Seel The Deal

New World boosts Draco, sure, but between the Adamant nature, Garchomp's naturally higher Attack, and the Spatk drop from Draco, Z-Outrage -> Outrage x 2 is almost certainly better than Z-Draco -> Draco x 2. If you only stay in 2 turns it's a bit more up in the air, but Lin won't be the only tough battle so I'd probably just go with Outrage anyway.

Seconding Arcanine for slot 5 because imo it's one of the best Doubles 'mons in Reborn (for the main game at least) and will remain useful from the moment you get it until the moment the game ends. Meinshao in slot 6 rounds off a Fire/Water/Grass/Dark/Psychic/Fighting lineup and nukes pretty much everything in existence with High Jump Kick, Knock Off and Acrobatics. While very tedious to obtain and only available at the very end of the current episode, Naganadel is an absolute monster and should seriously be considered; amazing offensive stats, movepool, and capable of abusing multiple different fields. Manectric is available very early, and by the time its stats become less than impressive, you get its mega stone, so it's a very solid choice if you want an Electric type. Consider having some other electric type temporarily from Adrienne to Hardy, though. If you want to replace Meowstic later on but also want to keep some of the utility, Espeon gets Magic Bounce + Dual Screens along with nuts special attack and speed.

I'd recommend switching up Serperior's set quite a bit. Around this level you get access to Leaf Storm, and using Ability Capsules you can give it Contrary, reversing the stat drop of Leaf Storm (as well as secondary effects from moves like Crunch and Shadow Ball, which can get you some cheeky defense boosts from time to time). When combined, these 2 things make Serperior one of the best sweepers in Reborn, with Nature Power for variable coverage depending on the area or Hidden Power for more reliable coverage (highly recommended to breed for Fire or Ground type HP if you don't already have it, though Fighting, Rock, Electric and Ice aren't bad either), Leaf Storm, Substitute, and Giga Drain. Mamoswine gets Icicle Crash through breeding with Beartic, which is the best physical Ice move it gets, second place going to the rather laughable Ice Fang. Definitely consider catching yourself a Beartic/Cubchoo for this, because Mamoswine will stay useful for a long time to come and you want the best moveset you can get. Also, I think Drapion gets Cross Poison via Move Relearner, which would make a good replacement for Poison Fang.

Big Zelda hits super hard, has a lot of range on their melee attacks and has by far the best bombs. Some of the traps and setups this character has are borderline Snake levels of insane. Small Zelda is insanely fast for no real good reason and is probably the best zoner of the 3 but lacks killing power. Toon Zelda... I honestly don't know, I think they're supposed to be the "balanced" Zelda? I haven't actually seen anyone play them in tournaments and no one talks about them so I have no clue. My personal favorite is Big Zelda, I like playing them all equally (that is to say, I don't) but Big Zelda is the most fun to play against.

Play Rough, Iron Head, and the last 2 moveslots should probably have some combination of Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Sucker Punch, Crunch, Substitute and Stomping Tantrum

I mean, I just sort of assumed we have all choice items lol, I could very well be wrong and Scarf isn't a thing in which case Salazzle is even scarier when set up. - Also another reason Steels aren't a threat to Corrosive Mist: 1.5x power on ALL Fire moves. Salazzle eats every available Steel in the game for breakfast. - Bisharp is an option to discourage Defoggers. +2 Knock Off/Iron Head/Low Kick is something very few Defoggers want to deal with, and switchins risk losing their item or, y'know, their health. - Something should run Poisonium Z because that's a decent nuke once Steels are gone and it creates Corrosive Mist in one use rather than Clear Smog's 2. Salazzle is a bad choice for this and Gengar doesn't get much use from the nuke, so another poison type, or something that enjoys an anti-Fairy nuke, is a good idea. Naganadel could potentially forego Life Orb/Dragonium/Sash for this. +2 175 (?) BP Acid Downpour is going to wreck house regardless, even if a little less than Draconium would. ...now that I think about it, maybe Corrosive Mist isn't quite as much of a meme as I first thought.

I think the only thing that really stops Salazzle from shining is actually getting Corrosive Mist set up. The only decent 'mon that gets Clear Smog/Smog/Poison Gas and Mist/Misty Terrain is Gastrodon, who saps your momentum pretty hard and gets limited to 2 effective moveslots (likely Scald/Ice Beam and Recover). Then you have to get Salazzle set up which is easier said than done. Once it is set up properly though, it's pretty much unstoppable outside of scarfers and strong priority. HP Fighting OHKOs AV TTar, Venoshock/Flamethrower both 2HKO Toxapex...

