Alakazam 4 Lv.X (Rising Rivals RR 103)

Written by | December 2, 2010 | 10 comments | 4,246 views | Rating: 0

Today, I’ll be taking a look at Rising Rival‘s own Alakazam 4 LV.X. Alakazam 4 LV.X has been in the format for over a year now, but it has been overshadowed by its other SP LV.X counterparts, such as Luxray GL, Blaziken FB, Garchomp C, and the more recent Dialga G LV.X. Well, lets start off with the basics:

Alakazam 4 LV.X is an SP LV.X, so it is able it to (ab)use the TGI Engine, which will up its playability straight away. It has a low 100 HP and an okay Psychic-typing. Like a lot of Psychic-type Pokemon, it has an x2 weakness to Psychic. To round it off, it has a nasty, but manageable two retreat cost.

Alakazam 4 LV.X comes packing a Poke-Power, “Damage Switch”, which allows you to move around damage from SP Pokemon to SP Pokemon as often as you like. First off, I would like to mention that, since it starts out saying “As often as you like during your turn”, it is immune to Power Spray, which will help against other SP decks. The ability to move around damage counters is very useful for SP Pokemon because you can move damage to a Pokemon and then Poke Turn it to your hand, giving you a nice healing effect.

Its attack, “Mind Shock”, for PPC does 50 damage that isn’t affected by weakness or resistance. Well, I won’t go into too much detail on “Mind Shock”, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s very underwhelming.

I’d say, as far as healing goes, the biggest reason it doesn’t see play is because of Garchomp C LV.X, which removes all damage from each SP Pokemon you have in play. Which is a better healer? I used to think Garchomp, but now I’m not so sure. They both have their advantages. Garchomp is obviously a much better attacker, but, in my opinion, it is a slightly weaker healer.

I’m not going to compare them too much for fear of having my house burned down, but I will say that they each have their good and their bad sides. However, I will say that, if you play Alakazam 4 LV.X, since it is a pretty unknown card, it will throw your opponent off a bit and their Garchomp counters will be much less useful for them.

If you do decide to make your deck DialgaZam (I know, bad name), I strongly recommend playing Seeker as it will allow you to keep healing your SP Pokemon more effectively.

My Recommendation: I do plan to try out Alakazam 4, but will most likely end up sticking with Garchomp C. However, keep an eye on it; something from these next few sets could make it a lot better.

My Rating: 3.75/5

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  • Lamar

    I’d go for AlakaDialga as a deck name! I like this post. I think I would rather have Garchomp C for its better attacking (sniping is always nice) and free retreat cost. However, Alakazam cannot be Power Sprayed (effectively) and will make your opponent have to reach for something other than their Garchomp C counter(s).

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZZ2AMUZXD4M66Y7EBCWX6SZTKQ Dakota Streck

      Yeah, those are the main reasons why I like it, too. One downside of Alakazam that I thought of, though is that Garchomp C can do 80 damage to Machamp SF while Alakazam can only do 50 because its attack ignores weakness and resistance.

      However, you could still use Alakazam’s basic form’s attacks.

      • Anonymous

        Alakazam will use Mysterious Beam when attacking Machamp – more damage (barely) and you will have chance to discard his fighting energy.
        Still I don’t believe Alakazam is competitive – any Uxie lv.x will 1HKO him :( It has terrible retreat so you have to use warp energy/warp point to get him to bench.

    • Anonymous

      lol @ all the great names you could come up with. Dialgakazam? Dialakazam? For that matter, just about any deck sounds better with -kazam at the end. Chompakazam. Machampakazam. (YES, I know Machampakazam makes no sense.)

      • Anonymous

        GyraKazam…SableKazam…KazamLock…Kazam!Plox….ChariKazam…RegiKazam…. I’m liking the names… Lol.

      • Anonymous

        Donkazam… :D

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Anthony-Desiata/100001090365250 Anthony Desiata

      i think id call it bendingdialga’s or bending metal lol

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Peter-Bae/583235222 Peter Bae

    Alazkazam is really a nice healer, but other than that, it doesn’t pair up well with Dialga. DialgaChomp is already a pretty slow SP deck but if its paired up with Alakazam, it would be much slower. Not to mention the tremendous amount of disadvantage it would have against SP Match ups because of the lack of garchomps xD

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Darrian-Goode/100001133476755 Darrian Goode

    alakazam lvx is best paired up with turtwig g

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Darrian-Goode/100001133476755 Darrian Goode

    alakazam lvx is best paired up with turtwig g