[overview]
**Draft Order**: Round 3 onwards
**Price Range**: 12-13 points
**Overview**: With a balanced stat spread, great defensive typing, and a deep movepool, Jirachi flourishes as a versatile pick in the format. Offensively, it has a wide array of physical and special moves to keep opponents on their toes, while defensively, it boasts recovery in Wish and various utility moves such as Stealth Rock, Thunder Wave, and Healing Wish. Serene Grace is the cherry on top, turning mundane moves such as Iron Head into a statistical nightmare for the opponent. Unfortunately, the nature of Jirachi being a jack of all trades means it doesn't truly excel at any one role and thus finds itself overshadowed by Pokemon that are more specialized. Additionally, while its typing has many key resistances, it also leaves it with weaknesses to common types such as Ground, Fire, and Dark. Finally, Jirachi can struggle picking a single role, leaving it spread too thin and unable to run all of the moves it wants on one set.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Choice Scarf**: Jirachi's good Speed tier makes it a great Choice Scarf user. A speedy Iron Head boosted by Serene Grace suddenly has the potential to make foes flinch until they faint, while U-turn can provide a fast pivot for its team. Additionally, it has Trick to deter walls from attempting to stomach its attacks. Remaining slots can be filled with appropriate coverage moves or even key status moves such as Healing Wish to provide further support once Jirachi has outlived its usefulness.
**Bulky Offense**: Bulky sets make use of Jirachi's excellent bulk and typing to take hits and strike back. Setup moves such as Calm Mind and Cosmic Power are good choices to make it stronger or potentially unbreakable. This set prefers to fit as many offensive moves as possible in order to increase the amount of targets Jirachi can threaten.
**Bulky Support**: With access to an array of status moves, Jirachi can use its bulk to cripple and disrupt the opposing team while supporting its own. It makes for a great user of Stealth Rock, a reliable Wish passer thanks to combined access to U-turn, and a status spreader with Toxic and Thunder Wave. Thanks to its balanced stats, it can make itself physically or specially bulky depending on the matchup.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Iron Head, Meteor Mash, Flash Cannon, Zen Headbutt, Psychic, Psyshock
**Setup Moves**: Calm Mind, Cosmic Power, Power-Up Punch
**Utility Moves**: Body Slam, Healing Wish, Icy Wind, Light Screen, Reflect, Stealth Rock, Thunder Wave, Toxic, Trick, Wish, U-turn, Rest, Sleep Talk, Substitute
**Coverage**: Ancient Power, Dazzling Gleam, Draco Meteor, Drain Punch, Energy Ball, Fire Punch, Grass Knot, Hidden Power, Ice Punch, Moonblast, Play Rough, Shadow Ball, Signal Beam, Thunder, Thunderbolt, Thunder Punch, Water Pulse
Niche Moves
========
**Doom Desire / Future Sight**: Often finding itself with free turns, Jirachi can utilize Future Sight or Doom Desire to spread powerful delayed damage.
**Charge Beam**: While Charge Beam is a weak attack and not fully accurate, it synergizes well with Serene Grace, ensuring that Jirachi boosts its Special Attack stat every time it lands.
**Refresh**: Jirachi can find itself hindered by potential burns and paralysis, allowing Refresh to be potentially used in order to cure itself.
Common Items
========
**Choice Scarf**: Choice Scarf increases Jirachi's Speed to more acceptable levels, allowing it to revenge kill frail foes or cripple bulky and passive ones with Trick.
**Leftovers**: Leftovers helps accentuate Jirachi's bulk and keeps it healthy in order to tank hits throughout a game. This can be combined further with Protect and Wish to make it even harder to knock out.
**Resistance Berries**: Resistance Berries allow Jirachi to lure foes and tank their attacks. Colbur Berry is the most common choice to tank the incredibly common Knock Off, but others such as Shuca and Occa Berry are great choices as well.
