[OVERVIEW]
Jirachi is arguably the best Pokemon in DPP OU. Jirachi’s fantastic typing, great movepool, and excellent stats give it limitless versatility. Jirachi is the fastest defensive Steel-type; it has the bulk, Speed, recovery, and resistances, such as a crucial one to Dragon and an immunity to Toxic, to fulfill almost any defensive role. However, the main source of Jirachi’s prowess in DPP OU is a STAB boosted Iron Head and its 60% flinch chance due to Serene Grace. Chaining Iron Head flinches can both slowly wear down even bulky foes in conjunction with sand and Knock Off while passively healing Jirachi with Leftovers. Combined with many ways to paralyze the opponent such as Body Slam, Thunder, and Thunder Wave to facilitate paraflinching and Jirachi becomes one of the central threats in the tier all teams must be aware of.
Physical Jirachi can run a dizzying amount of viable EV spreads to take advantage of this, from focusing on HP and Speed as a fantastic utility Pokemon with options such as Stealth Rock and Substitute; fully investing in its defenses to be perhaps the best general wall in the tier with Wish and Protect; or being a great cleaner or Choice Scarfer with Attack and Speed investment and options such as Fire Punch, Ice Punch, U-turn, and Trick. Serene Grace also helps with coverage moves, as Jirachi has passive opportunities to get devastating burns and freezes from Fire Punch and Ice Punch that can bail it out of tough situations.
Jirachi also is one of the best special and mixed threats in the tier with access to Calm Mind and its great special movepool. Jirachi can customize its coverage and utility moves to handle most threats in the tier: Thunderbolt, Grass Knot, Hidden Power Ground, Psychic, and Hidden Power Fire are all options to take on foes such as Skarmory, Swampert, Hippowdon, Heatran, Magnezone, Gengar, and Scizor that can cause problems for physical Jirachi. Even with Calm Mind or an otherwise fully special moveset, Jirachi can use Iron Head to create free turns, 2HKO Tyranitar, and 4HKO specially defensive Clefable. Jirachi can also lean into its support movepool with options such as Wish, Refresh, and Substitute or even different items like a Shuca Berry, Lum Berry, or Occa Berry to make its Calm Mind sets more devastating.
Jirachi has an enormous influence of the DPP OU metagame, such as being one of the best switch-ins to Choice Specs Latias while also handling all three major Dragon Dance Pokemon in Dragonite, Gyarados, and Tyranitar with a simple Wish + Protect set. Jirachi is almost singled-handedly responsible for making bulkier threats resistant to Steel, such as Heatran, Swampert, and Metagross more often use Leftovers, as without it, Jirachi can eventually beat them with Iron Head and its coverage moves. Jirachi can even stop Magnezone trying to trap it, such as OHKOing it with Hidden Power Ground, outdamaging it with Fire Punch, or PP stalling it out of Thunderbolt with Wish and Protect. Jirachi is also a potent stallbreaker with Iron Head, as if Skarmory is burned or KOed, few foes on defensive teams enjoy taking it on with entry hazards up.
