Mega Alakazam Gravity Team (Sounds weird but it really works! Please rate).

[Epique.]

Hello Smogon! Here´s an experimental team that started being based in Mega Alakazam and ended up working really well in a very different way. Hope you like the team, please give me your opinion.

Well i´ve allways been quite a fan of Alakazam and I really wanted to do a team based on it´s mega evolution (withouth taking too much in account that most of us have agreed on the fact that Megazam is worse than the original and reliable Magic Guard Kazam version).
When I started building the team looked like this:

Hide

This I think was a Not-That-Bad team that pretended to cover Megazam´s most common and dangerous counters (Bisharp and Aegislash) with Keldeo and Mandibuzz respectively, also having a good Volt-Turn Core and flyingspam/priority counters in Rotom and Scizor, while using Garchomp to Revenge Kill Mawile and deal with Charizards.
This team had a lot of flaws, so I decided to build a new one with another concept:
I first thought that Megazam had amazing Special Attack and Speed stats, but a movepool full of moves with a low base power. Alakazam also needed to rely a lot on Focus Blast to KO some threats but the move has a terrible accuracy (that added to my bad luck was a true moveslot waste).
So now, How to make Focus Blast a reliable move? The answer to this question is gravity, that can lower in two stages the opponent´s evasion, so I started building a team around that concept.

The teambuilding process (based on the last team):

Hide

I decided to stay with keldeo, a great bisharp counter.

As I was using gravity, Tyranitar was a better pokémon to deal with flyingspam, while having the ability to counter Mega Charizard Y.

Landorus-I is the most common way to set up gravity that can also sweep with it, but I added Lando-T to have a way to deal with Mega Mawile and Charizard X.

Latias I added latias to have good defogger and another good special attacker, but with some good bulk.

Mamoswine KOes a bunch of pokémon weak to ice like Garchomp and Thundurus, while being a strong gravity abuser.

The team was very weak to Azumarill, so I switched Keldeo with Breloom to hit Azumarill for SE damage and also counter Bisharp.​

Preview:

The team in depth:

@ Alakazite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SAtk / 16 SDef / 240 Spd
Modest Nature
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Dazzling Gleam / Substitute / Hidden Power [Fire]

Mega Alakazam is a really good pokémon, the amazing speed and special attack it has (coupled with relatively low base power moves) makes it a great late game sweeper and cleaner. Thanks to gravity Megazam can spam Focus Blast with a lot more of reliability, Psyshock is a great attacking STAB move to hit special walls, Shadow ball is for coverage and Hidden Power Fire to hit steel types. This pokémon is really frail, so it can´t switch into many attacks and has to work with the team in a separate way, finding free turns to start sweeping. The EVs are made to outspeed Megados at +1.
--> Mega Alakazam is also an amazing greninja answer (provided you have a free turn), since it easily kills and gets Protean. Note that Greninja is the second most used pokémon in the tier, so you have an almost guaranteed sweep in a relatively big number of matches.
--> You can switch unharmed into heatran´s lava plume thanks to the traced Flash Fire.

@ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch
- Rock Tomb
- Spore

This guy is my bisharp counter and the best answer this team has to attack and resist Azumarill. Breloom´s Spore + Focus Sash is amazing for shuting down opposing sweepers for some turns, giving me free turns and sweeps. Breloom is also a good counter for rotom wash, doing (and other water types) amazing damage with Bullet Seed. Mach Punch is a great form of Technician boosted priority, while Rock Tomb is for KOing flying type switch-ins.

@ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Pursuit

Tyranitar is my flyingspam counter and a great scarfed pokémon. Stone Edge hits with great damage and has a boosted accuracy with gravity, while Earthquake is for coverage. Crunch and Pursuit are great STABs, the first hitting hard and the second for trapping threats that try to switch out. I use Scarf Tyranitar over Rotom because the last can´t deal with Earthquake Pinsir under the gravity effects.
Tyranitar´s ability to switch into the lati twins and pursuit them is really apreciated, since they can deal big amounts of damage to the other team members.
Gravity helps tyranitar in many ways, it makes Stone Edge more accurate and spamable, Earthquake is now very hard to stop and attacks like High Jump Kick have no effect.

@ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Gravity
- U-turn
- Stealth Rock

Lando is a great physical wall with intimidate that can set up Stealth Rock, scout with U-turn and hit hard with Earthquake, so that´s why i chose it as my gravity setter and Dragon Dance boosted pokémon counter (except for Mega Gyarados). Lando can easily find turns to set up gravity, so I can play with it most of the time and abuse of the effects it has.
Stealth rock helps my team to break through sashed pokémon and dragonite´s multiscale, making them easier to KO.
This mon (with maximum deffensive investment) is a great answer for Mega Charizard X, one of the most used pokémon.

@ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 32 HP / 224 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Healing Wish

Latias is a great offensive pokémon with really good special bulk. Defog is for cleaning up hazards, Draco Meteor for dealing huge STAB damage and Psyshock for hittng things that are weak to it, making it a great Venusaur counter. Healing Wish can fully recover the health of one pokémon (usually a sweeper) and gives it a free turn to sweep withouth taking damage.
Also a big part of my team is KOable with a Keldeo, so having a reliable switch into it (and a guaranteed OHKO with 224 EVs) becomes very handy. Life Orb makes latias hit for more damage. The EVs on HP are a Life Orb number and make latias 3hkoable by Specs Keldeo after stealth rock. This EVs fit my team better because pokémon like Mega Charizard Y (managed by 76 hp latias) are very well countered by Tyranitar.

@ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Superpower
- Icicle Crash

This is my Gravity abuser and a great counter for things like the allways common Thundurus, Landorus, Aegislash and Garchomp. Earthquake with fully invested attack, adamant nature, STAB, gravity and Life Orb hits really hard and can easily break through many teams (OHKOes Shield-Slash!). Superpower is for hitting Ferrothorn and some other pokémon outside of gravity, Ice Shard for priority and STAB to hit common ice type weak pokémon and Icicle Crash for hitting harder things that resist/are inmune to earthquake and cannot be KOed by Ice Shard.
​

Importable (PS!):
(you can switch HP fire for the move of your preference).

Hide

Alakazam @ Alakazite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SAtk / 32 SDef / 224 Spd
Modest Nature
- Psyshock
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Breloom @ Focus Sash
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Bullet Seed
- Mach Punch
- Rock Tomb
- Spore

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Pursuit

Landorus-Therian (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- U-turn
- Gravity
- Stealth Rock

Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Defog
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Healing Wish

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Superpower
- Icicle Crash​

Threat List (Currently Editing)

Hide

I haven´t found yet a pokémon that can sweep all my team, but the listed are very hard to deal with:

I can´t do much to Clefable (specially if well supported). Mamoswine does like 75% to deffensive variants but is 2hkoed with moonblast after LO recoil in return. If clefable is boosted it becomes even harder to take down.

Thank you for reading this RMT! :D

 

[Arcanine is Regal]

hidden power fire and focus blast pretty much hit the same things. maybe consider using calm mind>hidden power fire, or if you want another attack you could consider dazzling gleam or even psychic for a strong stab for both physical and special walls

 

[Kazuma Yato]

put substitute over hidden power fire bro. Trust me it saves you from a brave bird or sucker punch. Most times I see mega alakazam it died to Kazuma's(My mega mawile) sucker punch but substitute helps stop that and with its blistering speed and hazard support, you can sweep teams without losing a single hit point.

 

[Epique.]

hidden power fire and focus blast pretty much hit the same things. maybe consider using calm mind>hidden power fire, or if you want another attack you could consider dazzling gleam or even psychic for a strong stab for both physical and special walls

Hi, thank you for rating my team!! HPfire was used to hit things that were 4x weak like ferrothorn and scizor (the last one damages my team pretty much and is an usual Alakazam switch-in) and also to hit things like skarmory outside of gravity.
But as you said it´s pretty redundant, so I´ll make a change for another move. Calm Mind will waste a gravity turn and the team is oriented to Megazam´s late game sweep, so I think the best option will be an attack. Between the two you mentioned perhaps Dazzling Gleam is the best idea (also psychic sounds good, I´ll test it) because it helps to hit slower dragons with nice coverage.

 

[Epique.]

put substitute over hidden power fire bro. Trust me it saves you from a brave bird or sucker punch. Most times I see mega alakazam it died to Kazuma's(My mega mawile) sucker punch but substitute helps stop that and with its blistering speed and hazard support, you can sweep teams without losing a single hit point.

