[Overview]
<p>Blissey is without a doubt the direct descendant of alien monsters from low budget 1950s sci-fi horror films. The evidence: A.) Blissey is a gigantic pink blob, B.) it is impervious to most assaults, and C.) it has an easily exploitable weakness waiting to be taken advantage of by our handsome and dashing really bad actor protagonist. Blissey's strong points are its ridiculously high base 255 HP, superb 135 Special Defense, and access to the ever useful Heal Bell and instant recovery in Softboiled. This combination of base stats and movepool allow it to absorb every unboosted special attack in the game with ease. The bad news is that Blissey has a massive weakness to physical attacks courtesy of its stunningly awful base 10 Defense. Even base 255 HP won't save Blissey from taking incredible amounts of damage from most physical attacks. If that wasn't enough, Blissey's middling Special Attack prevents it from doing significant damage to opponents, even with its large special movepool. On top of that, Blissey's best move, Heal Bell, won't work in conjunction with certain other moves, narrowing down the available options for it to abuse. The main difference between the other main Heal Bell user, Miltank, and Blissey comes down to stat distribution and defensive orientation. Miltank is oriented toward physical defense and has access to STAB Body Slam, decent Attack, excellent Speed, and the ability to take on Curse users. Miltank also takes on mixed attackers much better than Blissey. Blissey is slower, is specially oriented on offense, and takes virtually nothing form special attacks while providing excellent screen support and the ability to induce sleep. Blissey truly is an excellent special wall and cleric, but it needs a team surrounding it to adequately make use of the support it offers.</p>
[SET]
name: Special Wall
move 1: Softboiled
move 2: Heal Bell
move 3: Light Screen / Ice Beam / Flamethrower
move 4: Sing / Toxic / Light Screen
item: Leftovers
[SET COMMENTS]
<p>Most Blissey sets will look something like the set above. With Heal Bell removing status from its entire team and Softboiled providing instant recovery, Blissey will serve as a nigh impenetrable special wall and effective team cleric. This set is all about Heal Bell and absorbing special attacks, with the last two moveslots open to a slew of options. With Toxic, Blissey can poison physical attackers on the switch and will do reliable damage against anything without Rest. If Blissey does manage to poison an opponent with Rest, they will be forced to use Rest and put their Pokemon to sleep sooner than normal. Sing has poor accuracy, but it can effectively knock out one of Blissey's opponents assuming that opponent doesn't have Sleep Talk. Sing is most effective on the switch, as it can often catch physical attackers off guard as they come in to set up on Blissey. Sing could also come in handy when facing another team that also has a Heal Bell user. If you can put the opponent's cleric to sleep after it decides stays in to use Heal Bell, you have just put your opponent's cleric out of commission. This will make it much more difficult for your opponent to abuse Belly Drum Snorlax, and could let you outpace your opponent's Skarmory with your own Drumlax. Putting your opponent's cleric to sleep could also speed up a team based on Toxic and Spikes as well, for example.</p>
<p>While using Light Screen on Blissey might not seem logical at face value, the boost it gives to Blissey's team should not be underrated considering how often Blissey will be switching in and out. Light Screen will also better protect Blissey from Growth sweepers such as Vaporeon, especially if they get a critical hit. Light Screen will also offer amazing support for any set-up sweepers that switch in after Blissey, such as Machamp, Marowak, and Snorlax. As for attacking options, Ice Beam and Flamethrower are Blissey's main staples. Flamethrower will hit Steel-types that Toxic can not touch, including Forretress looking to set up Spikes. Ice Beam nabs the super effective hit on opposing Ground-types such as Nidoking, Marowak, and Rhydon while also providing a 10% freeze chance. Any combination of attack and support move in addition to Heal Bell and Softboiled is viable in most situations. This set's main focus is centered around using Heal Bell effectively.</p>
[ADDITIONAL COMMENTS]
<p>Blissey has a very wide movepool and it has many excellent additional options beyond what are listed in the set comments above. Thunderbolt is an option over Ice Beam and Flamethrower if you wish to prevent Cloyster from setting up Spikes willy nilly. Growl might seem like a rather gimmicky option on Blissey, but it can be usable if Blissey manages to hit a physical attacker on the switch. Curse users will have a slightly harder time setting up on Blissey if it uses Growl, but STAB physical attacks will still do heavy damage even after the Attack drop. Growl also has really high PP, which will allow it to stall out special attackers, thereby forcing these opponents to switch. However, keep in mind that Vaporeon and its brethren will be nearly impossible to stall out with Blissey unless it has both Light Screen and Growl, due to Growth's incredibly high 63 PP.</p>
