The Sandaconda VR allegations piqued my interest so I've been testing it for the last couple days, building a new team with it every day. I have a couple thoughts on its viability and check if he was really next up out of Atlanta.
Seconding the Sandaconda rejection, and to add to it: both paralysis and Shed Skin require a substantial amount of luck to be on the user's side in order to be effective, which you should never force yourself to rely on. I'll take not-Rest recovery and better bulk over that any day.
Sandaconda is not broken by toxic without shed skin activating; rest gives it a probability-independent solution. When it activates to remove toxic it’s beneficial, but if it doesn’t activate it’s
not fatally detrimental. On top of that, the probability it does activate is pretty favorable; no activation for 3 turns has a slightly less than 29% chance of occurring. As a result, this benefit is statistically likely and happens frequently enough to give Sandaconda consistent upside without being dependent on RNG.
pros:
- Has reliable recovery (not stopped by eterrain or being unable to move for some turns)
- Sets sand more reliably
- Has much better bulk (72/125/70 for Sandaconda, 108/118/72 for Hippo)
- Can phase pokemon out with whirlwind
Hippowdown has very reliable recovery, which is supplemented by its very high defensive stats. Comparatively calling Sandaconda’s recovery inconsistent, however, personally seems a little inaccurate. My personal biggest criticism of Conda's recovery is that its lower
defensive stats make recovery less meaningful than it would with defensive stats like Hippo's. Setting electric terrain to prevent rest is theoretically a complete counter, but in practice it requires finding a way to bring in Koko on Sandaconda every 5 turns.
Misty terrain is
by far the most notable practical counter, with Fini being able to switch without fear of glare. Although Fini is an undeniably valid check, this is similarly true for other bulky ground types, particularly Tankchomp and Hippo. Taunt CM Fini prevents Hippowdon recovery, and sets up on most walls in general; while other defensive pokemon aren’t prevented from using their recovery moves by misty terrain, they are by its setter. As a result, Sandaconda
isn’t uniquely weak.
Whirlwind does not particularly benefit Hippowdon, and it’s seen a massive decline in the set’s usage as a result. Without going too much into it, it’s rarely worth running whirlwind on Hippo, and Hippo isn’t the ideal whirlwind user if your team is looking for a phaser.
While the two are barely comparable in terms of splashability, Sandaconda’s utility moves are similar to Ferro’s. Defensive mons have difficulty with paralysis, and are often eventually overwhelmed by full paralysis after enough turns happen for it to be an inevitability. It also comes in on a lot of 3HKOs and is able to find turns to set SR or glare pretty easily. Obviously Ferrothorn has a much wider movepool and provides much more than just para and hazards, but in my testing I just found their similarity kinda unexpected so it's worth a mention ig idk.
Ultimately, if you want to spread para and be immune to status, just run a twave clef alongside a hippo. I understand that role compression can seem nice into a pokemon, but I don't think Sandaconda has a particular noteworthy niche in this metagame when there are so many better ground types to run.
Although these sets are undeniably strong, Sandaconda still has enough distinctive upsides to make a case for its use in the right team. Primarily, glare is a
far better move than t-wave. Team structures that benefit from spreading paralysis greatly appreciate this niche, particularly in dealing with faster ground type threats such as
Excadrill and SD Garchomp. Independent of glare’s advantages, Sandaconda’s
role compression is valuable in teambuilder as it opens up more possibilities for its surrounding structure, with toxic crippling other fat ground types without cleric support.
Alright now some extra personal observations. Expanding on Delibird Heart’s list of advantages, Sandaconda has natural synergy with mons found on a variety of archetypes. Melmetal, for example, fits on pretty much every structure and
assists in Conda’s weakness to Fini, while benefiting from its improved ability to spread paralysis. Wallbreakers such as Nidoking, Volcanion, and Bisharp become viable late-game cleaners if opposing teams are paralysed and cannot outrun them. The spashability of its core pairings makes Sandaconda valuable on a variety of teams, particularly finding a home on balanced squads.
There are still
notable unique disadvantages that come with its use though - in testing I found
Zapdos to be a
big problem (it’s not ideal to have your ground type struggle against the most common electric type in the tier lmao). Given the right support (such as toxic washtom, spdef Heatran, glowking, secondary ground type, etc.), however, the matchup isn’t a big problem with some practice. I was testing in the 1600-1700 mid ladder and I found that common defensive Zapdos-core partners like Landorus and Garchomp were able to be crippled by glare, while SR were relatively easy to get up without eating a hurricane.
Another really notable general weakness of a ground type with
paralysis spreading is the
sacrifice of toxic. Although this sounds obvious, the reliable chip damage of toxic is insanely valuable in
every matchup. While paralysis’ speed reduction and full para chance are great, the
lack of residual damage has to be justifiable in context of team structure. All other meta-relevant ground types manage to quite easily fit the utility of toxic into their sets, but Sandaconda’s move slots are much less flexible.
As a result, Sandaconda obviously
doesn’t fit on every team. Zapdos and Washtom being so problematic
significantly narrows its niche in teambuilder, and it isn’t even close to as splashable as the tier-defining ground types. That said, the combination of glare utility, unique near-immunity to toxic, and complete recovery through rest carve out a definite niche for Sandaconda in the OU meta The flexibility of useful partners, further, makes this niche far wider than I would have thought before testing.
In conclusion, idk he kinda valid.
Sorry for the wall of text idk how to format and ion post on here much, but this really caught my eye. Thanks for reading!
pros:
A- to A
A to A-
A- to A
A- to B+
down a rank
Same Rank (A or A+)
