Wut!? Alakazam in OU?!?!

[Alexminator]

Hi smogoners, this is the 2nd team I'm posting here, this time with the help of a friend.
We absolutely wanted an Alakazam, since he got a good potential, even in OU tier. This is how we built our team:
changes are in red

Alakazam lead:
We tested various matchups and found them quite positive. We've created our personalized moveset.

We needed someone reliable to revenge kill Alakazam, we chose Scizor as a sure bet.



To not waste Alakazam like a used condom after he won the matchup against a lead with only 1 hp remaining and opponent's stealth rock placed, we decided to put forretress to clear spikes, stealth rock, etc.. and set toxic spikes, giving alakazam the chance to be an effective revenge killer.(actually forretres has benn replaced)



Offensive Suicune helps with team synergy, taking care of fire, ground and rock types, while, if played correctly, dealing huge damage.


Weavile to take care of grass types, helping with team synergy, while posing a threat on common....threats like tyranitar, metagross and heatran.


We needed someone to take care of ddancers. With choice scarf and adamant nature, he can safely outspeed and 1hko +1 ddtar and ddgyara. He is also useful in many other ways with his ground immunity and great Atk.

To explain our decision to put an Alakazam lead, we show you the match up with the most common leads in OU:

vs. Machamp: Psychic: 88.7%-105.5%, since we have the sash, we can hit him twice, killing him quite safely if he uses payback, but if he uses Dpunch, we'd only have 50% chances of killing him. I'd say it's 75% positive matchup.

vs. Infernape: an average player should first fake out then stealth rock, allowing us to kill him, but if after fake out he attacks, we lose and we need scizor's support to finish him.
1. struck by fake out, sash broken
2. Psychic, sash saves infernape with 1 hp
3. He can either stealth rock, allowing us to kill him with a second psychic, or attack, killing alakazam.
4. If he killed Alakazam, we switch in scizor and revenge kill with bullet punch

vs. Roserade: We taunt him to prevent getting asleep, then we can psychic twice killing him quite safely

vs. Azelf: Shadow ball should take care of him, bringing him to 1 hp, the match up is always positive against him, either if he sets the stealth rocks or attacks us.

vs. Hippowdon: is almost everytime negative since he can 1hko us with sandstorm breaking our sash, however we can cripple him dealing 41.4%-48.8% dmg, so we can switch in suicune and hydropump him to death.

vs. Metagross: it's quite complicated here because he can either attacks us immeadiately or set up rocks first, in the first case, we lose, in the second we can firstly use focus blast then counter to kill him. This is a 50% neutral matchup

vs. Uxie: he'll quite surely trick us first: but that's not a problem at all because all we need is shadow ball, dealing him 40.7%-48.0%. If he doesn't switch, it's a sure positive matchup.

vs. Crobat: We should overkill him with 131.2%-154.3% psychic. In the rare case he holds a sash, the matchup would result in negative matchup.

vs. Aerodactyl: The matchup is almost everytime negative since he outspeed us but if he taunts or stealth rock first, the match becomes positive. If he kill us, we simply switch in metagross and bullet punch him.

A closer look:

Alakebab@focus sash
evs: 252 SpA, 252 Spe, 4 Hp (0 iv def)
Hasty Nature
Inner focus Ability
-Shadowball
-Psychic
-Counter
-Focus Blast
Our lead, he relies on his exception combination of SpA and Spe. Our matchups were very positive, and he has an advantage against leads that set up entry hazards or taunters.
Shadowball to take care of azelf and uxie, psychic is his signature move, counter is for metagross and any other physical lead. Focus blast is for a better type coverage.



WTFUDONETOLEAD@choice band
evs: 252 AtK, 252 Hp, 4 Spe
Adamant nature
Technician ability
-Bullet punch
-U-turn
-Superpower
-Pursuit
Standard CBzor set, to safely revenge kill everything that resists to Alakebab. Bullet punch is for benefitting from the technician ability, stab, and priority, u-turn is for scouting, superpower is to handle steel types and tyranitar and pursuit is for the cowards.

