What will Malamar's best moveset be in Pokemon GO?

Pokemon GO will soon be releasing Inkay and its evolution Malamar into the game during September's Psychic Spectacular. As such, players are already looking into what Malamar's battle capability will be.

A Dark/Psychic dual-type Pokemon, Malamar has an interesting type combo. Unfortunately, this particular combo makes it dreadfully vulnerable to Bug-type Pokemon and moves, so it should likely stay on the bench and avoid opponents such as Beedrill, Scizor, or Heracross.

However, Malamar's only other type weakness is against Fairy-types, giving it few disadvantages while possessing some solid moves.

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Pokemon GO: Malamar move breakdown

Malamar has been speculated to be included in Pokemon GO for some time, along with Goodra (Image via Niantic)

A strange upside-down squid Pokemon, dataminers have discovered that Malamar will allegedly be obtained by giving Inkay 50 candies and evolving it while holding the player's device upside-down.

Additionally, Pokemon GO community members have looked into the game's data and have discovered Malamar's tentative moveset (although Niantic may still change it before Psychic Spectacular).

The moves can be found below:

Fast Moves

• Peck (Flying-type)
• Psycho Cut (Psychic-type)

Charge Moves

• Psybeam (Psychic-type)
• Foul Play (Dark-type)
• Superpower (Fighting-type)
• Hyper Beam (Normal-type)

With these moves in mind, Pokemon GO players can begin to conceptualize the movesets that their future Malamar may use.

Early indications via knowledge of the moves seem to indicate that Malamar's strongest moveset will likely be Psycho Cut paired with Foul Play. Both moves are stronger options in their respective types.

Psycho Cut deals good damage while also returning significant energy. Foul Play is one of the better Dark-type Charge Moves in the game, and can cover type weaknesses that Psycho Cut cannot take advantage of, allowing Malamar to deal super effective damage to more opponents in Pokemon GO.

In PvP situations where trainers may opt for a second Charge Move, Psybeam and Hyper Beam appear to be the strong choices.

Psybeam, like Psycho Cut and Foul Play, will receive a Same Type Attribute Bonus (STAB) because it matches Malamar's elemental type. Hyper Beam can also provide neutral damage to most Pokemon types while also packing a significant punch.

Superpower may be useful when specifically countering certain Pokemon like Rock-types, but its utility may be the best thing going for it, considering Malamar's attack stats aren't projected to be particularly high, meaning it will require the STAB bonus to deal extra damage.

While Malamar's information is tentative, the current information available projects these moves to be the top options for Malamar when it makes its Pokemon GO debut in less than a week.

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