Mamoswine is arguably one of the best Generation 4 Pokémon to add to your attacking squad. Finally, the wait is over and the big mammoth will be released in Pokémon GO within the next few days. We knew about its potential and stats long ago, but now it’s time to analyze how good it is and how it performs in the current metagame.
| Pokémon | Stats | Max CP | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATK | DEF | STA | ||
Mamoswine
Ice Ground
|
247 | 146 | 242 | 3328 |
PvE (Raids & Gym Battles)
Now that PvP is out, we must analyze each Pokémon’s PvE and PvP performance separately. A Pokémon can be mediocre in PvE but have its niche in PvP, and vice versa. For this reason, we will split the analysis into two parts. Let’s start with raid battle simulations, which were done in Pokebattler.
Raid Battles
Mamoswine is the new ice type meta king, as it has everything it needs to be meta relevant. Great stats and a good moveset are required to shine in the meta, and Mamoswine has both. 247 attack is pretty decent, and despite having an average-tier defense stat, its stamina stat makes up for it. Can it also be considered bulky? Well, it’s not the bulkiest ‘mon out there, but it can definitely take some hits. At least, more than its closest competitor, Weavile.
Its best moveset is Powder Snow and Avalanche. Powder Snow is a high energy-gain Fast Move that will help you fire off as many Avalanches as possible. It deals significantly less damage (DPS) than Ice Shard and Frost Breath, but it has the highest EPS among all ice type Fast Moves, so it’s kinda similar to the Lick vs. Shadow Claw debate we had months ago when Gengar Raid Day was announced. Avalanche, on the other hand, is undoubtedly the best ice type Charge Move in the game, there’s no debate about that.
How does it perform as a ground type attacker? To start with, Mud Slap and Bulldoze is not the best ground type moveset. Furthermore, there are better ground type attackers, such as Groudon, Rhyperior and the yet-unreleased Garchomp. It’s definitely not bad, but there are better options out there.
Vs. Rayquaza
If there is one fight where Mamoswine shines, it’s the Rayquaza raid. Rayquaza, as a dragon and flying type Pokémon, has a double weakness to ice type moves, and as mentioned, Mamoswine is the best ice type attacker in the game. We will use Rayquaza’s easiest moveset (Air Slash/Aerial Ace) to see Mamoswine’s full potential. So let’s see how it performs in the following graphs.
Friendship bonus was not considered to check Mamoswine’s potential to solo Rayquaza, but you can imagine from the graphs above that it is a fairly easy duo, even without weather boost. Rayquaza’s moveset is Air Slash and Aerial Ace, but Mamoswine can duo any moveset, even Dragon Tail and Outrage.
Mamoswine is the best attacker for this raid, as it can be seen in the graphs above. In fact, it’s so powerful that with the Snow boost, it can almost solo Rayquaza. After the last rework to type effectiveness multipliers, attackers with ice type moves are significantly better against Rayquaza. The reason why that happens is that the new super effective multiplier greatly benefits those who take advantage of Rayquaza’s double weakness to ice type moves.
Both graphs are also useful to see which Pokémon are more fragile and which Pokémon offer better bulk. As an example, Weavile and Jynx are more fragile than Mamoswine. To sum up, Mamoswine is the best option for this raid battle by far, and the graphs above confirm what we all expected, which was to see Mamoswine shine as the best ice type attacker.
Vs. Other Raid Bosses
Mamoswine can be used against other raid bosses too, but the truth is that it does not shine as much as against Rayquaza. Here is a compilation of raid battles where you can use Mamoswine as a decent counter.
Great performance
- Zapdos: In neutral conditions, Powder Snow/Avalanche Mamoswine is the best counter. In Partly Cloudy, the powerful rock type attackers (Rampardos, Tyranitar, and Rhyperior) outperform it.
- Rayquaza: As mentioned in the section above, Mamoswine is the best counter against all movesets. Even when its competitors are weather boosted, they do not stand a chance.
