Honestly, I think most people use Alolawak incorrectly. Lightningrod seems to be the primary reason people use the thing without considering using it simply for its good typing and incredible power.
When using Lightningrod, it's wise to use Fire Punch instead of Flare Blitz: Using Lightningrod means that Alolawak likely earned a spot on the team to help patch a weakness to certain mons that use powerful electric moves. Using Flare Blitz hampers Alolawak in its ability to repeatedly do its job throughout the match, since if it doesn't want to be setup bait, it has to use Thick Club over Leftovers anyway. All the recoil + no recovery at all mean that Alolawak won't be able to reliably do what you put it on the team to do in the first place. However, this means that its ability to deal lots of damage to the other team is significantly reduced. Defensive Lightningrod Alolawak is stuck losing to mons like Lando-T and Fini, which makes using Alolawak a huge liability for most teams, regardless of the fact that it provides a special utility that no other mon really can. Ultimately, the most common Alolawak, defensive Lightningrod, isn't surprising enough anymore to work well most of the time and simply gives other teams too many chances to get their powerful, momentum shifting mons in the match with relative ease.
What y'all should realize is that Alolawak's best use isn't as a glue. Its best use is as an all out attacker that supports the rest of the team by chunking or flat out eliminating common stops to otherwise amazing offensive mons (Fini stopping Greninja, Lando-T halting non Ice Punch Meta etc.) This is so unexpected but so effective in the current meta. Running enough speed to creep base 70 walls (Mantine, Skarm etc.), which also beats common base 65s like Magearna and Pelipper, takes 208 EVs. Pump it up to max Speed Adamant if you want to outrun Mega Scizor and defensive Bulu, but that's really not necessary. Don't use Jolly cause it's too weak. Here's the best set in my opinion:
Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Rock Head
EVs: 48 HP / 252 Atk / 208 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Shadow Bone
- Earthquake
- Thunder Punch / Swords Dance
Blitz and Bone are easy picks.
EQ > Bonemarang. You aren't OHKOing any popular sash users with it and EQ's 0% chance to miss outweighs the chance that a Bulu gets up Grassy Terrain and also has a defensive TTar on their team. EQ is still OHKOing Heatran and TPunch is still 2HKOing Toxapex after rocks anyway.
The beauty of this set is how easily it scares your opponent's Koko into simply U-Turning until your Wak reveals it takes no recoil from Flare Blitz. If you can get Wak in against Koko without Wak taking a Tbolt, you can bet that they wont stay in and use Tbolt or try to switch with VS. Likely, you're going to catch a Lando-T or Fini trying to switch in but they are going to get at least half their HP taken off pretty easily. TPunch catches max/max Fini for a 2HKO after Rocks (252+ Atk Thick Club Marowak-Alola Thunder Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Tapu Fini: 170-202 (49.4 - 58.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery), which means it has to decide between using Defog or using Surf, which deals 97.4% max. I'd trade Wak for Fini any day if I have Ash-Gren, Char-X, or any other number of offensive mons for that matter on my team. TPunch also helps you beat rain easily. Wak lures in Pelipper, outspeeds, and OHKOs it better than Stealth Rock + HP Electric Tran does, and Tran does just that incredibly well.
SD just rapes stall. Dug can't trap you and Quag will lose to a Shadow Bone Def drop. It also dies switching in to SR and Bone if it has like any prior damage on it whatsoever (252+ Atk Thick Club Marowak-Alola Shadow Bone vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Quagsire: 177-208 (44.9 - 52.7%) -- 25.8% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery). Nothing on stall can really eat a +2 Flare Blitz/Bone/Quake and setting up is so easy when you scare away Skarm and Zapdos.
Don't use Stealth Rock. You want to be using Wak to attack as much as possible. Use another mon for that or the free turns you do get where you could be popping unsuspecting fat mons and helping another teammate clean later are not going to be able to be taken advantage of.
Take advantage of free turns from mons like Venusaur, Amoongus, Magnezone, Koko, Skarmory, Volcarona, Bulu, Ferro, Celesteela, Magearna etc. and destroy the opposition.