Pokémon Marowak-Alola

[Adenela]

Marowak-Alola

Base Stats: 60 HP | 80 Atk | 110 Def | 50 SpA | 80 SpD | 45 Spe
Abilities: Cursed Body | Lightning Rod | Rock Head (HA)

Moves

Level Up Moves:
- [00] Shadow Bone
- [01] False Swipe
- [01] Headbutt
- [01] Retaliate
- [01] Focus Energy
- [01] Double-Edge
- [01] Mud-Slap
- [01] Growl
- [01] Tail Whip
- [01] Fire Spin
- [12] Flame Wheel
- [16] Hex
- [20] Fling
- [24] Stomping Tantrum
- [31] Bone Rush
- [36] Will-O-Wisp
- [42] Endeavor
- [48] Bonemerang
- [54] Thrash
- [60] Flare Blitz

TMs:
- [TM00] Mega Punch
- [TM01] Mega Kick
- [TM03] Fire Punch
- [TM05] Thunder Punch
- [TM08] Hyper Beam
- [TM09] Giga Impact
- [TM13] Fire Spin
- [TM15] Dig
- [TM16] Screech
- [TM21] Rest
- [TM22] Rock Slide
- [TM23] Thief
- [TM24] Snore
- [TM25] Protect
- [TM27] Icy Wind
- [TM31] Attract
- [TM32] Sandstorm
- [TM33] Rain Dance
- [TM34] Sunny Day
- [TM38] Will-O-Wisp
- [TM39] Facade
- [TM40] Swift
- [TM43] Brick Break
- [TM44] Imprison
- [TM48] Rock Tomb
- [TM59] Fling
- [TM76] Round
- [TM77] Hex
- [TM79] Retaliate
- [TM81] Bulldoze
- [TM94] False Swipe
- [TM97] Brutal Swing
- [TM98] Stomping Tantrum

TRs:
- [TR00] Swords Dance
- [TR01] Body Slam
- [TR02] Flamethrower
- [TR05] Ice Beam
- [TR06] Blizzard
- [TR07] Low Kick
- [TR08] Thunderbolt
- [TR09] Thunder
- [TR10] Earthquake
- [TR13] Focus Energy
- [TR15] Fire Blast
- [TR20] Substitute
- [TR24] Outrage
- [TR26] Endure
- [TR27] Sleep Talk
- [TR31] Iron Tail
- [TR33] Shadow Ball
- [TR35] Uproar
- [TR36] Heat Wave
- [TR46] Iron Defense
- [TR55] Flare Blitz
- [TR58] Dark Pulse
- [TR64] Focus Blast
- [TR67] Earth Power
- [TR74] Iron Head
- [TR75] Stone Edge
- [TR76] Stealth Rock
- [TR83] Ally Switch
- [TR95] Throat Chop

Egg Moves:
- Ancient Power
- Belly Drum
- Detect
- Double Kick
- Perish Song
- Skull Bash
- Curse
- Leer

Transfer-Only Moves:
- Toxic
- Smack Down
- Double Team
- Aerial Ace
- Flame Charge
- Echoed Voice
- Dream Eater
- Swagger
- Confide
- Seismic Toss
- Knock Off
- Pain Split
- Focus Punch
- Spite
- Laser Focus

Newly Obtainable Moves

- Poltergeist
- Burning Jealousy
- Scorching Sands

Notable Moves

- Bonemerang
- Earthquake
- Fire Punch
- Flare Blitz
- Knock Off
- Low Kick
- Poltergeist
- Shadow Bone
- Stealth Rock
- Swords Dance
- Will-O-Wisp

[Overview]
[Pros]

- Between the Thick Club doubling its attack stat, and Rock Head nullifying Flare Blitz recoil, it is able to deal massive neutral damage to the majority of the meta-game without taking any recoil in the process.
- It's typing allows for it to semi-reliably come in on prominent offensive Pokemon such as Volcarona and Magearna. It can then force them out with the threat of its strong attacks, allowing it to then set Stealth Rocks or go for an attack.
- When paired with threatening teammates that have access to momentum, such as Dragapult or Hydreigon with U-turn, it can come in as the opponent goes into a defensive Pokemon such as Chansey or Clefable, that would have been able to check the dragons. This allows for Stealth Rocks or a free strong attack, with little to no HP being lost on Marowak.
- Marowak is able to utilize a surprise element, by possibly running the less-common Lightning Rod ability. This ability helps out team compositions that are already weak to Pokemon such as Rotom-Heat and Magnezone, by giving those teams a solid defensive check. It also prevents Specs/AV Magearnas from clicking volt switch freely.

