Aurora
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Hello! This blog's Terrible Pokemon is Mega Mawile. While its gigantic Attack stat looks very appealing, there are simply too many issues with it for it to do very much at all during your typical Ubers match.
The Set
Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Atk / 244 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Play Rough
- Sucker Punch
- Baton Pass
Its Appeal
Thanks to Huge Power, Mega Mawile's Attack stat skyrockets from a puny 231 to a staggering 550 with the given EVs. This means that Mega Mawile has the luxury of investing almost entirely in special bulk so it can act as a check to things like Yveltal that aren't running Heat Wave and Geomancy Xerneas. It can also be of great annoyance to Latias and Latios, two dangerous special attackers in the Ubers metagame, due to its immunity to Draco Meteor and resistance to Psyshock. Mega Mawile can also destroy both Magic Bouncers, Diancie and Sableye, with its powerful STAB moves, meaning it can either set up Stealth Rock itself - assuming you are willing to forgo the priority provided by Sucker Punch - or make setting up hazards and spreading status much easier for your team. Iron Head and Play Rough are Mawile's STAB moves, smashing Xerneas / Diancie / Rock Arceus / Tyranitar and Sableye / Salamence / Lati@s, respectively. Sucker Punch allows Mawile to bypass its miserable base 50 Speed when it predicts an attack from its opponent, letting it do chip damage. Baton Pass lets Mawile pivot out on a predicted switch so it can bring something else in safely.
Why It Sucks
When the best Pokemon in the tier takes very little damage from either of your STAB moves, doesn't really care about Sucker Punch, and destroys you with Precipice Blades, Fire Blast, Fire Punch or Lava Plume, you're going to have a bad time. You could Baton Pass on the Primal Groudon switch-in, but good luck getting Mega Mawile in safely if your opponent is able to predict! Simply put, Mega Mawile's presence on the battlefield gives Primal Groudon a free turn to do whatever it wants, whether it be set up Stealth Rock, spread paralysis, or grab a boost. Mega Mawile's STABs also have very underwhelming coverage. It is walled by every Steel-type in the tier, such as Ferrothorn and Steel Arceus, which either set up on it or force it to Baton Pass out. Primal Kyogre, while hard-pressed to come in on a Play Rough, takes Iron Heads and Sucker Punches for days and easily OHKOes with Origin Pulse or 2HKOes with Scald. Swords Dance Ground Arceus is bulky enough to take an Iron Head or Play Rough and demolishes Mega Mawile with Earthquake. Ho-Oh giggles at both of Mawile's STAB moves, doesn't care too much about Sucker Punch, and destroys Mawile with Sacred Fire or Earthquake; however, it cannot come in when Stealth Rock is up. That being said, if you are facing an opponent that uses Ho-Oh without Defog support, you probably won't have much too trouble beating them. Mega Mawile is also extremely slow, forcing it to rely on the underwhelming Sucker Punch to do damage or Baton Pass to flee switch-ins that threaten it.
Perhaps the biggest thorn in Mawile's side, however, is residual damage. Mawile despises entry hazards, especially Spikes, although it is immune to Toxic Spikes and the Speed drop from Sticky Web is of no consequence; the fact that it takes up your Mega slot means that you cannot run Magic Bounce users, such as Mega Diancie or Mega Sableye, alongside it. This also means that, if entry hazards are on the field, it fails at its job of checking Geomancy Xerneas.
+2 252+ SpA Xerneas Focus Blast vs. 248 HP / 244 SpD Mega Mawile: 238-280 (78.5 - 92.4%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and 1 layer of Spikes
If Mega Mawile comes in at any point during the game and takes entry hazard damage, its ability to tank +2 Focus Blasts and OHKO Xerneas after Stealth Rock damage with Iron Head becomes heavily compromised. This is complicated by the fact that Mega Mawile has no recovery, which means that any residual damage it takes stays with it. Switch in too many times and your Mega Mawile will become almost complete deadweight before it has an opportunity to do anything. Baton Pass, Mega Mawile's best bet at switching out of things that threaten it, essentially condemns it to taking this residual hazard damage unless you can get a Defog off, which is not good for Mega Mawile at all. Burn damage also wears down Mawile while having the added effect of completely neutering it for the rest of the match, which is easily inflicted upon it by Defog support Arceus formes which do not care about Mawile's STAB attacks that much and can then proceed to stall it out with Recover. Mega Mawile is almost always a waste of a teamslot and a Mega slot and should never be used unless you have absolutely no other feasible way of checking Xerneas.
