The New Moon weather condition is by far the most interesting addition to battling in Pokemon Insurgence, at least in my opinion and during my first playthrough of the game I mostly ignored it. After picking Delta Bulbasaur as my starter I decided I had no reason to think twice about it. However, since my second playthrough where I chose Delta Charmander, like many other people did for their first, I came to love using New Moon as a part of my teams and every playthrough since I’ve been using New Moon builds to play through the story and the post game. So here are some of the best and most interesting teams I came up with that utilize the New Moon mechanic to the fullest:
My In-game playthrough team which I have been using from the elite 4. Delta Volcarona was previously Primal Giratina but after beating the elite 4 the first time I decided to stop using legendaries in favour of more interesting teambuilding. The team mostly relies on setting hazards, getting OHKO’s with the hard hitters like Mega Gengar and Greninja before going for the final sweep with Delta Scyther. This was the team I used when facing the elite 4 rematches and I didn’t have any trouble at all.
https://pokepast.es/2e7d1cd1ce6dae78
Literally the same team as before but with Mega Gengar swapped for Mega Hydreigon. Technically Hydreigon is the better option for a mega since Greninja and Scyther are usually fast enough to manage, but for some reason I just preferred using Mega Gengar in my own playthrough. This team will do the exact same as the previous one but with slightly more flexability and you can use Flamethrower instead of U-Turn if you want more coverage.
https://pokepast.es/5c344c450efc5abd
The same new moon team core as the previous teams but with the physical Hone Claws sweeper replaced with Quiver Dance setup and Baton Pass. Other than Spiritomb and Clefable, all the team members use only Special attacks so Quiver Dance could theoretically be passed to any of them but it will obviously work best with its intented target, Mega Delta Blastoise although it’s also effective with Mega Hydreigon and Mega Delta Pidgeot.
https://pokepast.es/05dd3469a8ff0ccf
This team focuses more on sand than on darkness, using the darkness set up by Mega Delta Charizard as a supporting aspect rather than a central one. The darkness allows Blaziken better setup with Hone Claws and Bisharp stronger priority as well as the power boost to Charizard itself, but the primary core of the team revolves around passing boosts from Blaziken to Garchomp and sweeping with overwhelming physical power. Tyranitar and Excadrill provide excellent support for both Garchomp and Bisharp/Charizard with hazard removal, speed control and Pursuit trapping although unfortunately Pursuit itself won’t be boosted by the darkness as Tyranitar sets sand upon switch-in.
https://pokepast.es/681e90dce2bbd72f
A variation on the last team with the same sweep set-up with Mega Garchomp instead of regular Garchomp but darkness is the central aspect of this team and sand has been entirely removed. Delta Roserade is loved by most people who use darkness and on this build you get to use both of its playstyles in the same team, you’ll need to trade or use Delta Ditto in order to obtain 2 of them but as stupid as it might look at first glance it actually works quite well, Blaziken only really needs 1 turn of darkness in order to set-up and Garchomp doesn’t need darkness to sweep it just appreciates the defense against Fairy type moves and with screens from Lunatone most of your pokemon will be untouchable with anything but super effective moves. (Dark Rock can be given to Delta Roserade if preferred in which case Lunatone can afford to run Light Clay)
https://pokepast.es/25961e98580e19dd
The only good New Moon team I could come up with that utilized Mega Delta Charizard, I honestly don’t like Delta Charizard very much as a darkness setter, its speed tier is somewhat average and its defenses are lacking which make it very susceptible to being one shot before it can even get off an attack, added to the fact that the weather it sets can’t be boosted by Dark Rock for extra turns, I find Mega Delta Charizard quite hard to use. However using a more defensive style team with 2 darkness setters instead of 1 helps to make up for its downfalls, just remember to switch into one of your walls whenever Charizard is threatened.
https://pokepast.es/5fb9023e6cc14a79
Another duplicate team, this one with Spiritomb swapped for Klefki. For those who’d prefer to have screens down before setting up with Delta Scyther or hazard stacking and stalling with Clefable and Delta Volcarona. Thunder Wave can be swapped for Foul Play if you want at least some damage potential with Klefki but I personally find Thunder Wave more useful for crippling pokemon that threaten your sweepers and helping Delta Charizard outspeed more of its counters. However the lack of a second darkness setter or Dark Rock means darkness will be up alot less often and it becomes much harder to take advantage of all of its benefits.
https://pokepast.es/6fe748fae3337087
A hyper offense team that works well for ingame playthroughs, especially on switch mode. For those that don’t trade and don’t have access to Delta Electivire you can use Delta Roserade as a Shadow Dance user, which can be caught in Utira Library at around the midpoint of the game. Because the team is so offense oriented you can use pretty much any of the Mega pokemon that pair well with darkness like Bisharp, Gengar, Delta Blastoise, Delta Charizard, Delta Pidgeot or even Zoroark. The low BST of most team members will mean they start to fall off heading into the lategame so consider switching some team members to closer fit my previous teams if you’re stuggling ingame. (note that Delta Ambipom will also perform better with Fake Out and its choice item removed during playthroughs)
https://pokepast.es/d4d502f3da27e8e6
And finally for those who prefer building their own teams, I’ll leave a tier list of all the pokemon I could think of that would work especially well on New Moon teams. Feel free to leave any pokemon I missed in the comments and I’ll consider adding them as well (Not including legendary pokemon):
S-Tier
Clefable
Spiritomb
Greninja
Delta Volcarona
A-Tier
Gengar
Garchomp
Bisharp
Hydreigon
Delta Scyther
Delta Charizard
Delta Blastoise
B-Tier
Weavile
Blaziken
Klefki
Chandelure
Aegislash
Delta Ambipom
Delta Roserade
Delta Electivire
Delta Pidgeot
Delta Milotic
C-Tier
Starmie
Lunatone
Umbreon
Houndoom
Tyranitar
Scolipede
Krookodile
Zoroark
Delta Arcanine
Delta Darmanitan
Delta Scizor
Delta Emolga
D-Tier
Venomoth
Volbeat
Sableye
Drapion
Shedinja
Honchkrow
Froslass
Mienshao
Scrafty
Pangoro
Delta Kabutops
Delta Liepard
Delta Blaziken