Mabosstiff

[Seed Sower]

Type:

Base Stats: 80 HP / 120 Atk / 90 Def / 60 SpA / 70 SpD / 85 Spe

Ability: Intimidate / Guard Dog / Stakeout (HA)

Notable Moves:

• Crunch
• Play Rough
• Jaw Lock
• Psychic Fangs
• Destiny Bond
• Taunt
• Hone Claws
• Roar
• Wild Charge
• Fire Fang
• Ice Fang
• Trailblaze
• Reversal
• Outrage

New ability: Guard Dog: Immune to Intimidate; boosts Pokemon's Attack by +1 if intimidated. Cannot be forced to switch out.

Pros:

• 1 fantastic ability in Stakeout, 1 good ability in Intimidate
• Solid Attack stat is complemented well by Stakeout
• Physical bulk is good and can be further improved by Intimidate
• Coverage is solid between Crunch and Play Rough, which is only resisted by Tinkaton and Klefki in UU
• Dark type grants it immunity to Prankster and resistance to Sucker Punch

Cons:

• Mediocre special bulk and an awkward speed tier mean Mabosstiff is easily overwhelmed by fast special threats and some priority users
• Hone Claws and Trailblaze are its only reliable means of boosting attack and speed, respectively
• Strongest STAB is only 80BP and other coverage moves are not super strong either
• Struggles against Fairy types (e.g. Dachsbun, Tinkaton, Azumarill) and certain defensive threats (e.g. Bisharp, Wo-Chien, Avalugg)
• Can be easily worn down by contact-activated items and abilities like Rocky Helmet and Flame Body

Terastalizing:

You're probably better off Terastalizing something else with a more powerful movepool and/or more defensive prowess, but Mabosstiff can leverage Tera Dark to dish out super strong Crunches.

Sets:

funnydogwithglasses.jpg
Mabosstiff @ Black Glasses
Ability: Stakeout
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Jaw Lock / Crunch
- Taunt
- Play Rough
- Trailblaze

With this set, Mabosstiff can function as a nasty wall-breaker with additional trapping capability if desired. Mabosstiff naturally lures in defensive threats like Quagsire and will deal massive damage on the switch-in thanks to Stakeout and Black Glasses. Adamant nature is preferred to maximize its wall-breaking capacity. Jaw Lock vs. Crunch is a matter of preference. Jaw Lock maximizes its wall-breaking capabilities, but can potentially lock you into unfavorable matchups without careful play. Crunch deals the same damage without the trapping capabilities, but can potentially trigger Defiant from Bisharp and Primeape. From there, Mabosstiff can use Taunt to neuter the foe's recovery or status moves that would normally shut down man's best friend. It can also prevent slower offensive threats like Azumarill from trying to set up in its face. Play Rough is a solid coverage option and can OHKO/2HKO mons like Hydreigon and Slither Wing. Trailblaze gives Mabosstiff an opportunity to boost its speed against neutered defensive threats and allows it to outmaneuver certain non-scarfed checks like Hawlucha and Talonflame at +1 Speed.

Scarf Scarf Arf Arf
Mabosstiff @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Stakeout
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Play Rough
- Fire Fang / Psychic Fangs
- Destiny Bond

Choice Scarf allows Mabosstiff to serve as an effective revenge killer with Stakeout serving as an excellent deterrent to switch-ins. Crunch is what you'll be clicking 90% of the time, but Play Rough can surprise Dark and Fighting types who attempt to switch in and stomach an expected Dark type move. Third slot is purely for coverage - Fire Fang can nab surprise 2KOs on Tinkaton while Psychic Fangs can destroy screens. Destiny Bond in the last slot is a great last resort option to take down threats Mabosstiff can outpace but cannot muscle through.