What You Should Use Instead
If you insist on using a bad Steel-type to check Xerneas, you should use Aegislash. It is immune to Focus Blast, is not OHKOed by any of Xerneas's attacks bar the unreliable Thunder off a high roll, and smacks it with Gyro Ball for hefty damage after a Geomancy. It also does not take up a Mega slot, letting you run far better Mega Pokemon such as Salamence. Primal Groudon also makes for an excellent Xerneas check, resisting Moonblast and taking little damage from Focus Blast while either smacking it with Precipice Blades or crippling it with Thunder Wave / Roar. Klefki has the same typing (!) as Mega Mawile, a source of passive recovery, and carries much more utility through its ability to cripple Xerneas with Prankster Thunder Wave while resisting Moonblast and never being OHKOed by any of Xerneas's moves. Ho-Oh can survive any move at +2 (even Thunder) from Xerneas and heavily damage it with Sacred Fire or Brave Bird, allowing it to be picked off by priority from the Giratina-Origin you should probably be running alongside it. Generally, while not engineered to check Xerneas like Mega Mawile, which it fails at doing half the time, these Pokemon carry far more utility, allow you to run a far less situationally useful Mega Pokemon, and are not rendered deadweight nearly as easily.
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I hope you enjoyed this edition of Terrible Pokemon! Next blog entry, I will cover Ambipom in ORAS RU, a Technician attacker so terrible that it is featured in meme teams, the subject of general disgust, and placed in the prestigious Blacklist ranking in the RU Viability Ranking thread.
The Set
Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 16 Atk / 244 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Play Rough
- Sucker Punch
- Baton Pass
Its Appeal
Thanks to Huge Power, Mega Mawile's Attack stat skyrockets from a puny 231 to a staggering 550 with the given EVs. This means that Mega Mawile has the luxury of investing almost entirely in special bulk so it can act as a check to things like Yveltal that aren't running Heat Wave and Geomancy Xerneas. It can also be of great annoyance to Latias and Latios, two dangerous special attackers in the Ubers metagame, due to its immunity to Draco Meteor and resistance to Psyshock. Mega Mawile can also destroy both Magic Bouncers, Diancie and Sableye, with its powerful STAB moves, meaning it can either set up Stealth Rock itself - assuming you are willing to forgo the priority provided by Sucker Punch - or make setting up hazards and spreading status much easier for your team. Iron Head and Play Rough are Mawile's STAB moves, smashing Xerneas / Diancie / Rock Arceus / Tyranitar and Sableye / Salamence / Lati@s, respectively. Sucker Punch allows Mawile to bypass its miserable base 50 Speed when it predicts an attack from its opponent, letting it do chip damage. Baton Pass lets Mawile pivot out on a predicted switch so it can bring something else in safely.
