#303: Mawile

A Sableye making itself comfortable in
Mawile's jaw. These two Pokémon are often
seen as counterparts.

Mawile can be seen as a counterpart to Sableye, whom I discussed exactly a week ago. Like Sableye, this Pokémon is quite unique, although it is based on yet another Japanese mythical being, so its basic form doesn't appeal to me as much as Sableye's basic form does, despite the fact that it's actually a steel type (I can't remember if I mentioned it already, but steel is my favorite of the 18 types currently available in the games). Mawile is based on the Japanese myth of the futakuchi-onna, literally 'two-mouthed woman'. This type of yōkai is characterized by her two mouths - a normal one and a second one located on the back of her head; or rather in the back of her head. The origin of this second mouth is pretty terrifying: in many stories, the soon-to-be futakuchi-onna is a wife of a miser and rarely eats. That's why a second mouth mysteriously appears in the back of the woman's head, often mumbling spiteful and threatening things to her and demanding food. If it's not fed, it can screech obscenely and cause the woman tremendous pain. Ultimately, though, the woman's long hair begins to move on its own like a pair of serpents, so that the second mouth can help itself to twice the amount of food the woman usually consumes. In other stories, the mouth forms from an axe wound she sustains accidentally or even because her own husband tries to murder her. The jaw on the back on Mawile's head, however, is just a set of transformed steel horns that Mawile uses to chomp its foes with after it lulls them out of wariness or into complacency with its docile-looking face. In other words, Mawile is a dangerous creature that likes to deceive people and other Pokémon, hence its classification as the 'Deceiver Pokémon'. Everything comes together when you look at the origins of Mawile's English and foreign names, too: a maw is the mouth of a voracious animal - an animal devouring great quantities of food - and a wile is a strategem or trick intended to deceive or ensnare, while its foreign names are all plays on 'jaw', 'mandible', 'lying' and 'cheating' and the like.

Mega Mawile. 

But Mawile's regular form is nothing compared to its Mega evolution, who suddenly has two sets of jaw-like appendages protruding from its head. While the single jaw is strong enough to chew through iron beams on itself, the pair of jaws can be controlled individually by Mega Mawile and boast tremendous power. Looking at Mega Mawile's ability and base attack stat, that should not come as a surprise: a base attack stat of 105 is already nothing to sneeze at, but the ability Huge Power will raise its physical prowess to ridiculous levels. When you have a Pokémon with a base attack stat of 105, perfect IVs, an attack-beneficial nature (Adamant, Lonely, Naughty and Brave) and EV training in said attack stat, its physical proficiency can be as high as 339 - a massive 678 when Huge Power is applied! This effectively makes Mega Mawile the strongest Pokémon in the game. In fact, its attack stat even exceeds the limit of 669 attack (255 base attack, as 255 is the highest possible 8-digit binary number), equalling a Pokémon with a base attack stat of 259. Mega Mawile's base stat total may be only 480 - the lowest among all Mega forms, along with Mega Sableye - but Huge Power made Smogon ban it from any competitive tier lower than Uber, the tier where powerful legendaries like Rayquaza, Lugia, Dialga, Reshiram and Zekrom reside as well. It is that strong.

Mawile standing next to its Poké Ball.

Unfortunately, Mega Mawile is more of a hit-and-run Pokémon. Its defense is great and its special defense is quite good, too, but its mediocre HP can't back up its good defensive stats and its speed is nothing to write home about. You can't do anything about its speed, either, because Mawile can't learn Agility or Autotomize and can't hold any stat-enhancing items such as the Choice Scarf because it needs to hold a Mega Stone to Mega-evolve. Then again, Mega Mawile has access to some excellent STAB moves like Iron Head and Play Rough (as of Gen. VI, Mawile is a fairy type in addition to its primary steel type), as well as some superb type coverage in Crunch, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Brick Break, Sucker Punch, Knock Off, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch and the elemental fangs. The latter have a base power of 65 and are quite weak compared to moves that are usually used in the competitive scene, but Mega Mawile is so strong that I think it can pull them off quite well if you are in need of them, especially after a Swords Dance boost (yup, as if Huge Power combined with a base attack of 105 wasn't enough already, Mega Mawile can also sharply boost its attack with Swords Dance). As it's not fast to begin with, it's a given you should slap an Adamant nature on it, making it an absolute powerhouse. It even leaves huge dents in defensive teams, easily knocking out Pokémon in two or three hits that are not very effective on them.

Hey Mega Sableye, don't lose your big-ass gemstone. Its defensive qualities are
what makes you competitively viable in the first place. 

It's Mega Mawile's offensive prowess what makes me like this Pokémon in the first place, although I like its design more than regular Mawile's as well. The pink hakama (a type of Japanese garment) make it more reminiscent of the Japanese lore of the futakuchi-onna and also emphasize its fairy typing. Well, in my opinion, anyway. There are plenty of steel-type Pokémon that end up high on my list of favorite Pokémon - in fact, Aggron and its pre-evolutions are next on my rating list - but Mawile will have to do with 4.5 stars rather than 5, the same as Sableye.

+0.5 for originality and +1 for the awesome Mega.

Rating: 4.5/5