Sand Tomb (move)

Sand Tomb すなじごく Sand Hell

The user traps the foe inside a harshly raging sandstorm for two to five turns.

Battles Type  Ground Category  Physical PP  15 (max. 24) Power  15 Accuracy  70% Priority  {{{priority}}} Does not make contact Affected by Protect Not affected by Magic Coat Not affected by Snatch Affected by BrightPowder Affected by King's Rock

Target Foe Foe Self Ally May affect anyone but the user

Availability Introduced  Generation III Not a TM, HM, or move tutor move.

Contests Category  Smart Appeal  3 ♥♥♥ Jam  0 Temporarily stops the crowd from growing excited.

Super Contests Category  Smart Appeal  0 Earn a higher score the later the Pokémon performs.

Sand Tomb on Legendary Pokémon MoveDex Sand Tomb on Eevee's Movedex

Sand Tomb (Japanese: すなじごく Sand Hell) is a damage-dealing Ground-type move introduced in Generation III.

Effect

Generation III

Sand Tomb traps the target in a sandstorm for 2-5 turns, inflicting damage at the end of each turn.

If a wild Pokémon uses Sand Tomb on the player's Pokémon, the player may escape if his or her Pokémon has the Run Away ability. However, Run Away does not allow the player to switch the Pokémon out.

Generation IV

Sand Tomb's effects are the same as in Generation III. If the user of Sand Tomb is holding a Grip Claw, the duration of Sand Tomb is always 5 turns.

Learnset

Generation III

By leveling up

#   Pokémon Type Level 027 Sandshrew Ground 45 028 Sandslash Ground 52 051 Dugtrio Ground 26 095 Onix Rock Ground 49RSE 095 Onix Rock Ground 52FRLG 328 Trapinch Ground 25 329 Vibrava Ground Dragon -- 25 330 Flygon Ground Dragon -- 25 Bold indicates a Pokémon which gets STAB from this move. Italic indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form gets STAB from this move.

By breeding

#   Pokémon Type Father 204 Pineco Bug Trapinch, Vibrava, Flygon 207 Gligar Ground Flying Trapinch, Vibrava, Flygon Bold indicates a Pokémon which gets STAB from this move. Italic indicates a Pokémon whose evolution gets STAB from this move. *Indicates Pokémon that can only learn the move through chain breeding.

Generation IV

By leveling up

#   Pokémon Type Level 027 Sandshrew Ground 27 028 Sandslash Ground 33 051 Dugtrio Ground 26 095 Onix Rock Ground 41DP 095 Onix Rock Ground 46PtHGSS 328 Trapinch Ground 25 329 Vibrava Ground Dragon -- 25 330 Flygon Ground Dragon -- 25 443 Gible Dragon Ground 19 444 Gabite Dragon Ground 19 445 Garchomp Dragon Ground 19 449 Hippopotas Ground 25 450 Hippowdon Ground 25 Bold indicates a Pokémon which gets STAB from this move. Italic indicates a Pokémon whose evolution or alternate form gets STAB from this move.

By breeding

#   Pokémon Type Father 185 Sudowoodo Rock Onix 204 Pineco Bug Trapinch, Vibrava, Flygon 207 Gligar Ground Flying Trapinch, Vibrava, Flygon 213 Shuckle Bug Rock Trapinch, Vibrava, Flygon 387 Turtwig Grass Gible, Gabite, Garchomp 438 Bonsly Rock Onix 443 Gible Dragon Ground Gible, Gabite, Garchomp 449 Hippopotas Ground Sandshrew, Sandslash Dugtrio Hippopotas, Hippowdon Bold indicates a Pokémon which gets STAB from this move. Italic indicates a Pokémon whose evolution gets STAB from this move. *Indicates Pokémon that can only learn the move through chain breeding.

In the anime

	Gabite about to use Sand Tomb
The user traps the foe inside a harshly raging sandstorm.
Pokémon	Method
User	First Episode Used In		Notes
Dugtrio	Dugtrio digs underground, and a huge hole opens up in the ground that sucks in the opponent. Dugtrio appears in the middle of the hole.
Katie's Dugtrio	Shocks and Bonds		Debut
Vibrava	Vibrava's eyes glow light blue and the oppoennt's legs becomes surrounded by a sand tornado. When the tornado fades, the opponent's legs become trapped in sand.
Brianna's Vibrava	Spontaneous Combusken!		None
Hippopotas	Hippopotas releases a geyser of sand from the hole on its back, flooding the area with sand and trapping the opponent.
A wild Hippopotas	Mass Hip-Po-Sis!		None
Gabite	Gabite slashes the air making sand fly out and wrap around its enemy, or Gabite makes sand all around him.
Gabite of Labyrinth Cave	Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Darkness		None
Ursula's Gabite	DP161		None

Trivia

The Japanese name, すなじごく Sand Hell, is probably an idiom referring to the trap an ant lion nymph (q.v. Trapinch) uses to catch prey—a small pit in sand that ants et al. can easily stumble into, but can't climb out of. The nymph itself lies hidden at the bottom of the pit.

In other languages

• Dutch: Zand Tombe
• Italian: Sabbiotomba
• Spanish: Bucle Arena

Variations on the move Fire Spin
	Fire Spin | Whirlpool
	Sand Tomb

This move article is part of Project MoveDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each move.