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I'm kind of conflicted on it myself, it'd depend on the makeup of your team, they both have merits.

Defense is probably more efficient you can have a dedicated special sponge support it and Mawile is still neutral to big fighting attacks/weak to EQ.

I'm thinking if you were to invest into s.def to only do it for a setup sweeper or pure support M.Mawile.

Actually, I agree with you on the Physical Part. Tanking a Garchomp earthquake or something from physical Lucario is way better than surviving a special fire move or something that can't even be guaranteed.

Now, I'm wondering about coverage....
Rough Play/Swords Dance/Sucker Punch gets great coverage. Would Mawile prefer Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Iron Head, Fire Fang, Crunch, Pain Split, Taunt, Toxic, or Brick Break?

I'm actually liking brick break for Ferrothorn and Heatran (switch-ins).