Good performance (often needs WB to shine)
- Lugia: Best attacker in Snow, outclassed in neutral conditions by Rampardos, Gengar, Electivire/Raikou, Weavile and Tyranitar depending on the moveset of the raid boss (e.g.: Weavile/Tyranitar against Future Sight, Gengar/Electivire/Raikou against Hydro Pump).
- Giratina: Best attacker in Snow, outclassed in neutral conditions by the powerful dragon types (Rayquaza, Dragonite, Salamence) and Gengar depending on the moveset of the raid boss (e.g.: dragons against Shadow Sneak, Gengar (& dragons too) against Dragon Claw).
- Raikou: With Mud Slap and Bulldoze (its ground type moveset), it’s a decent attacker but it is outperformed by Groudon against all movesets. It performs more or less the same as Rhyperior, which is quite good, but not good enough to outperform Groudon (even without Precipice Blades).
- Latios: We need to split Latios and Latias because Latios can learn Solar Beam, which Mamoswine hates. Mamoswine is the best attacker in Snow, as long as Latios does not have Solar Beam. However, it is outclassed in neutral conditions again by the powerful dragon types and even Gengar, if Latios does not have Psychic.
- Latias: Latias cannot learn Solar Beam, and learns Thunder instead, which is good news for Mamoswine. Mamoswine is the best attacker against all movesets in Snow, but in neutral conditions, it is outperformed yet again by the dragons.
Decent performance
- Groudon: Good in Snow (only recommended against Earthquake), outclassed in neutral conditions by the best water type attackers such as Kyogre, Gyarados or Hydro Cannon Feraligatr (especially against non-Solar Beam Groudon) and the powerful grass types (Grass Knot Roserade/Breloom and Frenzy Plant Venusaur, especially against Solar Beam Groudon or at least non-Fire Blast Groudon). A bit risky to use it as a Groudon counter due to the number of deaths against most of Groudon’s movesets, to be honest, but usable in some special cases.
- Heatran: Again, it’s a risky choice. Heatran has a double weakness against ground type moves, and Mamoswine can take advantage of that. If you want to use Mamoswine against Heatran, make sure Heatran does not know Fire Blast as it will melt Mamoswine with ease.
Gym Battles
Mamoswine can be used as a gym sweeper too. However, there are better specialists such as Machamp that can do the job faster (and better), and other generalists that have greater offensive power and movesets (such as Meteor Mash Metagross or Outrage Rayquaza) or a better set of resistances against the common gym defenders (Metagross, again).
As a test case, a perfect Counter/Dynamic Punch Machamp can take down a perfect Zen Headbutt/Dazzling Gleam Blissey in 33 seconds. Metagross can also defeat it with much more health remaining, but it will need 50 seconds. Mamoswine can also do the job, but it will take it 54 seconds and will survive with less HP than Metagross. To sum up, if you want a specialist gym sweeper, just use C/DP Machamp. If you want a good generalist because you hate switching out in the middle of the gym battle or you simply prefer a potion-efficient attacker, you can use Meteor Mash Metagross (or DT/OR Rayquaza, if you want to finish the job a bit faster and don’t really care about potion efficiency). When could you use Mamoswine then? If the gym has a couple of dragon type Pokémon such as Dragonite or Salamence, or Pokémon weak to ice type attacks, PS/A Mamoswine is the go-to attacker. Don’t expect that to be the case in most situations, though.
Ancient Power
Let’s be clear, Ancient Power is NOT Mamoswine’s best Charge Move for PvE. It does not benefit from STAB (Mamoswine is not a rock type Pokémon), and it’s not a really good Charge Move for gyms and raid battles. Furthermore, Mamoswine also has access to Stone Edge, a better rock type Charge Move for PvE.
BUT! Niantic just announced a major update to trainer battles (PvP): Stat boosts!. In the main series games, some moves such as Ancient Power can boost the stats of the attacker, whereas some others debuff the stats of the opponent. There are even some moves that lower some stats of the attacker but boost others (e.g. Shell Smash boosts your attack and speed but lowers your defenses) or lower your attack significantly after being used (e.g. Superpower). In short, stats are no longer fixed for the entirety of the battle. Remember that this only applies for PvP at the moment, and your boosted Pokémon will lose all buffs once fainted or switched out.
