SPOILERS! Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon In-Game Team Thread

So I am sure the line up will change as I get further into Akala and beyond, but currently really enjoying Zorua and Inkay on the team.

Zorua didn't have any good moves until I arrived at Akala and tutored it Bounce, which along with the Flynium Z gives it a powerful nuke and type coverage my team needs since I didn't chose Popplio over Rowlet and decided against Hawlucha. Now it's seeing plenty of use and I expect it to be great in Lush Jungle. It's also very satisfying when the AI keeps throwing Psychic moves at its Illusion. You'd think after one Confusion, it would realise, but no, pretty dumb.
 
Just beat the E4! I'm really happy with the team I used.

Miles (Decidueye) @ Decidium Z
Level 61
Ability: Overgrow
-Shadow Sneak
-Leaf Blade
-Spirit Shackle
-Brave Bird

Unfortunately, Decidueye was given an -Atk nature (Calm I believe) and I think a low Attack IV as well, so he didn't hit very hard. Still, Decidueye's a great in-game Pokemon and I think the best starter in US/UM.

Mia (Mantine) @ Flynium Z
Level 59
Ability: Swift Swim
-Scald
-Ice Beam
-Air Slash
-Rain Dance

Originally caught so that I could beat Totem Araquanid, Mantine is an awesome special tank (highlight: comfortably surving Totem Ribombee's +4 Dazzling Gleam) and on multiple occasions she was able to sweep under Rain as well. Honestly, I never thought Mantine would be good, but seriously, if you've never used Mantine in-game, give it a try! It's also really cute in my opinion.

Charles (Lopunny) @ Normalium Z
Level 62
Ability: Cute Charm
-Splash
-Return
-Baton Pass
-Hi Jump Kick

I was honestly really excited to see Buneary appear on Route 1, since I've always wanted to use Lopunny in a playthrough. He struggled a bit in the early-game because for a long time Quick Attack was its strongest STAB, but when he evolved and got Return and Jump Kick he really came into his own. Right after I caught Charles he was trying to learn a new move and I thought for a split second, "well, it's better than Splash", and then remembered, "WAIT, NO! Splash is actually good now!". Charles was able to sweep so many NPCs with Z-Splash; 10/10 would recommend.

Priscilla (Zoroark) @ Darkinium Z
Level 63
Ability: Illusion
-Night Daze
-Flamethrower
-Thief
-Focus Blast

Standard Zoroark doing standard Zoroark things. Without Priscilla I would most likely still be stuck on the battle against Ultra Necrozma, but because of Illusion I was able to cheese the fight and regret nothing. Thief is only there because I needed something to learn it to farm Heart Scales; I'm gonna replace it with Nasty Plot for the postgame.

Chara (Salazzle) @ Firium Z
Level 62
Ability: Corrosion
-Flamethrower
-Sludge Wave
-Toxic
-Nasty Plot

Behold Salazzle, Destroyer of Totems. I'm not gonna lie, the extent of my strategy with the last 4 totems was "hit it with Toxic and then stall". Still, it was effective and it let me fully bypass Ribombee's free Extreme Evoboost among other things (well, that and the fact that it kept setting up QDs while Toxic'd). And yes, the nickname is a reference to exactly what you think it is.

Prism (Jolteon) @ Magnet
Level 64
Ability: Volt Absorb
-Discharge
-Volt Switch
-Thunder
-Baby-Doll Eyes

Jolteon for MVP. Seriously, this guy was amazing. He more or less singlehandedly beat both Guzma and Lusamine in Aether Paradise, and then he was such a solid fighter against pretty much everything except Ground-types by virtue of being really freaking fast. The highlight was probably sweeping Kahili when she was by far the hardest E4 member in my original Moon playthrough. Could definitely stand to learn some moves of different types, though.


I've got a pretty cool idea for the Rainbow Rocket episode. I have all of my ingame teams since about 2012 saved in Bank, so I think it would be cool if for each of the villain bosses I used my team from their game. The only caveat is that most of my old teams are all Level 100, but...
 
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I've just beaten the Totem Togedemaru and I'm surprised at how nice of a support Arbok is providing to my team. Perhaps it's because of the very suboptimal team I'm using (I only beat Hau's Raichu because my Shelgon had Eviolite and Crunch - it OHKOed everything else) but being the most early Intimidate user in the game, coupled with Screech and Glare, it's great at putting Totem Pokemon to more manageable levels.

On the other hand, Rufflet is unsurprisingly a royal pain to train, and it's still 23 levels away from evolving. I'm using it in this playthrough and never again.
 
https://richi3f.github.io/pokemon-t...zoroark+lycanroc-dusk+araquanid+magmar+bewear
ULTRA MOON
I decided to pick Decidueye as my starter, I used Primarina in Moon and just overally love his look. Plus I never use the grass starter so I thought it would be nice change.
I then picked up Dusk Form Lycanroc as my second 'mon from the event. Then picked up Zoruark as a Zorua at the trainer school to give me a early special dark type user. I used only those 3 and filled out with early pokemon (Buneary and Ribombee) then once I got to the next Island I replaced them with Araquanid to take advantage of his Water bubble ability and good defenes, picked up Magmar as a Magby at Wela Volcano and then once it evolved just put a eviolite on him. Bewear was my last pickup to give me a bulky physical attacker. Eventually all but my starter and Bewear were replaced just before the E4

https://richi3f.github.io/pokemon-t...e+magnezone+toxapex+bewear+turtonator+weavile

This team is who I used to beat the E4 (No Z move users)

Decidueye - Swords Dance, Acrobatics, Leaf Blade and Spirit Shackle
I used his natural bulk to take advantage of pulling off swords dance sweeping. I soft reset for a Jolly nature to give him a speed boost and then used every Carbos I found or bought to help increase his speed. Double your attack with the first swords dance and because 95% of all pokemon in Alola is slow you should outspeed them for a OHKO. You can opt to have him hold the quick claw but I declined to make Acrobatics a 110 power move.

