The Dual Hax Jirachi Lead
An unusual Jirachi lead I cooked up that actually works. Thought I'd put it up here, and see if it could be considered good enough to be put up on Smogon. This lead fills a multitude of niches, employing flinchax, parahax, tricking, as well as scouting. I finally got the nerve to put this up here after many people on Shoddy asked me "Where'd you find that set?" or "What's it name?" My answer was always, "RachiRama dual hax, off the iron head buddy. Always off the iron head...... I didn't put up Jirachi's Iron Head damage statistics against the top 12 leads of OU, because everyone running a Jirachi lead or that has run one knows how a Jirachi would hit. I'll be putting up Thunder statistics against the top five leads of OU as soon as MetalKid's calculator starts working properly .
Find Jirachi's standard sets, and hopefully mine too soon, at:
http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/jirachi
Jirachi @ Choice Specs/Choice Scarf(if running Thunder Wave)
- Iron Head
- Trick
- Thunder/Thunder Wave
- U-Turn
Nature: Naive(+Speed, - Sp. Defense, with Thunder and Choice Specs) Jolly(+Speed, -Sp. Attack, with Thunder Wave and Choice Scarf)
EV Spread: 80 HP / 200 Atk / 44 SpA / 184 Spe
Why This Set over Standard Jirachi leads?(Choice Specs and Thunder)
-There's no Stealth Rock here. That's a pain to many teams out there, but a lot of teams nowadays are running late game Stealth Rockers. If you're one of those people with a lead game entry hazard setter upper, and you're using a Rachi lead, this may be the set for you.
-You have a multitude of options to go with. You can trick Machamp your Specs, or Thunder opposing Skarmory, paralyzing them 60% of the time.
-This set is unpredictable and unsuspected, combining classic flinch-hax with unsuspected para-hax and the omnipresent Trick. If you ever find yourself in a tight spot after tricking off the Specs, or run into a lead you can't beat (Swampert) you find solace in U-Turn.
-With prediction, you can easily ruin an opponent's tactics. (i.e. tricking Aero a Choice Specs, since Aero has the SpA to use it. Then trick the Sash on to say.....a Machamp. Can someone say ragequit?
-Despite the loss of Scarf, this set is more effective. In the case that you want to Trick your Choice item, tricking a Specs doesn't bite you in the @$$ as much as tricking off a speed-boosting scarf to something that could use it late-game. Especially since most teams don't pack counters for common leads.
Additional Comments(for Choice Specs and Thunder):
-Thunder's unreliability and tendency to miss is a massive pain in the @$$, especially when you have a huge chance to break a staller or bulky water.
-Specs severely limits the usefulness of this set, as you are locked in your first move. However, a Jirachi Thunder coming off of a Specs'd 370 SpA that will most likely end up paralyzing a pokemon is simply an LOL!
-When in doubt, trick the Specs onto a physical sweeper that simply can't make use of it (i.e. Weavile) and proceed to Iron Head flinchax.
-This has gotten me out of a lot of tight spots. One of the funniest was when I tricked the Specs onto my opponent's last pokemon, a Gyarados that had swept every other member of my team. Off a Rock Polish Baton Pass from Gliscor, Rachi outsped Gyarados and tricked the Specs off for a Life Orb, and proceeded to Thunder from there. Good game.
Teammates and Counters:
-Works well with Salamence and Gyarados, the biggest sweepers in OU. Gyarados/Jirachi and Jirachi/Salamence cover each others' weaknesses, especially since Gyarados and Salamence aren't affected by Ground moves. From here, you can proceed to sweep, and with Gyarados you can Taunt to stop threats. You can even trick a Choice Specs onto a wall, effectively breaking most of them, making Gyarados/Salamence' job easier.
-Most Jirachi leads are stopped by Swampert. In this case, you can trick Swampert a Choice Specs. Thank you and come again, you stupid frog thingy. Or you can just retreat in the form of U-Turn
Beaten by:
-That flaming monkey.
-Anything with decent SpA running Fire Blast.
LOLZ AT:
-Breloom. Trick the Specs, and watch it get locked into Spore or Substitute.
