Should You Pull? Tate & Jirachi

Please accept my apologies for being late with the publication of this article. Due to the power-outages in the midwest, I was unable to finish in time, but we've decided to go ahead and release this article for potential future utility. 

-Raven8

The Summertime is truly wonderful. Looking into the clear night’s sky on a warm evening puts a lot into perspective if you allow it, and the ability to cast an occasional wish into the stars of Heaven above doesn’t hurt either. Well, it seems that at least one of those wishes have finally come true, as Jirachi has finally awakened from its slumber and paired up with Tate, a trainer who’s waited a long time for a chance to shine. Together, they’re here to not only make their own wish, but also make sure that it comes true.

At the core of their strategy, Tate & Jirachi focus on debuffing/statusing the opposing team, buffing their own team, and dealing surprisingly high damage. And all while wishing for a little luck along the way. The core of their Tech utility comes from their focus on dropping Attack and Paralyzing, then switching to Flash Cannon to deal damage while fishing for Accuracy drops with a little luck. To add insult to injury, Tate & Jirachi also have a unique skill that will drop the target’s Special Defense by 2 ranks any time that they’re targeted by one of Jirachi’s moves. This includes Charm, Thunder Wave, and Flash Cannon; basically any move save Tate’s Trainer Move will trigger this effect and quickly melt away the opposition’s Special Defense as a side-effect of doing literally anything else. For team support, Tate’s Trainer Move not only maxes Jirachi’s Critical Rate and buffs its Special Attack, it also sets the Move Gauge Acceleration effect on the field, making it a bit easier on the team to keep throwing out heavy hits after its use. But even more than that, Tate & Jirachi also have a passive skill that will randomly boost one random, non-Critical-Rate stat for the entire team by 2 every other use of a move that targets an opposing Sync Pair. The random nature of this buff may be random by definition, but it can definitely be useful if it happens to roll in the team’s favor. Finally, we come to the offensive part of Tate & Jirachi’s kit. The only move that they have that actually deals damage is Flash Cannon, which is a 3-bar Steel Type move that’s pretty mediocre, truth be told. I mean, it has the aforementioned Accuracy drop chance built in and will quickly melt away the target’s Special Defense thanks to one of Tate & Jirachi’s passive abilities to deal even more mounting damage, but overall it’s kind of disappointing… isn’t it? Well, it turns out that it’s not quite alone, as DeNA remembered Jirachi’s signature move, but gave it to us in a slightly different way. In much the same way that Tate & Jirachi spread around a buff with every second enemy-targeting move that they use, they also grant their own wish and call down Doom Desire for free every other move. This variant of Jirachi’s signature move has roughly the same power as most 4-bar moves, and greatly buffs Tate & Jirachi’s average damage output as a direct result.

When played to their strengths, Tate & Jirachi have phenomenal average performance. The ability to melt the opposing team’s Attack, Special Defense, and Accuracy while also spreading around Paralysis and buffing their team means that they can definitely stand out as a team VIP on the right stage, even going so far as to go nuclear with a great single-target Sync Move when the need arises. They’re fairly easy on the Move Gauge, and can pair with some great attackers with the right support. However, it seems that Jirachi didn’t manage to entirely grant Tate’s wish to be stronger. For starters, Tate & Jirachi’s base debuffing profile can be a bit underwhelming. While debuffing Attack is always a nice effect, most important stages nowadays tend to pack Physical and Special attacks alike. This means that the utility that this tactic offers the team can be a bit dubious outside of stages that exclusively use physical attacks or as setup fodder for offensive Sync Pairs that use effects like Pecking Order or Insult to Injury for a boost based on Attack drops… or to set up a stronger nuke from Tate & Jirachi, as their Sync Move also preys on Attack drops for a power-up. Moving on from that,  Paralysis is also kind of underwhelming, as most opponents will pack enough resistance to it that they’ll almost never miss attacking due to its effect, and the innate Speed drop generally won’t change how the opposing team operates. Again, this is mainly setup fodder for other Sync Pairs that can capitalize on it… like Tate & Jirachi with their Sync Grid!

All-in-all, Tate & Jirachi are actually really good, but at the same time they feel like a basic year-1 Tech unit that’s been patched with a whole bunch of more modern effects to try to bring them up to date.

Sync Grids & Upgrades

When setting up Tate & Jirachi, it’s important to note that they get a lot out of being EXed. What is potentially their greatest offensive power comes from their Sync Move, and the 1.5x Multiplier that they get as a Tech unit is a huge help on that front. And it’s probably best to stick with Critical Strike 2 for a Lucky Skill as it’s got the classic universal utility that works well regardless of the situation and takes that Sync Move to even greater heights. As for their Sync Grid; while good at ⅕, Tate & Jirachi is a Sync Pair that gets a lot of power via their Sync Grid, especially at ⅗. 

• At ⅕, just pick up everything and move on.
• At ⅖, most of what Tate & Jirchi get isn’t that outstanding, truth be told. Tiles like Flash Cannon: Fortuitous 9, Status P-Move: Stat Up 9, and Charm: Ramp Up 1 can all be useful for self-buffing, but none of them are ground-breaking. Flash Cannon: Move Gauge Refresh 3 is nice for some Move Gauge support, and Wish upon a Star!: Hit and Heal 9 can be nice for some Gradual Healing, but none of these tiles will really make any ground-shaking changes to Tate & Jirachi.
•  ⅗ is where the flood-gates open, as right off the bat we get Rising Tide and Static Shock 5 to turn Tate & Jirachi’s Sync Move into a huge ball of single-target damage that preys on what they do anyway. Inflicter’s Fervor is here for Sync Move Countdown support, Use Doom Desire: Team Same Stat Up and Team Lucky Entry 1 for more random stats at various points in the battle, and even Brainteaser to capitalize even more on Special Defense drops with Flash Cannon and Doom Desire. 

Honestly, giving a Move Level Candy to Tate & Jirachi can be a bit iffy. They have a lot of potential power behind them, but the problem is that you’re better off committing to ⅗ or just sticking with ⅕.

Team Compositions

Taking their kit at face-value, Tate & Jirachi work best when paired with Special attackers that also deal Steel Type damage, meaning the ideal partner is Raihan & Duraludon, who can throw out huge Steel Type damage and synergize with Tate & Jirachi’s unique kit extremely well.

Other Special Attackers can also utilize Tate & Jirachi’s Special Defense busting capabilities to hit even harder than they otherwise would, especially those who have Smarty Pants or Brainteaser like Giovnani & Mewtwo, Player & Solgaleo, or Anniversary May & Latias.

Other attackers capable of capitalizing on Paralysis like Marnie & Morepeko or Ash & Pikachu can also appreciate Tate & Jirachi dropping a targeted Thunder Wave before they unload a lot of extra pain without having to spend extra time worrying about fishing for the effect themselves.

If the goal is to use Tate & Jirachi as attackers unto themselves, then their best pairing has to be with Palentine's Marnie & Mawile. Their ability to drop Attack with ease rushes Tate & Jirachi’s setup, and the added damage from Steel Zone is potentially huge for dishing out devastating amounts of damage.

While it can’t really be argued that Tate & Jirachi are top-tier threats in Pokemon Masters, they have the tools that they need to make a solid impact. They can help out on a number of fronts, and may turn out to be genuinely valuable if ever we have a Steel-Type Masters event due to their unique effects and high damage output. It can be hard to justify the investment in this pairing, but they’ll definitely work their hardest to grant the wish for victory for anyone who gives them a shot.