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

[Kalalokki]

Just finished the Elite Four with these guys, Magnezone was prob the most clutch out of them all throughout the run. Vullaby took ages to evolve and I didn't get Larvesta until my team was around lvl 49, with it evolving to Volcarona only just before the E4. Bit bulkier and slower than what I usually go with but it was fun using some stuff I hadn't before.

 

[Khaelis]

Reposting due to an alteration to my team I had to made, because of some information I learned of. Replaced Honchkrow with Crobat, due to the Dusk Stone being pretty late into the game, and I really dislike using pre-evolution Pokemon for extended periods of time, and I do not want to pray on RNG with Poke Pelago, or trade one over as I consider that a bit cheap.

Posted a while ago, but made some alterations to the team, and felt like reposting it with some more information.

First up, Primarina: I used Decidueye in Moon, so I decided to use the Water-type starter this time around. Plus a huge issue in Moon I had was lack of decent special attackers, and Primarina will fix this problem.
Second up, Lycanroc-Dusk: I used Lycanroc-Midnight in Moon, but I fell in love with Dusk's design the moment I saw it and having it be an event Pokemon basically makes it a secondary pseudo-Starter Pokemon.
Third up, Crobat: The replacement of Honchkrow. I still needed a Flying-type, and Crobat fits that role with ease. And surprisingly, I never used a Crobat on a playthrough before! It also helps Zubat is also able to be caught before Hala's Grand Trial as well (even though I'll have Popplio with a Fairy-type move at this point)
Fourth up, Arcanine: I really love this Pokemon and I wanted to use it in Moon when it came out, but whenever a new generation comes out I always stuck with that generation's Pokemon until the remakes or third version game came out, so I'll be using Arcanine this time around.
Fifth up, Lurantis: Right. This is the oddball of the team. I originally planned on picking up Drampa as my final Pokemon, but I completely forgot that the datamined info was from Ultra Moon and Drampa is exclusive to the Moon games so I just randomly picked a Grass-type Pokemon and remembered Lurantis exists on the second island. Plus Lurantis covers a bit of my team's weaknesses. Kind of.
Finally, Alolan-Ninetales: I had Moon, so I was unable to use Alolan-Ninetales because I got stuck with the version exclusive nonsense and didn't want to trade for one, so now that I'll be getting Ultra Sun, you bet I'll be using this Pokemon.

So, this is the final team I'll be using. Pretty weak to Rock- and Poison-types, with a mild weakness to a lot of various types, but as I've said I enjoy using teams with obvious weaknesses to certain types for the added challenge if I come across those typings. In this case, Rock- and Poison-types.

 

[Missingno. Master]

Team's still looking to consist of Primarina, Crabominable, Noivern, Houndoom, and Nihilego, but I'm becoming increasingly indecisive as to the Grass-type. I know I want to use a Grass-type, just not sure which one I want to go with. The ones I'm debating are Dhelmise, Kartana, Leafeon, or Lurantis. Probably not gonna use the totem-sized Lurantis- I'm feeling more inclined to save that for when I can SR for a competitive one, as it apparently comes with Contrary.

 

[Siggu]

With the news that Pokebank will be available "at the end of november", I've decided to use this team.

I think it will be a fair challenge due to the glaring weaknesses to Ice and Fairy (or so I think, it will depend on distribution), and the fact three of these Pokemon evolve very late.

Outside of Decidueye, I have never used any of these Pokemon to beat a Pokemon game before (excluding ROM Hacks)

 

[Melons-N-Soda]

So a bit of an adjustment to my team. Now looks like this:
Decidueye/Arbok/Hariyama/Octillery/Houndoom/Claydol

Hariyama and Houndoom are strong ass mons. I'll GTS scum for a Houndour though cause fucking hell they placed it late into Ultra Sun (I'm getting Ultra Moon though but I wanted to point that out regardless).

 

[Tastypie]

Alright, 3 more days till USUM, thought I might sign up on Smogon as well! Hello guys :)

For my team, I basically have 5 members figured out, but I really can't decide which should be the last one.

It's either:

Or:

- I started by choosing Tyranitar and Zoroark for the playthrough, because so far, we never had the chance to use those 2 early in a Pokemon playthrough. So these 2 will be on the team no matter what.

