The #1 special wall in the game has had to reinvent herself slightly to keep up with DP's new special threats. The general idea is to switch in, use Wish and then Protect to directly mirror the effects of Softboiled, except that you can waste more turns for PP stalling and Toxic damage. Alternately, you could use Wish preemptively (with more than half of your HP intact, even at full health) then using the next turn to attack, thus doing damage to them and healing yourself. The Wish / Protect combination is all the more appealing on Blissey in DP thanks in large to the popularity of Choice item users. The silver lining to this set resides in the fantastic safety net Protect casts over Blissey. At any point over around 50% HP, WishBliss will not be threatened by Choice-boosted Pursuit from Pokémon like Tyranitar, Weavile and Heracross simply because of Protect. She can Protect heads-up to see if they used Pursuit, intending to deal a heavy blow to a switching Blissey. If they use Pursuit, Blissey will be Protected and can stay in and Wish the next turn while taking a 40 base power Pursuit assured to do less than 35% to her (assuming the threat stays in, which it may not), then follow up with Protect the subsequent turn to guarantee the 50% HP recovery. If they attack straight up with one of their powerful STAB moves, you're more than free to switch out to the appropriate counter with which your team should be equipped anyway. This matchup becomes even more attractive when you factor in the possibility that the above Pursuit threats could likely have switched into a Wish in the first place. Remember though, this strategy, like most, can be used against you if you rely too heavily upon it. Consider a Tyranitar heads-up against a Blissey that used Wish on the switch. Tyranitar uses Crunch as Blissey Protects, and then switches out of the full health Blissey to which it no longer poses such a large threat. But later, when Tyranitar is heads-up against the same Blissey, it uses a dangerous Dragon Dance as Blissey Protects, assuming that Tyranitar was of the Choice Band variety. This is just something to keep in mind. Anyway, if you want to ensure Blissey stays alive longer, be it to pass Wishes or to endure as a special wall, you can run Softboiled over Protect. The reason to use Softboiled over the very useful Protect is primarily an issue of PP. Wish only has 16 PP, so if you are involved in a long, drawn-out stall war, Wish can get worn down as you try to heal your teammates and yourself with the one move. If you have Softboiled, you can heal yourself with that and rely on Wish to heal everyone else. Another disadvantage of Protect is that with Wish + Protect as your only method of healing, a special attacker could hit Blissey as it switches in, then go to a big threat like Tyranitar as Blissey uses Wish. If Blissey stays in to get healed, it risks letting Tyranitar get in some Dragon Dances. If Blissey switches out, then it hasn't gained any HP. This cycle can continue throughout the battle, thus preventing you from ever healing your Blissey, and thus opening you up to a potential special sweep. Softboiled has another minor benefit. If you are using Blissey in Hail or a Sandstorm, then Blissey will die to the weather if you are knocked to 6.25% HP or below. If you Wish on that turn, you won't have time to Protect next turn to heal yourself, whereas if you Softboiled you are safe. Softboiled also reduces the threat of a Pokemon setting up on you. Toxic is a great move here regardless of whether you choose Protect or Softboiled. Either way, you have two moves to use that aid in stalling. As you're sitting around healing yourself, you won't really be doing anything aside from PP stalling. If you hit them with Toxic first, then they are losing HP while you stall with recovery moves. Toxic is a good move even if you have Toxic Spikes down, as Toxic is this Blissey's only chance to take down Togekiss. It also helps to hit threats like Gyarados on the switch. For the attack, Flamethrower is probably Blissey's best bet. You definitely want the ability to hit Gengar, so Flamethrower, Ice Beam, or Thunderbolt would be your choices for an attack. Flamethrower hits nearly every Pokemon that's immune to Toxic super effectively. It also helps cover Heracross somewhat, who may want to come in on Toxic to abuse Guts. However, you obviously cannot hit Heatran with Flamethrower and Toxic. You could, however, PP stall Heatran out of its Fire move or Wish and switch to something that can take it on. Ice Beam helps cover Mixed Salamence (the Choice Specs version isn't going to get through Blissey regardless) and keeps Dugtrio away, assuming you can't hit them with Toxic. It also hits Garchomp on the switch. Thunderbolt stops Gyarados from setting up on you and still hits Skarmory and other Steels for moderate damage. If you want, you could lose Toxic or Protect / Softboiled for another attack. There are a few things to note about Wish Blissey. There is a rumor that Wish Blissey only comes in Calm or Modest (or some other random set of natures). This is false. To the best of anyone's knowledge, Wish Blissey appears in all natures. However, there is a movement to ban event moves on all Pokemon, and this would include Wish Blissey. Nothing has really solidified about this yet, however.
