Pojo's Pokemon Card Reviews, news, tips, strategies and more!


Pick Up Our New 20th Anniversary Pokemon Book for your Collection!

Pokemon Home

Pokedex

Price Guide Set List

Message Board

Pokemon GO Tips

Pokemon News

Featured Articles


Trading Card Game
- Price Guide
- Price Guide
- Card of the Day
- Professional Grading
- Killer Deck Reports
- Deck Garage
- William Hung
- Jason Klaczynski
- Jeremy's Deck Garage
- Johnny Blaze's Banter
- TCG Strategies
- Rulings Help
- Apprentice & Patch
- Apprentice League
- Spoilers & Translations
- Official Rules
- Featured Event Reports
- Top of the World
- An X-Act Science
- Error Cards
- Printable Checklist
- Places to Play


Nintendo Tips
- Red/Blue
- Yellow
- Gold & Silver
- Crystal
- Ruby & Sapphire
- Fire Red & Leaf Green
- Emerald
- SNAP
- Pinball
- TCG cart
- Stadium
- PuPuzzle League
- Pinball: Ruby/Sapphire
- Pokemon Coliseum
- Pokemon Box
- Pokemon Channel


GameBoy Help
- ClownMasters Fixes
- Groudon's Den
- Pokemon of the Week

E-Card Reader FAQ's
- Expedition
- Aquapolis
- Skyridge
- Construction Action Function
- EON Ticket Manual


Deck Garage
- Pokemaster's Pit Stop
- Kyle's Garage
- Ghostly Gengar


Cartoon/Anime
- Episode Listing
- Character Bios
- Movies & Videos
- What's a Pokemon?
- Video List
- DVD List


Featured Articles

Pojo's Toy Box

Books & Videos

Downloads

Advertise With Us
- Sponsors
-
Links

Chat

About Us
Contact Us


Magic
Yu-Gi-Oh!
DBZ
Pokemon
Yu Yu Hakusho
NeoPets
HeroClix
Harry Potter
Anime
Vs. System
Megaman



Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Brooklet Hill
- S&M: Guardians Rising

Date Reviewed:
June 9, 2017

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Standard: 2.75
Expanded: 3.00
Limited: 4.00

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being horrible.  3 ... average.  5 is awesome.

Back to the main COTD Page


aroramage

Brooklet Hill is a pretty simple Stadium. All you really need from it is to put it into play, and then it'll just accelerate things MASSIVELY!! 

Let's say you're playing it in a Water or Fighting deck - or even a Water/Fighting hybrid! Brooklet Hill grants you access to your deck's Basic Water or Basic Fighting types by granting you the ability to once per turn put one such Basic Water or Fighting Pokemon from your deck STRAIGHT onto the Bench! Course this won't trigger any of those "comes into play from your hand" kind of abilities, and it won't let you evolve them straight away due to the Evolution rule, but it is a very powerful maneuver to just instantly place a Basic-EX or GX onto your Bench! 

Yes, that's right - as long as it's a Basic, you don't have to worry about how many HP it's got! 

Of course, there are some downsides to this card - for one thing, it is a Stadium, and while it can get rid of your opponent's Stadium, it does suffer from when your opponent counters with a Stadium of his own or Field Blower. There's also the idea of what you bring out onto your Bench. A Basic-EX or GX won't have to worry about getting dragged out into the Active slot and OHKO'd most of the time, but what about Basic Evolving Pokemon? Depending on what you grab, you could have something with as little as 30-60 HP, which is child's play in terms of damage in the mid-to-late game. 

Brooklet Hill is the kind of card you want early and often, but to maximize that, you'll have to run the full 4 copies, and even then you're not guaranteed to start with it. On top of that, I can't immediately think of what Water or Fighting Basics need to come out instantly in the early game to matter, so it might not be a good time to bring Brooklet Hill into your decks either. Still, it's got a good supportive role, and once we get to a point where Water or Fighting decks have a Pokemon they need out early? Well then, I can imagine you'll find Brooklet Hill running in droves. 

...that doesn't make it any better mid-to-late game. 

Rating 

Standard: 3/5 (it's an early game card that needs to be played early game) 

Expanded: 3/5 (otherwise, it loses out on a lot of its potential) 

Limited: 4/5 (but as for its potential, that's got a lot of promise depending on the card pool) 

Arora Notealus: Just imagine in Expanded getting a Keldeo-EX straight from your deck RIGHT when you need it! I'm sure that'll be a move seen in some decks - and it makes Keldeo-EX stronger! Unfortunately, we don't really have anything like Keldeo-EX in Standard at the moment, but hey, once we do, I'm sure Brooklet Hill will become very noteworthy...well...I guess now that I think about it there is one Pokemon... 

Weekend Thought: What do you think of the runner-ups to the list? Think some had more promise? Or maybe they're not that great? Think maybe they'll get better in the future? What promise do they show that's not getting tapped into right now? Or are they even worth the deck space in the first place?


