Here's the team I finished the game with.
A few things of note:
I set a few rules for myself for this run and it actually worked out really well balance wise, I'd recommend it to anyone replaying SM
>Only one new team member per island (so you catch one pokemon on Melemele, one on Akala, etc etc)
>No Refresh
>Always defeat at least one summon during a totem fight
>And then all the standard stuff, set mode, no potions during battle, etc
The first rule is the important one though, because it keeps you on track with all the major trainers you fight. All the fights with Hau you'll normally have the same size team (except the last one), same with Gladion, the Kahunas and trial captains that you get to battle; Lusamine in fact will have more pokemon than you in the first battle. That alone both made the battles more challenging, it just felt RIGHT.
I was little overlevelled in the first two islands, but the Gen V exp mechanics kept it from getting out of control so thanks to some bad type match ups there were still a few cagey fights. I was dramatically underlevelled by the fourth island and ended up breaking the Refresh rule to catch up.
Toucannon was my MVP; whenever a fight was going bad he'd switch in and clean up to save the day. Getting Bullet Seed and Rock Blast made him even better, though Bullet Seed at least should have been an early level move, they talk about it in Pikipeks pokedex entry for heavens sake.
Togedemaru I picked up just because I've never used a pikaclone. She was actually pretty good, if a bit of a one trick Nuzzle-Zing Zap pony.
Kommo-o was a disappointment. I honestly wish I'd just used Solgaleo in my final spot, which is why I added them in their too; I had them on the team but just as a mascot at that stage, it felt bad leaving it boxed after everything that happened. I did bust them out against Kukui though.
All in all was a good playthrough, most fun I've had since Black.