Heatran @ Passho Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Nature: Mild (+SpA, -Def)
- Explosion
- Flamethrower
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power Grass
originally suggested by faladran


Zephiros@leftovers
evs: 252 SpA 252 Spe 4 Hp
Timid Nature
Pressure ability
-Hydropump
-Calm mind
-HP electric
-Ice Beam
A sure bet, he can counter many of the team weaknesses. After 1 calm mind, this thing becomes a big threat against most OU pokemons. We changed HP electric to a grass one to handle swampert, since we have flygon to counter gyarados.


Darkice@Life Orb
evs: 252 AtK, 252 Spe, 4 Hp
Jolly Nature
Pressure ability
-Low kick
-Ice shard
-Ice punch
-Night slash
He is for taking care of dragon, flying and grass types. With him we have great team synergy. Low kick is for tyranitar, metagross and heatran, ice shard is to take care of ScarfFlygon, ice punch for extra power and night slash for ghost types such as gengar


Elvis@choice scarf
evs: 252 Atk, 252 Spe, 4 hp
jolly nature
Levitate ability
-Fpunch
-earthquake
-U-turn
-Outrage
We chose Adamant nature over Jolly because the threats he needs to counter are all slower than him. Thunderpunch is for gyaradosm earthquake for steel, electric, fire and rock types (heatran, metagross, tyranitar, infernape, and many others), U-turn for scouting and outrage for late game sweep.

Threat list: (black is easily handled, yellow can be a problem, red is omggtg)

Blissey: Scizor can handle her easily with Superpower, or we can take the opportunity and switch in Forretress to set toxic spikes.

Bronzong: If weavile is down we can have serious problems taking care of him.

Celebi: We can easily take him down with weavile or scizor with u-turn

Cresselia: Whenever I see one, I can just put Forretress and setup entry hazards, then kill him with Weavile.

Donphan: It's not a threat at all, suicune can kill him easily along with Weavile.

Dusknoir: I've never faced one, but I assume that with Weavile I can take care of him.

Forretress: I can either switch in my own forretress or switch in suicune, this way I can calm mind safely and kill him easily. Then I can switch to forretress to clean the spikes.

Gliscor: Weavile 1 shot him, except in the rare case he holds a Yache berry.
Gyarados: Flygon 1 shot him even after 1 dragon dance, he still outspeeds him

Hippowdon: Suicune annihilate him

Heatran: Flygon's earthquake 1 shot him. In the case he holds a shuca berry he has good chances to survive however his moveset doens't allow him to pose a threat on Flygon

Jirachi: Flygon's earthquake has some chances to 1hko him, however it's quite rare. However we should have enough turns to kill him if he use calm mind

Skarmory: He doesn't pose a threat to our team, we can either put fortress in or suicune, since he has low SpD

Snorlax: We can switch Weavile and cripple him greatly, than revenge kill with Scizor.

Suicune: Flygon with Tpunch or Suicune with HP grass can take care of him.

Swampert: Suicune with hidden power grass overkill him

Tentacruel: Never met one, however Flygon should kill him easily

Vaporeon: we can switch in forretres and set up the tspikes then go to suicune to calm mind 1 or 2 times and HP grass

Zapdos: Weavile with ice punch can 2hko him

Azelf: if we meet a non lead set, weavile kills him with night slash

Breloom: If Alakazam is still alive, we can just let him take the spores, and then safely revenge kill with scizor

Dragonite: We have several counter: Weavile Suicune and Flygon, so he's quickly dealt with

Dugtrio: 1 word: Suicune

Electivire: Flygon with earthquake can safely sweep him to death

Flygon: Weavile with ice shard, overkills him easily

Gallade: Never seen, however any strong stab move should kill him

Gengar: Weavile outspeeds him and with night slash can 1hko him.

Heracross: Weavile ice punch can't 1hko, however I haven't seen many heracrosses nowadays

Infernape: Suicune or Flygon can handle him easily

Jolteon: Flygon can safely kill him

Kingdra: Flygon can safely 1hko him with outrage

Lucario: either earthquake from flygon or low kick from Weavile

Machamp: I've rarely seen a non lead set, I can be a problem. I'd just hit with heavy stab moves or if Alakazam is still alive, just nuke him

Magnezone: He'll rape our poor scizor and foretress but flygon can revenge his fallen teammates.