Jirachi primarily fears strong attackers, such as Heatran and Swampert who can break through its defenses and status if it isn’t running Refresh. Physical Jirachi struggles to take on foes resistant to Iron Head, have Leftovers, and are bulky enough to take multiple hits, such as Heatran, Swampert, Suicune, Magnezone, Zapdos, Metagross, and Empoleon. Zapdos and Suicune especially are dangerous due to their great bulk and Pressure depleting Iron Head PP, while Heatran, Magnezone, and Empoleon 4x resist Iron Head and out heal it with Leftovers. Gyarados, Swampert, and Metagross, and Hippowdon all can take multiple hits from physical Jirachi and hit it hard in return. Ghost-types are also annoying to Jirachi, as it cannot paralyze them the majority of the time. Both Gengar and Rotom-A can burn Jirachi, while Gengar naturally outspeeds it and Rotom-A is resistant to Iron Head and very bulky. Special Jirachi is typically hard stopped by Roar Latias and Encore Clefable, as it doesn’t have the proper coverage or power to break through them. Without Refresh or Heal Bell support, Jirachi is ruined by status. Paralysis, such as Choice Scarf Magnezone switching in and using Thunder Wave, Azelf paralyzing it with Thunder Wave in the lead spot, or opposing defensive Jirachi using Body Slam can prevent Jirachi from flinching foes and using Wish, while burn completely ruins its ability to do damage and slowly wears it down. While defensive Jirachi is really bulky, it can be broken down by very strong attacks such as Breloom’s Focus Punch and mixed Dragonite’s Fire Blast, especially if they are backed with Spikes. In theory, Jirachi can deal with all of these threats; however, it is limited to four moveslots and cannot threaten everything that gives it trouble.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Jirachi's options are nigh limitless, and it is able to make use of most of its movepool. A set consisting of Substitute, Calm Mind, Psychic or Flash Cannon, and Thunderbolt with maximized HP and Speed EVs used to see use on teams based around Toxic Spikes. However, the prominence of Thunder Wave + Roar Latias, Encore Clefable, and Toxic Spikes immune Pokemon have made this set somewhat obsolete. Jirachi has a lot of options to support its team: most notably, any support set is free to run Healing Wish to bring a wounded teammate back to full health. Similarly, Jirachi makes for a great support on teams built around moves such as Rain Dance, Trick Room, or Gravity. With a set of Iron Head, U-turn, and two supporting options to chose from, Jirachi is able to pivot into opposing Draco Meteor and Outrage and regain momentum for its team. Rain Dance in particular is a great option, as Jirachi can punish Tyranitar trying to come in and cancel Rain Dance. A Choice Band set can work due to its obscurity, hiting Psychic-types such as Starmie, Latias and Celebi hard with U-turn. However, not being able to switch moves on such a versatile pokemon is often detrimental. Instead of paralysis, Jirachi can also build around Toxic, as flinching alongside poison wears down foes such as Hippowdon, Swampert, Zapdos, Suicune, and Gliscor much faster. A example set is Toxic, Substitute, Iron Head and Fire Punch with HP and Speed investment, but needs help with bulky Steel-types such as Heatran and Metagross. Jirachi is also free to use Rest and Sleep Talk instead of Wish and Protect on defensive sets alongside Fire Punch and Iron Head. This heals status, helps absorb Breloom's Spore, and gives Jirachi a lot more PP. Zen Headbutt hits Steel-type resistances such as Rotom-A or Water-types, but suffers from a middling 90% accurary, a lower flinch rate of 40% and overall poor synergistic coverage alongside Iron Head. Jirachi could theoretically run a mid game Dual Screens set, but there are better suited pokemon for this role. Jirachi also has access to Doom Desire, Water Pulse and Ancient Power: however these options are almost never worth the moveslot. Doom Desire suffers from a subpar 85% accuracy and a 2 two-turn delay, while Water Pulse and Ancient Power are too weak to make their unreliable secondary effects appealing. Jirachi could try to use Cosmic Power to gain inpenetrable bulk and Charge Beam to increase its Special attack with Serene Grace. However, these options require Jirachi to sit passively on the field for too many turns to be effective, leaving it susceptible to critical hits, Trick, phazing tactics and opposing setup.
Checks and Counters
===================
Jirachi is one of the key threats to deal with in DPP OU, and is typically checked throughout the game with multiple Pokemon. It is so threatening that even teams with multiple checks can still be soft against it; physical sets are often one freeze or burn away from breaking through bulky Steel-resists with Iron Head, while special sets and mixed sets take advantage of these Pokemon with super effective coverage. Keep note that while Jirachi can theoretically deal with all of its checks with the appropriate move or EV spreads, it can only carry four moves and its unboosted moves typically don't OHKO foes.