Soak+Block is a meme at best. You need Toxic, Counter, and Recover on any Pyukumuku set. There's no room for both of those moves. Also, Pyukumuku can't switch in on Z Draco either. It gets 2HKO'd by Z-Draco -> Draco. ...besides, what does Pyukumuku do outside of checking Naganadel one in every 100 games? At least Quagsire is a decent choice for an Unaware mon in general. On an unrelated note, Salazzle is pretty hilarious in the Corrosive Mist field: +2 248 SpA Choice Specs Salazzle Flamethrower vs. 248 HP / 252+ SpD Toxapex: 165-195 (54.4 - 64.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery (Choice Specs is to emulate the 1.5x boost Corrosion 'mons get)

It seems AV TTar checks Naganadel pretty damn well. Even a +2 Z-Draco won't OHKO, and TTar has no issue OHKOing back with Earthquake. If you catch Naganadel early in the game, Pursuit can dent it as it switches out, softening it up for later to potentially take it out with priority like Scizor's Bullet Punch or M. Kanga's Fake Out + Sucker Punch. The main issue is keeping it healthy enough to check Z-Move variants; a pokemon with Wish or Healing Wish is important. TTar is also a problem for Rainbow Field teams, being able to destroy the field and handle the Sun side of things really well. Combined with a partner good against Rain, you have a solid 2-mon Balance core for thwarting a common strategy. tl;dr Tyranitar is good. What's new? Choice Specs has no issue dealing with Pyukumuku, and Pyukumuku can't actually do anything back, as its only damaging moves are Counter and Toxic, neither of which will ever hit Naganadel. Quagsire does a lot better since it can actually deal damage back and is resistant to Sludge Wave and immune to Thunderbolt, and if it uses Recover on the turn Z-Draco is used, Naganadel won't KO the next turn. Still a shaky check though, as any prior damage will lead to a OHKO. 252 SpA Choice Specs Naganadel Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Pyukumuku: 174-206 (55.4 - 65.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery 252 SpA Naganadel Devastating Drake (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Quagsire: 295-348 (74.8 - 88.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery 252 SpA Naganadel Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Quagsire: 196-232 (49.7 - 58.8%) -- 74.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery 0 Atk Quagsire Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Naganadel: 246-290 (85.7 - 101%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock

Naganadel can also run Specs, which leaves a moveslot free to bop Pex and Empoleon with T-Bolt, and leaves you less useless against Steel types in the Fairy Tale Field (though M-Steelix, Ferrothorn and Excadrill still laugh at you). It can be a scarfed revenge killer; its special attack is good enough on its own. Draconium, Firium and LO are all options on the NP set. It's not entirely a one-trick pony. Not even Blissey can truly counter it because Ice Beam doesn't exist and therefore it's pure setup fodder. That being said, I agree with Shade: Reborn is still missing some key players and the meta's going to shift drastically with every new update. I think we should wait to develop anything firm. It's always fun to speculate for now, though.

The Thunderbolt TM is available as of E18 and would go well on Gengar and Rotom-W. I'd sub Rock Climb with Flamethrower on Garchomp whenever you aren't exploring, and definitely get rid of Rock Smash on Blaziken (can also be subbed with Rock Climb on Garchomp) and for sure give it Speed Boost instead of Blaze. Alolan Ninetales gets Nasty Plot via Move Relearner I believe, and would by far be the best choice for a 4th move, as otherwise Alolan Ninetales is lacking in power. Another suggestion for Garchomp would be to give it the slightly weaker Stomping Tantrum (Mosswater Move Tutor) over Dig, that way you won't get obliterated by a double-power Earthquake on the first turn of its use.

I ended up winning with an invincible Gyro Ball/Curse Steelix and used my teammates as fodder to let it set up lol. I'm good with Hardy. On an unrelated note, I picked up this beauty in the wild first try, so that's one more psuedo ready to begin training:

Is it? If so, yeah, Slowbro is a great option, although you'd have to choose whether to mega Aero or Slowbro in any given battle.

