Alex Hill
Author Archive
Bio: I am a recent graduate from Michigan State University with a degree in Computer Science. Currently, I’m working in Atlanta GA for Enformia Inc as a Software Developer. I have been involved in the competitive scene of the Pokémon TCG for over 10 years and wrote on and off for this site from 2010 to 2018.
Major Accomplishments:
2014/2015/2016/2017 Worlds Competitor
2017 Top 16 North America
2014 Ontario Provincial Champion
2014 Fort Wayne Regional Top 4
2015 Ontario Regional Champion
2016 Kansas Regional 2nd Place
2018 Collinsville Regional Top 4
2018 Costa Mesa Regional Top 4
2018 Portland Regional Top 4
2015 US Nationals Top 32
2016 London Internationals Top 16
2017 Oceania Internationals Top 8
2018 North America Internationals Top 32
2015 Worlds Top 32
2015/2016/2017 Worlds Day 2
A 2nd Look at Malamar and Brewing with Beast Box “Heading into Madison, I did most of my testing against different Buzzwole lists. It was easily the best deck in format before Forbidden Light and only got better with the new additions. Most notably, Beast Ring adds huge comeback potential while also giving you a sense of inevitability in closing out games you’re leading. I knew this would be the most popular deck in the room, and would do well even if many players were countering it. The other deck I wanted to be sure to beat was the Psychic version of the Malamar deck. Players like Sam Chen and…
Alex Discusses Post-LAIC Standard with Buzzwole and Ultra Necrozma “As we’ve seen from this weekend, you can play Buzzwole in any number of different ways. There are 2-3 tech slots that you can use for some number of the following cards: Fighting Energy Energy Switch (Multi Switch) Super Rod 2nd Mew-EX counter (Oricorio, Mew FCO, Mewtwo, Sudowoodo) Enhanced Hammer Zygarde-EX That seems to be the exhaustive list, and allows you to take the deck in a handful of different directions. Extra Fighting Energy and/or Super Rod help you be more consistent with Max Elixir. The 2nd Mew-EX “counter” and Enhanced Hammer give you a bit of an edge against…
An Expanded Primer for Salt Lake Regionals “Reference List: Costa Mesa This is the deck that I’d probably be playing in Utah, but also one that I’d want to put in a lot of time with to learn before the event. It’s not that I think the deck is that hard to play, but there are a good handful of decisions to make each game and the reward for playing perfectly is usually a win. Why would I play Drampa? The deck just has the best matchups against the field while also being strong against Zoroark. Garbotoxin carries a few matchups, Trashalanche a few more, and your other…
Alex’s Forbidden Light Set Review and Buylist, Plus Standard/Expanded Recommendations “Funny enough, I haven’t actually looked at most of the cards in this set. The last few months have been super busy with tournaments every weekend, and I usually like to keep my focus on the current formats. I’ve seen some of the best cards, the Malamar and Ultra Necrozma type of cards, but otherwise this will be a very honest first look at the set for me. Also, when I’m reviewing a set, I tend to look at cards that seem weak and think about their potential. You’ll probably see me highlighting cards that are either likely bad or…
Learning from Tournament Prep feat. Glaceon (Part 2/2) “Alright, do you remember what I said in the Buzzwole article? The part about how I learned a meta deck inside and out and let that knowledge carry me to a Top 4 finish? Yeah, forget all of that. My favorite way to play Pokemon is to put my faith in a deck that is tested just enough that it seems broken and very strong on the anticipated field, and just let the deck take me as far as it can. I’ve seen a lot of success with this kind of deck in recent years, piloting Vespiquen/Zebstrika, Vileplume Toolbox, and…
By drumming, it taps into the power of its special tree stump. The roots of the stump follow its direction in battle. (Rillaboom)
Learning From Tournament Prep feat. Buzzwole (Part 1/2) “I feel like I’m beating a dead horse as I say this, but my testing this year hasn’t been up to par. I’m busier than I was during college which is my normal excuse, but most of it boils down to just not enjoying sitting down and playing hours of Pokemon like I used to. However, leading up to Collinsville, I played significantly more than I have this entire season. Between streaming, a few coaching appointments, and my normal testing, I was playing 10-15 hours a week. I also was watching more Pokemon than usual, between the Australian Internationals stream…
Lists for Glaceon in Standard and Thoughts on Ultra Prism (+Buylist) “Funny enough, Glaceon is not a card that caught my attention when I first looked at Ultra Prism scans. I guess I didn’t realize how impactful Zoroark was/would be to the game at that time. Thankfully, my friend Isaiah pointed out how good it could be and gave me a list to start with! As I’m told we say in the South, ‘ppreciate you. This card is just the perfect counter to Zoroark-GX. It feels almost as an apology from Pokemon for printing Zoroark in the first place. Glaceon can even hit the battlefield on T1 through Eevee’s Energy Evolution…
