Gen 8 Started pretty recently, but I'm hoping for feedback of some kind

I've been doing some gen 8 ou matches with some different types of teams, but the first team I had made has been giving the best results. I've been at this for about a week now, and I'm not having doubts, but I'd still like input on what I've been applying and if I've even been doing the right things. I've saved pretty much all of my matches for me to look back on and study for mistakes, but that's beside the point. What I'm trying to say is I've been having fun and all, but I can do better I think. If there's anything wrong about this this post or what my team is doing or if there's things I could do better, it would be a great help to know and point me in the right direction. I'm still new, and I'm just now figuring out how ev's even function, but I need to start somewhere. (Yes, they are named after the characters from Outer Wilds)


Chert (Magmortar) @ Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Fire Blast
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Scorching Sands

I've looked at variations of wall breakers, and I was looking to find one that I could both rely on and sorta mix up with. Magmortar being sort of an oddball of my team feels like it shouldn't be there, but they've proven to be useful with thunderbolt and scorching sands blindsiding sorta any detectable switches to water and such, while also providing the much needed offense for steel typing.

Esker (Ludicolo) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Weather Ball
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
- Knock Off

With a semi-rain build that i've been functioning with, ludicolo has been iffy, but has a wider range of type advantages, including over other water types with giga drain and with the added benefit of knock off. Weather ball is a go to ofc for my rain build, but its interesting to be able to gain that much needed speed to go up against various typings. My only gripe is its problematic interactions with poison, which decided a good amount of close matches time and time again.

Feldspar (Pelipper) @ Damp Rock
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Hurricane
- Roost
- U-turn
- Defog

A tanky rain setter, I've been able to come back reliably to peliper whenever things go south and manage to get a win just fine. I am the most confident with them in most situations. I still have problems whenever I'm ran into a corner with lightning typings or i've neglected to use them against a shedinja that's been avoiding my crustle's stone edge, but U-turn boasts to be useful before there's any problem with whatever I'm facing.

Gabbro (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 180 SpD
Calm Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Leech Seed
- Power Whip

Ferrothorn tank to help with typing difficulties. What else is new? I've asked around about this and someone told me that maybe I should go for giga drain instead of power whip, but I feel I can balance leftovers and leech seed fine to keep up hp.

Riebeck (Crustle) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Weak Armor
EVs: 242 Atk / 14 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake

I lead with crustle, which is quite underused, but I've been able to find some luck with this niche one, setting up a few matches and remaining strong throughout with earthquake. Ofc If they're killed off quickly, I'm considering to try to either switch stone edge with u-turn or see if i can go for a shell smash build instead and replace magmortar with a poke that would be more useful. Still, I am good with using them for setting up out the gate. (plus dwebble is and will always be my favorite)

Solanum (Barraskewda) @ Choice Band
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Liquidation
- Psychic Fangs
- Flip Turn
- Close Combat

I went ahead and looked up the best rain pairings online and thought to just go for it and use barraskewda (other than the fact my friend asked me to use them since it's their favorite poke) and I can confidently say that they've been my best team sweeper in general. One of my favorite things to do is to after i use peliper for initiating the rain is to u-turn and bring out barraskewda, promptly flip turn and go to ferrothorn for protection or apply more pressure by switching to ludicolo. I find so much versatility and power, but also my biggest downfall, with having 2 rain players instead of getting the most use out of just one, and bringing in maybe clefairy or a different poke. Maybe restricting myself like this isn't the best idea, but I've been rolling with it since I've started.

I've got a few other teams I've been stitching together, though my trials with attempting to put together a trick room team have been not as successful, I'm still enjoying the heck out of this, and I wish to learn more. Thank you for reading :D
 
Hey, welcome!
Sounds like you are getting in just at the right time. You'll be one the same footing as everyone else come this new gen.
First off, I love the Outer Wilds reference. One of the best games of all time for sure.

Pellipper, Ferrothorn, and Barraskewda are all super solid.

Power Whip is better than Giga Drain, especially when you have Leech Seed and a higher attack stat, but on that note I would change Ferrothorn's nature to not be minus attack. Unless you want to use Body Press, only care about the Knock Off's item effect, and are comfortable having one less water answer (though you have Ludicolo).

I would definitely give Crustle Shell Smash, especially since he's Focus Sash and max speed. Maybe replace Spikes since I doubt you have enough time with him to get much more than a single layer up. You could also replace Stealth Rock for another attack since it's on Ferrothorn already. Or if you really like Spikes, keep rocks on Crustle and replace it on Ferrothorn with spikes.

Ludicolo is fine enough; probably the best set save maybe a different move in place of Knock Off, but while other mons may fit a bit better I think he's good.

The only one that feels weird is Magmortar. (Crustle feels a little weird just because there are other rock-type Shell Smash users like Omastar that appreciate the effects of rain, but Crustle is cool.) Magmortar is certainly powerful but not well-suited to rain. Perhaps a mon that might fare better and occupy a similar role would be Volcanion. Gets water, fire, and ground moves, has water absorb, and arguably a more powerful wallbreaker that purely benefits from rain.

The typical idea with rain is having multiple abusers and less mons that don't benefit from rain (even if they aren't hurt by it either). If you are ever wanting just some general teambuilding tips (especially for non-weather teams), I have some information in my RMT post; maybe check it out.

Anyways, nice post!
 
Hey, welcome!
Sounds like you are getting in just at the right time. You'll be one the same footing as everyone else come this new gen.
First off, I love the Outer Wilds reference. One of the best games of all time for sure.

Pellipper, Ferrothorn, and Barraskewda are all super solid.

Power Whip is better than Giga Drain, especially when you have Leech Seed and a higher attack stat, but on that note I would change Ferrothorn's nature to not be minus attack. Unless you want to use Body Press, only care about the Knock Off's item effect, and are comfortable having one less water answer (though you have Ludicolo).

I would definitely give Crustle Shell Smash, especially since he's Focus Sash and max speed. Maybe replace Spikes since I doubt you have enough time with him to get much more than a single layer up. You could also replace Stealth Rock for another attack since it's on Ferrothorn already. Or if you really like Spikes, keep rocks on Crustle and replace it on Ferrothorn with spikes.

Ludicolo is fine enough; probably the best set save maybe a different move in place of Knock Off, but while other mons may fit a bit better I think he's good.

The only one that feels weird is Magmortar. (Crustle feels a little weird just because there are other rock-type Shell Smash users like Omastar that appreciate the effects of rain, but Crustle is cool.) Magmortar is certainly powerful but not well-suited to rain. Perhaps a mon that might fare better and occupy a similar role would be Volcanion. Gets water, fire, and ground moves, has water absorb, and arguably a more powerful wallbreaker that purely benefits from rain.

The typical idea with rain is having multiple abusers and less mons that don't benefit from rain (even if they aren't hurt by it either). If you are ever wanting just some general teambuilding tips (especially for non-weather teams), I have some information in my RMT post; maybe check it out.

Anyways, nice post!
Hey there, thanks for the reply!

I can definitely see the potential with the rain build now. I've changed the lead crustle for a shell smash build so they can do the dmg while also having u-turn for longer survivability and letting ferro stick to spikes. I'm giving ludicolo a protect for now since its still pretty ambiguous what I want to replace it with, but it all around works. I'll definitely out Volcanion and look at the suggested build for them, But I'm also interested in trying out maybe poliwrath, kingdra or feraligatr instead since i've seen some cool stuff with them as well.

Thank you so much for the help, cant wait for this new gen!
 

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