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Alakazam is perhaps the best glass cannon in Pokemon Sword and Shield: it has very frail defenses, but it destroys every opponent who comes at it, so it doesn’t matter.
Alakazam’s base Speed stat is 120, and its base Special Attack is 135. Almost no Pokemon has offensive stats as ideal as these. For any dedicated player out there, it may be worth it to find an Abra (found in the Field of Honor in the Isle of Armor DLC) with its hidden ability, Magic Guard. This ability negates passive damage, including the recoil from Life Orb. This means that an Alakazam with Life Orb will obliterate just about any Pokemon. With this moveset and Life Orb, Alakazam becomes an unstoppable force:
Note: This article is subjective and reflects the opinion of the writer.
The best moveset for Alakazam in Pokemon Sword and Shield
The moveset for Alakazam is very straight forward; it capitalizes on powerful Psychic-type attacks, and uses other moves to patch up Alakazam’s weaknesses. With so much power backing them up, it’s rare that these attacks won’t deal tremendous damage or simply KO outright.
- Psychic
- Expanding Force
- Dazzling Gleam
- Shadow Ball
Psychic is in most cases Alakazam’s move with the highest damage output. As good as it is at annihilating Poison-type and Fighting-type Pokemon, a neutral Psychic from Alakazam will drop the health of most Pokemon anyways. The move also pairs well with other items. An Alakazam with Twisted Spoon or Choice Specs could also dispatch most opposing Pokemon.
Expanding Force is a new move from the Isle of Armor DLC that makes Alakazam even more of a nightmare to deal with. Though it has low defenses, Alakazam is still a good Pokemon to Dynamax for the purpose of doing the most damage possible. Max Mindstorm will cause Psychic Terrain to encompass the field. Similar to Rising Voltage, Expanding Force doubles in Psychic Terrain. So when you take into account the damage, with Alakazam’s stats, and potentially a Life Orb or Twisted Spoon attached, Alakzam becomes a one-hit KO machine. If any opponent doesn’t have a Dark-type Pokemon on their team, Alakazam can simply use this move six times and win the battle easily.
Since Dark-types are immune to Psychic-type moves, Fairy coverage is very valuable to Alakazam. Dazzling Gleam is not only a strong move in general, but a Max Starfall will take care of specially defensive Dark-type Pokemon like Umbreon and Tyranitar. It’s important to be careful, however, because Alakazam would still want one more turn of Dynamax to Max Mindstorm and reset the field to Psychic Terrain.
Shadow Ball deals with Psychic-type Pokemon that can resist Alakazam’s moves as well as hit Steel-type Pokemon for neutral. It won’t KO all Steel-types, but after some chip damage, a Max Phantasm should finish the job. Some people run Nasty Plot here to max out Alakazam’s power, but in Pokemon Sword and Shield it’s rare that it is going to be able to set up. All it takes is a random U-Turn or Dark Pulse from something to KO Alakazam.
