This provides some excellent support to your team. Set up Wish, then U-turn out to get in a light hit, healing your team mate the following turn. U-turn also allows Jirachi to escape Magnezone without taking a hit and can bounce out on Dugtrio without dying to Earthquake and does a respectable 44–52% when switching out. It also helps to break a Sub against the likes of Sceptile, should Jirachi find itself facing the SubSeed variant. Simply allow Sceptile to Leech Seed Jirachi then U-turn out, breaking the inevitable Sub it'll throw up and giving your incoming team member the chance to hit Sceptile without fearing SubSeeding. You don't need to worry about Hidden Power Fire too much, it will do a mere 37–43% from a Timid Sceptile. Zen Headbutt is preferred to Psychic as it does more damage to Heracross given the same amount of EV investment in Attack or Special Attack, it also comes with a handy 40% flinch rate, thanks to Serene Grace. Since Jirachi often draws in physical attackers trying to Earthquake the little guy to death, Reflect helps to soften the blow for whoever is sent in to absorb the hit. You can replace Reflect for Light Screen if you prefer the added protection against special attacks, which helps if Heatran or Salamence switches in to incinerate Jirachi. Thunder is a worthwhile consideration to abuse the 60% paralysis rate and to prevent Skarmory and Gyarados switching in freely. Even with Impish, it will easily 2HKO both and even OHKO some Gyarados, if they're light on the HP EVs. The potential for paralyzing enemies also helps to make greater use of the flinch rate of Zen Headbutt. This set is particularly useful when paired with Salamence and Gyarados who resist both of Jirachi's weaknesses. Jirachi resists the Rock moves they both fear and the Ice attacks that are the bane of Salamence's existence. They both make excellent choices to U-Turn to should Jirachi be facing Dugtrio or any other powerful Earthquakes. Choice Band Heracross also benefits somewhat thanks to its resistance to Earthquake, but remember both are weak to Fire. Also, despite their common weakness to Ground attacks, Electivire works well with this Jirachi. This is mostly to give Jirachi a perfect choice to U-Turn to should Magnezone appear. The EVs listed allow Jirachi to survive an Earthquake from Adamant Dugtrio and has the possibility of 2HKOing with U-turn. Jirachi will hit 270 Speed, ensuring he can outrun Adamant Heracross, who will fail to OHKO with his CB Close Combat. Choice Scarf versions, while faster than Jirachi are unlikely to 2HKO (44–52% damage from either Close Combat or Megahorn).
Jirachi belongs to the group of special attackers who can defeat the queen of special walling—Blissey. With maximum HP Jirachi can create a Substitute that Blissey is unable to break with Seismic Toss, allowing you to boost with Calm Mind. Wish provides healing support, both for Jirachi and the rest of your team but you're risking getting hit with Blissey's Thunder Wave or Sing. Psychic provides reliable damage and the 20% chance of dropping your foes Special Defense is a further aid to Jirachi's ability to sweep. The final slot provides extra type coverage. Thunderbolt is the more reliable option for an Electric attack, but Thunder has a 60% chance to paralyze and is worth considering for that reason alone. Hidden Power Fighting provides good coverage alongside Psychic and picks off Tyranitar and Weavile and also hits Heatran. Doom Desire can go in the last slot and you can rack up a lot of damage if you hit your opponents with a Doom Desire and Psychic in the same turn.
The idea behind this set is to set up Doom Desire and stall with Wish or Substitute/Protect until it hits, attacking with Psychic when you can. It should go something like this: Doom Desire, Wish, Protect. On the third turn, Wish heals Jirachi as Doom Desire kicks in and hits the opponent. Since Doom Desire is essentially typeless, everything takes neutral damage from it, so you don't need to worry about type coverage with this set.
