Chansey!
Chansey has more Hp than any basic pokemon by thirty, and with the attack
scrunch, he is the preferred staller of most decks. He also has a retreat
cost of just one, less than most stallers. I never charge up for
Double-Edge, as by the time you get the energy on, chansey will probably
have al least fourty damage on it, and you'll not only kill your opponent's
active pokemon, you'll kill chansey and it's four energy (or 2 DCE) as well.
Chansey is popular mainly in stall decks, where he is superior to
Kangaskhan. Also, for one DCE, chansey can use scrunch, whitch lets it stay
around even longer. It's weakness is fighting, whitch means that if it
doesn't use scrunch, A machop or hitmonchan with one energy KO it in 3 hits.
On the flip side, it's resistance to Psychic lets it defend against movie
promo mewtwo for a long time. Still, Chansey is probably the best staller in
the game.

Chansey vs. other First-rate Stallers

Chansey vs. Kangaskhan
Kangaskhan's main advantage is it's no-questions-asked draw a card attack.
It has thirty less HP than chansey, and in a stall deck, where you don't
want to draw cards, you wouldn't use fetch anyway. Kangaskhan has a retreat
cost of three, meaning that it will probably die if you use it as a staller.
Also, unlike most stallers, kangaskhan does nothing to khelp it stall. It
has more offensive power than chansey, but chansey still stalls better most
of the time.
Chansey vs. Lickitung
Once again, lickitung has a retreat cost of three, and is more offensive
than many other stallers. With one energy it can use tounge wrap, and do ten
damage with a chance of paralasis. This paralasis does help lickitung
survive. Chansey, however has that thirty more Hp. It is rare, hoever and
harder to get. Also chansey can, in a pinch, do eighty damage, power whitch
lickitung cannot match.

Chansey vs. Second-rate stallers

Chansey Vs. Snorlax
Snorlax's retreat cost of four is the worst in the game, and his attack is
overpriced. His power helps him stall a little, but not as good as screunch
does. Like most stallers, it gets cut down quickly by fighting pokemon.
Chansey has thirty more Hp, and scrunch is just better for stalling than
"thick skin"
Chansey Vs. Porygon
Yes, porygon. I've actually seen the poor thing as a staller. Porygon is a
very risky staller, as many things could go wrong.
Porygon needs to get energy fast to use conversion 2 and change it's
resistance. If it goes second, hitmonchan or machop could kill it before it
does anything. Even if it goes first, it needs to get DCE right away to
protect from these pokemon. Even then, it will only survive for a few turns,
because weakness is applied before resistance. Also, if your opponent sends
out a colorless pokemon, there's nothing porygon can do. Finally, resistance
isn't a very sound defensive strategy. Your opponent can retreat for a
pokemon of a different type, use a resistance-ignoring attack. Not to
mention that a slash following a sword's dance will kill it even if it
changes it's resistance. Chansey has so many advantages over porygon it's
not even close.

Chansey Vs. Onix
The only reason i can see to use onix instead of chansey is that you don't
have a chansey. With two fighting energy onix can defend itself fairly well,
and it has 90 Hp, but with a three retreat cost and a need for fighting
energy to stall, not to mention a lack of resistance, put this guy in
porygon-class

There are other stallers I didn't compare chansey to, but I covered the
major ones. When I first started out with just a "water blast" theme deck
and a few boosters, I used rhyhorn and jigglypuff as stallers. Chansey is
the best staller, with kangaskhan and Lickitung close behind.

Chansey - 4.5/5

~Sri Lanka
amnesiapsyduck@hotmail.com
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com