The idea behind this is pretty straightforward; switch in on a special attacker, heal up your team, and probably switch right back out in the face of the likely physical threat that replaced the special attacker. The fast-paced nature of competitive DP play makes the use of the Cleric Blissey a potential liability, so use with extreme caution. If one of your Pokémon is indeed statused and you send out Blissey, it is somewhat predictable that you'll use Aromatherapy, giving a physical sweeper free reign to switch in, so you're likely going to want to use Ice Beam or Thunder Wave on the switch. The more you know about your opponent's team at that point, the better, as you'd want to use Ice Beam if you expect that non-Leftovers (you would probably know, if it had taken any previous damage, and fear a potential Choice Band) Garchomp, or Thunder Wave if you expect that Weavile or Metagross to switch in again. If you use Thunder Wave, you could just rely on that to cripple Gengar enough for another Pokemon to take it out and just use Seismic Toss as your lone attack, but then you give Garchomp fairly free switches, which is a dangerous thing to do. You can use a wide variety of special attacks in slot two. If you want, you could even drop your status for another attack, but status is by far the most common and the more generally useful choice.
This is the Blissey to use if you want to spread status around and not be limited in your attacking options. You can spread any one of three statuses and still have your attacking duo of choice. Any of Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Seismic Toss, Hidden Power Ground, and even Grass Knot can be used in the first two slots, depending on what you want your Blissey to threaten/counter. If you use Thunder Wave, you will almost certainly want to use Ice Beam with it. You hit all those Ground-types that think they can safely ignore your chosen status. The biggest Pokemon to hit are Garchomp, but Gliscor, Hippowdon, and friends will also hate Ice Beam. Sing makes it harder for many of the Pokémon that feel Blissey is mere "set-up fodder" to come in safely, making Blissey somewhat of a threat, which is always a good thing. If you use Sing, it would be useful to raise your Speed a bit to be faster than enemy Blissey so you can Sing before they heal themselves or their team.
This set utilizes the ever-popular "Boltbeam" combination in conjunction with Calm Mind and a recovery move to pose a considerable threat to anyone who isn't expecting it. Serene Grace works fantastically with this particular set, as a 20% chance of freezing isn't really "hax" at all when you think about it, but Natural Cure is still helpful to rid Blissey of status, Toxic poison in particular. You'll probably want to Calm Mind just once before launching an attack, though, since you may have the benefit of Serene Grace on your side and you won't be able to Calm Mind up as easily as something like Suicune and its fantastic initial defenses. Bold and Modest are both good choices. You need 269 Special Attack (236 EVs with Modest) to OHKO Garchomp with Ice Beam, which is a strong case in favor of Modest. Modest also gives you a chance to OHKO a Gyarados that doesn't invest in HP EVs. 252 Special Attack with Modest also gives you an 87% chance to break 4 HP Raikou's Substitutes, assuming you have the same number of Calm Minds. This prevents it from really setting up against you and trying to Pressure stall, as this means it will only be able to Substitute 5-6 times on average, wasting only 10-12 of your 16 Ice Beam PP. After you Calm Mind a few times, however, the increased Defense of Bold will pay off more, so the question of Bold vs. Modest is really a question of how many Calm Minds you think you'll be able to get in before you are forced to attack. In fact, you can even lower your Special Attack even more and invest in HP EVs if you want even more physical survivability. You can use a few other special attacks, such as Flamethrower, over either of those two. You absolutely need Serene Grace, though, if you are using Flamethrower over Ice Beam. Your only shot at not being walled by Garchomp is to try and burn it as it switches in. If you are using this set in ubers, you should use Thunder over Thunderbolt to abuse the higher power and paralysis chance. Thunder gets perfect accuracy thanks to Kyogre's Drizzle.
