My final 4 team member reviews:
Doublade / Honedge (note that I never evolved into Aegislash)
Aurorus / Aumara
Goodra / Goomy
Xerneas
Doublade / Honedge (note that I never evolved into Aegislash)
Doublade - S
Availability: Honedge is found before the second gym and is decently common.
Stats: Doublade has very good Attack and breathtaking Defense. Its other stats are very poor, but Doublade has ways of making up for it. When given the Eviolite, its Defense becomes redonk and Special Defense becomes passable.
Typing: Steel/Ghost is a hell of a defensive type. 3 common Immunities and 9 Resistances is very impressive. Its STAB has nice coverage now that Fairy Types are abundant, but the numerous Steel resistant Normal types and Steel types resist it.
Movepool: Doublade's movepool does not disappoint. It comes with Swords Dance, allowing it to immediately keep pace with your most likely higher leveled team. It doesn't come with STAB, but Shadow Sneak and Shadow Claw become available soon. Along with STAB, it gets many useful ascending coverage moves: Fury Cutter, Aerial Ace, Night Slash, and the holy gift that is Sacred Sword. Fighting notably gets perfect neutral coverage with its Ghost STAB and gets many SE hits.
Major Battles: The only gym that Doublade doesn't resist is Electric. All of the others can either be muscled through with its superb defense or torn apart with SE STAB and coverage moves. In the E4 and Team Flare, it can take on anything that is not Fire Type with little care.
Additional Comments: If Steel type didn't get the defensive nerf Doublade would be beyond divine. For now, it's just regular divine.
Availability: Honedge is found before the second gym and is decently common.
Stats: Doublade has very good Attack and breathtaking Defense. Its other stats are very poor, but Doublade has ways of making up for it. When given the Eviolite, its Defense becomes redonk and Special Defense becomes passable.
Typing: Steel/Ghost is a hell of a defensive type. 3 common Immunities and 9 Resistances is very impressive. Its STAB has nice coverage now that Fairy Types are abundant, but the numerous Steel resistant Normal types and Steel types resist it.
Movepool: Doublade's movepool does not disappoint. It comes with Swords Dance, allowing it to immediately keep pace with your most likely higher leveled team. It doesn't come with STAB, but Shadow Sneak and Shadow Claw become available soon. Along with STAB, it gets many useful ascending coverage moves: Fury Cutter, Aerial Ace, Night Slash, and the holy gift that is Sacred Sword. Fighting notably gets perfect neutral coverage with its Ghost STAB and gets many SE hits.
Major Battles: The only gym that Doublade doesn't resist is Electric. All of the others can either be muscled through with its superb defense or torn apart with SE STAB and coverage moves. In the E4 and Team Flare, it can take on anything that is not Fire Type with little care.
Additional Comments: If Steel type didn't get the defensive nerf Doublade would be beyond divine. For now, it's just regular divine.
Aurorus / Aumara
Aurorus - C
Availability: Aumara is given to the player shortly before the second gym.
Stats: Both have high HP, low Speed, and average offense/defense stats.
Typing: This is one of Aurorus's weak points. Before I get to that, know that Ice/Rock is brilliant offensively: It hits 7 types Super Effectively and only Steel resists both. However, there is a reason Rock/Ice moves but not Pokemon find their way into OU: they are terrible defensively. It has 6 weaknesses, including crippling 4x weaknesses to Steel and Fighting.
Movepool: Aurorus's ability is a nice, turning Normal moves into Ice-Type STAB. Its Take Down, and much later Hyper Beam, are good at taking down enemies that are not weak to Ice. In addition to STAB, Aurorus gets Thunderbolt after gym 5 to get the famous BoltBeam coverage. It doesn't have many options, but its limited moves are very good.
Major Battles: I solo'd the 2nd gym leader with Aumara. However, after that Aurorus is rather mediocre. It can damage most of the gym Pokemon, but the problem is that they can deal just as much damage in return with SE STAB or coverage moves. You are much better off using a Pokemon that is SE, but doesn't take SE damage. Does well against Dragon E4, but pretty poorly against the rest.
Additional Comments: Well, Aurorus is a beautiful species. Sadly, its defensive typing means that it has to OHKO in order to be useful. This is very nice in minor battles, but its offensive presence isn't enough to be safe in major battles. And in this game of options, you have to do well in those battles to stand out.
Availability: Aumara is given to the player shortly before the second gym.
Stats: Both have high HP, low Speed, and average offense/defense stats.
Typing: This is one of Aurorus's weak points. Before I get to that, know that Ice/Rock is brilliant offensively: It hits 7 types Super Effectively and only Steel resists both. However, there is a reason Rock/Ice moves but not Pokemon find their way into OU: they are terrible defensively. It has 6 weaknesses, including crippling 4x weaknesses to Steel and Fighting.
Movepool: Aurorus's ability is a nice, turning Normal moves into Ice-Type STAB. Its Take Down, and much later Hyper Beam, are good at taking down enemies that are not weak to Ice. In addition to STAB, Aurorus gets Thunderbolt after gym 5 to get the famous BoltBeam coverage. It doesn't have many options, but its limited moves are very good.
Major Battles: I solo'd the 2nd gym leader with Aumara. However, after that Aurorus is rather mediocre. It can damage most of the gym Pokemon, but the problem is that they can deal just as much damage in return with SE STAB or coverage moves. You are much better off using a Pokemon that is SE, but doesn't take SE damage. Does well against Dragon E4, but pretty poorly against the rest.
Additional Comments: Well, Aurorus is a beautiful species. Sadly, its defensive typing means that it has to OHKO in order to be useful. This is very nice in minor battles, but its offensive presence isn't enough to be safe in major battles. And in this game of options, you have to do well in those battles to stand out.