I wouldn't trade Vaporeon for Slowking personally; neither are spectacular offensively but Vaporeon has the better defensive typing and access to Wish. If anything, go with Slowbro, and wait for the mega stone. Fast flying types with a way past Magnezone run all over your team - Krookodile's main STAB is ineffective, Froslass is frail and might get KO'd before getting an Ice Beam off, Chesnaught stands no chance, Talonflame probably won't OHKO and the recoil will make it likely to get taken out in return, and Vaporeon can't hit certain fliers all that hard. Aerodactyl could replace Talonflame; it gets Rock Slide and the elemental fangs and is faster than almost everything, so it'll solve your bird problems for good. The mega stone is available iirc as is the mega ring, so you can even make it your team's mega. Tough Claws Fly hits like a monster truck, and even Aerial Ace works fine. Not to mention Talonflame can't use its greatest tool (priority Brave Bird) more than once, unless you heal it up after the first or are in Tailwind + Mountain field. My biggest recommendation though would be to start a rotation, even if it's only 1 or 2 extra members, because no single team has a counter for everything. A well-balanced team can struggle in themed battles (gyms, E4, etc), but a team prepared specifically for that battle will struggle elsewhere, so having the flexibility to swap between the 2 is always a good idea. Some nice 'mons to consider in general (not really specific to your needs) would be Aegislash, the variety of Megas to choose from, the psuedos, Gengar, etc. Basically, if it can be found only now that E18 is out, it's a good choice for just about anyone.

I usually try to obtain a 'mon myself first, but if it's a long sidequest and life gets in the way or if I'm locked out of it then I'll trade

That is fair, and I could always just breed it if I do need a Doublade instead.

I knew about the Manectite, just have yet to get around to that puzzle since I literally just did the Agate City invasion stuff, but thanks for pointing me towards Poison Jab. Now Scolipede can be the mean bean cleaning machine it always wanted to be! I seem to have the terrible luck of never having spread moves used on the turn I select Wide Guard, but Aegislash does seem worth picking up. I could also potentially keep it as Doublade until Aegislash's extra power is needed for certain kills, since Doublade has better staying power while attacking. Chansey's an interesting one but I rarely encounter any special attackers which can break both Vaporeon AND Serperior, plus Chansey's really passive, so idk. I could potentially go with Blissey, since it's still more than capable of walling special attackers while having the ability to do some amount of damage outside of Toxic and Counter. Also shoutouts to those who called me out on Bisharp, I sorta had him in as a filler. I'll probably keep him in anyway since he's got speed investment and can OHKO basically everything on Hardy's team, and I shouldn't need him too badly anyway with my double Curse lead + Hardy's primarily physical team. If that doesn't work out I might try Durant for more speed, attack, and no EQ weakness.

Looking for suggestions on what to add to my rotation. I'm sitting right before the Hardy fight, with my planned team for him at the bottom of the box. Everything's level 80+ and EV trained (except Bagon and Deino ofc). Unfortunately, some of them are starting to fall behind the power curve (Manectric, Sharpedo, Tauros, Houndoom, and Scolipede in particular, though in all fairness 2 of them just need a Mega Stone and Scolipede's just missing Poison Jab). My effective rotation right now is probably close to 15 'mons and going into the endgame of Reborn I feel like I need a few more powerhouses ready for battle. I'm probably going to grab the other psuedo-legends at some point (except maybe Goodra, I don't see myself using it); other than that, I'm open to any suggestions!

If Arcanine has Intimidate, you can switch it in a few times in order to lower their attack. Not sure if Hawlucha has a setup move (I think it has SD?) but Mienshao doesn't so that leaves one. Rufflet and Mienfoo are both available on Route 2, the former is a flying-type who can learn Tailwind to nearly guarantee outspeeding anything for a few turns and the latter is faster than most of Samson's team and gets a field-boosted, super-effective Bounce through level up. You could also try leveling up the Meowstic. It's not the strongest, but it's fairly fast and more super-effective damage is always welcome.

next is Adrienn

even in the best cases, offensive heatran severely limits rock/ground duggy's remaining switchins under stealth rocks and its ability to survive resisted priority. magma storm does minimum 83 after rocks and trapping damage, scarf fire blast always 2hkos and outspeeds, and every variant bops it with coverage or secondary stab, plus it can sometimes burn with lava plume to cripple it for the rest of the match. it also loses to the premier espeed user (dragonite) if rocks aren't up, with EQ/Fire Punch bopping it and Espeed 2hkoing after a boost or with a boosting item, and choice band stone edge doing 77 at most through multiscale also arena trap is banned from ou on smogon so rip trapping I agree with most other points though; it's a fun meme 'mon sometimes and I have some amount of bias towards it (especially since I hate the non-alolan variant just as much if not more) but it's not really well designed Anyway my least favorite is probably the Burmy line, it's trash in every definition of the word and I don't like it's design or how they used its concept tbh.

