Competitive Pokemon History - Chansey + Blissey Quiz

Answer: Being a special wall who could take on Psychic types

The Psychic type was without question the strongest typing in the first generation. The lack of Dark or Steel typing along with the lack of good Ghost or Bug moves to offensively deal with Psychic types meant that attempting to conquer Pokemon like Alakazam with a type advantage was impractical. Chansey's special bulk was so astronomical that it could handle these threats off of sheer base stats alone, which was an enormous niche to have. In general, Chansey made for a great special wall.

Because the Special stat crammed special defense and special attack into one, Chansey's offensive presence was actually somewhat appreciable too, with a decent 105 Special stat. This meant that it would not be a massive loss of momentum when it hit the field, enabling it to fit offensive teams as well as defensive ones.

Answer: Skarmory

Blissey's Special walling was absurdly high- a gargantuan base 255 HP along with a massive 135 Special Defense meant trying to break through with special attacks was practically impossible. However, a pitiful base 10 Defense wasn't made up for by Blissey's massive HP stat, meaning it was easily overwhelmed by moderately strong physical attackers. Enter Skarmory, whose base 140 Defense stat meant breaking it with physical attacks was not practical.

However, its low base 70 Special Defense meant that special attackers would have their way with Skarmory. Clearly, you can see where Blissey and Skarmory, famously known as SkarmBliss, have tons of synergy together.

Answer: Calm Mind

Blissey's Special Defense stat was already massive, meaning it would easily claim victory in Calm Mind wars against other special attackers. While its Defense stat was very poor, this could be somewhat rectified with heavy investment alongside a Bold nature. Blissey's base 75 special attack stat wasn't very good, but its massive bulk enabled it to find setup opportunities with ease.

After reaching six Calm Mind boosts, Blissey could easily proceed to sweep teams that lacked faster, strong physical attackers. For these reasons, it was both a major offensive and defensive threat that was undoubtedly a top ten Pokemon in the meta.

Answer: Yes

Chansey was successful in UnderUsed just as Blissey was in standard play and Ubers. In fact, were it not for Blissey clearly outclassing it in everyway, Chansey would certainly have been viable in standard play, and probably Ubers, as well. In UU, Chansey was a key countermeasure to huge threats such as Moltres, Venusaur, offensive Milotic, and special attackers in general.

It would crumble to physically offensive threats, but there were enough physical walls in the tier to pair with Chansey where this wasn't a serious issue.

Answer: Eviolite

Eviolite boosts the Defense and Special Defense of a pre-evolved Pokemon by one each. This means that Chansey's bulk as actually significantly higher than Blissey's now, being bulkier specially and even being rather formidable at taking physical attacks as well. Because of this, Chansey was now pretty much always the superior choice between the two.

Answer: The ability to become immune to trapping

Chansey's reliance on Eviolite to be useful meant that it could not viably wield a different item. In comparison, Blissey had the freedom to run a myriad of other useful items. Notably, Blissey could run Shed Shell, to make itself immune to being trapped and removed from the game. This meant that Wobbuffett and Gothitelle's Shadow Tag would be nullified, enabling Blissey to avoid being taken down by them. Because stall teams heavily rely on each individual member's longevity, the fact that Blissey was not invalidated by these threats switching in whenever they pleased gave it a meaningful niche over Chansey as a wall.

Of course, because Shadow Tag was banned to Ubers, this meant Blissey only truly saw noticeable use there. There, it is generally a better idea to use Blissey over Chansey because of Blissey's lack of volatility in the face of these trappers.

Answer: Telepathy

Healer grants Chansey and Blissey a 30% chance to remove an ally's status condition, if applicable. Because Chansey and Blissey were utterly worthless in doubles battles, and because this ability only actually does something in doubles, the ability was never seen on either of them in a serious setting.

Serene Grace doubles the secondary effects of a given move, if applicable. Chansey never runs any moves which meet this criteria, while Blissey rarely runs Ice Beam or Flamethrower for very specific circumstances, none of which are aided by their secondary effects. This means that this ability is fairly worthless in practice.

Finally, Natural Cure removes all status conditions a Pokemon has once they switch out of battle. Clearly, this ability is far superior to the other two for the pink blobs. This makes them adept at absorbing status for the stall teams they fit on, and reduces their reliance on clerical moves with low PP to remove status from themselves.

Answer: Mega Gengar

Xerneas, Yveltal and Primal Kyogre were special attackers who could potentially muscle their way through, though the matchup still favored the pink blobs. Meanwhile, Mega Gengar instilled fear into the duo. It could effortlessly switch in on either of them and win one-on-one. Chansey was unable to switch due to Mega Gengar's Shadow Tag, where it would be unable to win due to it only ever running Seismic Toss as an Attacking move, a move which Mega Gengar was immune to. Meanwhile, Blissey frequently ran Shed Shell to nullify Shadow Tag, but it would be unable to ever take Mega Gengar down by itself, which is what prompted it to run Shed Shell here in the first place. Mega Gengar would be able to deal with either by Taunting them to block their healing moves, before whittling them away with its strong special attacks, or simply using Perish Song and effortlessly stalling out the three turns to ensure their demise, should Blissey try to stay in.

Answer: Confide

Confide reduces the target's Special Attack by one stage. This means that Calm Mind or Quiver Dance stallbreakers, namely Arceus formes, can no longer reliably stallbreak the duo. Confide goes through Substitute as well, moderately reducing the blobs' weakness to that particular move.

Answer: They were removed from the game

Chansey and Blissey were sadly left behind, out of the Galar region, forced to take their specially defensive talents back to Alola. Hopefully, they will be able to return to prominence in the ninth generation.