OU: Pokémon Mawile Discussion Thread

[Chaos Jackal]

I'll jump in the bacon-ripoff bandwagon.

Mawile
Type: Steel/Fairy
Abilities: Intimidate, Hyper Cutter, Sheer Force
Stats: 50/85/85/55/55/50

Mega Mawile
Type: Steel/Fairy
Ability: Huge Power
Stats: 50/105/125/55/95/50

Notable Moves

Spoiler: Level-up

Baton Pass
Crunch
Sucker Punch
Iron Head
Play Rough

Spoiler: TM/HM/Tutor

Toxic
Taunt
Protect
Return
Payback
Stone Edge
Swords Dance
Substitute
Foul Play
Ice Punch
Knock Off
Thunder Punch
Stealth Rock
Pain Split

Spoiler: Egg Moves

Fire Fang
Ice Fang
Thunder Fang
Poison Fang

Thoughts
With terrible stats and shallow movepool, Mawile wouldn't leap in the mind of her craziest fan when thinking about competitive battling. Gen VI, however, changes that. Mawile has received the new Fairy type, giving her a great type combination, and it has also received a Mega Evolution. Its new forme not not only boasts increased Attack and defenses, but also grants Mawile the Huge Power ability. With it, Mawile reaches a ridiculous base 678 Attack with Adamant Nature, a number that many Pokemon struggle to reach at +1 or +2. While her Speed is always as underwhelming, Mawile has access to Sucker Punch, which, although unreliable, is ridiculously strong for a non-STAB and provides her with a great tool to dispose of some "new" threats, namely MegaGar, MegaZam and Deoxys-N, as well as Aegislash. Additionally, the vanilla forme's only good trait, Intimidate, allows Mawile to easily switch in on physical attackers, combined with her Fairy type, which gives her a whopping 9 resistances and 2 immunities. While a bit underwhelming for a Mega and definitely not what someone would call a top-tier threat, Mawile is still a force to be reckoned with.

Mawile w/ Intimidate @ Mawilite
Adamant Nature-252 HP/252Att/4 Def
Sucker Punch
Iron Head
Play Rough
Swords Dance

This set bases itself on Mawile's ability to switch in physical attackers. With Intimidate and so many resistances, Mawile can switch in easily, or replace a fainted ally, sponging or completely resisting the attacks, and proceed to set up Swords Dance and sweep. Mawile reaches impossible heights after a Swords Dance, meaning that Sucker Punch can wreck anything not resisting it, as well as some Pokemon who do. While the rest of the moves won't be as prominent due to Mawile's pathetic Speed, it can still allow for some amazingly powerful STAB if an opponent does not manage to KO Mawile. It's risky and needs a lot of prediction to successfully land Sucker Punches, but the return is high.

I suppose Mawile could also play a tank set, since she has access to Stealth Rock and Pain Split, which functions well as a form of recovery thanks to Mawile's low HP. However, a bulky sweeper seems more promising to me.
What do you think?

 

[One Approved]

Mawile is one weird pokemon. Huge Power and Swords Dance is incredible, there's no denying that. Access to Sucker Punch just makes it even better. But I hate how Mawile's offensive STAB coverage is so poor. Both Steel and Fairy are resisted by opposing Steel and Fire-types making them very hard to use together. Fortunately Mawile gets all 3 Elemental Punches, which makes it a lot more lethal.

I use a set very similar to the one in the OP, but I'd consider dropping either Iron Head pr Play Rough for Fire Punch. That way you've got an attack that can hit Steel-types minus Heatran for heavy damage, probably outright OHKOing them at +2.

As for the Tank Set, I honestly feel like an all-out support set could be really useful in the lower tiers. Stealth Rock/Pain Split/Iron Head or Play Rough/filler move could be pretty useful. 2 immunities and a solid array of resistances will go a long way. Mawile's also got great support moves in Stealth Rock, Taunt, Toxic, Knock Off, and Baton Pass, so it's nothing to overlook.

 

[Ririka]

Mega Mawile is a key pokemon to my mono-Fairy team in double battles. I paired her with Trick Room setter as in Aromatisse or Carbink, this way she doesn't need Sucker Punch anymore to outspeed your opponent. Pairing her with Aromatisse provide a healing for Mawile in form of Aromatisse's Heal Pulse and Aromatherapy, so Mawile won't die easily and can sweep opponent team (after Sword Dance) during the 5 turn of Trick Room. Or use Carbink to suppoert Mawile with Guard Split to further increase her defensive capability, this works better in some situation rather than using Aromatisse's cleric support.

In one word, a Trick Room'ed Mega Mawile is like one of the best sweeper around, and can take down almost every OU pokemon easily.

 

[DNA]

I'm curious: what does M.Mawile have over M.Medicham? Medi has 5 less ATK but also twice the SPE, and some interesting STAB. On the other hand, Maw has great defensive typing.
So could you call one better than the other? and why?

 

[RogueChomp]

Mega mawile can usually take hits and benefits from trick room, and its typing is just so good. Also, mawile normal wields intimidate. I could see medicham having problems with Pokemon that are faster than it, while mega mawile's typing makes up for that. Sucker punch seems really annoying to Medicham and I don't know how well it could deal with Aegislash.

 

[One Approved]

I'm curious: what does M.Mawile have over M.Medicham? Medi has 5 less ATK but also twice the SPE, and some interesting STAB. On the other hand, Maw has great defensive typing.
So could you call one better than the other? and why?

Medicham is the better option if you want something for immediate damage. You mega-evolve it, and if there's no ghosts in sight, you spam the Jesus out of Hi Jump Kick to start killing things.

However, I find in almost all other instances, Mega Mawile is going to be superior. For sweeping potential, even though it has half the speed, Mawile sports Sucker Punch and Swords Dance, neither of which Mega Medicham has acess to. Medicham also still only has base 100 speed, which isn't bad, but it's not that fast for something attempting a sweep. Mawile also has much superior defensive stats (50/125/95 and one use of Intimidate vs 60/85/85) and typing (Steel/Fairy is much better than Fighting/Psychic.) which gives it several opportunities to set up. Mawile also has a support movepool that's much superior to Medicham, making it a great supporter as well.

TL;DR: Unless your goal is to switch in and just start mindlessly clicking STAB attacks, Mawile is superior in every way.

 

[Turtwig]

Just saying that I've also heard that Mega Mawile's Sucker Punch is stronger than Mega Absol's.

And yes, Mawile has better defenses and can still use fighting type attacks (like Brick Break I think) for decent damage. Mawile gets Intimidate (which works GREAT with Salamence / Gyarados in an Intimidate defensive core, I've tried it) and has already bragging rights against Medicham. Yeah, Medicham may get faster speed, but on the first turn, it has the same speed and will have a lot of trouble finding opportunities to switch in without losing a valuable team member.

Considering the fact that there are other fighting type megas that are more popular than Medicham, it won't be as popular despite the power and speed. Mawile, though, has very little competition and stands out as a bulky sweeper that can tank attacks easily without having many problems. It is only weak to fire and ground which, like I mentioned earlier, can seriously be covered with the right support. Medicham sports weaknesses to Fairy (which is going to be a problem since most teams will already have one or two fairy-weak Pokemon), Ghost (which seems to be really popular now), and Flying (Talonflame). Mawile is also immune to / resists 11 types, most of which are common attacking types. It will not have many problems in switching in with Intimidate, either.

Mawile has better defenses and higher attack (with a wonderful STAB combination that can fight fairies and dragons alike, while also nice coverage moves in Sucker Punch and Brick Break) than Medicham, and it only really lacks the speed Medicham has.