Mamoswine, The Twin Tusk Pokémon. A frozen Mamoswine was dug from ice dating back 10,000 years. This Pokémon has been around a long, long, long time. It flourished worldwide during the ice age but its population declined when the masses of ice began to dwindle. Its impressive tusks are made of ice.

Overview

My God, Mamoswine is ugly. It isn't cute, cool, anything! It looks awful. There is no reason to use Mamosw-oh hello awesome stats and a great physical movepool! Yeah, Mamoswine can be an absolute beast when it comes to physical domination. Its typing gives it a near perfect coverage combination, just through STAB moves.

Ability

Oblivious: makes you immune to moves that are never seen. Always use Snow Cloak.
Snow Cloak: although hail teams aren't common, when you do use one or fight against one, Mamoswine gets a nice 20% evasion for... nothing, basically. Yes please!

Move Sets

Mamoswine endeavored to be a great lead

- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Stealth Rock
- Endeavor
Item Attached: Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Cloak
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) / Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

It leads your team, and it leads this POTW. Mamoswine makes a great lead, for a few reasons. Firstly, it has access to Stealth Rock. Secondly, it can stop many other common leads with its strong physical moves. Finally, it is immune to both sandstorm and hail, although sandstorm is obviously move common, Earthquake is Mamoswine's best move by far, considering it has 100 base power, 100 accuracy, and STAB. It really lays the hurt on anything not immune to it. Ice Shard makes for great revenge killing purposes, or just jumping the gun to get some free damage, Stealth Rock is the best move for residual damage in the game, and that should be set up as soon as possible. Endeavour is a nice surprise for anything not Ghost, as it brings them down to 1 HP, just begging to be finished off quickly by Ice Shard.

Let's get physical! Physical!

- Earthquake
- Superpower
- Ice Shard
- Stone Edge
Item Attached: Choice Band / Life Orb / Expert Belt
Ability: Snow Cloak
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) / Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)

POWER. This set showcases Mamoswine's power perfectly. Earthquake... I'm going to get sick of repeating myself for this one. Basically, it is an amazing move and should be on every Mamoswine set. Superpower was a new move to Mamoswine when Platinum was released, and it allows Mamoswine to 2HKO its former biggest counter. Ice Shard gets priority and STAB, a pretty lethal combination when taking Mamoswine's huge Attack into consideration. Stone Edge sorts out any Flying types who can take a strong hit than Ice Shard. It also combines well in terms of coverage with Earthquake.
Choice Band is the obvious choice for the set, as it gives it the biggest power boost and is generally the best item. However, Life Orb also gives a pretty nice boost as well, but has that recoil going on, and that's no good. Thirdly, Expert Belt. This item gives you a 1.2x boost when you hit for supereffective damage. Its main use is to trick the opponent into thinking you have Choice Band, and then BAM! You murder their Steel type thinking you are stuck on Stone Edge.

Mamoswine decided to dabble in the art of Special Attack

- Blizzard
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Superpower
Item Attached: Life Orb
Ability: Snow Cloak
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 Atk / 64 SAtk / 192 Spd
Naughty Nature (+Atk, -SDef)

Mixed Mamoswine can take care of a lot of the physically bulky Pokémon that would have wanted to wall it. Blizzard is a 120 base power STAB move, and it really is amazing. Just try and use it on a hail team, otherwise you have 70 accuracy to work with. Earthquake. Ice Shard is priority. Superpower gets rid of floating Steels.

EVs and Nature:

Mamoswine endeavored to be a great lead
No reason to have anything else but max Attack and max Speed. Mamoswine isn't meant to survive.

Let's get physical! Physical!
Mamoswine isn't meant to take hits, it is meant to survive. Playing Mamoswine as if it was meant to take hits is playing Mamoswine wrongly. Just go for max offence.

Mamoswine decided to dabble in the art of Special Attack
Enough Speed to outrun all Tyranitar without Choice Scarf. Max Attack gives it massive power, and the Special Attack guarantees KOs on Celebi, Gliscor, Donphan, and 2HKOs on Skarmory, general walls that like to take physical hits.

