Aight, since I finished the main storylines recently I figured I might as well contribute to the thread with the main 7 whom I swapped around on for the whole thing!

I practically had never used any fire starters in any playthrough, mostly since they end up outshined by one or both of the other starters. However, with sv bringing one that remains excellent looking throughout the whole thing, I decided to finally break the curse! Anyway, Alebrije (with soft j pls don't pronounce it with hard j it sounds so weird that way..) the skeledirge was decently enjoyable! He was pretty darn bulky, and could effortlessly stomach at least super effective hit and either cripple the opponent with will o wisp or smack them around with a decently powerful attack. Torch song also allowed them to snowball enemy teams relatively easily. All in all, definitely solid, so glad I went with them.

Woops the clodsire was originally intended as team filler until I got a tatsugiri. However, since I went in blind in terms of where they were found, I didn't know they were late game and thus ended up using them much more than anticipated. Tho tbh, I didn't rly mind that much. Much like skeledirge, they were insanely bulky, and could stave off some incredibly strong hits. Water absorb was also incredibly cheeky to use on this guy, since the ai would just spam water moves and heal him.They were kinda on the weaker side offensively tho, and for most of the game I was stuck with mud shot as a ground move. Still, the bulk was certainly appreciated.

Fiddo the dachsbun was a pleasant surprise to say the least. The fidough phase was at first kinda rough. He wasn't very powerful, and wasn't the bulkiest either. That was, until they learned play rough at level 19. LEVEL. NINETEEN. After that they at least had a nuclear stab for that point in the game. Some levels later they evolved and got significantly better. Well baked body was also incredibly cheeky, and combined with baton pass it was excellent. Roar was also useful for unwanted battles or general phasing. I do wish they didn't have their attack reducing nature, but other than that he was overall good.

I've seen some talk about grass types in this game recently in the thread, so I'm gonna contribute my two cents. Acetona the arboliva for me was pretty darn well rounded overall. Much like skeledirge, she mixed bulk and power for outstanding results. She certainly wasn't flawless tho. Seed sower was kinda hit or miss, since it either allowed arboliva to blow up a bulky foe with a grass attack and heal the team, or it just made said foe harder to take down due to the healing. She was also tera normal, so I couldn't nuke things with tera grass attacks boosted by grassy terrain. Tho, then again, it did allow her to get rid of the grass weaknesses if needed and boosted normal stab, so it was fine. All in all, tho the shortcomings are there, I certainly enjoyed using her.

I adored lokix since I saw their picture for the very first time on the leaks, and I decided I HAD to use them. While nymble was much more annoying to find than I anticipated, and nymble himself was kinda underwhelming, it all paid off when he evolved. Chespirito the lokix was the star of the early game, tearing everything apart with lunge and assurance with fantastic speed and power. He kinda lost protagonism in the mid game, but came roaring back with first impression and throat chop, at which point he became valuable for killing faster foes and countering ghost types. Unlike his friends thus far, his bulk wasn't good at all, so I couldn't rly expect him to last forever on the field. Still, he was definitely one of the more fun mons to use

The penultimate member I caught, Chispino the kilowattrel at first was too high leveled to listen to me, so I went in to the water gym with only Acetona (a dolliv at the time) as a water killer. She unfortunately got overwhelmed pretty quickly due to pluck veluza, so it was a pretty uphill battle. After that tho things went swimmingly. He was insanely fast and decently strong too. I do wish I didn't have to use dual wingbeat as a flying move for so long until I got hurricane, which proceeded to become a nuke. Volt switch was also useful for luring resisted attacks and bringing other teammates safely while also dealing damage. Not a game ender for sure, but he did get the job done.

I was extremely excited to use this lil guy, so I was extremely saddened when I realized that they were a late game encounter. Still, when I finally got Onigiri the tatsugiri and started to cycle my mons, she certainly put in effort. Muddy water missed much more times than I would've liked, tho the accuracy drop certainly came in clutch. Draco meteor combined with nasty plot also could easily blow up almost everything that didn't resist it and taunt could cancel any annoying status move. She was also much more specially bulky than appeared, which was always appreciated.
Ik this team isn't the most optimal, but I had tons of fun using these guys, so I have no regrets!