ADV OU Sandslash in OU?

popmart

Member
Hello there. This is my first post. I was wondering.. Is Sandslash usable in OU?
Maybe as a spinner replacing Donphan or Claydol?
Spr_b_3r_028.png


Any thoughts?
Cheers to all the ADV community.

popmart
 

CALLOUS

YouTube.com/CALLOUSnarrates
Emeritus
Hello there. This is my first post. I was wondering.. Is Sandslash usable in OU?
Maybe as a spinner replacing Donphan or Claydol?
Spr_b_3r_028.png


Any thoughts?
Cheers to all the ADV community.

popmart

It is worse than both of those Pokemon. Claydol has the huge advantage as a spinner of being immune to the Spikes it is coming in to Spin and the ability to fend off Gengar with STAB Psychic. If you compare Donphan next to Sandslash stat for stat Donphan is better in every way. The only advantage Sandslash has is access to Swords Dance. It is otherwise worse at everything. Granted, Donphan isn't good or popular in OU either, but it's more viable than Sandslash.

The other common and reliable Spinner in OU is Starmie, but that's not comparable to Sandslash.

Slash is a reasonably good UU Pokemon but that is absolutely where it belongs.
 
Thought I would chime in on this discussion.
Not for nothing - Sandslash has Sand Veil and decent speed, so I prefer it over Donphan for those traits in OU games, honestly. (Cuz, you know...Tyranitar's Sand Stream...)

But not as a Spinner.

When I was using it I was treating it as a makeshift DDTar counter for my team. (It is good to not be weak to HP Bug - so advantage over Claydol here!) I wanted it to be generally offensively useful, too, of course, so I thought about it and came up with the following:

Sandslash @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Veil
EVs: 92 HP / 204 Atk / 212 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Double-Edge
- Hidden Power [Flying]
- Focus Punch

I think my objective was to possibly outspeed some Heracross and Zapdos? <-- Nah that is never happening. This hit 240 Speed to outrun every Swampert, at least. Whatever IVs to get HP Flying should be considered.

Anyways - 4 attacks. Hit Skarm with Focus Punch if it is not attacking you. In sand you get some HP Flying off on the Heracrosses when they miss their , I am assuming the math is correct: (85%*(.8)) accurate Megahorn , or those that would think they should do something besides attack straight-up. Breloom gets donked as well. And I guess it is all you can do to Gengars with this set if the prediction is that a Gengar is coming in, but in Sand that damage should hopefully last on the Gengar.

Double-Edge can hit all of Zapdos/Claydol/Flygon/Salamence well enough, cuz you will need to damage all of them (unlike with Rock Slide). Leftovers because it will probably get the turns to heal back health with the item, surprisingly. Keeping it healthy if you need it as a check to Tar is important.

And hope Sand Veil works...that is a great selling point to Sandslash...and it will work 20% of the time! If I am right on that, that means it is making 100% accurate moves more like 80%, Meteor Mash and Megahorn miss more often, and Will-o-wisps and Toxics more like 60% and 68% accurate, respectively. Note - It actually does survive a jolly CB Megahorn or a CB Mash from 100% health with those HP EVs, coincidentally, if they do connect.

(Think of it as free-rolling some turns with nothing to lose. Again -- I can only imagine this makes it actually better than Donphan in practice, which has Sturdy -- and that is worth nothing in ADV as an ability.) I would argue, to go with this, that in a metagame filled with Skarmory and Gengar, whether you choose Sandslash or Donphan (if you were actually wanting to use Donphan - *cough cough*) is irrelevant unless you think about the details I talk about like Sand Veil and that Sandslash can smack Skarm with Focus Punch every now and then. Benefits that do it much justice over Donphan, which is slowwwwwwwwwwww, gets hit with moves at their normal accuracy rates, and is way more walled by Skarm without Focus Punch and still has the same troubles with trying to chip a Gengar. I realize that should one be looking for a STAB EQ user that is not Swampert or Dugtrio to go on an "offensive" team, than Flygon would be the optimal choice -- which really shows why Donphan/Sandslash are so unpopular. Flygon has the offensive and defensive traits, too, with a nice ability - and is still "meh" against Skarm and Gar.

Now I know the set above has Sandslash not using a good move that would "set itself apart" -- that being Swords Dance. But I do not see a set designed around Swords Dance being useful in OU. Totally more cool in UU, probably. At least it utilizes Focus Punch to somewhat smack Skarmory around while maybe avoiding some Toxic/Drill Peck...lol.

So if you want to be different and want a DDTar counter, try out Sandslash. It does not have the base offense or defense like Donphan has, but I hope what I wrote above shows how that is kind of irrelevant if you want to use it in OU. (Donphan is probably the better Rapid Spin user - I will concede that...maybe...it is better defensively and might break through some things offensively after all...) As crazy as it sounds, I would think of the set I posted above as along the same lines of how the newer offensive Swamperts operate...except Sandslash is just not the mixed attacker that Swampert is. But it is still a go-to Ground type that makes a nice Rock resist and is neutral to the non-Stab attacks that all-physical DDTar would run.

Cheers to the ADV homies.
 
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watermess

Member
Cool set featured there, I think that celebi and gengar completely sit in that, so I would say at least run hp ghost over hp fly or run suit tar and then hp bug, this would prolly give your the best coverage for the checks to it, but it's worth noting that it's really not doing much to skarm even with a focus punch it's 3 free spikes for a protect skarm
 
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