POKE-FOCUS #16: MAMOSWINE

Introduction

Ah, Piloswine. First of all, while his typing is great offensively, it's pretty bad defensively, having only one immunity (Electric), one resistance (Poison), and taking everything else at neutral or worse. This made it hard to switch him into other Pokemon. That plus low Special Defense meant it wasn't going to be taking hits well, particularly of the Fire, Water, or Grass sort--the first and last of which it supposedly has a type advantage over.



Also, its low Special Attack meant that it would not be doing much damage with its Ice attacks nominally. That, plus the lack of an Ice Beam TM, meant we had to use the powerful but unreliable Blizzard. Finally, its slow Speed really did not help its cause at all.

Piloswine needed so many things. It needed some better defensive aspects of its typing. It needed a better way to hit with Ice attacks. It needed something to compensate for its low Speed. Heck, it just needed some better stats, although the only way that was going to happen was if it somehow got a new evolution.

Enter 4th generation. What happened? Sandstorm and Hail use proliferated (saying nothing of Hail's nonexistence in 2nd generation), Stealth Rock appeared and gave most Ice-types a fair amount of trouble (while Piloswine takes the move at neutral damage), Physical/Special split meant it could now use physical Ice-type attacks, particularly Ice Shard, which compensated for Speed by striking first, Blizzard could be used in Hail with never-miss effect, and... oh, it got a new evolution, and with it improved stats. The addition of assorted new hold items and a fairly useful ability (under the right circumstances) helped it a lot, too. And as an added bonus, it now learns Earthquake on its own, meaning we don't have to use up a precious TM 26 to teach it its most powerful attack.

There's a reason Piloswine jumped up from Neverused in 3rd Generation to Mamoswine being Overused in 4th Generation.

Capture/Training

Should be easy to catch a Swinub: they're all over the place in the Ice Path. Do catch several of them so you can get one with Snow Cloak and a good nature.

Swinub evolves into Piloswine starting at Level 33. Piloswine (and Mamoswine) learns Earthquake only three levels later, so there's no need to delay the evolution. Piloswine evolves into Mamoswine if it levels up while having learned Ancientpower; you'll need a Heart Scale to pull this off. There's no point in delaying this evolution, as Mamoswine's moves are learned at the same levels as Piloswine.

Statistics

110 HP, 130 Atk, 80 Def, 70 Sp. Atk, 60 Sp. Def, 80 Spd

So much better stats from its predecessor. Base 130 Attack is always going to be a real killer. Base 110 HP means it has pretty good survivability, moreso against physical attacks. 80 Speed isn't the best (it's right at average), but it sure is an improvement.

The Nature chosen probably shouldn't be hindering Attack. Depending on the moveset, the hindered nature should be either Special Attack, Special Defense, or Speed (if Curse is used).

EV re-focusing will depend on the moveset.

Movesets

Snow Cloak should always be the ability of choice, especially considering Oblivious is near useless. Snow Cloak gives extra evasion in Hail, which makes Mamoswine a good Pokemon to put on an Abomasnow/Hail team.

Mamoswine has the following primary Physical attacks to take advantage of that base 130 Attack. Earthquake is a given. It sure is a nice bonus that it can learn the move on its own; those TM 26's do not come by easily! Ice Shard is actually the primary Ice physical attack used. On one hand, it's not particularly powerful, but on the other hand, the ability to strike first is invaluable, and with base 130 Attack, Mamoswine can easily defeat those weak to it in two or even one hit(s), especially those foes that are 4x weak to Ice (like practically every major Dragon-type).

Other than that, there's Ice Fang, which loses priority but is more powerful. Avalanche is best used on a Curse set, where Mamoswine would be taking hits first anyways while being able to mostly absorb said hits, and the resulting base 120 attack with STAB and boosted Attack will likely one-shot foes, and will put a big dent in even resistant foes. Then again, with base 130 Attack plus stat boosts, even a non-boosted Avalanche will hurt badly.

If you really want a Special Attack to use, Blizzard can be used, especially on a Hail team featuring Abomasnow. Base 70 Special Attack isn't horrible, and Blizzard's base power compensates nicely.

Secondary attacks are fairly plentiful. Stone Edge is a good alternative way of putting the hurt on flying foes, particularly those resistant to Ice. Return is a good general attack, having a bit more powerful than a STAB Ice Fang. Superpower puts some real pain on any Steel-type that thinks it can just fly, Levitate, or Magnet Rise over Earthquakes. Body Slam trades power for a chance to paralyze faster enemies. Certain Levitators might be particularly weak to Bite, and if you happen to be faster, you might flinch the enemy.

Endeavor is an oddball move. Properly timed, it can combine with Ice Shard to all but ensure a KO.

Mamoswine can summon its own Hailstorm, which is useful if you think the enemy might interrupt your Abomasnow Hail with his own weather. It's not the best choice of a moveslot, though.

Protect has some use on a Hail team, as it forces the enemy to take more Hail damage. As always, it can also be used to scout out an enemy attack. Substitute has a similar role, but has additional roles such as blocking status and lowering HP for Endeavor-based endeavors.

Stealth Rock is a good move to have if you want your Mamoswine to lead off. Mamoswine has fun ways of countering many popular leads.

Curse is usable if the enemy isn't a particularly strong one. It particularly works well with Avalanche.

Moveset 1: Endeavor Moveset
- Endeavor
- Substitute
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake

Use Substitute to bring yourself down, then get ready to Endeavor once that last sub is up. Finish off the weakened foe with Ice Shard. Speed is somewhat important here, as the enemy is just as liable to try to stop you with its own priority attack.

General Moveset
- Earthquake
- (primary physical Ice attack)
- (secondary attack)
- (secondary attack)/(supporting move)

Nine times out of ten, the primary physical Ice attack will be Ice Shard, and the secondary attack will be Stone Edge. As for that fourth slot, choose one of its remaining options. Said option will likely dictate what Nature, IVs, and EVs you feed Mamoswine. Most sets can take EVs out of Special Attack, but if you're using Blizzard as part of a Hail Team, that is obviously not recommended, for example.

Effective Movesets

1. Charge!
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Stone Edge
- Ice Fang/Avalanche
 Item: Life Orb



2. Lead
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Endeavor
Item: Focus Sash

3. MixMamo
- Earthquake
- Blizzard
- Ice Shard
- Stone Edge

4. Endeavor
- Endeavor
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Substitute










5. Choice Band
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
Item: Choice Band

6. CurseMamo
- Curse
- Earthquake
- Avalanche
- Stone Edge

7. Choice Scarf
- Earthquake
- Ice Fang
- Stone Edge
- Blizzard

Future Sight

Mamoswine just keeps on improving, as it has gained a number of new toys. Bulldoze is among the least of them, but being able to lower the opponent's Speed isn't a bad thing even if it's no comparison to Earthquake (and thus should be used auxiliary to it).

Icicle Crash is a great new move for Mamoswine: it is physical, does 85 base damage (20 more than Ice Fang) and a respectable 90% accuracy (only 5% less than Ice Fang anyway). With Mamoswine already being such a hard hitter, having a hard hitting STAB move is great.

Finally, Mamoswine finally got an ability worth talking about. Thick Fat meshes well with Mamoswine, removing its Fire weakness and giving it a resistance to Ice (effectively adding Mamoswine to the list of BoltBeam resistors... except that many BoltBeam users are Water-types...).