[Cons]

- Due to Marowak's attack stat being devastatingly low without its Thick Club, it is essentially forced to run it. This means that it cannot run Heavy Duty Boots, and is constantly taking 25% from the common Stealth Rocks. This allows Marowak to be worn down quickly, and not reliably check offensive threats such as Volcarona and Magearna. It is wise to pair Marowak with both a good defogger and a good wish passer, but even then it is difficult to overcome this burden.
- Marowak is quite slow, allowing faster offensive Pokemon to just pick it off once it is weakened. This aspect of Marowak allows for it to be a great Trick Room abuser, but that is just a single team archetype.

[Potential Move Sets]

Bulky Wall Breaker
Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Rock Head / Lightning Rod
EVs: 168 HP / 156 Atk / 184 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock / Will-O-Wisp / Swords Dance
- Poltergeist / Shadow Bone
- Flare Blitz / Fire Punch
- Earthquake / Bonemerang

Stealth Rocks are a great option to run on Marowak if the team does not have a rocker elsewhere. A solid alternative to Stealth Rocks would be Will-O-Wisp. Will-O-Wisp allows for Marowak to burn opposing Cinderace on the likely Sucker Punch. Besides that, it is just good for spreading status around in general. If the team composition is weak to stall archetypes, Marowak can run Swords Dance to break past these Pokemon with absolute ease. Poltergeist is a incredibly hard-hitting option for Marowak to run, but it can be replaced by Shadow Bone if the team really needs Knock Off support. A good example would be a team that is extremely weak to Clefable or Rotom-Heat, and needs Knock Off to break through these Pokemon. Flare Blitz is a very strong move, that should only be ran with Rock Head. Otherwise, this Pokemon is getting chipped down very quickly between recoil and Stealth Rocks. Fire Punch is a solid alternative for Lightning Rod sets, however it allows for a full-HP toxic Chansey to 1v1 Marowak. Earthquake and Bonemerang both are great options for securing the 2-hit KO on physically defensive Toxapex. Earthquake is a more accurate option, but Bonemerang is a better option for Grassy Terrain teams. A speed stat of 172 allows for Marowak to outspeed things such as defensive Incineroar and Hippowdon, meaning that Marowak can 2-hit KO defensive Incineroar if it went for a ground-type move on the first turn, and 2-hit KO Hippowdon with Flare Blitz or Poltergeist, with a decent amount of prior chip damage. With 168 HP EVs, Marowak can effectively live: 2 Volcarona psychics barring rocks, A +1 Volcarona psychic + rocks, 2 seperate Magearna Fleur Cannons barring rocks and life orb, two consecutive life orb Magearna Fleur Cannons barring rocks, two banded Cinderace Pyro Balls barring rocks, and A banded Cinderace Zen Headbutt + rocks. The rest of the EVs go into attack to maximize damage output. Once again, the Rock Head set should be preferred in order to maximize damage output.

Trick Room Attacker
Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Flare Blitz
- Poltergeist
- Earthquake / Bonemerang
- Swords Dance

Marowak heavily threatens Trick Room teams at lead matchup. That is why it is important to make sure that you are able to get Trick Room up, so that your own Marowak is able to now outspeed the opponent's, and deal massive damage. Since Trick Room teams typically do not run knock off support, Poltergeist is the optimal ghost-type move to run on a Trick Room-Sweeper type set. Alongside that, Rock Head and Flare Blitz should be used in order to maximize damage output under Trick Room. Earthquake should be used to break past a Toxapex that is using Baneful Bunker to limit Marowak's longevity. However, a less accurate alternative can be found in Bonemerang, which is useful for breaking sashes on Pokemon such as Alakazam. If given the opportunity to set up a Swords Dance under Trick Room, Marowak is able to 1-hit KO Pokemon such as Hydreigon, that can otherwise tank a hit. Max Attack and HP are optimal for damage output and longevity under Trick Room, while 0 speed IVs with a brave nature allow for Marowak to outspeed other Trick Room Marowak variants, if Trick Room is up and running.