As well as being a pseudo-wall, this Jirachi also functions as a Rain Dance inducer. Jirachi is arguably one of the best Rain Dancers as it can support itself in a number of ways, including neutralizing Fire-attacks, giving Thunder 100% accuracy and boosting Water Pulse’s power. It also makes a great candidate for Rain Dance as it has a more or less, reliable healing move. Wish also provides support for the team, and can be very useful thanks to the large usage of Life Orb on Rain Dance teams. Thunder and Water Pulse, as stated above, is not only there to abuse Rain Dance, but to annoy opposing Pokemon with the use of the Parafusion tactic. This tactic can be pulled off quite easily thanks to Serene Grace, boosting the Paralysis chance to 60% and Confusion chance to 40%. Electric and Water also provides great coverage, resisted only by the uncommon Grass-types, Lanturn and Quagsire. If you dislike the lack of STAB, Psychic is a decent option for Jirachi and still lets it uphold its nice coverage. U-Turn is an option over either of the aforementioned attacks if they do not suit your needs. U-Turn has the advantage of allowing you to scout for Jirachi's counters and switch something in accordingly. Due to U-Turn allowing Jirachi to do so, an option for Jirachi is to use Sassy as your nature and have your IVs set as low as possible for Speed.
This Jirachi set is designed specifically to take on various common threats in the metagame. It is faster than nearly all Salamence and Gyarados with one Dragon Dance, and can deal large amounts of damage to both through either Hidden Power or Thunderbolt. Psychic is chosen as the STAB attack and can OHKO Gengar, Roserade, and Heracross (this one requires Stealth Rock). The last two move slots depend on the team Jirachi is in. If defeating Dragon Pokemon is not a priority and Jirachi finds itself being defeated by either Heatran or Magnezone, Hidden Power Ground is a possible alternative to Hidden Power Ice. Grass Knot vs. U-turn depends on whether defeating Swampert and Hippowdon or safely scouting the opponent's team is more important. Since Heatran, Magnezone, and Tyranitar will frequently switch into Jirachi, using U-turn to switch to Dugtrio is an extremely viable strategy that can yield great results. Timid is chosen over Modest as the primary nature because various Pokemon that reach up to 306 Speed, like Roserade, Porygon-Z, and Adamant Garchomp, can carry Choice Scarf. However, Modest can still be used for the little bit of extra power.
Few people will expect Choice Band Jirachi, so you've got the element of surprise on your side with this set, along with an Attack stat of 448 or 492, depending on which nature you choose. Zen Headbutt is your main form of attack and the flinch rate can really help in avoiding damage against potential threats. Ice Punch and ThunderPunch offer a lot of super effective hits and will destroys Dragons and Gyarados, respectively. Fire Punch helps to take out Metagross, Bronzong and other Steel-types, in addition to destroying Weavile. U-turn helps to scout Jirachi's counters while getting in a light hit and has the potential to OHKO any Dugtrio that are bold enough to switch in. Drain Punch destroys most Dark-types trying to wall Jirachi and can provide some welcome healing, especially if you manage to hit Blissey with it.