Bewear - Hammer Arm, Ice Punch, Return, Earthquake
Farmed for Adamant nature (took forever as i went 2 hours of running around a patch of grass before finding my first one) Hammer arm is a obvious STAB and hes slow already so W/e, used brick break until he got it. Return was another normal STAB, used take down for a bit until end game where I was confident Return would hit for close to max power, picked up Ice Punch from Akala Beach move tutor for coverage, once I got the earthquake tm this was a obvious coverage move

Toxapex - Recover, Baneful Bunker, Toxic, Scald/Venoshock
Once my pokemon hit around 35ish I replaced my Araquanid with her. This 'mon also took forever but the best toxic staller in the game was worth it, my entire time using her she never fainted once. Got the merciless nature and I was very happy to get a modest nature to use Venoshock/Scald over Poison Jab/Liquidation. I opted for the water move to still give it a stab but still be able to hit the very common poison types for neutral damage and not have to rely on poisoning. Physical attacker? BBunker for a protect and poison, Special Attacker? Start off with a Toxic then alternate with Recover and BB to keep you topped off and throw in a Scald every once in a while for some damage or a quick KO (PS i traded over a Black Sludge from moon for some added recovery)

Turtonator - Flamethrower, Flash Cannon, Dragon Pulse, Shell Smash
Replaced Magmar. Really wanted to use him in Moon and he wasnt available in Ultra moon so I had my brother trade me his bred 31 all IVd and EV trained Turtonator, 252 sp atk, 129 speed and 129 hp with a Timid nature (+speed -atk)
started off every battle with a Shell smash to increase speed and SPatk, survive the first hit easily due to his natural bulk then sweep. Got him around the time you fight Lusamine in Aether Paradise where my whole team were in the mid to high 40s and he had all the moves I wanted. Very strong member of my team.

Magnezone - Thunderbolt, Signal Beam, Flash Cannon, Tri Attack
Replaced Lycanroc right before Ultra Necrozma as I realized I had too many physical attackers. His typing gave me a ton of resistances and actually let me cheese Ultra Necrozma with his bulk, resistances and massive sp attk Signal Beam (3-4 for a KO) I had a magnetite that I caught back on the first island (i farmed for a modest natured one and ended up not using it until the end so I had to spend alot of time leveling him) He was much more useful than I thought he was going to be honestly

Weavile - Swords Dance, Night Slash, Ice Punch, Aerial Ace
Replaced Zoroark because in Mt Lanakila i ran into a sneavile and instantly decided I wanted to use Weavile, hes one of my fav pokemon ever. I EV trained his bulk as much as possible to try to use this Swords Dance Sweeper moveset that i used on my Decidueye (too late in the game to really do much) and farmed for a adamant nature, surprisingly enough there wasnt many times he was one shotted so i was able to pull off a swords dance to double his already large atk then use his amazing speed (pretty sure hes one of if not THE fasted non legendary that you can get before end game) to start sweeping with his 2 Stab moves and one of my fav coverage moves in Aerial Ace, he let me keep my dark typing as well as cover my huge ground type weaknesses (toxapex, magnezone, turtonator)
 
Finished all the plot stuff (including the after-credits stuff) the other day, so I figured I'd give my thoughts on what I used:

Incineroar was pretty solid: early Fire Fang was very nice, though I used Bite/Double Kick/Fire Fang for most of its moveset as a Torracat since it doesn't get anything else fantastic. It got better once it evolved and learned Darkest Lariat (for ignoring buffs). I gave it Thunder Punch to round its coverage which helped a lot against Honchkrows and such. Overall Incineroar has grown on me a lot since its first reveal (though it may have something to do with a clutch Malicious Moonsault against the climatic fight).

Sturdy Magneton with Eviolite was amazing. I'd used the Magnemite lot already through the years so I was apprehensive about picking it up again, but it really shone here: early Thunder Wave and Light Screen helped a lot against some of the tougher fights (looking at you, new Brooklet Hill Totem) it's typing just let it tank a ton of attacks. Its move progression was very good (more for its Electric STAB than Steel but Mirror Shot worked until Flash Cannon came along), and I rarely had problems with Mirror Shot. I considered evolving it but having Eviolite-boosted defenses proved to win out.

Hariyama was... okay. I ended up with Gentle Thick Fat which ended up hurting me more than I expected: its weird bulk meant it died to a lot of physical stuff, and its low Speed didn't really let its massive Attack shine through. Fake Out was handy against opposing Sturdy users, though, and I ended up evolving it a little earlier than usual to deal with the Brooklet Hill Totem. It was a fun experiment since I'd never used Hariyama before, but next time I'll pick something that's a little faster and sturdier (or just use Guts).

