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Voting for Heat Wave Torn​

alakazam-mega.gif

Alakazam-Mega @ Alakazite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest/Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Recover / Calm Mind
- Encore

The niche of Encore over Taunt is pretty simple: you can neutralize some mons and take advantage of those, instead of just making them unable to use some moves, sure this is a really situational niche, but it still can work in some balance match-ups, where you can stop the setup of a mon like Reuniclus or Latias-M

The rest of the set is pretty straightfoward, Psychic is the STAB of choice, Dazzling Gleam hits Lati@s and Sableye, Recover can actually take advantage of Encore to heal yourself on a mon that you neutralized, where Calm Mind can also take advantage of Encore to setup yourself easily, but keep in my that you don't have any form of recovery.

Modest is the nature of choice if your team is already dealing well with Greninja-Ash and Lopunny-M, just because of the increase of damages. Timid has an actual niche with this set, it'll always outspeed a +1 Adamant Zygarde and can lock it into a move, but that's pretty much it.​
 
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tondas

YOU DONT WANT NO PROBLEMS YOU JUST TALKING
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Alakazam-Mega @ Alakazite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Disable
- Psychic
- Focus Blast

Disable fucks things like Ferro, CB Zygarde, Celesteela, most scarfers if you manage to get a sub up before they come in, etc.

e: voting for taunt z
 
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Voting for Life Orb Tornadus-T.


Alakazam-Mega @ Alakazite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Focus Blast
- Magic Room

M-Alakazam is a pretty strong and fast wallbreaker but it's main problem is getting revenge killed by scarfers like Landorus-T and walled by AV users like Magearna or Tangrowth. Magic Room nulifies items' effect for 5 turns which means no choice scarf, assault vest or leftovers, making it easier for it to break through mons like Magearna, Tangrowth or Bulu and also means that Scarfers can't revenge kill it.
 
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Future Sight Alakazam

Alakazam @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Future Sight

General idea
Usually, Dark types are and hard check to Alakazam because they are immune to its STAB and they resist Shadow Ball. Focus Blast is a thing, but the low accuracy is an issue because if you miss, you will lose Alakazam.
With the addition of Future Sight you have now the option to land one last blow before fainting or on a predicted switch-in of a Dark-type pokemon.

The remaining movepool is pretty standard with Psychic, Focus Blast and Shadow Ball (over HP Fire) in order to have neutral coverage.


EVs spread and item
The EVs spread is a standard offensive one, so there is nothing left to say. Life Orb is necessary to achieve some KOs.

Calcs that shows the effects of an unexpected Future Sight (which has 30 extra BP than Psychic):
252 SpA Life Orb Alakazam Future Sight vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Charizard-Mega-X: 298-352 (100.3 - 118.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Alakazam Future Sight vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Pinsir-Mega: 286-339 (105.5 - 125%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Alakazam Future Sight vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Tapu Koko: 331-390 (117.7 - 138.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Alakazam Future Sight vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Kingdra: 274-324 (93.8 - 110.9%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Alakazam Future Sight vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Diancie-Mega: 242-285 (100.4 - 118.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Alakazam Future Sight vs. 248 HP / 48 SpD Tangrowth: 419-493 (103.9 - 122.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Alakazam Future Sight vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Toxapex: 296-351 (97.6 - 115.8%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Black Sludge recovery
252 SpA Life Orb Alakazam Future Sight vs. 248 HP / 156+ SpD Venusaur: 413-486 (113.7 - 133.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Alakazam Future Sight vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Medicham-Mega: 300-355 (114.9 - 136%) -- guaranteed OHKO
252 SpA Life Orb Alakazam Future Sight vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Tornadus-Therian: 286-337 (95.6 - 112.7%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO

252 SpA Life Orb Alakazam Future Sight vs. 0 HP / 0- SpD Kyurem-Black: 320-376 (81.8 - 96.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
252 SpA Life Orb Alakazam Future Sight vs. 244 HP / 68 SpD Gliscor: 305-360 (86.6 - 102.2%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and Poison Heal
252 SpA Life Orb Alakazam Future Sight vs. 248 HP / 228 SpD Pelipper: 265-313 (82 - 96.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock

Team(mates) support
If you want to underline the usefulness of Future Sight, you need some Fighting and Ground coverage (i.e. Close Combat, Earthquake) in order to scare out from the battlefield annoying Dark types immune to Psychic such as Tyranitar and Muk Alola. Landorus-T compresses these roles nicely, but there are many possibilities (i.e. Tornadus-T, Terrakion and so on).
Sucker Punch and Pursuit users are a problem, so you need them out of the picture with the abovementioned Fighting and Ground users.
Be wary of paralysis because Magic Guard doesn't help in this case.
Hazards support is appreciated by every glass cannon such as Alakazam.
 
alakazam-mega.gif

Psudo Boltbeam Zam

I haven't built a team in about a month, cause I've had little to no free time, but yesterday I felt like crap when I got up, so I cancelled my plans and got on Showdown. I'd been missing the days of ORAS when I'd spam MegaZam all day, everyday, seven days a week, so I decided to play Zam; had one fight and thought to myself that Boltbeam Zam would wreck everything in this meta, so I birthed this set:

Alakazam-Mega @ Alakazite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Charge Beam
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Seems clutch at first with Charge Beam being front and center, but this set works extremely well for a lot of reasons.

Zam is strong. An offensive boosting move might be the most scary thing he's capable of running, as he'll get a million chances to fire off Charge Beams again and again in the the same fight because he forces so many switches with proper play; considering that this Mon has always excelled at revenge killing, it's also plausible to consider all calcs for this set at +1, as Zam will easily boost 2-5 times a match. Base 175 SpAtk is stupid strong. With these moves, he's running most of the coverage common on Medicham, but his moves are slightly weaker, which isn't a problem because at +1 he's slightly stronger than Medicham, and I love this set, because it's like a feather in the wind. Unlike most set up pokes who have quirks that make them prefer to stay in and try to get in as much damage as possible, Zam is like common Medicham and doesn't have any of that. When he's threatened, there is no incentive to stay in, but instead like Tekken, run away, get back in, and punish. For this reason, this is a set that will consistently flourish within the balance teams and BO's which seem to be far more common within the current meta, because he will be forced out constantly, but he'll be right back in, to rinse and repeat. It's worth a special mention that Defog users synergise well with Charge Beam.

I won't post calcs because it's Zam, and there isn't a person who will post here who doesn't already know what Zam is capable of with it's initial stats, but I'll drop some replays when I can get near a computer.

GG, Smogon, have a better day than I did yesterday.

P. S. Nearly forgot, but Trace is a blessing with this set, as it's not a bad idea to sometimes delay your Mega. Zam baits odd things like Crawdaunt when revenge killing; with all the boosting abilities in this meta, please take a moment to appreciate how this thing is much more scary than it let's off.
 
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Telekinesis Zap Cannon Zam

Alakazam-Mega @ Alakazite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Telekinesis
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Zap Cannon

Mega Zam can force tons of switches because of it's insane power. This set aims to exploit forcing out mons and using Telekinesis to hit with a big 100% accurate focus (not)miss or zap cannon. Mons that can normally check zam due to fear of missing focus blast (ferro, pursuit t-tar) and fat specially defensive walls (celesteela, av mag, jirachi) all don't appreciate the incredibly powerful moves that this set packs.

EDIT: I forgot to change trace to Magic Guard
 
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Alakazam-Mega @ Alakazite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Calm Mind
- Recover

This is probably the best alternative set Zam can run, in my eyes anyway. You turn a lot of shit into setup fodder (like Magearna, Clefable, Heatran, Mega Latios and generally just punish sack plays), and can usually just get a free turn of setup considering how blazing fast you are. You don't really need Shadow Ball since you setup on a lot of the targets for it anyway. This set is a potent setup sweeper, and definitely deserved a mention on here.
 

