Earthquake is almost always better than Rock Slide. I get mixed up here because I'm used to using Rock/Ground types where Rock Slide is better than EQ in the cases where it is super effective. Obviously Sandshrew isn't a Rock-type, so I get seduced by the super effective swindle a lot here.
At least you're aware for the sandslash and dugtrio runs (marowak weirdly doesn't get rock slide). Rock slide should be pretty much exclusively used against flying types with a stab earthquake and no rock stab. Even koga gets hit the same with a neutral EQ because of the poison typings.
The sandshrew line is my favorite line in entire franchise. Sandshrew was my very first pokemon card and I loved the episode with the gym bro, gigachad sanshrew who literally said "water weakness? Nah bro, 20 laps in the pool."
Sandshrew was also my first card! Got it from a teammate after a baseball game as a kid. Still have the card! Along with my other 2 first (Vulpix and Doduo) and my first Holo (Jolteon). Cards are over 20 years old but hold up!
Dude that episode is the one episode I have vivid memories of watching as a little kid! My mom had a mini van with a VHS player in it, and I’d always play that episode
I literally just watched the Koga battle and came to the comments to comment about the same thing! Even though neuteal stab earthquake does equal damage than super effective non stab rock slide, and can't miss like rock slide. For someone who invests so much time/effort into documenting and displaying all the stats/mechanics in the game, this is a really funny misplay, given how simple it is compared to all the other complex factors he tries to account for.
A little off-topic, but Sandshrew has a pretty awesome R/B sprite - maybe one of the best. I'm always impressed with how they were able to detail the ridges on its limbs and tail using only a Gameboy color palette.
I love how Scott began this video almost exactly the way he did on the first Sandshrew video two years ago. By telling us how much he hates this little sand demon but how cute he thinkd the design is. Some things dont change even though so much improved in that time. (A two hours difference is really showing the insane progress)
I am SO glad that you mentioned the mistake of using rock slide at the end! I was surprised to see you using rock slide against opponents like Koga and Lorelei.
Hey Scott! You're great at storytelling with these simple games. One of the reasons that makes you stand out is that you take us through the whole adventure, not just the gym battles. It's so incredibly wonderful for me to listen to these videos, hearing the music and you describing your way through viridian forrest, team rocket and everything else. I hope you don't change and start to edit away too much of these elements. I can understand why you would want to, but it is one of the main reasons I stick with only you for pokemon challenges. It's like reliving my childhood adventures again 🥲
Do you ever think that maybe Bruno has Onixes because he routinely has his Machamp karate chop boulders in half, but those two survived the attempted decapitation and he added them to the team out of respect?
I used to think one of these Onix was the one he catches in the anime (it rampages because of a Sandslash being stuck and hurting it) while the other one was his first Onix that made him familiar enough with Onix to identify the issue. Of course, anime isn't game canon, but that's what I thought the idea was as a kid.
@@justsomejojo Yellow in particular has a bunch of changes to make it more like the anime, including to major trainers' teams. That means they probably had Bruno's anime depiction in mind when they were redesigning him for Yellow at least. So you probably aren't too far off. I wonder sometimes if given the limitations of gen1 AI and the general shitiness of gen1 fighting types there was any way to design Bruno so he was at least on the level of, say, Lorelei. Giving him a Poliwrath would help a lot and then perhaps swap one Onix for a Golem, and I guess Primeape sucks slightly less than Hitmonchan? Still doesn't feel like all that would be nearly enough, though.
@@inventiveusername5191 Primeape at least doesn't have to rely on special coverage and it's quite fast compared to Hitmonchan. It also learns Thrash just in time, so it both has less potential to mess up with the AI and more power. I'd say that's a great upgrade. Poliwrath with Hypnosis alone would be amazing for him, though that probably goes against his steadfast offense-oriented role. Generally though, I think he should just have been the first. He's more recognizable than Lorelei since he was in the anime at the time and he's weaker than her, which in Gen1 feels to me like less of a Bruno issue and more of a type issue. Fighting very much feels like it's there to prop up the scary mysterious Psychic type.
Sandslash is my favourite all time pokemon, I didn't know in Gen 1 about crit metrics and slash interactions etc and I must have had a near perfect Sandslash because I had it and it pretty much was my only pokemon I played with. To this day I always add Sandshrew to the team for that nostalgia :)
You had me pulling my hair out with those Rock Slides. Off the top of my head I think only Bug and Bug/Grass make Rock Slide better than Earthquake anytime Earthquake can actually hit in Gen 1. Genuinely surprised how well Sandshrew did against the water trainers though.
I’m so proud of clutch sandshrew. You ran it very well. The name you gave it was brilliant. Sandshrew and slash was and still kinda is my fav Pokémon. Probably because Ep 8 path to the Pokémon league with AJs sandshrew was the first ep I’d ever seen, and my squishy pre-teen brain didn’t critically question anything it saw on tv. Plus, slash and dig was so powerful i thought it was a cute god.
Gen1 has an issue with a lot of Pokémon early game because their movesets were created with the assumption they'd be used at their wild level and not used like this
I absolutely adore Sandshrew as a Pokemon. I actually have this little Sandshrew like keychain toy that I've had for a really long time, to the point where like you can clearly see the wear and tear, the paint is coming off in places and she's not quite yellow anymore? But I still love her, she's my lucky charm to ward off bad hands when I play Magic or Yugioh.
Love the artwork for the super nerd. Looks really cool. Love that Koffing is just floating there chilling. I love Koffing since it was my first pokemon plush so it has a special place in my heart. I also think that Sandshrew is an adorable pokemon when you aren't battling it and need to deal with Sand Attack. Please keep up the great work.
9:50 I heard this line and immediately thought, "You have been a worthy opponent. I shall commission a portrait in your likeness to memorialize your valor throughout history."
