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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Alakazam - Expedition


Date Reviewed: 1.09.04

Ratings & Reviews below

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating.

Hedge

Alakazam (Expedition)

 

I really like this card. This card is in my favorite deck along with the Skyridge version, the legendary dogs, and sudowoodo. And it works; really well. The ability to use your opponent’s attacks is very nice, especially when they have better ones than you do ~_^.

Syncroblast also works very nice with boost and bounce because it says “energy cards.”

I also like that this soooo overlooked card can bust a garde ex in one blow with a psychic and a boost. Rainbow is also a must with ‘Kazam, and I like to use him with a good backup, namely Wobbuffet. On my card crown I even have a large holo representation of this card ^_^ .

 

            Modified: 4/5 – TONS of potential. Garde really should fear this card.

 

            Unlimited: 1/5 – Yah right. And it’s raining Pikachus.
 

            Ever heard of Ditto? rotflol.

  

            2 on 2: 4/5 – Umm, same?

 

            Mutant: 4/5 – I dunno, Wobbuffet to Grumpig to Kazam? #_#

 

            Draft: 3/5 – Better draft every nrg lol.

            Written by:  ~Hedge

            Written January 7th, 2003.

Otaku

Name: Alakazam
Set:
Expedition
Type:
Psychic
Stage:
Stage 2 (Evolves from Kadabra)
HP:
100
Weakness:
Psychic
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CC

Poké-POWER: Psymimic

Once during your turn, instead of Alakazam’s normal attack, you may choose 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon’s attack.  Alakazam copies that attack including its Energy costs and anything else required in order to use that attack, such as discarding Energy cards.  (No matter what type that Pokémon is, Alakazam’s type is still Psychic.)  This power can’t be used if Alakazam is affected by a Special Condition.

Attack#1: (PCC) Syncroblast [80]

If Alakazam and the Defending Pokémon don’t have the same number of Energy cards attached to them, this attack’s base damage is 20 instead of 80.

Attributes: Well, we have another Alakazam.  The good news is that you can mix and match it with the other versions, but the bad news is that it fights for space against those versions.  It’s a Stage 2, which means that it’s harder to get into play than a Basic or Stage 1, and as such had better have some serious power to it to offset that disadvantage.  It evolves from Kadabra, which in turn evolves from Abra.  In Unlimited, I recommend the Team Rocket version, as it has the more or less standard Abra stats (40 HP, Psychic Weakness, no Resistance, and a retreat of C), but has Vanish, a most useful attack that a simple Recall or Memory Berry will let you use to rob your opponent of a Prize (that move shuffles Abra back into the deck).  For Modified, I recommend the Skyridge Abra, as it has a Poke-Body that gives it a free retreat so long as there is a Psychic Energy attached to it.  As for Kadabras, it really depends on your strategy.  If you aren’t planning on recalling attacks in some manner, use just one or two actual Kadabra with Rare Candies.  I’d go with the Skyridge as they can actually hit for decent damage and ignore Weakness/Resistance.  For Modified, I would still go with that Kadabra and Rare Candies-some say to use the Expedition version since it can nab Energy from the discard, but I don’t find it worth it (and yeah, I’ve run this before in Neon Modified).

This is a Psychic Pokémon, which is not really that great for Unlimited (a lot of Resistance, not much Weakness), but useful for Modified (where there is little Resistance and much Weakness).  It has 100 HP, which was a record at the time it’s release, and still is the tops for an Alakazam.  In general, 100 HP is pretty good-you can usually take two solid blows even without any healing.  It has a Psychic Weakness, which really hurts-what few Psychic Pokémon you encounter will be able to hit you hard in Unlimited, and makes this an easy target for Wobbuffets and Gardevoir on Modified.  There is no Resistance, which annoys me, but we’ll just move on.  It has a retreat of CC, which is feasible.  It’s enough you won’t be able to retreat without a though but low enough you won’t have to build your deck around benching it.

Abilities: Psymimic is fantastic.  Almost every deck you face will give you access to cheap set-up attacks and big finisher attacks.  Rainbow Energy can provide what you need to use most attacks, especially since the newer cards have moved towards more colorless/mostly colorless attack costs.  If you encounter something with a big or specialized attack, don’t worry-Syncroblast has your back.  Most such attacks cost 3-4 Energy, making them easy to “synchronize’ with.  With boost energy, it’s even more effective (DCE for Unlimited).  Best of all, such big attacks may be “synched” once or twice before they can use said big attack.  These two attacks compliment each other very well.  As for its actual cost, it seems fair-you pay for 35 damage, and do a minimum of 20, and a max of 80.  You’ll probably get 80 probably one in 1 times, so you’ll average about 40.  Since it’s mostly colorless, you can easily splash another color with Alakazam if you want.

