A PvP Analysis on Mamoswine in Pokémon GO – to Ancient Power or not to Ancient Power?

Howdy folks! It’s time once again for Community Day Classic, and this weekend features the return of MAMOSWINE. Believe it or not, this is actually my first time spotlighting Mamoswine, as I didn’t start my Community Day spotlight analyses until… Beedrill, was it? Sometime around there. Whenever it was, it was after the original Swinub Community Day!

Anyway, the event is almost here, so let’s dive right in with our Bottom Line Up Front!

B.L.U.F.

• No beating around the bush: exclusive Community Day move Ancient Power isn’t one that Mamoswine really wants most of the time, especially with its recent-ish addition of another very potent coverage move.
• That said, Mamoswine CAN be pretty great in PvP, especially in Master League where it has been a staple for many players for quite some time now.
• If nothing else, this is of course a great opportunity to hunt down ideal PvP IVs and lots of XL Candy, so if Mamoswine is still a need for you, go out for that even if you don’t need/want the move itself. Good luck!

And now, as my kids would say, the “deets”.

MAMOSWINE Stats and Moves

Mamoswine IceGround

Great League Stats

Ultra League Stats

Master League Stats

So to try and sum this up quickly: Mamoswine is not nearly as bulky as its frame would imply. It’s actually very close to spindly Gallade and Gardevoir (in Great and Ultra Leagues, at least, before Mamoswine eventually surpasses them both with higher CP and stat potential in Master League), with Bruxish, Yanmega, and Machamp also being pretty close comps. Some of those are pretty handy in PvP, but they’re all known for being pretty frail.

Couple that with Mamoswine’s very unfavorable typing combination. I have bemoaned Ice many times, which is vulnerable to four types (Fire, Fighting, Rock, and Steel… I don’t even have to look that list up anymore, in the latest sign I’ve been in this business FAR too long! 🙃) and resists only other Ice damage. It’s usually masked somewhat by having a nice complementary subtyping, most commonly Water, to beef up the resistances. But Ground isn’t the greatest at doing that. It DOES take away the weakness to Rock, but it leaves the other three in place, and adds worrying vulnerabilities to common Water and Grass damage as well. And heck, it takes away Ice’s one and only resistance (Ice) and replaces it with only two new ones: Electric (2x) and Poison.

That’s right… end of the day, Mamoswine resists only Electric and Poison, and is left weak to Fighting, Fire, Water, Grass, and Steel. The last of those is rather uncommon, but the first four are everywhere in PvP. This ends up one of the worst defensive type combinations in the game, AND on a pretty frail Pokemon.

Eeeek.

Thankfully, as with some of the names listed earlier like Gallade and Machamp and Bruxish, the moves help insulate (haha see what I did there? 🥶) Mamoswine from some of those flaws.

…some.

Fast Moves

• Powder Snow – Ice type, 2.5 DPT, 4.0 EPT, 1.0 CoolDown
• Mud Slap – Ground type, 3.67 DPT, 2.67 EPT, 1.5 CD

Mamo has some good charge moves, but it all starts with Powder Snow. Without that high energy generation, nothing else would matter… its frailty would doom it like it does so many other Pokemon trapped behind subpar moves. Powder Snow is one of the best overall fast moves in the game, and the best STAB energy generation it could get except for Mud Shot.

Mud Slap isn’t a terrible move, but it does nothing to mask Mamo’s weaknesses, and you do NOT want it. It’s Powder all the way.

Which feeds directly into its pool of charge moves….

ᴱ – Exclusive (Community Day) Move

Charge Moves

• Avalanche – Ice type, 90 damage, 45 energy
• Ancient Powerᴱ – Rock type, 60 damage, 45 energy, 10% Chance to Increase User Attack/Defense +1 Stage
• Stone Edge – Rock type, 100 damage, 55 energy
• Bulldoze – Ground type, 80 damage, 60 energy
• High Horsepower – Ground type, 100 damage, 60 energy

Avalanche is Mamoswine’s bread and frozen butter. As with Froslass, it plays beautifully with Powder Snow for high pressure, spammy damage. 45 energy is obviously not super cheap, but it still comes out quick with Powder Snow powering it up.

Exclusive move Ancient Power is ALSO only 45 energy, and provides handy coverage versus Fires and nice neutral coverage against Waters that resist Ice (among others). The problem is that even after being un-nerfed a little while back, it’s still a move that deals only 60 damage for that 45 energy, which is far from great. That means that even against things that resist Ice and take neutral from Rock, or take neutral from Ice and super effective from Rock, Avalanche will STILL end up dealing more raw damage than Ancient Power. If you use Ancient Power, you’re hoping for that nice Attack/Defense boost. But that’s still only a 10% chance, and is no longer the two-stage bonus it used to be, but instead just one stage, so even when it does go off it’s not as match-changing as it once was. It’s also not overly synergetic on Mamoswine, as Powder Snow, awesome as it is, still deals below average damage. This isn’t like Ancient Power going off for Togekiss’ Charm or something… the big boost, when you luck into it, is something that will likely only make a big impact the next time you hit a charge move.

If you want Rock coverage, just go with Stone Edge. At least the first time through, it requires only one additional Powder Snow than Avalanche, and deals MUCH more damage than Ancient Power, barely trailing Avalanche when both are neutral (remember that Avalanche gets a STAB bonus and Edge does not) and dealing close to 50% more damage than Avalanche when Edge is a level of effectiveness higher than Avalanche.

