Buy @ TCGplayerL: $4.82 — M: $6.68 — H: $8.96
Dark Alakazam (Team Rocket RO 1)
Dark Alakazam — 60 HP — [P]
Stage 2 — Evolves from Dark Kadabra
[P][P][C] Teleport Blast: 30
You may switch Dark Alakazam with 1 of your Benched Pokémon. (Do the damage before switching the Pokémon.)
[P][P][P] Mind Shock: 40
Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for this attack. (Any other effects that would happen after applying Weakness and Resistance still happen.)
weakness: [P]×2
resistance:
retreat: 3
Illus. Ken Sugimori
Team Rocket — 1/82 — Rare Holo
Almost as if it were being controlled by something else, it never changes expressions, even in the middle of battle.
Mantidactyle
I made a deck on TCG2 on GB which get Dark Alakazam + Alakazam + Mr Mime + Dark Vileplume + Dodrio + Tentacool on the field on turn 2 – 4 (mainly because the AI is stupid)
Teleport Blast on Mr Mime, Damage Swap on Tentacool, retreat and repeat.
Stupid combo but that’s the only use I see for Dark Alakazam.
Curtis
I get that the AI isn’t all that bright, having played the hell out of the first (I’ll emulate the second once I can find a physical copy for cheap) but how are you getting 3 different stage 2s out so quickly? Especially when one is Dark Vileplume?
Mantidactyle
IIRC, something like :
2-0-2 Dark Vileplume
4-1-2/2 Alakazam / Dark Alakazam
2 Mr Mime
2 Tentacool
2-2 Dodrio
4 Pokémon Breeder
4 Professor Oak
4 Bill
4 Bill’s Teleporter
4 Challenge (= Bill in TCG2)
4 Computer Search
4 Item Finder
4 Maintenance
1 Energy Removal
1 Nightly Garbage Run
5 Psychic Energies
Curtis
Its a shame that Challenge has to have a Bill effect against the AI. I like its Playground effect better.
Curtis
Also, is that a regular Kadabra or a Dark Kadabra?
Mantidactyle
Dark Kadabra, its power lets you draw an extra card
coolestman22
Weren’t there better hit and run attackers at the time?
feyblade
Until this point? No.
While there were pokemon with low retreat costs that could do hefty damage (dragonite, for example. Many of the vending machines had 0 retreat.) and retreat cheaply on the next turn, this is literally the first printing of a pokemon that can deal damage and retreat simultaneously, vending pokemon considered.
The only other instance of a telaport effect up to this point belonged to Jungle exeggutor(and it cost a psychic energy)
HEZ
Early on in the game there was still a lot of design space left. The Dark Pokemon had lower hp than their normal versions but had more unique effects on their attacks (for the time) and some additional support like The Boss’s Way to make up for it.
You could use this with Mysterious Fossil as KO’d fossils didn’t give up a prize back then.
feyblade
I get the high retreat cost-the assumption is that you’re supposed to use teleport blast to retreat..but why is a pokemon that is capable of attacking and retreating at the same time burdened with a retreat cost of THREE anyway?
Other things of note:
This marks the debut of telaportation, one of the most consistent psychic -flavored abilities out there.
Its mind shock is usually weaker than base set kadabra’s super psy. I guess the developers really did envision kadabra as being the better attacker of the two