[Triangles]

Originally Posted by Fat Dukewarrior13

Gen I and Gen II -Alakazam....It was a complete special juggernaut back in the good 'ol days. It got crits often and it was a sweeper as well as a tank. The dream pokemon.


a) Only in Gen 1 was Alakazam a special juggernaut, the special attack/defense split happened in Gen 2 and also the critical hit rate chance was only based around speed in Gen 1. In Gen 2, Alakazam was, as other people have mentioned, rather useless.


Gen III- It got some competion in Xatu, Claydol and Hypno but it was still pretty good. The split between special attack and defense didnt treat it very well.


b)Hypno has been around since RBY and Xatu is a Gen 2 poke. Also, the role of Alakazam is vastly different to that of those other 3 you mentioned. Xatu is a poke that is very rarely seen in OU - it's a low-tier UU - and altough its role is quite similar, it does so in a different tier and as such is no competition for Alakazam. Claydol is intended for use as a defensive Rapid Spinner, not an offensive Psychic-type like Alakazam, and Hypno is used in its respective tier, UU (it sees occasional usage in OU) as a special wall. The special attack/defense split was, as I mentioned earlier, in Gen 2.


Gen IV- Now there are special and physical moves? Oh crap. Now alakazam is going downhill. A little more competion but not a whole lot. And an increased movepool helped it some.


c)By "special and physical moves" I presume you mean the physical/special split. Alakazam's movepool increased in some ways (Focus Miss, special Shadow Ball, Signal Beam), but it lost the elemental punches to physicality, so I guess you could say that in some ways the movepool increased, but in some ways it decreased.


Gen V- The introduction of super powerful darks and more powerful psychics left alakazam in the dust with is speed now average. This classic pokemon's glory days are over in the eyes of most trainers.

d)I know sod all about Gen 5 but Alakazam actually got decent in 5th gen, with the addition of that all-key ability, Magic Guard. It went up from UU to OU, so...