Battle Moveset

A Good Moveset for Jirachi would have to be this:

Attacks:

Psychic
Thunder / Thunderbolt
Calm Mind
Wish

Items Attached:

Leftovers

Preferred Nature:

Bold

Strategy Using Jirachi

The Calm Mind Wishing Jirachi is arguably the most popular version of Jirachi. With Calm Mind Jirachi can boost its already good Special Defence and Attack and it's good HP and Defence combined with Wish give it a lot of survivability, allowing it to become a strong attacker as well as a formidable defensive force. On top of that it can also lend support to it's team-mates with Wish.

Thunder and Thunderbolt are the main areas of variation of Jirachi. Thunder's accuracy is questionable, although Jirachi is defensively strong enough that it can afford the occasional miss it is definitely a disadvantage. In exchange Thunder comes with a 60% chance of paralysing the opponent it hits, a boost from the normal 30% due to Serene Grace. Thunderbolt on the other hand has reliable accuracy and a respectable 20% chance of paralysis. It usually comes down to preference but both are strong choices.

EV Corner:

EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 16 Spd / 128 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)

Max HP is a given on Jirachi, it significantly boosts both of Jirachi's defences as well as increasing the HP regained from Leftovers and Wish. Since Jirachi has Calm Mind it's Defence is usually the main stat to bulk up, 290-300 is usually the stat most people shoot for when using Jirachi, allowing it to absorb most physical attacks, even the occasional Earthquake that it is sometimes forced to handle. Speed is an area of controversy on Jirachi, 240 is the bare minimum stat to shoot for, guaranteeing that Jirachi will out-speed Magneton and Metagross provided they don't have a nature boost to their Speed (and most times they don't). The rest of the EVs can be chucked into Special Attack or Special Defence, giving Jirachi a boost before it starts to use Calm Mind.

Other Optional Sets

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 148 Spd / 108 SAtk
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Thunder / Thunderbolt

Substitute Jirachi is arguably the second most popular variation of Jirachi. This version is orientated much more to sweeping than tanking, without Wish Jirachi has no means of self-recovery outside of Leftovers so it has a harder time absorbing attacks and can't be used carelessly. 300 Speed is the main number to aim for with this Jirachi, allowing it to outrun a large number of threats (Salamence, Zapdos, Slaking, Heracross etc.). Jirachi's Substitutes with it's absolute max HP (404) can absorb two Seismic Tosses or Night Shades and after a few Calm Minds they will become nearly impenetrable by Special Attacks, they also come with the added bonus of blocking statuses and acting as a buffer against critical hits.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Spd / 128 SAtk / 112 SDef
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Reflect
- Wish
- Thunder / Thunderbolt

The Reflect passing Jirachi. Since Jirachi's normal counters are physical attackers Reflect can pay off nicely for Jirachi, allowing it to stand up to Pokémon that would normally be great threats to it. Reflect also generally lends a lot of support to Jirachi's team alongside Wish.

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 112 Def / 16 Spd / 128 SAtk
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Psychic
- Light Screen
- Wish
- Thunder / Thunderbolt

The Light Screen passing Jirachi. As mentioned, Jirachi's normal counters are physical attackers, and as an unfortunate side-effect of that this set proves to be less effective than the Reflect passer, bulking up Special Defence isn't particularly useful against physical attackers. Still, this set is still an effective option and between Wish and Screen Jirachi offers a lot of support to it's team.

Other Optional Moves

Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Protect, Thunder Wave, Body Slam, Doom Desire, Cosmic Power, Psych Up.

Fire Punch and Ice Punch are popular options to use in place of Thunder and Thunderbolt. Fire Punch helps Jirachi counter Pokémon that normally counter it: Metagross, Steelix and Magneton mainly. Ice Punch stops Claydol and Celebi from being able to wall it as well as giving Salamence a big surprise.

Protect works alongside Wish allowing Jirachi to recover it's HP in a way comparable to Recover. Protect has the added bonus of giving 'free' Leftovers recovery and allowing Jirachi to scout your opponent's move set. Being able to scout opposing move sets is particularly helpful when faced against a Choice Band user, since it makes it easier to know which counter to switch to. Thunder Wave is guaranteed paralysis when it lands which is always helpful for both Jirachi's team as well as Jirachi itself. A lot of Jirachi's counters are sweepers so they will particularly despise the paralysis status.

