Sandshrew are small shrew-like omnivores that dot the deserts of the world. They're non-hostile solitary creatures that are commonly seen due to being one of the few things that willingly braves the desert day. Their backs and tails are covered in a brickwork pattern of armored scales, which allows them to curl into balls for total defense. When travelling through familiar territory they tend to curl like this to travel at high speeds and hunt down termite mounds. At night they return to their burrow to dig or rest. If it's too far they will dig a new nest. Their armor is very porous and allows them to gather moisture from the air, so they hide at night to prevent overhydration from dew.
At age 7 a sandshrew's armor will begin to grow out into spines and their claws will begin to grow at a much more rapid rate, entering a stage known as sandslash. The goblin sized creature no longer stays in burrows, instead widening its territory towards the edges of the desert and staying in trees at night. They still curl into balls for offense and defense, but now prefer to run. Sandslash are considerable more aggressive, and are just as likely to leap and a threat and start slashing as they are to run. They continue their solitary life style, meeting only to mate. The single resulting sandshrew will stay with their mother for the first 6 months before setting off on its own. They live up to 40 years, but in the wild will typically live to 25
Draconic rampages, eruptions, cataclysmic flood. It takes a lot to drive a moisture-hating burrower with SAND in its name out of the desert, especially to a high snowy mountain. In some regions however, this is what happened. Somehow, the cold unlocked an innate magical spark within them. As they burrowed through the snow, young sandshrew found their armored brickwork hardening as snow grafted to their plates. While the armor was like metal, it became inflexible, stopping them from curling into balls. Instead they burrow at sight of a predator, clinging to the ground with their claws and leaving nothing exposed. If hunting or defending themselves, these "Alolan sandshrew" will instead hurl themselves at high speed, using their armor as a blunt weapon.
Alolan sandshew (why is it not snowshrew?) mature into Snowslash (I'm calling it that now and you can't stop me). Snowslash find thier packed snow armor hardening into massive spikes of ice that rise eye level with your average elf. They sprint across the icy mountain tops, curved foot long claws finding traction anywhere. While they will scurry up trees for fruits and pine cones when able, they are still omnivores and those steely claws are used for offense just as easily. Unlike their sandy ancestors snowslash have small litters of 3-6. The female will typically drive off the male to ensure the territory has the food to support her new family. While the litter will wander off at around 7 months, they will stay together until they are fully grown themselves.
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Villains beware, it’s Sonic and Knuckles, AT THE SAME TIME!
DESIGN:
I really love the way Sandshrew and Sandslash look. The armadillo/pangolin fusion starting off with the hard back that looks almost like sandstone blocks, and getting those big Pangolin plates but up to look like spikes? It’s totally bitchin’. Then the Alolan variants turn the sandstone blocks into ice blocks to make it look like a little igloo monster, and Sandslash’s spikes turn into huge icicles. Sandshrew are cute, Sandslash is cool and looks potentially terrifying, and everything about them makes it clear what type they are. I love everything about both versions of these boys. Well... except one thing...
Alolan Sandshrew and Sandslash are... Alolan Sandshrew and Sandslash. As in, that’s what they’re called. Here’s the thing: While an Alolan Rattata is still a Rat, an Alolan Raichu is still a Thunder Mouse, and an Alolan Ninetails still has Nine Tails, Alolan Sandshrew and Sandslash don’t... Sand. They snow. They’re Snowshrew and Snowslash. They can’t even learn a single attack with Sand in the name, while the Kantonian versions get Sand Attack, Sandstorm, and Stand Tomb. This is a weird nitpick to have, but why would anyone call a pokemon Sandslash if it didn’t have anything to do with Sand?
In fact, new rule: I’m not going to say Alolan Sandshrew anymore. It’s Snowshrew now. It digs through Snow.
EVOLUTIONS:
Sandshrew evolves into Sandslash at level 22. Snowshrew evolves into Snowslash with an ice stone. It’s a bit weird to me that it doesn’t just evolve at level-up, but I’m fine with elemental stones. There’s no third form in this line and no megas or G-Maxes or anything. It’s just a standard two stage evolution. Which is fine. It could certainly get a third form later on, but Sandslash and Snowslash clearly give off the look of fully evolved badasses.
TYPING:
Sandslash is a pure ground type, which is solid. Three weaknesses, two resistances, one immunity. The big boost here is STAB on Earthquake, because five types are weak to it. I’d say ‘ground type attacks’ but lets face it: There’s only one Ground Type attack that has ever mattered in the history of Pokemon.
