Marowak: The Gen II Powerhouse

boyofrito

PLEASE DO NOT DISCUSS TIERING OR WHETHER HE WILL BE BANNED OR NOT. THANK YOU

Oh Marowak. One of my favorite Pokémon. One of the original 151, Marowak boasted great def, okay atk, and slow spe. But later came the Thick Club. The Thick Club gave Marowak a reason to be used, doubling his atk stat. But this did not fix his speed, and even with his myriad of unique moves, he sunk into the lower tiers. But returning to GEN V, Marowak returns.

MAROWAK
HP:60
ATK:80
DEF:110
SPA:50
SPD:80
SPE:45

LIGHTNINGROD
absorbs all electric attacks

ROCK HEAD
takes no recoil damage

BATTLE ARMOR
no attack used on this Pokémon will have a critical hit


NOTABLE MOVES

Bone Club, Bonemerang, Bone Rush, Double-Edge, Earthquake, Toxic, Protect, Belly Drum, Brick Break, Aerial Ace, Stone Edge, Swords Dance, Substitute, Endure, Iron Head, Perish Song

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MOVESETS


RECOILLESS STANDARD ATTACKER
Marowak @Thick Club
Rock Head
252 SPE / 252 ATK/ 4 DEF Jolly
~Earthquake
~Double-Edge
~Iron Head
~Stone Edge


ONLY IF YOU'RE REEEEALY BALLSY
Marowak @Thick Club
Rock Head
252 SPE / 252 ATK/ 4 DEF Jolly
~Belly Drum
~Earthquake
~Double-Edge
~(Filler)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Without knowing what the Isshu Tutors have, it seems that Marowak has gained little and lost quite a bit (elemental punches)

DISCUSS
 
Wak hasn't lost a thing. Use the exact same Waks from 4th or 3rd gen.

Wak hasn't gained anything though. She's antiquated now, Dory makes her utterly pointless.
 
Marowak's still scary as hell and likely going to remain a symbol of Trick Room though. You know....I'm tempted to try a Triples Trick Room with Marowak at the core under screens and Belly Drum. Oh good lord....
 
Colonel Darren said:
Marowak's still scary as hell and likely going to remain a symbol of Trick Room though. You know....I'm tempted to try a Triples Trick Room with Marowak at the core under screens and Belly Drum. Oh good lord....
Click to expand...

what about trick room, gravity & telepathy? EQ spam FTW.
 
He was actually the Gen2 powerhouse. I think in gen1 he was outclassed by sandshrew in UU.

Regardless I'd add in Fire Punch over Iron Head for more power and better coverage. On the other set I'd use Stone Edge to give you the hard to resist EdgeQuake combo and slash Fire Punch in with Double Edge because it is good at taking down steels like Bronzong or Skarmory. Belly Drum is a little much though, so I think the set would be more viable with a Swords Dance.

I definitely want him on my triples team, in the center. In fact, I'm trying to think of how to put him on and abuse lightningrod right now.
 
Marowak didn't really lose anything. For the Belly Drum set, it's better with a Salac Berry (though the loss of Thick Club hurts a bit).
 
You missed a few notable tutor moves...Fire Punch, Low Kick, Outrage, Thunderpunch and Knock Off.

But yeah, Marowak didn't really gain anything unfortunately. I was hoping for Head Smash. Competitive Spirit would have been really nice as a DW ability too and makes perfect sense considering 'Wak's R/S Pokedex entry of 'This Pokémon's tempered and hardened spirit is not easily broken.'

Browsing through his new additions I suppose the only one even worth a second look is Level Ground. It's a 60BP Ground attack that lowers the opponents speed. Coming from 500+ Atk it's still going to hit hard and the side-effect is much appreciated for 'Wak. Still, anything with over 275 Spe will still outrun Jolly Marowak even after the speed drop and he doesn't exactly have moveslots to waste so it's garbage really.

I suppose Battle Armor is nice for sets that don't run Double-edge. Knock Down could be used to bring Fliers down to earth so you can Earthquake them but you may as well just OHKO them with Stone Edge and be done with it.

Pains me to say it but Marowak got nothing this gen. Thankfully he still has the highest attacking stat in the game without resorting to a Choice Band. All the new high-powered Pokemon can't take that away from him.

Would it be too optimistic of me to hope that Bonemerang got some kind of buff and nobody has noticed it yet? Probably...

MAROWAK RULES!!!!!!!!
 