With Charm, you're going to be forcing more switches than usual, so you may want to take advantage of Stealth Rock, Spikes, or both. Ideally, you may want to use Charm Blissey like this: switch into a special attacker, Charm the incoming physical attacker (hopefully not the Clear Body Metagross), and Light Screen as the probably physical attacker switches out, racking up potential Stealth Rock / Spikes Damage with every switch. Light Screen makes Blissey a real team player, and works very well with Charm. Other OptionsGrass Knot might seem like a great pairing with Flamethrower on the Calm Mind set until you realize that most of its targets are either beaten just as well (or better) by Thunderbolt or are too threatening to let you Calm Mind up against them (Tyranitar). In the case of Tyranitar, you are better off just spamming Serene Grace Flamethrower at it when it switches in and hoping for a burn. Focus Blast can do fatal damage to Weavile and surprise an incoming Lucario and Tyranitar, but the accuracy is not very reliable. Hidden Power Flying hurts Fighting-types trying to switch in, particularly Heracross and Infernape. As mentioned previously, Hidden Power Ground is another good attack when paired with Flamethrower, as it hits Infernape and Heatran, primarily, but also wears down guys like Tentacruel. It also does enough damage to break Jolteon's Substitute. Counter may work, especially against Pokémon like Weavile and Tyranitar who think you're switching and are using a Pursuit that will in actuality only have 40 base power, which will do a paltry 34% maximum from Tyranitar and 29% max from Weavile but will OHKO both. At the very least (min damage from Choice Band, 339 Attack Jolly Weavile), Blissey takes 169 HP damage, which will still OHKO Weavile (201 min damage will OHKO standard 405 max Attack Tyranitar). Blissey learns Stealth Rock, but she generally has much better things to do with her time and moveslots. In uber play, Icy Wind can be used to drop the Speed of certain trouble Pokemon. It lets you Toxic Safeguard Latias and Latios, as well as Taunt Mewtwo. You can also hit some threats on the switch, letting them be countered easier. Blissey makes good use of Charge Beam with Softboiled and two other special attacks as a more diverse version of the Calm Minder. You can use Snatch to counter enemy stat-up Pokemon. EVsBlissey needs 252 Defense EVs, always. You may think "But Blissey is supposed to be taking special hits, not physical, so why all the Defense EVs?". The reason for this is that you get over double the ability to take physical hits by maxing your Defense EVs. This is a huge increase. In fact, 252 Defense Blissey takes neutral physical hits about as well as 252 HP Scizor or Spiritomb. It's nice to be able to take weaker physical hits and do what you need to do. Most sets will want a Calm nature. The Special Defense EVs given on the Wish Blissey set lets you survive even a critical hit Choice Specs Modest Lucario Aura Sphere, and you are 3HKOed by non-critical hit Aura Spheres. This is probably the Special Defense level most people will want. It still guarantees a 3HKO from Choice Specs Gengar Focus Blast. Modest Choice Specs Heatran with Flash Fire activated also has to roll absolute max damage twice (less than a .066% chance, so negligible compared to the chance to get a critical hit) to 2HKO Blissey, otherwise it's a 3HKO with Leftovers. Nasty Plot Adaptability Porygon-Z Hyper Beam with Life Orb does less than 80% max. The EVs given on the "Cleric" set adds more Special Defense at the cost of Special Attack. This is the most Special Defense most Blissey should use in OU. The Diverse Blissey's EVs are there mostly to show what a lot of people still use. This is primarily a hold-over from ADV, when Blissey didn't need any EVs to wall special attacks. You can use any of the EV spreads on any of the Pokemon. The Calm Mind set is unique—you should probably only use that spread on that set. You most likely will not need to focus on Special Defense as much for the Calm Mind Blissey because it boosts its Special Defense with Calm Mind. You also don't need to put as much Special Defense on the Charm Blissey thanks to Light Screen helping out there, which is why it's significantly less bulky. In all of ADV and in early DP, the instinct of most top players is to max Defense, and use a Bold nature, relying on Blissey's high base HP and Special Defense to take special hits. The level of special threats has risen in DP, however, to the point where this is not the best way to go. The following examples may seem extreme, but many people rely on Blissey to take nearly all of their special attacks, meaning it needs to be able to stand up to a massive beating. If Blissey invests in Special Defense, it is 3HKOed by Choice Specs Lucario Aura Sphere, instead of 2HKOed. Gengar can 2HKO a Blissey that doesn't invest in Special Defense with Focus Blast if Stealth Rock is down or if there is a Sandstorm going, both of which are incredibly easy to do. Choice Specs Flash Fire Heatran using Fire Blast will often 2HKO Blissey even without ancillary damage if it has