Uses/Combinations: If you are running another Alakazam, this can be good offensive TecH.  To realize its full potential means building the deck around it though.  Most such decks will add another line to compliment Alakazam-something Fighting or Dark for type matching, for example.  One bizarre deck uses this with “Strange Tentacles” Tentacruel to make it so your opponent will almost always have the same energy count as you.  Also note that it counts Energy cards-this means that a Boost is still just one Energy.  I would probably team it up with-you guessed it-Sandstorm Xatu for mega healing.  In Neon I ran it with Neo Revelation Aerodactyl so I could use LC Alakazam’s attacks-can’t do that in Eon, but you can use Memory Berry to give some nice, solid damage.  Since it can copy cheap attacks, it can abuse Pokémon Nurse fairly easily.

Ratings

Unlimited: 3/5-I think it would be good in a “damage-swap” deck.  Given how most strong Pokémon in Unlimited have inexpensive attacks to copy.  Base Set Alakazam will give it great longevity, and since you got Psychic any way, you might as well toss in Slowking (like people normally worry about powering it).

Modified/2-on-2: 3.5/5-There are a lot of great Psychic Pokémon in this format, but this could surprise us by matching them-after all, anything they can do, this can do.

Limited: 4/5-Most people favor “splashable” Pokémon, so take advantage of it.  Run a smorgasbord of energy, and with a little luck, you can match almost anything they draft.  People tend to draft Energy hogs here since with time they can be powered up to blitz through an opponent for the win.  You should be able to synch up while they power up and obliterate them.

TMP: 4/5-So many choices to mimic or synch!

Sorry this was rushed.

-Otaku (nintendotaku@hotmail.com)

perfect0ne Alakazam (expedition)

Heres a ditto wannabe... too bad he's OHKO'ed by wobbs.

Unlimited- He could possibly copy wigglytuff and if they both have one energy-clefable. Other than that, sneasel kills him.
rating--- 2

Modified- Flygon comes to mind. But that would be far too slow. A few possibilities could be electabuzz (energy draw), lady outing, multi energy, double-rainbow energy. Wait- what was that last one!? What did I just say? Yes- a spoiler! Double rainbow provides 2 energy of any types as long as the pokemon is a NON-ex Evolution pokemon, and it does 10 damage less. It has downfalls, but amazing with Alakazam. Using Brineys and fossils to stall can be good. He has potential and is a non ex that can steal their attacks, but i just dont see him killing Gard, which seems to be the Default deck in modified for most players.
rating--- 3.375

Draft- Are you really gonna draft expedition still? Oh well, he stinks anyway. You have no energy search and its own attack is too situational for draft. Hes a 100 HP punching bag.
rating--- 1.5

2 vs. 2- Hot! He can copy either players active pokemon! More options, more possibilities, and you get more targets with your new attacks!
rating--- 4.125

Multiplayer- Just like 2 vs 2, hes great!
rating--- 4.125
AuSeNs
TrAk
Hi. I'm back. I was gone. I'm not anymore.

There are 3 types of cards, really. There are those that are playable in tournaments. Those resemble Feraligatr, Scizor, Magcargo etc. There are those that are TOTALLY useless. They tend to look like Gambler. Then, there are the 'tweeners. They're fun to play, and CAN work well, but you won't win many tournaments with them. Alakazam is one of those cards.

The power is a nice touch. Use Rainbow Energy to be able to use your opponent's attacks and use his own attack when you can do 80 damage. It's pretty solid, but against any self-respecting deck you'll find that you won't be able to pull it off well, let alone repeatedly.

A fun combo with this is Tentacruel, who's power lets you take a energy from your opponent's graveyard and attach it to one of their pokemon. Use the power to get the proper amount of energy in the discard and you're set.

Now, why WON'T this work? For starters, they have to actually have energy in the discard, and decks like Gardevoir and Blaziken like to recycle their energy out of there. Also, most great attacks have requirements which must have decks tailored to them. Look at Ninetails/Blaziken....if you use the attack with Alakazam, you'd either do 30 or discard WAY too much energy.

It shines in draft, where it's power and a multitude of energy can really let it do well. Stage 2 though...doesn't shine all that bright.

Unlimited: Useless 1/5
Modified: Playable, but not great...2.3/5
Draft: Put it in any tri-color deck and you should be able to abuse it's power, but then again, it IS a stage 2....2.5/5

The bottom line: a nice card, and fun to play, but you won't win tournaments with it.

 


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