**Pinch Berries**: Jirachi can often find itself knocked down to low amounts of health, meaning it can utilize the pinch Berries such as Iapapa Berry effectively.
Niche Items
========
**Weakness Policy**: Jirachi can lure super effective attacks to activate a Weakness Policy, giving it a big boost offensively. This can be combined with a bulkier spread and defensive stat boosts to reliably activate it.
**Damage-boosting Items**: Some offensive sets can still lack power due to Jirachi's average offensive stats. Damage-boosting items can help remedy this, with Choice Band and Specs giving its moves a noticeable kick in power, while an Expert Belt can take advantage of its diverse movepool, allowing it to strike many targets for boosted super effective damage.
**Light Clay**: Light Clay is used solely for when Jirachi is running dual screens, allowing it to extend the duration of those moves.
Draft Strategy
========
The name of the game with Jirachi is role compression, as it offers many traits such as a Steel typing, Stealth Rock, pivoting, an offensive presence, and a defensive backbone. This allows it to be used on many styles of teams, so it can be paired with a wide range of partners, usually to enable them more effectively but sometimes to be enabled by them instead.
**Dragon-type Pokemon**: Jirachi forms great cores with Dragon-types, as it can take on the Ice-, Fairy-, and Dragon-type Pokemon that threaten them while providing the support needed to let them run wild. Powerful Dragon-types such as Kyurem-B, Zygarde, and Garchomp appreciate Jirachi helping to enable their deadly offense.
**Setup Sweepers**: Jirachi's numerous support options allow it to fuel the efforts of powerful setup sweepers, and it can even give them a second chance thanks to Healing Wish. Setup sweepers such as Landorus-T and Mega Charizard X can more reliably break through the opposing team thanks to Jirachi's support.
**Defensive Walls**: As a fantastic Wish passer with a great typing, Jirachi can form powerful defensive cores, keeping its teammates healthy throughout a game while covering their weaknesses. Pokemon such as Swampert, Tapu Fini, and Alolan Muk become much more threatening when they are continually kept healthy through Jirachi's Wish.
**Alternate Entry Hazard Setters**: Only having access to Stealth Rock means Jirachi appreciates being paired with other hazard setters such as Greninja and Roserade in order to spread as much passive damage as possible. On the other hand, it also likes having Pokemon such as Nidoking to act as an alternate user of Stealth Rock, allowing it to explore other options.
Checks and Counters
========
**Fire-type Pokemon**: Jirachi is almost completely helpless against Fire-types, having basically no moves to hit them super effectively and being mortally threatened by their super effective STAB attacks. Nuclear options such as Mega Charizard Y, Victini, and Heatran can melt straight through it, though the former two must be careful of Stealth Rock if Jirachi had laid it beforehand.
**Steel-type Pokemon**: Steel-type Pokemon boast the defensive typing to tank Jirachi's STAB attacks, resist most of its coverage and may even have the sheer stats to take a weak super effective coverage move if needed. Pokemon such as Metagross and Celesteela can comfortably take Jirachi's attacks and threaten it in return with their own offense.
**Faster Offensive Pokemon**: When not wielding a Choice Scarf, Jirachi's Speed is average at best, meaning it gets outsped and offensively checked by a myriad of Pokemon. Faster foes such as Landorus, Infernape, and the Pursuit-trapping Weavile can threaten to revenge kill it with super effective STAB attacks.