Combatting Zoroark with Forgotten Expanded Concepts (Donphan, Buzzwole, and Turtonator) “I find myself coming back to explore Donphan many times when we switch back from Standard to Expanded, but I usually don’t get too far along that train of thought. Donphan has a pretty low damage output, is very weak to Trevenant, and has problems with anything that sports Fighting resistance. The metagame really just has to be perfect for this deck to get it done. Will Dallas have a favorable metagame for Donphan? This, I’m not sure of, not quite yet. Zoroark-GX can technically be OHKOed by Spinning Turn (with the help of Strong Energy, Choice Band, and a…
Discussing The List, Techs and Matchups for Gardevoir “In all honesty, the list that Christopher Top 4’d with in London is essentially perfect (though, I’ve been playing a 3/1 Ralts split in favor of the Psychic ones). I never really find myself wanting anything else, mostly due to Twilight letting me shuffle in enough resources to handily fuel my late game. However, if I were to cut anything, here are the most likely candidates: 3rd Kirlia I list the 3rd Kirlia here more so because it’s often cut from some lists, not because I myself would want to cut it. Playing 3 Kirlia essentially guarantees that you get…
Stories of Gameplay Decisions, Testing Methods, and Deck Thoughts from London “My testing leading up to this past weekend was some of the best I’ve ever done, both before the event and on site. My confidence in Gardevoir as the BDIF gave me the time to test as many different deck ideas as I could. Since we had something incredibly solid to fall back on, we spent time testing everything from Crabominable to Gourgeist in hopes that we could find anything that stood a chance against the format. In the future, I think I’ll aim to again find a good fallback option before aiming to break the metagame. Not only did…
Living in mud with a high iron content has given it a strong steel body. (Galarian Stunfisk)
An In-Depth Look at Lists, Techs, Tricks, and Matchups for Turbo Turtonator in Daytona Beach “Right now, there are two publicly available and successful lists to consider for Turbo Turtonator. The first is Sam Chen’s 2nd place list from Fort Wayne, crafted in part by Rahul Reddy, Franco Takahashi, and Michael Slutsky. This was also the exact list that I played at my League Cup and the one that I have experience with. The second is Nico Alabas’s 1st place list from the Bilbao Special Event, which features some very “European” changes. I’ll include them both below for convenience. There aren’t any fundamental differences in these lists as far as how they execute their overall gameplans,…
Fighting with Fire, Thoughts on BKT-On, and Looks at Salazzle, Alolan Ninetales, and Xerneas “I knew pretty early on that Fire was going to be the dominant typing in this metagame. That’s not a very bold statement to make, but one that might not be as well accepted as I expected. I walked into my first League Cup this weekend to see multiple copies of Metagross and Golisopod decks, reaffirming my decision to run Volcanion. Quite honestly, I probably would have run a Salazzle-GX deck this weekend, had I owned any. I’m unsure if my feelings towards Salazzle are because it’s actually good or because it seems fun to play, but I’ll delve into…
Talking Techs, Discovering Strategies for Day 2, and Escaping to Expanded “My general mentality regarding techs at Worlds is as such: Don’t tech on Day 1, do tech on Day 2. It’s a pretty simple strategy but will likely prove to be a winning one. There are two reasons for this. The first is that you will need to go 4-2 on Day 1 to advance to the second day, but you’ll need to post a 5-1-1 or better record on Day 2 to advance to Top 8. Thus, you have more games to lose on Day 1 so you can afford to lose a game or two that a tech…
Junior/Senior Metagame Analysis for Worlds 2017 “Did Juniors seem to counter the results of the last tournament in their age group? This is a bit of a mixed bag. We have seen Juniors counter their own division this year, but only when the Juniors metagame was incredibly centralized around Dark decks. However, we usually see Juniors results varying wildly in terms of the players and the decks in top cut based on the region of the country we’re in. I don’t think Junior players are really focused on countering any decks and rely on their parents to help them make those decisions. The other problem with…
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A Quick Look at Volcanion, Thoughts on Gardevoir, Drampa, and Decidueye, and One Last Goodbye to Gyarados “Although others have said that Gardevoir seems to be the deck to beat in the PRC-BUS format, Volcanion actually defines the format and the metagame right now. It sets a standard for what a deck focused on Basic Pokemon should be. It checks other potentially format defining decks like Metagross and Decidueye. Anything that isn’t fast enough to compete with a deck that can put 5 energy on the board on T1 is left in the dust. Kiawe brings Volcanion the early game pressure that it has always been lacking, and Guzma is a strong addition to reset Volcanion-EX and…
Without a Dreepy to place on its head and care for, it gets so uneasy it’ll try to substitute any Pokémon it finds for the missing Dreepy. (Drakloak)
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