Let's goooooo!!!!! Sandshrew/slash are my favorite pokemon hands down! I remember when pokemon first came out, being really intrigued as all my schoolmates seemed to have gameboys and collected the cards and I didn't have any of them. We were pretty poor and my parents couldnt afford much for gifts. I recall really getting into pokemon after seeing a random episode of pokemon for the first time (the episode where Ash catches mankey/primeape) and I became obsessed. I asked for pokemon as my only presents that year. Well, I ended up getting for Christmas a pokemon red/blue guidebook and a little pokeball that had a random pokemon inside. The pokemon ended up being sandslash- and that was it. I carried my little toy sandslash with me wherever. No matter what game I played jt seemed like I would involve sandslash somehow. It wasnt until a couple of years later that I got a gameboy and my first of the games (yellow). From that little toy embedded sandslash as a favorite, even if you are a bit underwhelming in the games.
Sandslash is one of those mons I'll never complain about in a randomised run, and I'll always respect if I come up against one. Underwhelming compared to the big boys? Sure. But that's a solid mon.
MY FAVORITE SON! Thank you for this ride, and congrats on having the power of sand attack yourself for once. As someone who has soloed the game many times with Sandslash, these results actually don't shock me in the slightest.
Will hit harder, but has many of the same flaws for time. Most notably is the starting Moveset offers it no further advantage over Brock. Good speed boost though, should help
Sandshrew has a special place in my heart. I got a little toy of him in a BK meal when Pokemon was first blowing up, and he was the perfect tag-team partner for Pikachu in Yellow.
Dang it I've been yelling at the screen the whole video over Earthquake vs super effective Rock Slide on Lorelei, but refraining from commenting. When I saw the second playthrough I was about to comment and _then_ you addressed that lmao.
Hi Scott, Sandshrew was one of my absolute favorite as a kid and it remains my favorite ground type to this day - it's just too adorable -, I'm so excited to watch you play it and see how it does! Do you think you'll port regional versions like Alolan Sandshrew to Yellow eventually?, it would be super neat ! Anyway, I love your channel Scott, hope everyone reading this is having a great weekend too 😁 __ It did much better than I expected! I thought it'd get walled at some point but that second playthrough was so smooth and optimized. The Sword Dance/Earthquake sweeps were so satisfying to watch, big numbers go brrr lol
All of those Rock Slide misses in the first run against Lorelei. With a Ground Type like Sandshrew you should prefer Earthquake against all pokemon except flying and bug types, right?
Yes, the same happened with the Venomoth, using earthquake is the best option because you basically have the same power with more accuracy. Even if for some strange rounding o calculation rock slide were a little more powerful, the 100% accuracy is preferable in most cases
I was certainly not expecting this video to open up with a declaration of hatred towards Sandshrew. Given the amount of times the adorable sand thrower has been an obstacle to you though, I can't blame you. 1:03 - That Slash certainly comes very early though; it made Sandshrew a real threat in the early game for that alone. 3:07 - It's crazy to think how big the accuracy drop was but seems believable with how effective they've been, both in your videos and in my recollections of past Pokémon experiences. 4:43 - I'm guessing Bide ignores accuracy checks. Bravo to Demon (just noticed the name choice) for hanging on there. 5:30 - Fantastic to see more official art. You'd think there would be more info to Miguel (his name is the same in both the GBA games and Let's Go), perhaps even a unique look, given he is a mandatory road block and the first guy to introduce fossils to the player. Love the detail of the Super Nerd holding both fossils here. 7:39 - For an Odd Lass, she seems surprisingly normal... though that Pidgey is a very odd Oddish. Demon tanked the Absorb better than expected. 8:19 - I was not expecting the Goldeen Gym Trainer to get an artwork but I understand the focus; a high level Goldeen with it's unexpected Peck and powerful Horn Attack was a surprising threat for a child me with an Ivysaur. I like the touch of distinguishing her from other Jr Trainers by having her as a blonde, or rather, golden haired. 9:49 - I think the Resting Sailor Huey was upset that he didn't get an artwork and took it out on you. What rotten luck. It does truly drive home that Demon wasn't ready for Misty though. I think Demon could win at this level with a poor move choice from Misty and some luck with Slash, but it's not a reliable method for victory. 10:55 - Demon consistently proves reliable in taking a hit. 14:18 - Always funny to picture how an Earthquake manages to miss. It's also amusing to see how each of these rival fights start with Demon taking on his evolution now. This sort of thing is usually reserved for the last match-up of a team fight in a story. 16:43 - I mean, Bug resists Ground... perhaps that is why Venomoth thought to use that move (Bug being super-effective would be cool; I'd love some much needed buffs to my favourite type, though it likely needs it in a more defensive capacity). 18:42 - I would have kept the Body Slam TM for later usage then, relying on Slash for now, replacing it with Swift, an then replacing Swift with Body Slam afterwards. 22:42 - Blaine, Giovanni and the rival in a row with no reset; that's great going. Once again, Demon proves to be a resilient shrew. 27:33 - Demon's speed allowed it to dodge out of the way of the Hydro Pump as well. 29:33 - Man, how is has the Indigo League not fallen to pieces from all the Earthquakes going on in this building. 33:45 - Kanto does love it's Poison Types and having two Ground type attack options does decrease the amount of Pokémon Centre visits. Funny how the Dig Thief doesn't have a unique artwork but this one random Silph Rocket does. 37:08 - "Just spam Earthquake." Ah, yes, the classic strategy. 38:50 - Still, the drastic reduction in the Reset Counter is very impressive. Only a single loss to Misty was not expected, even when playing as efficiently as possible. Congratulations on Demon the Sandshrew's D Tier placement.