**Status**: Jirachi is reliant on its Speed and gradual damage to beat its opponent. Without Refresh, Heal Bell support, or Rest, Thunder Wave from Magnezone, opposing Jirachi, Clefable, Azelf, and Latias prevents Jirachi from taking advantage of Iron Head flinches. Burns from Will-O-Wisp Gengar and Rotom-H also puts a dent in physical versions of Jirachi by reducing Iron Head damage and canceling Leftovers recovery.
**Fire-types**: Leftovers Heatran is perhaps the best Jirachi counter in the tier. Heatran 4x resists Iron Head so that Leftovers outheals it, can outspeed defensive sets, and OHKOes it with Fire-type attacks. Other Fire-types threaten Jirachi in different ways: faster ones such as Infernape can OHKO Jirachi and will almost always force it out, while slower ones such as Camerupt can survive multiple attacks from both special and physical Jirachi and 2HKO it in return. Note that Jirachi can beat all of these Pokemon; Heatran without a Shuca Berry is OHKOed by +1 Hidden Power Ground without heavy Special Defense investment, while non Leftovers sets can be statused and worn down over the course of the game. Infernape and Camerupt fare similarly; as neither of these Pokemon punish Jirachi for using Iron Head, it can switch out and try to take them on once they are paralyzed or weakened.
**Ground-types**: While most Ground-types don't resist Iron Head and do not like paralysis or super effective coverage moves such as Ice Punch and Grass Knot, they are often bulky enough to take several hits, forcing Jirachi to get lucky lest it be 2HKOed. Swampert, Hippowdon, Flygon, Gliscor, and Nidoqueen can all take a few hits and retaliate with Earthquake. While it is often outsped and 2HKOed by Iron Head, Mamoswine is prominent for being the only one of these that can OHKO physically defensive Jirachi with a Choice Band Earthquake.
**Bulky Steel-types**: Magnezone, Skarmory, Metagross, Empoleon, and Bronzong are all bulky enough to at least scout Jirachi's set and resist Iron Head. Leftovers Magnezone is perhaps the best answer in the tier if Jirachi lacks Hidden Power Ground, Fire Punch, or U-turn, as it can heal off Iron Head damage, paralyze Jirachi, and eventually set up on or beat it. Skarmory can survive anything Jirachi throws at it unboosted and set up Spikes. Metagross can Trick Jirachi an Iron Ball, making it useless, while the Leftovers it often gets in return allow it to stall out Iron Head, whereas Bronzong is in a similar boat. Empoleon is another excellent answer, as it 4x resists Iron Head and can hit it hard in return. Note that none of these Pokemon like getting burned by Fire Punch, as it neuters their offenses and makes them vulnerable to being flinched down by Iron Head, as none of them outspeed Jirachi.
**Water-types**: Gyarados, Quagsire, Milotic, Suicune,and Starmie all resist Iron Head and can take multiple attacks from physical Jirachi. Note that sand + Iron Head can eventually most Water-types down, while they are particularly vulnerable to Jirachi's coverage moves.
**Other Sturdy Steel resists**: Among those not already mentioned, Zapdos and Suicune are particularly strong against Jirachi, as they have Pressure to further waste Iron Head PP. Both do not enjoy being paralyzed or worn down in sand. Rotom-A is another good choice, as mixed sets struggle to hit it hard without Psychic, while if Jirachi fails to flinch it, it will often burn it.
**Special Walls**: Special sets and mixed sets without Iron Head will often struggle against Blissey, Encore Clefable, Tyranitar, defensive Celebi, and Roar Latias. These Pokemon either take negligible damage from Jirachi's boosted options and can status it, or can disable it via phazing or Encore.
None of these Pokemon besides Tyranitar enjoyed being hit by Trick or most of Jirachi's physical moves, while Tyranitar is always afraid of Iron Head.