Mudsdale was great: it might only start with Bulldoze offensively but it quickly gains other good moves and was often a last resort against physically-oriented fights. Sometimes it seemed like physical attacks did more than they should've, but Stamina was nice to stall. With moves like Payback combined with Stamina, its low Speed didn't really hurt too much. Good horse.

I really wanted to try Araquanid, and it did a little worse than I expected but still pretty good. Its main Water STAB was limited to Bubble Beam for a while, but I used it as my Z-Move user for pretty much the entirety of the game, and that's where it really excelled (does Water Bubble boost Hydro Vortex's power, too? I was operating on the assumption that it does). High Special Defense let it sponge special hits (outside of all the Air Slash users), and I gave it Leech Life and Frost Breath to help. Cool Bug mon, second only to my bro Galvantula.

Tsareena was my last pick, and while it was tough to use as a Steenee, once it evolved it cleaned house. Great Attack, good defences, and the highest Speed out of my entire team (ha ha, Base 72). Trop Kick's Attack-lowering effect was wonderful (especially combined with Mudsdale's Stamina), and I gave it Zen Headbutt via tutor to help against Poison-types. Queenly Majesty walled Guzma's Golisopod to hell and back, so I laughed at Razor Shell's minimal damage while Trop Kicking it back into ya boi's party.
 
Ultra Moon was one of the first games where I actually ended up swapping out and rotating quite a lot of Pokemon over the course of the game. The expanded dex means there are just so many mons that I'd love to use. But a bigger reason was how hard some of the totem battles were. Although I ended up with 6 main mons, I think I ended up using at least 6 other Pokemon at some crucial stage or another.

Here was my final team, all level 60-61 or so after becoming Champion:

Decidueye @ Scope Lens
-Leaf Blade
-Spirit Shackle
-U-Turn
-Brave Bird

I did runs with Primarina and Incineroar in Moon so I decided to give Rowlet a shot this time. While I still think Primarina is by far the best, Rowlet wasn't too bad either. Scope Lens + Razor Leaf / Leaf Blade has a 50% chance to crit I think. Decidueye's Z Move is cool but I ended up using other my other mons for Z Move nuking

Zoroark @ Darkinium Z / Fightinium Z
-Nasty Plot
-Dark Pulse
-Focus Blast
-Flamethrower

Zorua was very underwhelming in the first half of the game, but I don't think I could have gotten past Ultra Necrozma without it. Two Foul Plays is all it takes. I'd use Decidueye in the last slot for Illusion for the most part. As with most mons, I swap around the Z Crystal depending on what would be needed. I had very little Fighting coverage on this team so Z-Focus Blast was often a life saver.

Starmie @ Waterium / Psychium / Electrium Z
-Psychic
-Scald
-Thunder
-Dazzling Gleam

Starmie's great. I've just always had a soft spot for this one. Staryu is decent even though you don't get a proper STAB move till you get the Psychic TM and evolve. Still, BubbleBeam + Swift is usually enough to get by until then. The last two slots were again cycled between as required, I think I had Ice Beam on it at some points.

Garchomp @ Groundium / Dragonium / Rockium Z
-Dragon Claw
-Crunch
-Rock Slide
-Dig

Gabite was definitely a pain to catch but I love Garchomp and I go out of my way to put it on the team in any games where it's possible. To be quite honest, Garchomp was a bit underwhelming. That said, it did manage to take a +1 Dragon Claw from Totem Kommo-o. Finally getting the Earthquake TM postgame + Garchompite was a boon for Team RR fights as well.

Sandslash @ Steelium Z
-Iron Head
-Icicle Spear
-Icicle Crash
-Bulldoze

Pretty much a designated fairy killer. Not much to say about it, but it performed way better than I anticipated. Tutoring it Ice Punch was great to get along until evolution.

Volcarona @ Firium Z
-Quiver Dance
-Flamethrower
-Bug Buzz
-Giga Drain (later changed to Psychic)

Well, it took me 15 minutes straight of searching to catch this one but he's been the star of the lategame and post game. Larvesta with an eviolite can hold its own as well, surprisingly enough. Volcarona pretty much soloed Red and put in work in almost every RR boss fight.

Honorable mentions:

Murkrow Lv 33 @ Flyinium Z
This thing is an early game cannon. 85 / 95 / 95 offenses that early are no joke, especially with a Z-Wing Attack. However, considering Honchkrow gets no good flying STAB by level up and the Dark overlap with Zoroark I had to bench it.

Mr Mime Lv 37
I have mixed feelings about this one. I ended up tutoring it both Shock Wave and Signal Beam to make up for its terrible level up movepool. Falling off in the midgame and being too frail were the main reasons I had to bench it.

Magmar Lv 46
Magmar was another powerhouse, and if I wasn't hellbent on getting a Volcarona it would have probably served me fine through the lategame.

