Dread Arceus
total cockhead
Oh Jirachi, how thou hast fallen!
Overview
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Jirachi, a monster in BW OU, comes to XY OU much weaker than it was. Its luck-based sets can usually be beaten by Electric types now (who are immune to paralysis). Its uncommon typing gives it some good resistances, but leaves it weak to Ground, Fire, Ghost, and Dark, four common attacking types in the XY metagame. The popularity of Knock Off, coupled with its weakness to it, threatens Jirachi greatly. Jirachi also tends to find stiff competition in any set it tries to run, such as Togekiss, Aegislash, Blissey/Chansey, and Sylveon.
However, there are some good reasons to run Jirachi in XY OU. For one, it has a huge movepool, on top of flexible stats. Its typing gives several awesome resistances, including Fairy and Dragon, two powerful attacking types of XY. This allows Jirachi to switch in to some huge threats, including Mega Venusaur, Latios, and Syvleon. On top of all that, it has its infamous ability, Serene Grace, which doubles the chance of secondary effects occurring.
Wishmaker
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name: Wishmaker
move 1: Wish
move 2: Iron Head
move 3: Thunder Wave/Body Slam
move 4: Protect/U-turn/Stealth Rock
ability: Serene Grace
item: Leftovers
nature: Careful
evs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SDef
Moves
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The first slot goes to Wish, which allows Jirachi a method of recovering either itself or its teammates and allows it to preform the role of cleric. Iron Head gives Jirachi a great STAB and allows Jirachi to abuse its ability and flinch its checks to death. Thunder Wave is the preferred option in the third moveslot as it allows Jirachi guaranteed paralysis, but Body Slam can be used to spread paralysis while Taunted and paralyze Ground types like Garchomp. Note that while Body Slam can be used to paralyze Ground-types, it can't touch Ghost-types, and it has a 40% chance to fail to paralyze entirely. The fourth moveslot is mostly preference and team-dependence. Protect can drastically increase Jirachi's lifespan by allowing it to bypass the charge turn of Wish (useful if your team heavily relies on Jirachi), U-turn can allow Jirachi to maintain momentum and bring allies free switch-ins, and Stealth Rock is good if it hasn't been added to the team yet, as Jirachi can beat common Defoggers like Latias and Skarmory.
Set Details
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Max investment is put in to HP and Special Defense to increase Jirachi's bulk. Leftovers is used to give passive recovery. Jirachi can also run a physically defensive version of this set with the SDef EVs moved to physical defense and nature changed to Impish in order to get paralysis on a number of threats, including Mega Pinsir and Terrakion, but Jirachi tends to come in on Special attacks more easily. 252 HP / 136 SpD /120 Spe Careful Nature can be used to outrun Jolly Mega Tyranitar if you absolutely fear it and want to try flinching it to death.
Usage Tips
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This set is useful for slower, bulkier teams that like the paralysis and Wish support. Jirachi also tends to have an easy time coming in on Chansey and Blissey, as it has an immunity to Toxic. Beware of Pursuit users, however, as they can trap Jirachi and beat it. Electric-type Pokemon are also annoying, as they are completely immune to Paralysis. The same is true of Ground-types if Thunder Wave is used over Body Slam.
Team Options
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Mandibuzz makes an excellent partner for Jirachi, as it resist Dark, Ghost, and Ground-type hits. EdgeQuake users and Fighting-types help beat many of Jirachi's checks, like Bisharp, Tyranitar, and Aegislash. Water-types like Keldeo help with the Ground and Fire weaknesses, while bulky Fairy-types help beat Dark Types.
