Name:
Jirachi
Set:
EX Deoxys
Card#:
9/107
Rarity:
Holographic-Rare
Type:
Metal
Stage:
Basic
HP:
60
Weakness:
Fire
Resistance:
Grass
Retreat:
(C)
Poké-Power:
Wishing Star
Once during your turn (before your attack), if
Jirachi is your Active Pokémon, you may look at the top
5 cards of your deck, choose 1 of them, and put it into
your hand. Shuffle your deck afterward. Jirachi and
your other Active Pokémon, if any, are now Asleep. This
power can’t be used if Jirachi is affected by a Special
Condition.
Attack:
(MC) Metallic Blow [20+]
If the Defending Pokémon has any Poké-Body, this
attack does 20 damage plus 30 more damage.
Attributes:
Jirachi is a normal Basic Pokémon: no complicated
rules to worry about and easy to put into play. Jirachi
is a Metal Pokémon, which is one of if not the best type
to be in the game: minimal Resistance on a few
underplayed Electric-type Pokémon and a decent amount of
Weakness. Only Darkness-Type might be better.
60 HP is barely adequate for a non-Evolving (either into
or from something) Pokémon. I really think such a
Pokémon needs 70 HP, as a Straight 60 damage is sort of
the base line for big attacks. Still, it isn’t hurt as
bad as others since it is a Metal Pokémon and, provided
real Metal Energy are attached, you can fake having a
higher HP score. A Weakness to Fire Pokémon really
hurts it, as Firestarter-Blaziken decks still
have a strong following. Most Combusken can OHKO
you with little difficulty. Some Torchic even
can! Grass Resistance is a welcome sight: although
Grass Pokémon usually favor less direct forms of damage
(like from Special Conditions), that means that the
Resistance greatly reduces the direct damage Jirachi
will take. Finally, a Retreat Cost of just one is
pretty reasonable. Still, since this is a Metal Pokémon
you are more apt to be using Metal Energy, and that is
not something you want to be discarding. So it is still
happy, but requires caution.
Abilities:
Jirachi has one attack and a Poké-Power. The
attack is reasonably solid: for (MC), you should score
about 25 points of damage. Instead you do 20, unless
the Defending Pokémon has a Poké-Body, in which case you
do another 30 points of damage. So while you won’t get
the big bonus that often, it is a six fold return on the
investment.
However, most people will play it for the Poké-Power;
that is a mistake. Jirachi must be active for
this Poké-Power to work, and can only use the Poké-Power
once per turn. After it uses it’s Poké-Power, it puts
itself (and you’re other Active Pokémon if playing
2-on-2). All that just to look at your top five cards
of your deck and add one to hand, sort of a Forest
Guardian “minus”. Thing is, Forest Guardian
was an “iffy” supporter. As a once-a-turn Poké-Power
that will usually cost you your attack (unless you combo
it), even in 2-on-2 play. That is a lot for a small
return: one card from the top five isn’t bad, but it’s
not great, either.
Uses/Combinations:
There two decent ways to lessen the downside of the
Poké-Power: run something like Wigglytuff from EX
Fire Red/Leaf Green to ditch the sleep, or (much
easier), use
Island Cave
(a Stadium that removes Special Conditions from
Fighting, Water, and Metal Pokémon when an Energy is
attached to them). Switch and Warp Point
can help you use two copies of Jirachi for twice
the draw power… but honestly, why go to all this trouble
when we have Fire Red/Leaf Green Pidgeot and
Smooth Over-Magcargo? All the effort you make to
use Jirachi well, it wastes all the space saved
by using a Basic instead of an Evolution. Besides, most
Metal oriented decks I see run the two Metagross,
and need to set up quickly… which is better accomplished
via Magnetic Call Beldum and Hidden Legends
Jirachi. It’s not uncommon to see Sandstorm
Dunsparce and Fire Red/Leaf Green Pidgeot for
even faster set ups without Trainers. I’ve faced such
decks, and they are quite nasty already.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5-No. Neo Genesis Pichu Zzaps it, while Neo
Genesis Cleffa out performs it.
Modified:
1.75/5-It can be used, but the effort to get a return
equivalent of most other cards means you should just run
most other cards.
Limited:
3/5-Draw power is good. Hurting Pokémon with Poké-Body
is good since there are 26 that would be affected by
said bonus in EX Deoxys.
Summary
Nice idea, bad execution: use the Hidden Legends version
instead to Evolve quickly.
