Fortitude
by John Chimento
@East Coast STS
Seacaucus, NJ
Sunday 6/24/2001
Fortitude - I made this deck for the fun of it. I thought it would be fun
to have a double focus band like effect with Giovanni's Machamp Fortitude
and a Focus Band attached too it. Unbeknownst to me in playtesting, this
deck kicked serious butt and even won a mini-STS we held in my hometown. I
decided to tweak it a little bit and play it the 2nd day of the STS. Here
is how it did:
Pokemon (20)
4 Giovanni's Machop
4 Giovanni's Machoke
4 Giovanni's Machamp
4 Cleffa
2 Promo Igglybuff (Stalls for time with auto-sleep+ baby power+ focus band
is a pain to kill)
2 Gligar
Energy (18)
14 Fighting
4 Recycle
Trainers (22)
4 Professor Elm
4 Gold Berry
4 Focus Band
3 Double Gust
3 Lowering Resistance Gym
2 Nightly Garbage Run
2 Sabrina's Gaze
Report - As everyone should know it was Rocket-On format. I played in the
15+ division. The second day things ran a lot smoother than the first. The
judge announced a lot of the most common mistakes and/or rulings that
players did on Saturday and I found that to be useful.
Round 1 vs. William Payne
William had a Rocket Zapdos with Togetic deck both of whom resist fighting
types. Not that big of a problem since I was running 3 Lowering Resistance
Gyms. I started with Promo Igglybuff with a Focus Band and it took him like
10 turns just to knock the baby out. By that time I was set up with 2
Giovanni's Machamp and a Lowering Resistance Gym in play to take all 6
prizes with Hurricane Punch.
Record 1-0
Points 3
Round 2 vs. Ted Greenwalt
Ted is the first person that I know that I have faced yet. I met Ted at the
Braintree qualifier and last year's STS having breakfast at Dunkin Donuts.
Ted was also staying at the Hampton Inn like us. Ted is running Blaine's
RK9 with Blaine's Ninetails as back-up. All I start with are babies and
could not find any of the Machamp line until about 7th turn. By then it was
too late. Ted was flipping heads to kill all the babies and to keep his
Ninetails charged up. Ted was also playing Trash Exchange to put back in
lost fire energy and the Blaine trainer. By the time I took 2 of my prizes
with Machamp, Ted was down to 1 prize card remaining. Ted brought out RK9
to Firestorm Machamp. I flipped tails on Focus Band and Fortitude. Go
figure. I lose.
Record 1-1
Points 3
Round 3 vs. Jimmy B.
Jimmy did not want to use his last name so that all his Peeps back in
Illinois wouldn't know that he played Pokemon. Jimmy was cool and we talked
throughout the entire match. Jimmy was playing a Dark Plume lock with
Murkrow and Dark Muk. By the time Jimmy was set up with Plume and Dark Muk,
I had 2 Machamps up and running. I had taken 5 prizes but the poison was
killing off Fortitude and Focus Band. Jimmy had one last chance to Mean
Look my Cleffa but flipped tails. I promoted a Giovanni's Machoke and Risky
attacked for the win.
Record 2-1
Points 6
Round 4 vs. Mike Montalbano
Mike was playing a Blaine's Rapidash and Rocket's Zapdos deck. His deck did
not have enough to deal with a 4th turn powered up Machamp with Focus Band.
He did take 2 prizes with successful Stamps to kill the babies on my bench.
I got out a Lowering Resistance Gym and Machamp then cleaned up and I won by
prizes.
Record 3-1
Points 9
Round 5 vs. Mike Bates
This was a very quick match. I start with 2 Machops and no drawing power.
He starts with Wooper active and Neo Onix benched. Mike had a fully pumped
Onix by turn 4 and killed off my Machops to bench me. I had no chance what
so ever in this one.
Record 3-2
Points 9
Round 6 vs. Heidi Craig
Heidi was last year's STS 2nd place winner in the 15+. She was wearing a
Team Pheonix T-shirt on. I asked if she was from Phoenix and she said no.
She is from Florida. Heidi was playing a Rocket Zapdos and Giovanni's
Machamp deck with Focus Bands. I had a 4th turn Machamp with a Lowering
Resistance Gym in play and Double Gusted her Machops before they could
evolve and knocked the 2 out. She held on in the end with 2 Steel Zapdos
and Focus Bands when I had only 1 prize card remaining and another powered
up Machamp on the bench ready to unleash. Right before time was called she
conceded. Very classy lady.
Record 4-2
Points 12
Round 7 vs. David Gohr
David was playing a Feraligatr deck and literally washed me out 6 prizes to
none. Unfortunately I only start with babies again. I was able to evolve a
Machoke but never more. I was unable to get going. David wins.
Record 4-3
Points 12
Round 8 vs. Terry Sutherland
Terry was playing a Psychic jank deck with all versions of Mewtwo and
Sabrina's Alakazam. I knocked out as many Abras as I could. He did succeed
in evolving one Abra to Kadabra and Life Drained my Machamp. I top decked a
Giovanni's Last Resort and cleared Machamp of all of his damage from the
Life Drain. I then proceeded to knock out his remaining Mewtwos for the win
by taking all 6 prize cards.
Record 5-3
Points 15
Round 9 vs. Jonathon Woo
Jonathon lives in Westchester, N.Y. and has visited Albany, NY where I have
played him before at The Game Keeper. Johnathon is a real nice person.
Jonathon was playing a Shapeshift deck with Dark Charizard as the main
attacker. I concentrated on using Promo Igglybuff to put Ninetails asleep
thus shutting off its power. After Jonathon went through more than half of
his deck by 2nd turn with Misty's Wrath I took control with a 5th turn
Machamp and won by prizes. He agreed that after the match that the
Igglybuff promo was his downfall. Nice to play you again Jonathon.
Record 6-3
Points 18.
I ended up in 41st place with a 54.3210 Op-Match win %.
Later Sunday night I was lucky enough to participate in the Maple Bar
Invitational 2 hosted by Dark Master Trainer Mike at the Holiday Inn. I went
3-3 and my quickest and funniest lost was to MTM's Neo Discovery Weedle. He
starts with Weedle, I start with Tyrogue. He goes 1st, attaches grass. He
flips heads for the baby power then flips another heads for poison and
that's 30 damage to my Tyrogue and that's game. Weedle wins Aaargh! He was
kind again to play a friendly rematch that didn't count towards standings.
The rest of the night was all fuzzy as I left at 3 in the morning but a
special thanks to DMTM for the awesome goody bag.
Thanks for reading please contact me at AN7710@dfa.state.ny.us
Props to: Wizards, I-Man, Keith S., all of Team Compendium, Pokidad,
Joshman, IPGeek21, Eric (CoBrA), Jeremy, Andres R., Poke Joe, Lumaga,
CJ-Mich, Steve Diamond, Tyais, Pokenaut, and each and everyone of you that I
forgot to mention but that helped make this STS an incredible experience.
No slops on Sunday.