Jirachi is arguably the best Pokemon in DPP OU. Jirachi’s fantastic typing, great movepool, and excellent stats give it limitless versatility. Jirachi is the fastest defensive Steel-type; it has the bulk, Speed, recovery, and resistances, such as a crucial one to Dragon and an immunity to Toxic, to fulfill almost any defensive role. However, the main source of Jirachi’s prowess in DPP OU is a STAB boosted Iron Head and its 60% flinch chance due to Serene Grace. Chaining Iron Head flinches can both slowly wear down even bulky foes in conjunction with sand and Knock Off while passively healing Jirachi with Leftovers. Combined with many ways to paralyze the opponent such as Body Slam, Thunder, and Thunder Wave to facilitate paraflinching and Jirachi becomes one of the central threats in the tier all teams must be aware of.
Physical Jirachi can run a dizzying amount of viable EV spreads to take advantage of this, from focusing on HP and Speed as a fantastic utility Pokemon with options such as Stealth Rock and Substitute; fully investing in its defenses to be perhaps the best general wall in the tier with Wish and Protect; or being a great cleaner or Choice Scarfer with Attack and Speed investment and options such as Fire Punch, Ice Punch, U-turn, and Trick. Serene Grace also helps with coverage moves, as Jirachi has passive opportunities to get devastating burns and freezes from Fire Punch and Ice Punch that can bail it out of tough situations.
Jirachi also is one of the best special and mixed threats in the tier with access to Calm Mind and its great special movepool. Jirachi can customize its coverage and utility moves to handle most threats in the tier: Thunderbolt, Grass Knot, Hidden Power Ground, Psychic, and Hidden Power Fire are all options to take on foes such as Skarmory, Swampert, Hippowdon, Heatran, Magnezone, Gengar, and Scizor that can cause problems for physical Jirachi. Even with Calm Mind or an otherwise fully special moveset, Jirachi can use Iron Head to create free turns, 2HKO Tyranitar, and 4HKO specially defensive Clefable. Jirachi can also lean into its support movepool with options such as Wish, Refresh, and Substitute or even different items like a Shuca Berry, Lum Berry, or Occa Berry to make its Calm Mind sets more devastating.
Jirachi has an enormous influence of the DPP OU metagame, such as being one of the best switch-ins to Choice Specs Latias while also handling all three major Dragon Dance Pokemon in Dragonite, Gyarados, and Tyranitar with a simple Wish + Protect set. Jirachi is almost singled-handedly responsible for making bulkier threats resistant to Steel, such as Heatran, Swampert, and Metagross more often use Leftovers, as without it, Jirachi can eventually beat them with Iron Head and its coverage moves. Jirachi can even stop Magnezone trying to trap it, such as OHKOing it with Hidden Power Ground, outdamaging it with Fire Punch, or PP stalling it out of Thunderbolt with Wish and Protect. Jirachi is also a potent stallbreaker with Iron Head, as if Skarmory is burned or KOed, few foes on defensive teams enjoy taking it on with entry hazards up.
Jirachi primarily fears strong attackers, such as Heatran and Swampert who can break through its defenses and status if it isn’t running Refresh. Physical Jirachi struggles to take on foes resistant to Iron Head, have Leftovers, and are bulky enough to take multiple hits, such as Heatran, Swampert, Suicune, Magnezone, Zapdos, Metagross, and Empoleon. Zapdos and Suicune especially are dangerous due to their great bulk and Pressure depleting Iron Head PP, while Heatran, Magnezone, and Empoleon 4x resist Iron Head and out heal it with Leftovers. Gyarados, Swampert, and Metagross, and Hippowdon all can take multiple hits from physical Jirachi and hit it hard in return. Ghost-types are also annoying to Jirachi, as it cannot paralyze them the majority of the time. Both Gengar and Rotom-A can burn Jirachi, while Gengar naturally outspeeds it and Rotom-A is resistant to Iron Head and very bulky. Special Jirachi is typically hard stopped by Roar Latias and Encore Clefable, as it doesn’t have the proper coverage or power to break through them. Without Refresh or Heal Bell support, Jirachi is ruined by status. Paralysis, such as Choice Scarf Magnezone switching in and using Thunder Wave, Azelf paralyzing it with Thunder Wave in the lead spot, or opposing defensive Jirachi using Body Slam can prevent Jirachi from flinching foes and using Wish, while burn completely ruins its ability to do damage and slowly wears it down. While defensive Jirachi is really bulky, it can be broken down by very strong attacks such as Breloom’s Focus Punch and mixed Dragonite’s Fire Blast, especially if they are backed with Spikes. In theory, Jirachi can deal with all of these threats; however, it is limited to four moveslots and cannot threaten everything that gives it trouble.