**Electric-type Pokemon**: Electric-type Pokemon resist Steel-type moves such as Iron Head and are immune to Thunder Wave, allowing them to easily switch into Jirachi and potentially leave it unable to respond. Electric-type Pokemon such as Zapdos, Zeraora, and Mega Manectric can repeatedly switch into Jirachi and boast super effective coverage to hit it or force it out.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/deranged_lime.272077/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/odinrm.613514/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
**Draft Order**: Round 3 onwards
**Price Range**: 12-13 points
**Overview**: With a balanced stat spread, great defensive typing, and a deep movepool, Jirachi flourishes as a versatile pick in the format. Offensively, it has a wide array of physical and special moves to keep opponents on their toes, while defensively, it boasts recovery in Wish and various utility moves such as Stealth Rock, Thunder Wave, and Healing Wish. Serene Grace is the cherry on top, turning mundane moves such as Iron Head into a statistical nightmare for the opponent. Unfortunately, the nature of Jirachi being a jack of all trades means it doesn't truly excel at any one role and thus finds itself overshadowed by Pokemon that are more specialized. Additionally, while its typing has many key resistances, it also leaves it with weaknesses to common types such as Ground, Fire, and Dark. Finally, Jirachi can struggle picking a single role, leaving it spread too thin and unable to run all of the moves it wants on one set.
[strategy comments]
Common Roles
========
**Choice Scarf**: Jirachi's good Speed tier makes it a great Choice Scarf user. A speedy Iron Head boosted by Serene Grace suddenly has the potential to make foes flinch until they faint, while U-turn can provide a fast pivot for its team. Additionally, it has Trick to deter walls from attempting to stomach its attacks. Remaining slots can be filled with appropriate coverage moves or even key status moves such as Healing Wish to provide further support once Jirachi has outlived its usefulness.
**Bulky Offense**: Bulky sets make use of Jirachi's excellent bulk and typing to take hits and strike back. Setup moves such as Calm Mind and Cosmic Power are good choices to make it stronger or potentially unbreakable. This set prefers to fit as many offensive moves as possible in order to increase the amount of targets Jirachi can threaten.
**Bulky Support**: With access to an array of status moves, Jirachi can use its bulk to cripple and disrupt the opposing team while supporting its own. It makes for a great user of Stealth Rock, a reliable Wish passer thanks to combined access to U-turn, and a status spreader with Toxic and Thunder Wave. Thanks to its balanced stats, it can make itself physically or specially bulky depending on the matchup.
Common Moves
========
**Primary STAB Moves**: Iron Head, Meteor Mash, Flash Cannon, Zen Headbutt, Psychic, Psyshock
**Setup Moves**: Calm Mind, Cosmic Power, Power-Up Punch
**Utility Moves**: Body Slam, Healing Wish, Icy Wind, Light Screen, Reflect, Stealth Rock, Thunder Wave, Toxic, Trick, Wish, U-turn, Rest, Sleep Talk, Substitute
**Coverage**: Ancient Power, Dazzling Gleam, Draco Meteor, Drain Punch, Energy Ball, Fire Punch, Grass Knot, Hidden Power, Ice Punch, Moonblast, Play Rough, Shadow Ball, Signal Beam, Thunder, Thunderbolt, Thunder Punch, Water Pulse
Niche Moves
========
**Doom Desire / Future Sight**: Often finding itself with free turns, Jirachi can utilize Future Sight or Doom Desire to spread powerful delayed damage.
**Charge Beam**: While Charge Beam is a weak attack and not fully accurate, it synergizes well with Serene Grace, ensuring that Jirachi boosts its Special Attack stat every time it lands.
**Refresh**: Jirachi can find itself hindered by potential burns and paralysis, allowing Refresh to be potentially used in order to cure itself.
Common Items
========
**Choice Scarf**: Choice Scarf increases Jirachi's Speed to more acceptable levels, allowing it to revenge kill frail foes or cripple bulky and passive ones with Trick.
**Leftovers**: Leftovers helps accentuate Jirachi's bulk and keeps it healthy in order to tank hits throughout a game. This can be combined further with Protect and Wish to make it even harder to knock out.
**Resistance Berries**: Resistance Berries allow Jirachi to lure foes and tank their attacks. Colbur Berry is the most common choice to tank the incredibly common Knock Off, but others such as Shuca and Occa Berry are great choices as well.
