014 Oh, it only took me over two years, but now I get it! It's like Luxio.

I guess I was feeling a little down after my gym battle so I was reviewing my strategy for about five days before reentering the battle scene.  Even though I could rechallenge a gym after 48 hours, sometimes it just works to have a bit of extra time anyway.

Still, practice makes perfect, so to get to know my team a bit better, I had to continue battling with others.  My next battle is against Tuxio.

Gengar is Tuxio's lead to my Metagross.  I surmised that this lead is used for Hypnosis, so I thought I may as well get in a lot of damage while I can, as I didn't really have a status absorber, bar my Lum Berry Metagross which was already in battle.  Bullet Punch, while predictable, works to reduce Gengar's HP by a bit more than half, while Gengar uses Shadow Ball to almost halves my Metagross' HP.  Another Bullet Punch from Metagross would KO Gengar, but I was wondering if I should have used Earthquake in case Tuxio decided to switch to save his speedy Gengar for later.  After a coin flip, I used Bullet Punch anyway.

Electivire is sent out, and it promptly uses Brick Break for neutral damage.  Maybe Tuxio thought I would switch into something that would resist Earthquake, but not Brick Break.  I'm guessing Tuxio was anticipating a Grass-type to resist both Earthquake and the electric move of choice, because if he was anticipating a Flying-type, he would have used Thunderbolt or Thunderpunch.  Metagross survives the Brick Break and then KOs Electivire with a super-effective Earthquake.

A Shiny Weavile appears.  Easy target for Bullet Punch, but I know most Weavile hold a Focus Sash.  I haven't set up Stealth Rock yet since I was more focused on quickly removing the threats to Metagross this time.  I figured Metagross would two hit KO Weavile no matter what, and the prevalence of Low Kick could have defeated Metagross, and since I would be slower if I used Stealth Rock, I wanted Metagross to deal some damage before going down and having either Scizor or Lucario come in and revenge kill.  Or, I guess in this case, Weavile did not have a Focus Sash and is promptly defeated via a critical hit.

Tuxio brings in Yanmega.  I was kind of hoping I already had Stealth Rock up before it came in, but as you can see, I didn't find much of an opportunity to use it safely.  Bullet Punch deals about 33%, and Yanmega uses Ancient Power.  Bug Buzz would have definitely KO'd Metagross, but I suppose Tuxio was anticipating a switch.  After a few more exchanges of Bullet Punches and AncientPowers, Yanmega is down, and Metagross is in pain.  Well, I'm guessing it's in pain because it's a Pokemon, and not some mechanical robot with Psychic powers.  I guess that's debatable, but if Pain Split works on Metagross, that's a strong point.

Uxie comes in to finish off Metagross, who was probably trying to set up Stealth Rock.  I was anticipating that Uxie had Reflect or Light Screen, but I guess Tuxio just wanted to get rid of the Pokemon that caused his team a lot of trouble up to this point.

What Pokemon do I have that can scare away Uxie?  I figured Scizor's U-Turn could be enough of a threat, so I selected it to replace Metagross.  Even if Uxie doesn't retreat, Scizor should be able to handle a Thunderbolt... and most definitely a Psychic.  Wait... why is Tuxio using Psychic on Scizor?  Perhaps Tuxio was hoping for the special defense drop.  In any case, U-Turn surprisingly deals a lot of damage.  Scizor is replaced with Lucario, the third Steel-type and priority user of the team.

At this time, I used Bullet Punch.  This is actually important to note, because before this battle, I kept on thinking that Bullet Punch would deal more damage than Extremespeed on neutral targets, although mathematically I should have known that 40 * 1.5 < 80.  In future battles, you will not see me use the incorrect priority move intentionally.

Since Uxie barely survived the hit, it U-Turns away from danger.  Tuxio sends in the Steel Trapper, Magnezone.  Okay, so Lucario's next move is Close Combat.  Well, technically, anything Lucario will use now is going to be in close quarters since Magnezone is magnetically pulling Lucario towards it.  Anyway, Close Combat deals with Magnezone handily.

Tuxio brings in Uxie again, and this time Lucario uses Extremespeed to send Uxie through the ground... even though its ability is Levitate.

This concludes this battle, and I was feeling a bit more confident now.  I feel like I can aim for the gym badge again, but this time, D2theM is back, so I challenged him shortly afterward.  However, that is a story for another time.  Probably next time.