Why It Sucks
When the best Pokemon in the tier takes very little damage from either of your STAB moves, doesn't really care about Sucker Punch, and destroys you with Precipice Blades, Fire Blast, Fire Punch or Lava Plume, you're going to have a bad time. You could Baton Pass on the Primal Groudon switch-in, but good luck getting Mega Mawile in safely if your opponent is able to predict! Simply put, Mega Mawile's presence on the battlefield gives Primal Groudon a free turn to do whatever it wants, whether it be set up Stealth Rock, spread paralysis, or grab a boost. Mega Mawile's STABs also have very underwhelming coverage. It is walled by every Steel-type in the tier, such as Ferrothorn and Steel Arceus, which either set up on it or force it to Baton Pass out. Primal Kyogre, while hard-pressed to come in on a Play Rough, takes Iron Heads and Sucker Punches for days and easily OHKOes with Origin Pulse or 2HKOes with Scald. Swords Dance Ground Arceus is bulky enough to take an Iron Head or Play Rough and demolishes Mega Mawile with Earthquake. Ho-Oh giggles at both of Mawile's STAB moves, doesn't care too much about Sucker Punch, and destroys Mawile with Sacred Fire or Earthquake; however, it cannot come in when Stealth Rock is up. That being said, if you are facing an opponent that uses Ho-Oh without Defog support, you probably won't have much too trouble beating them. Mega Mawile is also extremely slow, forcing it to rely on the underwhelming Sucker Punch to do damage or Baton Pass to flee switch-ins that threaten it.
Perhaps the biggest thorn in Mawile's side, however, is residual damage. Mawile despises entry hazards, especially Spikes, although it is immune to Toxic Spikes and the Speed drop from Sticky Web is of no consequence; the fact that it takes up your Mega slot means that you cannot run Magic Bounce users, such as Mega Diancie or Mega Sableye, alongside it. This also means that, if entry hazards are on the field, it fails at its job of checking Geomancy Xerneas.
+2 252+ SpA Xerneas Focus Blast vs. 248 HP / 244 SpD Mega Mawile: 238-280 (78.5 - 92.4%) -- 75% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and 1 layer of Spikes
If Mega Mawile comes in at any point during the game and takes entry hazard damage, its ability to tank +2 Focus Blasts and OHKO Xerneas after Stealth Rock damage with Iron Head becomes heavily compromised. This is complicated by the fact that Mega Mawile has no recovery, which means that any residual damage it takes stays with it. Switch in too many times and your Mega Mawile will become almost complete deadweight before it has an opportunity to do anything. Baton Pass, Mega Mawile's best bet at switching out of things that threaten it, essentially condemns it to taking this residual hazard damage unless you can get a Defog off, which is not good for Mega Mawile at all. Burn damage also wears down Mawile while having the added effect of completely neutering it for the rest of the match, which is easily inflicted upon it by Defog support Arceus formes which do not care about Mawile's STAB attacks that much and can then proceed to stall it out with Recover. Mega Mawile is almost always a waste of a teamslot and a Mega slot and should never be used unless you have absolutely no other feasible way of checking Xerneas.
What You Should Use Instead
If you insist on using a bad Steel-type to check Xerneas, you should use Aegislash. It is immune to Focus Blast, is not OHKOed by any of Xerneas's attacks bar the unreliable Thunder off a high roll, and smacks it with Gyro Ball for hefty damage after a Geomancy. It also does not take up a Mega slot, letting you run far better Mega Pokemon such as Salamence. Primal Groudon also makes for an excellent Xerneas check, resisting Moonblast and taking little damage from Focus Blast while either smacking it with Precipice Blades or crippling it with Thunder Wave / Roar. Klefki has the same typing (!) as Mega Mawile, a source of passive recovery, and carries much more utility through its ability to cripple Xerneas with Prankster Thunder Wave while resisting Moonblast and never being OHKOed by any of Xerneas's moves. Ho-Oh can survive any move at +2 (even Thunder) from Xerneas and heavily damage it with Sacred Fire or Brave Bird, allowing it to be picked off by priority from the Giratina-Origin you should probably be running alongside it. Generally, while not engineered to check Xerneas like Mega Mawile, which it fails at doing half the time, these Pokemon carry far more utility, allow you to run a far less situationally useful Mega Pokemon, and are not rendered deadweight nearly as easily.
---
I hope you enjoyed this edition of Terrible Pokemon! Next blog entry, I will cover Ambipom in ORAS RU, a Technician attacker so terrible that it is featured in meme teams, the subject of general disgust, and placed in the prestigious Blacklist ranking in the RU Viability Ranking thread.
