Is Sandstorm on Garchomp worth keeping?

Question

Playing on Platinum, so I can't (yet) get Garchomp's hidden ability so I'm left with sand veil. I rarely use it since Garchomp already has very good speed and atk stats. But when battling other people will I be needing sandstorm and the evasion it provides?

Comments

I think sandstorm is a bad move. Using sandstorm means not one-shotting the opponent with outrage or earthquake, so the opponent can use that turn to attack Garchomp. You'll probably take MORE hits if you spend a turn using sandstorm.

---

Exactly, It doesn't seem that beneficial.
but seems kind of a waste of an ability tho.

---

If you don't want to waste its ability, then you can try using a sand stream Tyranitar.

Answer 1

Sandstorm isn't a good move in general, spending a turn to throw out some residual damage and a chance of an opponent missing is worse than just killing them with a better move. Yeah, it's a waste of an ability, but a small handful of Pokemon around Gen 3-4 didn't have a useful ability yet.

If you really want to use it, catch a Hippopotas.

If you were wondering about using it against others, considering Tyranitar and Hippopowdon are so common in DPP's metagame and Garchomp's ridiculous stats... Trust me, Garchomp was banished to Ubers for a reason, it's disgustingly good even without sand.