That all said… more often than not, I don’t think it’s Rock coverage you want at all. Yes, it’s super effective versus Fires, which is handy, and can punch through opposing Ice types and a handful of Flyers (thinking Water/Flying in particular) that take only neutral from Ice, but generally there’s a lot of overlap between Ice and Rock coverage.

Instead, Mamoswine usually prefers to run Ground coverage. That used to be the mediocre Bulldoze, but of course these days, it’s High Horsepower, which deals a lot more damage for the same energy cost.

Ground also provides the same handy anti-Fire coverage as Stone Edge (though Charizard and Talonflame laugh at it, but hey, no coverage is perfect) and brings in a way to slam the door on Steels and Rocks that mostly prey on Mamoswine otherwise, as well as giving it reach against new targets like Poisons and Electrics. Even better, the things that resist Ground damage take at worst neutral (Bug) or super effective (Grass and Flying) from Mamo’s Ice moves. No messy overlap between these like there is with Avalanche and Stone Edge/Ancient Power.

All that to set up a quick run through the simulations….

GREAT LEAGUE

Keeping this simple… you don’t really want Mamo in Great League. It’s not that it NEVER has use… there have been a number of Limited metas that have elevated the performance of Ice/Ground Swines. The problem is that the Swine of choice at this level is generally PILOSWINE, which has the same Powder Snow/Avalanche/High Horsepower (or Stone Edge) as Mamo, but significantly higher bulk (10ish more Defense and nearly 20 more HP) and a higher stat product (by about 200). You can see this clearly by comparing the number of core meta wins between Mamoswine and Piloswine, and with a variety of moves… Piloswine is consistently better. Mamoswine (with High Horsepower) DOES have one advantage: its higher Attack means it can outrace a handful of things, like Venusaur Spark Lanturn, that Piloswine cannot (at least not reliably). But generally it’s advantage Pilo, with its own wins like Pelipper (without needing Stone Edge!), Skarmory, Dunsparce, Shadow Alolan Ninetales, and perhaps most important, Galarian Stunfisk. Mamoswine simply cannot hang around long enough to get those.

Piloswine IceGround

As for Ancient Power… it just doesn’t cut it compared to Stone Edge or Horsepower.

And the same remains true of Shadow Mamo. High Horsepower takes the overall crown (with some spiffy wins over Bastiodon and, unique to Shadow, Registeel and Toxapex too), But Stone Edge and Ancient Power don’t really hold a candle to it. (Of particular note, though… Ancient Power CAN slay Froslass, so MAYBE build one if you can for all those Ice-heavy Cups?)

ULTRA LEAGUE

Well, same story here. Ancient Power isn’t terrible, but it does not stand out from Stone Edge or High Horsepower, and significantly trails Piloswine (with Horsepower or Stone Edge). That said, Mamoswine is MUCH cheaper to build, not even eclipsing Level 30 while Piloswine needs to be pushed into the high 40s. This IS a great opportunity to grind for those XLs, and I would actually recommend that AFTER building a Master League Mamo. (More on that in a moment.) Piloswine can beat things Mamo cannot, like Drapion, Greedent, Cofagrigus, Empoleon (with High Horsepower), and Gyarados and Shadow Alolan Ninetales (with Stone Edge). Mamo does manage to notch a unique win over Talonflame with Ancient Power, and unlike Great League, it is Mamoswine that can beat Galarian Stunfisk instead of Piloswine, but overall it takes a backseat to Piloswine. I can understand using this event to build one for those special G-Fisk and Talonflame wins though!

I generally don’t recommend Shadow, though… Galarian Stunfisk now gets away, which is ungood.

But now the real story….

MASTER LEAGUE

Mamoswine’s best success has always come in Master League, and that continues today. Things get a bit clearer here, with Piloswine falling completely away, and High Horsepower occupying a higher tier than the Rock moves. Yes, Stone Edge gets in a unique win versus double-weak-to-Rock Ho-Oh, but otherwise it’s all High Horsepower, which overwhelms Mewtwo and big bad Steels Metagross and, of course, Dialga. (Metagross and Mewtwo were the two that moved to the win column with the upgrade from Bulldoze to Horsepower, by the way.) And forget about Ancient Power… it can’t do in Ho-Oh, and also loses to Reshiram that High Horsepower and Stone Edge both beat.

We’ll call Shadow Mamoswine a sidegrade, as it gets unique wins versus Xerneas, Gyarados, and even Swampert (!!!), but it just gives up too much, IMO, to do so: Snorlax, Mewtwo, Metagross, and Dragonite. Ouch.

IN CONCLUSION

So what to build? Well, I think you absolutely DO still want a Master League Mamoswine, which continues to hang around in the meta and, despite the rise of other Ice types over the years, hasn’t given up its lofty spot (especially in Master League Premier!).

Beyond that, though? PIloswine is still better in Great League (and likely always will be). It’s also better than Mamoswine overall in Ultra League, though Mamoswine has nice standout wins over G-Fisk and sometimes Talonflame that make it worth it if you find a good one. If you end up with extra XLs after building up a ML Mamo, Ultra League Piloswine is a worthy investment.

And that’s it for today! Sorry this comes so late in the game — Community Day is mere hours away from our APAC friends! — but it’s just been that kind of week. 😵

Until next time (Volcarona, likely! 🔥), you can always find me on Twitter with near-daily PvP analysis nuggets or Patreon, if you’re feeling extra generous.

Good hunting! Stay safe out there, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!