Other Options

Avalanche, Curse, Ice Fang, Light Screen, Peck, Reflect, Restalk
Avalanche is a pretty good Ice move, but is especially good when combined with the second move on the other options list.
Curse boosts Mamoswine's awesome attack and acceptable bulk to nice levels, and lowers its Speed down which really helps Avalanche out. However, with no way to boost its Special Defence either, it'd be a fairly awful set considering how common Mamoswine's weaknesses are.
Ice Fang could be used over Ice Shard to give Mamoswine a more powerful Ice attack, but really, Ice Fang isn't that much stronger, and Ice Shard gets priority.
Light Screen boosts Mamoswine's Special Defence, and it would be used in tandem with Reflect, most likely as a lead to support the team.
Peck can OHKO Heracross. Yeah, that's it.
Reflect is simply Light Screen's physical counterpart. No point in explaining it again.
Restalk would most likely be used in conjunction with Curse, giving Mamoswine a way to recover and boost.

Countering Mamoswine

Mamoswine gets such good coverage and has such high powered moves that it is very difficult to find much that can switch in safely. However, there are a few Pokémon who can. Skarmory and Bronzong are the ideal counters to this ice age beast. Immunity to Ground and huge bulk really make it hard for Mamoswine to damage them, outside of Choice Band Superpower, or Blizzard in Skarmory's case. Resisting Ground is a key to countering Mamoswine, and bulky Grass types can do just that. Shaymin and Celebi come to mind, being able to take a lot of physical punishment, recovering it off and hitting with a STAB Grass attack. Gyarados does indeed fall to Stone Edge, but immunity to Ground as well as Intimidate really make this a decent switch in. Scizor is risky, but it works. Any move other than Choice Band Earthquake, and you are fine. Then it is an easy OHKO with Bullet Punch. Bulky Waters can also switch in well. I've already mentioned Gyarados, but other Pokémon that come to mind right away are Suicune and Starmie. Both have decent Defence, both can recover themselves, Starmie can outspeed Mamoswine and both can OHKO with a strong Surf. Bulky Psychics like Cresselia and Uxie can switch in, take any hit and force it out with a Grass move. Gengar makes an okay switch in and good revenge killer, with Focus Blast or Energy Ball. Mamoswine hits hard, but it can be countered. You just have to predict and pray you were right.

Locations in Games

Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Not in Game Colosseum/XD Not in Game Fire Red/Leaf Green Not in Game Diamond/Pearl/Platinum Evolve Piloswine HeartGold/SoulSilver Evolve Piloswine

Animé Appearences

Mamoswine has had a few Animé Appearences. Almost all of its appearances had it under the control of Dawn. First it was disobedient but then became obedient and a powerhouse in Dawn's team Giratina & The Sky Warrior Episode 574: A Breed Stampede Episode 577: Leading A Stray! Episode 582: Another One Gabites the Dust Episode 586: Pursuing a Lofty Goal Episode 587: Trials and Adulations! Episode 589: The Lonely Snover Episode 590: Stopped in the Name of Love Episode 591: Old Rivals, New Tricks Episode 598: Frozen on Their Tracks Episode 601: Uncrushing Defeat Episode 602: Promoting Healthy Tangrowth Arceus & The Jewel of Life Pikachu's Great Sparkling Adventure Episode 614: Dressed for Jess Success! Episode 623: Double-Time Battle Training! Episode 624: A Meteoric Experience! Episode 626: Regaining the Home Advantage! Episode 629: Yes, in Dee Dee It's Dawn Episode 630: Playing the Performance Encore Episode 635: Teaching the Student Teacher! Episode 642: Grand Festival! The Art of Flame & Ice! Episode 643: Mamoswine & Pachirisu! The Ice Chandelier - Decisive Blow! Episode 644: Semi-Final! Who is Heading to the Final!? Episode 645: Final! Dawn VS Zoey! Phantom Champion Zoroark