Alakazam vs. Gardevoir

[~Alakazam~]

Who would be better for an average balanced team? They are both very powerful psychic pokemon.

[DaRk_MiMiEn]

Only use Gardevoir if you can’t trade to evolve Kadabra. Otherwise, go with Alakazam. As long as you have another Pokemon to take physical hits from things like Snorlax, Zam rocks in it’s special attacking and versatility.

To be fair, Gardevoir has great special defense and can surprise opponents with Destiny Bond which is pretty awesome.

[Grey-Eyed Wolf]

Dude, if your going for a powerful psychic pokemon may I suggest Hypno. Check out his stats on: http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-rs/97.shtml

[aragornbird]

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Hypno is not a sweeper though. "Powerful" denotes Attack or Special Attack, and Hypno is used as a tank. It's a darn fine tank, but fulfills a completely different role than Alakazam or Gardevoir.

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[~Alakazam~]

Good as Hypno may be, I am looking for the better between Gardevoir and Alakazam, and as aragornbird said, Hypno is more of a tank and fulfills a different role than Alakazam. Just to bring up something: does Gardevoir have a higher defense and attack than Alakazam?

[Kataphraktoi]

A good listing of poke stats is here (http://www.smogon.com/advance/pokemon) where you can see Gard has higher special defense and alakazam has higher special attack.

[VanirElf]

Gardevoir is better in my opinion it's special isn't so great
but it learns calm mine which means it can make a pretty good special sponge
and once it's all CM'd up, u can sweep.
yes Alakazam has a higher special but it can't really take hits
whereas Gardevoir can that's why CM is such a crazy good move
on it. I think the standard Gardevoir is as follows.

Psychic
Calm Mind
Thunder Bolt
Wil-O-Wisp

when the opponent is burned it's physical power drops a bit
which is good 'cuz it'll take a bit more to knock u'r poke out and the burn
also zaps HP from the opponent. CM to pump u'r already powerful attacks
even more. instead of Thunderbolt I suppose u could try Hidden Power.
maybe Ice or Water, but Thunderbolt is good anyway.

[Toothache]

Ice Punch is also an option on Gardevior. Emerald only, I believe though. I'd rather have WoW personally, but if you like Boltbeam, go for it.

[shanecdavis]

Definitely Zam. While Gardy has to take time to CM to be good, Zam can sweep right away with its high SAtk and Spd.