Pokemon of the Week #10 - Jirachi

[Professor Palutena]

You know this dude. You love him when he's on your side, and you hate him when he's against you. The little haxmonster himself: Jirachi!

Besides looking pretty adorable, Jirachi is an incredible Pokemon. It's versatility lets it occupy many roles. Want a special tank with team support in Wish? Jirachi can do that. Want a solid anti stall Pokemon? Jirachi can do that as well. How about a mixed attacker? You guessed, Jirachi can do that as well. Choice Scarf? ...I think you get the idea. Thanks to a massive movepool, a solid stat spread of 100 in every stat, and an awesome typing that gives it a mere two weaknesses and a boatload of resistances, Jirachi is capable of filling many roles on a team. Serene Grace makes people rip their hairs out, and Jirachi is able to paraflinch most opponents, while also letting it bypass its counters. If you use Iron Head on a paralyzed Pokemon, they only have a 36% chance to attack!

With a metagame that continues to revolve around the Tornadus-Therian and Thundurus-Therian, Jirachi stands as a counter to both of them. It's specially defensive set sponges both of their Thunders and Hurricanes, while also using its base 100 Attack and the above Iron Head+Paralysis strategy to take them down. Taking on Specs Latios and Reuniclus is only icing on the cake. Alternately, Jirachi can use walls like Amoonguss as setup fodder with its SubCM set. This set tears apart unprepared stall teams, and is incredibly difficult to handle if left alone (so don't leave it alone).

What Jirachi sets have you been using? What counters do you use to beat Jirachi? How do you use Jirachi on your team?

 

[bacon]

He's OK. I guess my favourite sets are offensive Superachi lures or the Drizzle sweeper. I think Choice Scarf is a bit of a gross set because of how easy it is to punish any of Jirachi's locked physical attacks (apart from U-turn obviously), so whenever I see an opponent with CS Jirachi, a large part of the battle becomes "How can I exploit this...?"

As an aside, he's a terrible answer to Thunderbro.

 

[PG24]

He is a pretty bad answer to Thunderbro. The only one to hope to take a Thunder are the rain sweeper and Sp. Defensive versions, the former of which needs one boost to not be 2HKO while both are put at risk of being OHKO'd by a +2 Thunder.

He is a reliable counter to Tornadus which few Pokemon can do. Most other Steel-types lack a neutrality to Fighting-type and the ones that do have bad special defense (see: Skarmory, Scizor).

 

[Professor Palutena]

I've never had a problem with my Jirachi against Thunderbro, but 90% of the Thundurus that I've played have been Scarf'd, so that probably has something to do with it.

He's also the best counter I've found to Tornadus-T though. Neutrality to Superpower is awesome, as is the resistance to Hidden Power Ice. Tyranitar has to dodge Focus Blast, or somehow survive a Superpower, while most Steel-types lack the special defense to take repeated Hurricanes.

 

[Uralya]

I'm using a Therian Rain Team to test out everything new (Keldeo included), and a Jirachi found its way onto the team, as a way to screw Amoonguss, Slowbro, and that other stall trash we use nowadays, and it also is my tank against Specs Latios and opposing Tornadus-T. I must say, SubCM Jirachi is a force in this metagame, countering the aforementioned things like they were nothing. Amoonguss can't do anything to it when behind a Sub, and thank goodness, because the rest of the team seems to have problems (I save Tornadus-T for other things). SDef Jirachi is also good, being a Wisher and place to fit SR or Uturn on for hazards/momentum. I just prefer SubCM for that bit of sweeping potential Specs Keldeo enjoys being paired up with.

Spoiler: SubCM Jirachi

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SAtk / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Substitute
- Calm Mind
- Thunder
- Water Pulse / Psychic

I use Psychic sometimes to actually do damage to the Amoonguss I set up on, and with that ridiculous SDef drop chance, why not? It may have only decent coverage (Thundurus-T and Keldeo), but I have had success. I already have two Water attackers on the team already too.

Spoiler: Rain SDef Jirachi

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 212 SDef / 44 Spe
Nature: Careful / Sassy (If Thunder; shift Speed EVs to SDef too)
- Iron Head
- Body Slam / Thunder
- Wish
- Stealth Rock / U-turn / Protect

As you can see, Rain SDef Jirachi is fairly flexible. 44 Speed EVs is to speed creep everything on the 244 Spe number and possibly cripple them with Body Slam/Thunder (Gliscor would hate you if they didn't use Protect).

~AoH

 

[King Arceus]

There are two sets for Jirachi that I regularly use since I don't use weather teams. The first is the standard paraflinch set with Wish. This works well when paired with slow, but powerful Pokemon. Getting the paralysis is key because then the team doesn't need to worry about if it will get the first strike. With the sets popularity, it also isn't wise to stay in against Jirachi if you can't at least 2HKO it.

The other main set I run is a Calm Mind set that has enough Speed to outpace Breloom, and strong enough to survive nearly any unboosted supereffective hit. Wish is quite useful to aide in setting itself up and to assist its team mates. Psychic ensures a KO against Breloom while Thunderbolt can strike many foes for at least neutral damage and the 20% paralysis chance is helpful.