There it is, the best Special wall in the game. You employ this to wall a Special sweeper like Raikou, to paralyze something, or to get an Aromatherapy in. Aromatherapy cures your complete team of status afflictions and is one of the main reasons to use Blissey over Snorlax. Seismic Toss is needed for consistent damage due to Blissey's low offensive capabilities. Inevitably, your opponents will bring in physical sweepers like Metagross, so Thunder Wave will give them something to think about. If you are afraid of Substitute Gengar, use Ice Beam, which also repels Dugtrio. Both Ice Beam and Thunder Wave do rather well against Salamence.
If you don't feel the need for Aromatherapy, but you still want to use Blissey, you can use both status and Ice Beam. Toxic is especially useful to take on guys like Tyranitar switch ins and Swampert, but beware of Heracross.
Psych Up Blissey is for the uber metagame only. It does a good job of countering most Calm Minders (Kyogre in particular) and Wish helps your team a lot. Sometimes it just falls short of beating Recovering ubers (especially Lugia), though, and can have trouble with Pressure bites as well, therefore you can use Serene Grace and hope for a lucky freeze or paralysis. Beware of Taunt. If you run into a Taunt Mewtwo, just keep using Thunder until it's Paralyzed (Serene Grace helps here), and then you can use Psych Up.
This set is meant to give some offense to Blissey, and it does a fair job of it. With Ice Beam and Thunderbolt, you have a good chance of doing at least neutral damage to a Pokémon. This set also counters Calm Mind Pokémon (except Jirachi). If you are afraid of Jirachi being able to setup on Blissey, slap on Flamethrower and don't fret. That will break Jirachi's substitutes and make it retreat in a heartbeat. If you do go the Flamethrower route for Jirachi then you should also pick up Hidden Power Grass. Hidden Power Grass leaves you a tad vulnerable to Salamence and Dragonite, but the added benefit of slapping around Swampert and Tyranitar is worth it, and still keeps Dugtrio at bay. Counter is a good option as well, as a Pokémon with 130 base Special Defense and 10 base Defense that is raising her Special Defense is going to attract a ton of physical hitters. Serene Grace is probably the best choice in OU, but if you use this in ubers, either one works, due to the prevalence of Toxic. Use Thunder in ubers over Thunderbolt to abuse Rain.
A common scenario for Blissey is to be up against a Latias. Latias used Safeguard, gg Blissey. This is no longer the case. Latias used Safeguard, in comes Blissey. Blissey uses Icy Wind twice or thrice (depending on Latias' speed), sets up a Light Screen, and then uses Toxic as Latias fails to Safeguard in time, because it has lost 2-3 Speed levels. Then it's just Softboiled stall with refreshing Light Screens. Also beats Taunt Mewtwo nicely. Other OptionsCounter is a good option on any set, even if not mentioned. Watch out if people catch on, as they will try to set up something like Curse Snorlax or Dragon Dance Salamence on you. Flamethrower and Thunderbolt are alternate Special Attacks you can always use over Ice Beam. Hidden Power Water is another one, and that's Blissey's only sane option of dealing with Tyraniboah and Gengar at the same time. Hidden Power Grass needs quite a lot of Special Attack EVs, but can 2HKO Swampert and at least touch Tyranitar's Substitute. Toxic and Sing are nice status affects. Toxic Blissey cannot harm Gengar and Metagross, but it does beat Dugtrio if you catch it on the switch with Toxic and just use Softboiled (the odds of it getting a Critical Hit before it dies are small), and adds to the general stall factor. If you hit a Tyraniboah on the switch with Toxic, it can no longer safely use Substitute. Sing is very inaccurate and can only work once due to Sleep Clause, but Blissey has a lot of chances to use it because of those great Defensive capabilities. Protect can be doubled with Wish for a makeshift Softboiled. Snatch is novelty since Blissey cannot do much with stat-uppers, except in ubers; of course, Snatching a Rest from a dying Burned or