TL;DR: Should You Pull?
Power Ranking: 9/10
A defensive support that can give crit buffs and Super Effective Up to her allies and can easily be slotted on multiple teams.
Should You Pull: Quick Overview
For those looking at high optimization, Jasmine may not be the best, but she's still a valued addition to most rosters. She may not be as strong as the two Greninja Master Fairs running at the moment, but she is arguably better than the next few rerunning soon. That being said, the best choice is still to wait until the next datamine that's very close to happening.
What Does It Do?
Fairly popular as a gym leader in the Johto region, Jasmine was notable as she was someone you first encountered not at her gym, but at the top of the lighthouse with a quest to find a medicine for a sick Ampharos. Despite being a Pokémon she's often associated with, Jasmine is actually a Steel-type trainer, leaving not much room for an Electric-type Sync Pair. This changed now, however, as the successor to the classic Amphy is now partnered with Jasmine for the 2022 Holidays, so, did he live up to the name of his predecessor? Let's find out!
Ampharos is a support, opening up with a statline of 679/278/278 defensively - however, it can also Mega Evolve, giving out an extra 1.2x multiplier to its defenses. This makes its bulk go from very good to absolutely fantastic, easily shaking off hits after the Mega Evolution. The offenses are very low at 132 Attack and 171 Sp. Attack, which is not a big deal, while Speed is an average 283 - Jasmine won't be able to support gauge out of her base Speed alone like someone such as Champion Calem does, but she won't drag it down either. The only Pokémon move we have here is Thunder Shock, useful simply for the fact it costs only one gauge. The items include the new Super Effective Up, doing exactly what its name implies: Super Effective Up Next to one ally, similar to Red & Snorlax's Trainer Move, although obviously lacking the other effects the TM provides. The second item is Potion, another generically useful item to keep the team healthy, especially for a defensively oriented support. Finally, the actual Trainer Move is Comforting Light!, targeting one ally to give it +3 Defense and Special Defense, Gradual Healing, and Endure. While this does nothing offensively, this is one of the biggest powerhouses in terms of defensive trainer moves, maxing out both defenses without MPR and giving Endure to an ally to survive strong AoE moves or even Jasmine herself, only being slightly held back by the fact that it's a single target. The Sync Move Snowy Night's Guide Electric Beam will turn Ampharos into Mega Ampharos.
The passives include Endurance and Full-Bracing Command 9, a passive that gives Jasmine +1 to both defenses when she uses a Trainer Move. This combination aims at discouraging players from using Jasmine's Trainer Move on herself and instead focusing on her allies, which also goes a long way in mitigating the problem of a single target Trainer Move and just makes her a lot more smooth to play in general. This is further emphasized by her Mega Evolution passives, Debut Regen and Full-Bracing Command+ 9, giving her Gradual Healing the first time she uses her Sync Move and turning the +1 defenses from her passive into a +2. Finally, her last passive is available on both forms and is called Team Critical Command 9, giving AoE crit buffs every time Jasmine uses a Trainer Move.
Naturally, this draws comparisons to the Master Fair Sygna Suit Cynthia (Aura), who's also a Mega Evolving Support Sync Pair that focuses on the defensive side and gives you AoE crit buffs offensively. While they have their differences, this should already tell you that Jasmine is not just another Support and brings a lot to the table to prove herself. While the base kit doesn't give offensive buffs outside of crit, a lot of the recent units can max out their offenses by themselves, which help in making it a lesser issue, while the defensive aspect is straight up one of the best in the game.
How To Use It?
Sync Grid Considerations & Lucky Skills
Sync Grid & Sync Levels
Jasmine has a few notable nodes: Adrenaline 1 is always a great Quality of Life passive to have if you plan on syncing with her, especially if you go into the Team Shout 4 or Static Cling 9 route - since those two effects remove the chance of quad queue if they activate in the wrong time, Adrenaline will compensate for it. Catalyst is another good passive to have, as Jasmine doesn't offer any gauge support otherwise.
