Honestly, I've found that I tend to come back to the overall same set of followers across myriad teams -and I don't just mean Kyurem-Black or stall staples like Chansey/Blissey. Like, Gengar is a good-to-great follower on basically any Leader that provides Shadow Ball and has an even marginally acceptable Special/Status movepool. It's at its
best with leaders like Nidoking (Sheer Force Life Orb Focus Blast is an easy 2HKO on Chansey!) but it's basically only not a solid follower if the leader lacks Shadow Ball. A lot of the followers are like that -if a leader meets some fairly basic, minimal conditions, the follower is a good choice, and may be a great choice.
Contrary to my expectations, I haven't found it to be the case that more marginal potential followers really shine with extremely specific leaders while being terrible on most any other leader. Megas are the main exception here, where their own viability on a leader varies hugely based less on "Do you have STABs/recovery for stallmons/other simple requirements" and more on "What all does the team need to patch that the leader patches?" ie Mega Altaria and Mega Gardevoir can be big boons to leaders that lack native Fairy coverage and would really
like Fairy coverage to beat specific foes that otherwise trouble their movepool, Mega Sableye is a big help to any stall-y leader that lacks actual hazard removal, Mega Altaria/Pinsir/Glalie are incredibly at ruining a number of offense teams if the leader has Extreme Speed...
But mostly I think it actually kind of works to rank followers in a
general sense, rather than providing their ranking as a sub-heading of specific leaders.
I just started playing this ladder earlier this morning, and looked at the mons that were available as leaders, and I made this team from scratch. It currently has gotten me all the way to 32 on the ladder, with a rating of 1324, just from today.
Carracosta @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Knock Off
- Aqua Jet
- Toxic
Carracosta is my lead. I usually will lead off with Carracosta, get rocks off, then either sack it off or toxic something. Aqua Jet is there for stab, as if I go for rocks then I usually am brought down to my sturdy, and am too slow to go for a move like Waterfall. Knock off is also here for more utility if needed, but usually I just go for toxic.
I approve of treating Carracosta as a suicide lead. It's a good role for it to fill, given that it's a bit underwhelming as a Pokemon and is really on the team as a leader.
Garchomp-Mega @ Garchompite
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Shell Smash
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Ice Beam
This thing is an absolute monster. Just go for shell smash, then mega evolve and just kill everything. Earthquake is there for stab, and Rock Slide is there because it is another hard hitting physical move that handles flying types. I decided to give it Ice Beam as well, as most people during practice have brought in Lando-T against this for some reason, so it's just an easy way to kill off Lando, or even the occasional Gliscor.
I'd invest in bulk (HP) rather than Speed. Or Special Attack to bolster Ice Beam, maybe.
With no investment and no nature boost, after a Shell Smash Mega Garchomp will outspeed fully invested +Speed Nature Pokemon all the way up to
base 150 Speed. Fast Scarves (eg Keldeo) are basically the only reason to consider investing in Speed, and you still don't need
max Speed investment to beat the most typical fast Scarves. Investing in bulk would make it less susceptible to priority revengers.
Excadrill @ White Herb
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Shell Smash
- Earthquake
- Iron Head
- Stone Edge
Excadrill is another of the 5 shell smash sweepers on this team. Excadrill is mainly here for a backup incase Garchomp or Lando-T die, and also is great for any fairies that are brought. Excadrill also has Stone Edge as a way to really hit hard against flying types that try to switch in on Excadrill predicting an Earthquake.
Excadrill is slower than Mega Garchomp, so it's more likely to make sense to invest in Speed, but I would again consider shifting some investment away from Speed.
Landorus-Therian @ White Herb
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Shell Smash
- Rock Slide
- Knock Off
Looking at the mons above, I have none that can really take on an earthquake, especially from a Lando-T. So I figured whynot put on Lando-T, as with stab Earthquake, once it gets setup with shell smash not many mons can really take a hit (from my experiences). Rock slide is there for flying types, and Knock off is there for physically defensive walls like Cresselia.
Again, Landorus-Therian is only a little slower than Mega Garchomp, so investing in Speed is, again, often going to be redundant.
Gyarados (M) @ White Herb
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Earthquake
- Shell Smash
- Zen Headbutt
And finally, we have Gyarados. Gyarados is mostly the physical version of Keldeo, with the immuntiy to Earthquake. As my team doesn't really mind electric types, Gyarados is nice for setting up with shell smash late game, then with Waterfall, Earthquake, and Zen Headbutt just attacking what is left. Zen Headbutt was added as my team didn't really handle Keldeo well during practice, but now once setup Keldeo doesn't stand a chance.
Something to keep in mind is it might make more sense to run Mega Gyarados than Mega Garchomp, probably replace Zen Headbutt for Knock Off if you do -that way you can beat Clefable/Quagsire/Swoobat teams. (Bibarel lacks recovery, so it's not so hot at running Unaware walls)
Fake out users with protean prove to be a very big threat to this team, as they break the sturdy, and most of them also have other priority like sucker punch, and from pokemon like Kyurem-B, most of the team can't take it very well.
I'll note that this is part of why I'm recommending bulk over Speed as investment. With like half the team picking up bulk at essentially no sacrifice, priority is less likely to break a 'mon.