Mamoswine or Garchomp, who is the better ground type for Platinum ingame?

Question

I have Gabite (Lvl 31) with Adamant nature but should I replace him with Mamoswine who is ground/ice? Since Ice is better against Dragons, Cynthia's Garchomp.

Just for info, my team is Empoleon (knows Ice beam), Gardevoir, Staraptor, Luxray, Houndoom, Gabite.
Thanks

Answer 1

Garchomp is better because Gible comes earlier than Swinub, is more helpful into more of the game, and has generally better stats. Mamoswine isn't great at much other than dealing with Dragon types -- and chances are that your Garchomp has accumulated enough EVs to deal with those easily anyways. Seeing as you already have a Garchomp, it would be a terrible use of time and EXP management to grind up a Mamoswine for the same (if not worse) results.

Garchomp
- Dragon Claw (Level 33)
- Earthquake (TM in Wayward Cave) / Dig (Level 40)
- Crunch (Level 48)
- filler (HMs etc)

Comments

Actually I made a mistake while making this post (sorry and fixed it). I still have Gabite which is Lvl 31. So I asked it to know if Garchomp will be good to beat the game or else I have to go get Mamoswine. It did take me quite some time to get adamant nature tho. Should I go for Garchomp or get mamoswine? I just want to get the best one to beat the game.

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Adamant Garchomp will shred basically any positive type matchup it has -- there's a reason it's high on Smogon's in-game Platinum tier list. I think everything I said about Mamoswine being a waste of time still applies.

Answer 2

For a playthrough of Pokémon Platinum, Mamoswine would be the prefered option over Garchomp. It is tankier, and its Ice type moves give more coverage than Garchomp's Dragon attacks.