As a side note to how cute Sandshrew is: its back sprite is kinda terrifying. Look at those blank, soulless eyes. Thank goodness it improved in the next gen!
Sandshrew is one of my favorites, I have more Sandshrew stuff in my room than any other Pokémon so I was super happy when I saw you have a play through of him 😁😁😁😁 haven’t finished yet but already liked the video, this is one I’m going to enjoy alot 🤘thanks Scott for always giving each Pokémon a chance, it’s interesting how you do it and I’m sure if Nintendo watched your videos that the programmers would be happy to see that you’re treating each Pokémon as it’s own special character which they are 😁🤘
I'd like to say 3 things: First of all, love your vids. Keep 'em coming, and I'll keep watching. Second, Earthquake is your strongest move against anything that's not a flying type with very few exceptions. In fact, since you never see caterpie or metapod past the early game, only tangela, pinsir, and the exeggcute and paras lines take more damage from body slam, and from rock slide for the bug types. I know you said the same thing at the end of the video, but earthquake is also your best choice against Koga's team, for example, which would help in a fight that's already reliant on getting decent rng. Lastly, since you only need swift for the Sabrina fight, you might be able to delay learning earthquake: you would train with dig, body slam, rock slide and either swords dance or swift; then you replace dig with the other move (swords dance or swift) for the Sabrina fight and finally learn earthquake in place of swift. This allows you to keep body slam for the rest of the game, giving you a different 100% accurate move that is more reliable than rock slide once you're set up to sweep and it is your best move against mons like exeggutor. Alternatively, you may not need body slam in the mid game, since you have dig and slash already. And by the time you get swords dance, which makes slash undesirable, you also get earthquake anyways. Just spitballing here.
So glad you finally redid this, your original where you didn't use Swords Dance is still painful. Also, with how smoothly the second run went I feel like there's still a lot of room for improvement.
I can't believe that NOBODY in the chat mentioned that rock slide was the wrong choice every single time you used it (except against flying types or to conserve PP). Venomoth, Lapras, literally anything that isn't flying, it was always a mistake. I don't blame you - holy crap, what you do is stressful and it must be hard to always make optimal decisions - but I still can't believe nobody called you on it. You streamed it live, and NOBODY noticed that? I'm also really surprised that in your analysis in between runs, you didn't catch the mistake. Your overlay literally shows both of them as having the same power! Maybe that's something to consider for future planning? It definitely confirms your decision to boost the shrew up by a rank. You lost way more than four seconds by using rock slide... between the misses, the scrolling, etc. Again, I love love love the content, you are by far the best in the business. Thank you so much for making this amazing stuff on a consistent basis.
I know you did voltorb in the past, but a fun race i can see for yellow or crystal is electrod vs magneton, both are 2 stage electric types that are both kind of machine like, and are complete opposites stat wise, and amazing video by the way.
I’ve always loved this line! I think it was my first catch in Pokémon Pinball Ruby/Sapphire. Scott just hates this affectionately dubbed sand-attacking demon because Butt’s is pretty good and can be such a troll. Lol
The record scratch when you said you forgot the full restores cracked me up. Scott I’ve never heard you forgetting them before that’s a new one hahahahahahahah
Will a neutral stab earthquake do same damage as a super effective rock slide? Both 150 and earthquake has 100 accuracy edit: u mentioned it at the end😊
This is the type of "napkin calculation" that I have so much fun with when playing Pokémon. What move will be most effective is not always the most apparent, but once you know your Pokémon's moves and power you do it intuitively. Scott is usually very good about this, but I suppose he had a brain fart day when filming this.
Sandshrew, funnily enough, was kind of the reason I got into your videos. I didn't really watch "Can X beat this game" stuff before, so hearing someone share my pain of getting frustrated at Sand Attack was a weirdly refreshing experience, as strange as it sounds. Anyway, I actually love the little guy. Sandshrew is one of those few mons that consistently look good (and very cute!) in its sprites. The RB sprite is actually one of my favorites because it's shaded so nicely and the way it sits looks great. The Yellow sprite is the only one I don't really like - it looks kinda flat to me. Sandslash sadly loses a lot of what I like about Sandshrew, so I rarely end up using the line. Though I've slowly been coming around on Sandslash after using it for a bit in GSC here and there.
You mentioned it in a couple of specific cases but for my own sanity. Rock Slide has the same power but less accuracy than your STAB Earthquake in all cases except for Flying types (obviously) and Parasect. Eq stab 150 power, Rock Slide x2 150 power. Eq stab into resist 75 power Rock Slide neutral 75 power. I'm sure you already realized it but I was going a little crazy. Oh also great video as always.
That's the funny thing about Earthquake vs Rock Slide, when used by a Ground type. Earthquake is 100 power, STAB making it 150... Rock Slide is 75 Power, Super Effective making it 150... in my opinion i would love to see Rock Slide get a slight buff to 80 Power, so you have to choose between Power vs Accuracy. You would never pick Super Effective Rock Slide if you have STAB Earthquake because you can miss Rock Slide, while Earthquake won't miss. You'll only choose Rock Slide logically against a Pokemon 4 times week to Rock, or a Flying type (+ Levitate users in Gen 3 and onward).
I love Sandshrew! Its so cute, holding its little fat belly and curling up into a ball. Also when I was a kid I did not understand how evolution lines worked in the game and I thought Pikachu would evolve into Sandshrew, because they were both Mouse pokemon, it came after Pikachu in the Pokedex, and I did not know how else to get Sandshrew in my copy of Pokemon Red.
I remember falling in love with sandshrew in Pokémon blue as a kid. Then I remember hating it on the Rivals team in yellow lol. He’s just an absolute cutie but so annoying too
Sandshrew, and Sandslash, are based on my favorite animal, the pangolin. I absolutely love them. I even love their Alolan forms even if I think them being Steel is silly. I'm glad it turned out decent, especially because of how slow he is normally.
