OU Blissey

[magic9mushroom]

But Blissey isn't supposed to stay in against the electric legendaries all the time. If she forces them to use Rest and then you switch to another pokemon who can take advantage of a sleeping Raikou/Zapdos, she has done her job. While they're sleeping it's them who create free turns for you, given how unreliable Sleep Talk is.
And, yes, this is an effective strategy in GSC.

Sleep Talk isn't all that unreliable, particularly for Zapdos. All 'mons in GSC care about either Thunder(bolt) or HP Ice. That gives a 2/3 chance of Zapdos doing something relevant (Resting or attacking productively) per turn.

And the thing is that they don't have to stay in. They can, but they don't have to. Your opponent can switch in whatever the hell they want while Blissey sits there blobbing.

Let's set up a comparison table, just for the lulz.

If they stay in:
vs Snorlax they die
vs Raikou Zapdos dies, Raikou's potentially bait for Spikes/Roar shuffling
vs Blissey they sit there and have to Rest occasionally, can shuffle in Raikou's case

If they switch:
vs Snorlax they've typically got one or two possible switch-ins (depending on set); a lot of offensive teams are taking relevant damage anyway (+1 EQ on Steelix etc)
vs Raikou they eat Thunder unless they've got a Ground; even then it's mindgames
vs Blissey they can switch in 2-4 things: there's the obvious Snorlax but you can get Rest turns off Suicune/Tyranitar/Umbreon/whatever, go for a TrapPass (or anythingPass, really), attack it with Gengar (Hypnosis scares it out, or there's DPunch), spin with Starmie, and then you've got the set-dependent stuff like Forretress for Spikes/Spin or Steelix for Cursing/shuffling if it doesn't Flamethrower, Nidoking if it doesn't Ice Beam, Vaporeon if it doesn't Light Screen (and heck, even if it does), Miltank for a Bell if it doesn't Sing, Machamp/Missy if it doesn't Toxic, etc.

 

[Nitro.]

I can't envision this scenario you seem to keep bringing up where a steelix comes in on a blissey and rampages an entire team. Blissey is not gonna be on a team (effectively) with a bunch of other glass pokemon that can't switch into steelix of all things. There are going to be other monster walls on your team to compliment it. Blissey IS good at heal belling, so you need to combine her with a mixture of quick setup pokes (wak, drumlax etc) and walls.

The big problem with Blissey is, even tho she is 1000 times better at special walling than raikou or lax, she can't be your ONLY electric switch or she's simply going to be forced active too often and you're going to get picked apart (or at the very least be playing defense for turn after turn). It's kind of just not worth using her in this scenario because you end up just unnecessarily overloaded on special D.

Blissey's "threat" is to become unkillable if certain pokemon on the other team die.

And you can talk about IF blissey doesn't have this or IF blissey doesn't have that, but the fact is that if Blissey does happen to have toxic for your machamp or ice beam for your marowak or whatever, she's going to be really really annoying to deal with if her moveset happens to work well against your particular lineup. (Though obviously if it's not effective vs your lineup, you're going to go to town on her).

Blissey team success will depend on if drumlax or whatever can get going or do some significant damage before Blissey has to start doing damage control for your team.

I agree that she is not that good overall tho, but should not be underestimated.

I think it's worth mentioning that twave reflect Blissey (non heal bell) can be really effective too. Probably the most successful Blissey team I have uses this.

 

[Borat]

By the same token, though, there's a lot more things that can double-switch on a predicted Blissey and ruin you than there are things that can double-switch on Lax/Kou and have it mean something.

not particularly true. because there's almost no reason for a zapdos/raikou to throw out thunders if you know a blissey is coming, whereas thunders vs raikou/snorlax are always good, then by that token, you can bring in your own snorlax without fearing damage. blissey's presence is what allows that.

also, the point on non-belling blisseys are in fact MUCH more annoying to deal with. she no longer becomes just a "blob". however, a lot of how blissey functions is how much the team can take advantage of her "space creation".

 

[M Dragon]

The problem of Reflect and Twave Bliss is that you cannot use Heal Bell (reflect or twave + its illegal), but yes, reflect and twave can be very annoying.

Blissey has a lot of support options: screens, heal bell, twave, toxic... It could even beat a curselax with Growl, and she takes nearly no damage from any special attack

 

[Dre89]

Noob question here, but do blissey and the electrics sort of overlap in their role. From what I understand, they both switch into specials, and lure in lax. I understand that blissey offers a lot less offensive presence, but what are the main differences between what blissey and the electrics do. For example, if you dropped your electric for blissey, what would the consequences be.

 

[magic9mushroom]

Noob question here, but do blissey and the electrics sort of overlap in their role. From what I understand, they both switch into specials, and lure in lax. I understand that blissey offers a lot less offensive presence, but what are the main differences between what blissey and the electrics do. For example, if you dropped your electric for blissey, what would the consequences be.

Electrics switch into Suicune and force it out. Blissey can switch into Suicune even more easily, but can't force it out and will eventually succumb to a freeze from Ice Beam or Toxic+Spikes/Roar shuffling (Toxic PP > Heal Bell PP, and Softboiled's PP ain't great either).

Electrics can force Vaporeon out once or so before succumbing (assuming they don't get a chance to heal up). Blissey can't force Vaporeon out at all; its best hope is to try to stall it with Light Screen (without Light Screen it dies once Vap's fully set up), and even then it needs Ice Beam (to freeze Vap) or Growl (for its PP) to avoid being stalled out.

Electrics make dents in Lax - with Spikes down and some luck (hitting Thunders, crits), you can kill it if it switches in while asleep. Blissey can't touch Resting Snorlax - even if it freezes Lax with Ice Beam, Lax can just sit there and wait to thaw since Blissey literally will struggle to kill it before running out of PP (frozen Lax can't be Toxiced). As such, Blissey is solely a lure for Lax rather than a potential means of killing it.

Electrics can switch into sleepers (Egg, Nido in Zapdos' case) to absorb sleep if they RestTalk (Zapdos basically always does, Raikou sometimes does). Blissey usually doesn't Sleep Talk and thus can't absorb sleep.

Zapdos stops Heracross and provides some defense against Machamp; Raikou doesn't switch into either but can put up something of a fight. Blissey dies horribly to both and potentially even gives them free switch-ins (depends on what they and it are running; Toxic will bother non-RestTalk versions of either, and Psychic or (in Heracross' case) Flamethrower will hurt somewhat, though they usually don't even 3HKO without Spikes).

Both Blissey and Raikou get effectively a free turn when in vs. opposing Zapdos/Raikou. Raikou can Spikes-shuffle with that turn; Blissey can Bell. Zapdos obviously can't counter opposing Electrics in the first place.

Roar Raikou stops pretty much every variation of Jolteon from accomplishing anything. Zapdos and Blissey can't do much about Jolteon; Blissey can't phaze and Whirlwind Zapdos can't safely phaze vs. Thunder (especially not if it has Growth). Blissey does wall non-Growth Jolteon, but it won't be walling whatever Jolteon Passes to.

That's all I can think of right now.