The Next Best Thing...

[Blast]

EonX-

 

[EonX]

The Reptile

 

[Yellow Cheese]

EonX-

 

[CoolStoryBrobat]

Wyvern

 

[Mozz]

Eonx

 

[dingbat]

EonX

 

[DiscoDucky]

EonX undoubtedly

 

[canno]

EonX-

 

[Mazz]

With a commanding 10-2-1 win, EonX- has won this installment of The Next Best Thing! The Leaderboard has been updated. As I mentioned previously, TNBT is now going to be a twice-per-week project, with two days for set creation / discussion and a day for voting.

That said, the next suspect is Jirachi.

 

[Minus]

Jirachi @ Choice Specs
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psyshock
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Energy Ball / Thunderbolt
- Doom Desire

Special Jirachi can manage to land some surprising KOs, including a small chance to KO Slowbro looking to switch in on an Iron Head!

Gamefreak has made some pretty bad signature moves (See: Present, Night Daze), but none as "bad" as Doom Desire. Much like Blast Burn and Giga Impact, Doom Desire allows the opponent with a free turn to set up, especially when against a Choice-locked opponent. But when STAB and 140 BP backed by Choice Specs is added to the mix, Doom Desire becomes a decent move! Psyshock is an obvious STAB move used over Psychic to get past Specially Defensive Pokemon, while HP Fire should be used to smack common leads, namely Forretress and Galvantula. It's a toss up between Energy Ball and Thunderbolt. Both are used to get past the Bulky Waters that plague the tier, though Energy Ball can be used to OHKO Gastrodon and Swampert. Now Back to Doom Desire. With a proper amount of prediction, Doom Desire can become quite deadly, as it can 3HKO Suicune, 2HKO Slowbro, and has a decent chance to OHKO Florges after Steal Rock Damage. Mega Houndoom, Jirachi's most common switch-in, is 2HKO'd by Doom Desire, and is easy to prepare for by double-switching. Something to keep in mind: Once the opponent figures out you're running Doom Desire, you need to constantly double switch into the expected switch-in. THE BEST PART OF THIS SET IS THE OPPONENT'S EXPRESSION WHEN THEY NOTICE YOU'RE ACTUALLY RUNNING DOOM DESIRE HAHA ^.^

 

[LightningLuxray]

Jirachi @ Light Clay
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Spd / 4 Def
Jolly Nature
- Light Screen
- Reflect
- Stealth Rock
- Healing Wish / Magic Coat

With many powerful sweepers in UU, such as Cloyster, Mega Houndoom, Weavile, and Mega Absol, Dual Screens Jirachi is quite effective. This is due to its strong defensive typing, good all-around stats, and access to both Stealth Rock, Healing Wish, and Magic Coat. Dual Screens and Stealth Rocks are obvious moves used to help support the team, however, the main move that separates Jirachi from a dual-screen user such as Bronzong is its access to Healing Wish. With this move, Jirachi can not only set up Screens/Stealth Rock, but also heal a sweeper up to full health after doing so. This can be extremely beneficial to Hyper Offensive teams, healing the previously mentioned sweepers back up to full health. A lot of the times, Healing Wish can save the game for a team. Anther toy Jirachi has to play with is Magic Coat. If there's is one thing Hyper Offensive teams hate, it's hazards. However, with Magic Coat, Jirachi can easily bounce back hazards such as Spikes, Stealth Rock, and Sticky Web. It can also block Taunt, something that completely shuts this Jirachi set down. Another key pro it has over Bronzong is Speed, which allows it to outpace a ton of threats that Bronzong can not, such as Darmanitan, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, and Arcanine, as well as Speed tying with Victini.

Overall, thanks to its access to key moves, speed, and great all-around stats, Jirachi can be a great Dual-Screener for Hyper Offensive teams.

 

[Blast]

Jirachi @ Life Orb
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 HP
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock
- Thunderbolt / Energy Ball
- Healing Wish

Punches holes mid-game and restores a teammate when it's done. Superachi is one of those sweepers who can't really ~sweep~ whole teams because it lacks the sheer Speed or staying power to do so, so Healing Wish is a good way to ensure you're still useful and ensures you're not utter deadweight against teams with like Umbreon or something. Healing Wish in general is a really clutch move for partners like Mega Blastoise, Victini, Nidoqueen, etc who all tend to get worn down really quickly, so restoring them back to full is an excellent form of support. Also unlike Scarf w/ HW it's actually decently strong after a boost or two + LO. Anyway the moves are more or less self-explanatory, Psyshock gets STAB and strong coverage against Nidos / Roserade / Fighting-types / etc, and lets you check opposing CMers in a pinch (albeit shakily). Tbolt donks Slowbro and does actual damage to Steels and Houndoom, though you could also use Energy Ball if you want to hit Grounds like Swampert / Gastrodon / Rhyperior / etc.

Also Wyvern js but Rachi doesn't get Fire Blast so you should probably replace that with HP Fire or something.

 

[Minus]

Dat Blast, Thanks for the heads up ^.^ I made the set on PS!, so I might have hit Fire Blast instead of HP Fire and then continued with that throughout the set!