- The first big problem were Zoroark's and Tyranitar's glaring Fighting and Bug weaknesses. Fortunately I planned on using Decidueye anyway, so the Ghost-typing helps compensating for this weak spot. Furthermore, Decidueye is an amazing partner for Zoroark because it attracts dark and ghost attacks, which Zoroark resists under its illusion.

- The Fighting and Bug weaknesses were still too big and I also wanted to build a fire-water-grass core, so the next team member should be a Fire type that hits both Fighting and Bug types hard. I ended up with 2 Fire-Flying types, Talonflame and Charizard. Talonflame was my initial choice but then I checked the movepool and noticed that it only gets Ember till level 39. That's not good, especially for someone who recently played Gold with Cyndaquil and had to deal with the same issue.

- To complete the core, I chose Gyarados for multiple reasons. Flying as secondary type is just so good in this team because it's effective against Fighting AND Bug. And if USUM is even remotely like S&M, Gyarados will be a beast.

- Choosing the last team member is a pain. It has to be a Steel type, because so far, nothing resists Dragons and only one Pokemon resists Fairies. The 2 best contenders in my opinion are Metagross and Aegislash.

Metagross: Powerhouse and Tank in one package, Psychic so far not on the team, good synergy with Zoroark as it attracts Dark and Ghost types, but evolves slowly and becomes available late
Aegislash: Earlier available than Metagross, OP ability, also great synergy with Zoroark for the same reasons as above, but requires a Dusk Stone to evolve and is only available through Island Scan, also even slower than Metagross.

In either case, I think the team is pretty solid. The one thing that bothers me is that I don't have a Dragon or Ice type on my team, so dealing with Dragons will be tough. My strategy is to tank hits with my Steel type and use Gyarados's Ice Fang to beat them. That should be enough.

So, what do you think? Would you prefer Aegislash or Metagross for this team?

 

[Zukrad]

My current team

To make more interesting this run, I decided to only use Pokemon that you can obtain via ingame trade (this has its consequences, like having no Psychic resist)

Also, I want to add that Hawlucha is fantastic in this game, specially the ingame trade one thanks to extra Exp, Unburden and Brave Nature, nothing in the first two islands is a challenge to it, and is still fantastic in the third island and fourth island, with some exceptions (Ghost Trial for example)

Noibat-Trade is decent as soon as you get it, hits hard thanks to Modest nature and resist some important figths, but starts being pretty inefficient as soon as you get to levels 30-48, in which is pretty much dead weight. A soon as it evolves it becomes fantastic, specially after learning Draco Meteor from Poni Island

Trevenant can stall pretty well in the lategame, but is not so useful early on. Once it learns Shadow Force+Leech Seed+WoW is when the fun starts

Wishcash is really useful in the middle, but gets outclassed as soon as you get to Poni island by Shellos, which evolves into Gastrodon inmediatly

Arbok is garbage, don't use it. At least this one has intimidate + free exp, I can't imagine how bad is a Vanilla Arbok without intimidate

 

[LucarioMega]

Help me out guys. My team right now is: Primarina, Zoroark, Alakazam (pkhexed Kadabra) Magneton (Magnezon when i get to Poni), Blaziken and Archen (soon to be Archeops).

Thing is, i just love Naganadel, one to use it when i get it, but my team is pretty good covered right now. What changes could i make/who should i replace for Naganadel? What you guys think?

 

[Sondero]

Help me out guys. My team right now is: Primarina, Zoroark, Alakazam (pkhexed Kadabra) Magneton (Magnezon when i get to Poni), Blaziken and Archen (soon to be Archeops).

Thing is, i just love Naganadel, one to use it when i get it, but my team is pretty good covered right now. What changes could i make/who should i replace for Naganadel? What you guys think?

Your Alakazam is unpure, purge it by replacing it with Poipole as soon as you get the chance.

In all seriousness, Alakazam and Naganadel are pretty similar stats-wise. So that's the choice I'd make.

 

[Tastypie]

Help me out guys. My team right now is: Primarina, Zoroark, Alakazam (pkhexed Kadabra) Magneton (Magnezon when i get to Poni), Blaziken and Archen (soon to be Archeops).

Thing is, i just love Naganadel, one to use it when i get it, but my team is pretty good covered right now. What changes could i make/who should i replace for Naganadel? What you guys think?

Hm, I see 2 possibilities to add Naganadel to your team.

