Alakazam

Alakazam received some serious upgrades in Tradebacks OU, gaining the elemental punches to give it coverage outside of Seismic Toss. However, its usual roles remain: Alakazam is a strong lead, revenge killer, and paralysis support guru thanks to its exceptional Speed—allowing it to outrun even Persian—a trait which also gives it a fantastic critical hit rate. Indeed, Alakazam's offense allows it to close out end games very quickly if left unparalyzed. With effectively no weaknesses thanks to its typing, Alakazam has notable defensive utility; it can switch into Pokemon like Chansey and opposing Psychic-types like Starmie, Hypno, and opposing Alakazam. These traits culminate to form a strong, multi-faceted threat that can be used at any stage of the game with few truly losing matchups.

However, Alakazam is not flawless, as its physical bulk is very poor. If paralyzed, while it's an amazing sleep blocker thereafter, it's also very vulnerable to Pokemon like Snorlax, Tauros, and Persian, which eat it alive. Furthermore, Psychic's PP only goes so far, and this is what defines Alakazam: it must be used conservatively. Alakazam has a very difficult time breaking past the mandatory Chansey without a mix of full paralysis, critical hits, and Special drops, and even if it succeeds, it's not going to sweep thereafter. Alakazam also finds itself cancelled out by opposing Psychic-types, which, similar to Chansey, often goad it into prolonged interactions that leave it with little attacking PP thereafter.