<p>Blissey is a defensive cleric, and as such, should be used in stall oriented teams. While Miltank, the other common Heal Bell user, is geared towards the physical side, Blissey works as a special wall instead, so it requires slightly different support. Any Blissey analysis would be remiss to not mention Skarmory. "SkarmBliss" continues to be a fearsome combo, providing excellent synergy and stopping power against a wide range of threats. However, this combo still has issues with mixed attackers and some Curse users, such as Fire Blast Snorlax, Nidoking, Tyranitar, and Steelix, as well as with other threats such as Gengar and Exeggutor. Therefore, more support is required. Suicune, Raikou, and Zapdos can all work as mixed walls and can also use a Sleep Talk set to work as status absorbers. Suicune works as a great answer to Tyranitar, Steelix, Nidoking, and Dragonite and further helps with dealing with Machamp and especially Marowak. RestTalk Suicune is also a good answer to Exeggutor. Raikou's main selling points to compliment "SkarmBliss" defensively are Gengar, Vaporeon, Exeggutor (if you are using Hidden Power Ice or Crunch, preferably with Sleep Talk as well) and Dragonite, but still shares Ground-type issues. A RestTalk Zapdos, meanwhile, offers decent defense against Exeggutor, Vaporeon, Machamp, and Nidoking. Both Raikou and Suicune can work especially well as phazers too. Raikou with Roar will offer defense against Thunder Misdreavus and Jolteon while Roar Suicune will neutralize Growth Vaporeon. These two also enjoy Heal Bell support from Blissey. To cover the Snorlax sets Skarmory has problems with, a Rock- or Ghost-type is the best idea. Both Tyranitar and Rhydon work well as long as they carry a phazing move, and Misdreavus with a Perish trap set is a great option too.</p>
<p>Of course, Blissey will need proper offensive teammates able to put pressure on your opponents. Having a Pokemon able to set up Spikes is especially important for slow stall battles. Forretress makes a great partner, considering it is the best Spikes user when it comes to keeping Spikes on the field in the long run. Cloyster, the other common Spikes user, can also work as a semi-good answer to Ground-types, especially Steelix if your set contains Rest. It's also a better spinner than Forretress thanks to its ability to hit Ghost-types for neutral damage. However, Cloyster will have a very hard time keeping Spikes down against Starmie. Speaking of Spikes, Starmie should also be taken into account as it is the best spinner in OU; removing Spikes from your field could easily be as important as laying them in the long run. Starmie also offers great defense against Machamp, which other physical or mixed walls often struggle against. Light Screen Blissey makes a great partner for set-up sweepers such as Machamp and Marowak that are often countered by specially based walls. Suicune, Starmie, and Hidden Power Zapdos will have a much harder time taking them on behind a screen, to the point that your opponent might be forced to just phaze them instead, consequently taking a big hit in return. Other set-up sweepers that benefit from Light Screen are Belly Drum sweepers. With Heal Bell support, Snorlax can set up Belly Drum multiple times in a single match by recovering its health with Rest once it finishes sweeping. This strategy is known as "Turbo-boosting" in some circles. In addition, behind Light Screen, Snorlax has no problem setting up against Thunder carrying Electric-types, and Charizard survives most STAB Thunderbolts and Surfs even after halving his health.</p>
[Other Options]
<p>Blissey has quite a large movepool, but unfortunately it isn't able to use it to its full effectiveness because of its low Special Attack and the compatibility issues with Heal Bell. The following moves are decent options that Blissey cannot run alongside Heal Bell due to move restrictions. This restriction unfortunately limits the usability of these moves, but they are still worth mentioning. Unlike Light Screen, which is almost only intended to help Blissey's teammates, Reflect would also be perfect for Blissey, boosting its pitiful Defense to more manageable levels. Reflect is particularly useful for weakening common Pokemon that like switching into Blissey, such as Snorlax and Machamp, making them much easier to handle for the proper counter. However, because Blissey is so focused on providing clerical support, giving up Heal Bell for the Defense boost is a rare sight. Blissey can surprise physically oriented attackers with Counter, gaining a free KO if it plays it right. Blissey will often survive most physical attacks at full health, making Counter a usable option if it can maintain the element of surprise until the right time comes to use it. With Counter, Blissey can make life very awkward for Tyranitar, Nidoking, and mixed Snorlax, for example, by removing their ability to fire off STAB attacks with impunity. Blissey can use Thunder Wave over Toxic if it wants to neuter opponents with paralysis rather than wear them down with Toxic. Blissey can also use Seismic Toss for constant damage output, but giving up Heal Bell for it usually isn't worth the lack of cleric support.</p>
[Checks and Counters]
<p>Blissey is incredibly weak to nearly all physical attackers, and is especially weak to those with access to boosting moves. Blissey must be very wary of being used as setup bait. Its low Special Attack and susceptibility will make it incredible vulnerable to powerful physical sweepers such as Snorlax. Snorlax can use Blissey as an opportunity to grab a free Curse or Belly Drum boost and then go to town on the switch-in. Snorlax can also carry Rest to sleep off any status it could receive from the pink blob. Machamp is another huge thorn in Blissey's side. It has excellent Attack, a boosting move in Curse, and Cross Chop. Swords Dance Marowak is another high profile threat because it can grab a free boost as Blissey switches out to avoid its STAB Earthquake. Blissey must also exercise caution against special attackers that carry physically based moves such as Explosion. Gengar for example has access to both Explosion and DynamicPunch which will do major damage to Blissey. Blissey's lack of offensive prowess make it an easy target for Spikes users. Cloyster and Forretress can easily switch in on Blissey and then go to town. Jolteon can use Blissey to easily set up an Agility and then Baton Pass it to a waiting sweeper such as Marowak or Snorlax. Blissey also won't enjoy being put to sleep or being frozen, as it cannot remove these status conditions with Heal Bell. Blissey would still be able to pretty much wall every special attacker, as it can survive their hits until sleep wears off and use Softboiled in the turn it wakes up, though. Nonetheless, your team won't have access to Heal Bell support meanwhile, and a sleeping Blissey will be even more of a bait for physical, mixed, or set-up sweepers.</p>