1. Drop Alakazam. Both are fast special attackers and Psychic isn't the greatest offensive typing either. On the downside, you now have 3 Pokemon that are weak to ground.

2. Drop Blaziken. Your overall resistance count gets much better as you lose 1 water and 1 flying weakness without losing much coverage. On the downside, Blaziken fulfills a different role than Naganadel.

So the choice basically comes down to "do I drop the Pokemon that has a similar role or do I drop the Pokemon whose drop benefits my overall type coverage the most?"

 

[LucarioMega]

Your Alakazam is unpure, purge it by replacing it with Poipole as soon as you get the chance.

In all seriousness, Alakazam and Naganadel are pretty similar stats-wise. So that's the choice I'd make.

Hm, I see 2 possibilities to add Naganadel to your team.

1. Drop Alakazam. Both are fast special attackers and Psychic isn't the greatest offensive typing either. On the downside, you now have 3 Pokemon that are weak to ground.

2. Drop Blaziken. Your overall resistance count gets much better as you lose 1 water and 1 flying weakness without losing much coverage. On the downside, Blaziken fulfills a different role than Naganadel.

So the choice basically comes down to "do I drop the Pokemon that has a similar role or do I drop the Pokemon whose drop benefits my overall type coverage the most?"

Hey guys, thanks for the replies! I see the point about Alakazam. We have to consider this is late/postgame, so what would i be facing at that point? I tought Zam was necessary for Hala, but now that i think about it, im pretty sure Archeops can do the job (Jeez, that mon is a complete beast. Itemless Acrobatic is insanely powerfull). Also Archeops can cover the ground weaknesses with an immunity, which is great.

Blaziken is doing great right now, and i dont want to be full of Special atackers (Zoroark is most likely gonna get Dark Pulse/Flamethrower) , so i think im gonna swap Zam as you guys said. Thanks a lot for the help!

 

[dracopalidine]

Seems pretty balanced.
Primarina is definitely my favorite starter this generation.
Lycanroc-Dusk Gotta use the event pokemon with the release and Lycanroc pairs pretty well with Primarina.
Hawlucha is just cool. Also an early game trade for such a good one means one less that I have to spend time catching.
Mimikyu A downside is Mimikyu isn't as early but it's become one of my all time favorites so I don't really care.
Magnezone honestly mostly for the coverage
Malamar I haven't tried Malamar before, so I have no experience here. But seems interesting at least

 

[DreamPrince]

The team I will be Using for Ultra Moon.

Primarina: I was considering Incineroar because I started with Primarina in Moon, but when deciding the team members, I decided to stick with Primarina, because I need a water type, and no offense, Decidideye is totally overrated.
Mismagius: One of my favorite Ghost-types, Mismagius is unfortunately outclassed by Gengar in several aspects ( There better be Mega Mismagius soon.), so a let's play the best places to use it. It also has a useful ground-immunity, which my team wants.
Goodra: A bulky, powerful, Dragon-type, Goodra fits the niche very nicely, and is my favorite to boot.
Cinccino: I freaking LOVE chinchillas! There one of my favorite animals, like EVER!
Flareon: People always say Flareon is the worst of the Eeveelutions... However, I disagree! Flareon was gifted with an Attack Stat that rivals Garchomp, and was given Flare Blitz. Who's the worse now. I have officially decided to challenge myself with this Eeveelution.
Ampharos: I love the Mareep evolutionary line. ( Not as much as chinchillas though. ) And I wanted an Electric-type.

On that note, I'll be using a different note for Rainbow Rocket.

 

[kaxzerZ]

The Team I'm going to use in Ultra Sun

PRIMARiNA : Honestly the other starters are pretty bad, and that mon carried me in my Moon playthrough so I've decided to use it again.
ARCANiNE : This thing is so good! It carried me in gen 1, 2, HGSS and BW2, and it's a pleasure to have him the team again.
GOLiSOPOD : I had that mon in my Moon playthrough too, and it did really well from what I remember + I love its design .
TYRANiTAR : When ppl told me they were now Larvitars in Diglett Tunnel, I knew I wanted that thing in my team. It's the first time in a Pokemon game that this mon is available that early, so I'm really excited to use it. (I also thought about Bisharp in this slot, but Ttar is 100 times better).
GARCHOMP : Thing was banned in gen 4. It's insanely good, reminds me of my Platinum playthrough where it was an absolute beast! The only thing is that it'll be tough to get, cause I'm pretty sure Gabite is a rare SOS encounter, but it will definetely be worth the effort.
DHELMiSE : The only cool grass type in this game, and it gives me a good option against fairies with its third stab. I'll also hopefully have Arcanine's Intimidate to ensure that I get a high level'd one at the fishing spot, cause its levels go from 10 to 44.

