By Tord Reklev, Contributing Writer
For the first time ever in the Pokémon Trading Card Game, a Pokémon that can use its attack directly from the Bench has arrived. Alakazam ex from Scarlet & Violet—151 comes with the Dimensional Hand attack, which can be used while on the Bench or in the Active Spot. Doing only 120 damage might not sound too impressive for a Stage 2 Pokémon ex in this day and age, but this could still turn out to be a surprisingly effective strategy.
Alakazam ex Deck Main Strategy
At first glance, you might think that attacks that are delivered from the Bench are very similar to attacks that switch the user with a Benched Pokémon—and you would be correct—but there is an important difference. Having to move the Benched Pokémon into the Active Spot every turn could strain resources: you’d be forced to manually retreat or use a switching card for another attack. Alakazam ex does not have that problem.
Again, doing 120 damage in a turn is not impressive on its own, so we need a way to slow down our opponents to make this more effective. There are a lot of Pokémon with strong Abilities when they are in the Active Spot that generally can’t put much pressure on the opponent themselves, which makes them perfect partners for Alakazam ex. We will go over the ones I picked out to be the strongest in the card choice section later.
An added benefit of Dimensional Hand is that it can essentially make you immune to annoying Special Conditions, such as Paralyzed or Asleep.
It’s also important to note that Alakazam ex has another iconic and powerful attack, Mind Jack. Like the many iterations before it, this attack does additional damage for each of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon. With a full Bench, it maxes out at an impressive 240 damage, which is enough that it should be a serious consideration for your opponent when managing their Bench.
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Alakazam ex
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7Psychic Energy
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4Boss’s Orders (Ghetsis)
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4Iono
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2Colress’s Experiment
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2Professor’s Research (Professor Sada)
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4Path to the Peak
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4Battle VIP Pass
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4Fog Crystal
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4Rare Candy
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4Ultra Ball
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2Defiance Band
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1Super Rod
After some trial and error, I arrived at the deck list above. This list tries to take maximum advantage of Alakazam ex’s Dimensional Hand, while being as streamlined and disruptive for the opponent as possible. There are a lot of different ways to build a deck with Alakazam ex, so let’s jump into how I arrived at this list.
Alakazam ex Deck Card Choices
I decided to go with a hefty lineup of Alakazam ex: it’s the main attacker and focus of the deck, after all. A thick line also makes it easier to use Mind Jack if extra damage output is needed to race the opponent. This will put Alakazam ex in the Active Spot and make it a more fragile target, so it’s important that we can replace it if one goes down.
Unfortunately, there is only one Abra card currently available, and it has a measly 50 HP. If it’s not evolved quickly, it can become an easy target for Sableye’s Lost Mine or for decks like Rapid Strike Inteleon VMAX / Urshifu VMAX.
If you are not sold on this deck yet, remember that this is the first time since 2003 (in the Skyridge expansion) that a Kadabra that is legal to play with has been printed! One copy acts as extra insurance for setting up Alakazam ex should you not find one of the four copies of Rare Candy in time. Kadabra also has the useful Teleportation Attack, which lets you switch out into one of the following “wall” Pokémon.
Now, this is where the deck gets truly interesting. Klefki, Mimikyu, and Snorlax can all slow down the opponent greatly when used at the right time.
I think Klefki is the strongest one out of them, especially as an opener, so it seemed correct to include a full playset of it. Popular Pokémon that Klefki blocks include Radiant Greninja, Comfey, Cramorant, Lumineon V, Squawkabilly ex, Genesect V, Mew, Miraidon ex, Raikou V, Chien-Pao ex, and Pumpkaboo. With this already impressive list, Klefki seems to be the key to success, pun intended.
Mimikyu’s Safeguard Ability prevents all damage done to it from Pokémon ex and Pokémon V, which makes it great against decks like Charizard ex and Arceus VSTAR.
Multiple attacks are usually needed for a Knock Out, and Snorlax will make sure the opponent can’t retreat their damaged Pokémon as easily. At the very end of the match, when the opponent is low on resources, Snorlax can potentially become a win condition on its own by locking a helpless Pokémon that cannot attack in the Active Spot until the opponent runs out of cards.
As with any strong deck, having some sort of consistency Pokémon on the board is necessary. This becomes especially important in long, drawn-out games, which this deck tends to cultivate often. Bibarel serves that purpose well and is not affected by Klefki or Path to the Peak.
