Sandshrew

[Server_Crash]

Hey! I noticed that this little guy doesn't have a thread.
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#27 Sandshrew

Sandshrew, the mouse pokemon, is only useful in one scenario, sandstorm. Both his normal ability and his Dream World ability are activated by sandstorm. This is not a discussion to decide whether or not Sandshrew should be banned from Little Cup

Abilities:
Sand Veil: Raises evasion when in a sandstorm
(DW) Sand Throw: Doubles speed when in a sandstorm


Base Stats:
HP: 50
Attack: 75
Defense: 85
Special Attack: 20
Special Defense: 30
Speed: 40

Level Up Moves:
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Hide

from Bulbapedia
Scratch
Defense Curl
Sand-Attack
Poison Sting
Rapid Spin
Swift
Fury Swipes
Rollout
Fury Cutter
Sand Tomb
Slash
Gyro Ball
Sandstorm

Egg Moves:

Hide

from Bulbapedia
Counter
Crush Claw
Endure
Flail
Little by Little
Metal Claw
Mud Shot
Night SlashRapid Spin
Rock Climb

TM/HM moves:

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from Bulbapedia
Hone Claws
Toxic
Hidden Power
Sunny Day
Protect
Safeguard
Frustration
Earthquake
Return
Dig
Brick Break
Double Team
Sandstorm
Rock Tomb
Aerial Ace
Facade
Rest
Attract
Thief
Canon
Fling
Shadow Claw
Gyro Ball
Swords Dance
Smooth Over
Rock Slide
X-Scissor
Poison Jab
Swagger
Substitute
Rock Smash
Cut
Strength

Notable moves in bold, and all moves are hyperlinked to their bulbapedia page

Sandshrew has an excellent movepool, and has a respectable 75 base attack, but its main attraction is its dream world ability, sand throw. With sand throw, it needs 36 speed EVs with a neutral nature to hit 22 speed in a sandstorm. This absurd speed allows it to focus on its attack. It also gets rapid spin as a ulitity move, and with the evolution stone added to LC, stall may start to be more prevalent than last generation.

Possible Sets:

Shrew's Dance
Sandshrew @ Life Orb
Sand Throw
Adamant
116 HP/ 236 Atk/ 76 Def/ 36 Speed
-Earthquake
-Rock Slide
-[Coverage Move]
-Swords Dance

Functions just like Dory in OU; it outspeeds everything else in the metagame, gets great coverage, and swords dance. Unfortunately, it gets no priority (not even quick attack), so it needs to watch out for priority aqua jet and ice shard especially. The coverage move is meant to change per team, as shrew gets lots of coverage moves (night slash, shadow claw, x-scissor, poison jab, brick break, rapid spin if needed).

Will add more later, but I want to hear other people's contributions first.

Why use Sandshrew over Mogurew?

While Mogurew (the baby mole) outclasses Sandshrew with sand support with its higher attack and speed and their near identical movepool (Hell, they can both even rapid spin), Sandshrew can do one thing better than Mog: set up on physical attacks. With Shrew's base 75 defense (and it's lacking 40 base HP), it can survive weak physical attacks, and set up SD. With a majority of priority attacks being physical (all except vacuum wave, unless a new one was released), this also allows Shrew to have a longer (although weaker) sweep. Shrew also gets night slash over Mog, but between X-scissor and shadow claw, this is pretty irrelevant, unless you really need a dark attack.

There's also nothing saying that one can't run both on the same team, with an appropriate name like its predecessors Double Dragon and 2Ghosts1Cup, although with Hippo support, you all of a sudden are running three mono-grounds. Croagunk also makes an ideal partner for Sandshrew, as he resists every priority attack, except for extremespeed and quick attack.

 

[BurningMan]

why invest in Sp Def when the most threatening things for him are priority moves which are almost always physical?

other than that i think his coverage move should almost always be Nightslash/Shadow Claw to deal with misdreavus/Bronzor/Gastly since everything else that isn't grounded gets hit SE/Neutral(Gligar wich you can't hit SE) by Rockslide and EQ hits everything else harder anyways.

 

[Server_Crash]

Wow, I didn't think ab out priority being physical, I just thought about general bulk. I noted the other coverage moves in the case that a team lacks an answer for a specific type that Sandshrew can cover. I'll go fix the EVs.

 

[Chieliee]

I think X-Scissor would be the best coverage move(not looking at the rest of the team), because it scores SE hits on Grass, Psychic and Dark types. It also stops Bronzor from completely walling you

 

[leingodf8]

And then you remember mogurew does the exact same thing, with more attack, much better speed, and practically the same movepool. Sandshrews only boon is his def (mogurew even has better SpD), which might help him pull off an sd easier.. But in LC, i think it'll be a hell of a lot easier to pull off a sweep with mog...

 

[Server_Crash]

Well if mog does everything better, let's look at sand veil. I've been theorymon-ing a sand attack staller. Evasion clause exists, and not accuracy clause, because the opponent can switch out to remove the negative accuracy, but what if they don't want to switch out? If enough hazards are stacked, sand attack becomes better than phazing, because they can't attack shrew (especially with veil), SS is constantly hitting them, and entry hazards make them not want to switch. Thoughts?

 

[Banryu]

Doesn't really look like he gets much of anything new outside of Sand Throw.

You might take the time to explain how he's different from Moguryu in the first post.