Snowslash is an Ice/Steel type which is frankly amazing. With eight resistances and one immunity, Snowslash can safely switch in to fully half the attacks out there. Sure, it does have the problem of being doubly weak to both Fire and Fighting, but with two types for STAB and no overlap between, it can deal supereffecive STAB damage against seven different types.
STATS:
Sandslash’s stats overall aren’t particularly great at only a 450 total, but with 100 Attack and 110 Defense it’s pretty solid on the physical side. Its special attack is basically non-existant, which is fine, but its special defense and speed are also on the lower end. Sandslash can take a good physical hit and deliver one back, but it’ll have trouble with special attackers.
Snowslash has nearly identical stats, but with higher defense and special defense. Despite having the same 450, taking 20 points from Special Attack and moving them to the defensive stats just makes it a stronger pokemon, and its resistances make it a lot tankier, too. With 120 defense, it can potentially survive a physical Fire or Fighting attack... once.
ABILITIES:
Sandslash and Snowslash have Sand Veil and Snow Cloak as their basic abilities, and Sand Rush and Slush Rush as their hidden abilities respectively.
Sand Veil and Snow Cloak increase evasiveness during their respective weather (Sandstorm and Hail), while Sand Rush and Slush Rush double speed during that weather.
I do not like Sand Veil and Snow Cloak. Increased Evasion isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s random, unreliable, and not a huge amount. You know what is a huge amount, though?
Sand Rush and Slush Rush DOUBLE the pokemon’s speed. Sandslash and Snowslash have 65 base speed, which is low, but doubling that brings it straight to a top-tier 130 speed- plus a second round of IV and EV boosts. Very few pokemon will outspeed *Slash when that ability is on.
MOVES:
Despite being the same pokemon in theory, Sandslash and Snowslash have very different movesets, so I’m going to go over them separately.
Sandslash gets STAB Earthquake. It’d be crazy to run a Sandslash without Earthquake. The move is a physical attack for 100 accuracy for 100 damage that doesn’t even make contact. Yes, it hits your ally in 2v2, but you can prepare for that with a flying or ground-resistant ally.
And... that’s about the only attack that matters that Sandslash has. It may want one of its available Rock attacks (Rock Slide or Stone Edge) to attack Flying types, but other than that, STAB Earthquake is going to do almost as much damage to something that resists Earthquake as any of Sandslash’s Non-STAB options, so just throw rocks at birds and otherwise spam Earthquake forever.
Sandslash has a fair amount of utility moves it can learn, though. Obviously, Sandslash learns Sandstorm, which triggers its abilities as well as doing damage over time to the opponent, but its other big setup move is Swords Dance, which it learns naturally. With these two combined (especially if something else sets up the Sandstorm,) Sandslash can act as a physical sweeper with solid defense.
But Sandslash also has some indirect damage in the form of Toxic, Spikes and Stealth Rock, and can get rid of the opponent’s with Rapid Spin. Further, the new move Steel Roller, though very niche, can remove Grassy Terrain that weakens Earthquake. Knock Off is also very useful, though as of this writing there’s no tutor for it in Sword and Shield.
Whatever you choose, Earthquake is always the right answer.
Snowslash can also learn Earthquake and, let’s face it, with 100 Attack, why not go for it? Move’s crazy good.
Obviously, Snowslash needs its STAB moves, too. Its best options here are Icicle Crash and Iron Head, both of which have a chance to make the opponent flinch, something that’s pretty weak at 65 speed but rather powerful when Slush Rush is active.
Like Sandslash, Snowslash can learn Swords Dance for proper sweeper setup if you can reliably get Hail going. And of course it can use the move Hail. With its high defense, Aurora Veil and Toxic can allow Snowslash to just durdle while the opponent dies as long as they don’t bring out a fire-type attacker... which you’ll have Earthquake for.
With its strong defensive typing, Snowslash can more easily spend a turn on Hail than Sandslash can on Sandstorm, but it’s still rough to have to do.
OVERALL:
Sandslash and Snowslash are niche but solid pokemon that can be very powerful if and ONLY if your team is set up to prepare their weather condition for them. Spending a turn on Sandstorm or Hail is just so rarely worth it, but Sand Stream and Snow Warning both exist, and Max Rockfall and Max Hailstorm both set up weather. I’m honestly quite happy with the existence and style of both, but I think I’d appreciate if they could each get a third special ability that wasn’t ‘this pokemon only works while in the right weather’ in order to expand their usefulness. Hell, give THEM Sand Stream and Snow Warning as options and they’re suddenly both a lot more useful on teams, but still weaker than the current abilities when the weather condition is already up.
...And seriously, Snowshrew and Snowslash. No sand involved.
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