ngl this squad looks dope and I'm excited to use it, lmk what you think about it :]

 

[Garuru]

I'm going to get Rowlet, then immediately trade for an Exeggcute egg (with Harvest!), so I can have Alolan Exeggutor as my starter. Then, Event Rockruff, and catch one pokemon on each island. Final team:

 

[Xen]

It only took me to release day, but I finally decided on what I wanted to run.

Primarina: I used Litten in Sun, and while I like Rowlet, I decided to give Popplio a spin this time around. I've always been a fan of Water/Fairy, and if Scald comes just as early in these games as it did in S/M, then Prim will break the early game in half while still remaining strong late game.

A-Dugtrio: K-Dugtrio is one of my all-time favorite in-game Pokemon, and I figured you can't go wrong with a Dugtrio with Excadrill's typing. Between him and Prim, I expect to not have any hair-gel left by the end of the game.

Hawlucha: I've always been a fan of Hawlucha, but never did use it during the X/Y days. I hear he's really good in USUM, and comes super-early to boot, so I figured now is as good of a time as ever to give him a try.

Oranguru: I picked Sun among the last set of games and ended up using Passimian on my team (who sadly ended up being the weakest link of the team). Since I picked Ultra Moon this time around, and I was glad to see another Pokemon beside lolGirafarig with Normal/Psychic, I figured I'd complete the version-exclusive duo. Hopefully he pulls he weight better than his Rugby cousin.

Salazzle: I needed a Fire type, and initially was going to use Volcarona, but after seeing how late and rare it was, I decided to ditch it for another Fire. None of the other Fire types interest me, and I figured Salazzle would be the best fit on my team (and it also murders a particular end game totem that I've been hearing horror stories about).

Vikavolt: I used Vikavolt already in Sun, but I needed an Electric type, and since Volc comes too late, I decided to take Vikavolt for a second run. It held up surprisingly well in Sun despite the late evolution, so I expect it'll be even better in these games now that it evolves earlier.

 

[Kanburi]

Here's my team for UM (which I'm playing first). I'll be trading all their basic forms from my Sun game, so they'll all receive the EXP boost, but I had no choice since some of these are only available late game and I really want to use them throughout the game.

Primarina: I used Incineroar and Decidueye for Moon and Sun respectively last year, so this one needs no explanation.

Lurantis: For some reason I really like three of the new grass types this generation in Lurantis, Tsareena, and Shiinotic. I used the latter two last year and to be honest was really close to choosing Tsareena again, but then I saw that it got a certain move that goes with Contrary so I might as well give it a go.

Kommo-o: Didn't use one in SM because it was so late in the game, gonna be running a special one.

Scizor: Despite being my favourite Pokemon, I've never used one in-game. I didn't play generations 2 through 5, and only picked up Pokemon again in XY. Similar to Kommo-o, it's only available late-game, by which point my teams are usually fixed.

Alolan Marowak: Love the design on this Pokemon and really enjoyed using it in last year's Battle Tree.

Salazzle: I was swinging between Salazzle and Alolan Muk for the last slot, but ultimately decided to go with Salazzle because my team could use some extra speed.

So yeah not a whole lot of reasoning behind my choices, mainly just I like them and never had a chance to use them before. Alolan Muk and Vikavolt are almost definitely going to be on my Ultra Sun team, but I'll worry about that two months later.

 

[Prof. Almeida]

I find it funny to see all your plans and whatnot. I'm just getting everything and using whatever I like. Right now, I'm using 4 I've never used before in-game. Bunneary, Popplio, Zorua and Grubbin.

 

[Adamant Zoroark]

Squad:

Only Decidueye and Zoroark were decided on in advance. I picked Rowlet as my starter for my first run of Ultra Sun because I've already had Popplio, Litten, and dropped starter runs in Sun and Moon. Zoroark I picked because refer to username; it's catchable in the game (pretty early too, you can get it before the first trial), therefore I'm using it.

