I have been playing singles for a while now and by far the hardest thing for me is team building, and I don't like snagging teams from youtubers or from tournaments since experienced players would know what's up and can just pull up my team and not have to scout for anything. So this lead to me making my own teams and in gen 7 I made a decent team I was quite comfortable with. So I decided to do my best with recreating it in gen 8 swapping specs ash-gren for drag and mega-cham with lucha. And it worked very well in the ace and mage metagame, but once those got banned I noticed the team's reliability went down severely. I saw a lot more tran just like my old gen 7 team the team struggles with it. There's a lot more corv that now doesn't die to explosion from lando
and thats my game plan when going against one of the many fat birds. And volc is also much for prevalent since I have little counterplay other than boom or to somehow manage to safely get lucha in under terrain before it's too late. Also, slowing-galar walls my whole team almost and can just pivot out with regen if lando or kart is out and neither can switch directly in.
Hawlucha @ Electric Seed
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Acrobatics
- Close Combat
- Poison Jab
Lucha was put here to mainly replace mega-chams old role as a powerful fighting type that pairs well with koko, but I soon realized the two do not play the same. As lucha is more of an end game sweeper than a wall breaker and I feel like I'd rather have a wall breaker since this team isn't built to support lucha all that well for a sweep all too well and half the time it's on volc duty. I think this is a good mon to scrap all together for something to break past those strong corv bliss/ g-king bird cores. Also, its speed tier is quite redundant for this team.
Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Smart Strike
- Leaf Blade
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword
Ol' reliable end game sweeper is back and it is pretty consistent after I chip down one of the birds and tran. And it enjoys that torn is running a more offensive spread these days. But it struggles with the birds that punish it for making content via status or helmet. I think it belongs on this team but it needs something that can help it do what it does best as it has poor synergy with half of my team that struggles with the same defensive mons as some of my other offensive threats.
Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Hydro Pump
Specs pult came in as an ash-gren replacement and it does the same job to a lesser degree. Spamming specs attacks are really nice while having better coverage than ash gren so it can threaten more mons. However, it inherits the awful role of this team of the main tran switch in, which it does better than gren but it's still unreliable as hell. It takes too much from hazards and magma storm spam, with pump it removes tran easily but that basically cost me one of my best offensive treats and tran definitely did its job by the time I kill it. But besides tran it does a great job at out speeding and cleaning up enemy teams or if lucky it can break through opposing teams if they are weak to it. And for this team, I think clear body is better since I'm weak to webs offense. If given more support it could be way better.
Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roost
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
Orb defog koko is a prety wonky set in gen 8. My only defogger getting rid of its own terrain is pretty bad synergy with lucha, and it does hurt its own offensive potential. However, this set is still pretty consistent, it might no longer blow through zapdos like it used to. The 20% reduction to its power does hurt it a bit but with orb, tbolt still does a ton to whatever it is up against. And having roost it doesn't have to worry about hazards or recoil as it can click it pretty freely on a switch or in front of fat that has a hard time punishing it for doing so. And with defog I don't have to worry about them setting up multiple hazards in my face as I get my health back. Its a basically defogger with offensive potential like the defog karts that are running around while having longevity.
Landorus-Therian @ Normal Gem
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk
Adamant Nature
- Explosion
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
With z-moves being gone I kinda lost my nuke button that I can use to blow up an opposing wall that my team is having a hard time breaking so with gem boom I can get the surprise ko. I mainly do this in front of the birds that are not corv as it has a high chance of koing, but can prove pretty unreliable as backup options are pretty limited on this team. But other than that is your standard rocks lando it comes in gets up rocks and can pivot on physical attackers and hit them with a powerful eq or just spam u-turn for smooth brain momentum provided no helmet.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 112 Def / 140 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Body Press
- Power Whip
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
Ferro is just great, the dedicated switch into all things, not fire. Hit surprisingly hard with whip and can use press in an incoming tran or help with the oh so fun ferro vs ferro battles. It provides great chip damage with its attacks, spikes and can help heal with seed. The only problem with it that he kills momentum when he is out and that kinda thing happens with mons like this, unfortunately. Also, I do not know an optional spread for ferro I have not run the calc to see how many pault shadow balls or chomp eqs it can take. Other than it's a momentum killer I think it fits quite well other than in makes my tran weakness 10x worse.
and thats my game plan when going against one of the many fat birds. And volc is also much for prevalent since I have little counterplay other than boom or to somehow manage to safely get lucha in under terrain before it's too late. Also, slowing-galar walls my whole team almost and can just pivot out with regen if lando or kart is out and neither can switch directly in.
