Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Alakazam

Pojo's Average Rating -
Unlimited: 2.25 (based on 2 reviews)
Modified: 3.02 (based on 2 reviews)
Draft: 3.20 (based on 2 reviews)
Reviewed May 16, 2002

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

Pokepop

You want to have decisive wins and Alakazam, while fun to play, doesn't really do that for you. It's a real shame. Play him at League or for fun. He is good for that. Don't play him in a tourney.

Unlimited: Incredibly weak basic and resistance to Psychic from Colorless and Darkness Pokemon make this unplayable, even if you forget the time problem. 2.25/5

Modified: You can combo him with Focus Bands to keep your attacker alive, but he takes up a lot of room in your deck. Again, you will wind up running out of time. 2.75/5

Draft: Not too bad. The Basic and Stage 1 are pretty playable and if you can manage to evolve up to the Stage 2, you have a good chance of winning the game. the fact that it's a foil rare and a Stage 2 works against it. 3/5

TwInSeN21

Alakazam

Let's take a small trip to the past... A few years ago, the Damage Swap deck was one of the most ANNOYING decks to play against! It's a Stall Deck which was frustrating to play against because no matter how much damage you do, you just can't KO that Chansey. The deck uses Alakazam's Damage Swap to "swap" your damage counters around. Once you get a couple of Chanseys out, you can distribute damage counters so that none of your Pokemon can be KOed in one shot. Chansey's Scrunch attack can pretty annoying as it prevents damage half the time. Once there's enough damage, the Damage Swap player can either use Scoop Up or Mr. Fuji on the Chansey which conveniently has 11 damage counters and POOF!, there goes 110 damage! But of course, the BEST card to use is Pokemon Center. 11 counters on each Chansey and 7 counters on Alakazam all dissappears with minimal drawbacks with a single Trainer card. The amazing thing about the deck is that it can also go offensive! Chansey can use Double Edge over and over again thanks to Damage Swap! That way, you don't have to rely on decking your opponent everytime. When Neo Genesis came out, the deck just died off because of two cards. Professor Elm and the almighty Cleffa. That was too bad though since Metal Energy was introduced in that set. The Steel Chansey deck was then created and Alakazam was stuffed back into binders and was never heard off again until now...

Alakazam is back! ^_^

Let's discuss the card first. 80HP for a Stage 2 is so-so. Confuse Ray is a pretty good status attack BUT the MAIN reason you would play this card is because of its amazing Power, Damage Swap. I've already mentioned the use in the paragraph above. Some people even tried to use it with Fossil Tentacool.
In Unlimited, Damage Swap is practically dead as a stall deck because of Cleffa and Elm. On the other hand, it complements Steel Chansey pretty well. Add Unown N and your Chansey might NEVER be KO-ed! However, it's not really worth adding the whole Alakazam line just to do that. Gold Berries and more Trainers are much better choices.

In Modified, I'm pretty sure Base Chansey won't be reprinted in LC. The next best choice would probably be Steelix. With Alakazam, your opponent would have a REALLY hard time killing your Steelix. Pichu is pretty popular though so you would have to watch out for it. You can also abuse Pokemon Center with Damage Swap.

In Draft, Alakazam might actually attack! Damage Swap can prove to be an invaluable Power to save your main attacker. If you have a huge attacker that your opponent can't KO no matter what, the game is yours. The main problem is getting it out though...

Unlimited Rating: 2.2/5 (Would've been higher if there were no Cleffas or Elms)
Modified Rating: 3.3/5 (Combo it with Pokemon Center for best effect)
Draft Rating: 3.4/5 (Damage Swap can be REALLY useful!)