[OVERVIEW]
Alakazam is one of the premier offensive threats in the BW OU metagame due to it's combination of stellar offensive stats, fantastic movepool and possibly the best ability it could wish for in Magic Guard. It currently holds it's place as a mainstay on many sand teams that are looking to capitalize on Alakazam's revenge killing and clean up capabilities with spikes support. With it's massive speed stat Alakazam is used on slower sand teams as a means of revenge killing pokemon that would otherwise decimate the archetype like Terrakion, SD Garchomp and Keldeo. Ironically Alakazam finds its most common partner in Tyranitar sitting comfortably as its most common and durable check in the tier, which with a Chople Berry can easily shrug off anything alakazam has to throw against it and reliably cripple it via pursuit bringing it down to it's Focus Sash(If it has one) or by Thunder Wave that will strip it off of its speed and reliability for the remainder of the game. Tyranitar of course isn't the only pokemon capable of checking alakazam defensively as there are good checks scattered all over the tier with jirachi and specially defensive scizor being notable examples here.
[SET]
name: The Zam.
Move 1: Psychic
Move 2: Hidden Power Ice / Hidden Power Fire
Move 3: Focus Blast / Grass knot
Move 4: Encore / Thunder Wave / Shadow Ball / Grass Knot / Signal Beam
Item: Focus Sash / Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
Nature: Timid
Evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Psychic is Alakazam's best STAB move and it's generally very scary to switch into especially with hazards down, KO'ing pokemon like Keldeo and Breloom as well as Terrakion with some chip if sand is active. Hidden Power Ice is a very important move for revenge killing pokemon like Gliscor and Landorus-T as well as non-Yache Berry Garchomp and Dragonite. It should be noted that HP Ice is your strongest attack vs Latios if u choose not to run Signal Beam or Shadow ball. Focus Blast is a near mandatory coverage move that hits the Steel types that resist Psychic as well as your most important target on sand teams: Tyranitar. Grass knot is a good alternative in that slot if you're feeling that your team doesn't require the immediate damage on said steel types or if u value hitting pokemon like Gastrodon and Jellicent harder. Grass Knot also does the same damage to Tyranitar if u take Chople Berry into account. Encore helps turn the momentum of a battle instantly by locking Pokemon like Reuniclus on Calm Mind or simply taking advantage of passive Pokemon like Politoed or Tentacruel that use Protect to stay healthy. Thunder Wave is an option that leans towards punishing offensive teams and crippling the faster threats instead of revenge killing them. It gives u a way to cripple opposing Alakazam should it come down to a 1v1 and puts a dent on set up sweepers that don't carry a Lum Berry and Choice Scarfers looking to breake Alakazam's Sash. Lastly Shadow Ball and Signal beam fall into the same category as far as coverage goes and that is that they both keep psychic types from walling you. Signal beam targets Celebi spesifically due to it's 4x weakness to bug and has the niche of hitting both Tyranitar and the psychics in one move. Shadow Ball is a slightly stronger version of Signal Beam that hits psychic types hard but trades the super effective hit on Tyranitar for better damage vs Jellicent.
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Set Details
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Team Options
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[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Checks and Counters
===================
**Insert Counterplay Here**: Describe the counterplay / check / counter.
**Insert Counterplay Here**: Describe the counterplay / check / counter.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[name, id]]
- Quality checked by: [[name, id], [name, id]]
- Grammar checked by: [[name, id]]
Alakazam is one of the premier offensive threats in the BW OU metagame due to it's combination of stellar offensive stats, fantastic movepool and possibly the best ability it could wish for in Magic Guard. It currently holds it's place as a mainstay on many sand teams that are looking to capitalize on Alakazam's revenge killing and clean up capabilities with spikes support. With it's massive speed stat Alakazam is used on slower sand teams as a means of revenge killing pokemon that would otherwise decimate the archetype like Terrakion, SD Garchomp and Keldeo. Ironically Alakazam finds its most common partner in Tyranitar sitting comfortably as its most common and durable check in the tier, which with a Chople Berry can easily shrug off anything alakazam has to throw against it and reliably cripple it via pursuit bringing it down to it's Focus Sash(If it has one) or by Thunder Wave that will strip it off of its speed and reliability for the remainder of the game. Tyranitar of course isn't the only pokemon capable of checking alakazam defensively as there are good checks scattered all over the tier with jirachi and specially defensive scizor being notable examples here.
[SET]
name: The Zam.
Move 1: Psychic
Move 2: Hidden Power Ice / Hidden Power Fire
Move 3: Focus Blast / Grass knot
Move 4: Encore / Thunder Wave / Shadow Ball / Grass Knot / Signal Beam
Item: Focus Sash / Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
Nature: Timid
Evs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
[SET COMMENTS]
Psychic is Alakazam's best STAB move and it's generally very scary to switch into especially with hazards down, KO'ing pokemon like Keldeo and Breloom as well as Terrakion with some chip if sand is active. Hidden Power Ice is a very important move for revenge killing pokemon like Gliscor and Landorus-T as well as non-Yache Berry Garchomp and Dragonite. It should be noted that HP Ice is your strongest attack vs Latios if u choose not to run Signal Beam or Shadow ball. Focus Blast is a near mandatory coverage move that hits the Steel types that resist Psychic as well as your most important target on sand teams: Tyranitar. Grass knot is a good alternative in that slot if you're feeling that your team doesn't require the immediate damage on said steel types or if u value hitting pokemon like Gastrodon and Jellicent harder. Grass Knot also does the same damage to Tyranitar if u take Chople Berry into account. Encore helps turn the momentum of a battle instantly by locking Pokemon like Reuniclus on Calm Mind or simply taking advantage of passive Pokemon like Politoed or Tentacruel that use Protect to stay healthy. Thunder Wave is an option that leans towards punishing offensive teams and crippling the faster threats instead of revenge killing them. It gives u a way to cripple opposing Alakazam should it come down to a 1v1 and puts a dent on set up sweepers that don't carry a Lum Berry and Choice Scarfers looking to breake Alakazam's Sash. Lastly Shadow Ball and Signal beam fall into the same category as far as coverage goes and that is that they both keep psychic types from walling you. Signal beam targets Celebi spesifically due to it's 4x weakness to bug and has the niche of hitting both Tyranitar and the psychics in one move. Shadow Ball is a slightly stronger version of Signal Beam that hits psychic types hard but trades the super effective hit on Tyranitar for better damage vs Jellicent.
========
Set Details
========
Team Options
========
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Checks and Counters
===================
**Insert Counterplay Here**: Describe the counterplay / check / counter.
**Insert Counterplay Here**: Describe the counterplay / check / counter.
[CREDITS]
- Written by: [[name, id]]
- Quality checked by: [[name, id], [name, id]]
- Grammar checked by: [[name, id]]
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