Wobbuffetfact: It has the highest HP Base of any Psychic mon. Even tho it has no ordinary way of attacking it does not have the lowest attack of psychic mons.
Sandshrew has been my fav pokemon since gen 1 and that hasn't changed since. Althought to this day I have never utilized it in a run afair for one reason or another.
Sandshrew is a cute Pokémon and at the end when you mentioned about sandshrew position, I feel like if you got at the time you did if it’s at least 1 minute away you could still put it in that tier cause it’s just there nearly only needing bit of refinement
I always sleep on Sandshrew and Sandslash, especially because defense being one of its highest stats isn't exactly what I want out of a Pokemon. Your video shows it's actually not that bad of a pokemon after all, maybe i should pick it up sometime. I've always admired the design at least, they have just the right amount of detail
I’ve been watching a lot of your older videos lately, and while it doesn’t really apply in this video, have you considered adding in attack/defense or special attack/ special defense into your effective power overlay? It would just be an estimate, but it could help you decide when to use a special vs a physical move with mixed attackers
I think Scott doesn't want the overlay doing too too many calculations for him. Formally, he has all the info he needs to run damage ranges on every single enemy mon at every point in the playthrough, but if he did so in first runs... it wouldn't feel very first runnish, you know?
@@tsawy6 Yeah, but at that rate why even calculate effective power at all? Mainly to remember Badge boosts I imagine, but I think throwing in just that little extra information could improve his speed runs. Especially with difficult calls like Agatha’s Umbreon
@@pjanderson4876 Perhaps. It's a fuzzy line, and there's no one spot we can point to and say 'that's the fair amount of information that feels right'. I can see both sides.
All the super-effective Rock Slides instead of neutral Earthquakes remind me of that one time when NBZ sang a song about Brick Break Garchomp. I'm old.
@@skeetermania3202 Back in Gen 5 OU many mons used fighting coverage for Tyranitar. However Garchomp's STAB EQs are exactly as strong as Brick Break against it. In the NBZ video I was referring to, he switches out his T-tar into a Ground resist, stops the narration, jumps up to grab his guitar and breaks into song.
I'm currently playing through Red with only a sandshrew, and I'm only 5 badges in and already have more time in the run than either of these finishes. Way to keep me humble man.
Earthquake is almost always better than Rock Slide. I get mixed up here because I'm used to using Rock/Ground types where Rock Slide is better than EQ in the cases where it is super effective. Obviously Sandshrew isn't a Rock-type, so I get seduced by the super effective swindle a lot here.
Super effective damage is impossible to resist for my magpie brain. Shiny attack goes brrr
Well at least you said it so I don't have to.
At least you're aware for the sandslash and dugtrio runs (marowak weirdly doesn't get rock slide). Rock slide should be pretty much exclusively used against flying types with a stab earthquake and no rock stab. Even koga gets hit the same with a neutral EQ because of the poison typings.
Yeah, it's literally only good for Flying type when you have stab earthquake
@@InfernosReaper and Grass types. And uh Pinsir.
The sandshrew line is my favorite line in entire franchise. Sandshrew was my very first pokemon card and I loved the episode with the gym bro, gigachad sanshrew who literally said "water weakness? Nah bro, 20 laps in the pool."
I'm pretty sure I cried over that sandshrew in 1999
Sandshrew was also my first card! Got it from a teammate after a baseball game as a kid. Still have the card! Along with my other 2 first (Vulpix and Doduo) and my first Holo (Jolteon). Cards are over 20 years old but hold up!
Dude that episode is the one episode I have vivid memories of watching as a little kid! My mom had a mini van with a VHS player in it, and I’d always play that episode
Too bad he never made another appearance I was hoping he would.
Same. It was such a beast in gens 1 and 2.
This man is so blinded by super effective rock slide he refuses to just earthquake for perfect accuracy 😂
I literally just watched the Koga battle and came to the comments to comment about the same thing! Even though neuteal stab earthquake does equal damage than super effective non stab rock slide, and can't miss like rock slide.
For someone who invests so much time/effort into documenting and displaying all the stats/mechanics in the game, this is a really funny misplay, given how simple it is compared to all the other complex factors he tries to account for.
@@levy9595
Nah. He's trying to hit the Water/Bug Venomoth.
Earthquake can also miss because of the stupid 256 glitch
@@Jacob42086 idk man I think that a 1/256 chance is much lower than a 1/10 chance
A little off-topic, but Sandshrew has a pretty awesome R/B sprite - maybe one of the best. I'm always impressed with how they were able to detail the ridges on its limbs and tail using only a Gameboy color palette.
100% agree.
It's literally just a pangolin. They didn't even try to "pokefy" it. Even pidgey is better while being just a pigeon.
Love the subtle PP jokes 😅
@@malchir4036didnt ask
@@KyouheiKaizo right back at ya.
I love how Scott began this video almost exactly the way he did on the first Sandshrew video two years ago. By telling us how much he hates this little sand demon but how cute he thinkd the design is. Some things dont change even though so much improved in that time. (A two hours difference is really showing the insane progress)
I am SO glad that you mentioned the mistake of using rock slide at the end! I was surprised to see you using rock slide against opponents like Koga and Lorelei.
Hey Scott! You're great at storytelling with these simple games. One of the reasons that makes you stand out is that you take us through the whole adventure, not just the gym battles. It's so incredibly wonderful for me to listen to these videos, hearing the music and you describing your way through viridian forrest, team rocket and everything else. I hope you don't change and start to edit away too much of these elements. I can understand why you would want to, but it is one of the main reasons I stick with only you for pokemon challenges. It's like reliving my childhood adventures again 🥲
I absolutely love that Scott commissions art of so many of the unnamed trainers that he has to come across, that so often give him trouble.