Other options:

• The pooch can run Jaw Lock + Taunt + Destiny Bond in an anti-lead/anti-hazard stack strat, although it should be noted that VoltSwitch users like Forretress cannot be trapped by Jaw Lock.
• Mabosstiff can also run coverage options such as Wild Charge to surprise KO mons like Azumarill or Talonflame on a switch-in, but this comes at the cost of its own longevity.
• Intimidate is a good ability, but Mabosstiff lacks the longevity to take full advantage of it and needs to be wary of Defiant/Competitive users.
• A defensive Mabosstiff can potentially run Roar to force out certain setup sweepers and/or proc chip damage from hazards.
• Finally, Guard Dog has niche utility as an Intimidate deterrent and could theoretically pair well with Adrenaline Orb, but is highly situational; however, Guard Dog strats could see more relevance if/when more Intimidate users are introduced to the metagame as Home is released.

 

[Negative Charge]

This thing would so appreciate bulk up or more intimidate users running around.

 

[Slip]

Glad you are bringing some light to the cool versatility of the boss! I think the mon is super cool, but I think some of these sets should be tweaked a little bit. For example funnydogwithglasses.jpg (amazing set name) running jaw lock can be extremely risky as the move also forces Mabostiff to stay in. So if you accidently trap faster fighting, fairy, or bug types (slither wing for example), it is bound to lose the 1v1 even with stakeout damage (i will admit finding an example mon was harder than I anticipated tho!). Trading damage can be good sometimes, but I do not think it is good when you are forced to trade where as running crunch lets you decide to stay in or switch out. Plus, crunch giving your opponent the option to panick switch is very beneficial, as stakeout will reapply every time they switch. I do think however you mentioning a destiny bond for anti leads is an interesting use for jaw lock as the only option I could see its use for was by locking in a mon that can't harm Mabosstiff and setting up on it with hone claws and trailblaze. Obviously this isn't optimal so your use of destiny bond is very cool to me.

I have personally been using a choice band set with crunch and tera dark. Choice band does a million damage to anything that stays in or switches in letting you only needing to hit 1 move, unless your cover options are better neutral opinions. Here is the set for anyone who would like to use it (or if you wanted to add it to the main set list)

Mabosstiff @ Choice Band
Ability: Stakeout
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Play Rough
- Body Slam
- Fire Fang

 

[Goodbye & Thanks]

This isn't anything super revelatory, but I think that Mabosstiff is cool since Stakeout allows it to act almost like the closest thing to a Pursuit trapper still remaining. I don't know what lower tier it will end up in, but it feels like hazard stacking/Spin blocking will likely be a prominent playstyle in many tiers due to the increased distribution of Spikes and Stealth Rock (and also the discreased distribution of Defog). Without Pursuit, people are usually more willing to go to their Ghosts to try to block a Spinner. However, if you can double in Mabosstiff on their Ghost type or if you're using a Spinner like Forretress that can also get momentum with a switching move (Volt Switch in the case of Forretress), bringing in Mabosstiff can put your opponent in a situation where they either likely lose their Ghost to Mabosstiff or whatever switches in typically takes huge damage, thanks to Stakeout. For this reason, I like Choice Scarf Mabosstiff because it further strengthens this somewhat of a "checkmate" scenario where Scarf Mabosstiff will likely outrun and OHKO the Ghost type it's facing and if they switch out, there isn't too much that can survive two of Mabosstiff's attacks with one of them being doubled by Stakeout. Choice Band is good too but I like Scarf more specifically for this hazard control interaction, especially since Scarf further limits what can switch into a Stakeout boosted attack from Mabosstiff and not get picked off by the subsequent attack from your likely faster Mabosstiff.

 

[STEELDRAGON]

Mabosstiff @ Mirror Herb
Ability: Stakeout
Tera Type:Fire
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Adamant/Jolly Nature
-Crunch
-Tera Blast
-Trail Blaze
-Swagger

Most people are sleeping on this thing. With Stakeout is it OHKOIng pokemon left and right. This set utilizes Swagger to give it a +2 boost, and with a further boost in speed becomes very dangerous. With Fire Tera Blast it incinerates Tinkaton and is able to pummel through Slither Wing. Very few pokemon can actually tank its attacks.