Paraflinch
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name: Paraflinch
move 1: Iron Head
move 2: Body Slam/Thunder Wave
move 3: U-turn
move 4: Zen Headbutt/Ice Punch/Fire Punch
ability: Serene Grace
item: Leftovers
evs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
nature: Adamant
Moves
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Iron Head gives Jirachi STAB and a high chance to cause a flinch. Body Slam is useful for spreading paralysis to Ground-types, however, it has a chance to fail and can't hit Ghost-types, so Thunder Wave could also be used. U-turn allows Jirachi to retain momentum for the team, allowing a more powerful threat to come in. The final moveslot will usually be Zen Headbutt for STAB damage against threats like Mega Venusaur and Keldeo in exchange for a lowered flinch chance, however, Ice Punch and Fire Punch can be used for super-effective coverage on dual type Ground-types and Dragon-types like Gliscor or Dragonite, or dual type Steel-types like Scizor or Ferrothorn. Note that the elemental punches are only useful when they hit for 4x super-effective damage, otherwise, they're extremely weak.
Set Details
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The EVs are used to maximize bulk and Attack to increase staying power and damage dealt. Leftovers allows Jirachi to heal itself in the time the enemy can't move.
Usage Tips
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The main goal of this set is to abuse the flinch chance of Iron Head, coupled with the chance of full paralysis. Be sure to U-turn out if you think a Pursuit-trapper is coming in. Electric types should also be avoided, as they are immune to paralysis.
Team Options
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Jirachi enjoys Wish support from things like Sylveon, as it can increase the amount of times it can come in. Since Electric types like Rotom-W are the biggest stop to this set, partners that beat it are great teammates. Mega Venusaur, Thundurus-I, Excadrill, Kyurem-B, and Mega Gyarados all check Rotom-W, and have great synergy with Jirachi. Mandibuzz is also a good choice, as it beats Aegislash and other Dark or Ghost types. EdgeQuake users like Landorus-T or Garchomp are useful for beating Steel types that wall it and Fire-types like Mega Charizard X/Y that outright destroy it. Fighting-types like Conkeldurr are also useful for their ability to beat Dark Types like Bisharp. Water-types like Azumarill help ease Fire and Ground weaknesses, while Electric-types like Mega Manectric can help break bulky Water-types that wall this set.
Other Options
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Jirachi can use Air Balloon to temporarily get rid of its Ground weakness. It can also use Assault Vest to tank crazy hits like Aegislash's Shadow Ball or Greninja's Dark Pulse, however, it tends to prefer the passive healing of Leftovers. It can use offensive sets like Choice Band or mixed Expert Belt, but it has subpar power in this meta. It can also be used as a dual screens or Stealth Rock lead, but those sets are usually performed better by a number of Pokemon, namely Deoxys-S and Deoxys-D. Finally, it can be used as a Special Attacker in the rain, but Electric-types are usually better for this as they get STAB on Thunder. It can also run a Choice Scarf set, but it lacks greatly in power and ability to cover threats.
Checks & Counters
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**Bulky Steel-types**: Bulky Steel-types take very little damage from either of Jirachi's STABs, and several of them like Aegislash, Mega Mawile, and Heatran can deal massive damage. This can be somewhat remedied with Jirachi's expansive movepool, such as using Thunderbolt to bypass the Skarmory weakness.
**Dark-type moves**: Dark-type moves, namely Knock Off, will usually beat it. There are quite a few things that use Dark-type coverage, like Bisharp, Mega Blastoise, and Greninja.
**Bulky Ground-types**: Bulky Ground-types like Excadrill and Landorus-T can easily take Iron Head, Jirachi's main STAB, and hit it hard with Earthquake. In some cases, like Garchomp or Gliscor, this can be solved with Ice Punch Jirachi.
**Fire-types**: Fire-types like Charizard, Talonflame, and Volcarona are huge threats to Jirachi, as they resist Iron Head and can easily OHKO it. Jirachi can run Ancientpower to try and solve this problem, but Ancientpower will fail to OHKO any of those three without Stealth Rocks being present.
**Bulky Water-types**: Bulky Water-types like Slowbro and Gastrodon will beat Jirachi by resisting Iron Head and stalling it out.
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