Alakazam ex Trainer Cards
As a part of the Trainer Item card lineup, I have included a full playset of Fog Crystal, Battle VIP Pass, and Ultra Ball. I cannot stress enough the importance of getting Klefki into the Active Spot as soon as possible; having many outs to make that happen is a huge priority. Fog Crystal also allows us to play a low amount of Psychic Energy, yet still be able to access them consistently. With Alakazam ex well protected on the Bench for most of the game, there is less need for powering up additional attackers. Most games you will only need to power up two Alakazam ex, which again uses a total of 4 Psychic Energy.
Ultra Ball has great synergy with Bibarel’s Industrious Incisors Ability, allowing you to thin your hand and have access to your Evolution Pokémon. Battle VIP Pass can potentially be substituted with Nest Ball, but I like the possibility of explosive openings more.
Super Rod can help get back resources later in the game after multiple uses of the discard effects of Professor’s Research and Ultra Ball.
The Supporter lineup is also interesting. Iono is a natural inclusion, as it serves both consistency and disruption in one card and goes great together with Path to the Peak and the wall Pokémon.
Our main way of getting Alakazam ex into play is by using Rare Candy, which requires us to have both Rare Candy and Alakazam ex in the same hand. Iono and Professor’s Research are incredible draw Supporters on their own, but they both reset the hand, meaning you might lose of one of the pieces in the process. This is why Colress’s Experiment is included in this list as well, so you can make it a little easier to assemble both at the same time. Sending cards to the Lost Zone is a minor downside, and it can even be used to our advantage by removing cards we don’t want to see later.
Four Boss’s Orders might seem excessive at first, but after setup, this is usually the main card you will be looking for each turn. With the limited damage output, it’s a huge help being able to target weak or damaged Pokémon to finish them off. Having four of them also plays well with Snorlax, letting you potentially drag a helpless Pokémon into the Active Spot multiple times to eventually stick it.
Path to the Peak is the most disruptive Stadium card available right now: it interrupts the strategy of nearly every top deck. Combine this with Klefki, Mimikyu, Snorlax, and Iono, and the opponent will be in for a hard time.
Finally, we have Defiance Band. As you will usually be behind on Prize cards (such is the nature of a Stage 2 deck), you might as well benefit from it while you can. Defiance Band will bump Dimensional Hand to 150 damage and increases Mind Jack to potentially 270 damage. This makes it a lot easier to hit good numbers and keep up the pressure.
Alakazam ex Deck Card Alternatives
There are a number of potential other cards you could try out in this deck, that serve similar roles to the cards I included.
Pidgeot ex
Manaphy
Raihan
Ting-Lu ex
Alakazam ex Deck Tips and Tricks
Again, your focus for most matchups will be to get Klefki into the Active Spot as soon as possible. You will probably have to spend your first Energy attachment to manually retreat your starting Pokémon into Klefki (should you not open with it), which will delay your Dimensional Hand attack for another turn. The extra time you could potentially buy from the disruption Klefki provides would still be worth it.
Don’t be afraid to break the lock and be more aggressive. Feel free to use Mind Jack for a higher damage output whenever you see a good opening—just make sure that you have a backup Alakazam ex ready to go in case you get KO’d in response.
Take full advantage of Mimikyu and Snorlax and see if you can run your opponent out of cards. Sometimes, you might encounter a board state from the opponent fully compromised of Pokémon ex and Pokémon V. That could give you an opening to force a stalemate, hiding behind Mimikyu. In the same way, count your opponent’s Boss’s Orders and Pokémon switch outs, and see if you can stick something in the Active Spot with Snorlax. Forcing your opponent to run out of cards is generally a more fragile strategy than attacking, and I only recommend doing this as a last resort if you are clearly losing the Prize card trade.
Alakazam ex offers a new and refreshing way to play the game. Alternating between different Pokémon to disrupt the opponent while attacking from the Bench is a lot of fun, and I cannot recommend it enough! Decks featuring Charizard ex seem to be the biggest hurdle for Alakazam ex currently, but otherwise I think the deck is decently positioned into the metagame and probably deserves more attention than it currently has. I hope this article has inspired you to try out the deck for yourself and to do your own experimentation with this new mechanic. There’s no doubt in my mind that this deck can deliver a heaping spoonful of hurt to opponents!
For more Pokémon TCG strategy and analysis, visit Pokemon.com/Strategy.
Tord Reklev is a contributing writer for Pokemon.com. He is a longtime player from Norway, playing the game since he was 6 years old. In becoming Champion at the 2022 Latin America International Championships, Tord is the first player to win all four International Championships and complete the Grand Slam. Outside of the game, he is a student and enjoys playing tennis. You can find him at most big events and can follow him on X at @TordReklev.