Body Slam enjoys some popularity on physical Jirachi's. With Serene Grace it has a 60% chance of paralysing the opponent. The main flaw with the move is it's weak, with only a Base Power of 85 and no chance of hitting opponents for a super-effective hit you can't expect to cause much damage with the move. Doom Desire proves to also be popular on physical Jirachi sets, it uses unusual mechanics when compared with most moves and falls under slightly different damage calculations so the move tends to be surprising and difficult for an opponent to handle.

Cosmic Power is a stalling option, plain and simple. Unfortunately, even though it boosts both Defence and Special Defence, it doesn't block critical hits, which are inevitable when stalling. It can also be blown away by Whirlwind or Roar or be removed by Haze. Unlike Calm Mind, since it doesn't boost Jirachi's offence, Jirachi can't land as big a hit on opponents using those moves. Psych Up can copy an opponents stat boosts, but it's use is rather situational. It's handy for countering an opponent who's got some stat-boosts in place but Jirachi can boost it's own stats with Calm Mind anyway so it's debatable whether it's worth spending the move slot on Psych Up.

Strategy Against Jirachi

The main fault of Jirachi is it's predictable. 90% of Jirachi's use Psychic, Calm Mind, Thunder/bolt and either Wish or Substitute. However, even though it's move set is predictable it's still a force to be reckoned with. Jirachi only has two weaknesses: Fire and Ground. Ground is the easiest to exploit since Calm Mind doesn't defend it against Ground attacks but strong Fire Attacks are still viable.

Steelix, Claydol and Magneton resist Jirachi's two core offensive moves. Steelix and Claydol are notable for having STAB Earthquake whilst Magneton has Magnet Pull to trap Jirachi with as well as Metal Sound to lower it's Special Defence. Metagross and Tyranitar are immune to Psychic and don't take too much damage from Thunder/bolt and both can do a lot of damage to Jirachi with Earthquake. Swampert and some other bulky Ground types are immune to Thunder/bolt and have a STAB Earthquake to hit Jirachi with. Snorlax can shrug off Jirachi's attacks and beat it with Earthquake but it has difficulties without Earthquake. Salamence and Dugtrio can pick off a weakened Jirachi, Dugtrio also has the Arena Trap trait to prevent Jirachi from switching out.

Celebi can match Calm Minds with Jirachi and then Baton Pass to a counter, it can also stall it out of PP and drain it's HP with Leech Seed or even use the rarely see Perish Song to force it out of play. A Calm Mind or Psych Up Blissey can also match Calm Minds with Jirachi and stall it out of PP, however it usually ends up as a battle to see who can get a Critical Hit first. The same can be said for Psych Up variations of Regice although they don't have an immediate form of self-recovery (comparable to Softboiled or Wish) and have a much tougher time.

Slow Jirachi's can be picked off by opponents that usually wouldn't beat it, Medicham and Heracross are examples. Neither can switch into Jirachi safely because of Psychic but if they come in after Jirachi has KOed something or predict when Jirachi isn't going to attack they can do a large chunk of damage to it. Jirachi's without Substitute can be slowed down by Thunder Wave and are much easier to pick off whilst Jirachi's without Wish usually have a harder time against repeated beatings, it's also notable that Jirachi without Wish can't heal off damage from Burns so it'll eventually be KOed during a long battle if it's hit with a Burn.

Contest Moveset

A good Contest Moveset for Jirachi would have to be this for the Calm, Gentle, Careful, Sassy Nature:

Attacks:

Calm Mind
Psychic
ThunderWave
Destiny Bond

Items Attached:

Green Scarf

Strategy Using Jirachi

If you do the attacks in this following order you should have very few problems; 1st - Calm mind, 2nd - Psychic, 3rd - Thunderwave, 4th - Psychic, 5th - Destiny bond

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Transfer from Colosseum Bonus Disk/Channel Colosseum/XD Trade from RSE Fire Red/Leaf Green Transfer from Colosseum Bonus Disk/Channel

Animé Appearences

Jirachi has had 1 Animé Appearence. The Entire 6th movie was based on it. Every 1,000 years, Jirachi awakens and Ash & co were at the area at that time. Jirachi awakened and was quickly befriended by Max. However Butler had his own plans for Jirachi and it's wish granting skills. He kidnapped Jirachi and used its powers to re-awaken Groudon...but instead Jirachi resists and Butler creates a fake Groudon Movie 6: Jirachi - Wish Maker