Steel

Steel is a type that has always been special to me, this has been true ever since I had first heard of it back when my entire exposure to Pokemon news was the monthly "Beckett Pokemon Collector" magazine.  A new pokeon type?  This was unprecedented!  And when I caught my Skarmory, it was instantly my favorite from that game.  SUCH a cool design.

However, when on the other side of the coin and steel is my opponent, they love to give me headaches.  While Water types are typically weak to grass and electric, and flying types are more-or-less always weak against rock and ice, the steel type is made up of a whole bunch of nonsense pokemon with crazy dual types: steel/rock, steel/bug, steel/psychic.  As a result, you can't always count on the typical fire, ground, fighting weaknesses of the steel type to always work for you on the fly.

I had Venusaur take the lead on this one--deciding to Err on the side of caution and keep Flareon alive and healthy just in case Wikstrom decided to send in something crazy like Empoleon (Steel/Water).
His first pokemon was Klefki, a Steel/Fairy pokemon.  After going through the regular rigamarole of weakening it with Leech Seed and Sleep Powder, I sent in Lucario on a free turn and powered-up with Swords Dance for an easy KO.  I may rename this particular pokemon squad "SailorScout Mega-Venusaur-cario".

The next pokemon, Probopass, was a Steel/Rock type: easy pickings for Lucario's Close Combat move.  "Hahahaha, fear my 120x2x2x2 power fighting move!" I could see the end of the battle right before my eyes.

However, due to a miscalculation on my part, or more specifically "general idiocy", Probopass survived the 960-damage hit with exactly 1 HP left due to his "Sturdy" ability.  Lucario was taken-out handily.  Dang, guess it's going to be one of those matches...

I got the easy revenge kill with Greninja, but W's third pokemon was called Aegislash and it was a pokemon I had no prior knowledge of.  I had come across a pokemon called Honedge in my travels and it was a Steel/Ghost pokemon, and I assumed that Aegislash was the higher form of it, but I wasn't sure how it would battle.  As a result, I sent in Venusaur for some reconnaissance.

Aegislash kept changing its form due to its weird ability and I think the result of each transformation must have been a change in its base stats, but Leech Seed wore it down enough so that Flareon could come in for the finishing "Flame Charge" attack and gaining the +1 Speed increase to boot.

My heart sank as Wikstrom sent in Scizor.

I think my fear of Scizor stems from my old competitive Heartgold/Soulsilver battling from years ago.  I had a fantastic team at the time but no real answer to opposing Scizor.  I had to hope that I could wear it down with incessant chicanery and luck.  I guess mostly luck...

LUCKILY, Flareon outran Scizor due to that Flame Charge Speedboost and KO'ed it with Flare Blitz.  I checked the numbers: if Flareon hadn't gotten that speed boost against Aegislash, it would have been outrun by Scizor.  Given Scizor's massive attack and Flareon's weak defense, I could not guarantee Flareon's safety.  One Superpower from Scizor would have taken it out.  Basically, without Leech Seed wearing Aegislash into KO range, Flareon would have had to Flare Blitz, and Scizor would have removed it.

Of course this doesn't mean I was in danger of losing the whole match--I mean let's be realistic, I still had four other pokemon after Flareon.  We don't have to be so histrionic about this debackle.  However, it is interesting to consider the importance of even small decisions in a game like this.
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Score that match: 5-0
Hyper Potions: 17 -3
Revives: 23 -1
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Current Squad Status:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.57
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.56
FLAREON/Rox/lvl.54
LUCARIO/Knives/lvl.56
HIPPOWDON/Leviathan/lvl.54
GARDEVOIR/Missy/lvl.53

Sidelines: Pikachu, Scrafty, Aerodactyl, Dragalge