Heart Doom

Banned deucer.
Alakazam-Mega @ Alakazite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Dazzling Gleam

Alakazam 4 atacks with hp ice can be a big threat for many teams because they can lure zygarde and dazzlim gleam can help against sableye
 

JustoonSmitts

I draw stuff for a living
is a Top Artistis a Contributor to Smogon
I'm voting for Eject Button Tornadus. :)

Merlin (Alakazam) @ Alakazite
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic Terrain
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Revover

Alakazam is weak to priority, so this set acts as a psuedo Tapu Lele. It's designed to check Sucker Punch users like Bisharp.
 


Alakazam @ Focus Sash
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magic Coat
- Encore/taunt
- Psychic
- Counter

-Anti Lead Kazam
Counter zam with sash is nothing new but this one works also as an anti lead. With Magic Coat you can bounce back hazards and then encore/taunt the oposing lead.

Voting for Eject Button Torn.
 
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Before I begin this week, I'd like to sincerely apologise for the lack of activity on this thread - i've been dealing with a few personal issues, so I sincerely apologise. I hope to get everything back on track this week (including fixing the Alakazam write-up in my previous post, which you should go like btw), so expect the usual routine to begin starting today! Now that being said:



Feel Good Inc. - Gorrilaz
Thank you for another excellent week! As I previously mentioned, this week, we're finally back on track! I'm not going to waste any more time, so let's get right into it.

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== Knock Off by
Flame from Heaven ==
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== Z-Psycho Shift by 1_TrickPhony ==
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== Mega Encore by
itsjustaperplane ==
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== Sub Disable by
Tonda Gossa! (big fan) ==
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== Magic Room by
MFJr King ==
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== Future Sight by
nameless90 ==
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== Charge Beam + HP Ice by @
Mr. Kream ==
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== Telekinesis Zap Cannon by
AKX ==
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== Calm Mind Recover by mellowyellowhd ==
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== All-Out Attacker by POP Arthur21 ==
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== Psychic Terrain by ArtistSmeargle1991 ==
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== Anti-Lead by
OlliKnolli ==
voting ends sunday 9th july! happy posting!
 
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It was a tough choice since both Magic Room and Telekenesis Zap Cannon are cool and seem viable, but Zap Cannon is HEAT. Plus, the idea of smiting a Celesteela with Zap Cannon is hilarious, so I’m voting Telekenesis.
 
as much as i would like to vote for z psycho shift, my vote goes to calm mind because of its ability to get +6 in spa and spd against magnezone while being an insane threat to many bulky squads which do not have super solid tran checks. if suggestions are allowed, can i suggest gardevoir-mega next since even though its known as a bad pokemon its got a plethora of options which lele doesnt and im interested to see what people come up with.
 

Feel Good Inc. - Gorrilaz
First and foremost, i'd like to apologise for the severe lack of activity on this thread. I've been away from home for approximately 3 weeks (for the record, I'm still not home) and i've had limited time to post, although my last post might contradictory to this statement. For the record, I posted that at 1 am. Anyways, this week's winner is Calm Mind + Recover by mellowyellowhd ! Your post will be added into the hall of fame shortly.


Cold as Ice - Foreigner
(I'm not sorry whatsoever)

This week's "case study" will be Kyurem Black! Since its conception in BW2 and its eventual release from the Ubers tier, Kyurem has been one of the tier's most threatening breakers, having the ability to immensely pressure balance and stall builds due to it possessing an amazing stab combination and amazing movepool. Speaking of an amazing movepool, this thing has a lot of amazing possibilities! Can you find the next best kyurem set?


Here are your banned sets of the week

Deadline is on friday the 20th. Happy Posting!
 
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