Ancient Power is one of the few moves (more might be coming in the future) that has the chance to boost (not guaranteed) the stats of the attacker, which has the potential to shake up the meta, but how exactly? Stat boosts are now live and it seems like the activation chance of the stat boosts when using Ancient Power is 10%. This means that on average, you will get the stat boosts once every 10 tries. If you’re lucky enough to get the boosts, your attack AND defense will get a 50% boost (x1.5), which corresponds to a 2-stage stat boost. The maximum boost you can get is 4 stages (x2). A 50% boost to Mamoswine’s attack and defense stats is definitely something to consider, but its low activation rate makes it too RNG-dependent. Do you think it’s worth trying? You decide! As a simple example, a perfect Giratina used in Master League generally takes ~62% damage from Ice Beam when Mewtwo fires it off. If Giratina uses Ancient Power and gets the stat boosts, it can tank TWO Ice Beams without fainting. Please note that these numbers are still very recent and might be subject to change in the future.
Furthermore, Ancient Power does not have a really high energy requirement to be activated (45, same as Avalanche), which means that you could use it often if you want to try to get a boost to your stats. But think before using it: is it worth using it now? For example, if you have low HP left and your opponent is not weak to rock type moves, perhaps it’s not the wisest move to use in that situation, and you could just try to fire off an Avalanche (with STAB, and probably SE damage). You could also trick your opponent who might think that you’re about to land an Avalanche and in fact, you just wanted to boost your stats with Ancient Power, but since both moves have the same energy requirement, this might not happen too often.
To sum up, Ancient Power is a nice addition to Mamoswine’s movepool for PvP battles. Its acceptable energy requirement, along with the fact that Powder Snow charges energy pretty fast, lets Mamoswine use it quite often. However, is it worth using instead of Avalanche when both moves are charged up at the same time? It depends. If you want to risk it and you’re lucky enough to get the boosts, Mamoswine automatically becomes a threat that must be defeated as soon as possible. Remember to analyze the scenario and decide if it’s wise to use Ancient Power: your HP left, your matchup & type effectiveness of both of your moves and the number of shields remaining on both sides. More info about its viability in the upcoming PvP section.
Futureproof
A common question that plenty of people ask when a new “best” attacker is released is: how futureproof is it? Good news, as Mamoswine will remain as the best ice type attacker. There is just one ice type Pokémon with a higher attack stat than Mamoswine, and that is Kyurem (a Generation 5 legendary Pokémon). Kyurem, however, suffers the “Ho-Oh syndrome” as it is not able to learn any ice type Fast Move in Pokémon GO. True, we don’t know its movepool yet, but none of the ice type Fast Moves that are currently in GO are in its movepool from the main series games.
As a ground type attacker though, plenty of Pokémon will outclass it. In fact, Groudon and Rhyperior already outclass it, Garchomp will outclass it when it is released, and unreleased Pokémon from future Generations such as Excadrill and Landorus also have the potential to outclass it provided they get the right moves. Do not forget that Groudon’s signature move, Precipice Blades, has not yet been released in Pokémon GO. However, its stats are already in the in-game code, and as soon as Groudon gets it, the number 1 spot as a ground type attacker will hardly ever be contested.
PvP
Alright, we finished the analysis for PvE, but how good is Mamoswine for PvP? Actually, the truth is that it has the potential to perform quite well in the Master League, as it can deal with some of the most common threats in that meta. For the Great League, Piloswine actually has a better stat distribution as you can squeeze in more bulk (and thus, more TDO) due to the fact that its attack stat (which inflates its CP) is not that high, as you can see in the comparison below (both share the same exact moveset, but Mamoswine also has access to Ancient Power). The metric used to determine the best IV spread is the product of stats and the simulations were performed by using PvPoke’s battle simulator.