no Special Defense EVs, while investing in them with Calm means it never will. In extreme cases, Calm Blissey can stall out certain bulky attackers that Calm Mind up and abuse Rest, running them out of attacks in place of directly fainting them. The primary danger of this is that Blissey is vulnerable to be 2HKOed by Choice Band Adamant Dugtrio. However, Blissey can stall it out of PP with Wish + Protect or Toxic + recovery, or it can stop Dugtrio with Counter or a powerful Ice Beam. When you consider that many Dugtrio run Life Orb so they can't be a victim of a powerful Pursuit as easily, and nearly all Dugtrio are Jolly to be faster than Infernape, this reason begins to hold even less water. OpinionShe's still the absolute best special wall in the game, hands down. In a metagame where special threats loom at every corner, there is only one Pokémon that can be relied upon to consistently wall special attacks. Snorlax has to deal with the lack of an instant recovery move and Rest if it wants to stay alive, opening the door for threats both physical and special to switch in. Cresselia is the next best general wall, but the weakness to Gengar's Shadow Ball instead of an immunity paired with lower stats and having to choose between Rest or Moonlight for healing means Cresselia isn't nearly as good at pure walling. Blissey is a Pokémon that will always, always be a welcome addition to any team, and is basically the only option that covers so many special threats at once. Neither of the other aforementioned Pokémon come even close to Blissey's ability to take hits. If you "hate Blissey" that's one thing, but please do not pretend there are many viable, one-Pokémon options that can replace her. She's that good. CountersMachamp can switch into any Blissey with impunity, as Guts variants welcome a boost Attack boost by way of Thunder Wave and Machamp with Rest / Sleep Talk do not care either way even if they are No Guard variants. Heracross is in a similar boat as Machamp, except it doesn't like paralysis nearly as much. On the flip side, Electivire can switch into Blissey very easily, hoping for a Thunder Wave to activate Motor Drive. It can then hit Blissey with Cross Chop for high damage. Lucario can use Blissey as set-up bait if it's a Swords Dancer, as long as it stays out of Thunder Wave and Flamethrower. If it's a special version, it has a shot at 2HKOing those Blissey that don't invest in Special Defense. Snorlax also doesn't care about being paralyzed, nor does Metagross really, and both can hit Blissey hard with either STAB attacks or Pursuit. Some variants of Tyranitar do care about status, but otherwise can switch into Blissey very easily and scare the hell out of her with the notion of "will I Crunch or will I Pursuit?" or, alternately, it can Taunt if it's a Dragon Dance variant. Rhyperior is immune to Thunder Wave, and with the Sandstorm Special Defense boost paired with its high HP and Solid Rock, it doesn't take much damage from Ice Beam, either. Dugtrio's going to have a harder time switching into her in DP thanks to the strong slant towards Ice Beam, and if it is using Life Orb and not Choice Band, it will only do 40-47% to Blissey with Earthquake. Nevertheless, it can trap and destroy her if she's weakened. Garchomp can take on those versions without Ice Beam easily, as it's threatened only by a burn from Flamethrower or the slow effects of Toxic. Life Orb Salamence 2HKOs Blissey with Brick Break, which can be a deadly surprise for a Blissey thinking it's switching into Choice Specs Salamence. Togekiss can Nasty Plot up and doesn't take enough damage from anything Blissey does. The only hope Blissey has is to use Toxic and try to just stall it until it dies or use Thunder Wave and bring in a powerful physical attacker like Tyranitar. Toxic fails to the rare Baton Pass Togekiss, who can Nasty Plot up and then go to something like Lucario, Life Orb Gengar, or Infernape and put the hurt on Blissey and then sweep the rest of your team. Celebi can use Leech Seed to let just about anything you can't OHKO stall you indefinitely thanks to the massive HP drain. Alternately, it can Calm Mind up and then Baton Pass out to another threat, much like Togekiss. Dusknoir and Spiritomb don't really care about Thunder Wave or any of Blissey's attacks. They can Pain Split to heal off any damage while severely hurting Blissey. Both have access to powerful physical attacks. If Blissey uses Toxic, they still aren't lost, as many Dusknoir and Spiritomb have Rest. Mismagius doesn't want to be statused, but it can use Substitute and Calm Mind to nullify the threat of status and your special attacks. In fact, most Pokemon without a 4x weakness and average Special Defense can beat Blissey just by using Rest and stalling out the PP of her moves. In a similar manner, Skarmory can come in on any Blissey without Thunderbolt or Flamethrower, set up Spikes, Roost off the damage, and then use Whirlwind to shuffle around your team. Using Pain Split on anything will heal them massive amounts of HP and seriously cut Blissey's HP. |
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