 

[MrHands]

I wonder if A Marowak will do what it did in Sun Moon. Start off in OU but quickly drop off when all its flaws become apparent. Destroyed by Knock Off, Stealth Rocks, Earthquake, Scald, is slow, and easily worn down. There's also the opportunity cost of running Poltergeist as you can't really spam Knock Off. Or maybe it will rise above this and stick around in OU this time.

Poltergeist is a really cool move for Marowak. I've seen Slowbro run no item just to handle it lol. I don't think he'll stay OU but imo he's going to go crazy on Trick Room. What do you even do against that?

 

[Ema Skye]

I'm sure the answer to this is almost certainly no, but are there any situations where you wouldn't run Thick Club? Boots seems valuable given Alowak's ability to pivot into Volc, Gear, etc, and not taking Stealth Rock makes it more reliable at that role.

 

[TURBODERP]

I wonder if A Marowak will do what it did in Sun Moon. Start off in OU but quickly drop off when all its flaws become apparent. Destroyed by Knock Off, Stealth Rocks, Earthquake, Scald, is slow, and easily worn down. There's also the opportunity cost of running Poltergeist as you can't really spam Knock Off. Or maybe it will rise above this and stick around in OU this time.

Poltergeist is a really cool move for Marowak. I've seen Slowbro run no item just to handle it lol. I don't think he'll stay OU but imo he's going to go crazy on Trick Room. What do you even do against that?

In the opening of SM, A-Marowak definitely got part of its niche from being a pretty good check to Pheromosa and thus being a decent anti-meta mon.

I think this is a somewhat similar case since A-Marowak handles Magearna/Volcarona/Rotom-H/Magnezone pretty well AND they can't really tech to beat it easily. But, Poltergeist is a really nice upgrade in damage, and the greater ease of pivoting in A-Marowak and even being able to WishPass to it while doing so are really valuable tools as well.

 

[Some random freak]

Marowak has a lot more going for it this gen than gen 7.

- Lower power level
Z-moves made it very difficult to tank hits from the likes of Magearna despite the type advantage. A lot of scary threats like Ash-Greninja, Mega Diancie and Tornadus-T made OU inhospitable for a lot Pokemon including Marowak but with Megas and Z-moves gone as well as many other threats still missing, Marowak finds itself in a much better position.

- Easier pivoting
Gen 8 has given us even more ways to pivot thanks to Teleport and Flip Turn. These combined with the classic volt-turn make it much easier to get Marowak on the field. Trick Room Teleport users like Slowbro can find many opportunities to get Marowak in safely and Wish Vaporeon with Flip Turn is another great partner on non TR teams.

- Checks top tier threats
Marowak has favourable match-ups against many of the pre DLC staples such as Corviknight, Rotom-H and Clefable and can check new threats like Magearna, Magnezone and to a lesser extent, Volcarona.

- Poltergeist is nutty
Shadow Bone, while an improvement over other physical Ghost moves, was still somewhat lacking in power compared to Flare Blitz. Poltergeist fixes this by adding a substantial 25 points in power. With Ghost being very spammable this gen, Marowak can leave even bigger dents in opposing teams than last gen.

- Pursuit being removed
TTar and other Pursuit users were a major pain for Marowak last gen but with Pursuit being removed and TTar usage plummeting, one of Marowak's biggest counters is no longer an issue.


I think Marowak will stay OU at least until Crown Tundra DLC comes out. Even then the power level will still be much less than gen 7 so it could stick around even longer.

 

[Lune Knight]

For the TR set, I've found myself using Power Up Punch over Swords Dance. I feel like Wak is a little too frail sometimes to set up a SD, and if I can catch a low HP mon, I can knock it out while gaining a free Atk boost. Swords Dance is probably better in the long run, but I figured I'd mention it anyway.

I'd also slash Bonemerang on the TR set. I honestly don't see a reason to run EQ over it, since at the cost of a bit of accuracy you get to stop Sash mons from wasting your TR turns, or preventing revenge kills from Sash/Sturdy mons.

Regardless, absolutely loving this mon right now. Poltergeist is nutty af lol.

 

[Just_Aaron]

I'm sure the answer to this is almost certainly no, but are there any situations where you wouldn't run Thick Club? Boots seems valuable given Alowak's ability to pivot into Volc, Gear, etc, and not taking Stealth Rock makes it more reliable at that role.

Thick Club prevents Marowak from being too passive. While niche, I'd say that if you want a defensive Fire/Ghost that can use HDB without becoming passive, use Chandelure.