Other Pokemon used once or twice for specific fights include:
Hawlucha for Totem Raticate
Mudbray and Cubone - Bulldoze support against Totem Marowak
Stufful - Would have wiped against Olivia's Lycanroc without it
Flaaffy - Thunder Wave support
 


This is what I ended up with at the end. Salamence carried end game almost completely by himself. Shout out to Ampharos for the early mid game.
 
Beat the game like a week ago and figure I'd share my team. It had some really fun mons on it I'd highly recommend!

https://richi3f.github.io/pokemon-team-planner/#decidueye honchkrow jynx naganadel swampert infernape

Decidueye: Giga Drain is such a massive buff to this mon. It felt like there were tons of scenarios where I was taking 60% from something and winning the encounter off of Giga Drains healing alone. I ended up turning down Leaf Blade and sticking with a final moveset of Giga Drain / Shadow Ball / Nasty Plot / False Swipe. Loved it. Would highly recommend purely special Decidueye for in game play throughs

Infernape: Hey, you can find these things with Island Scan! I love using FWG cores in game and I love having teams with 12 types. Infernape was a wonderful step towards that goal. It's not busted like it is in DPP since the power of everything around it is more on par with it, but it was still pretty solid.

Swampert: Marshtomp is also an island scan mon, but unlike Infernape, it's 100% as bonkers as it is in RSE / ORAS. Picked it up for Olivia's trial since it gets the Bulldoze TM then and it only feared Lileep. It absolutely shat all over the Togedemaru trial. Hell, it can really just take on anything physical. The one you get through Island Scan has Counter so you can just use this to wreck anything physical. One of the best mons for in game out there still.

Jynx: Jynx is absolutely feast or famine. If you're getting one, it can either completely suck or be a wonderful little reward. What I'd reccomend if you're using jynx is:

  • Wait until you have Lapras to do any of this. Possibly wait until Kiawe's over so the backtracking isn't as obnoxious and Jynx isn't doing anything for the fire trial.
  • Find Smoochum, SOS for the Jynx spawn. There is a world of difference between using a fully evolved Jynx and a Smoochum. Jynx gets fat BST for that period in the game AND Lovely Kiss which it otherwise misses out on!
  • Get the Frost Breath TM. Jynx's movepool is complete shit and 100% needs TMs. That said, Frost Breath is amazing. It's Ice Beam, basically, while you still have like level 20 mons. It's wonderful and in the same cave you get Jynx, but you'll need Lapras.

I skipped Frost Breath by accident and Jynx felt like shit just using Powder Snow. The moment I backtracked for Frost Breath, it was wonderful. Getting a fully functional Jynx feels on par with GSC Lapras in terms of backtracking, but I highly recommend it.

Honchkrow: So, at +3 Crit ratio you always crit. Super Luck is +1. Scope Lens (Tauros sidequest on Panoli Ranch) is +1. Max Affection is +1. Starting with Pokepelago access, this Pokemon always crit. Really helped with Murkrow's power having to wait until Poni for a Dusk Stone (I waited even longer for Sucker Punch because 100% crit Sucker Punch completely invalidated Ultra Necrozma, LOL). Would recommend this set up for anything that relies on high crit ratio moves in SM/USUM

Naganadel: I SRed for a competitive one with Timid HP Ground. I really don't think I should offer any opinions on this since I EV trained mine before doing anything else, lol.

Other stuff I ended up using but then dropping for whatever reason:

Ribombee: Seems great, but shared waaaay too many weaknesses with Dartrix. Didn't seem worth it this time, but it's probably great if using Litten or Popplio.

Dusk Lycanroc: Seemed great too. Tough Claws Thrash that early looked ridiculous. Ended up dropping just because I wanted more Dual-type mons

Forretress: It sat in the party for a bit and got used in one battle. It sucked.

Alolan Golem: Complete butts. Picked up an Alolan Graveler on the route to Po Town, trade evolved it, and used it. It was really bad. Too slow and too vulnerable a typing.

Dragalge: Wasn't bad at all! Replaced Golem with this on the 4th island up until Poipole and it was okay. Typing had cool resistances, movepool was huge thanks to that TM shop nearby. A little slow and weak, but hell I'll take it over Golem every time.
 
Been busy but I finally finished Ultra Sun today including the RR Episode. Might as well post war stories I guess? Team ordered by acquisition:



Decidueye
: Rowlet is the only starter I haven't chosen so I might at well choose him this time. I went for a physical moveset but I probably should've taken the special route because the team's became too skewed toward physical attacks which means Intimidate/Reflect users are more annoying. Fortunately he's still pretty fun even if he's not quite as strong as the other two starters.

Pelipper: It wasn't my first choice for a Water-type but I managed to score a Hydration Wingull (Drizzle after evolution) early. I thought about Gyarados or Araquanid but having 5 physical attackers would have been too much. It's actually the least used team member but Sun/Sand/Hail clearing, Tailwind support and boosted water attacks are great when it's needed.

Lycanroc (Dusk Form): I don't really like using physical Rock-types but I wanted to make use of the Mystery Gift because it's unlikely I will use a Lycanroc ever again. Spent some time SRing for Jolly but it's worth it I think. He turns out to be my fastest 'mon which is helpful towards the end. It's annoying that Rock Slide is too weak and Stone Edge misses too often but it's managed to make good use of Return, Crunch, Drill Run and its new Z-Move. I played in Set mode so I can't abuse Thrash unfortunately.

