gimmicky, but it fixes the accuracy issue.
 
Captain Dragan said:
Anyone who said that magic guard isn't that useful... Honestly, Magic Guard is on itself one of the best abilities out there! No burn, toxic, stealth rock, (toxic) spikes, life orb damage, no weather damage ETC ETC. Does this in any way look like a bad ability?! My god, i'm not trying to be a bitch, but seriously, this is in my opinion one of the best abilities, especially for a BULKY poke like ONE WHO DOESN'T DIE TO A LIGHT TAP.
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Nobody is going to resort to passive damage to KO zam unless they're absolutely on their last legs. That's the difference between Magic Guard Zam and Magic Guard Ranky. Reuniclus actually has the bulk to take hits, so if you could wear it down, it would be very helpful. Zam on the other hand would benefit much more from an ability like LearnBetterTMs or GrowAPair over NoPassiveDamage. Magic guard really isn't doing him much of shit all.
 
Gravity has always been a weird move, and it always will be. Think of Telekinesis on something like a Chandelure. "Be our guest"? No thanks!
 
Pwnemon said:
Magic guard really isn't doing him much of shit all.
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Most people highlight Life Orb for Zam, but leave out Focus Sash. With a Sash, Alakazam can only be OHKOd by multihit moves and so its frailness is lessened somewhat.

Of course at that point the argument "why not just use Reuniclus then" comes back, but Zam does have better speed I guess.
 
@pwnemon: Yeah, i guess you're right about Zam being frail anyway, but what I'm trying to point out is that all around, Magic Guard is a great ability imo. Also, without LO-recoil and hazards etc, Zam will be able to live slightly longer, to my expectations, don't you think?
EDIT: can't agree less with NDenizen, although i was also mainly thinking of life orb
 
A better movepool would be nice. But in a sand dominated metagame where LO and priority would put him into deathrange from resisted priority attacks, magic gaurd does help out. Nobody is going to rely on passive damage to kill you, but the passive damage will kill you much faster than the majority of the tier when you outspeed everybody else.
 
JohnWesleyX said:
Magic Guard is indeed helpful.. I dont understand why you dont think so, and Gardevoir is just slightly more bulky. Alakazam(55/45/85) Gardevoir(68/65/115). Not including special defense, Gardevoir is frail. Plus, Alakazam has enough bulk to take a hit and instantly KO right back.
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You do realize that 55/45/85 are all lower than 68/65/115 right?

@Captain Dragan: KillMeKazam is going to die from almost every non resisted move also no idiot would use a passive damage move on Alakazam they're just going to kill him.
 
You realise of course that with Magic Guard, Alakazam survives Mach Punches even after one round of SR, Spikes and LO recoil. If this isn't big, I don't know what it.
 
Box said:
You realise of course that with Magic Guard, Alakazam survives Mach Punches even after one round of SR, Spikes and LO recoil. If this isn't big, I don't know what it.
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I wouldn't Mach Punch a Pokémon that would live and OHKO me with a Psychic/Psyshock.
 
How then do you KO a Pokemon with 120 Base Speed that will knowingly switch out of common Scarf users? Mind you, the only common Scarfed Pokemon that uses Pursuit would be Tyranitar, but those aren't even that common.

There are two ways to beat Alakazam:

1) You outspeed him. This can be done mostly by Scarfers, but Alakazam should be switching out of them. In this sense, Deoxys-S can handle Alakazam easily. Sweeper Deoxys-S are not that common. Priority also counts in this case, but in OU only Scizor and the stray Gallade and Azumarill are going to be OHKOing Alakazam

2) You resist his moves. With a 135 Base Special Attack, Alazakam can afford to run a non-boosting Life Orb set with 4 moves. Good luck surviving 2 hits if you are not named Blissey, or are not under Case 1.
 