Hawlucha @ Electric Seed
Ability: Unburden
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Acrobatics
- Close Combat
- Poison Jab
Lucha was put here to mainly replace mega-chams old role as a powerful fighting type that pairs well with koko, but I soon realized the two do not play the same. As lucha is more of an end game sweeper than a wall breaker and I feel like I'd rather have a wall breaker since this team isn't built to support lucha all that well for a sweep all too well and half the time it's on volc duty. I think this is a good mon to scrap all together for something to break past those strong corv bliss/ g-king bird cores. Also, its speed tier is quite redundant for this team.
Kartana @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Smart Strike
- Leaf Blade
- Knock Off
- Sacred Sword
Ol' reliable end game sweeper is back and it is pretty consistent after I chip down one of the birds and tran. And it enjoys that torn is running a more offensive spread these days. But it struggles with the birds that punish it for making content via status or helmet. I think it belongs on this team but it needs something that can help it do what it does best as it has poor synergy with half of my team that struggles with the same defensive mons as some of my other offensive threats.
Dragapult @ Choice Specs
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Shadow Ball
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Hydro Pump
Specs pult came in as an ash-gren replacement and it does the same job to a lesser degree. Spamming specs attacks are really nice while having better coverage than ash gren so it can threaten more mons. However, it inherits the awful role of this team of the main tran switch in, which it does better than gren but it's still unreliable as hell. It takes too much from hazards and magma storm spam, with pump it removes tran easily but that basically cost me one of my best offensive treats and tran definitely did its job by the time I kill it. But besides tran it does a great job at out speeding and cleaning up enemy teams or if lucky it can break through opposing teams if they are weak to it. And for this team, I think clear body is better since I'm weak to webs offense. If given more support it could be way better.
Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Roost
- Thunderbolt
- Dazzling Gleam
Orb defog koko is a prety wonky set in gen 8. My only defogger getting rid of its own terrain is pretty bad synergy with lucha, and it does hurt its own offensive potential. However, this set is still pretty consistent, it might no longer blow through zapdos like it used to. The 20% reduction to its power does hurt it a bit but with orb, tbolt still does a ton to whatever it is up against. And having roost it doesn't have to worry about hazards or recoil as it can click it pretty freely on a switch or in front of fat that has a hard time punishing it for doing so. And with defog I don't have to worry about them setting up multiple hazards in my face as I get my health back. Its a basically defogger with offensive potential like the defog karts that are running around while having longevity.
Landorus-Therian @ Normal Gem
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk
Adamant Nature
- Explosion
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- U-turn
With z-moves being gone I kinda lost my nuke button that I can use to blow up an opposing wall that my team is having a hard time breaking so with gem boom I can get the surprise ko. I mainly do this in front of the birds that are not corv as it has a high chance of koing, but can prove pretty unreliable as backup options are pretty limited on this team. But other than that is your standard rocks lando it comes in gets up rocks and can pivot on physical attackers and hit them with a powerful eq or just spam u-turn for smooth brain momentum provided no helmet.
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 112 Def / 140 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Body Press
- Power Whip
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
Ferro is just great, the dedicated switch into all things, not fire. Hit surprisingly hard with whip and can use press in an incoming tran or help with the oh so fun ferro vs ferro battles. It provides great chip damage with its attacks, spikes and can help heal with seed. The only problem with it that he kills momentum when he is out and that kinda thing happens with mons like this, unfortunately. Also, I do not know an optional spread for ferro I have not run the calc to see how many pault shadow balls or chomp eqs it can take. Other than it's a momentum killer I think it fits quite well other than in makes my tran weakness 10x worse.