Magnezone: Third time through Alola and third time using Magnezone. Its typing is just too useful and I wanted something that resist a certain Legendary Pokemon's attacks. I might've keep it as Magneton if I knew harder hitting stuff have yet to come but the earlier evolution zone was hard to resist.

Hawlucha: A contender for the best 'mon in the game. This is the traded one you get before the first trial and it has a natural advantage against every boss in the first two islands besides Totem Marowak. Flattening Totem Lurantis in one hit with Flying Press felt especially good. It actually stopped obeying me in Po Town so I couldn't use it against Nanu except as a shield to absorb Dark-type attacks.

Mudsdale: I originally used Growlithe in the first island but it leveled up too slowly and was used even less than Wingull. This is my second time using Mudsdale but it's still really reliable even if things seem to hit harder than in Moon. With item support it's almost invincible against many physical attackers like Giovanni's. Mostly just spammed High Horsepower/Earthquake with occasional Low Sweep/Rock Tomb. Used Leftovers (stolen from wild Munchlax) for the main story and Assault Vest for the RR Episode.

Overall a good balanced team and the game's increase in difficulty and length is also nice. Admittedly I did use items, Exp Share and Refresh with the only real handicap being Set mode and SRing when a team member fall. Now that the post-game episode is done, I can now transfer Kyurem-W and grind the league for money while training the new UB's and maybe building a new Battle Tree team.
 
Zorua didn't have any good moves until I arrived at Akala and tutored it Bounce, which along with the Flynium Z gives it a powerful nuke and type coverage my team needs since I didn't chose Popplio over Rowlet and decided against Hawlucha. Now it's seeing plenty of use and I expect it to be great in Lush Jungle. It's also very satisfying when the AI keeps throwing Psychic moves at its Illusion. You'd think after one Confusion, it would realise, but no, pretty dumb.
I won't get into too much detail but Illusion helps you out immensely If you're having trouble with a certain Pokemon near the end of the game. It can literally turn what's probably the most difficult battle in this game into a 2HKO in your favor.

I ditched Zorua on my Moon playthrough and boy did I regret it.
 
Why not. Team I used after beating RR, have since reset the game because its fun. Pretty unbalanced since I just used whatever.
Decidueye is a good Pokemon. I regret not using special Decidueye after hearing about it, as I used physical in Moon and special sounds good. Either way Decidueye was generally a useful Pokemon to fall back on when I needed it, Sinister Arrow Raid tears through things incredibly well and Grass is a cool type throughout the game. I had Leaf Blade/Spirit Shackle/Brave Bird/Idontremember by the end of the game.

Pelipper was interesting because Water attacks under Rain did a lot of damage, but outside of that it doesn't do much. I feel like I missed something but Air Cutter being its best Flying STAB until it gets the admittedly awesome Hurricane was pathetic since it dealt next to no damage even against stuff that was weak to it. Messed around with both Mystic Water and Waterium-Z and eventually settled on the latter as a one off Water nuke under Rain was particularly satisfying. Tailwind was also a semi useful move albeit a bit to short lived for my liking.

Corsola being my favourite Pokemon made it an automatic placement on this team despite the type overlap. It worked about as well as I expected, which was okay. Lack of early Scald hurts this a lot but its typing and decent bulk came in useful more than I thought it would, but that's probably more due to the bad composition of my team. Still most adorable Pokemon in Refresh.

Jolteon is probably the most fun I've had using a Pokemon in a long time. Thunder Wave coming from its amazing speed was incredibly useful as speed control vs the totems it was a part of, various bosses and that one battle (the only thing stopping me from being flat out destroyed by it). Thunder works incredibly well with Pelipper's drizzle as well as never miss Gigavolt Havoc and Discharge/Thunderbolt is a good option outside of that. I rounded off its moveset with the tutor Signal Beam. Whenever the USUM In-Game VR comes around I feel like this would be a solid S Rank Pokemon if its best STAB wasn't 40 BP Thundershock until Level 37 (Discharge). Its lack of coverage outside Signal Beam isn't too great but I feel Signal Beam is good enough. Electric STAB is something special in this game.

I used Butterfree in a playthrough of Moon so I decided to use a different sleeper this time. Hypno is bad. There is little redeeming to it. While Hypnosis is cool early on I found I rarely used it after Jolteon got Thunder Wave, and its damage was incredibly weak. Its purpose late game was basically to set up Light Screen and then miss Hypnosis before dying. I eventually replaced it with the post game Type: Null gift but it was too late by then.

Nagandel comes as a weak Poipole well below your level and grinding it up was a pain, but I figured it would be better than what I was using before. Useless before league but upon evolving its a fairly powerful attacker. It was generally behind my team's levels until the end of RR which hurt its usefulness but it wasn't bad.

The Pokemon Nagandel replaced was Castform. Castform is the least fun I've had using a Pokemon in a while. I found Castform surprisingly good in ORAS so I gave it a shot here and it just doesn't stand up. Encountering it is painful enough but its awful stats and requiring a turn of set up is just so awful. It was barely passable (not really) after getting it because stuff wasn't fully evolved yet but seriously it can't keep up after that. Sunny Day Weather Ball hits sort of hard but good luck setting it up. I could rant more but this Pokemon is legitimately awful.

