Pokémon TCG: Standard Deck Tech - Alakazam Dudunsparce

Alakazam is a traditional Psychic Pokémon released in the very first Pokémon titles, that is, in Gen I. Despite being so old, to this day it is a fan favorite and often gets new cards.

The latest set, Mega Evolution, actually gave us its entire evolution line again, and we can now build a whole deck around Alakazam. This deck will draw a lot of cards throughout the game and use all these cards to deal as much damage as possible to the opponent.

As we mentioned before, Alakazam is our main attacker. Its attack, "Powerful Hand", deals 20 damage to the active enemy Pokémon for each card in our hand. It's why this list leans so heavily on card draw.

Its ability, "Psychic Draw", draws 3 cards when we evolve it into Alakazam. Just drawing a few cards isn't usually enough to deal lots of damage with this strategy, so the Stage 1 evolution, Kadabra MEG 55, also has an ability named "Psychic Draw". It only draws 2 cards, though.

This list also uses other Pokémon to draw even more cards and deal even more damage. Like so, we'll set up Alakazam to deal over 300 damage.

A very common engine for card draw strategies like this is Dudunsparce PRE 80. Its ability, "Run Away Draw" draws another 3 cards, so it's perfect with our Alakazam.

Thanks to this Pokémon, we don't need to worry so much about losing by deck out (as we'll draw lots of cards). We can also use this same ability several turns in a row if we put Artazon sv4pt5 76 in play. This will protect us from hand disruption.

Alakazam/Dudunsparce Decklist

This list plays 3 Lillie's Determination MEG 119 to reset bad opening hands and discard supporters that discard cards. It also plays 4 Hilda WHT 84, which can get our ACE SPEC for us and one of our evolution Pokémon so that we can keep our combo going.

Colress's Tenacity SFA 57 gets us energies and Artazon sv4pt5 76. The final piece is Boss's Orders MEG 114, which allows us to pull key enemy Pokémon.

As for the items, this list plays a few unusual ones. For instance, Ultra Ball MEG 131 could actually hurt our main game plan. But it also uses 4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin PRE 101 to set up early on, as well as Nest Ball sv4pt5 84 and Dusk Ball SSP 175. Alakazam's ability still activates when we evolve it through Rare Candy MEG 125, so this list plays 3 as a way to move faster.

To keep attacking as optimally as possible, we'll need Exp. Share sv1 174. This card will allow us to attach energies like Enriching Energy. As for Artazon sv4pt5 76, we'll use it to get several Dunsparces and keep using their "Run Away Draw" abilities.

Picnic Basket sv1 184 is quite specific: it improves the Dragapult ex PRE 73 matchup because it heals our Pokémon. Enhanced Hammer TWM 148 is also only useful for one thing: it discards one of the cards that disrupts our strategy, Mist Energy TEF 161.

Finally, our ACE SPEC is Enriching Energy SSP 191. One of the most powerful things we can do with it is use its effect again and again when we shuffle it with Dudunsparce. It will always end up putting more cards in our hand, and we desperately need those.

Dragapult EX - Unfavorable

Dragapult lists often play lots of relevant hand disruption tools, and, as our Abras don't have a lot of HP, they'll most likely knock out several of our Pokémon with a single attack. To make matters worse, to knock out their main Pokémon, which has 320 HP, we'll need a total of 16 cards in our hand, and we probably won't be able to hoard that many cards, considering our Pokémon are so easy to kill.

So, ideally, we should try to get ahead in the Prize card race and use Picnic Basket sv1 184 at the right time.

Ceruledge EX - Highly Favorable

I believe a good reason to use Alakazam is precisely because of how popular Ceruledge ex SSP 36 is right now. To put it simply, this Alakazam/Dudunsparce list only uses single prize Pokémon, and Ceruledge lists don't play hand disruption. So, once we get our engine in play, we just can't lose.

The only thing we must do is be careful with their aggressive openers and try to put at least 2 Abra in play early on.

Raging Bolt EX - Highly Favorable

This matchup is quite similar to the one above. The opponent needs to basically dig through their entire deck to get single-prize attackers, but we have plenty of those. If they make even one mistake, we can knock out a double prize attacker and get a huge lead for the rest of the game.

Pros

This list is fun, plays a classic Psychic Pokémon, draws a lot of cards, and should be great in any aggressive meta.

Cons

However, it forces us to shuffle our deck a lot, so we'll have to be quick with it if we want to play all 3 matches in a round. It is also not that great against Dragapult and forces us to do a lot each turn, which could lead to mistakes.

A few players have already brought this deck to some recent regional tournaments. Online, people have also already been discussing how Alakazam is slowly becoming more popular. I believe it is here to stay and will certainly terrorize some local metas.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!