Active No love for Alakazam?!

[Matt Cox]

Hi everyone,

One of my all-time favourite Pokemon is Alakazam. However I don't think I've ever come across someone using him in any form during competitive battles or Battle Spot.

I know he is a major glass cannon but his Mega Evolution is ridiculously powerful so he must have some use?

I'd love to see some of the major players on this site give some recommendations of a competitive team built around Mega Alakzam!

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Martin]

Hi @Matt Cox! Mega Alakazam is really good, so its great to see you're looking to try him out. A good team utilising it is MattyBrollic's Balance. Isn't. Dead., which is a balanced hazard stack team featuring Mega Alakazam. I've used it before and the build is really solid, just make sure to read the RMT in full before you use it so that you understand the alternative options that can be used (please don't use Mystic Water on Keldeo though; its garbage). Best of luck using Alakazam dude

 

[Matt Cox]

Hi @Martin,

Thanks for throwing that my way. I'll definitely check it out and see how I can stack the deck in the Spoon Master's favour!

 

[notsoclutch]

Zam is godlike. I've been loving that life orb set recently and like you said, that mega is really strong! With the speed and power that zam possesses, it's one of the best revenge killers/cleaners in the game. I can't speak much for battlespot (although I'd assume the sash set is good there), but Zam is a powerhouse in standard 6v6.

Edit: I like Martin's pick of team, so I'm not going to toss you any of my weird homebrews.

 

[Meo]

I use Alakazam! One of my favorite pokemon!

Let me check mine's moveset...

 

[Punteater]

Actually Alakazams mega got screwed over as all megas get 100 total pts added to there total stats but he only gets 90 (plus a bad ability) some may argue that because of the 10 point buff he got in gen 6 it canceled it out on the mega but this is simply not the case as mega ampharos also got a 10 point buff in gen 6 and a mega and he Recived the full 100 posts on the mega

 

[Martin]

Actually Alakazams mega got screwed over as all megas get 100 total pts added to there total stats but he only gets 90 (plus a bad ability) some may argue that because of the 10 point buff he got in gen 6 it canceled it out on the mega but this is simply not the case as mega ampharos also got a 10 point buff in gen 6 and a mega and he Recived the full 100 posts on the mega

IDK how u can call Mega Alakazam's ability bad when it turns it into an option for offense to not get screwed over by weather while also allowing it to pivot into stuff like Heatran in a pinch. And it's not like it needs to be at full health anyway considering that it'll die to any reasonably strong unresisted attack anyway.

Also just 'cause it didn't get the full 100 doesn't change the fact that it is an insanely good 'mon. At the end of the day I only care about the end result as opposed to the steps it took to get to said result and when the end result is good then it's worth using.

 

[Punteater]

You could use him as an insanely good specs sweeper but his ability is really not good I don't understand how your trying to say it's offensive very rarely will it help you

 

[Martin]

First things first: Specs Alakazam is one of the most dong sets I have ever used. IDK why you're suggesting that it as a viable alternative to Mega or even LO Alakazam when it just gets abused by the omnipresence of Dark-types and when Alakazam is incredibly reliant on it's ability to switch moves to be able to act as a consistent offense breaker.

Secondly, you seem to underestimate the difficulty that offense has with things like Excadrill, which Mega Alakazam can only offensively check because of Trace. It is also really nice to be able to steal abilities such as Heatran's Flash Fire and Gastro's Storm Drain as mentioned while also benefitting from it's ability to steal things like Sheer Force when RKing Nidoking (a 'mon who is gaining traction ATM), Intimidate when coming doubling in on/U-turning on a switch versus Lando-T, stealing Prankster from 'mons such as Thundurus or Klefki to Encore/Sub before they can Thunder Wave you and being able to heal off paralysis by VoltTurning into Celebi and immediately switching out or VoltTurning into TG+RD Manaphy under rain. There are plenty of other scenarios where it comes in hugely useful and it provides masses of flexibility regarding how you play it in a metagame where a: sand is literally everywhere (meaning that a fast Trace user that can OHKO Excadrill inherently gains utility) and b: where a Pokémon's ability to adapt to it's situation is of paramount importance.

