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Name:
Jirachi
Set:
Hidden Legends
Card#:
8/101
Type:
Metal/Psychic
Stage:
Basic
HP:
70
Weakness:
Fire
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Make a Wish
Search your deck for a card that evolves from 1 of your
Pokémon and put it on that Pokémon. (This counts as
evolving that Pokémon.) If you do, put 1 damage counter
on Jirachi. Shuffle your deck afterward.
Attack#2:
(PM) Mind Bend [30]
Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now
Confused.
Attributes:
Jirachi is a Basic Pokémon – as long as you have
room, you can just drop them into play. Jirachi
is a dual-type: Metal and Psychic. Metal is great-Metal
Weakness is more or less established though still far
from common, but so is Metal Resistance (which is a hair
older). Most importantly, it allows you to use Metal
Energy cards to soak damage. Psychic Weakness is
very common: if you can get the Energy on it, you can
harass T2 Medicham ex, Hariyama ex,
Liability decks (reference the Abilities section).
70 HP is great for a Basic, even when it can’t Evolve.
Between the HP and Metal Energy, you have a decent shot
of lasting a few turns. Weakness to Fire Pokémon is
expected, and might be a pain if Arcanine ex is
as popular as expected (most I know are still trying to
get them, hence the uncertainty). Also, there are some
solid Fire decks that just don't seem to make the top
cut like Salamence δ, yet are still good, solid
decks. No Resistance is lame: it feels like a weak
attempt at simplifying cards that don’t need it.
Finally, we see a retreat of just one. This is good.
It is easy pay, even when having to worry about Energy
types. Just don’t chuck the Special ones. ;)
Abilities:
Make a Wish is great for a lot of decks that want to
Evolve quickly: if you topdeck Rare Candy and
your Stage 1 (or something to grab your Stage 1), you
can have a Stage 2 ready to go first turn… that isn’t
De-Evolution bait (a concern again that we have two
different decks specializing in it: the latest version
of Dark Tyranitar/Dark Ampharos and now
Cradily/Dark Ampharos). I haven’t seen much
of the latter, but the former is still alive and well.
Even without any extra help, so long as you have Basics
in play (and given the amount of Trainer based search we
have for that), this can get you set up and set up
quickly. Most importantly, it has a colorless cost… so
you can run it in just about any deck.
Mind Bend won’t be used much, but in the decks that can
pay for it, it can be pretty handy. 30 points of damage
with Confusion is very frustrating. Not something to
count on, but something to worry the opponent. After
all, a deck like Liability normally doesn’t care if
Weezing gets damaged, since it blows itself up. It
is not happy for Weezing to take 60 total damage
though (since it’s Weak to Psychic Pokémon) and then
have a 50% chance of Liability failing and just knocking
Weezing itself out.
Uses and
Combinations:
The reason this card isn’t used too much is that we have
the other Jirachi, from EX Deoxys. In the
end, that one tends to be more useful. Still, if you
can squeeze one of these in with it (or several other
“opening” Pokémon), it can actually be a nice fallback
option, especially against De-Evolution decks. Remember
that it can be useful to let this Evolve most of your
Pokémon and then allow it to be KO’d: this will let you
pull the ever annoying Pow! Hand Extension /Scramble
Energy trick and have a bench full of Evolutions.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1.5/5 – Probably not even worth it for getting Neo
Genesis Slowking out faster, unless you are sure
you can handle more than likely trading one Prize for a
Slowking.
Modified:
3/5-It requires some common sense to use, but it can be
a real boon when used right. “Using it right” appears
to be TecHing a single copy in.
Limited:
3.5/5-Use it to get your Evos out post haste! It’d be
worth more if you were guaranteed to have a good
Evolution line or two. Instead, you’ll mostly be hit or
miss depending on the Basics you get. After all, if you
are stuck running a 1-1 line, it will be great getting
it out but Jirachi still needs the Basic as a
starting point. If it’s a Starter Deck event and you
have the Jirachi Starter from Hidden Legends,
jack it up to a 4/5 due to access to actual Metal
Energy and a solid Evolution line.
Summary
A solid bit of TecH, I think, and it’s in a Starter
Deck, making it easy to get a hold of.
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