Alakazam (Calm Mind)

[Shaya]

Forgive this being my first post on smogon. I hope it isn't inappropriate to be posting this here, considering Zam's recent switch and there probably needing a new full summary. I may have covered too much content of what is probably best located in the new UU Alakazam Full-Analysis, but I'm happy to cut down on what isn't important.

Summary: With my favourite Pokemon Zam's recent addition to UU, some of his major counters that heavily effected his sets (and still mostly remained unsuccessful) have been removed. He is now free of the large amount of Psychic impunities in OU: Tyranitar, Weavile, Blissey, Metagross and Jirachi; to name a few.
Status: Further editted. Critiquing?

http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/alakazam

[SET]
name: Calm Mind (UU)
move 1: Shadow Ball
move 2: Focus Blast / Hidden Power Fighting
move 3: Calm Mind
move 4: Encore
item: Life Orb / Lum Berry
ability: Inner Focus
nature: Timid
evs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Though Alakazam's amazing Special Attack may be slightly wasted on the lack of Psychic, UU has many more usable Dark types, and many predict their use to rise in fear of Alakazam's presence. With the combination of Ghost and Fighting for perfect coverage, Alakazam is able to remove his most common switch-ins, Dark type Pokemon's impunity from his moves.

<p>Alakazam's biggest issues in the game are priority moves and status. With Inner Focus, the ever annoying Fake Out by the common Ambipom can not only be less detrimental, but have a move used before using Alakazam's superior speed to Encore at the next turn. With Alakazam's fraility, Screen Support is vital. A Baton Passed Substitute could suffice however. The former being very helpful to Alakazam's well being. The other priority move of notable danger is Sucker Punch, this is where Encore's use comes in. With one Encore on a Sucker Punch prediction, Alakazam is given free reign to Calm Mind as long as the opponent wants you to, PP stalling the 5-8 usages or forcing a switch into something they most likely didn't want to bring out.</p>

<p>The inevitable inability to OHKO/2HKO some of the metagame's special bulky characters (such as Chansey) will often result in the use of Toxic, Thunder Wave or Sleep Status; something extremely detrimental to your ability to sweep. Lum Berry will give you this free turn against such Pokemon to either finish them off or get another Calm Mind. However the extra damage from Life Orb will most likely be more beneficial to you.</p>

<p>Encore has further usage in UU by heavily disrupting your opponent's stalling tactics. Switching into a staller you know will not be attacking is suddenly greeted with an Encore; either being forced to switch out and lose their current position or allow Alakazam to set up.</p>

<p>EVs in speed as to disallow any base 115 Pokemon to get the upper hand. 252 Speed EVs can be used, however there are only 3 Pokemon able to speed tie (Dugtrio, Sceptile and Alakazam itself; the latter two being Special based and their damage potentially negated after some Calm Minds) and two who beat (Electrode and Swellow) in UU. Max special attack for best damage output and the remaining EVs in HP to add some survivability.</p>

<p>Hidden Power Fighting could be used over Focus Blast, if you consider accuracy or PP an issue. Your bread and butter move will be Shadow Ball, but you will be required to be careful of the presence of the many Normal types common in UU. If you feel that Encore would have no use on this Alakazam, then Psychic could be considered in place of it.</p>

<p>Even though many of Alakazam's OU threats lack presence in UU, both Honchkrow and Spiritomb remain potent. Honchkrow resists Shadow Ball and gains neutral damage from Focus Blast, with Alakazam's most powerful Super Effective move having 60 Base Power (Shock Wave, or 70 with applicable Hidden Power Electric/Ice/Rock) the same damage is reached with Focus Blast. Honchkrow lacks in Special Defense and Speed though, and Sucker Punch is his only priority move, Encore providing relief as described. Spiritomb is a much more potent threat, having two STAB Physical priority moves in the form of Shadow Sneak and Sucker Punch. The former is near unavoidable if low on health, as Pursuit can also be used on the switch. Shadow Ball is the most powerful move Alakazam can use to hit Spiritomb.</p>

 

[Kachalski]

Forgive this being my first post on smogon. I hope it isn't inappropriate to be posting this here, considering Zam's recent switch and there probably needing a new full summary. I may have covered too much content of what is probably best located in the new UU Alakazam Full-Analysis, but I'm happy to cut down on what isn't important.