Mega Alakazam is very threatening in a metagame such as the current OU one for it's ability to maul aspects of offense courtesy of it's disgustingly high speed (useful given the offensive nature of the metagame) without falling prey to current metagame trends like is the case with Mega Manectric--who struggles due to the omnipresence of Ground-types and sand--or (rather ironically) it's base form who is susceptible to Weavile's Pursuit unlike Mega Alakazam (an unboosted Pursuit one-shots it, meaning the Weavile player doesn't even need to predict around it) while also falling flat versus the aforementioned sand offense due to it's lack of Trace.

 

[Punteater]

First I was suggesting the specks as you only get 1 mega and he's not good enough to be in that spot for me as anything that survives basicly kills him or any priority move as his defense sucks

Secondly he is a BL pkmn as he's not even in the same tier (mega or not)

I never said that it trace was useless but it's very rare that any instance above would ever happen

Also he easily checks Lando with a charge beam anyway

 

[Martin]

U do realise that Lando is immune to Charge Beam right? Not to mention that running Charge Beam means forgoing literally any of it's better options for a move which is pretty worthless in the great scheme of things. Also, BL is not a tier which is decided based on viability, but rather it's usage (and usage≠viability) and you can use 'mons from lower tiers in OU. Due to the fact that it's usage is pretty well spread across it's mega and non-mega formes relative to, say, Charizard or Garchomp or... most megas really, the usage on neither of it's base or mega form meets the OU cutoff. As an example of general consensus (keyword here is "general" as viability is subjective), it's current placement in the OU viability rankings (with it recently having had the requirements for attaining all of it's ranks made stricter) it is currently ranked in A- whereas it's base form is ranked two subranks below in B (for it's LO set and to a lesser extent it's Sash set--Specs is still inviable no matter how much you say to use it over it's mega). You wouldn't bring it in against something it can't kill because it functions as a revenge killer (i.e it is brought in when it is guaranteed to score a kill v.s. what it's in agianst). If I didn't use something just because it was frail then a lot of my teams would be immensely bad considering that I would need to replace things like Weavile with suboptimal choices, and the logic that you are using for why you wouldn't use your mega slot on it can be easily applied to Mega Lopunny and Mega Medicham, who are both extremely defining forces in the metagame. And it's not even like it has a hard time mega evolving versus stuff; it's high pre-mega speed means that it can MEvo versus a large portion of the meta and it's offensive firepower combined with it's offensive typing and coverage means that it forces a lot of common Pokémon out or outright KOs them while still outpacing them (including but not limited to Tyranitar (offensive variants get OHKOed by Focus Blast whereas the rare defensive variants die after rocks unless they carry Chople), Keldeo, Terrakion, Heatran (the most common variant (mono-attacking w/ max HP/Spe timid or 144 HP / 112 SpA / 252 Spe timid) can't damage it through Trace and gets chunked by Focus Blast; offensive gets outpaced and OHKOed after SR or, in the case of Scarf, gets mega'd on when locked into it's Fire-type STAB) and BoltBeam (T-punch+Ice Punch) MMedicham if given a free switch (OHKOed by Shadow Ball or chunked by Psychic (the latter KOs 87.5% of the time after SR+1 spike (if ur using MAla chances are ur using it alongside Spikes (which is coincidentally v. good in the current meta) so this isn't an unrealistic goal))). Once again, sand is everywhere so using Alakazam to RK Excadrill isn't an uncommon occurrence and it pretty consistently takes on Heatran (who is really common) specifically because of it putting this good ability to common use. While some of the scenarios (namely Natural Cure and Hydration) are less common than others, the undisputable fact is that it is still very regularly putting it to regular use against one of the most common and splashable Pokémon in the game as well as versus one of the most dangerous sweepers for offensively-inclined teams to be pitted against which is used in one of the most common builds atm.

 

[Punteater]

XD I forgot about the immuneity to electric but you can run HP ice 4x effective or hp water 2x effective on lando excadr I'll and heatran
Any priority pkmn is better as a revenge killer as if he's not mega already he'll have a 120 base spd being out speed by wevile talonflame ect
Focus sash and choice specs can be very viable if you use them correctly
And lopunny and medichamp(except if Thunder P) is easily walled by Azumarill
And with the Hp it gives great coverage to 0Hko and not reily on a random ability via opponent
In most cases for that to happen you'd have to switch in and eat a random attack that quite possibly KO you

 

[desertfreak]

One set I've always liked on alakazam was trick choice specs. It's quick enough to set up a fantastic trap or force a switch out of the other side.