Mawile, The Deceiver Pokémon. Attached to its head is a huge set of jaws formed by horns. It can chew through iron beams. It uses its docile-looking face to lull foes into complacency, then bites with its huge, relentless jaws. Its giant jaws are actually steel horns that transformed. It fools foes into complacency with its adorable gestures, then chomps them with its huge jaws.
Overview
Poor Mawile. You really did draw the short straw when it came to stats. Everything else is great. Typing, ability, movepool, it is all there. But those stats… Mawile is pretty much unusable, outside of NU. Even then, there are likely better choices. If you really want to have some fun or have a gimmick team, try Mawile out if you want to. Just don't expect anything special... or mediocre, to be honest.
Ability
Hyper Cutter: Mawile is physically based in every set suggested. Hyper Cutter would undoubtedly become useful against other Pokémon with Intimidate that ruin Mawile's only 'good' stat.
Intimidate: reliable and always useful, it is a great choice on any Pokémon that can use it.
Move Sets
Swords Dance
- Swords Dance
- Iron Head
- Brick Break / Focus Punch
- Sucker Punch / Thunderpunch
Item Attached: Leftovers / Life Orb / Expert Belt
Ability: Hyper Cutter
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
Swords Dance gives Mawile a pretty nice Attack stat, which sets it up for whatever sweep it can manage. Iron Head is Mawile's only good physical STAB, and it is a strong, reliable attack. Brick Break or Focus Punch gives Mawile a way to remove any Steel types that want to block Iron Head. If you think you can predict, Focus Punch obviously packs a much bigger hit, but Brick Break is safer. Sucker Punch is a good priority move and helps Mawile hurt any tricky Psychics or Ghosts. However, Thunderpunch lays the smackdown on any Water types trying to block Iron Head, so either option is useful.
Leftovers obviously helps with survivability, which Mawile needs as much help with as possible. Life Orb lets it pack as much of a punch as possible, at the cost of lowering Mawile's already pitiful survivability. Expert Belt is similar to Life Orb, but doesn't work as well with Iron Head due to Steel not being an ideal offensive type.
Not an offensive set
- Knock Off
- Pain Split
- Toxic
- Super Fang / Protect / Focus Punch / Iron Head
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP/4 Atk/252 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
Knock Off is a great move in general, and it is no exception on Mawile. Pain Split is a great way to recover considering Mawile's horrific HP, and it damages the enemy. Toxic is the standard attack for damaging stuff on a set not focused on offence. Super Fang is such a good move, it has to be considered. Combined with residual damage, it can kill so easily it isn't even funny. A possible 50% of the opponents health gone in one turn, coupled with Stealth Rock and maybe Spikes, sandstorm, and Toxic, they will be absolutely ruined. Protect can be used to stall Toxic and perhaps sandstorm, as well as get Mawile some Leftovers recovery. Focus Punch would still decimate any Pokémon weak to it, and it wrecks Steel types that are immune to Toxic. However, Iron Head is an option if you want to have a reliable attack so you aren't absolute Taunt bait.
Baton Pass
- Swords Dance
- Stockpile / Taunt
- Iron Head
- Baton Pass
Item Attached: Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs and Nature:
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
Swords Dance is the focus of the set, and you will want Mawile to use it as soon as possible. Stockpile boosts both defences which can be passed on as well as the +2 Attack, meaning you pretty much have a tank if it all goes to plan. Taunt should always be considered on a Baton Passer as it prevents Roar and Whirlwind from screwing up the boosts and the plan. Iron Head is there so Mawile isn't absolute Taunt bait and so it can try and pull a sweep off itself if it needs to. Baton Pass passes all of the boosts to any Pokémon in your team, so have a few Pokémon prepared to take the buffs.
EVs and Nature:
Swords Dance
Fixing Mawile's HP is more important than fixing its Speed, but you can drop HP EVs to bring Mawile up a little in the Speed department. 252 Attack is mandatory. Start with the 252 in Attack then move onto Speed, see if you want any in there, then dump the rest in HP.
Not an offensive set
Defence, Defence, Defence. Mawile's other passable stat, which is actually pretty good when you factor in Intimidate. Just buff up Mawile so it can survive as many physical attacks as possible.
Baton Pass
Add Speed if you want, but again, survivability is needed. Because Mawile isn't made to take a single kind of attack this time, boosting both defences is required. Intimidate covers Defence well enough anyway. Just max HP out and throw the rest in Special Defence.
Other Options
Special set, Counter, Crunch, Ice Punch, Sing, Tickle
A Special set would certainly give you an edge in the surprise department. Fake Tears, Charge Beam, Flash Cannon, Dark Pulse, Focus Blast, Grass Knot, Flamethrower, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Mawile has a lot of toys to play with.
Counter could work well with Intimidate and Mawile's not bad Defence, but its HP is so awful you won't be dealing any damage when you actually Counter a move back and survive.
Crunch is an alternative Dark attack to Sucker Punch, but I honestly just prefer the priority.
Ice Punch for a destructive hit on Dragon/Flying types and Torterra.
Sing is hit or miss, literally. If you hit, you are in a strong position. If you miss, your surprise if gone and Mawile is probably dead..
Tickle is a pretty cool move that forces switches like crazy. That is basically its only use for Mawile..
Countering Mawile
Got a Ground, Fighting, or Fire move? You can beat Mawile. Mawile sucks that hard. It will die so easily, there isn't really a point in listing specific counters. But here we go… Bulky Waters like Milotic, Quagsire, Poliwrath can all ruin Mawile, even if it runs Thunderpunch. Just keep attacking with the STAB moves and Mawile will go down. Bulky Grass types, specifically Torterra, can wall any attack and break Mawile down. Unless you have Torterra, who just wrecks it with an Earthquake. Fire types, go look in the Pokédex for them, I'm not listing them all. Probopass, Aggron, and Bastiodon can take any attack bar the Fighting move and mangle Mawile up with a Ground move. Any other bulky Pokémon can take it down. Stuff like Weezing has no problem breaking up Mawile's party. But really, if you have a Pokémon and it can take a single hit, it can probably counter Mawile.
Locations in Games
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Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Cave of Origin Floor 1 & Basements 1, 2 & 3, Granite Cave Basements 1 & 2, Sky Pillar Floors 1, 3 & 5, Victory Road Basement 2 (Ruby), Victory Road Basements 1 & 2 (Emerald) Trade from REXD (Sapphire) Colosseum/XD Snagged from Cipher Cmdr. Exol in ONBS Station Top (XD) Trade from REXD (Col.) Fire Red/Leaf Green Trade from REXD Diamond/Pearl/Platinum Iron Island HeartGold/SoulSilver Route 9 - Swarm (SoulSilver) Trade from REDPtSS (HeartGold)
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Animé Appearences
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Mawile has had a few Animé Appearences. Most have been cameos, but one was owned by a trainer and fell in love with Brock's Lombre.
Episode 382: One in a Mawile |
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