which fortitude cards to use

If you have only basic fortitude (like chicago circle has), then there is absolutely no reason to use skin of steel over armor of vitality. Skin of Steel is no better against celerity at basic.

Klaital wrote:

If you have only basic fortitude (like chicago circle has), then there is absolutely no reason to use skin of steel over armor of vitality. Skin of Steel is no better against celerity at basic.

You are right, especially for chicago circle. I was thinking on Torrance Circle, where you have two vampires

Ohlmann wrote:

Well, prevent + disarm is still a strong option, which in my opinion is less easily foiled than torn signpost + disarm (or even torn signpost + trap ).

True. As others have pointed out, we're doing a bit of speculating here, since we don't have a decklist in front of us. Since the thread creator mentioned that his deck is heavy combat, I assume he's not using a combat package as simple as prevent+Disarm. (Though probably he should be... )

Ablative Skin, obviously.

Thanks for the input. I never thought of Armor of Vitality being so good but you have all changed my mind. I think I will will use hidden strength as well, mixed with rolling with the punches.

@ Kushiel, KevinM, and Azel- Sorry for the speculation I've caused. You have all given great thoughts. I'm hesitant to post the deck list because I may face some of you next time I go to the Bay Area. Also, some of the great players in Los Angeles have had to pause and think more than usual when I do play the deck. This is one of the rare times I've had any sort of upper hand against any of them. Really, they know what's coming for the most part but there are a few tricks they still haven't seen.

@ Ohlman and Kushiel- The prevent disarm idea may go well in a Mexico City Circle deck, I will try it. thanks again for the input.

I recently built a torrance circle deck and used Unflinching Persistence almost exclusively.

I needed cheap way to counter decks that manouver and you can use it to escape a tough spot in melee range.

It doesn't have much synergy with Octopod, in that regard few things beat hidden strength/Indomitability but Unflinching Persistence is great on its own. You can cycle the card easier, it can be used both offensively and defensive. Even if you fail to escape melee range you still have the prevent.

At inferior fortitude you don't get much more out than 1 prevent for free. All other effects come with a drawback. Soak can't prevent agg and limit the number of played card. Armor of Vitality/skin of steel/superior mettle of course prevent more but at the cost of which suck in a scenario where you want to cycle the card as cheaply as possible.