Poisoned Snorlax is priceless. EVsFirst and foremost, max Defense. Despite being a Special sponge, you will want to use Bold and max Defense to take unboosted physical attacks easily. This will make Blissey very damn hard to take down, so that even some Focus Punches and Explosions will have trouble killing you. The rest of the EVs is up to preference. By getting maximum HP, you can survive 2 Choice Banded Dugtrio Earthquakes, but I personally think you don't need the absolute max. Instead, you could use some Special Attack EVs when using Ice Beam or Hidden Power Water. Speed helps against other Blissey's or things designed to outspeed it. Special Defense works better than HP when talking strictly for Special walling, as well as helping against Calm Minders and such. Max Special Attack and Modest (the remaining EVs going into maxing out Defense) works on the Special Attacking Blissey, as that will OHKO a lot of Dugtrio (though you won't OHKO those with 44 Special Defense EVs), and stop the rare Special Defense-oriented Gengars from Subbing up in your face. This also helps against Skarmory, Weezing, and Zapdos. The jury's still out on whether Modest is worth it over Bold, but the Special Attack EVs won't do much elsewhere. You'll need max Special Defense and Calm for Blissey in ubers that don't raise their Special Defense via Calm Mind or Psych Up. For those Blissey, Calm alone probably adds enough, giving room for more Special Attack. Don't make the mistake a lot of people make and give Blissey no Defense EVs in ubers, Blissey can still take a Rayquaza Choice Banded Extremespeed and use Ice Beam or Toxic. OpinionOn one hand, Blissey is a god of a Pokémon. Most Special sweepers are useless against a team with Blissey, it's able to cure your entire team of Freeze, Sleep, Poison, Burn and Paralysis in one move and can easily Paralyze anything in sight. It can support with Wish, sop up any status move thanks to Natural Cure, and if you manage to pull off Counter, you have a guaranteed kill there. And on the other hand, Blissey is offenseless, and baits threats to any team. If a Heracross comes in on Thunder Wave, you will obviously switch out, risking one of your Pokémon to a powerful Guts, Choice Banded Megahorn or Focus Punch. Blissey's standard set will not help you against Pokémon with 101 HP Substitutes. Blissey has difficulty killing anything that restores HP (though it can Paralyze them). If you rely on Blissey for Special sponging and Dugtrio takes you out, you will be vulnerable to any Special sweeper. So, in short, Blissey can help your team out, but it can also hinder it. It's great for stall teams, but if you do not need a very, very sturdy Special wall and status absorber Snorlax is recommended, because it has that kickass 110 Attack stat to work with. CountersMetagross, Heracross, Hariyama, Machamp, Snorlax, Muk, Curse Swampert, Gengar (watch out for Thunder Wave and Ice Beam), and any other Fighter can switch in relatively easily on Blissey since it does nearly no damage. They're barely hindered or even helped by Thunder Wave, Seismic Toss barely does anything and most of Blissey's other moves either come from her low Special Attack or do no damage at all. Dugtrio can 2HKO Blissey if it has an Adamant nature, but Ice Beam almost OHKOs it (it does OHKO with Special Attack EVs), and 2 Seismic Tosses + any hit at all will beat Dugtrio as well, in addition to the threat of simply using Toxic and then Softboiled. Jolly Dugtrio can 2HKO with Beat Up, and Beat Up also removes the threat of Counter. A surprising Explosion takes out Blissey for the most part, 240 or higher means a guaranteed OHKO. Focus Punches from more than 220 Attack kill Blissey in 2 hits. Rhydon, Jirachi and other 101 HP Substituters can be a problem. Anything with a healing move goes for a long stall war with Blissey, be it a Sleep Talk Zapdos, a Recovering Milotic or Celebi, or a Resting Suicune. Most of those threats need to beware of Counter Blissey, however, as only STAB Fighting moves, Explosion, and powerful Focus Punches will kill Blissey in one hit. |
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