Summary: With my favourite Pokemon Zam's recent addition to UU, some of his major counters that heavily effected his sets (and still mostly remained unsuccessful) have been removed. He is now free of the large amount of Psychic impunities in OU: Tyranitar, Weavile, Blissey, Metagross and Jirachi; to name a few.
Status: Requires Proofreading/Critique

http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/alakazam

[SET]
name: UU Calm Mind
move 1: Shadow Ball
move 2: Focus Blast / Hidden Power Fighting
move 3: Calm Mind
move 4: Encore
item: Life Orb / Lum Berry
ability: Inner Focus
nature: Timid
evs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe

[SET COMMENTS]

<p>Though Alakazam's amazing Special Attack may be slightly wasted on the lack of Psychic, (removed "look at the bigger picture", it sounds better without it) UU has many more usable Dark types, and many predict their use to rise in fear of Alakazam's presence. With the combination of Ghost and Fighting for perfect coverage, Alakazam is able to remove his most common switch-ins, Dark type Pokemon's impunity from his moves.

<p>Alakazam's biggest threats in the game are priority moves and status. With Inner Focus, the ever annoying Fake Out by the common Ambipom can not only be less detrimental, but have a move used before using Alakazam's superior speed to encore at the next turn. With Alakazam's frailty, Screen Support is vital. A Baton Passed Substitute could suffice however (removed "Other than this, Alakazam's frailty struggles to combat any priority move user without reflect support or use of substitute"). The former being very helpful to Alakazam's well being. The other priority move of notable danger is Sucker Punch, this is where Encore's use comes in. With one Encore on a Sucker Punch user, Alakazam is given free reign to Calm Mind as long as the opponent wants you to, PP stalling the 5-8 usages or forcing a switch into something they most likely didn't want to bring out.</p>

<p>The inevitable inability to OHKO/2HKO some of the metagame's special bulky characters (such as Chansey) will often result in the use of Toxic, Thunder Wave or Sleep Status; something extremely detrimental to your ability to sweep. Lum Berry will give you this free turn against such Pokemon to either finish them off or get another Calm Mind. However the extra damage from Life Orb will most likely be more beneficial to you.</p>

<p>Encore has further usage in UU by heavily disrupting your opponent's stalling tactics. Switching into a staller you know will not be attacking is suddenly greeted with an Encore; either being forced to switch out and lose their current position or allow Alakazam to set up.</p>

<p>EVs in speed as to disallow any base 115 Pokemon to get the upper hand, and with only three Pokemon able to speed tie (Dugtrio, Sceptile and Alakazam itself; the latter of three (and most likely Sceptile) being Special based and their damage potentially negated after some Calm Minds) and two who beat Alakazam's speed (Electrode and Swellow) in UU, Alakazam's ability to sweep is undeniable. Max special attack for best damage output and the remaining EVs in HP to add some survivability.</p>

<p>Hidden Power Fighting could be used over Focus Blast, if you consider accuracy an issue. Your bread and butter move will be Shadow Ball, but you will be required to be careful of the presence of the many Normal types common in UU. If you feel that Encore would have no use on this Alakazam, then Psychic could be considered in place of it.</p>

Changes in Bold
The last sentence is something you could consider adding.

You may want to mention some of the threats to Alakazam. Honchcrow seem's to be the major one, taking nuetral from Fighting, and resisting Ghost. There is a similar problem with Spiritomb.

Edit: Something along the lines of:

<p>There are a few effective counters to this set. Honchkrow and Spiritomb are both major threats. Honchkrow takes neutral damage from Fighting and resists Ghost, while Sprirtomb is immune to Fighting, and takes neutral from Ghost. Encore is also not an effective remedy, as they can predict and use Night Slash or Pursuit. Pokemon that can counter these Pokemon such as, ... , make great partners to Alakazam.</p>

Youw will have to fill in the ... part, as I have no major experience of UU.

