Sandslash
Mouse Pokémon
SANDSLASH’s body is covered by tough spikes, which are hardened sections of its hide. Once a year, the old spikes fall out, to be replaced with new spikes that grow out from beneath the old ones.
Base Stats
Type Effectiveness
Abilities
Held Items
Evolution Chain
Moves
Locations
Details
Sprites
Front
Back
Front Shiny
Back Shiny
Official Art
Official Art (Shiny)Competitive
Strategy Overview
In standard, the only thing it has over Donphan is Swords Dance, while Donphan has better stats everywhere except in Speed, plus Roar. Therefore, when using Sandslash in standard, use Swords Dance. It's not a bad Pokemon there, maybe even a tad underrated, a Swords Danced Earthquake does about 70% to Milotic and minimally 60% to Swampert. It resists Rock Slide from Tyranitar and Aerodactyl pretty well, you may want to try it out sometime.
In UU, Sandslash is a monster. It rivals Quagsire and Gligar as the best Ground around. It can 2HKO Quagsire and Blastoise with a Swords Dance, and if Gligar comes in on a Swords Dance it can take it out one on one, barring Toxic. Its great Defense and the use of Hidden Power Ghost or Rock makes it an alright Solrock switch-in (though Reflect will be annoying), and it can hurt its counters quite well. Be aware of Sandslash's great sweeping powers, whether you're using it or not.
Most Used Moves
Common Teammates
Competitive data from Smogon University via data.pkmn.cc