What if Sandaconda was in RBY?

(This is part of a weekly series. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/comments/1hhy8d2/ksyons_rby_port_ideas_masterpost/) for information on my general methodology, links to previous entries, and a list of pokemon I plan to cover in the future. If you want to make suggestions for other pokemon you want me to cover, please make those suggestions on that post.)

**Sandaconda**

*Ground type*

* HP: 72 * Attack: 107 * Defense: 125 * Speed: 71 * Special: 65

Moves:

* Wrap * Sand Attack * Minimize * Headbutt * Glare * Dig * Slam * Toxic * Take Down * Double-Edge * Hyper Beam * Rage * Earthquake * Fissure * Mimic * Double Team * Bide * Skull Bash * Rest * Rock Slide * Substitute * Strength

I'm honestly shocked that no one brought this up in the comments when I covered [Seviper](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/comments/1t6f7v3/what_if_seviper_was_in_rby/) a month ago. Oh, Seviper could have a small niche in RBY OU because it's a parawrapper with Earthquake, even if it has arguably the worst typing in the game? Okay, what about a parawrapper that *gets STAB* on Earthquake, isn't weak to psychic attacks, is *immune* to Thunder Wave, and has the same BST as Rhydon?

With a STAB Earthquake, Sandaconda has an 82% chance to OHKO Gengar on a non-crit, which is great against a pokemon that is typically one of the biggest roadblocks for a wrap-centric strategy. There are also just shockingly few pokemon that can switch into Sandaconda's Earthquake comfortably - Exeggutor is slower than it, which is really bad against a wrapper, Zapdos 5HKOs Sandaconda at best without a crit, giving Sandaconda plenty of time to paralyze it without it being able to paralyze in return, and no other properly OU pokemon resists ground, so you have to dip into lower tier pokemon like Articuno and Dragonite to find a "good" switch-in.

However, I actually think the Thunder Wave immunity is a much bigger deal. I suspect that the thing that keeps partial trapping in check in RBY OU (preventing it from being banned like it is in RBY's lower tiers) is the fact that OU has two strong Recover users that are faster than all of the wrappers, so they don't get stunlocked and can just heal off the damage being done by Wrap before it gets to be a problem, and they also have Thunder Wave, so if they get paralyzed they can just TWave right back to regain the speed advantage. However, this would not work against Sandaconda, because Sandaconda is immune to Thunder Wave. Once Sandaconda hits Starmie or Alakazam with a Glare, it's faster than them forever, so they get way fewer opportunities to act while Sandaconda whittles them down with Wrap. The only ways to get paralysis on Sandaconda are with Stun Spore, Glare, or hitting a lucky 30% on Body Slam, and Sandaconda is faster than the most common Stun Spore users in RBY OU (Exeggutor and Victreebel), so getting any kind of paralysis on Sandaconda is a real crapshoot no matter how you try to go about it.

Sandaconda's special bulk is quite lacking, and the ice weakness does not help matters. Articuno counters Sandaconda severely, outspeeding it and OHKOing it with Blizzard while being immune to Earthquake, but pretty much any ice type attack is going to knock out at least 50% of Sandaconda's HP, and even STAB Psychics are going to hurt a lot. Sandaconda's physical bulk is much better, but most of RBY OU's physical attackers are either slow pokemon like Snorlax and Rhydon that wrap teams don't have a problem with anyway, or Tauros, who usually runs Blizzard and will just hit Sandaconda with that instead. And since Dragonite and Victreebel are also weak to ice, you're stacking a lot of ice weaknesses on one team if you want to run Sandaconda with other wrappers (though this is nothing new to wrap teams in RBY as-is).

I've heard arguments that if Sandaconda was in RBY, partial trapping would have been banned in OU, and while I don't think Sandaconda makes wrap unbeatable by any means, I could see it making wrap annoying enough to deal with that players would just get fed up with it. Sandaconda only needs two clean hits from ice or strong psychic attacks to take it down, but if your best ice or psychic pokemon are paralyzed (or just naturally slower than Sandaconda), getting those attacks off will be a chore, and you might be forced to take chip damage and risk paralysis on your Tauros in order to finish Sandaconda off. Even if you can take out Sandaconda, it is very easy to wind up in a way worse position through no fault of your own in the process. Zapdos also becomes a liability against wrap teams with Sandaconda in the picture, making teambuilding against wrap much harder and increasing the number of teams that will struggle into wrap spam.

In lower tiers where partial trapping is banned, Sandaconda is an alright ground type. Its stats are marginally better but overall comparable to Sandslash's, with Glare to spread paralysis with but no Swords Dance. Curiously, Sandaconda lacks Body Slam, but Strength does almost as much damage, and the lack of a chance to paralyze is not a dealbreaker thanks to having Glare, though having to choose between status or damage each turn instead of having a chance to do both is a bit of a downer.