Gamefreak on Sandshrew: "It's a shrew and it lives in the sand. Don't @ me, bro."
I thought it was an armadillo
Sooooooo...if I caught it in a Poké Ball, would that event be known as...The Taming of the Shrew?
Do you ever think that maybe Bruno has Onixes because he routinely has his Machamp karate chop boulders in half, but those two survived the attempted decapitation and he added them to the team out of respect?
I lay awake at night, tormented by visions of Bruno's Onixes
I used to think one of these Onix was the one he catches in the anime (it rampages because of a Sandslash being stuck and hurting it) while the other one was his first Onix that made him familiar enough with Onix to identify the issue. Of course, anime isn't game canon, but that's what I thought the idea was as a kid.
@@justsomejojo Yellow in particular has a bunch of changes to make it more like the anime, including to major trainers' teams. That means they probably had Bruno's anime depiction in mind when they were redesigning him for Yellow at least. So you probably aren't too far off.
I wonder sometimes if given the limitations of gen1 AI and the general shitiness of gen1 fighting types there was any way to design Bruno so he was at least on the level of, say, Lorelei. Giving him a Poliwrath would help a lot and then perhaps swap one Onix for a Golem, and I guess Primeape sucks slightly less than Hitmonchan? Still doesn't feel like all that would be nearly enough, though.
@@inventiveusername5191 Primeape at least doesn't have to rely on special coverage and it's quite fast compared to Hitmonchan. It also learns Thrash just in time, so it both has less potential to mess up with the AI and more power. I'd say that's a great upgrade. Poliwrath with Hypnosis alone would be amazing for him, though that probably goes against his steadfast offense-oriented role.
Generally though, I think he should just have been the first. He's more recognizable than Lorelei since he was in the anime at the time and he's weaker than her, which in Gen1 feels to me like less of a Bruno issue and more of a type issue.
Fighting very much feels like it's there to prop up the scary mysterious Psychic type.
Sandslash is my favourite all time pokemon, I didn't know in Gen 1 about crit metrics and slash interactions etc and I must have had a near perfect Sandslash because I had it and it pretty much was my only pokemon I played with. To this day I always add Sandshrew to the team for that nostalgia :)
You had me pulling my hair out with those Rock Slides. Off the top of my head I think only Bug and Bug/Grass make Rock Slide better than Earthquake anytime Earthquake can actually hit in Gen 1. Genuinely surprised how well Sandshrew did against the water trainers though.
I’m so proud of clutch sandshrew. You ran it very well. The name you gave it was brilliant. Sandshrew and slash was and still kinda is my fav Pokémon. Probably because Ep 8 path to the Pokémon league with AJs sandshrew was the first ep I’d ever seen, and my squishy pre-teen brain didn’t critically question anything it saw on tv. Plus, slash and dig was so powerful i thought it was a cute god.
The problem with the early gen rock and ground pokemon is that they're stuck with weak Normal type attacks like Scratch
Gen1 has an issue with a lot of Pokémon early game because their movesets were created with the assumption they'd be used at their wild level and not used like this
the we got mudslap and life was good and fair in gen2
@@justinkedgetor5949I'm sure Gligar loved using mudslap and earthquake.
@@bobjoe3492is it even an issue? It is not like gen 1 had breeding, you have to cheat the game in order to get stuck with bad moves for long.
@@noukan42 not an issue except specifically for solo challenges which I'm sure the devs didn't anticipate 28 years ago
I absolutely adore Sandshrew as a Pokemon. I actually have this little Sandshrew like keychain toy that I've had for a really long time, to the point where like you can clearly see the wear and tear, the paint is coming off in places and she's not quite yellow anymore? But I still love her, she's my lucky charm to ward off bad hands when I play Magic or Yugioh.
I love the comment at the start: "i hate this thing".
You have earned the right to say it more than most of us, but i still could not stop laughing 😂
Love the artwork for the super nerd. Looks really cool. Love that Koffing is just floating there chilling. I love Koffing since it was my first pokemon plush so it has a special place in my heart. I also think that Sandshrew is an adorable pokemon when you aren't battling it and need to deal with Sand Attack. Please keep up the great work.
9:50
I heard this line and immediately thought, "You have been a worthy opponent. I shall commission a portrait in your likeness to memorialize your valor throughout history."
I have been waiting for this day.
It was only a matter of time before my all time favorite Pokemon was used in a solo challenge.
Let's goooooo!!!!! Sandshrew/slash are my favorite pokemon hands down!
I remember when pokemon first came out, being really intrigued as all my schoolmates seemed to have gameboys and collected the cards and I didn't have any of them. We were pretty poor and my parents couldnt afford much for gifts. I recall really getting into pokemon after seeing a random episode of pokemon for the first time (the episode where Ash catches mankey/primeape) and I became obsessed. I asked for pokemon as my only presents that year. Well, I ended up getting for Christmas a pokemon red/blue guidebook and a little pokeball that had a random pokemon inside. The pokemon ended up being sandslash- and that was it. I carried my little toy sandslash with me wherever. No matter what game I played jt seemed like I would involve sandslash somehow.
It wasnt until a couple of years later that I got a gameboy and my first of the games (yellow).
From that little toy embedded sandslash as a favorite, even if you are a bit underwhelming in the games.
Sandslash is one of those mons I'll never complain about in a randomised run, and I'll always respect if I come up against one. Underwhelming compared to the big boys? Sure. But that's a solid mon.
Scott, I always watch your videos when I’m on a work break. Watching your videos always makes my day go great!