For the most part, everything else was decided on the spot, although some (very rough) analysis was involved. Slowbro, Hariyama, and Arbok (especially the last two) function as good Zoroark disguises, as the AI will attempt to target them with moves Zoroark resists (or, even better, Psychic-type moves) while Illusion is active. Dusk Lycanroc was a completely on-the-spot decision, mainly to get my sixth spot filled without repeating a type (though it has actually been useful so far; Z-Happy Hour is pretty neat). Now I just need to be awake and in-game in between 5 and 6 PM so I can evolve it and stuff.

 

[jagged_angel]

Do we know if Crabrawler evolves any earlier in USUM? I quite like the idea of using it as my Zoroark's illusion, but not willing to drag it all the way to the E4.

 

[Nexus]

Do we know if Crabrawler evolves any earlier in USUM? I quite like the idea of using it as my Zoroark's illusion, but not willing to drag it all the way to the E4.

It does now you can access a small portion of mt lanakila when you hit island 3 before climbing up there for the E4

 

[Fenix704]

USUM Team plan

SM Team


As I´ll be getting the game probably by Christmas, could someone help me out by telling me where I can find some of the team members I planned for USUM? Namely Zoroark, Salamence, Ampharos and Lycanroc. I know Zorua can be caught in the Trainer School, and Bagon´s in Route 3 again, but where can I get my hands on Ampharos and Volcarona? I need to plan this out for trades and stuff I guess. Thanks!

Why I chose this team:

I chose Decidueye last time, so I´ll choose Primarina this time. Zoroark caught my eye ever since Zorua appeared in a trailer (alongside Mareep and Larvesta), and playing with its Illusion will be interesting, especially for fighting Psychic types. Salamence is just an awesome pick I regret not taking with me in Sun, so this will be nice. As I don´t want to use Raichu-A nor Magnezone, Ampharos is the third Special Attacking Electric type ATM, so that´s going to be my choice. Volcarona´s just going to be a great asset to the team, with Quiver and Fire Dances, as well as Bug Buzz. My sixth member is Lycanroc-Dusk to round up the type coverage, also I want to avenge Rex (my Lycanroc from Sun) because he had to sit the Elite 6 out in favour of Solgaleo. No legendaries this time around, haha. Which is nice considering people might not even be able to get Necrozma in time for the league.

Strong points:
Great type coverage. Plenty of interesting strategies to use, setup should work well with Volcarona and Salamence. Zoroark will be a great trumpcard for when the time arises.

Weak points:
No good counter to Fairies, as well as no one who resists them. Might need a Steel or Poison move on someone. Dealing with Mina´s trial or Lysandre´s Xerneas is going to be a pain.

What do you think?

 

[Raikaria]

I'm running mostly blind; and actually doing a Nuzlocke. I'm getting ready for Hala right now; so I'll share my current team:

Triple Flying and Double Electric are probobly not the best, and my Rock weakness is massive and I'm hoping to get something to fix that in time for Olivia... but this team is certainly serviceable for Hala.

Also Inkay is absurdly good. Comes with Reflect; and gets Foul Play [BP95 STAB] at Lv8. Inkay ran a train through Gumshoos and pretty much everything else that opposes it too. Just gotta keep it away from Bugs.

Also Fire runs a train through my squad. Luckily; a Water-type will fix both Rock and Fire issues.

 

[Perfect Shadow]

My current planned team for Ultra Moon is as follows:

I'm not absolutely set on it though and would very much appreciate suggestions if someone sees any glaring issues. My immediate concerns already are having three mons in the slow experience group, one of which is also a very late final evolution with an ability that could backfire on me.

If possible I'd like to avoid too much overlap with my previous teams:

Moon: Incineroar/Pelipper/Alakamzam/Ribombee/Salamence/Golisipod

Sun: Primarina/Magnezone/Arcanine/Gengar/Mudsdale/Bewear

However I'm already intending to use Alakazam again so it's not a hard rule. I'd also like to avoid too many slowmons this time (Tyranitar being the current planned exception) even though Mudsdale put in considerable work in my Sun run.

 

[ShadowRkaiser]

Yeah yeah I know, Naganadel is a late pick, but he still deserves that spot. The rest of those I can already get an egg for them so its interesting.
Team Litten for life(if only we had his HA...), while Tyranitar has to be part of my team whenever he is avalaible. Basicaly here are almost all my favourites/avalaible in the game + Tsareena so I can kill water types.