I find training at your point in the game is sorta weird, try the re-battleable trainers in the Grand Hall. And as everyone else said, Stealth Rock.

I would suggest Brick Break (and when we get it, Earthquake) over EITHER Dragon Claw or Outrage on Haxorus, as the coverage against Steel types is more valuable than a choice between raw power and reliability. Then again, with 147 base attack and a +2 from Swords Dance, does anything bar Shedinja even matter lol? Waterfall over Hydro Cannon on Feraligatr. It goes off the higher attacking stat and gets the boost from Sheer Force, and doesn't waste a turn recharging, and has 100 accuracy, so it's literally a straight upgrade. Gardevoir could perhaps make use of Trace to copy a good ability, e.g. sending it out against a Togekiss to get Serene Grace for Moonblast's already high 30% chance to lower Special Attack to double, but it's really up in the air which of its niche abilities you pick (I personally prefer Telepathy for all the double battles in Reborn). Venusaur could use the Solar Beam TM you get late game, and perhaps Growth instead of Toxic (unless you're aiming for a multi-purpose sweeper+wall, in which case Toxic is perfect here). Other than that, seems good! I would recommend a good Ghost and/or Dark resist if you ever decide to make a rotation team and start adding 7th, 8th etc. members to your team.

A lot of people suggest Leafeon because it compliments Torchic, but it does so offensively. Defensively you're a lot better off with Umbreon, which shares no weaknesses, gives a Psychic immunity and lets Blaziken take the Bug moves directed at it. Also, Fire/Fighting/Fairy is better neutral (though worse super-effective) type coverage than Fire/Fighting/Grass/Bug (and that's being generous in including Leafeon's non-STAB coverage), so I'll recommend Sylveon offensively. As a standalone 'mon, Vaporeon. Just... just Vaporeon. Do it. Let your nigh-invincible specially offensive tank reign terror upon all.

Camerupt starts to fall off a bit from Kiki to whenever in the future we get the Mega Ring (we already have Cameruptite), thankfully you get the Fire Stone pre-Kiki and Growlithe learns its last useful move at Kiki's level cap so if you're planning on using Arcanine, that's a great time to grab it. I'd recommend a neutral/hasty/naive (each has pros and cons) nature mixed attacker, with Heat Wave/Flare Blitz/Close Combat/Crunch or Extremespeed. Another good choice is defensive Arcanine with Morning Sun or filler/Heat Wave/Crunch/filler (protect, toxic, and will-o-wisp are the best options but protect tm is unavailable and the latter 2 are very late game). Arcanine's basically the best doubles Pokemon in reborn, and even in bad doubles matchups (e.g. aster+eclipse) it pulls its weight fine. Also, Camerupt gets Curse, so I'd actually recommend Adamant with Rock Slide/Earthquake/Curse/Amnesia. You miss a fire STAB but Rock/Ground covers everything relevant and bulk alone means nothing at +6 soooo yeah. Could also run Lava Plume with a Brave nature instead of going with Amnesia. Some of the REALLY noteworthy stuff post-Serra (fair warning, some of these will be well beyond Serra): Eevee (technically pre-serra but w/e), Mienshao, Conkeldurr, Lucario, Alakazam, Reuniclus, Golurk (if you didn't get it first try from the totem you need to wait until either you can obtain it in the wild or until you can buy more Ill-Fated Dolls), Staraptor, Braviary, Absol (can be found holding the Life Orb when caught, which is one of two available in Reborn atm), Hawlucha, >>>>Feraligatr<<<< (I don't like Feraligatr at all what are you talking about I'm not crazy you're crazy), Typhlosion, Roserade (available well before Serra but only really gets good after her), Swampert, Goodra, Infernape, Togekiss, Electivire, Bisharp