Albert Einstein: Hello everyone. I'm the Whether Man's pet chip, Albert Einstein, filling in for the Whether Man. Today on the Whether Report we will be reviewing Dark Alakazam. A line of evolutions that get a lot of hype, but don't necessarily deserve it all. Let's take a look...
                              Abra     HP: 40
                          P: Psyshock    10                                
                          Flip a coin. If heads, the 
                    defending pokemon is paralyzed.                   
                          P:  Vanish 
                   Shuffle Abra into your deck. (Discard
                   all cards attached to Abra.)
                    Weakness: Psychic   Resistance: None
                       Retreat Cost: 1
 
                           Dark Kadabra    HP: 50
                    Pokemon Power: Matter Exchange
                 Once during your turn, before you attack,
                 you may discard a card from your hand in 
                 order to draw a card. 
                  PP:       Mind Shock       30
                   Don't apply weakness or resistance for
                   this attack. (Any other effects that would 
                   happen after applying weakness and
                   resistance still happen.)
                  Weakness: Psychic    Resistance: None
                        Retreat Cost: 2
 
                            Dark Alakazam     HP: 60
                          PPC:      Teleport Blast       30
                     Switch Dark Alakazam with one of your
                     benched pokemon. (Do the damage before
                     switching the pokemon)
                          PPP:       Mind Shock         40
                     Don't apply weakness or resistance for 
                     this attack.  
                    Weakness: Psychic  Resistance: None
                        Retreat Cost: 3
 
        Team Rocket really has brought us cards with interesting and fun attacks! Teleport Blast is much better than paying retreat cost, especially since it does damage. 
        Realistically, though. This line is not bad, but it has major flaws. The lack of HP severly hurts this line. Dark Alakazam only has 60 HP and is, unlike Dark Vileplume, very weak against GOW. The Mind Shock attacks are good, but if that's the reason you're using the Dark Alakazam line, you may as well just use the Promo Mewtwo from Nintendo Power. Dark Alakazam is good, but as a stage two he is too weak to go through all the trouble of getting him out. I admit that Teleport Blast is a very tempting attack, but decks based around that attack and Scyther will definitly have some major problems. Abra has gotten better, which is good news for all the Damage Swap decks out there. In short, the entire line can be replaced with Promo Mewtwo. 
       Well, that was fun. I never wrote an article before. How did I do? Well, this is Albert Einstein, signing off...
                                                         -The Whether Man
                                                        saxton3@attglobal.net