I love the editing as you jump between picking up the various items
MY FAVORITE SON! Thank you for this ride, and congrats on having the power of sand attack yourself for once. As someone who has soloed the game many times with Sandslash, these results actually don't shock me in the slightest.
The overlay and art takes an old game and makes it feel more modern. Love this channel
Sandshrew and Sandslash are my favourites. Cant wait to see how Sandslash gets on as i think it could potentially post a very good time
Same
Will hit harder, but has many of the same flaws for time. Most notably is the starting Moveset offers it no further advantage over Brock.
Good speed boost though, should help
Well done Scott! If you ever do a replay remember to use Earthquake instead of rock slides vs Koga as well.
I love that there’s a pangolin Pokémon and that it was so early, too! Sandshrew is a real cutie!
Sandshrew has a special place in my heart. I got a little toy of him in a BK meal when Pokemon was first blowing up, and he was the perfect tag-team partner for Pikachu in Yellow.
Dang it I've been yelling at the screen the whole video over Earthquake vs super effective Rock Slide on Lorelei, but refraining from commenting. When I saw the second playthrough I was about to comment and _then_ you addressed that lmao.
Hi Scott, Sandshrew was one of my absolute favorite as a kid and it remains my favorite ground type to this day - it's just too adorable -, I'm so excited to watch you play it and see how it does! Do you think you'll port regional versions like Alolan Sandshrew to Yellow eventually?, it would be super neat ! Anyway, I love your channel Scott, hope everyone reading this is having a great weekend too 😁
__
It did much better than I expected! I thought it'd get walled at some point but that second playthrough was so smooth and optimized. The Sword Dance/Earthquake sweeps were so satisfying to watch, big numbers go brrr lol
Sandshrew and sandslash are my all time favorite pokemon soo happy you did this run! hope the lil champ does me proud
SPOILER---------------------- Update: im proud he got to the D tier but im hoping his big bro sandslash will be in or around A tier!
>Scott using rock slide instead of STAB EQ
How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man??
All of those Rock Slide misses in the first run against Lorelei. With a Ground Type like Sandshrew you should prefer Earthquake against all pokemon except flying and bug types, right?
Yes, the same happened with the Venomoth, using earthquake is the best option because you basically have the same power with more accuracy. Even if for some strange rounding o calculation rock slide were a little more powerful, the 100% accuracy is preferable in most cases
Very nice! Little sand guy did so much better than I expected!
Sandshrew =D
My favorite Gen 1 Sprite, Excellent video as always
I was certainly not expecting this video to open up with a declaration of hatred towards Sandshrew. Given the amount of times the adorable sand thrower has been an obstacle to you though, I can't blame you.
1:03 - That Slash certainly comes very early though; it made Sandshrew a real threat in the early game for that alone.
3:07 - It's crazy to think how big the accuracy drop was but seems believable with how effective they've been, both in your videos and in my recollections of past Pokémon experiences.
4:43 - I'm guessing Bide ignores accuracy checks. Bravo to Demon (just noticed the name choice) for hanging on there.
5:30 - Fantastic to see more official art. You'd think there would be more info to Miguel (his name is the same in both the GBA games and Let's Go), perhaps even a unique look, given he is a mandatory road block and the first guy to introduce fossils to the player. Love the detail of the Super Nerd holding both fossils here.
7:39 - For an Odd Lass, she seems surprisingly normal... though that Pidgey is a very odd Oddish. Demon tanked the Absorb better than expected.
8:19 - I was not expecting the Goldeen Gym Trainer to get an artwork but I understand the focus; a high level Goldeen with it's unexpected Peck and powerful Horn Attack was a surprising threat for a child me with an Ivysaur. I like the touch of distinguishing her from other Jr Trainers by having her as a blonde, or rather, golden haired.
9:49 - I think the Resting Sailor Huey was upset that he didn't get an artwork and took it out on you. What rotten luck. It does truly drive home that Demon wasn't ready for Misty though. I think Demon could win at this level with a poor move choice from Misty and some luck with Slash, but it's not a reliable method for victory.
10:55 - Demon consistently proves reliable in taking a hit.
14:18 - Always funny to picture how an Earthquake manages to miss. It's also amusing to see how each of these rival fights start with Demon taking on his evolution now. This sort of thing is usually reserved for the last match-up of a team fight in a story.
16:43 - I mean, Bug resists Ground... perhaps that is why Venomoth thought to use that move (Bug being super-effective would be cool; I'd love some much needed buffs to my favourite type, though it likely needs it in a more defensive capacity).
18:42 - I would have kept the Body Slam TM for later usage then, relying on Slash for now, replacing it with Swift, an then replacing Swift with Body Slam afterwards.
22:42 - Blaine, Giovanni and the rival in a row with no reset; that's great going. Once again, Demon proves to be a resilient shrew.
27:33 - Demon's speed allowed it to dodge out of the way of the Hydro Pump as well.
29:33 - Man, how is has the Indigo League not fallen to pieces from all the Earthquakes going on in this building.
33:45 - Kanto does love it's Poison Types and having two Ground type attack options does decrease the amount of Pokémon Centre visits. Funny how the Dig Thief doesn't have a unique artwork but this one random Silph Rocket does.
37:08 - "Just spam Earthquake." Ah, yes, the classic strategy.
38:50 - Still, the drastic reduction in the Reset Counter is very impressive. Only a single loss to Misty was not expected, even when playing as efficiently as possible. Congratulations on Demon the Sandshrew's D Tier placement.
given earthquakes STAB isnt rockslide accuracy unessary vs lorelei?
Edit - and the champions cloyster
Edit 2- playthrough 2 covered it.
Yeah, that looks like a misplay.
This is about to be extremely rough. The lower tiers need love too though lol. At least it learns dig
Wow. I'm proud of this lil man
"I hate Sandshrew!"