I used Type: Null like once.
 

CTNC

Doesn't know how to attack
I've never posted about any of my in game teams, but this time, I wanted to for some reason. Maybe it's because the only Pokemon that was available in Mundane Moon is my starter. Anyway, this is mostly bare bones because I can't think of much to say unless I can pinpoint my feelings about a Pokemon more than that it was good.

My starter was Litten. Rowlet disappointed me in Mundane Moon and I just don't like Popplio's Evolution Chain. I can't really say much about it. Constantly Good but not insane.

I used Island Scan for Bulbasaur and after Second Island Giga Drain stopped being enough for any battle, pretty much every battle his typing was good or bad with almost no in between. It was pretty funny against the Grass Trial when Comfey spammed Flower Shield.

I prefer catching Pokemon myself instead of getting them from in game trades, but that said, I can still say that Hawlucha is about as good as everyone is saying it is and for a long time it was my most Physically Bulky Pokemon. (Probably because Hawlucha had a +Def Nature and Bulbasaur had a -Def one, but still)

Flabebe... The final form looks pretty good, but until then... Ugh. If you want to use this, you NEED to teach it Giga Drain because the alternative is nothing but Fairy Wind. That said, read on before considering using Flabele. After catching it, it was bad but I thought it would be better after evolution. After Evolution, it was okay for 5 Levels, then for 5 Levels I was thinking it would be better after evolution. When I looked up where its evolution stone was. I punt kicked it into the box. I've never ditched a Pokemon mid playthrough before, but I was not dragging this thing until the Last Island just for a hope that it would be good. This pathetic thing has too little power and too little bulk. It might have been better if it had Evolite instead of Luck Incense... for about 5 Levels. (Everything had Luck Incense because I really wanted the Kommo-o Pants and Shoes. It was worth it.) Long story short, If I hadn't puntkickboxed Flotte, I'd probably hate it as much as Taistelu hates Castform. I'm spiteful enough to catch another Floette to evolve for my Pokedex. Besides, Yellow is the worst color for this Pokemon.

With Island Scan, you can get Ralts. It's like Flabele, but it evolves before you hate it and has has stab other than Fairy Wind. (Yes, I hate Flabele.) The result is a very good Pokemon.

Larvitar can be picked up right after the Water Trial because even though you can't go through the Diglett's Tunnel, you can go right inside and run in circles for it. Even though it starts with Rock Slide it's not that good until evolution. Don't worry, this isn't Flababe all over again. Without Evolite, it has okay bulk and power, good enough for any 1v1 I sent it into. (Again, Kommo-o Pants. Worth it.) With Evolite, I didn't care that it doesn't evolve after Level 55. After Level 55, it's a beast, but there was only the Elite Four and Rainbow Rocket left for me.

Mantine has nice bulk (very nice on the special side) and the very nice Water Absorb, but the offense is kind of disappointing to me, especially with Bubble Beam until Level 36. The offense isn't nonexistent bad, but it feels below average. That said, Mantine's not bad and I'm glad I tried it, but it's not something I'm likely to use again. Maybe my standards are too high...
 
Just beat the E4! I'm really happy with the team I used.

Miles (Decidueye) @ Decidium Z
Level 61
Ability: Overgrow
-Shadow Sneak
-Leaf Blade
-Spirit Shackle
-Brave Bird

Unfortunately, Decidueye was given an -Atk nature (Calm I believe) and I think a low Attack IV as well, so he didn't hit very hard. Still, Decidueye's a great in-game Pokemon and I think the best starter in US/UM.

Mia (Mantine) @ Flynium Z
Level 59
Ability: Swift Swim
-Scald
-Ice Beam
-Air Slash
-Rain Dance

Originally caught so that I could beat Totem Araquanid, Mantine is an awesome special tank (highlight: comfortably surving Totem Ribombee's +4 Dazzling Gleam) and on multiple occasions she was able to sweep under Rain as well. Honestly, I never thought Mantine would be good, but seriously, if you've never used Mantine in-game, give it a try! It's also really cute in my opinion.

Charles (Lopunny) @ Normalium Z
Level 62
Ability: Cute Charm
-Splash
-Return
-Baton Pass
-Hi Jump Kick

I was honestly really excited to see Buneary appear on Route 1, since I've always wanted to use Lopunny in a playthrough. He struggled a bit in the early-game because for a long time Quick Attack was its strongest STAB, but when he evolved and got Return and Jump Kick he really came into his own. Right after I caught Charles he was trying to learn a new move and I thought for a split second, "well, it's better than Splash", and then remembered, "WAIT, NO! Splash is actually good now!". Charles was able to sweep so many NPCs with Z-Splash; 10/10 would recommend.

Priscilla (Zoroark) @ Darkinium Z
Level 63
Ability: Illusion
-Night Daze
-Flamethrower
-Thief
-Focus Blast

Standard Zoroark doing standard Zoroark things. Without Priscilla I would most likely still be stuck on the battle against Ultra Necrozma, but because of Illusion I was able to cheese the fight and regret nothing. Thief is only there because I needed something to learn it to farm Heart Scales; I'm gonna replace it with Nasty Plot for the postgame.