What might really catch the eyes of most players, however, is the top left section of the Sync Grid: Team Fierce Entry 1 gives the team +1 Attack upon entry and reactivates when Ampharos Mega Evolves, while Trainer Move: Mighty Friend 9 gives +1 Physical Move Up Next to the partner who was targeted by Jasmine's Trainer Move. They also have their special counterpart, Team Grand Entry 1 and Trainer Move: Clever Friend 9. This turns Jasmine into a support that can actually contribute considerably more offensively to the team, as we already saw some supports that only give +2 offenses succeed in the past, such as Sygna Suit Morty. It is worth noting, however, that Jasmine's Move Up Next passives require the move to be successful, so it won't activate if a partner has +6 defenses, regen, and endurance activated. While this may sound a lot, this is already done by the time Jasmine uses her second Trainer Move on a target.
Finally, we have the usual Potion nodes in a dual Master Healer 1 and MP Refresh 2: the options are there for a strong Potion, but Jasmine's grid is quite expensive, often not leaving energy for it. Overall, any of ⅕, ⅖, and ⅗ are acceptable points to stop, although ⅖ is prob the weakest link between investment and return compared to the other two options.
EX Viability
EX should be a priority for Jasmine. A Mega Evolution that gives her stronger passives, a better bulk, and plays well with her grid by reactivating some passives for offensive buffs means she'll want to Sync on pretty much every team she shows up with the Support EX boost.
Lucky Skills
Common to Supports, Vigilance is a strong choice as usual to prevent random crits from putting Jasmine in danger, especially as her bulk is built a bit over time instead of instant with the way her self defensive boosts work. Speedy Entry 2 is pretty decent as well to boost her gauge as a Mega Evolving Sync Pair, guaranteeing an easy +4 Speed. Finally, Head Start 1 could be used if you have a specific team composition in mind, but Jasmine has nothing to provide further accelerations early on - a dual Adrenaline 1 build, however, could see more use due to naturally being harder to find pairs that can provide a post-Sync Acceleration.
Games Modes
Jasmine will do great in battles that take longer to KO. She's a fantastic option for Extreme Battle Events even off-region, as she can provide both offensively with her Move Up Next and especially her Super Effective Up effects while also making the team a lot sturdier - the endurance effect, in particular, makes her more reliable in taking hits as well. For similar reasons, she should also be strong in Legendary Arenas, where the Thunder Shock paralysis chance may prove useful as well.
For Master Mode, Jasmine is good, but may not see as much use compared to the other two modes since it's faster paced - don't get it wrong though, she's still a great choice here. Jasmine's dependence on Trainer Moves makes her not a good choice for Battle Villa.
Team Compositions
As a Support, you don't really build teams around Jasmine, and instead choose her based on the needs of your main offensive unit. That being said, Jasmine's buffs naturally lean into supporting those units who have multipliers based on their defenses: Emmet (Special Costume) & Escavalier, Sophocles & Golem, and N & Sigilyph are examples that include one of Tough Cookie or Smart Cookie, but a special mention goes to Diantha (Special Costume) & Keldeo, who have multipliers based on both defenses.
Offensively self-sufficient (or nearly) Sync Pairs also work well with Jasmine for the defensive buffs and Super Effective Up Next, such as Ash & Pikachu, Iris (Fall 2022) & Naganadel, and Archie & Kyogre. Overall, Jasmine may not have too many specific synergies, but her generally useful kit means she can be paired with most strikers to at least decent success.
Is It Worth Pulling?
Jasmine is a very solid support that lacks a bit of specialization. This means that you may not feel like she's needed when you have other top tier supports, such as Red & Snorlax or Sygna Suit Cynthia (Aura) & Lucario, but if you're just looking for a support that can cover a spot on a team and make it better, she'll be an excellent choice boosting their survivability and making their Super Effective hits stronger.
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