Metagross: He can pose a problem if Flygon is dead

Roserade: Weavile can 1hko him

Scizor: We can switch Forretress and set up toxic spikes, making him switch out. To deal with him we can earthquake with flygon.

Shaymin: Weavile kills him easily

Starmie: Suicune with HP grass can kill him if played correctly, or we can just switch in Flygon with thunderpunch

Togekiss: It isn't a real threat however it can be hard to kill, Weavile can 2hko with ice punch.

Tyranitar: Weavile with low-kick or Flygon with earthquake.

Weavile: He can be a bit of a problem, I can switch in forretress, set up spikes, then take care of him with scizor's superpower.

Conclusions: Thanks for reading, We worked really hard to come up with this, hope you can suggest us some good improvements.
PS. we are both italians so our english isn't perfect.

[Methmite]

I don't like your double x4 Fire weakness, Especially since the only thing that resists it (and can take the hit) is Suicune. I would suggest replacing weavile with Heatran. His ground weakness is covered by Flygon, and you have a switch in to the fire blasts that Scizor and Forretress will bring out. The reason i say replace weavile the things you want him to kill, Heatran can kill better. Also, you say he beats metagross and heatran, which i dont see. Steel does double damage to Ice, so Bullet punch on metagross = you're done. Low kick and nightslash wont be able to OHKO, assuming you survive the first bullet punch. With earthpower, Heatran covers tyranitar and Heatran just as well, and Fireblasts (Flamethrower, if you're like me and hate non 100 accuracy) will kill Metagross. The only thing you gotta watch is an earthquake from metagross, which you can bait, the switch to Flygon, who can kill it with fire. Droping weavile for heatran also drops (ANOTHER) weakness to fire, and gives you a reliable switch in for those fire attacks.

In addition, Heatran and Flygon cover eachothers weaknesses nearly perfectly, and create a VERY good offensive core. As for the set, It's really up to you. Thanks to the Rapid/SR support of Forretress, You can run the ever popular ScarfTran.

Niave Heatran@Choice Scarf (4/252/252) (SP.Def/SP.Atk/Speed)
Flamethrower
Explosion
Earthpower
Hidden Power [Grass]/[Electric] or Dragon Pulse

Last move is really up to you, and what you want Heatran to cover.


Which brings me to point 2. Switch Tpunch for fire blast, flamethrower, or fire punch. It's a little more orthadox, but its effective. Fireblast/flamethrower (heatwave is plausible too, but +5 accuracy isnt really worth the -20 base. especially without stab) lets you hit the physically bulky walls (Skarmory) Super effectively and on their weaker side. I've used Scizor and Flygon on nearly EVERY team I've had, and this is the best set up between them and Heatran.

on Alakazam, concider Recover over Counter. With the addition fo Heatran, you dont need counter to combat just hum, and recover gives you a form of instant recovery that alakazam can benefit from.

finally, I'd say swap Toxic Spikes for Spikes on Forretress. Running 2 choices means you're going to be switching and forcing switches a lot. So you need to keep your traps up, and there's gone. Toxic Spikes arent really useful, mostly because a poison comes in, and they're gone - and since you force switches so often, the poison doesnt have time to accumulate. Dealing anywhere between 28.125%-75% maximum life each switch in based on type is more effective for the strategy of this team.

Edit: If you're fighting a Calm mind jirachi, He will *NOT* stay in on a Earthquaking Flygon. You can throw heatran in, hit him with a SE flamethrower, switch in flygon on the 2nd calm mind, and earthquake =dead.