A Burn Orb + Trick set could be awesome, since it can do something to support the team AND Alakazam's own abysmal defense, all while making him possibly immune to sleep AND paralysis. I doubt that Alakazam will survive any physical attacks even with burn drop on a lot of opponents, but it would at the least make priority a hell of a lot more livable for him. It would also cripple basically any wall that switches in on him because all of a sudden Alakazam has taken their leftovers from their dinner plates and swapped them with a fireball and now he's on stage eating their leftovers while those heckler walls in the audience are burning to death.
The main problem I'm having with Alakazam's dream world ability is that it's inevitably gonna lead to him being overshadowed by Reuniclus who, due to his bulk, can especially take the priority hits that are going to shatter Alakazam's Caterpie level defenses. Of course, in turn Alakazam's incredible speed and even more incredible special attack is going to mean that Alakazam is going to be racking up crazier damage on a trick set that Reuniclus.
In summation, I think battles between Alakazam and Sableye are going to be hilarious, since Alakazam can't do shit to Sableye without Shadow Ball and Sableye needs to carry an attacking move to do anything to Alakazam. I just kinda wish Alakazam got a cool unique ability like Espeon rather than the exact same one as his fat gen V clone.
 
Alakazam survives all forms of common priority, including Gallade's unboosted Shadow Sneak, if his attacker is burned. Unfortunately, it's priority, so you're going to get hit by it anyway, so why bother unless it's more to support your allies.
 
dregstr said:
You do realize that 55/45/85 are all lower than 68/65/115 right?

@Captain Dragan: KillMeKazam is going to die from almost every non resisted move also no idiot would use a passive damage move on Alakazam they're just going to kill him.
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Umm, did i say they ere lower? No i said Gardevoirs defensive stats are slightly higher, not including Special Defense which is much higher
 
Box said:
How then do you KO a Pokemon with 120 Base Speed that will knowingly switch out of common Scarf users? Mind you, the only common Scarfed Pokemon that uses Pursuit would be Tyranitar, but those aren't even that common.

There are two ways to beat Alakazam:

1) You outspeed him. This can be done mostly by Scarfers, but Alakazam should be switching out of them. In this sense, Deoxys-S can handle Alakazam easily. Sweeper Deoxys-S are not that common. Priority also counts in this case, but in OU only Scizor and the stray Gallade and Azumarill are going to be OHKOing Alakazam

2) You resist his moves. With a 135 Base Special Attack, Alazakam can afford to run a non-boosting Life Orb set with 4 moves. Good luck surviving 2 hits if you are not named Blissey, or are not under Case 1.
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Same as every 120 base speeder use the element of surprise, since people will always assume that their opponent is a homo and uses all standard sets. Zoroark is a troll as well.

@Dude: then why did you say Alakazam that Alakazam is bulkier when Gardevoir?
 
I think some of you guys are missing the point. Alakazam is Alakazam, and there's no other Pokemon that could ever replicate its ability to use Magic Guard uniquely, or imitate sweeps off of natural base 120 Speed and 135 Special Attack. I'm all for something that doesn't completely tone down the momentum of your offensive team (Gardevoir can't outrun Terrakion or Thundurus without a Scarf, and we all know how this kind of Scarf set turns out in OU). Sure, bulk is an issue, but that's that. Gardevoir and Reuniclus are completely different from this thing, and Alakazam is in no way overshadowed by them on the all-out offensive.
 
Box said:
Alakazam survives all forms of common priority, including Gallade's unboosted Shadow Sneak, if his attacker is burned. Unfortunately, it's priority, so you're going to get hit by it anyway, so why bother unless it's more to support your allies.
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Well, because every common priority user (except for conkeldurr, thankfully, who loves the burn) fails to be OHKO'd by one of Alakazam's move, and it comes especially useful against stuff like CB Scizor who all of a sudden can't OHKO you with Bullet Punch of Pursuit. It's just a pity that Alakazam is so frail that effectively doubling his defense means priorities goes from OHKOing him to 2HKOing him. At the very least, I could see a strategy like this benefiting a team that has other priority-weak sweepers who will be happy to set up on what used to be your opponent's best check (Haxorus?)
 
Uh, I don't think Scizor could survive HP Fire, which Alakazam will likely run in a tier riddled with that bug and Ferrothorn.
 
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