Collinsville’s Control Issues — Reviewing Sword & Shield Expanded
Collinsville, Illinois Expanded was one of the most degenerate formats of Pokemon I’ve ever played. I’ve been known to play control/degenerate/lock decks, but this was not one of those events where I partook in the festivities. While it might be fun to play these decks, it is very frustrating to be paired with them. While they are certainly a valid win condition, the fact that Pokemon has so aggressively banned the cards integral to these decks while keeping other variants of the archetype legal is frustrating, to say the least. While I feel this way, I will still do as I must—play in tournaments featuring the format. For this latest stop on the Regional map, I had limited time to test with Australia the week directly before. Our group had settled down to two decks: Turbo Zacian V and Turbo Stall archetype. The later of these two used Clay to fish out Lillie's Poké Doll and Robo Substitute at quicker speed, then recycled them with Rescue Stretcher. Most of us settled on the former, as I did. I played a ton of games on Friday, from waking to sleeping; I was playing the whole time. I played match-ups against the top decks, the ones I wanted to beat, and Zacian V looked very good. Much like Turbo Dark archetypes, this deck relies on, or at least wants to gain a further advantage through unique techs. The techs I primarily chose for this event were Aegislash-EX, Cobalion-GX, Dialga-GX, and Sudowoodo. In the paragraphs that follow, I’ll elaborate more on the cards I chose for this deck. Right now, let’s peep at my rounds testing Turbo Zacian V: 
- Round One versus Mew / Counter Energy • WW 1/0/0
- Round Two versus Buzzwole-GX / Lycanroc-GX • WW 2/0/0
- Round Three versus Ultra Necrozma• WLT 2/0/1
- Round Four versus Raichu and Stoutland • WW 3/0/1
- Round Five versus Garchomp and Giratina-GX / Roxie • WW 4/0/1
- Round Six versus Vileplume / Rowlet and Alolan Exeggutor-GX • WW 5/0/1
- Round Seven versus Lillie’s Poke Doll with Pyroar • LL 5/1/1
- Round Eight versus Trevenant and Dusknoir-GX / Milotic• WW 6/1/1
- Round Nine versus Lillie’s Poke Doll • WLT 6/1/2
- Round Ten versus Sableye / Garbodor • WLT 6/1/3
- Round Eleven versus Florges and Lillie’s Poke Doll • LL 6/2/3
- Round Twelve versus Florges Lillie’s Poke Doll • LWL 6/3/3
- Round Thirteen versus Lillie’s Poke Doll • WW 7/3/3
- Round Fourteen versus Vileplume / Rowlet and Alolan Exeggutor-GX • WW 8/3/3
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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