21times

Brooklet Hill (Guardians Rising, 120/145), our first Stadium card to review out of the Guardians Rising expansion set, allows you to search your deck for a basic Water or Fighting Pokemon and place it directly on your bench.  This card actually saw use this past weekend at both Madison and Birmingham regionals in Volcanion EX (Steam Siege, 107/114) decks.  Volcanion decks got a lot more play than I had expected since Garbodor (Guardians Rising, 51/145) presents such a difficult match up for them.  Volcanion decks, in all their various incarnations, have always carried a TON of Item cards, and, of course, this makes them very vulnerable to Garbodor’s Trashalanche attack.  I remember watching one prominent Youtuber claim recently that Volcanion decks were all but “dead” because the Grampa (Garbodor Drampa GX (Guardians Rising, 142/145) matchup was so bad for them.

However, as I mentioned in my Garbodor review a week ago, “Keep calm and find a counter.”  And give many Volcanion players credit because they definitely rebuilt their decks to rely much less on Items.  Brooklet Hill became a very valuable card for them as they could search out the big daddy Volcanion EX’s as that card is a dual type Water and Fire.  They also put the long forgotten Starmie (Evolutions, 31/108) back in their decks as well.  These decks reduced the number of Items that they needed and improved their chances against Garbodor.  The unfortunate side effect to these changes meant that this deck has slowed down some, but it still can hit for at least some damage turn one and still powers up benched Pokemon while still hitting for at least reasonable damage while doing so, and Fire has the good fortune of having the weakness advantage over many Grass and I think all Metal types.

Rating

Standard: 2 out of 5

Conclusion

Brooklet Hill adds significant value to all Water and Fighting decks.  I’m pretty sure that this is at least a two of if not four of in those decks.  It also can see use in other decks that tech in Water Pokemon for draw support (Octillery (Breakthrough, 33/162) and Alolan Sandslash (Guardians Rising, 20/145)).  The only reason I’m giving it a two is because it has such limited usage overall and adds no value for the majority of decks in the meta today.  For Fighting and Water decks, it’s probably a 4.5.


Otaku

Welcome to a very late review of Brooklet Hill (SM: Guardians Rising 120/145).  While writing this CotD, I realized this is one of the ones I missed over a month ago.  I keep meaning to catch them up, but then I keep managing to fall behind again.  Time to get this one done, at least.  It does mean that I have “future” knowledge when compared to the rest of the reviews on this page. 

Brooklet Hill was one of the earlier runner-ups from our Top 15 countdown, effectively our 19th place finisher.  It is a Stadium that allows a player, once during his or her turn, to search his deck for either a Fighting-Type or Water-Type Pokémon.  If one or both of the Types on a Dual-Type match, then it is also a legal target.  Which gets us to how we know this is a good card; Volcanion-EX decks are now running search out Volcanion-EX and - if they run Starmie (XY: Evolutions 31/108) - a Staryu.  Even though Stadiums are feeling the hurt thanks to Field Blower joining the ranks of Delinquent, Paint Roller, and all the other good Stadiums that can counter your own, Brooklet Hill provides an instant return.  Hitting two different Types is a mixed blessing; like with Rough Seas, it helps you with multi-Type decks but makes it more likely your opponent can cash in on it.  I’d imagine it is nice for players who run Octillery (XY: BREAKthrough 33/162), and perhaps the new Sudowoodo (SM: Guardians Rising 66/145), if it ever catches on as TecH.  This card has a bright future, I think, in Standard as some of its competition should soon rotate, and things aren’t terrible for it in Expanded, either.  Bit more of a gamble in Limited, in that your opponent is more likely to have a wide variety of Types in his or her deck.  Then again, with multiple Stadium cards in this set, you might want to run Brooklet Hill just to help knock out one your opponent needs more. 

Ratings 

Standard: 3.65/5 

Expanded: 3.35/5 

Limited: 3.85/5 

Conclusion 

Brooklet Hill is the new trick for decks with Water- or Fighting-Type Basics to search, and thanks to being late I can show what happens when the card pool swings in its favor.  Possibly, things could get even better for it in the future, but what we’ve seen now is pretty good.  With so many things to shut down Abilities and Items, with attacks and Supporters often being too in demand to use on Pokémon search more than once (if that) in the typical deck, Stadium-based Pokémon search could be the next big thing. 

Who has two thumbs and didn’t think Brooklet Hill was going to matter until rotation at the earlier?  This guy.  I didn’t write it off entirely but looks like it was my 39th place pick for the set, and only placed there because it was part of a massive tie and that’s just how my spreadsheet sorted them (I never went out and properly ranked them past 25th place).  Brooklet Hill came in one voting point below Rescue Stretcher and one point above the tie between 20th and 21st place.  It isn’t better than Rescue Stretcher, but both deserved to make the actual Top 15 (at least).


CopyrightŠ 1998-2017 pojo.com
This site is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise affiliated with any of the companies or products featured on this site. This is not an Official Site.
Pokémon card reviews - Pokemon Set Reviews