[Faladran]

I'm partly in agreement with the above rater. The prevalence of Fire weaknesses on this team is troubling, so I would recommend fixing that up. Considering the fact that you don't have a Stealth Rock user on this team, I think that a PasshoTran could function well as a replacement for Forretress. Although it makes a great entry hazard stacker on more defensive teams, Forretress really slows down the pace here and doesn't provide anything worthwhile for the team, particularly since you don't have a spinblocker. Heatran would give you a useful immunity to Fire-type attacks, a means of setting up Stealth Rock, and the ability to put offensive pressure on the opponent. This is the set I had in mind:

Heatran @ Passho Berry
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 36 HP / 252 SpA / 220 Spe
Nature: Mild (+SpA, -Def)
- Explosion
- Flamethrower
- Stealth Rock
- Hidden Power Grass

This variant of Heatran is great at setting up Stealth Rock and fixing up weaknesses to opposing Water-types. LO Starmie and Offensive Suicune are big threats to your team, as they can easily 2HKO nearly every one of your team members. PasshoTran helps alleviate this issue; with a Passho Berry equipped, Heatran can survive just about any unboosted Water attack and KO back with Explosion (or HP Grass if the opponent is sufficiently weakened). Flamethrower is a solid, accurate, and powerful STAB move, but you could also try Fire Blast if you prefer its higher base power.

On Suicune, I would recommend that you switch from HP Grass to HP Electric. Using Flygon can be a somewhat shaky way to deal with Gyarados, as it cannot safely switch directly into attacks due to its frailty. Using HP Electric would allow Suicune to counter Gyarados without any problems, while retaining the ability to hit other Water-types. In addition, Suicune's other moves already deal with Swampert well, so the use of HP Grass is quite unnecessary.

Good luck with your team!

[Alexminator]

thank you for the suggestions
i've replaced forretres with passhoheatran and i've replaced tpunch with firepunch
and suicune's HP is returned electric

[bubbly]

Most of the stuff you said about the Alakazam lead was incorrect :(

vs. Machamp: Psychic: 88.7%-105.5%, since we have the sash, we can hit him twice, killing him quite safely if he uses payback, but if he uses Dpunch, we'd only have 50% chances of killing him. I'd say it's 75% positive matchup. Machamp has Bullet Punch, meaning you will always die first unless you OHKO him (which is unlikely). Not a particularly positive start.

vs. Infernape: an average player should first fake out then stealth rock, allowing us to kill him, but if after fake out he attacks, we lose and we need scizor's support to finish him.
1. struck by fake out, sash broken
2. Psychic, sash saves infernape with 1 hp
3. He can either stealth rock, allowing us to kill him with a second psychic, or attack, killing alakazam.
4. If he killed Alakazam, we switch in scizor and revenge kill with bullet punch
So it comes down to his preference. He can either kill you, winning but prob not getting SR and being vulnerable to revenge killing, or he can break your Sash, make you absurdly easy to revenge kill later, AND get up SR. Either way, he's got an advantage.

vs. Roserade: We taunt him to prevent getting asleep, then we can psychic twice killing him quite safely
Leaf Storm OHKO's, so with Sash you're down to 1 HP while you Taunt. Again, he can kill you now and activate his own Sash, or just switch out to one of the numerous Psychic resisters and you've basically wasted your lead. You could Psychic first but then, you may lose to Sleep Powder/TSpikes, and you'd still be down to a Sash if he attacks.

vs. Azelf: Shadow ball should take care of him, bringing him to 1 hp, the match up is always positive against him, either if he sets the stealth rocks or attacks us.
This is a decent match up, but a lot of leads can achieve the same thing; Azelf gets SR while you kill it. He can also switch, although the Sash makes that kind of risky. Still, a fair number of things such as Jirachi can survive anything easily and then kill you.

vs. Hippowdon: is almost everytime negative since he can 1hko us with sandstorm breaking our sash, however we can cripple him dealing 41.4%-48.8% dmg, so we can switch in suicune and hydropump him to death.
Lol, not even doing 50% to a Hippowdon while he can KO you is hardly "crippling" him. He can easily switch out to a Shaymin/Celebi or similar, come in later and set up SR. You lose easily.

vs. Metagross: it's quite complicated here because he can either attacks us immeadiately or set up rocks first, in the first case, we lose, in the second we can firstly use focus blast then counter to kill him. This is a 50% neutral matchup
Focus Blast doesn't 2HKO anywhere near half the time, and that's not even taking its horrible accuracy into account. He can get SR and die while taking you to your Sash if Counter works, OR, he can kill you easily (Meteor Mash+Bullet Punch)

vs. Uxie: he'll quite surely trick us first: but that's not a problem at all because all we need is shadow ball, dealing him 40.7%-48.0%. If he doesn't switch, it's a sure positive matchup.
Nope, this isn't positive either. You're 3HKOing him. Uxie, if its a TrickScarf variant, wouldn't Trick to a Zam, it would just SR and switch. If its a Screens variant, you're really screwed, because it can Light Screen first, and then keep setting up. Most also carry TWave to cripple you.