 

[Deccy]

I think Substitute should be mentioned as a move as it offers Zam protection from priority and pursuit, and let's Zam beat some of it's counters, as well as keeping him free from status.

 

[Shaya]

Edited, with additions you suggested (+Psychic over Encore, and Honchkrow/Spiritomb threats).
And all of your bolded points were given changes.

Perhaps I should consider writing a full analysis for UU Alakazam. As there is a lot of potentially unneeded bulk for just describing one set.

Edit from new post:
Substitute is mentioned as optimum for Baton Passing, but is harder to allow for personal set up without the use of Encore. It's also covered in another set listed on his current article.

 

[Toaster]

Seconding the idea of slashing Substitute as an option over Encore.with priority being everywhere in UU,Subsititute allows you to atleast block a hit from say aqua jet which would otherwise ethier KO or leave a huge dent on alakazam.Futhermore it blocks status and more importantly,Thunder Wave.

EDIT:

Edit from new post:
Substitute is mentioned as optimum for Baton Passing, but is harder to allow for personal set up without the use of Encore.

Not really,If you can let alakazam come in on something that it forces out you can freely set up a Sub and grab a calm mind or two.While at the same time protecting himself from the things i said above.

 

[Fuzznip]

I'm not sure why you don't have Psychic used on this set. Is there any reason why it's not used? It should not have a "you could use Psychic in place of Encore if you want" mention, I find it kind of silly how an offensive Calm Mind Alakazam is not using any STAB attack, and it's using Shadow Ball instead. Psychic has to be mentioned as the primary move, since a Calm Minded Psychic can do brutal amounts of damage. For example, here are some calculations that show how much damage a +1 LO Psychic can do against:

252 HP / 56 SpD Calm Altaria: 68.93% - 81.36%
252 HP / 0 SpD Bold Blastoise: 77.90% - 91.99%
252 HP / 0 SpD Adamant Hitmontop: 178.29% - 211.18%
40 HP / 252 SpD Calm Lanturn: 62.84% - 74.06%
148 HP / 0 SpD Bold Milotic: 66.30% - 78.26%

As you can see, a +1 Calm Mind can 2HKO all of these threats, while a +1 Shadow Ball will not. Why is Shadow Ball used anyways? To hit Ghost-types? Let me see...

252 HP / 0 SpD Bold Rotom: 120.39% - 142.11%
48 HP / 0 SpD Timid Mismagius: 103.30% - 121.98%
0 HP / 0 SpD Timid Froslass: 140.21% - 165.48%

Psychic still OHKOs common Ghost-types, so there is no reason to use an unSTABed Shadow Ball to take care of them. All Shadow Ball is really useful for is to hit Psychic-types like Slowbro, who still takes a hefty amount of damage from a +1 LO Psychic.

252 HP / 0 SpD Slowbro: 44.92% - 53.05% -- 2HKO with Stealth Rock in play.

Anyway, Psychic has to be the #1 choice on this set, not Shadow Ball. Don't even mention Shadow Ball in my opinion.

Also, I think you should emphasize the fact that a +1 LO Focus Blast has the power to 2HKO max SpD Calm Chansey (56.79% - 67.08%) and OHKO max HP/SpD Calm Clefable (103.05% - 121.32%), whereas Hidden Power Fighting cannot (33.39% - 39.31%) and (60.41% - 71.07%) respectively.

 

[Scoopapa]

I agree that Psychic ought to be on there. It seemed to be a "beat the usual counters set" at first, but in light of Fuzznip's calculations, there's no reason to give up on sweeping potential with a lack of STAB. As it is, Alakazam's Focus Blast does less than Toxicroak's, and his Shadow Ball is about as strong as a Drifblim (base 90) with leftovers.

 

[UltiMario]

The thing is, Psychic could only replace Focus Blast/HP Fighting, or else get completely walled by Spritomb. But now, you're getting walled by Chansey.

Ghost/Fighting combo is just for the sake of being able to hit everything, albeit not as strong. Doing Psychic/Focus Blast in UU is just as bad as the infamous TShock/Tbolt/Twave/Thunder RBY Raichu set.