You forgot Marowak's best set which is SubWak, (which I threw through QC).

name: SubWak
move 1: Substitute
move 2: Earthquake
move 3: Double-Edge / Stone Edge
move 4: Fire Punch / Thunderpunch
item: Thick Club
nature: Jolly
ability: Rock Head
evs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe

It requires paralysis support to work effectively, but is really his best set. Earthquake + Double-Edge will be OHKO'ing and 2HKO'ing the entirety of the metagame with Stealth Rock. Stone Edge is unneeded as Marowak cannot afford to miss. Fire Punch and Thunderpunch are mostly filler but hit bulky Grass-types or Water-types a little harder and hit Ghosts for neutral but good damage.

Swords Dance can be used in the last slot too to really lay the hurt down on his opponents but generally can't find the time to use both Sub and Swords Dance.
 
boyofrito said:
ONLY IF YOU'RE REEEEALY BALLSY
Marowak @Thick Club
Rock Head
252 SPE / 252 ATK/ 4 DEF Jolly
~Belly Drum
~Earthquake
~Double-Edge
~(Filler)
Click to expand...

Honestly, the only way I have figured such a set would work is with a Brave nature and on a Trick Room team. You're not ballsy for using Belly Drum on a non-Trick Room team; you're just stupid. They'll either knock over half health out of you, making Belly Drum unusable, or they'll switch into something on the Belly Drum, and proceed to OHKO.

At least on Trick Room you're virtually guaranteed to go first, and if you can baton pass some Curses or Substitutes, that'd equally help.

Marowak really needs Head Smash this generation, and while Battle Armor could work decently on a defensive set or on one without Double-Edge, even some weird Impish max HP max Defense Marowak would likely wind-up outclassed, Thick Club or not.
 
How to make the best out of Marowak
Only use if you find Trick Room disappointing.
dpmba105.png

Marowak @ Thick Club
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Jolly nature
- Swords Dance
- Fire Punch
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake

Step 1. Use this set in the lower tiers.
Step 2. Pass Marowak an Agility boost + Substitute - Venomoth does this excellently, as does Lopunny.
Step 3. Use Swords Dance
Step 4. Beat your opponents senseless with a whopping 1036 Attack, and running rampant at 414 Speed.
Step 5. Repeat after me. "Good Game".

Success.
 
That Belly Drum set isn't as good as it gets. Stone Edge is better than Double Edge. EdgeQuake has always gotten good coverage, and even Pokemon that resist the combo like say, Flygon, are still OHKO'd because of the massive +6 attack boost. A set like Salac + Sub/Belly Drum/Earthquake/Stone Edge works wonders. At +6 Attack, Thick Club is way less necessary, and Salac is even more so since it only has 25% health and only 1 sub to work with. Even a 252HP/252 Defense Impish Skarm gets OHKO'd by Stone Edge (well, I tested that with Thick Club, but it's at least a 2HKO not factoring the big chance of a crit). And yeah, I would do the calcs but I'm a little pressed for time so I'll leave it to someone else.
 
Someone rang?

+ 6 Adamant 252 HP / 252 Def Marowak Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 240 Def Impish Skarmory: 89.8% - 105.4%
+ 6 Adamant 252 HP / 252 Def Marowak Fire Punch vs. 252 HP / 240 Def Impish Skarmory: 134.7% - 158.7%


So, Stone Egde isn't a necessity at all.Marowak is better off abusing Double-Edge, especially when boosting, because if you miss with Stone Edge...Oh God.
 
SlyShady said:
That Belly Drum set isn't as good as it gets. Stone Edge is better than Double Edge. EdgeQuake has always gotten good coverage, and even Pokemon that resist the combo like say, Flygon, are still OHKO'd because of the massive +6 attack boost. A set like Salac + Sub/Belly Drum/Earthquake/Stone Edge works wonders. At +6 Attack, Thick Club is way less necessary, and Salac is even more so since it only has 25% health and only 1 sub to work with. Even a 252HP/252 Defense Impish Skarm gets OHKO'd by Stone Edge (well, I tested that with Thick Club, but it's at least a 2HKO not factoring the big chance of a crit). And yeah, I would do the calcs but I'm a little pressed for time so I'll leave it to someone else.
Click to expand...

No, Stone Edge is not better than Double-Edge. Marowak cannot affod to miss, and if Marowak needs to hit Skarmory and Bronzong he has Fire Punch up his sleeve to take care of them.

Earthquake + Double-Edge + Fire Punch as a lot better coverage and reliability under its belt.
 
