Boneheaded Strategies
Normal Marowak@Thick Club
Adamant/Brave nature
Battle Armor
252 HP/252 Attack/4 Defense
~Bonemerang
~Stone Edge/Rock Slide
~Low Kick/Brick Break/Fire Punch
~Thunder Punch
Marowak is perfectly usable no matter which form it's in. The Normal Form of Marowak is familiar to us all- Bonemerang is STAB, Stone Edge, Low Kick, and Thunder Punch are for coverage. Rock Slide's an option over Stone Edge if you want to prioritize accuracy, and Brick Break can be put in over Low Kick if you want a bit more consistency. In fact, hell, if you want, Fire Punch can replace the Fighting move altogether. Your call, really.
Item powers up Marowak. Ability stops crits. Pretty much the best it's got.
Great Bones of Fire
Alolan Marowak@Thick Club
Adamant/Brave nature
Rock Head/Lightning Rod
252 HP/252 Attack/4 Defense
~Flare Blitz/Fire Punch
~Shadow Bone
~Bonemerang
~Brick Break/Low Kick
Alolan Marowak has been seen as a significant improvement over its Kantonian counterpart, and it's not hard to see why. Interesting type combination, great STAB options, good Abilities, nice coverage... Plus, it looks really, really cool. So yeah. Shadow Bone is your Ghost STAB, no bones about it. Fire STAB, though, that depends on what Ability you want to run. If you're cool with foregoing Lightning Rod, you get the raw power of STAB Flare Blitz with zero recoil. But if that Electric immunity is too tempting for you, and you're cool with breeding up your Cubone back in ORAS, then by all means, Fire Punch. Bonemerang is for coverage, and is just a good move in general. And the Fighting move at the end, that's your call. Hell, replace it with something else entirely if that's your thing, it's just my personal recommendation because Fighting and Ghost together make for completely unresisted coverage.
Item we already covered. Ability depends on what you want more- raw power or an Electric immunity.
Other options:
*Both variants of Marowak get
Swords Dance. Some might see it as overkill, considering the Thick Club is like a single use of Swords Dance in held item form, but if you can squeeze it in there somewhere, sometimes there's no kill like overkill.
*I feel like it's practically obligatory to mention
Earthquake, considering they
do get it, but given the choice between that and Bonemerang, sign me up for Bonemerang every single time. A 50 power move that hits twice is effectively 100 base power, same as Earthquake. Doesn't hit through Dig, but who uses that? Sure, 90% accuracy is worse than 100%, but considering this can break a Substitute and keep hitting, or effectively OHKO in direct spite of Focus Sashes or Sturdy, or even screw over anything daring enough to run Weak Armor, I consider it a fair trade-off.
*
Double-Edge is a powerful Normal-type option that works well with Rock Head, but good luck finding room for that in your moveset.
*Alolan Marowak also gets
Will-O-Wisp, always a useful move to consider.
*One more thing- via the Virtual Console games, Cubone and Marowak do get
Submission, though this is only really relevant to Alolan Marowak, since stuff transferred up from RBY always have their Hidden Abilities, so only Alolan Marowak can have Rock Head and Submission. That said, the accuracy is iffy, and not altogether mitigated by the move's power. It's only marginally stronger than Brick Break... Up to you whether you think it's worth your while.
Abilities:
*
Rock Head: Marowak does not take recoil damage from its attacks, other than Struggle. A normal Ability for Normal Form Marowak, but the Hidden Ability of Alolan Marowak. I don't get it either. But yeah- this sees way more use on Alolan Marowak, since it allows for recoil-free STAB Flare Blitzes. Always a plus. Regular Marowak can use this with... Double-Edge. Not quite the same significance.
*
Cursed Body: When Alolan Marowak is hit by an attack, there is a 30% chance it will disable that attack. I like this Ability, but that doesn't change the fact that it's easily the worst of Alolan Marowak's three Abilities. Very situational. Not saying it's not useful, I'm just saying everything else it gets is even better. Alolan Marowak only.
*
Lightning Rod: When taking an Electric attack, instead of having its usual effect, it instead merely increases Marowak's Sp. Atk by 1 stage. Absolutely useless on Normal Marowak, considering it's already immune to Electric, and doesn't give a Raticate's *** about its Sp. Atk, but Alolan Marowak does very much appreciate the Electric immunity. Available on both kinds of Marowak.
*
Battle Armor: Normal Marowak's Hidden Ability. Attacks used against Marowak cannot become critical hits. Probably the best Normal Marowak has to offer, at least until it gets some relevant recoil moves, but hey- no crits, can't really complain there. Normal Marowak only.
Partners:
Marowak relies on its bulk to stay alive (and I use the term "bulk" loosely- outside of a decent Defense stat, its defenses are nothing to write home about), so some of your team should be devoted to helping keep Marowak alive. Wish support wouldn't go amiss. Tapu Bulu or something with Grassy Terrain could temporarily mitigate the practically mandatory lack of Leftovers. Alternatively, you could go with either Trick Room support or a good Baton Passer like Eevee or Scolipede, make it so Marowak can actually outspeed stuff.
Counters:
Marowak relies on its huge Attack stat, which in turn relies on the Thick Club. One thing that comes to mind is Mandibuzz- bulky, resists Ghost, outright immune to Ground, and has access to Knock Off, which basically renders Marowak useless. Not for nothing the Pokédex calls them natural enemies. Also, as the bulk of Marowak's, well, bulk, lies on the physical side of things, a good, solid special attacker (ideally with amazing Defense) can come in and screw with it. Weezing can come in on much of what Marowak can do (up to and including total Bonemerang immunity), maybe throw a Will-O-Wisp in its face if it's Normal Marowak, bombard the Alolan Marowak with Dark Pulse, just give it a hard time in general.
Opinion:
Marowak was always a concept I liked, but the Alolan Marowak made it even better IMO. Now if only they fixed its movepool so Alolan Marowak could actually learn Shadow Bone at a level at which one can actually GET Alolan Marowak... Seriously, who approved that level-up movepool? Shadow Bone literally ONE LEVEL before Cubone can even try to evolve? What were they thinking? WERE they even thinking? Ahem- but I digress- point being, both Marowak are awesome and I love 'em.
Prediction for next week:
Arbok.