Attack? Check. Defense? Check. Claws that rivals the current sharpness of my dog's? Check. Sandslash is a verifiable beast on the offensive and defensive end, and the weird shrew/porcupine hybrid can do some quality physical damage. Its moveset is pretty nicely laid out for it, too: Earthquake and Rock Slide FO SHO, to utilize the STAB of Ground and to get rid of any pesky fliers or the other things Rock is strong against, namely Fire and Ice. Like that song. Rock is also supereffective against Bugs, but I doubt anyone besides that random forest filled with bug trainers would in their right mind build a non "This is my stupid team and it's filled with stupid Pokemon" using a Bug type. That reminds me, why does every trainer in every Pokemon game insist on using the same types for their team? Even the Gym Leaders and the Elite Four/Eight/17/whatever it's up to now all generally have the same type for all the Pokemon they use. I'm pretty sure your rival is the only person in the game to have more than three types covered. And these are allegedly the best trainers in the land. The only logical conclusion is that people are DUMB, even in a fictional world like the Pokemon one.
Phew, that was a rant. I enjoyed it a lot, though. Swords Dance is another "I should equip my Sandslash with this move" move, since it will make your attacks absurdly high. And you can pick either a generic Normal-type attack (like Double-Edge or Body Slam) or Submission, as that'll do supereffective damage against said Normal types.
Of course, the Slashmatic 5000 does have a few things that are not as groovy--the poor Speed and Special, in particular. Speed isn't so bad; you'll just have to wait a turn before using Swords Dance and then sweeping away. But that Special hurts, a lot. If your foe subs in a Water or Grass-type, you're probably not gonna have a very good morning. The one saving grace is that Slash, when not soloing on its guitar, only moonlights as a pure Ground-type. That means the usual 4x damage for folks like Rhydon or Golem is only 2x for Slashy. And that's a win all-around. Or at least less of a loss. Like a draw in the World Cup. That's why soccer won't be popular in America.
Battling Grade: B+
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