Ness's Card of the Day - Pokemon Trading Card Game Strategies

      Forretress.. the Spikes power, it seems so amazing when you first read it. You realize multiple are dealing 20 or 30 if you get 3... that means you KO Cleffas that are send out with 3 in play.   So why isn't this card being used?   First, we'll look at the good..

Forretress- The GOOD
      Like I mentioned above, multiple Forretress all deal 10 damage when something is sent out. That means if you can manage to get 3 out, a baby Pokémon sent out active during your opponent's turn is knocked out immediately. Not bad considering all the Cleffas being used now.

      And it's attack seems to work with it's combo. They switch their Pokémon. They have to. Afterwards, they'll probably want to send their attacker back out. Then Forretress(es) deal that damage. And that damage adds up considering it can be done every turn.

      Say for example, they have a Rocket's Zapdos with 50 damage on it. They have a Cleffa on the bench, and are low on cards. They need to start doing damage. You gust a Scyther out. (Yes, a Scyther- a free retreater, it doesn't matter!) You have two Forretresses. If they wanna send Zapdos back out, they'll need to get rid of the damage first, or it would be knocked out by Spikes.

      Forretress only deals damage on your opponent's turn, so that does not mean the Pokémon they send out for Rapid Spin takes damage. Forretress can protect itself by sending something like a Scyther or a Cleffa (maybe with a Focus Band out) so that whatever is out can most likely safely take a hit, then allowing Forretress to come back out.

So what you've read so far makes Forretress seem like a great card, but if you know how to get around this card, it's so awful it's not even funny.

Forretress- The Overlooked BAD
      The first thing you probably noticed is MCC as it's Rapid Spin energy requirement. That's begging for a Super Energy Removal. And then it's one of those things that is Gusted, and wastes turns for you.

      But that isn't the biggest problem, even bigger is the brand spankin' new Igglybuff from Neo 2. It ends Spikes for a turn, allowing you to send out what you want without taking damage. (Of course, two Forretresses would need two Igglybuffs, but that isn't uncommon in decks, either.)

      Another thing people overlook is that that Spikes damage can HELP to trigger a Gold Berry into working.. and of course, we are left with the #1 problem, also the msot overlooked problem..

      METAL ENERGY! These Forretresses do NOT attack as one. Whether you have 1 out, or 4 out, something with a metal energy attached to it takes 0 damage from Spikes when it is sent out. Each Spikes is doing it's damage separately, allowing metal energy to reduce each one by 10, to 0. How convenient. Arithmetic plays metal energy. Steelix, hopefully, plays metal energy. Arcanine plays metal energy. Slowking.. doesn't. Muk decks.. don't need to. (Hooray, Forretress stands a chance against SOMETHING, and this is Slowking, which is already becoming unpopular because of Igglybuff.)

            Take that, you big piece of metal junk.

It's Rating Time
I would give Forretress a 6.5/10. It is not a tournament useable card because of metal energy, which is SO popular, combined with Igglybuff.

By the way, some of my ratings were screwed up, and other cards limit the powers of others.. anyway, Sneasel's rating should be 9.0, metal energy a 10/10(it's amazing), and some other things I'm forgetting that I'll remember later.

Seeya at the STS. -Ness
(haha it rhymes)

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