Special version of the previous set. The Hidden Powers are for covering specific threats. Fighting hits Tyranitar, Weavile and Heatran, while Ground does more damage to some Steels, such as Magnezone and Heatran. U-turn is, as usual, a useful move for scouting the opponent's team, and can do something to Celebi; however, you can also opt for Icy Wind to hit and slow down Dragons like Garchomp and Salamence. Icy Wind's Speed-lowering effect can also be useful for Pokemon that aren't weak to Ice, such as nullifying Choice Scarf on Heatran. Other OptionsIcy Wind 2HKOs Salamence and Garchomp and the Speed drop makes them slower than Jirachi (most of the time), so it can be quite effective if you predict correctly. This also immediately makes Ice Punch a viable option. Water Pulse is rather weak, but it does come with a 40% confusion rate and does decent damage to Tyranitar and Heatran. Flash Cannon hits Tyranitar and Weavile, but offers poor coverage otherwise and does less damage to those two than Hidden Power Fighting (240 vs. 280). Body Slam allows Jirachi to paralyze opponents with the aid of Serene Grace. Healing Wish can help out a stricken team member if you're willing to sacrifice Jirachi. Gravity can work if you have a Choice Band Garchomp or Rhyperior waiting to rampage for a few turns. Thunder Wave provides paralysis support if you don't want to rely on Body Slam or Thunder. Jirachi is a little too fast to use Trick Room effectively, but he's sturdy enough to set it up for the rest of the team. EVsWish Support Set: Impish nature with 240 HP / 56 Atk / 76 Def / 136 Spe allows guaranteed survival from Dugtrio's Earthquake and hits 270 Speed to outpace Adamant Heracross. 240 HP / 76 Def / 160 SpD / 32 Spe (also Impish nature) is a good alternate EV spread for this set. It allows Jirachi to survive special attacks a lot easier and can survive everything—even a Fire Blast—that Choice Specs Salamence can throw at him. 32 Speed EVs hits 244, allowing Jirachi to U-turn or Reflect before Jolly Tyranitar gets in a hit and also makes him faster than Adamant Breloom and Timid Magnezone. If you're using Light Screen over Reflect, it is recommended you pour more EVs into Defense to minimize the damage done by physical attacks. Impish with 240 HP / 236 Def / 32 Spe works well. Calm Mind Sweeper: Max HP is required if you're using Substitute. 176 EVs hits 280 to outrun Modest Lucario and PorygonZ, switching to Timid beats their absolute max Speed and adding another 40 EVs beats max Speed Houndoom and Electivire. Make sure, though, that if you're using Hidden Power Fighting, to add an extra 4 EVs to account for the IV drop. You can use a Bold nature with your remaining EVs in Defense, or go with Modest and use your leftover EVs to pump Special Attack. A bulkier spread can also be useful, Bold with 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spe is a reasonable alternative.
Doom Desire: 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Spe, Bold nature gives Jirachi reasonable Speed and good tanking ability. You can drop some Defense EVs if you want to hit a little harder. Choice Band/Specs: For the Choice Band set, Jolly nature with 176 Speed hits 307 to beat max Speed Lucario and PorygonZ, and also outruns most Salamence by several points. Max Attack with the remaining EVs in HP. Follow the same format for Choice Specs, but with a Timid nature and max Special Attack. If you want the extra power provided by Adamant or Modest natures, aim for 280 Speed to outrun Modest Lucario and PorygonZ, 270 for Adamant Heracross or drop down to 254 for Modest Heatran (only useful if you're carrying Hidden Power Fighting). OpinionSupport, sweep or even both—Jirachi is very versatile. His well rounded stats and excellent defensive typing makes him very hard to kill, especially when factoring in Calm Mind, Reflect and Wish. A fantastic Pokémon that is a great asset to any team. CountersPowerful Earthquakes from the likes of Rhyperior and Garchomp can bring him down, although Reflect helps him avoid a OHKO. Beware of Grass Knot and Icy Wind/Ice Punch though. Metagross and Bronzong are in better shape to bring him down with Earthquake as they do not fear any of Jirachi's moves, aside from the rare Fire Punch or Hidden Power Fire. Heatran's powerful Fire attacks and his resistances to the majority of Jirachi's moves make him an excellent counter. Skarmory walls the Wish supporter if Jirachi doesn't have Thunder, and although he can't do any real damage in return, he will take the opportunity to set up Spikes and phaze Jirachi away. Magnezone can trap and kill with Thunderbolt unless Jirachi carries U-Turn. Dugtrio can kill with Earthquake, but isn't guaranteed to OHKO so you'll need to weaken Jirachi a little first. Tyranitar takes little damage from U-turn and can survive Grass Knots to hit back with Earthquakes. Watch out for the occasional Hidden Power Fighting or Drain Punch, which are Tyranitar's only real fear. |
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