| Pokémon | Effective GL Stats | Level | CP | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATK (IV) | DEF (IV) | STA (IV) | |||
Piloswine
Ice Ground
|
120 (0) | 101 (15) | 155 (10) | 24.5 | 1500 |
|
Mamoswine
Ice Ground
|
136 (0) | 89 (15) | 137 (7) | 17 | 1500 |
As you can see, Mamoswine has a greater attack but significantly lower bulk, due to the fact that its attack stat inflates the CP significantly. Also, note the difference in level between both Pokémon. The stat boosts associated with Ancient Power seem to have a 10% activation chance, which is not that high, and it makes Mamoswine’s choice over Piloswine too RNG-dependent. Unless you get the stat boosts, Piloswine seems to be the best choice for this league. Simulations below are made with Mamoswine’s unboosted stats, as simulators are not ready yet. Furthermore, even when they are ready, a 10% activation chance is not really high, which makes averaging a bit tricky and misleading. A simulation where you are able to get the stat boosts can tell you that Mamoswine will be able to win the whole battle by itself, whereas another one where you don’t get the boosts can give you very different results. Consider the tests below as a baseline case that could improve if you want to risk it and end up getting the desired boosts.
Mamoswine in the Master League
In this section, we will see how it performs against some of the best Pokémon in the meta. If it performs well, then we can consider that Mamoswine will be useful. Let’s see a couple of matrices to see where it stands in the meta. Always read the tables from Mamoswine’s perspective (from the left-hand side to the right-hand side).
Mamoswine knows how to deal with Groudon. All it needs to do is avoid getting hit by Solar Beam. In a battle with no shields, the outcome is really close. If you can take down Groudon before it charges up its Solar Beam, you win.
Mamoswine can also deal with Lugia quite well. Lugia has access to Sky Attack to make you waste shields, so keep that in mind.
Similar battle matrix this time with Giratina, arguably the most dominant Pokémon in the Master League.
Mamoswine has almost no chance of beating Melmetal, as you can see in the matrix above.
This is a pretty even matchup. However, if Mamoswine has enough shields, it can win.
Overall, we could say that Powder Snow/Avalanche Mamoswine will be a nice addition to your Master League team. It’s not the best Pokémon to use in the current meta, but definitely, an interesting addition that can deal with some of the most powerful mons out there.
If you want to use a second Charge Move (Avalanche is a must), you can consider several options:
- Why would you want to use Ancient Power? Although it’s not the best move DPE-wise and it does not benefit from STAB, it has the potential (10%) to boost your attack and defense by 50% (x1.5), has an acceptable energy requirement (same as Avalanche) and can be beneficial in some scenarios where you need rock-type coverage without a steep cost in energy.
- Why would you want to use Stone Edge? Better move DPE-wise than Ancient Power (1.82 vs 1.56) and higher damage output (100 vs. 70). However, it does not benefit from STAB either, it cannot boost your stats and it has a higher energy requirement (55 vs. 45), which makes it a worse move if you want to burn your opponent’s shields.
- And how about Bulldoze? Bulldoze is another option if you want to use a ground type move, but it has a high energy requirement (60) for an okay Base Power move (80)
Conclusion
- Mamoswine is now the best ice type attacker in the game.
- It is a pretty safe Stardust investment, as no future contenders seem to be able to dispute Mamoswine’s top spot as an ice type attacker. However, ice type attackers are not really needed at the moment, so there is no need to use your Stardust immediately.
- As a ground type attacker, it is a very decent choice but still outclassed by several Pokémon, and Precipice Blades Groudon is not even available yet.
- Ancient Power can be useful in PvP battles, as it has a 10% (1/10) chance of boosting your attack and defense stats by 50% (x1.5) when used in battle. If you like PvP, make sure to at least get one Mamoswine with Ancient Power, as you don’t want to miss out on the potential to get a nice boost to Mamoswine’s stats when battling. If you’re lucky enough to get the boosts, Mamoswine becomes a major threat immediately. You can always teach it a new Charge Move or use a Charge TM if you want Avalanche, but you will not be able to do it to get Ancient Power once the Community Day event ends, so make sure to get one if you plan to use it in PvP battles or if you are a legacy move collector!
