Sir Quaffler
May we meet again
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2012
#303 - Mawile
[Steel][Fairy]
Species: Deceiver Pokemon
Abilities: Intimidate/Hyper Cutter/Sheer Force
Mega Ability: Huge Power
Height: regular: 2'00", 0.6 m; Mega: 3'03", 1.0 m
Weight: regular: 25.4 lbs, 11.5 kg; Mega: 51.8 lbs, 23.5 kg
[Steel][Fairy]
Species: Deceiver Pokemon
Abilities: Intimidate/Hyper Cutter/Sheer Force
Mega Ability: Huge Power
Height: regular: 2'00", 0.6 m; Mega: 3'03", 1.0 m
Weight: regular: 25.4 lbs, 11.5 kg; Mega: 51.8 lbs, 23.5 kg
Notale moves:
Sucker Punch (pretty much Mawile’s signature move at this point)
Play Rough
Iron Head
Baton Pass
Fire Fang / Thunder Fang / Ice Fang (Egg moves)
Punishment (Egg move)
Stone Edge (TM) (for those pesky Fire types)
Rock Slide (TM) (Fire types in team battles)
Swords Dance (TM)
Substitute (TM)
Protect (TM)
Foul Play – B2W2 tutor, so not VGC-available
Pain Split – B2W2, so not VGC-acceptable
Fire Punch / Thunder Punch / Ice Punch - B2W2 move tutor, so not VGC-acceptable
Mega Stats breakdown:
HP: 50 - Terrible, though its sharply boosted Defenses make up for it.
Attack: 105 - Very good on its own, though with Huge Power’s boost it becomes monstrous. It’s the reason why Mega Mawile is the threat that it is.
Defense: 125 - Incredible. This combined with the type combination turns Mega Mawile into a physical tank.
Sp. Attack. 55 - Awful, just awful. But you would never in your right mind use a Special-attacking Mawile, so it’s a moot point.
Sp. Def. 95 – Very good. Not quite as useful as its Defense considering type weaknesses, but this can still turn her into a tank.
Speed. 50 - Paltry, and unlike its other two weak base stats, this one’s actually a true weakness. This necessitates the use of Sucker Punch or Speed-altering teams like Trick Room, Tailwind, or Baton-Passed speed boosts to work around.
Overview:
Mega Mawile is an extremely interesting case study in how to bring out the best potential in Pokemon. When she was first revealed back in Emerald, she had a unique (at the time) non-Legendary typing, with the highest number of sheer resistances as a pure-Steel type, with her counterpart being Sableye and his (at the time) status of a Pokemon with no weakness. Those two also share the same base stat of 380, so it would seem as though they would be equally used in the competitive scene. Alas, though, she never saw the light of day past the very lower tier as part of a gimmicky team. She had the awesome looks (with a really interesting origin in Japanese mythology to boot), an awesome typing, a useful Ability in Intimidate, and a good movepool despite its shallowness , but those base stats… they just crippled her. It would have seemed she would have remained at the bottom indefinitely.
But then… something amazing happened.
This new Ability works even better than some people would think. Some are under the impression that Huge Power boosts the Base Attack stat of a Pokemon, which - while that would still be very good as it would double Mega Mawile’s base Attack from 105 to 210 – is underestimating it. Huge Power instead boosts the entire Attack stat after everything else – the EV’s, IV’s, Nature, stat boosts – are factored in [and yes, this also means Attack-boosters work even better than before]. That translate to this: Given that you are level 100, have the maximum EV’s, highest IV, and an Attack-boosting nature (and no Attack-boosting moves), Mawile goes from having a max Attack stat of 295, which is somewhat okay, to having a max Attack stat of 678, which is just… titanic. Get 3 Swords Dances in and that number goes up to 2712, which is simply COSMIC. Nothing can withstand that much power.
There is yet another advantage to Mega Mawile’s new Ability. Taking into account how Mega Evolutions work, Mega Mawile is one of the only Pokemon to actively use 2 Abilities, even while Mega Evolving on the first turn. Intimidate to lower the opponent’s Attack by one stage, Huge Power to skyrocket its own Attack. The only other ones capable of this are Intimidating Gyarados and Trace Gardevoir, with some other Megas that are more circumstantial like Minus Manectric. I personally like Megawile’s setup best because it works 95% of the time; you’d have to use someone who’s either immune to Attack stat reductions like Clear Body or Hyper Cutter or use a Substitute to ignore it, and it backfires against someone who’s Defiant.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows for Mega Mawile, though. For all the awe-inspiring boosts in Attack and defenses she got, her HP and Speed are still pitifully low. With a correct setup, like a standard SubPunch setup or a Trick Room team, these can actually work to her advantage, but these still need to be taken into account regardless. Ground usually maintains an advantage over Mega Mawile with her weakness to it, although since Ground moves are usually physical she can usually take at least one hit with her high Defense and retaliate for a kill. But Fire… Fire just kills her outright. Even with her boosted Sp. Defense she is usually OHKO’d by a good Fire attack, and none of her STAB attacks can put more than a scratch on them. Unless you’re in a situation where they are weakened and/or you are absolutely certain you can OHKO Sucker Punch or Stone Edge them, avoid Fire types like they are the Devil.