Hello, Thanks for the rate! the idea of adding substitute is pretty good, as it will help to damage other pokémon that Kazam couldn´t, without taking damage. I´ll start testing it :)

 

[Ash Borer]

Dont run Stone Edge on Mamo, Icicle Crash is necessary to beat bulkier grass or flying types that resist Earthquake such as Mandibuzz or Chesnaught. Stone Edge really doesnt hit anything Icicle Crash doesnt, that you would want it to, and Icicle Crash is stronger, more accurate, has a nice flinch chance, and just does more for Mamoswine.

 

[Epique.]

Dont run Stone Edge on Mamo, Icicle Crash is necessary to beat bulkier grass or flying types that resist Earthquake such as Mandibuzz or Chesnaught. Stone Edge really doesnt hit anything Icicle Crash doesnt, that you would want it to, and Icicle Crash is stronger, more accurate, has a nice flinch chance, and just does more for Mamoswine.

Thanks for your rate! I´ve made the change.

 

[DracoNinja]

Hello, interesting team!

Firstly you might want to consider Dazzling Gleam>Focus Blast on Mega Alakazam, since your team doesn't really struggle with steel-types much, with Landorus-T/Mamoswine/Breloom handling them very well. You might also want to consider Encore on Mega Alakazam so that you can encore Clefable into wish/softboiled/CM and proceed to ram it with Psychic.

You might also want to run 72hp evs on Latias so you hit a Life Orb number, or reduce your current hp ivs to 29.

Hope I helped, and good luck!

 

[insanelegend]

I would suggest Starmie>Keldeo. It has some of the same resists (like Keldeo's STABs) but also has access to gravity and can abuse it with moves like thunder, hydro pump, and blizzard. Instead of using defog and removing your own hazards, just use rapid spin on Starmie to clear you field while leaving your opponent with stealth rocks. IF your heart is set on physhock, Starmie has that too. It deals with dragons with ice beam or blizzard. Sounds like a great match for your team.

 

[Monte Cristo]

hi there. cool team, I always like to see underrated mons and strats in viable ways!
anyways here's what I think so far:

• 
  Taunt > Last Slot on M Kazam. Yeah, this may seem weird, but taunt spam on special attackers is growing as a big trend, and it deserves to be. Taunt + Psyshock spam lets you break chansey without being forced into keldeo. It also lets you trouble big stall cores like VenuTran and it stops things like Clefable from setting up on you.
  
• 
  run this EV spread on latias: 76 HP/180 SpA/252 Spe Timid. this EV spread is a lot more efficient than your current 252/252/4 which loses a lot of good bulk that could be used as a great way to check things like Mega CHarizard Y, Landorus-I and Keldeo better (for instance you for sure dodge the 2hko after rocks from mchar-y fire blast).
• 
  >
  
  . this should need little explaining as kyurem-b is better in almost every way: better bulk, speed and power. I understand this is your "counter" (newsflash but it's really just an overhyped check) to stuff like Garchomp, but Kyurem-B just preforms better overall than Mamoswine as an offensive, hard hitting ice type, and if really hate aegislash, just use the mixed set with earth power.
  
• 
  >
  
  . Bisharp can deal with Clefable in a pinch, can stop defoggers from defogging your oh so precious stealth rock, and tbh I would say use terrakion aside from the fact that latis run your team over if you don't run AV/Black Glasses Bisharp, kinda sad tbh, I would have loved to give you a way to beat Char X. Which btw you should add to your threatlist, it beats the crap out of this team

 

[Raik]

I really like the team and it's pretty original. T-tar is good where it's at. About mamo, I like triple stab (with spear for sub douches)but that's just my opinion.

Kazam was one of my favourite mons last gen, and I always thought he sucks now. But, if it rises up and proves me wrong, I'll use it non stop.

Sub seems great on kazam. Looking forward to trying the team.

Also protect would grant you the ability to megaevolve for free.

 

[Epique.]

Hello, interesting team!

Firstly you might want to consider Dazzling Gleam>Focus Blast on Mega Alakazam, since your team doesn't really struggle with steel-types much, with Landorus-T/Mamoswine/Breloom handling them very well. You might also want to consider Encore on Mega Alakazam so that you can encore Clefable into wish/softboiled/CM and proceed to ram it with Psychic.