A set like Salac + Sub/Belly Drum/Earthquake/Stone Edge works wonders.
Click to expand...

You can't be serious. Why would I use this over Linoone, Charizard or even Azumarill? He has got to be the worst Belly Drummer in the game and Belly Drumming is bad enough as it is.

Wynought said:
Marowak @ Thick Club
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Jolly nature
- Swords Dance
- Fire Punch
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
Click to expand...

Looks familar. ;P

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36729
 
If you're going to BP to Marowak, BP speed unless Trick Room is in effect. Marowak's biggest fear is being outsped, which quite a few things do. He doesn't really need an attack boost with Thick Club, but if you can sneak in a SD somehow before passing, go for it. I also agree that Sub/EQ/Double-Edge/Fire Punch is by far the best Marowak set. Come in on something it forces out late game, set up your sub on the switch, and go to town, protected from status and a faster hit.

Marowak needs support, but fortunately, he can be supported in a lot of ways, (T-wave, agility pass, TR, teams up well with some good mons.) so I still think he'll comfortably find use in Gen V. Not a top tier threat, but definitely something to look out for.
 
Marowak is still one of the coolest pokemon in the game. It pretty much stays the same, but it's a fun poke to use.
 
Attention, Game Freak! This is why we need a ground type priority attack. Instead, you gave us NO new priority attacks. This is very disappointing. Oh well...

At least he can now use knockdown on a skarmory or bronzong switch-in and then proceed to murder them violently with earthquake. Anything like this, maybe?

Marowak @thick club
Adamant nature
Earthquake
Knock down
Double-edge
Toxic

Basically, you use knock down on almost all switch-ins, unless you know that you're opponent has neither Skarmory nor Bronzong, but does have at least one bulky water, in which case you should use toxic. On the next switch-in, you'll probably have scouted their team pretty thoroughly, and you will almost definitely be able to get a kill out of this. You probably won't get more than two switch-ins with this thing, so don't fuck either of them up.
 
I've only seen one post of Level Ground. What about Level Ground/EQ/Fire Punch/Double Edge? Knock the enemy down a peg in Speed, then smash them with the proper move. It doesn't need to boost that much due to Thick Club.
 
I could see Marowak being great in triples. On the turn he Belly Drums (hopefully you have Trick Room up as well), a Pokemon could use Wide Guard to hopefully negate damage done to him that turn and make it easier for him to do what he needs to do to murder.
 
Hrm. Is there a Pokemon partner that can use You First/After You as well as Telepathy? That seems to be a good way to use a Marowak as well in doubles....
 
Colonel Darren said:
Hrm. Is there a Pokemon partner that can use You First/After You as well as Telepathy? That seems to be a good way to use a Marowak as well in doubles....
Click to expand...

Togetic could be a good choice for Marowak in Doubles with the Pre-Evo stone. Would have great defenses, is immune to his Earthquake STAB and has access to You First. Plus it can heal off damage with Wish and just help out teammates.
 
Colonel Darren said:
I've only seen one post of Level Ground. What about Level Ground/EQ/Fire Punch/Double Edge? Knock the enemy down a peg in Speed, then smash them with the proper move. It doesn't need to boost that much due to Thick Club.
Click to expand...

Lee posted above why Level Ground probably won't work well: too mny things still outsider it after one Level Ground, and doing another's pretty risky. As for which Pokemon still outspeed Jack Marowak... I don't know. I do hope he gets a buff within the next, oh, 6 years or so. I really like him.
 
I've always had a soft spot for Marowak, a lot of my early teams used him as a Baton Pass recipient (usually from Ninjask, preferably after a swords dance).

I used this somewhat standard set:
Marowak @ Thick Club
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 6 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe
Jolly nature
- Earthquake/Bonemerang
- Fire Punch
- Double-Edge
- Stone Edge

I generally found I could get him 3 or 4 speed boosts but I still found him being outsped by priority moves and some speedy scarfers. So I changed tactics and tried a more defensive EV spread:

252 HP/252 Atk/4 Def

I found that this was helpful for surviving faster hits as well as taking a better hit on the switch in. For example in one game it survived an Aerodactyl's Ice Fang AND a Floatzel's Aqua Jet in one game. Not the strongest attacks, but Super Effective and from kinda decent attacking stats.

I was (am?) a bit of a noob though, but I still think this could be worth considering, perhaps with Blaziken as the passer rather than ninjask.
 
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