009 Luna's tone is set

Wow, was this ever a poorly recorded battle.  Bad focus at points and constant shaking should not have occurred, but apparently I was pacing around the room where this was recorded.

Anyway, my opponent Vogeltje is also known as Luna (NOT to be confused with Lina).  She leads off with Persian while I lead off with, you guessed it, Metagross.  I knew Persian leads had Fake Out and possibly Taunt, so I opted not to use Stealth Rock on the first two turns of the game.  Instead, I just went for the Earthquake to deal damage to Persian, and then used Bullet Punch to finish it off.  Maybe Luna was waiting to see if I had Meteor Mash or Bullet Punch so that she could plan her moves.

Venusaur is sent out afterwards, and attempts to hinder my Metagross through the use of Sleep Powder.  Luckily, my Metagross is equipped with a Lum Berry for situations like these.  Metagross uses the super-effective Earthquake, which still does less than half after factoring in Venusaur's Leftovers.  I knew that Luna would try Sleep Powder again, but I had nothing on the team to take status ailments so I was really hoping it would miss.  Unfortunately, the 25% chance of missing did not occur and Metagross starts its slumber.  Now, I kind of wish I had switched out here, as Sleep Clause would have prevented any more attempts at sleep.  I could have brought out Scizor or Salamence who both have a double resistance to Grass type attacks, but I kept Metagross in.

Leech Seed is used next, and for some reason, I decided to keep Metagross in to help Luna's Pokemon regain health, when a simple switch could have prevented that.  Venusaur creates a substitute, and Metagross wakes up just in time to knock it down with a critical hit.

Knowing that Luna didn't withdraw Persian when it was in KO range of Bullet Punch, I surmised that Venusaur would also stay in, as it probably wasn't in any danger of being KO'd... it might be close, though.  I opted for Bullet Punch to do as much damage before getting hit by another Sleep Powder, but Luna saw that coming and brought in a Steel-resistant Pokemon... Feraligatr.

On the next turn, I thought about two things I could do.  I could use Explosion and take out Feraligatr before it could cause serious damage to my team using its Swords or Dragon Dance, or I could lay Stealth Rock now and then use Explosion on the next turn.  Obviously my choice wasn't as optimum as I had hoped as a +2 Earthquake is enough to take out my Metagross in its moderately weakened state.

If it was a standard Swords Dancing Feraligatr, I knew that it would have Waterfall, Ice Punch, and Earthquake as its attacking options.  Looking at my roster, the Pokemon that would have the best chance at survival would be Gyarados, as it takes neutral damage from Ice Punch and less than that with the other moves.  Gyarados also could use its ability to lower Feraligatr's attack.

When Gyarados entered, I knew that Feraligatr would attempt to use another Swords Dance, so I opted to use Dragon Dance to increase my stats as well.  Unfortunately, Gyarados' Return used on the next turn at +1 took out only half of Feraligatr's HP.  Given the Leftovers recovery, another Return wouldn't do enough to KO Feraligatr, so thinking about the next few turns, I decided to Taunt to prevent any more stat boosts.  It was a good idea at the time, but then again, Feraligatr was already at +3, soon to be +2 if I bring in my Salamence.  Barring Scizor, the rest of the team had weaknesses to either Ice Punch and Earthquake, so a +2 would probably mean they wouldn't stand a chance.

I brought out my Latias, hoping to scare away Feraligatr with the threat of Thunderbolt.  I guess Luna was really confident in her Feraligatr's ability to survive a Thunderbolt since the HP was at about 75%.  I used Dragon Pulse expecting the switch, and my misprediction cost me Latias who doesn't really like cold hands.

I was now left with Lucario, Salamence, and Scizor.  I'm not sure why Lucario was chosen over Salamence, but Lucario was still able to use Extremespeed to KO the Feraligatr.

Seviper is Feraligatr's replacement, and knowing that Flamethrower would be the best move to use against Lucario, I brought out Salamence to take the heat.  Luckily for Luna, the burn hax occurred, giving my Salamence a reduced attacking stat.  Knowing this, Luna brought in her physical wall, Steelix.

I don't know why I didn't use Salamence's Flamethrower.  It would have been super effective and not have been affected by the physical attack drop.  True, it still wouldn't have defeated Steelix in one hit, but seeing as how Steelix's Stone Edge would have missed, Salamence could have threatened with a KO.  Maybe I was afraid of a potential Heatran.

Lucario is sent out next.  I decided to use Swords Dance, thinking that the possibility of Close Combat would scare Steelix away, but Steelix stayed in and used Earthquake.  After the match, Luna specifically commented on this strange decision and asking me why I thought she would recall her highly physically defensive Pokemon.  I didn't really have an answer for her at the time.  Checking it now, if the damage calculations are correct, Close Combat would have defeated Steelix at its current HP level, even if it had maximum EVs in HP and Defense.  Could I use that as justification?

I am now down to my Choice Banded Scizor, while Luna had the option to use Steelix, Venusaur, Seviper, and another one which hadn't been revealed yet.  Scizor's moves were Bullet Punch, Superpower, Pursuit, and U-Turn.  I needed to pick a move that would work best against all these threats, so perhaps Bullet Punch would work. 

However, I picked U-Turn for some very strange reason.  Was it a misclick?  I know Steelix resists Bullet Punch and would take less from that than U-Turn, but seeing as how there was still a Seviper which resists U-Turn, is faster than Scizor, and has Flamethrower, U-Turn would not win the battle for me unless Luna switched out her Pokemon on a turn where I commanded U-Turn and a critical hit occurred.  Maybe the slight difference in damage caused by Scizor's Bullet Punch would have allowed the Steelix to KO Scizor first.

Bringing out Mismagius after the Steelix fell to four Bullet Punches pretty much meant the game was over as a 3-0 for my opponent.  A rather humbling defeat from a team which consisted of no OU Pokemon at all but at least I showed that I don't only upload battles that I win.

So until next time, prepare for trouble.