Pokemon of the Week #16: Latias
 

Who needs Snow Cloak when you have Thick Fat? Mamoswine is an awesome Pokemon that everyone should try out (especially Banded).

To me, it is one of the best, if not the best check/counter for most of the dragons in OU.

Band on mamoswine is not a very good item imo. I always preferred life orb, as being locked into earthquake is very easy to punish with all the levitating pokemon in OU. For that matter, being locked into one of your ice move is an invitation for the biggest sweeper in OU ATM in RP gene to come in, set up and then beat up your team. I shouldn't have to mention being locked into one of the coverage moves is less than opportune. Life Orb stops that from happening, and the recoil isn't really a big deal tbh, as you will obviously keep mamoswine healthy if you need it to check the opponents team sweeper. The rise of breloom and RP Landorus-I has also put mamoswine into a favorable condition, as mamoswine handily checks all variants of breloom if it carries icicle spear, and RP Lando-I is just another addition to the sweepers beaten by mamoswine. Rain is still as usual the thing stopping mamoswine from being a really dominant threat. Less than impressive Special defense with mamoswines weakness to the ubiquitous scald makes picking it off relatively easy, or at the least get it burnt and made useless any way. Not to mention the superpowered water attacks that are also found on the likes of starmie and keldeo that stop him from coming in and having an impact. Ferrothorn also happens to check variants that don't carry Superpower. It does handily check Tornadus-T and most tentacruel, so it has some uses here, but its hard to get it to work when in that situation.

Mamoswine is great to have against the other weathers though. It can reliably revenge a lot of sun sweepers, and can make his prescence felt. He beats most variants of Tyranitar as well as not having many problems with hippowdon. Both hail and sand don't really have generic teams, so its no gurantee he'll be great here, but he usually does a very good job against both team types. We all know hes pretty awesome against standard dragmag teams, so I won't go into that :0.

agreeing with Asek i believe the most effective set is the Life Orb set as Asek said you can't afford to be locked into Earthqauke with all the Levitate and Flying-type pokemon common in OU such as the therians, the latis and Rotom-W. Being locked into a 40 base power Ice Shard is also not to good because your opponent can send in their Steel-type and get up entry hazards as your forced to switch. Mamoswines ability to be able to check a wide array of OU pokemon like the Tornadus-T, Landorus-T, Landorus, Thunderous-T, Salamence, Dragonite, etc makes Mamoswine a very easy fit to offensive teams.

I am sure you will do well in the PotW Princess Bri thanks for taking over :)

http://pokemon.marriland.com/images/...oswine_1_m.png
Mamoswine @ Focus Sash
Trait: Thick FAt
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Endeavor
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock

This set doesn't get much love these days compared to the LO set but I still love this set as it can do so much for your team. It can actually easily set up SR and is great for more offensive teams who don't want to loze momentum with mons' such as forry. Also endeavor is sweet because it can often nab a cheap kill, often times against something threatning. Also can revenge kill (obviously) Ice Shard is great for revenging dragons/flyers of course.

This thing has like no offensive switchins and can 2hko the entire balanced to offensive metagame which is why the 285 speed benchmark is thrown around so often. I have used mamo extensively from fourth gen to early bw 2, but I found that it did the most work in bw1. Even though all the other threats got frailer, rotom got fatter. Moreover, water moves and hurricanes and close combats are being thrown everywhere. Though mamo still is a huge opener and does massive damage aiding the win condition, it is a liability for terrakion and gene setting up. As Bri mentioned in th op, mamoswine still comes with a myriad benefits, but I think it'll shine brighter when gene is banned.
Adamant life orb set is the best, with earthquake, ice shard, superpower, and icicle spear.
A set with 64 hp and chople/rindo could lure kill terrakion and rp gene as well.