Viable Movesets:
1. “The Maws of Death”
Mawile@Mawilite
Abilities: regular Mawile, Intimidate. Mega Mawile, Huge Power
Nature: Adamant
EV’s: 252 ATTK, 172 DEF, 84 SPEED
-Play Rough
-Iron Head
-Sucker Punch
-Fire Fang/Thunder Fang/Ice Fang
This set is a bulky physical attacker, and it’s the one I use on my team. The two abilities work well together to widen the Attack gap as much as possible (This goes true for all possible movesets). The EV spread is designed to squeeze out as much Attack as possible, give a very sizable amount to Megawile’s high Defense, and give just enough Speed to out-speed certain slower threats, including other non-invested Megawiles. Play Rough is the most powerful Fairy-type move it can learn and it has a chance of lowering their Attack by one stage, and Iron Head has a chance of flinching if it somehow goes first. The Fang moves are designed to give type coverage within your team and has a chance to cause both status conditions and flinching if moved first; use whichever one suits your needs best. And Sucker Punch is the staple move of Mawile, circumventing her paltry Speed and attacking the opponent before they do if they’re attacking (unless she gets out-Prioritized or in rare cases out-Sped).
2. “You’ve Got to Attack At Some Point…”
Nature: Adamant
EV’s: 252 HP, 252 ATTK, 4 DEF
-Sucker Punch
-Swords Dance
-Protect
-Play Rough/Fire Fang/Iron Head/whatever
This moveset is extremely one-dimensional: Get a Swords Dance or two in, hide behind Protect and Sucker Punch, win. The fourth moveslot is there just for type coverage for those that resist Sucker Punch or are weak to Play Rough/Iron Head/whatever, but most of the time you’re just gonna be Sucker Punching the opponent to death. Really not much else to say about this set except have fun pwning people!
3. “The Nightmares of Legendaries and other Megas” (not VGC-acceptable)
Nature: Adamant
EV’s: 252 ATTK, 252 DEF, 4 SPEED
-Sucker Punch
-Play Rough
-Foul Play/Punishment
-Swagger/Pain Split
This setup is specifically designed to counter the other strongest Overused and Ubers threats as well as Pokemon known for setting up. Sucker Punch is there as usual for a good Priority move, and Play Rough is the best STAB move she can learn and allows her to go rampant throughout Overused tier with Poison types being very uncommon there. Depending on what your goal is, Foul Play or Punishment is there to cause your opponent’s stacking and setting up to backfire. Foul Play uses your opponent’s base Attack stat and boosts (never Attack stat losses) while still using everything else of yours (IV’s EV’s, Nature, etc.) in the equation, and Huge Power doubles the end Attack product, so you can go up against a Pokemon with a higher Attack Stat (there are a lot of them in Ubers and still quite a few in Overused) or someone buffed up on Swords Dances and make them SCREW THEMSELVES. Punishment does something similar, except it still uses your own base Attack stat & boosts and instead bases its damage on any of the opponent’s stat boosts; it’s more for Pokemon who are trying to wall up on your team. The last one’s up to your discretion: I personally like Swagger with Foul Play to have the opponent screw themselves REALLY HARD, and Pain Split use Mawile’s low Health to knock down mega-healthy Ubers and Overused (while healing yourself at the same time) and knock them out next turn with Sucker Punch.
4. “Speed Boost Scolipede. Mega Mawile. With our powers combined we become… WIN BUTTON.”
Mega Mawile is the same setup as in the Maws of Death, except she has Protect instead of a Fang move.
Scolipede
Ability: Speed Boost
Nature: Jolly
EV’s: 252 HP, 252 SPEED, 4 Sp. DEF.
Item: Leftovers
-Protect
-Swords Dance
-Iron Defense
-Baton Pass
I’ll admit, I still haven’t gotten the kinks worked out with this setup yet (mostly with my other team members), but done right this has huge sweeping potential. Basically, the gist of this is this: send out Mawile first turn and use Protect on your Mega Evolving turn. Switch out, make your way to Scolipede. Strategize your Protects and SD/ID’s well to give as many Speed, Attack, and Defense boosts as you can (without dying) before Baton Passing on to Mega Mawile. Then… just wail on anything & everything that comes in your path. It’s a very tricky team, one that can very well blow up in your face if you screw up (or if your opponent just spams Fire moves), but this can also become a very fun match indeed.
Team Options:
Rotom-Wash. Not only does Rotom-W check both of Mega Mawile’s weaknesses, but he’s also an annoying turd to deal with in his own right.
Scolipede – see the above team for why he can work awesomely with Mega Mawile.
Multiscale Dragonite, or really just about any Dragon type gels well with Mega Mawile.
Speed-boosting or Speed-reversing Pokemon. Tailwind Talonflame and Trick Room Dusclops or Co***rigus are very good options.
Counters:
Charizard-Y. One phrase: Sunny-day boosted Flamethrower. Say goodbye to any chance of hitting this thing worth beans before it melts your face off.
Pyroar. High Special Attack makes thing almost as much of a monster to Mega Mawile as Mega Charizard-Y is.
Gliscor. Unless you came prepared with an Ice Fang or Ice Punch, this thing will give you Earth-shattering nightmares.
Hydreigon. “What’s this, a Pokemon that has both types weak to Mega Mawile? Please, I’ll just sweep up with a quick Play Rou-OH SWEET HELIX WHY AM I ON FIRE?!” Yeah… Hydreigon’s Fire Blast hits like a freaking truck against Mawile’s weaker Sp. Defense, and it’s a guaranteed OHKO.
GameFreak, if you are reading this… this is how Mega Evolutions should be. Instead of it merely giving stat boosts to already-powerful and heavily-used Pokemon like Blaziken, Garchomp, and Scizor, give it to Pokemon like Mawile, Pinsir, Kangaskhan, and Charizard who can really take advantage of it, bring out their full potential, and change the metagame.
