Hi fellow pojo

Hi fellow pojo-ers! Once again i'm back to stamp out stupidity here at the Pojo, the greatest Pokemon place around. Today's topic is Kadabra. "Nathan H" writes:

Dear Pojo, I notice you constantly mention what a great card Scyther is
and I personally have no problem with Scyther,it's a great card but I was
curious why Kadabra is so often overlooked! I think Kadabra is one of the
better psychic cards in the game! I say this not only due to its super psy
attack which knocks out many of the strongest fighting/psychic/grass
pokemon(Machamp, Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan,
Alakazam, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, all the Mewtwos,Hypno...)in one hit. But
also because of recover which allows Kadabra to regain all its health!
I write this letter speaking from experience, I've won many games by using
Kadabra

2: It hasn't even got a resistance, making it Gust-bait, especially for either Mewtwo- if it's got two or more energy, base mewtwo kills it, and promo mewtwo kills it regardless. So does Hypno. So does Alakazam. Ok, i can understand its usefulness against the Nidos and the big fighters (BTW, nidoking, nidoqueen, machamp are not considered "tournament level" pokemon, especially nidoqueen and her "boyfriends" attack. Yeech.)

4: it relies on your opponent playing certain archetypes- Mewtwo Stall, any kind of psychic deck (note: not psychic stall with mimes- you're screwed then), Haymaker, or "I'm bored so i'll throw Nidoran in this deck and see what happens" - and yes, there are people who play this =) If you're playing raindance or turbo wiggly (two of the three main archetypes), kadabra is gone faster than you can say "Kangaskhan".

He goes on about how to win in an ultra-idealized situation wherein:
a) he doesn't realize he can use damage swap to save his alakazam (revealing his stupidity)

c) he mentions devolution spray. point 1: devolution spray is rare. If you're "lucky" enough to have four, fine. but what are the odds of having it in your hand at just the right moment? Low. point 2: devolution spray sucks. nobody plays with it.

:

             Say you have A Kangaskahn out and its taking
             a severe beating at the hands of your opponent's
             Hitmonchan. Lets also say you have a benched Kadabra
              with two damage counters on it and two psychic energies
             in your hand.

You retreat your Kangaskahn in favor of
Kadabra, then putting a psychic energy on Kadabra and
using recover to regain your HP.

but who said you had any energy on kadabra? Let's pretend he had one. Then he had two. Now he has one again.
                     Your opponent then uses special
                   punch for forty,so you add a psychic energy
                and destroy your opponent's Hitmonchan.

Wrong, friend. You have only one energy. Now you have two. You recover. Opponent special punches again. You do... nothing. He kills you. He kills Kangaskhan. He wins.

and use confuse ray to K.O.
                the Hitmonlee your opponent sends out on your
                 next turn your opponent then decides to stop
                   playing around and sends out the powered up
                   Machamp that he has on his bench,and seismic
                    tosses you,knowing you wont be able to one hit
                     K.O. him with confuse ray and leaving you
                  hanging on by a thread with 20 HP left. But
                          you use devolution
                      spray,

geez, you're really lucky! First you come back from the dead, then you happen to draw devolution spray, the crappiest rare ever, at just the right time! (Think he's cheating, folks? Hey, what's that up your sleeve, nathan?)

wait just a minute. I believe something is amiss here. How many damage did mr. seismic toss do? I believe it was 60? so 6 damage counters on kadabra? You die instantly! Your friend kangaskhan has 80 damage on him. You can switch *one* to him. (not allowed to kill pokes with damage swap) You switch one then devolution spray. You kill machoke... and then he uses "strikes back". you die too.