Chara (Salazzle) @ Firium Z
Level 62
Ability: Corrosion
-Flamethrower
-Sludge Wave
-Toxic
-Nasty Plot

Behold Salazzle, Destroyer of Totems. I'm not gonna lie, the extent of my strategy with the last 4 totems was "hit it with Toxic and then stall". Still, it was effective and it let me fully bypass Ribombee's free Extreme Evoboost among other things (well, that and the fact that it kept setting up QDs while Toxic'd). And yes, the nickname is a reference to exactly what you think it is.

Prism (Jolteon) @ Magnet
Level 64
Ability: Volt Absorb
-Discharge
-Volt Switch
-Thunder
-Baby-Doll Eyes

Jolteon for MVP. Seriously, this guy was amazing. He more or less singlehandedly beat both Guzma and Lusamine in Aether Paradise, and then he was such a solid fighter against pretty much everything except Ground-types by virtue of being really freaking fast. The highlight was probably sweeping Kahili when she was by far the hardest E4 member in my original Moon playthrough. Could definitely stand to learn some moves of different types, though.


I've got a pretty cool idea for the Rainbow Rocket episode. I have all of my ingame teams since about 2012 saved in Bank, so I think it would be cool if for each of the villain bosses I used my team from their game. The only caveat is that most of my old teams are all Level 100, but...

Very cool that you used the Z-Splash + Baton Pass combo! Did you pull it off consistently? When I saw Lopunny being available early in USUM, I predicted that it would be the most broken in-game Pokemon ever thanks to that combo, but you're the first person in this thread to mention it.
 
So I'm waiting until Christmas to get this game, but I'm already planning out my team. Here's what I'm thinking at the moment, but it's probably not even close to final.

Incineroar - I picked Rowlet last time, and I despise Primarina's design and love fire types, so this guy is a natural pick.

Dusk Lycanroc - I use rock types way too infrequently, and Dusk Lycanroc seems awesome. Fire Fang coverage seems useful (though I do wish I had Thunder Fang for Araquanid) and rock stab is always nice to have. Loving Tough Claws and the early availability too. (though what is it with rock types without strong contact STAB getting Tough Claws?)

Kommo-O - I plan on breeding a Jangmo-O in my Sun file and getting the egg over to Ultra Sun. Maybe with a Dragonbreath egg move. I always need to have a fighting type on deck and this particular dragon always fascinated me. Brick Break at the end of Melemele sounds like a real boon, though late evolution seems annoying. If I can't get the egg to work I might just get a Noibat instead.

Jynx - An opportunity to get Jynx early-game? Sign me up! I've always wanted to use this mon tbh, she has such a weird typing and design and seems really interesting to use. Too bad I can't get Dry Skin (it would require WAY too much grinding) but forewarn is good enough. I intend on getting Smoochum/Jynx as early as possible and then backtracking for Frost Breath.

Araquanid - This mon always fasciated me. The design and the ability and the typing... I always wanted to use it. Here's my chance. Still not 100% sure on its usefulness, though, because of moveool limitations and the kind of offensive presence it has, but I'm willing to give it a shot!

Tsareena - This is the one I'm most unsure of. Trop Kick seems fun, Queenly Majesty seems fun, the mon itself seems awesome! ...but the Steenee phase gives me pause, as does the mono grass typing.
 
Kommo-O - I plan on breeding a Jangmo-O in my Sun file and getting the egg over to Ultra Sun. Maybe with a Dragonbreath egg move. I always need to have a fighting type on deck and this particular dragon always fascinated me. Brick Break at the end of Melemele sounds like a real boon, though late evolution seems annoying. If I can't get the egg to work I might just get a Noibat instead.
Just don't do the same mistake I did and breed a -Atk Jangmo-o (or at least breed it without Egg Moves). Until it evolved into Hakamo-o and got STAB off Brick Break, it hit like a wet paper towel because it learns no special moves until it becomes Kommo-o.
 
Just don't do the same mistake I did and breed a -Atk Jangmo-o (or at least breed it without Egg Moves). Until it evolved into Hakamo-o and got STAB off Brick Break, it hit like a wet paper towel because it learns no special moves until it becomes Kommo-o.
Noted! I think I'll go for like a Hasty nature or something like that. Also, which ability do you recommend?
 
Noted! I think I'll go for like a Hasty nature or something like that. Also, which ability do you recommend?
I'd go with Soundproof as powder and ball moves are rather uncommon. It also allows it to easily handle Gladion's Zoroark as it uses sound moves (or at least in my case, it always tried to use Hyper Voice).
 
Very cool that you used the Z-Splash + Baton Pass combo! Did you pull it off consistently? When I saw Lopunny being available early in USUM, I predicted that it would be the most broken in-game Pokemon ever thanks to that combo, but you're the first person in this thread to mention it.
Sadly, you'll notice that 4 of my team members are Special attackers, and Decidueye was usually too slow to sweep properly, so usually it was just Lopunny using its own Z-Splash. It was fun, though!
 