 

[BurningMan]

I think X-Scissor would be the best coverage move(not looking at the rest of the team), because it scores SE hits on Grass, Psychic and Dark types. It also stops Bronzor from completely walling you

the point is that there are almost no Grass types in LC that would be worth sacrificing the move slot and psychic and dark types are even rarer (the only dark types take neutral damage (Murkrow gets hit SE by Rock slide and Zurugu takes EQ) same with psychic types outside of Abra and he will be OHKOed by anything).

Nightslash however gets the Neutral Hit on Bronzor and hits Misdreavus, who can't be OHKOed by Rockslide if it holds Evo Stone, for SE damage and both pokemon are very common.

IMO Sandshrew differentiates itself from Moguryu with his higher base Def that allows him to set up on much more things like Gligar, Hippopotas etc. so IMO he isn't outclassed if he is played to his strengthts.

 

[Forte.EXE]

And then you remember mogurew does the exact same thing, with more attack, much better speed, and practically the same movepool. Sandshrews only boon is his def (mogurew even has better SpD), which might help him pull off an sd easier.. But in LC, i think it'll be a hell of a lot easier to pull off a sweep with mog...

But you're not seeing the big picture. You can run both Moguryu and Sandshrew. Either one weakens the opponent's counter, or in some cases completely defeats it, thus allowing the other one to finish the sweep.

It's pretty much just Double Dragon or 2Ghost1Cup, but for Ground-types.

 

[Server_Crash]

@Banryu: How exactly are they different? Mogy has higher base atk, speed, and special defense. The only difference is what they can set up SD on.

Yeah, running both sand throwers will be dangerous, and also running croagunk to deal with priority, especially aqua jet and ice shard.

 

[Darkamber8828]

@Banryu: How exactly are they different? Mogy has higher base atk, speed, and special defense. The only difference is what they can set up SD on.

Er, the second sentence is rather important. Props for answering your own question.

Anyway, Sandshrew got Sand Strength, but it didn't need power. It needed speed. It's got Swords Dance. Mog outclasses this because it can, y'know, kill things before it gets killed.

And...it didn't receive anything else important? Smooth Over can help hit switch ins, if all his switch-ins weren't ground-resists.

Sand Veil isn't a bad ability, but it isn't good, especially with another weather changer entering the fray.

Conclusion: Sandshrew still sucks.

 

[Chou Toshio]

Well if mog does everything better, let's look at sand veil. I've been theorymon-ing a sand attack staller. Evasion clause exists, and not accuracy clause, because the opponent can switch out to remove the negative accuracy, but what if they don't want to switch out? If enough hazards are stacked, sand attack becomes better than phazing, because they can't attack shrew (especially with veil), SS is constantly hitting them, and entry hazards make them not want to switch. Thoughts?

Are you forgetting a little pokemon named Gliger? You know, the king of last gen's LC? Sand Veil Glig would completely eclipse Sandshrew on the Veil abuse department . . .

 

[holidayy]

Er, the second sentence is rather important. Props for answering your own question.

Anyway, Sandshrew got Sand Strength, but it didn't need power. It needed speed. It's got Swords Dance. Mog outclasses this because it can, y'know, kill things before it gets killed.

And...it didn't receive anything else important? Smooth Over can help hit switch ins, if all his switch-ins weren't ground-resists.

Sand Veil isn't a bad ability, but it isn't good, especially with another weather changer entering the fray.

Conclusion: Sandshrew still sucks.

It actually got Sand Throw so...

 

[Darkamber8828]

It actually got Sand Throw so...

Palm.

Let me revise that.

Why Sandshrew is a bad choice

Mogy has higher base atk, speed, and special defense

Dual-mono-ground, with its grand total of 2 resists and one immunity, isn't a good idea

UU doesn't exist

The defense difference is minimal when you take into account Sandshrew should be lowering its HP to 19

There. Conclusion: Sandshrew doesn't suck, but please don't use it.

 

[Wafflez]

Yah deffinetly no reason to use this as a Sand thrower when the mole does pretty much everything better.Also somewhat outclassed by Gligar as a Sand Veiler.Might make a niche in LC UU when it begins to exist :L.

 

[Chou Toshio]

If hippo would make LC UU :P

 

[Server_Crash]

If hippo would make LC UU :P

No weather 'mons would (presumably) make UU, so it becomes a balanced weather field. While rain would obviously become dominant, a few turns or sand throw sandshrew could be dangerous.

 

[Banryu]

@Banryu: How exactly are they different? Mogy has higher base atk, speed, and special defense. The only difference is what they can set up SD on.

You, as the author of the thread, should be telling us this, I believe. It's only up to us to tell you if we decide we're willing to do the work and not be lazy (LOL me).

Mogy has higher base atk, speed, and special defense. The only difference is what they can set up SD on.

....er.... ....well there you go...? :0?
Now elaborate. And put it in the OP.

 

[Axa]

I'd say Sandshrew's advantages are that it gets Endure, Flail and Counter. Weak to priority but still allows it to take weak attacks and send them back to the opponent.

It also gets Night Slash, for what that's worth. Hits Gastly/Misdreavus harder.

 

[Tytus]

Abilities:

Sand Veil: Raises evasion when in a sandstorm
(DW) Sand Throw: Doubles speed when in a sandstorm
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Not accuracy.

 

[Server_Crash]

Sorry didn't catch the accuracy/evasion thing. Editting the OP now.

 

[Heysup]

I could definitely imagine using Sandshrew + Mold Breaker Mole. One would easily break walls for the other, depending on if you use Scarf Mole or even Band Mole. Banded Earthquake with only a couple Pokemon immune is scary, and allows Sandshew to clean up.