 

[dr00]

are the speed EVs for HP fighting or with Focus Blast?

i would mention that in the set comments to add 4 (or take away) depending on which fighting move they use.

 

[Fuzznip]

The thing is, Psychic could only replace Focus Blast/HP Fighting, or else get completely walled by Spritomb. But now, you're getting walled by Chansey.

Ghost/Fighting combo is just for the sake of being able to hit everything, albeit not as strong. Doing Psychic/Focus Blast in UU is just as bad as the infamous TShock/Tbolt/Twave/Thunder RBY Raichu set.

Psychic will never replace Focus Blast/HP Fighting, it will replace Shadow Ball. The only reason this set is running Shadow Ball is to hit Spiritomb, which is pretty dumb in my opinion. Even if Alakazam runs Shadow Ball, it still won't get passed Spiritomb any time soon. A +1 LO Shadow Ball does 53.95% - 63.49% damage against 252 HP / 0 SpD Bold Spiritomb, meaning that it has to be significantly weakened or Alakazam will die to Dark Pulse.

I honestly don't see any reason to use Shadow Ball, it's a horrible attack to use when Alakazam has a much better, stronger STAB Psychic. You saw the calculations I have provided. Psychic can OHKO most Ghost-types that don't invest heavily in their defenses, and 2HKOing some of the most bulkiest Psychic-types (Slowbro). Not only that, but Psychic hits everything else much harder than Shadow Ball ever will, so that's another reason why it needs to be the primary move.

It doesn't matter if the Ghost/Fight combination provides excellent coverage, because they are weak against neutral targets thanks to not having any STAB, and Alakazam will have a much harder time sweeping.

 

[Thund91]

I'm with Fuzznip. Alakazam's Psychic is one of the strongest attacks in the game, why wouldn't you abuse it?

 

[Scoopapa]

The only way you're getting by Spiritomb is by encoring Sucker Punch or maybe Calm Mind. It's such a big risk though, because if it uses any other move you're pretty much dead. You're better off just making sure your opponent doesn't have Spiritomb before trying to set up Alakazam.

 

[Heysup]

Alakazam is actually never getting by Spiritomb, so using Shadow Ball is plain and simply silly. Spiritomb's run 289 Atk to get the 2HKO on Froslass. This means Alakazam is going to get smashed in the face by a STAB Sneak regardless of how much damage it can do to Spiritomb.

Let's see how Alakazam does vs Shadow Sneak:

289 Atk vs 126 Def & 261 HP (40 Base Power): 200 - 236 (76.63% - 90.42%)

That's guaranteed with Life Orb + Stealth Rock, or Spikes + Stealth Rock. Either way, Spiritomb destroys Alakazam, so Psychic is always the better option.

 

[Lemmiwinks MkII]

Shadow Ball is the most powerful move Alakazam can use to hit Spiritomb.</p>

Well actually, Alakazam's most powerful possible option against Spiritomb is Grass Knot.

But I agree with just about everyone in this thread. Neither that nor Shadow Ball should be mentioned in this set outside Other Options. Psychic should be the first move put on Alakazam for any set, never mind on offensive Calm Mind. The two coverage options should be Focus Blast (HP Fighting is too weak to significantly hurt Chansey, Umbreon, Regi etc) and Signal Beam IMO, as they provide the best overall coverage against the types that Psychic doesn't hit effectively.

 

[Shaya]

Sorry for the inactivity.

This set has brought me reasonable success in the UU environment. And I agree, it doesn't come close to really resolving spiritomb. However, it removes Dark Types being completely free to switch in without any damage. Shadow Ball also has a two times more likely chance of reducing your opponent's special defense over Psychic. Most common ghosts/psychics are severely impaled by SB even without CM boosts as well. This set focusses on perfect type coverage, and the best support possible in only four moves.

However, the topic has (like I said) opened up a lot more about the discussion of what his entire full article needs to cover. I definitely concede that Psychic's damage is almost too hard to miss out on.

Also, my mistake on part about Grass Knot.

I'm very happy to put together what I've written up, Fuzznip's damage contributions and others for a Psychic oriented set.