*Picks up pitchfork and torch*
"Because of Sand Attack, not the design!"
*Puts them down again* Okay, that's a valid reason.
As a side note to how cute Sandshrew is: its back sprite is kinda terrifying. Look at those blank, soulless eyes. Thank goodness it improved in the next gen!
Sandshrew and Sandslash are my favorite gen 1 pokemon so I'm so happy to see Sandshrew taking on the world!
Good going with this little cutie. Always loved the design though also always overlooked the evolutionarily line when playing
Very proud of this little ground mouse! This was a really fun video to watch
Glad to see a remake for everyone’s favorite dust devil aka Sand-Attacking demon
Sandshrew was my favorite pokemon growing up! Glad it's getting the spotlight ^^
Love your Yellow videos! Thanks for the high quality content!
Sandshrew is one of my favorites, I have more Sandshrew stuff in my room than any other Pokémon so I was super happy when I saw you have a play through of him 😁😁😁😁 haven’t finished yet but already liked the video, this is one I’m going to enjoy alot 🤘thanks Scott for always giving each Pokémon a chance, it’s interesting how you do it and I’m sure if Nintendo watched your videos that the programmers would be happy to see that you’re treating each Pokémon as it’s own special character which they are 😁🤘
finally the Sand Demon
I'd like to say 3 things:
First of all, love your vids. Keep 'em coming, and I'll keep watching.
Second, Earthquake is your strongest move against anything that's not a flying type with very few exceptions. In fact, since you never see caterpie or metapod past the early game, only tangela, pinsir, and the exeggcute and paras lines take more damage from body slam, and from rock slide for the bug types. I know you said the same thing at the end of the video, but earthquake is also your best choice against Koga's team, for example, which would help in a fight that's already reliant on getting decent rng.
Lastly, since you only need swift for the Sabrina fight, you might be able to delay learning earthquake: you would train with dig, body slam, rock slide and either swords dance or swift; then you replace dig with the other move (swords dance or swift) for the Sabrina fight and finally learn earthquake in place of swift. This allows you to keep body slam for the rest of the game, giving you a different 100% accurate move that is more reliable than rock slide once you're set up to sweep and it is your best move against mons like exeggutor. Alternatively, you may not need body slam in the mid game, since you have dig and slash already. And by the time you get swords dance, which makes slash undesirable, you also get earthquake anyways. Just spitballing here.
Yes! The super nerd art I recommended! Thank you Sarina, it looks great!
So glad you finally redid this, your original where you didn't use Swords Dance is still painful. Also, with how smoothly the second run went I feel like there's still a lot of room for improvement.
There is always room for improvement!
I can't believe that NOBODY in the chat mentioned that rock slide was the wrong choice every single time you used it (except against flying types or to conserve PP). Venomoth, Lapras, literally anything that isn't flying, it was always a mistake. I don't blame you - holy crap, what you do is stressful and it must be hard to always make optimal decisions - but I still can't believe nobody called you on it. You streamed it live, and NOBODY noticed that?
I'm also really surprised that in your analysis in between runs, you didn't catch the mistake. Your overlay literally shows both of them as having the same power! Maybe that's something to consider for future planning? It definitely confirms your decision to boost the shrew up by a rank. You lost way more than four seconds by using rock slide... between the misses, the scrolling, etc.
Again, I love love love the content, you are by far the best in the business. Thank you so much for making this amazing stuff on a consistent basis.
I know you did voltorb in the past, but a fun race i can see for yellow or crystal is electrod vs magneton, both are 2 stage electric types that are both kind of machine like, and are complete opposites stat wise, and amazing video by the way.
I’ve always loved this line! I think it was my first catch in Pokémon Pinball Ruby/Sapphire. Scott just hates this affectionately dubbed sand-attacking demon because Butt’s is pretty good and can be such a troll. Lol
The record scratch when you said you forgot the full restores cracked me up. Scott I’ve never heard you forgetting them before that’s a new one hahahahahahahah
Will a neutral stab earthquake do same damage as a super effective rock slide? Both 150 and earthquake has 100 accuracy edit: u mentioned it at the end😊
This is the type of "napkin calculation" that I have so much fun with when playing Pokémon. What move will be most effective is not always the most apparent, but once you know your Pokémon's moves and power you do it intuitively.
Scott is usually very good about this, but I suppose he had a brain fart day when filming this.
Sandshrew, funnily enough, was kind of the reason I got into your videos. I didn't really watch "Can X beat this game" stuff before, so hearing someone share my pain of getting frustrated at Sand Attack was a weirdly refreshing experience, as strange as it sounds. Anyway, I actually love the little guy. Sandshrew is one of those few mons that consistently look good (and very cute!) in its sprites. The RB sprite is actually one of my favorites because it's shaded so nicely and the way it sits looks great. The Yellow sprite is the only one I don't really like - it looks kinda flat to me.
Sandslash sadly loses a lot of what I like about Sandshrew, so I rarely end up using the line. Though I've slowly been coming around on Sandslash after using it for a bit in GSC here and there.
You mentioned it in a couple of specific cases but for my own sanity. Rock Slide has the same power but less accuracy than your STAB Earthquake in all cases except for Flying types (obviously) and Parasect. Eq stab 150 power, Rock Slide x2 150 power. Eq stab into resist 75 power Rock Slide neutral 75 power. I'm sure you already realized it but I was going a little crazy.
Oh also great video as always.
Just seeing the thumbnail got me excited. Bring on the sand devil!
"Since my PP isn't big enough is time to grind" killed me 😂
14:20 Rockslide was worse against Cloyster Earthquake whit Stab is as good and more accurate.
Love these videos! You've inspired me to, the next time I use a Sandshrew, nickname it Dust Devil.