Edit: since this thing kills so many pokes and hardly has switchins, a sub 3 attacks set is also viable to ease prediction. However, this comes at the price of not being able to hit rotom wash. I'm definitely looking forward to testing out sub lefties

Mamerswine is probably one of the best Pokes around right now. Anti meta as hell and a great addition to a lot of offensive and defensive cores. Earthquake > Ice Shard kills off Scizor and Genesect, while Icicle Spear hits hard on almost anything, even being able to break Skarmory under extremely lucky circumstances.

Running Life Orb with Shard, Spear, Quake, and Superpower makes him near unstoppable in a lot of situations. Be sure to lay your rocks down because he won't be able to OHKO a lot of stuff with Ice Shard without Rocks.

The only stuff that really walls him is Skarm and Bronzong (and intimidate Gyara), even Rotom-W doesn't like switching into a Superpower or two. Pair him up with a bulky water which also remedies his Water weakness, and he absorbs all the Electric moves. Meanwhile, bulky waters get Skarm and Bronzong out of the way. I'd suggest a Gyarados, having tested it myself.

It's a great revenge killer, he can take hits, 2HKO and OHKO a lot of the metagame, lay Rocks if you want, and generally kick ass.

Good poke.

Posted this set in the Anti-Metagame thread, might as well post it here too.

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Ice Shard
- Icicle Spear/Icicle Crash
- Superpower

A couple of things; if you can afford to have another member on your team put down Stealth Rock, it gives you another slot for extra coverage. The main attacking move is obviously Earthquake since it has no drawbacks. Ice Shard is pretty obvious as well. Icicle Spear is interesting and I use it over Icicle Crash because of stuff like Sub/Roost Dragonite who thinks it can just Dragon Tail Mamoswine away. I rarely use it other than against something like Hippowdon but if you don't fear Sub/Roost Dragonite (or Zapdos) then Crash is probably the better option. For the last slot I chose Superpower which hits a good amount of stuff for a lot of damage, including Rotom-W, Balloon Heatran and Ferrothorn.

You may have noticed that I use Jolly as well. This is mainly to beat Breloom. On the ladder I ran into a couple of Jolly Breloom who outspeed Adamant Mamoswine and KO with Mach Punch. My team was a little weak to Breloom so I switched to Jolly and I find it works much better for me. Some may miss the raw power of Adamant but for that particular team Jolly is superior. I also outspeed any Heatran which is pretty useful.

I got a lot of mileage out of this set during the Garchomp test. While it appears unassuming and rarely can keep a sash intact around mid-game or so, its ability to remove problematic threats can be invaluable. For example, it is one of the best full-stops to a Baton Pass team. They never use hazards themselves, so your Sash in ensured to be functional. All it takes is keeping constant pressure on them so that they never have a Substitute intact. Then when they finally feel confident they have enough boosts to sweep your team, let them go to Espeon. Let Espeon kill something if necessary, then bring Mamoswine in. Stored Power brings you down to 1 HP, Endeavor responds in kind to Espeon. Espeon now goes up to 6% from Lefties, then gets sniped by Ice Shard. For a playstyle that's so annoying to play against, being able to consistently auto-win against it is a lovely thing.

The set does have flaws though. Endeavor is mostly worthless if Mamoswine can't activate its Sash or get into really low range. It also doesn't match up well against most leads, which is bad for a set reliant on Focus Sash. You lose out against Deoxys-D, against Genesect, against Cloyster (can't even pull your FEAR shenaningans against it), etc. You do have the nice ability to beat lead Terrakions that go for the Close Combat though. Unless they run Quick Attack. Which they don't, but I kind of want to see an increase of that since it's cool for sniping things like Dugtrio and Breloom (Breloom lives Jolly Close Combat most of the time). But sadly it is really really hard to deviate from CC / Stone Edge / Stealth Rock / Taunt because it's just so effective.

Tangent aside, Rapid Spin support is useful for this set. Starmie's probably the most intuitive option since it can take on things like Keldeo without too much trouble. It also invites Volt Switches which can give Mamoswine a free switch-in if you handle it right. Forretress is another option, since you can do things like use Gyro Ball on Gengars that switch in recklessly, which makes Endeavor much much more effective. You can also lay down Spikes to complement Stealth Rock, Toxic Spikes to let Endeavor kill most things without a follow-up Ice Shard, or Volt Switch to rack up hazard damage and wear down Jellicent (who, unlike Gengar, is not that difficult for Sash Mamoswine to muscle through with some prior damage).

It's a neat set, I recommend giving it a shot.

honestly, the sash set is a lot harder to get through than the LO set imo. I've always had more trouble beating the sash ones. That's because Mamoswine's coverage + priority is so useful that it's just very hard to get around without losing something and letting it get up rocks. It's kind of like Dugtrio in that there are a lot of pokes that can survive a hit (in this case ice shard instead of trio's weak eq) and OHKO, but very few can break the sash without being 2HKO'd before taking it down.

I love Mamoswine, but at the same time I hate it. Every time I build a team it seems that Mamoswine is always the biggest threat to my team. With Thick Fat, not even Air Balloon Heatran can check Mamoswine anymore. That STAB EQ and priority Ice Shard is seriously an extreme nuisance, and it seems that taking Mamoswine into consideration when building a team is crucial due to it's massive devastation it can cause to teams.

If I didn't see Life Orb on a mamoswine I would instead assume it was either a Choice Band or a Expert Belt before Focus Sash came to mind. If he isn't leading with it I usually cross Focus sash off, and the strategy is very effective if you play your cards right. Agreeing however that if you haven't gotten rid of the Baton Pass teams SubPasser that they will try get their sweeper behind a substitute once they've accumulated the boosts, not only for something random but also to protect from an unlucky crit.

Also as ala said Jolly Mamoswine is great, and I almost always use it for a few more reasons then jolly breloom. Adamant Lucario and Toxicroak are both 2 key threats that jolly mamo also happens to outspeed, as well as out speeding opposing adamant mamo and speed tying with opposing jolly mamo. I have never noticed myself missing the extra power, as the targets that mamo was being used for were still being handily taken care of, and it added a few more pokemon that it beats to its list, so it was definitely worth the switch.

I would never assume a Mamoswine was expert belted. I've seen Thunder wave RotomW gaining a lot of popularity meaning that they often Hydro Pump Mamo down to its sash and it dies.

I would like to know if someone is using Stone Edge, outside non-Scarfed sets. Stone Edge seems like a bad move, but it gives Mamoswine coverage on Gyarados and Volcarona, two threats that shouldn't be ignored. However, it has very little use outside of this. My team has little trouble with those Pokémon, so I am using Superpower.

I would also like to know some of the best partners for Mamoswine. Its amount of weakness and mediocre defenses are annoying. They always ruin my defensive synergy, and I generally only use Mamoswine when my team is very weak to things like Dragonite. Also, even with Thick Fat, it's actually hard for Mamoswine to survive many Fire-type attacks, especially when they are boosted by the sun, due to the aforementioned mediocre defenses.

I don't like Focus Sash Endeavor Mamo at all, and i am very happy when i see it in the opposing team. If you can understand that it is the Sash set you can easily beat it with minimal casualties, and finding out it is the Sash set is usually easy. When i see an offensive team with Mamo as the only possible SR user (the other pokes will either be unable to learn it or don't usually carry it), this means that Mamo will more often than not be the Lead set. So just WoW it with Rotom-W and then kill with Hydro Pump, Leech Seed it with Ferrothorn and then OHKO it with Gyro Ball / Power Whip, or Toxic it with Poltitoed and then kill it with Scald. And the reason i love seeing this Mamo variant is because Xatu actually walls it and prevents SR from going up.

You're assuming that the Mamo user is an idiot. Protip: the opponent can see your mons with team preview, too.
If you're running a high risk-high reward set like Sash lead Mamo, you'll obviously understand what stops it cold (like the pokemon you mentioned) and pair it with something that can take them out.
You don't have to lead with it just so you can set SR on turn 1 if you see it's obviously not a good idea. This is true for any designed lead with entry hazards.

Latias is an excellent partner for Mamoswine. It resists Water, Fire, and Fighting, meaning she makes an excellent switch in to things that threaten Mamo, such as Keldeo or Rotom-W. Keldeo won't like taking a Psyshock and neither will SpD Rotom. Ferrothorn/Bronzong do kind of wall them both though (unless Latias is using Hidden Power Fire, but even then, they are both usually under the rain) so Magnezone naturally fits well with the LatiSwine combo.

Btw, Timid 252 SpA Heatran Flamethrower vs 6 HP Thick Fat Mamoswine:


So unless you're in sun, you won't be KO'd by any offensive variant using Flamethrower.

You didn't get my point. From the moment you see Mamo in Team Preview you are usually able to tell if it the lead set or not due to reasons i already mentioned. And once you know that it is the lead set it is very easy to kill it, and it is very easy to wall it as it doesn't hit hard.

My thoughts,
Mamoswine is amazing. My personal favorite set is

Mamoswine @ Life Orb
Trait: Thick Fat
EV's: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Ice Shard
- Earthquake
- Icicle Crash
- Stone Edge / Stealth Rocks

This set is purely offensive and in my experience one of the best sets. With it ice shard delivering a whopping hit, can easily OHKO most dragons, save for Dragonite with Multi Scale unless you use rocks. Given rocks or any other hazards, mamoswine, can be a great sweeper

Mamo is definitely a threat to behold; it just counters so many pokemon that a team meaning to succeed can not be built without an answer to this guy. Dragons being so powerful and popular has definitely made Mamoswine have it's tusks full.

I agree with alexwolf that the Sash set is definitely a tricky one to use and an easy one to counter. If you get hazards up, it's fairly easy to handle since Mamoswine is a very hit and run type of pokemon. Break the sash with status or hazards, and then just use a semi powerful SE move to take it out.

A cool partner for Mamoswine could definitely be Venusaur, who likes Heatran and Dragons gone. It can take fighting and water hits for Mamo, and dispose of bulky water types that can stop a Mamosweep. Mamo can also deal with dugtrio pretty well because of it's bulk, which helps keep Venusaur's Sun up. If you haven't tried Sun Mamo yet, you definitely should.

Focus Sash Endeavor Mamoswine is definitely my favorite Mamoswine set in this metagame. It is a reliable hazard layer, and is almost always guaranteed to take a Pokemon down with it. Sure it lacks the power of CB or LO, but it makes up for it in utility.

Anyways, Mamoswine is pretty great as a whole in this metagame. It is a pretty great offensive check to Dragon-Types, which never hurts, and also does pretty well vs the Therians. Like CTC said Rotom-W is probably one of this guys biggest enemys atm. But aside from that and a few other Pokemon this guy has the chance to hit the entire metagame really hard and definitely not be overlooked.

I've always found Life Orb to be the ideal item, although it usually takes me a while to find what Mamoswine set fits well on my team. What is everyones' opinion on Scarf Mamoswine?

Scarf Mamoswine's niche is too narrow for it to be worth using imo. Most of the things that are faster than it that it cares to hit are revenged by Ice Shard, anyway. The few instances where I can see Scarf being somewhat worth using were if you desperately needed a way to check a full health SD Garchomp/Lati twins or a CM Jirachi who had gotten a couple boosts and threatened to ko Mamoswine with a Rain boosted Water Pulse. I usually stick with the Sash Endeavor or LO sets when I use it.

I always found Mamo to be a bit Overrated because his resistances are so bad he is tough to get in other than revenge.

Still, Adamant Life Orb hits like a TRUCK. What is the point of Jolly, again?

It let's you outspeed neutral nature base 90s.