Week 3:
Chansey is a blob that checks a lot of specially oriented threats in the tier. Its reliance on Eviolite is often its downfall though. It's got access to SR, Heal Bell, and reliable recovery, making it a great support pokemon. It is, however, very susceptible to Taunt, and being set up bait
- What limits Chansey in the current metagame?
- What is it at good at in the metagame?
- What threats to stall does it handle?
Chansey is in particular a special wall, that is what it is well known for and that is what it does best. The other well known fact is its heavy reliance of its item in order to wall some of the more powerful special wallbreakers out there such as char-y and volcarona and what not. Its physical defenses are rather poor but thanks to its very large hp it can still take a few physical hits but its not recommended as it will take heavy damage and can be ko by a lot of physical wallbreakers.
Hazards are another weak point to chansey which is why it is very often paired with skarmory who can tank the physical hits and get rid of hazards. Since it has no leftovers and takes full damage from hazards if there are a layer of spikes/stealth rocks on the field it loses 25% on switch-in which it sometimes desperately needs in order to be an effective wall.
So while it is limited by hazards, lack of phsyical defenses and reliance on its item, it is still more or less a staple on most stall teams because of just how effective it is. Fortunately in OU currently there is not a single fighting special attacker meaning most special wallbreakers rely on focus blast coverage which not only has shaky accuracy will generally only hit it for about 40% maximum meaning there is pretty much no special attacks that can 2hko it. Which makes it very very good at tanking special hits and stopping opponents momentum.
Things it walls that are in the A/S ranks - as in it can easily switch in and stop it doing much damage while doing something useful in return either statusing/rocks/clerical support or whatever:
Special Altaria, Clefable, Diancie, Latios, Non RD-Manaphy, Non-Knock off Thundurus, Alakazam, Charizard-Y, Manectric, Slowbro, Starmie, Venusaur, Celebi, Magnezone, Raikou, Rotom, Serperior, Volcarona.
Im not suggesting it can tank all of these mons all of the time it depends on the particular battle and moveset but this list gives you a good indication of what mons it can potentially wall with varying degrees of ease.
However stall relies sometimes very heavily upon chansey and if the opponent manages to get rid of it then often it is a downhill battle from there for the staller as there is not many special walls that can do the job it does so effectively. It is also slow, easy to taunt and easy to set up on and completely useless against ghost types as it rarely runs more than seismic toss as an attacking move.
Generally the pros outweigh the cons and Chansey is the pinnacle of special walls currently and will probably remain the same for a while but the ways to deal with it are numerous and easy to come by.
