Stop is fairly effective on your little sandstorm-casting friends.
Put a gambit for ice-weak to use stop I think... or just any enemy... to use stop when in there. Stop works on the Elvorets(spelling?) as well i think*
I usually don't have much problem in there, only one will occasionally cast sandstorm.. but usually my team kills them rather quickly after around level 55-60 or so.
The first spot where 5 rush you at the entrance from salikawood can be rough, and if I don't have blizzaga going, it can take a minute to get a handle on the situation. They have haste usually if memory serves, and even with the best armor still hit around 500+ without protect.
The inability to cast spells during long animations is particularly annoying. Though you can still attack during some spells. This can be used later for an esper that raises a physical barrier.... if you have one character casting spells, the esper will have to wait for the character to finish before raising his physical barrier... long spells give time for an attacker to get in a few shots after it falls, and before he can recast it
ribbon protects from doom, but I don't think it protects from death.. I could be wrong.
It'll be fun later when you come back here and have foe:ice weak - Blizzaga and have a fast/high magic user doing 9999 to each of them... then a second cast or a few attacks and they are dead. Stop works wonders though, via the accessory/chronus tear way. The spell doesn't always land however, but still lands enough to be worth gambiting to help you out. Taking 1 or 2 of the 5 out of the battle is helpful.