Alakazam Full Art
Image: Nintendo Life

Sick of all the EX Pokémon going around in Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket? One of the first Psychic types most players met, Abra and its evolution Alakazam is to the rescue.

A much less rare card than something like Mewtwo EX, this list is easy to put together and relatively flexible, allowing you to experiment slotting in Pokémon of different types to help you take advantage of Alakazam’s powerful attack.

This guide goes over the best partners for Alakazam along with plenty of options to keep your Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket battles interesting. We've got the best cards, matchups, and strategies for the Alakazam EX deck here.

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket - Best Alakazam Deck

Despite being a C Tier deck, Alakazam EX makes for a pretty flexible deck with our card recommendations. Grab Charizard booster packs if this is the deck you want to use.

Among the 20 cards, you'll have the Greninja line which can wreak havoc on your opponent. You'll be using Psychic and Water energy with these cards:

  • 2x Abra

  • 2x Kadabra

  • 2x Alakazam EX

  • 2x Froakie

  • 2x Frogadier

  • 2x Greninja

  • 2x Kangaskhan

  • 2x Professor’s Research

  • 2x Sabrina

  • 2x Poké Ball

Even though this deck uses two types of energy, Greninja and Alakazam are both flexible with their energy costs.

You want to get Alakazam EX out as early as possible and start setting off its Psychic attack, which does 60 damage plus 30 more damage per energy attached to your opponent’s active Pokémon. This is particularly potent against decks like Pikachu EX if you can swap Alakazam into it after another of your Pokémon faint, dealing the 120 damage required to KO Pikachu EX if it has 2 energy on it.

Greninja helps a lot here as its ability Water Shuriken does a flat 20 damage for no energy cost. As an ability, you can use it once per turn even if Greninja is on your bench and it does not count as an attack. This allows you to snipe Pokémon that your opponent retreated with to avoid Alakazam or to soften them up.

Kangaskhan is just a nice addition to keep pressure on your opponent as you build up your Alakazam. Its attack Dizzy Punch will deal 30 damage per heads flipped for 1 energy of any type. Though if you flip two tails it will do nothing.

Alakazam Best And Worst Matchups

Alakazam has favourable matchups against set-up heavy decks like Charizard EX and Mewtwo EX if you time your entry correctly, even if these Pokémon discard energy when they attack. Sabrina helps here as the Trainer card can force a Charizard EX out early when your opponent is still building it up on the bench.

As for bad matchups, while Alakazam does struggle against fast decks like Pikachu EX, it doesn’t have a specific scenario where it usually always loses.

However, Alakazam will fall more often than not to players who utilise their energy and benched Pokémon carefully, making this a skill-heavy deck to use and a skill-heavy deck to defeat.

Alakazam Budget Options

There are a lot of budget options for Alakazam. 2x Alakazam is pretty much necessary but if you do not have or do not want to use Greninja, you can simply take it out and slot in Trainer and Item cards and rely on Kangaskhan instead.

Drowzee and Hypno also play into this deck, meaning you can rely on only Psychic energy. Hypno can put opposing Pokémon to sleep with its Sleep Pendulum ability.

Likewise, Wigglytuff EX can also put your opponent’s Pokémon to sleep and requires energy of any type, giving you breathing room to position your Alakazam to win the match.


With all this information under your Psychic belt, you’re ready to surprise your opponents with this off-meta Alakazam pick. Have a look at our Tier List for more deck suggestions and then make sure you share your thoughts on Alakazam EX.