Mamoswine
Attack
Defense
Stamina
Best Movesets
Analysis
A Pokemon that completely lived up to the hype. Many players were afraid that Niantic would give Mamoswine a sub-optimal moveset pre-release, but this was definitely not the case! Mamoswine is the gold-standard for Ice Types and an outstanding Ground Type, sporting great power and decent availability. It's a staple for anything weak to Ice or Ground, and given how any big-name raid bosses have a double-weakness to Ice in particular, Mamoswine is always a great investment.
Offense
- Powder Snow + Avalanche is an ideal Ice Type moveset
- Mud Slap + High Horsepower makes Mamo one of the absolute best Ground Types available.
- Stone Edge is essentially strictly inferior to Avalanche, with low power and no STAB.
- Ancient Power is purely cosmetic, a worse Rock move than Stone Edge. This is for collectors only.
- Bulldoze is underwhelming.
Defense
- Mud-Slap hits hard, and covers the Fire and Steel attackers.
- Avalanche is a strong 90 power 2-bar move with early damage window.
- High Horsepower is too slow as it is a 1-bar move.
- Powder Snow does not deals much damage to attackers.
- Stone Edge hits very early and may surprise Moltres, if it ever gets fired.
- Bulldoze has a very late damage window and very easy to dodge.
Powder Snow is generally preferred for its high energy generation, which lets Mamoswine use its strong charge moves sooner. However, Mud Slap is a viable alternative for those looking for relentless Ground-type damage output.
Icicle Spear is Mamoswine's cheapest Charged Attack and is often the preferred Ice-type move of choice; Mamoswine is rather fragile and wants to attack as often as possible. Avalanche is one of the most efficient charged moves in all of PvP, being both cheap and hard-hitting, but Mamoswine often prefers Icicle Spear's speed. High Horsepower is the second charged move of choice, giving it coverage for Steel- and Rock-type Pokemon. This is especially meaningful because Ice + Ground charged moves allow Mamoswine to hit virtually every Pokémon for at least neutral damage. Stone Edge can be used to eliminate certain Pokemon, such as Ho-Oh in the Master League, and is Mamoswine's strongest option against Water-type targets. Ancient Power is not recommended due to its very poor damage output. Bulldoze is an underwhelming move and is really only a viable option on Mud Slap sets by being a moderately cheap move that can provide a debuff to further empower Mud Slap's damage.
Thanks to Mamoswine’s higher attack stat, it gets outperformed by Piloswine. Use that instead. Piloswine isn't even particularly good in the Great League; run Alolan Sandslash or Dewgong instead.