I'll edit this post later with comments to make it more useful =D

 

[EonX]

More of a niche set, but Jirachi has good potential as a Rain setter for Rain Dance teams:

Jirachi @ Damp Rock
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Nature: Timid
- Rain Dance
- Stealth Rock
- Thunder
- Healing Wish
​

Like I said, this is much more of a niche set, but hey, that's Jirachi's thing. It can fill so many roles for so many teams. While UU isn't short on rain setters, Jirachi stands out for a few reasons. Like Uxie, Jirachi has solid bulk to set rain multiple times as well as access to Stealth Rock. Unlike Uxie, it has a decent base 100 Special Attack to let it effectively abuse Thunder. Thanks to Serene Grace, the paralysis rate jumps to a whopping 60%. The last move is what gives Jirachi its real standout move as rain setter. Healing Wish. Scarf Healing Wish is amazing, but don't discount the threat of a Healing Wish late-game on a rain setter. Ideally, Jirachi would set rain one last time, and then use Healing Wish to give the intended rain abuser the 2nd chance it needs to finish the match. That Kingdra you thought you had survived? Too bad, it just got back to full health. Great job surviving the rampage of that Tornadus earlier. Too bad it's ready to go for a second round like nothing ever happened. The EV spread maximizes overall bulk and Speed so Jirachi can get rain down as quickly as possible and take as many hits as possible in the process. While Jirachi's inability to bring in a rain sweeper safely outside of the use of Healing Wish, it synergizes so well with most rain sweepers and one of them will surely be able to capitalize on what switches into Jirachi on the turn it uses Rain Dance. Fire-types are easy switch-in opportunities for the likes of Kingdra, Omastar, and Kabutops. Meanwhile, Tornadus, Moltres, and Noivern can easily capitalize on Ground-type moves Jirachi will no doubt have to get away from. Toxicroak can handle Dark-type moves and Heliolisk can deal with Ghost-type moves. In short, Jirachi has good synergy with most rain sweepers in some shape, form, or fashion while possessing a way to give one of them a second chance to finish the job through the use of Healing Wish.

 

[Jellied Eels]

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 120 SDef / 252 HP / 136 Spd
Careful Nature
- Iron Head
- Wish
- Toxic
- Body Slam / Substitute

hi so surprisingly no one has posted a douchebag set so far which we can't have considering this is Jirachi we're talking about. I like to run this weird combination of Rachi's status set from last gen and the SpDef set. Basically the idea is that you cripple Jirachi's usual defensive switch-ins (ie bulky water- or ground-types) with Toxic and then have a pretty good chance of beating them one on one considering every flinch raises the poison counter. I prefer this set over lure rachis as well since I like my steel-types to be bulky, and without perfect prediction you can't even beat stuff like Hippowdon anyway cause you don't hit hard enough with E-Belt. The last moveslot really depends on your team : with Body Slam you have a very useful tool against more offensive teams cause you can actually punish aggressive Fire-type switch-ins but you're still a sitting duck to stuff like Mega-Manectric so eh. With Sub you basically ensure you can win one on one even against Hippo over the course of the match - and if you pair it with Toxic Spikes it becomes a real pain to deal with. The speed evs are a bit random lol I just went for neutral base 85s because that's always been an important benchmark in UU as well as hopefully outcreeping other defensive base 100s.
Overall this is a really dependable set that is very good at what it does - namely cripple walls while still having defensive utility. It really capitalizes on the bulky metagame we're seeing currently. Pair it with slow stuff like SD Hera or things that appreciate Hippo / Slowbro being weakened like Mega-Aerodactyl and hax the crap out of your opponents ! (srsly flinches are twice as annoying when paired with residual damage)

So far I like Dat Blast's Superachi the best because it's very easy to grab CM boosts as the opponent scouts your coverage moves but I'm a bit iffy on Healing Wish on basically any set that isn't Choiced / full support - while it's definitely a clutch move Jirachi kinda struggles to punch holes in teams with two-move coverage...

Edit at below: basically the focus of this set is Toxic - it shares the evs with the spdef set but instead of supporting the team with wishes / sr it acts as a pseudo wallbreaker.

 

[DiscoDucky]

Jirachi @ Salac Berry
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Sp. Att / 252 Spe
Timid
- Calm Mind
- Psyshock//Psychic
- Thunderbolt/Energy Ball
- Substitute

Jirachi is probably one of the most diverse Pokemon in the metagame right now, and this amazingly cheese set. At a quick glance, the movesets, natures, and EVs are pretty much identical to an Offensive Sub + Calm Mind set. The true power comes from its Salac Berry. Timid Jirachi sits at the standard base 100 Speed tier. This leaves it very vulnerable to revenge killing from ScarfManitan, ScarfHera, Victini, and plethora of other stuff. This set takes advantage of that by getting a +1 Speed at 25%. Jirachi's defensive typing and stats allow it to outlive enough attacks to get to the pinch stat. With a +1 Speed and +1 or +2 Special Attack, Jirachi can KO most of its counters. This greatly enhances Jirachi's sweep potential and also allows it to function as a lure to take out faster threats for your team's late game sweepers.

 

[Mazz]

Alright guys, it's time to vote on a set! New suspect will be announced tomorrow morning!

 

[Jellied Eels]

Dat Blast

 

[Swamp Link]

Lightning Luxray

 

[Bouff]

Dat Blast

 

[Blast]

Jellied Eels

 

[canno]

Wyvern

 

[Mazz]

Well uh, since only 5 people voted I'm going to keep this open until later tonight.

 

[DaKakz]

Jellied Eels

I have tried this set with Sub instead of Body Slam and it's pretty damn good at stalling.

 

[Tomahawk]

Dat Blast