Alolan Marowak - Moveset & Best Build for Ranked Battle

This is a strategy guide for using Alolan Marowak in competitive play for the games Pokemon Sword and Shield. Read on for tips on the best Nature, EV spreads, Movesets, and Held Items to use with Alolan Marowak, as well as its strengths and weak points.

Alolan Marowak - Related Guides
Evolution and Learnset	Build for Ranked Battle

Basic Information for Alolan Marowak

Types and Abilities

Pokemon	Type 1	Type 2
Alolan Marowak
Abilities
Cursed Body	May disable a move used on the Pokemon.
Lightning Rod	Draws in all Electric-type moves to up Special Attack.
Rock Head (Hidden)	Protects the Pokemon from recoil damage.

Alolan Marowak Weaknesses and Resistances

	Type
Takes 4x damage	-
Takes 2x damage
Takes 0.5x damage
Takes 1/4x damage
Takes 0x damage

What is Type Effectiveness?

Base Stats

Best Nature for Alolan Marowak

What are Natures?

Singles Movesets for Alolan Marowak

Trick Room Attacker Moveset & Best Build

Alolan Marowak is an effective physical attacker in a dedicated Trick Room team, using its powerful dual STAB moves to overpower and turn the tables against faster teams.

About Alolan Marowak's Moves

Flare Blitz and Poltergeist are Alolan Marowak's strongest STAB moves and provides great neutral coverage in the current metagame.

Bonemerang is its main coverage move, and since it's a multi-hit move, allows Alolan Marowak to threaten Focus Sash leads, Substitute users, and Pokemon with the Sturdy Ability.

It's last move is Brick Break, allowing Marowak to break Reflect, Light Screen, and Aurora Veil set up by the opposing team.

About Alolan Marowak's EV Spread

We're using a standard Trick Room EV spread with full investment in HP and Attack so that Alolan Marowak hits hard and is as bulky as possible, with the remaining 4 EVs invested in Special Defense.

About Alolan Marowak's Ability

Alolan Marowak has two options for Abilities.

Although it doesn't benefit from Lightning Rod's Special Attack boost, it does allow Alolan Marowak to switch into Electric-type Pokemon and also prevents Volt Switch.

Rock Head on the other hand prevents recoil damage, meaning Alolan Marowak can freely use Flare Blitz without getting worn down by recoil.

About Alolan Marowak's Held Item

Thick Club is an exclusive item for Alolan Marowak that doubles its Attack stat. With a Brave Nature, 31 IVs, and full 252 EV investment, Alolan Marowak has an effective Attack stat of 290 at level 50!

Other Viable Moves

Anti-Volt Switch Mixed Attacker Moveset & Best Build

Alolan Marowak's Lightning Rod Ability allows it to run an effective mixed attacking set, with its main role being a counter to teams that rely heavily on Volt Switch.

About Alolan Marowak's Moves

Poltergeist is Alolan Marowak's strongest STAB move, but only works if the opponent has a held item. Fire Punch is its secondary STAB move that provides great damage without the recoil.

Blizzard is its main coverage move and can surprise Alolan Marowak's usual counters, such as Landorus and Garchomp when they switch in.

It's last move is Brick Break, allowing Marowak to break Reflect, Light Screen, and Aurora Veil set up by the opposing team.

About Alolan Marowak's EV Spread

We're using a standard mixed attacking EV spread with 212 Atk and 164 Sp.Atk EVs, with the remaining 132 EVs invested in Spd.

About Alolan Marowak's Ability

Lightning Rod boosts Alolan Marowak's Special Attack by 1 stage when it's hit by Electric-type moves.

About Alolan Marowak's Held Item

Thick Club is an exclusive item for Alolan Marowak that doubles its Attack stat. With the given EV Spread and Nature, this Alolan Marowak has an effective Attack stat of 278.

Other Viable Moves

How to Use Alolan Marowak Effectively

An Effective Trick Room Attacker

Alolan Marowaks middling speed makes it a great candidate for main physical attacker in a Trick Room team. With its Thick Club held item, few Pokemon can stand up against its dual STAB moves - especially if it decides to use Swords Dance!

Can Put a Stop to Switch-In Matches

Alolan Marowak's Ability Lightning Rod grants it a third immunity to Electric-types, making it a great counter to the likes of Heat Rotom and Magnezone that rely on Volt Switch to pivot and keep up the offense.

How to Build a Team with Alolan Marowak

Alolan Marowak struggles to find a place in offensive-oriented teams due to its low Speed stat, but it has a niche as a powerful and bulky physical attacker in Trick Room and Defensive teams.

A Dynamax Trick Room Attacker

Alolan Marowak's low base Speed stat mean that it functions best in a dedicated Trick Room team where it can turn the tide of the battle while firing off powerful boosted attacks.

Example Build Team

Trick Room Lead	Dynamax Attacker	Special Attacker
Slowking	Alolan Marowak	Alolan Exeggutor

Slowking serves as both Trick Room lead and defensive pivot as its main role is setting up Trick Room for its team.

Alolan Marowak is this team's Dynamax Attacker, using Max Flare and Max Phantasm to set up Sunny Day and lower the opposing team's Defense by 1 stage.

Alolan Exeggutor rounds off the team by providing strong special coverage, and also benefits from Alolan Marowak's Max Flare as it activates its Harvest Ability.

These three Pokemon also form a Water-Fire-Grass core, with each one covering their respective weaknesses and filling out their move coverage.

Counters for Alolan Marowak

Weakness

Wear it Out with Super Effective Attacks

Alolan Marowak's great dual typing also gives it key weaknesses to very common attacking types, such as Ground, Ghost, Water, and Dark-type moves.

The best counters are bulky and defensive Pokemon that can take a hit from Alolan Marowak and fire back with their super effective STAB moves.

Best Pokemon to Use

Pokemon	Description
Landorus (Therian Forme)	Ranking: ★★★★★ ・Lowers Alolan Marowak's Attack with its Intimidate Ability ・Both Offensive and Defensive variants can wear down and eventually KO Alolan Marowak with Earthquake Moveset & Best Build for Landorus (Therian Forme)
Rhyperior	Ranking: ★★★★★ ・High Defense and its Solid Rock Ability lets it to shrug off Alolan Marowak's attacks ・Faster than Alolan Marowak under Trick Room Moveset & Best Build for Rhyperior
Hippowdon	Ranking: ★★★★★ ・High Defense and recovery in Slack Off lets it shrug off Alolan Marowak's attacks ・ Can wear down and eventually KO Alolan Marowak with Earthquake Moveset & Best Build for Hippowdon
Tapu Fini	Ranking: ★★★★★ ・Better type matchup and great defenses let it shrug off Alolan Marowak's attacks ・Can threaten and potentially KO Alolan Marowak with Hydro Pump Moveset & Best Build for Tapu Fini
Gyarados	Ranking: ★★★★ ・Lowers Alolan Marowak's Attack with its Intimidate Ability ・Outspeeds Alolan Marowak outside of Trick Room and easily KOs with Waterfall Moveset & Best Build for Gyarados
Tyranitar	Ranking: ★★★★ ・Dynamax variants easily shrug off Alolan Marowak's attacks ・Easily KOs Alolan Marowak with Crunch or Stone Edge Moveset & Best Build for Tyranitar

Related Links

All Competitive Builds for Ranked Battle

Competitive Guides for Pokemon Sword and Shield

Competitive Pokemon Battle Guides
Tier List		Best Builds		Series 10 List of Contenders
Doubles Tier List		Team Building		Rental Teams

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