Sandslash
Attack
Defense
Stamina
Best Movesets
Analysis
Sandslash is the little-brother of Ground Types. It wants to be good, but it just doesn't have the muscle needed to achieve its dreams.
Offense
- Sand Attack and Scorching Sands is an outstanding Ground Type moveset, thematically relevant, and brings Sandslash as close to being usable as it can be.
- Mud Shot is also a great moves, but it also falls behind Sand Attack. Metal Claw, Night Slash*, Rock Tomb, Earthquake, and Bulldoze all either fall behind, or are objectively useless on Sandslash.
Defense
- Metal Claw is the best defensive Fast Move that Sandslash can muster. Mud Shot is a bit behind after STAB, but is still usable with the right Charged Move.
- Night Slash* has great neutral coverage, is hard to dodge, and comes out very frequently.
- Scorching Sands is the hardest hitting move in Sandslash's arsenal on defense.
- Rock Tomb has good coverage and is also worth considering.
- Bulldoze is Scorching Sands, but worse.
- Earthquake hits hard, but Sandslash is unlikely to actually use it.
Sand Attack is preferable to Mud Shot; they possess the same EPT and DPT, but Sand Attack is more flexible due to being a 1-turn move. Metal Claw is bad
Scorching Sands and Rock Tomb combine to maximize Sandslash's coverage, and while Rock Tomb isn't a very good move, it's at least better than Bulldoze. The addition of Night Slash* following the Sandshrew Community Day in March 2022 is an interesting but somewhat unimpressive one. Dark-type coverage doesn't solve Sandslash's problems, but at least its low energy cost enables faster shield pressure and baiting. Earthquake has the advantage of hitting very hard if not shielded, but its DPS (Damage per Energy) isn't too far above Scorching Sands, which has lower energy cost as well.
Sandslash is an alright Ground-type option. It sports average stats and reasonably consistent damage. However, it doesn't have much that sets it apart from other Ground-types. Many other Ground-types have a useful secondary typing to solidify their niche. As a pure Ground-type, Sandslash often finds itself being inferior to Marowak, who boasts superior bulk, coverage, and consistency.