[STRATEGY COMMENTS]
Other Options
=============
Jirachi's options are nigh limitless, and it is able to make use of most of its movepool. A set consisting of Substitute, Calm Mind, Psychic or Flash Cannon, and Thunderbolt with maximized HP and Speed EVs used to see use on teams based around Toxic Spikes. However, the prominence of Thunder Wave + Roar Latias, Encore Clefable, and Toxic Spikes immune Pokemon have made this set somewhat obsolete. Jirachi has a lot of options to support its team: most notably, any support set is free to run Healing Wish to bring a wounded teammate back to full health. Similarly, Jirachi makes for a great support on teams built around moves such as Rain Dance, Trick Room, or Gravity. With a set of Iron Head, U-turn, and two supporting options to chose from, Jirachi is able to pivot into opposing Draco Meteor and Outrage and regain momentum for its team. Rain Dance in particular is a great option, as Jirachi can punish Tyranitar trying to come in and cancel Rain Dance. A Choice Band set can work due to its obscurity, hiting Psychic-types such as Starmie, Latias and Celebi hard with U-turn. However, not being able to switch moves on such a versatile pokemon is often detrimental. Instead of paralysis, Jirachi can also build around Toxic, as flinching alongside poison wears down foes such as Hippowdon, Swampert, Zapdos, Suicune, and Gliscor much faster. A example set is Toxic, Substitute, Iron Head and Fire Punch with HP and Speed investment, but needs help with bulky Steel-types such as Heatran and Metagross. Jirachi is also free to use Rest and Sleep Talk instead of Wish and Protect on defensive sets alongside Fire Punch and Iron Head. This heals status, helps absorb Breloom's Spore, and gives Jirachi a lot more PP. Zen Headbutt hits Steel-type resistances such as Rotom-A or Water-types, but suffers from a middling 90% accurary, a lower flinch rate of 40% and overall poor synergistic coverage alongside Iron Head. Jirachi could theoretically run a mid game Dual Screens set, but there are better suited pokemon for this role. Jirachi also has access to Doom Desire, Water Pulse and Ancient Power: however these options are almost never worth the moveslot. Doom Desire suffers from a subpar 85% accuracy and a 2 two-turn delay, while Water Pulse and Ancient Power are too weak to make their unreliable secondary effects appealing. Jirachi could try to use Cosmic Power to gain inpenetrable bulk and Charge Beam to increase its Special attack with Serene Grace. However, these options require Jirachi to sit passively on the field for too many turns to be effective, leaving it susceptible to critical hits, Trick, phazing tactics and opposing setup.
Checks and Counters
===================
Jirachi is one of the key threats to deal with in DPP OU, and is typically checked throughout the game with multiple Pokemon. It is so threatening that even teams with multiple checks can still be soft against it; physical sets are often one freeze or burn away from breaking through bulky Steel-resists with Iron Head, while special sets and mixed sets take advantage of these Pokemon with super effective coverage. Keep note that while Jirachi can theoretically deal with all of its checks with the appropriate move or EV spreads, it can only carry four moves and its unboosted moves typically don't OHKO foes.