**Pinch Berries**: Jirachi can often find itself knocked down to low amounts of health, meaning it can utilize the pinch Berries such as Iapapa Berry effectively.
Niche Items
========
**Weakness Policy**: Jirachi can lure super effective attacks to activate a Weakness Policy, giving it a big boost offensively. This can be combined with a bulkier spread and defensive stat boosts to reliably activate it.
**Damage-boosting Items**: Some offensive sets can still lack power due to Jirachi's average offensive stats. Damage-boosting items can help remedy this, with Choice Band and Specs giving its moves a noticeable kick in power, while an Expert Belt can take advantage of its diverse movepool, allowing it to strike many targets for boosted super effective damage.
**Light Clay**: Light Clay is used solely for when Jirachi is running dual screens, allowing it to extend the duration of those moves.
Draft Strategy
========
The name of the game with Jirachi is role compression, as it offers many traits such as a Steel typing, Stealth Rock, pivoting, an offensive presence, and a defensive backbone. This allows it to be used on many styles of teams, so it can be paired with a wide range of partners, usually to enable them more effectively but sometimes to be enabled by them instead.
**Dragon-type Pokemon**: Jirachi forms great cores with Dragon-types, as it can take on the Ice-, Fairy-, and Dragon-type Pokemon that threaten them while providing the support needed to let them run wild. Powerful Dragon-types such as Kyurem-B, Zygarde, and Garchomp appreciate Jirachi helping to enable their deadly offense.
**Setup Sweepers**: Jirachi's numerous support options allow it to fuel the efforts of powerful setup sweepers, and it can even give them a second chance thanks to Healing Wish. Setup sweepers such as Landorus-T and Mega Charizard X can more reliably break through the opposing team thanks to Jirachi's support.
**Defensive Walls**: As a fantastic Wish passer with a great typing, Jirachi can form powerful defensive cores, keeping its teammates healthy throughout a game while covering their weaknesses. Pokemon such as Swampert, Tapu Fini, and Alolan Muk become much more threatening when they are continually kept healthy through Jirachi's Wish.
**Alternate Entry Hazard Setters**: Only having access to Stealth Rock means Jirachi appreciates being paired with other hazard setters such as Greninja and Roserade in order to spread as much passive damage as possible. On the other hand, it also likes having Pokemon such as Nidoking to act as an alternate user of Stealth Rock, allowing it to explore other options.
Checks and Counters
========
**Fire-type Pokemon**: Jirachi is almost completely helpless against Fire-types, having basically no moves to hit them super effectively and being mortally threatened by their super effective STAB attacks. Nuclear options such as Mega Charizard Y, Victini, and Heatran can melt straight through it, though the former two must be careful of Stealth Rock if Jirachi had laid it beforehand.
**Steel-type Pokemon**: Steel-type Pokemon boast the defensive typing to tank Jirachi's STAB attacks, resist most of its coverage and may even have the sheer stats to take a weak super effective coverage move if needed. Pokemon such as Metagross and Celesteela can comfortably take Jirachi's attacks and threaten it in return with their own offense.
**Faster Offensive Pokemon**: When not wielding a Choice Scarf, Jirachi's Speed is average at best, meaning it gets outsped and offensively checked by a myriad of Pokemon. Faster foes such as Landorus, Infernape, and the Pursuit-trapping Weavile can threaten to revenge kill it with super effective STAB attacks.
**Electric-type Pokemon**: Electric-type Pokemon resist Steel-type moves such as Iron Head and are immune to Thunder Wave, allowing them to easily switch into Jirachi and potentially leave it unable to respond. Electric-type Pokemon such as Zapdos, Zeraora, and Mega Manectric can repeatedly switch into Jirachi and boast super effective coverage to hit it or force it out.
[credits]
Written by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/deranged_lime.272077/
Quality checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/odinrm.613514/
Grammar checked by:
https://www.smogon.com/forums/members/techno.527276/
Last edited:
