Draft Order: Round 4 onwards

Price Range: 11-12 points

Overview: Mamoswine is a powerful wallbreaker that takes advantage of its high base Attack and unique type combination that has extremely wide coverage to punch holes in opposing teams. With tools like Knock Off and Stealth Rock, it can also provide useful utility, and Ice Shard can be used to pick off weaker foes. However, for an offensive Pokemon, it is too slow to immediately threaten out most other offensive threats, and its defensive typing prevents it from taking advantage of its above-average bulk.

Common Roles

Wallbreaker: Mamoswine is best used to break through the walls that stand in the way of the rest of its team. Damage-boosting items assist in this.

Entry Hazard-setting Lead: Using Stealth Rock, lead Mamoswine can use the pressure it exerts to threaten Pokemon out and safely get entry hazards up. If used as a dedicated lead, Focus Sash can also be a way to guarantee Stealth Rock being set.

Bulky Attacker: Mamoswine is tanky enough to take a few neutral or super effective non-STAB hits and dish out powerful attacks back. With its great offensive movepool, it can easily run Assault Vest. On the other hand, its higher Defense allows it to be an effective physical wall if needed.

Common Moves

Primary STAB Moves: Icicle Crash, Icicle Spear, Ice Shard, Earthquake, High Horsepower

Setup Moves: Trailblaze

Utility Moves: Stealth Rock, Haze, Curse, Roar

Coverage: Knock Off, Heavy Slam, Stone Edge, Rock Blast

Niche Moves

Freeze-Dry: Freeze-Dry can be used if a physically defensive Water-type is expected; however, more often than not, Earthquake or Trailblaze will still end up dealing more damage, and the latter has the added bonus of bolstering Mamoswine's Speed.

Smack Down: While Mamoswine's Ice-type moves effectively hit most Flying-types, Smack Down can be used to deal with certain Pokemon like Corviknight and Rotom formes.

Endeavor: On Focus Sash lead sets, Endeavor can be used to bring Mamoswine's foe down to 1 HP it activates Focus Sash.

Common Items

Damage-boosting Items: To make up for Mamoswine's lack of reliable setup, having an item to increase its damage output makes its job as a wallbreaker much easier. Choice Band gives Mamoswine stronger wallbreaking potential even in neutral matchups, Life Orb trades some of the damage Choice Band provides to enable Mamoswine to switch moves, and items like Never-Melt Ice and Soft Sand trade even more damage potential for not losing HP.

Focus Sash: Focus Sash allows Mamoswine to get a guaranteed opportunity to set Stealth Rock while also enabling it to invest in offensive stats and deal reliable damage. It can also be used along with Endeavor and Ice Shard to pick off a faster foe.

Niche Items

Loaded Dice: With Loaded Dice, Icicle Spear and Rock Blast can become more accurate alternatives to Icicle Crash and Stone Edge, respectively, at the cost of the raw power another item would give.

Assault Vest: Suitable because of Mamoswine's high base HP, decent base Defense, and great offensive movepool, Assault Vest can provide a much-needed boost to its Special Defense.

Lum Berry: Mamoswine is prone to being statused through means such as Mew and Galarian Weezing's Will-O-Wisp, so holding a Lum Berry can mitigate this while allowing it to stay in.

Heavy-Duty Boots: Although Mamoswine will rarely touch the field more than once or twice, its vulnerability to entry hazards can be mitigated by Heavy-Duty Boots if it is a concern.

Choice Scarf: Mamoswine typically likes to take advantage of its powerful Ice Shard, but Choice Scarf is an option that allows it to pick foes off better than Ice Shard would.

Tera

Mamoswine does not benefit much from being a Tera Captain. It suffers from competition from offensive Pokemon that are faster and have the ability to set up as well as defensive Pokemon that benefit from better defensive typings. If chosen as a Tera Captain, Terastallization aids its wallbreaking potential. Tera Grass is a standout right off the bat, not giving Mamoswine weaknesses to Fire and Ice because of Thick Fat while boosting Trailblaze to a respectable 90 Base Power. Otherwise, Tera Ice or Ground to boost Mamoswine's STAB moves is probably best.

Draft Strategy

Mamoswine fits best on offense-oriented drafts, as it is a strong but slow wallbreaker that can pave the way for the rest of its team to win with the right support. Strong, fast cleaners that appreciate a team being softened up are good partners for it, as it should never be the premier offensive Pokemon on a team. With a poor defensive typing that does not allow it to switch in much, it also needs a defensive backbone that can allow it to find a safe way in.

Slow Pivots: Mamoswine needs to be able to get in safely, and the best way to do this is with a slow pivot. Both Slowking formes are especially good for this because of their access to Chilly Reception, setting snow to boost Mamoswine's already usable Defense.

Setup Sweepers: Mamoswine enables setup sweepers by softening walls, and it needs them to act as win conditions. Tera Serperior and Latias are good choices as fast special sweepers that appreciate Mamoswine breaking down special walls for them.

Cleaners: Cleaners such as Greninja and Iron Valiant that perform best against weak foes are necessary to close the game out, as Mamoswine will rarely be able to on its own.

Entry Hazard Setters: Mamoswine does not like being the sole Stealth Rock user on a team, so drafting additional entry hazard support like Glimmora helps it fit into the role of a wallbreaker rather than an entry hazard lead. Mamoswine can also take advantage of hazards itself, since chip damage makes it harder to switch into it. The threat of Knock Off also makes foes with Heavy-Duty Boots more wary of switching into it.

Speed Control: Due to Mamoswine's low base Speed, it is very helpful to draft additional speed control to not relegate Mamoswine to exclusively using a Choice Scarf. Serperior and Gholdengo can paralyze foes with Glare and Thunder Wave, respectively, and are both special attackers that have sweeping potential. Faster Pokemon, such as Meowscarada and Greninja, are effective fast wallbreakers that can also pivot into Mamoswine.

Checks and Counters

Bulky Water-types: Due to Mamoswine's middling special bulk and its STAB combination not hitting them well, bulky Water-types like Milotic and Alomomola can take its attacks while dealing high damage back and threatening to burn with Scald.

Physical Walls: Although very few Pokemon resist Mamoswine's STAB combination, Pokemon with high base Defense that are not weak to either of its STAB types like Skarmory and Corviknight can take Mamoswine's physical attacks and threaten back with Body Press.

Faster Pokemon: With a poor defensive typing and no reliable recovery, faster Pokemon can pretty easily threaten Mamoswine out.

Super Effective Priority Users: Pokemon like Scizor and Azumarill do not need much chip damage on Mamoswine to threaten a KO with their super effective priority STAB moves.