**Status**: Jirachi is reliant on its Speed and gradual damage to beat its opponent. Without Refresh, Heal Bell support, or Rest, Thunder Wave from Magnezone, opposing Jirachi, Clefable, Azelf, and Latias prevents Jirachi from taking advantage of Iron Head flinches. Burns from Will-O-Wisp Gengar and Rotom-H also puts a dent in physical versions of Jirachi by reducing Iron Head damage and canceling Leftovers recovery.
**Fire-types**: Leftovers Heatran is perhaps the best Jirachi counter in the tier. Heatran 4x resists Iron Head so that Leftovers outheals it, can outspeed defensive sets, and OHKOes it with Fire-type attacks. Other Fire-types threaten Jirachi in different ways: faster ones such as Infernape can OHKO Jirachi and will almost always force it out, while slower ones such as Camerupt can survive multiple attacks from both special and physical Jirachi and 2HKO it in return. Note that Jirachi can beat all of these Pokemon; Heatran without a Shuca Berry is OHKOed by +1 Hidden Power Ground without heavy Special Defense investment, while non Leftovers sets can be statused and worn down over the course of the game. Infernape and Camerupt fare similarly; as neither of these Pokemon punish Jirachi for using Iron Head, it can switch out and try to take them on once they are paralyzed or weakened.
**Ground-types**: While most Ground-types don't resist Iron Head and do not like paralysis or super effective coverage moves such as Ice Punch and Grass Knot, they are often bulky enough to take several hits, forcing Jirachi to get lucky lest it be 2HKOed. Swampert, Hippowdon, Flygon, Gliscor, and Nidoqueen can all take a few hits and retaliate with Earthquake. While it is often outsped and 2HKOed by Iron Head, Mamoswine is prominent for being the only one of these that can OHKO physically defensive Jirachi with a Choice Band Earthquake.
**Bulky Steel-types**: Magnezone, Skarmory, Metagross, Empoleon, and Bronzong are all bulky enough to at least scout Jirachi's set and resist Iron Head. Leftovers Magnezone is perhaps the best answer in the tier if Jirachi lacks Hidden Power Ground, Fire Punch, or U-turn, as it can heal off Iron Head damage, paralyze Jirachi, and eventually set up on or beat it. Skarmory can survive anything Jirachi throws at it unboosted and set up Spikes. Metagross can Trick Jirachi an Iron Ball, making it useless, while the Leftovers it often gets in return allow it to stall out Iron Head, whereas Bronzong is in a similar boat. Empoleon is another excellent answer, as it 4x resists Iron Head and can hit it hard in return. Note that none of these Pokemon like getting burned by Fire Punch, as it neuters their offenses and makes them vulnerable to being flinched down by Iron Head, as none of them outspeed Jirachi.
**Water-types**: Gyarados, Quagsire, Milotic, Suicune,and Starmie all resist Iron Head and can take multiple attacks from physical Jirachi. Note that sand + Iron Head can eventually most Water-types down, while they are particularly vulnerable to Jirachi's coverage moves.
**Other Sturdy Steel resists**: Among those not already mentioned, Zapdos and Suicune are particularly strong against Jirachi, as they have Pressure to further waste Iron Head PP. Both do not enjoy being paralyzed or worn down in sand. Rotom-A is another good choice, as mixed sets struggle to hit it hard without Psychic, while if Jirachi fails to flinch it, it will often burn it.
**Special Walls**: Special sets and mixed sets without Iron Head will often struggle against Blissey, Encore Clefable, Tyranitar, defensive Celebi, and Roar Latias. These Pokemon either take negligible damage from Jirachi's boosted options and can status it, or can disable it via phazing or Encore.
None of these Pokemon besides Tyranitar enjoyed being hit by Trick or most of Jirachi's physical moves, while Tyranitar is always afraid of Iron Head.
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