I'm waiting until Christmas to get Ultra Sun, but I've already decided on my team:

https://richi3f.github.io/pokemon-t...orlax+magnezone+aerodactyl+chesnaught+delphox

Primarina: I've already used Incineroar in Sun, so I wanted to try out my second favorite Alola starter. Unlike the rest of my team who will all be bred, Popplio will be the starter I obtain in-game. And yes, I will soft-reset until I get a female Modest Popplio. That will be fun! /sarcasm

Snorlax: I haven't used one since FRLG, so I want to see if he'll be just as good in-game as he was back then. Anyway, I wanted a bulky Normal type to deal with Ghosts, and Snorlax fits the bill.

Magnezone: At first, I didn't want to use Pokemon I used in my Sun playthrough (my team there was Incineroar, Magnezone, Ribombee, Shiinotic, Wishiwashi, and Zygarde), but those resistances plus Sturdy are too good to pass up. It was amazing in Sun, and I know it'll be just as good in Ultra Sun.

Aerodactyl: A shame that Mega Evolution is post-game, but whatever. At least his attack is good and almost nothing in Aslowla will outspeed outside of priority. As stated earlier, I'm breeding this, because screw waiting until Poni Island just to be able to use one. Speaking of Pokemon I want to obtain before the fourth island...

Chesnaught + Delphox: Since Greninja was available to players in SM via the demo, I wanted to use the Kalos starters that I actually like. That and I always like to use a FWG core for my in-game teams, and both of them cover Primarina's weaknesses pretty well.
 
I Banked a lvl 1 Wooper and Ralts at the beginning of the game. Unaware Quagsire is amazing against the totem Pokemon, he shrugs everything off. Trace was also pretty useful on Gardevoir, like getting intimidate or water absorb. I ditched my starter. For Pokemon I caught in the game, I used Starmie, Magmar, Electabuzz and Absol. Absol was slow and frail, but, Super Luck + Night Slash + Scope Lens = Critical Hits everywhere. Magmar was nice with eviolite, wish I had 2, so I could give one to Electabuzz. As for why I didn't evolve them, Magmortar is hideous and Electabuzz is faster. The Staryu I caught had a Timid nature so I had to use it, and while fast, it didn't like all the bug and dark moves all over the place. Bubblebeam until Poni was also a real pain. Before I was using Arbok, Jolteon and Oranguru, but they just got a bit boring. Against super ultra necro ball z I used an x def and x spdef on Gardevoir so it could survive smart strike (or whatever it used i don't remember)

This game was sick.
 
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Used most alolan pokemon on my Sun playthrough so I figure to try something different for USUM. Got mostly from GTS/pokebank/breeding which was so worth it. Been stuck at the Daycare center for a good two days now.



Incineroar: Most badass looking Starter to me.
Tyrantrum: Favourite Dragon Pokemon from XY, wanted to test it out on Alola.
Drapion: Really wanted a poison type Pokemon and I love Drapion.
Lucario: Somewhat speedy special attacker and with good coverage on its moveset. Needed a steel type.
Gardevoir: Fairy/psychic with good coverage. Needed a fairy type and trying really hard to not use Mimikyu again.
Jolteon: Have always wanted to try a Jolteon for a playthrough because of its speed, really thinking about switching to Heliolisk so I at least have a Surf move to throw out. But I've used it so much on past gens that I wanted to try something new.

Really deadset on the Tyrantrum and Drapion pair even though theres a double typing with Incineroar because they seem like really cool Pokemon to use. Might switch out Drapion for Poipole post-game just to try it out. Sort of dreading this team without a water-type or leaf-type but wanted to try it anyway. Any thoughts? Just wondering if any of them already fill out a specific role or are redundant.
 
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I've got Ultra Moon but have been super busy and unable to actually sit down and play it. However, this is the team I'm looking to play with.

My general theme was using Pokemon I like but haven't really used in any playthroughs so far. Firstly, I picked Popplio in Moon, and I loved it. It's my personal favorite out of the starters this generation, but I decided I want to mix it up and go for Rowlet this time around to see what it's like! Slowking comes along pretty earlier through SOS chaining on Kala'e Bay, and I like Slowking a lot, so I decided to try it out. Aegislash also comes soon after Slowking, though it'll be a Doublade for awhile since Dusk Stone comes later in the game and I want Iron Head (Lv. 45) on it anyways, so it's not a big concern to me. I like Doublade a lot too! Ribombee is an incredibly early pick as well, and I want to try it out since I had originally thought about using it on my playthrough of Moon, but never did. Seems just like a generally fun Pokemon to use. Noivern's going to be the toughest of my team to get, but I feel as if it'll be worth it. It's fast, strong, and I've never used it or Noibat! It'll just be incredibly satisfying to get it. Blissey may seem like an odd choice for in game, but I really want to give it a shot! It's nice to take on Fire- and Ice-types which I only have Slowking to fall back on, and it's just going to be hard in general to break through. Also, every single other Pokemon on my team resists Fighting-type attacks, so Blissey should be fine. TMs will save me and although Blissey's going to be really tough to get (considering I have to chain to get Happiny, use Poke Pelago to get an Oval Stone, and then raise it to max happiness), it's going to be even more rewarding than Noivern! Either that, or I'll just trade to grab one, which may just be easier. We'll see!

I'll quote this after I finish the game with the team I beat E4 with. I'm curious to see if you guys think it's crazy to try and get Aegislash, Noivern, and Blissey, though. Too much of a challenge or no?
 

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