Alakazam is one of the most versatile Pokemon in RBY and a premier threat. It makes a name for itself as one of the best leads in the game but it can also work well as a special sponge and a late-game sweeper. Its strengths are obvious- blazing speed, access to Recover and Thunder Wave and a titanic special stat, allowing it take special hits and dish out the strongest Psychics in OU. It does suffer from some flaws- it’s easily threatened by physical attackers, and struggles to deal damage to opposing Psychic types. Jack-of-all-trades Alakazam (M) @ (No Item) - Psychic - Recover - Thunder Wave - Seismic Toss/Reflect Alakazam may only have the one set, but it’s capable of filling multiple roles- lead, wall or sweeper. Psychic is its STAB, dealing significant damage to opponents, while also having a 30% chance of lowering their special. Recover is a superlatively useful move, keeping Alakazam healthy throughout the match. Thunder Wave is useful as Zam’s offensive presence means it can easily spread paralysis throughout an opposing team. The choice between Seismic Toss and Reflect boils down to what role you want Alakazam to cover- lead sets benefit from Seismic Toss, as it chips away at Exeggutor, Jynx and other Psychic types, while if you want Alakazam to sweep you’re better off with Reflect, which enables it to take on Tauros and Snorlax better. If you’re playing Alakazam as a midgame special sponge, either option is viable. Other Options There aren’t too many other options for Alakazam to run. Kinesis is something that can sometimes be run, impairing virtually any opposing Pokemon (most notably Slowbro), however it’s extremely unreliable and is also easy to play around. Counter is another option Alakazam has available, but it has no business taking physical hits in the first place, and the opportunity cost of not running Seismic Toss or Reflect is considerable. Psybeam is potentially usable as a means of stalling Chansey without depleting Psychic's PP, as it deals respectable damage after a special drop, however this is a very niche option. Checks and Counters There are three general ways to handle Alakazam. The first is Slowbro, which resists Psychic, paralyses Alakazam, and proceeds to boost up and threaten a sweep, which Alakazam is helpless to prevent unless it has both Seismic Toss and good luck. The second is simply threatening to stall it out. While Alakazam can potentially power through any one check, having multiple Pokemon that can switch into Alakazam and inflict sleep or paralysis such as Chansey, Starmie, your own Alakazam (note that Seismic Toss variants beat Reflect) and Exeggutor, should allow you to weather its assault while it depletes its limited Psychic PP. This strategy is much more effective against Reflect variants than Seismic Toss. Lastly, paralysing Alakazam then sending powerful physical attackers into play is another effective means of dealing with Alakazam. Snorlax, Golem and Rhydon are good candidates for this role, due to both their power and the fact that they’re not greatly bothered by Thunder Wave. It is important to note that Reflect variants wall these attackers regardless and that Alakazam must be paralysed for them to be effective, but against Seismic Toss variants this is generally the best course of action. Faster attackers such as Tauros and Persian can break through with critical hits, but abhor paralysis. random comments from me I decided to revamp Alakazam partially because I felt like the intro was a little inaccurate and not very fleshed out, SToss is I think standard over Reflect and then idk I just kinda finished it off. Plus I was bored and felt like doing something and I'd much rather help PO out than smogon. That said, have you seen some of smogon's rby analyses? lol. Also I went with a different approach to C&C because I think it's more realistic- in practice you're using 2/3 members of your team to shut down or scare out Zam. So going through everything on an individual basis was kinda silly, especially since almost any listed "check" loses to Zam 1v1 Also I may end up going through all the rby analyses and brushing them up anyway. I mean iirc they're not that bad, but there's little details that are wrong so w/e. If ppl feel like this isn't worthwhile that's all good
Lead Zam runs Seismic Toss because Egg and because it'll switch out once asleep. Otherwise Reflect is probably better because it avoids instant death from Explosions and makes it much easier to stay out of Hyper Beam range if paralysed. But SToss first is reasonable (since it's not terrible on non-lead Zam while Reflect is terrible on lead Zam). You need to specifically mention how Kinesis sabotages Slowbro, either in OO under Kinesis or in C&C under Slowbro (or both). That's honestly one of the main reasons to run it. OO could mention Psybeam. SToss looks better on a first approximation, but once you factor in that Psybeam can crit (and that Zam's opponents will often be at -1 Special) it's actually not that bad. And it's Zam's only means of inflicting confusion. Not for use on lead Zam, though, obviously.
I've put SToss first because Zam is most commonly seen as a lead in my experience, while depending on how you want to play your non-lead Zam it could go either way. In the past when I've run Zam in place of Chansey I've found myself preferring SToss, but that's just my preference, and I'm not even sure how valid it is anyway lol Good call on Bro I don't think Psybeam warrants a mention, SToss isn't a good comparison imo since even if Psybeam crits it's still worse than SToss vs Psychics. Versus everything else you'd rather be spamming Psychic, meaning Psybeam only comes in handy if your opponent successfully pp stalls you. As for confusion, a 10% rate just isn't worth it imo
Jynx is another really important target to Zam with seismic toss, especially in the lead slot. Stoss's ability to pressure zam/mie sometimes can be helpful too (I often run non-lead zam with stoss even!)
Psybeam is meant for Chansey (and to some extent Starmie). After one Special fall, you can run Chansey out of Softboiled. Or you can play for that 10% - Chansey's playing for the same 10% if it's trying to freeze you, or just sitting there otherwise. Yes, you can force Chansey out with Psychic alone, but that takes most of your PP. Psybeam really helps lock the matchup down, while deterring physicals from switching in. And Seismic Toss is far from a guarantee of beating Starmie. Getting a Special fall and then waiting for Psybeam confusion is, I believe, about as likely to work (Psybeam + Psychic + Psychic + Psychic is a guaranteed 4HKO on -1 Starmie). It's not the best option, but I've used it seriously before and gotten results.