Before I go back into my study cave, I got an update: While studying, I laddered a lot today, and got here:
So basically I'm probably going to be #2 in the world for Battle Spot Special in the next update!
Here are some impressions from my laddering today.
1. Be warned: this ladder is sadly not as high quality as the other in cart ladders, as I ran into my fair share of people using ingame teams. Ladder isn't as active as I hoped either, but getting a match is sill reasonable, so this isn't some Rotations-like situation at least!
2. Magearna is a LOT better than I expected! A lot of people are using multiple Dark-types for Lunala and Solgaleo, so Magearna can show those mons whose boss! Trick Room is surprsingly good in this format too, it allows Magearna to be bulky unlike Shift Gear, and it lets certain Pokemon go on a rampage. Shift Gear is still probably reasonable though, but with max HP, Trick Room Magearna isn't KOed by Solgaleo's Flare Blitz, which is a huge plus imo!
3. I'm sure some of you are wondering: "Why the hell are you using Incineroar?" Well, I'm currently using Trick Room Magearna, and god damn Incineroar is INCREDIBLE under Trick Room in this metagame! Flare Blitz does a crap ton of damage to Solgaleo, OHKOs Magearna (who you thankfully underspeed), and Darkest Lariat owns Lunala once Shadow Shield has been broken. It also helps that Lunala won't OHKO Incineroar without a boost, and neither with Solgaleo thanks to Incineroar's decent bulk! Just be warned: Zygarde can be a big problem for this thing, since you will need a good chunk of damage to be already done so Outrage doesn't activate Power Construct. I'm actually considering Will-O-Wisp because of this, to at least burn the Dragon Dance variants (and also screw with Garchomp).
4. I've been seeing a TON of Greninja. I don't think Greninja is bad, but I feel like it needs residual damage to really succeed, since It won't break through Lunala is Shadow Shield is up, and Moonblast is an easy KO on it from Lunala. While other Dark-types also fail to OHKO Lunala, they also tend to be packing more power than Greninja is (mainly Weavile and Hydreigon). I wonder if there are any decent hazards setters to choose from besides Garchomp and maybe Necrozma...
5. Since so many teams were running Garchomp, Tapu Bulu is pretty cool for helping out Magearna and Solgaleo. Just remember though, Zygarde can still be a problem!
6. A lot of teams have Zygarde but very few people were sending it out. At the very least, Zygarde is really bulky and is a great Solgaleo check, so I think further experimentation is a good idea! I've been using a bulky Dragon Dance set with 100 Atk / 204 SpD / 204 Spe to survive Lunala's +1 Moonblast and KO it with +1 Crunch after Shadow Shield is down. I imagine the Coil set may have its uses though.
7. As expected, Lunala seems to be the most common Uber among competent players. It's more versatile than expected too, since I've seen them give up coverage for status moves (watch out for Hypnosis in particular) and Substitute.
For now I have put up an early viability list for you people to chew on. I will update it more after my final exams are over. Feel free to discuss the intricacies of it, I might be able to respond during some small pockets of time!