You might also want to run 72hp evs on Latias so you hit a Life Orb number, or reduce your current hp ivs to 29.

Hope I helped, and good luck!

Hi, Thank you for rating! :D I´ll try out Dazzling Gleam over Blast, that´s mainly to have some good coverage with Shadow Ball, while having a way to pass through skarmory (but well, gravity solves that) and other steels. Also, Kazam finds nice opportunities to sweep when you can freely switch into Heatran (a quite common pokémon). but as you said Tran is KOable by more than a half of the team, so it isn´t such a problem.
The Encore idea sounds really good! it may be a nice way to deal with clefable, I´ll test it.

I would suggest Starmie>Keldeo. It has some of the same resists (like Keldeo's STABs) but also has access to gravity and can abuse it with moves like thunder, hydro pump, and blizzard. Instead of using defog and removing your own hazards, just use rapid spin on Starmie to clear you field while leaving your opponent with stealth rocks. IF your heart is set on physhock, Starmie has that too. It deals with dragons with ice beam or blizzard. Sounds like a great match for your team.

Thanks for the rate! it looks like a great idea, i´ll start testing it. Perhaps a Gravity/Spin/Hydropump/Psyshock set?

 

[Raik]

Encore is better than protect. I just tested my own kazam and it rocks.

 

[Epique.]

hi there. cool team, I always like to see underrated mons and strats in viable ways!
anyways here's what I think so far:

• 
  Taunt > Last Slot on M Kazam. Yeah, this may seem weird, but taunt spam on special attackers is growing as a big trend, and it deserves to be. Taunt + Psyshock spam lets you break chansey without being forced into keldeo. It also lets you trouble big stall cores like VenuTran and it stops things like Clefable from setting up on you.
  
• 
  run this EV spread on latias: 76 HP/180 SpA/252 Spe Timid. this EV spread is a lot more efficient than your current 252/252/4 which loses a lot of good bulk that could be used as a great way to check things like Mega CHarizard Y, Landorus-I and Keldeo better (for instance you for sure dodge the 2hko after rocks from mchar-y fire blast).
• 
  >
  
  . this should need little explaining as kyurem-b is better in almostevery way: better bulk, speed and power. I understand this is your "counter" (newsflash but it's really just an overhyped check) to stuff like Garchomp, but Kyurem-B just preforms better overall than Mamoswine as an offensive, hard hitting ice type, and if really hate aegislash, just use the mixed set with earth power.
• 
  >
  
  . Bisharp can deal with Clefable in a pinch, can stop defoggers from defogging your oh so precious stealth rock, and tbh I would say use terrakion aside from the fact that latis run your team over if you don't run AV/Black Glasses Bisharp, kinda sad tbh, I would have loved to give you a way to beat Char X. Which btw you should add to your threatlist, it beats the crap out of this team

Hello, thank you for the rate! Taunt could be a good idea, as it shuts down some stall pokémon. I´ll try it out.
I´ll test the latias EVs and the pokémon replacements in a team together (I personally prefer Mamoswine over Kyurem because it can abuse of Gravity and has really good priority in the form of Ice Shard, but Kyurem is a really good way to break stall, so I must try it out). Replacing Tyranitar could make the team weak to some flying types, so I´ll try other pokémon in different roles with the pokémon you have suggested :)

 

[Epique.]

I really like the team and it's pretty original. T-tar is good where it's at. About mamo, I like triple stab (with spear for sub douches)but that's just my opinion.

Kazam was one of my favourite mons last gen, and I always thought he sucks now. But, if it rises up and proves me wrong, I'll use it non stop.

Also protect would grant you the ability to megaevolve for free.

Sub seems great on kazam. Looking forward to trying the team.

Encore is better than protect. I just tested my own kazam and it rocks.

Thanks a lot for your rate and comments! :D Triple STAB Mamoswine sounds really good, it will be really useful to deal with things like Gliscor and other Substitute users.
Perhaps replacing Spear with Superpower (Thick Fat Superpower for hitting ices is pretty nice, but maybe Icicle Spear is a better option.
I´ll start testing with Encore, it may work very well!
Perhaps Mega Alakazam can succeed this generation with proper team support, hope it does!