Goodra / Goomy
Goodra - C
Availability: Goomy is available in its lowest stage shortly after the 5th gym. Note that to evolve Sliggoo into Goodra, there has to be natural rain on a route. This is mostly random and I went days with a Sliggoo, unable to evolve.
Stats: Goomy is trash. Its Special Defense is its highest stat, and that is average when you get it because the rest of your team will be evolved. You will most likely have to switch train it 10 levels to evolve it because it hits like wet cardboard. Sliggoo is a much needed improvement, with usable offenses and wonderful defenses when Eviolite boosted. Goodra's stats are very good. 90/70/150 Defenses is very good, you will take little damage from even SE special hits. Your 100 and 110 offensive stats are very good, but almost underwhelming on a pseudo-legend.
Typing: Dragon isn't unstoppable anymore because of Fairy, but it still has good neutral coverage and a nice number of resistances.
Movepool: Goodra gets Dragon and Water moves level up, which nets you solid neutral coverage. Goodra has a fantastic learnset of coverage moves; Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Muddy Water, Earthquake, Power Whip, and more. My only complaint is the lack of Surf; Muddy Water is acceptable, but the accuracy and ability to traverse water are missed.
Major Battles: The only gym Goodra isn't disadvantageous in is the 7th. Goodra fairs very well against Team Flare when not in the Goomy state, boasting impressive defenses and Water moves to destroy the fire types. Goodra can carry coverage moves to be SE on all 4 of the Elite 4, and can take on a few of the Champion's pokes.
Additional Comments: Goodra is wonderful. If you didn't have to deal with Goomy and finding rain, I would probably give it A rank. But it isn't good enough to warrant the intense babying it takes to get one.
Availability: Goomy is available in its lowest stage shortly after the 5th gym. Note that to evolve Sliggoo into Goodra, there has to be natural rain on a route. This is mostly random and I went days with a Sliggoo, unable to evolve.
Stats: Goomy is trash. Its Special Defense is its highest stat, and that is average when you get it because the rest of your team will be evolved. You will most likely have to switch train it 10 levels to evolve it because it hits like wet cardboard. Sliggoo is a much needed improvement, with usable offenses and wonderful defenses when Eviolite boosted. Goodra's stats are very good. 90/70/150 Defenses is very good, you will take little damage from even SE special hits. Your 100 and 110 offensive stats are very good, but almost underwhelming on a pseudo-legend.
Typing: Dragon isn't unstoppable anymore because of Fairy, but it still has good neutral coverage and a nice number of resistances.
Movepool: Goodra gets Dragon and Water moves level up, which nets you solid neutral coverage. Goodra has a fantastic learnset of coverage moves; Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Muddy Water, Earthquake, Power Whip, and more. My only complaint is the lack of Surf; Muddy Water is acceptable, but the accuracy and ability to traverse water are missed.
Major Battles: The only gym Goodra isn't disadvantageous in is the 7th. Goodra fairs very well against Team Flare when not in the Goomy state, boasting impressive defenses and Water moves to destroy the fire types. Goodra can carry coverage moves to be SE on all 4 of the Elite 4, and can take on a few of the Champion's pokes.
Additional Comments: Goodra is wonderful. If you didn't have to deal with Goomy and finding rain, I would probably give it A rank. But it isn't good enough to warrant the intense babying it takes to get one.
Xerneas
Xerneas - A
Availability: Xerneas is a mandatory capture at the end of the Team Flare plot. It is exceptionally easy to capture - I threw exactly one Dive Ball.
Stats: As expected of a box legendary, they are incredible. 126/95/98 Defenses mean that even SE hits aren't likely to deal intense damage. 131/131/99 Offenses are exceptional.
Typing: It is pure Fairy. This means you are the anti-meta: weak only to rare offensive types and can take down Dragon, Fighting, and Dark with ease.
Movepool: Comes with Geomancy and Moonblast. This by itself destroys a lot. You also get very useful coverage moves level up like Megahorn, Night Slash, and Horn Leech. Its moveset can be expanded further by TMs, but honestly Moonblast is enough against anything not Poison, Fire, or Steel.
Major Battles: Sadly, it isn't around for very many major battles. It can eat Lysandre (minus Pyroar) and doesn't struggle at all against the 8th gym. It can beat the Dragon and Water E4 members as well as contribute to the Champion fight.
Additional Comments: Xerneas kicks ass but it comes too late. I can't give it S rank in good conscious if it can only fight 1 of the 8 gyms.
Availability: Xerneas is a mandatory capture at the end of the Team Flare plot. It is exceptionally easy to capture - I threw exactly one Dive Ball.
Stats: As expected of a box legendary, they are incredible. 126/95/98 Defenses mean that even SE hits aren't likely to deal intense damage. 131/131/99 Offenses are exceptional.
Typing: It is pure Fairy. This means you are the anti-meta: weak only to rare offensive types and can take down Dragon, Fighting, and Dark with ease.
Movepool: Comes with Geomancy and Moonblast. This by itself destroys a lot. You also get very useful coverage moves level up like Megahorn, Night Slash, and Horn Leech. Its moveset can be expanded further by TMs, but honestly Moonblast is enough against anything not Poison, Fire, or Steel.
Major Battles: Sadly, it isn't around for very many major battles. It can eat Lysandre (minus Pyroar) and doesn't struggle at all against the 8th gym. It can beat the Dragon and Water E4 members as well as contribute to the Champion fight.
Additional Comments: Xerneas kicks ass but it comes too late. I can't give it S rank in good conscious if it can only fight 1 of the 8 gyms.