vs. Crobat: We should overkill him with 131.2%-154.3% psychic. In the rare case he holds a sash, the matchup would result in negative matchup.
This isn't a bad match up, since most don't hold Sash. So he switches, or he sets up Rain Dance if he's a weather lead.

vs. Aerodactyl: The matchup is almost everytime negative since he outspeed us but if he taunts or stealth rock first, the match becomes positive. If he kill us, we simply switch in metagross and bullet punch him.
Aero's a suicide lead for a reason. Its supposed to SR, do some damage, then die. Since it can accomplish that every time here, AND can just KO you if for some reason he can delay getting SR, you lose again.

So basically, there are almost no good match ups for you (and you missed out a lot of common leads, such as Heatran, Swampert, Tyranitar, Mamoswine etc). The problem with this lead is that the things that it can 2HKO are generally either faster or have priority, and pretty much everything can bring you down to the Sash.

[Siegrin]

You don't need 2 ice type moves for Weavile, you might as well replace it with something else for extra coverage.

[ShinyAzelf]

The lead Alakazam actually doesn't look bad. I'm gonna test it out and see if its successful. Anyways, Alakazam should use a Hasty nature (+Spe, -Def) along with 0 Defense IVs so Counter will do more damage.

It loses to Machamp though since Machamp always carries Bullet Punch.

You should use Counter on Crobat because it'll most likely U-turn out.

I think you should replace Ice Shard with Swords Dance on Weavile. Since Ice Punch and Night Slash have a small power difference, you can use Swords Dance to further boost your attack stat. Switch Weavile in on something that you can scare off, Swords Dance and then wreak.

Lastly, use Jolly nature on Flygon because its a revenge killer, and with a Jolly nature, you can revenge kill Jolly Tyranitar who has Dragon Danced twice.

Good luck!

[Arikado]

Originally Posted by Fat Belphagor

You don't need 2 ice type moves for Weavile, you might as well replace it with something else for extra coverage.

Actually it does, Ice Shard can revenge kill weakened foes plus it can take care of Scarf Flygon and weakened Dragonite if they outspeed Weavile. [Scarf, DD]

Not like Weavile has a good movepool anyway.

[Chris P. Bacon]

Cool Team just one quick change. You can use Inner Focus on Alakazam to beat Infernape leads. Synchronize has no use since it doesn't bounce back sleep.

[Alexminator]

alix13@well...we havent calculated many thing..thank you for the rate we'll correct the errors
@shiny azelf thanks i've changed the natures and reduced to 0 the def Iv
but i prefer ice shard over sword dance
@Chris P.Bacon good suggestion i've changed the ability thank you

[Alexminator]

24H bump

[Elite Four Devin]

Change Hydro to surf on Cune

[Gabe]

I would remove Weavile. Scizor and Lucario walk all over him with STAB Bullet Punch boosted by Technician or Swords Dance.

[Juice!]

Change Fire Punch back to Thunderpunch on Flygon. All you're hitting with Fire Punch is Skarmory and Bronzong. Thunderpunch hits Skarmory just as hard, plus having the ability to revenge kill a +1 Gyarados is far more important than getting a super effective hit on Bronzong.

If you're going to keep Weavile on your team, which I wouldn't because anything with Mach Punch, Vacuum Wave, or Bullet Punch (Scizor, Lucario, Infernape, Machamp, Breloom, etc) completely shits all over it, I'd put Pursuit on it over either Ice Punch or Night Slash, which ever you find less useful. This allows you to nail stuff like Gengar, Starmie, Rotom-A, and the like for a sufer effective hit whether or not they switch out. Ice Shard already OHKOes Flygon, and almost always OHKOes Dragonite, so the only Pokémon you're ever using Ice Punch on is Shymin. Try Pursuit, I think you'll find it much more useful than Ice Punch.