That's the funny thing about Earthquake vs Rock Slide, when used by a Ground type. Earthquake is 100 power, STAB making it 150... Rock Slide is 75 Power, Super Effective making it 150... in my opinion i would love to see Rock Slide get a slight buff to 80 Power, so you have to choose between Power vs Accuracy. You would never pick Super Effective Rock Slide if you have STAB Earthquake because you can miss Rock Slide, while Earthquake won't miss. You'll only choose Rock Slide logically against a Pokemon 4 times week to Rock, or a Flying type (+ Levitate users in Gen 3 and onward).
"Since my PP wasn't big enough, I had to grind."
-Scott, 2023
Love how you didn’t recall the Gen 1 miss from Starmie in the second playthrough!
I still wanna see a pelipper run when you always start with protect challenge someday lol
I love Sandshrew! Its so cute, holding its little fat belly and curling up into a ball.
Also when I was a kid I did not understand how evolution lines worked in the game and I thought Pikachu would evolve into Sandshrew, because they were both Mouse pokemon, it came after Pikachu in the Pokedex, and I did not know how else to get Sandshrew in my copy of Pokemon Red.
18:43: Earthquake and Body Slam together give great coverage [...], so I'm gonna remove Body Slam.
Finally, my favourite pokemon getting his moment in the spotlight for a run ❤
The thumbnail art for this video is really good
Yup! Good job Brian!
1:57 „ Since my PP isn’t big enough Its time to grind „
Ohhh Scott you made my day man 😂😂😂
That was the line that gave me the most joy to write :)
It's amazing that Sandshrew can learn Rock Slide but Aerodactyl can't learn Rock Slide nor can Gligar learn Mud Slap.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
"If I can beat Scott in a few more battles, maybe I'll get my own art someday!" - random NPC
I remember falling in love with sandshrew in Pokémon blue as a kid. Then I remember hating it on the Rivals team in yellow lol. He’s just an absolute cutie but so annoying too
Sandshrew, and Sandslash, are based on my favorite animal, the pangolin. I absolutely love them. I even love their Alolan forms even if I think them being Steel is silly. I'm glad it turned out decent, especially because of how slow he is normally.
Thanks Scott!
Wobbuffetfact: It has the highest HP Base of any Psychic mon. Even tho it has no ordinary way of attacking it does not have the lowest attack of psychic mons.
I think it would be a pretty interesting video if you were able to import the alolan forms of sandshrew and sandslash in gen1.
I definitely would like a couple ice types!
Sandshrew has been my fav pokemon since gen 1 and that hasn't changed since. Althought to this day I have never utilized it in a run afair for one reason or another.
Sandshrew is one of my all times favorites.
The shrew did quite well. Too bad it gets off to such a rough start or something like 15-20 minutes could have been shaved off from its finish time.
1:44 You really managed to say that with a straight face
Pokemon Blue Kaizo taught me how good Sandslash was. It carried me through the league.
Sandshrew is a cute Pokémon and at the end when you mentioned about sandshrew position, I feel like if you got at the time you did if it’s at least 1 minute away you could still put it in that tier cause it’s just there nearly only needing bit of refinement
I always sleep on Sandshrew and Sandslash, especially because defense being one of its highest stats isn't exactly what I want out of a Pokemon. Your video shows it's actually not that bad of a pokemon after all, maybe i should pick it up sometime. I've always admired the design at least, they have just the right amount of detail
I’ve been watching a lot of your older videos lately, and while it doesn’t really apply in this video, have you considered adding in attack/defense or special attack/ special defense into your effective power overlay? It would just be an estimate, but it could help you decide when to use a special vs a physical move with mixed attackers
This is a really neat idea and I hope Scott finds a way to add this into the overlay
I think Scott doesn't want the overlay doing too too many calculations for him. Formally, he has all the info he needs to run damage ranges on every single enemy mon at every point in the playthrough, but if he did so in first runs... it wouldn't feel very first runnish, you know?
@@tsawy6 Yeah, but at that rate why even calculate effective power at all? Mainly to remember Badge boosts I imagine, but I think throwing in just that little extra information could improve his speed runs. Especially with difficult calls like Agatha’s Umbreon
@@pjanderson4876 Perhaps. It's a fuzzy line, and there's no one spot we can point to and say 'that's the fair amount of information that feels right'. I can see both sides.
Sandshrews a menace
Just started the vid... The way u feel about Sandshrew I feel about Pidgey. Dirty sand attacking bird
The moment I saw you forget Swift, I knew the following rival fights would be trouble for you.
so excited for this one!!!
I'm excited to see how Sandslash fares.
One of my top favorite pokemon! You're doing the "A.J." solo challenge
Can't wait to finally watch sunnyday corsola in action
All the super-effective Rock Slides instead of neutral Earthquakes remind me of that one time when NBZ sang a song about Brick Break Garchomp. I'm old.
What’s memetic about Brick Break Garchomp?
@@skeetermania3202 Back in Gen 5 OU many mons used fighting coverage for Tyranitar. However Garchomp's STAB EQs are exactly as strong as Brick Break against it. In the NBZ video I was referring to, he switches out his T-tar into a Ground resist, stops the narration, jumps up to grab his guitar and breaks into song.
The originator of the Macho Brace!
Speedbump Bruno. Not even a member of the elite four 😂
Another incredible video. That being said, it was annoying to watch the Rock Slides over the EQs lol.
I'm currently playing through Red with only a sandshrew, and I'm only 5 badges in and already have more time in the run than either of these finishes.
Way to keep me humble man.
I HAVE A SMART TV NOW AND I AM WATCHING YOUR VIDEO ON THE TV
THIS IS THE FIRST TV I HAVE OWNED SINCE I MOVED OUT OF MY MOTHER'S HOUSE IN 2009
Happy, Canada day, Scott!