Arise…
Blissey Prime!
You’ve got the touch…
you’ve got the power…
yeah!
Mmmm… Transformers.
Aww c’mon, with
her egg she even looks
like she has the Matrix
of Leadership.
If you turn your
head and squint.
Kind of. ;)
Name:
Blissey
Set/#:
HeartGold and SoulSilver 106/123
Rarity:
Prime
Type:
Colorless Pokémon
Stage:
1 (Evolves from Chansey)
HP:
130
Weakness:
Fighting x 2
Resistance:
None
Retreat Cost:
CC
Poké-Power:
Blissful Nurse
Once during your turn, when you play
Blissey from your hand to evolve 1 of
your Pokémon, you may remove all damage
counters from all of your Pokémon.
If you do, discard all Energy
attached to those Pokémon that had any
damage counters on them.
Attack:
(CCC) Strength [60]
Name:
Chansey
Set/#:
HeartGold and SoulSilver 58/123
Rarity:
Common
Type:
Colorless Pokémon
Stage:
Basic
HP:
90
Weakness:
Fighting x 2
Resistance:
None
Retreat Cost:
CC
Attack#1:
(CC) Pound [20]
Attack:
(CCC) Happy Punch [30]
Flip a coin.
If heads, remove
3 damage counters from
Chansey.
Name:
Chansey
Set/#:
Mysterious Treasures 76/123
Rarity:
Common
Type:
Colorless Pokémon
Stage:
Basic
HP:
90
Weakness:
Fighting +20
Resistance:
None
Retreat Cost:
CC
Attack#1:
(CC) Scrunch
Flip a coin.
If heads, prevent
all damage done to
Chansey by attacks
during your opponent’s
next turn.
Attack:
(CCCC) Double-edge [80]
Chansey does 60 damage
to itself.
Name:
Chansey
Set/#:
Platinum 69/127
Rarity:
Common
Type:
Colorless Pokémon
Stage:
Basic
HP:
90
Weakness:
Fighting +20
Resistance:
None
Retreat Cost:
CC
Attack#1:
(C) Healing Trial
Flip a coin.
If heads, remove
3 damage counters from
Chansey.
If tails, remove
3 damage counters from
the Defending Pokémon.
Attack:
(CC) Pulled Punch [40]
If the Defending Pokémon
already has any damage
counters on it, this
attack’s base damage is
10 instead of 40.
Attributes:
Blissey is a Stage 1 Pokémon, so
we’ll have to look at
Chansey to see where you’re coming
from.
Keeping things simple, all three
Chansey are Basic Colorless Pokémon
with 90 HP, no Resistance, and (CC) for
a Retreat Cost.
The big difference for attributes
is that the newest
Chansey has the classic double
damage style Weakness while the two
older merely have +20; a slight
advantage for the older models.
The newest
Chansey can Pound for 20 and (CC), a
textbook example of Energy-to-damage.
Its second attack requires
another Energy and does 10 more damage
with a 50% chance of some useful
healing.
The Mysterious Treasure version
of
Chansey can try to stall with
Scrunch for that Energy, and it is
indeed a decent defensive option.
If you want to go on the
offensive with it, you’ll have to sink
four Energy into it and inflict 60
points of self damage in order to score
80 against the opponent.
Even with
Double Colorless Energy, the price
is steep.
The Platinum version of
Chansey needs only one Energy to use
its Healing Trial attack, but those
first few turns it might not have any
effect, since neither Pokémon might have
damage.
You might not want to risk
healing the opponent either.
It might set up for its second
attack, Pulled Punch, but that isn’t
especially effective.
Pulled Punch on its own is a
nasty little surprise at least.
I know the two attacks are
supposed to combo, but how often will
your opponent damage a Basic with 40 or
less HP just to avoid a OHKO from Pulled
Punch?
It’s not like you can even
reliably heal them.
In general I’d use the new one,
but if you intend to focus your deck on
hitting hard and fast, the Platinum
version is best.
Getting back to
Blissey, we can see that Evolving
adds a solid 40 HP and we get a nice,
big Stage 1.
The Weakness is still something
to watch: a powered up Fighting Pokémon
will easily OHKO
Blissey.
No Weakness is disappointing, but
I guess another return to form for the
TCG.
The Retreat Cost of two is quite
manageable: if you must pay it you’ll be
able to, but it’s enough to dedicate
some slots in your deck to bypassing.
Looks like
Blissey Prime is a wall… but is it
meant to be a tank up front or a bench
sitter?
Perhaps neither.
Abilities:
Blissful Nurse is basically a one-time
Pokémon
Center.
It should always catch your
attention when a Pokémon can duplicate
the effect of a pre-existing Trainer.
When that Trainer isn’t currently
Modified legal, or when it was from the
Base Set (even though a few of those
Trainers were duds), and especially when
it’s both, it calls for testing.
You can flush away all damage on
your side of the field at the cost of
all Energy cards attached to those
Pokémon.
Pokémon
Center
was a must run in certain decks, and it
taught us how to use an effect like
this.
You either run Pokémon with low
Energy requirements, something that lets
you shift your Energy around so you
won’t discard any or something that lets
you drop a lot of Energy all at once so
the loss isn’t a major set back.
If you don’t want
Blissey to waste away on the Bench,
you can power her up and go on the
offensive.
Strength is decent damage for the
Energy going into it, but it certainly
isn’t enough to make her the main
attacker of your deck.
Uses and Combinations:
Unless they reprint
Boost Energy or possibly
Scramble Energy, like I said she
won’t be your main attacker.
She is solid enough to be a back
up hitter and throw off type matching,
but you’ll run her for her Poké-Power
and then if convenient, bring her up.
If you can maintain a
Chansey with no damage and a single
Energy, your opponent will have to try
and plan around you dropping
Blissey and
Double Colorless Energy: a single
turn swing where all damage is flushed
away and you have something big swinging
away up front while you re-energize your
main attacker.
Ratings
Modified:
3.5/5 – I know the rest of the cards we
are reviewing this week, and all three
have potent abilities.
They also all look like they were
designed to have at least a 2-2 line of
Blissey behind them.
Limited:
4/5 – The downside is you can’t afford
to flush too much Energy away and the
sick Fighting Pokémon in this set.
The upside is major though:
damage management is at its peak in this
format.
You only need to take four
Prizes, so denying them to your opponent
could mean victory: you could actually
stall for the win!
Summary
Blissey
cannot carry the deck on her own but she
looks like a popular partner for the
newest heavies, and maybe some of the
old.
Let her heal your crew then stall
while you rebuild.
