A Guide to Control for Gym Leader Challenge

Fun in the Fun Format: A Guide to Control in Gym Leader Challenge

by WitherGaming001

While control is a familiar sight in today’s Standard format, it is much less common in Gym Leader Challenge. The Standard incarnations of control, exemplified by Snorlax Stall and Pidgeot Control, are more streamlined in their form than their GLC counterparts, but the fundamental tools and strategies that the decks employ are the same. In this article, I will provide a definition of control, break down the anatomy of the average control deck, explain how the different pieces of a control deck create a well-oiled machine, and finally give examples of control in Gym Leader Challenge.

Definitions

Control

The Standard deck Snorlax Stall, while commonly called a control deck, is very different from Pidgeot Control in both its engine and gameplan. Snorlax Stall takes a very slow, locking approach, attempting to run the opponent out of switch cards and win the game by trapping a useless Pokemon in the active spot forever. It either uses Rotom V or the Boxed Order + Jubilife Village engine to draw cards each turn. Pidgeot Control, however, takes a much more proactive approach, aiming to get Pidgeot ex online on turn 2 in order to find whatever card is necessary each turn. Pidgeot Control can either aggressively take Knock Outs while playing disruptive Supporters to attack the opponent’s resources and win by taking Prize Cards, or use a disruptive attacker to remove key pieces from the opponent’s grasp and finish the game with a lock. While these decks use very different engines to accomplish very different strategies, these decks are both considered “control” decks. In order to pin down exactly what a control deck is, then, a specific definition is necessary. A control deck is a slow, disruptive deck that attempts to remove resources from the opponent in order to advance one of several win conditions. A control deck typically uses some combination of lock, stall, and resource denial strategies to prevent the opponent from winning the game until one of the control deck’s win conditions is accomplished. Due to the multitude of strategies a control deck can employ, it would be appropriate to call control an “arch-archetype” that contains many subordinate archetypes within it. Of these subordinate archetypes, there are three main categories (lock, stall, and resource denial), although most control decks include all three.

Lock

A lock strategy either prevents the opponent from being able to take game actions that that player would be able to take otherwise, or nullifies the effects of certain cards that the opponent controls. There are more than ten different types of lock strategies in the Pokemon Trading Card Game, including Item Lock and Ability Lock, but all of them restrict the opponent’s actions and make it more difficult or even impossible for them to execute their gameplan. Vileplume, Omastar, Banette, and Garbodor are particularly prominent examples of this strategy, but you can find a comprehensive list of lock strategies at the end of the article.

Stall

A Stall strategy does not restrict the opponent’s actions in any way, but instead prevents the opponent from taking prize cards when attacking. Stall strategies take one of two forms: Prize Reduction and Tank & Heal. A Prize Reduction strategy, as exemplified by Shedinja and Lillie’s Poké Doll, allows the opponent to take Knock Outs, but prevents those Knock Outs from giving up any Prize Cards. A Tank & Heal strategy generally contains a several-card combo, but it prevents the opponent from taking Knock Outs with a single attack, and then heals all damage the opponent deals each turn, such that the opponent never takes a Prize Card. Tank & Heal strategies use cards such as Luxurious Cape, usually attached to a Pokémon with high HP, to make it more difficult for the opponent to Knock Out a Pokémon in one hit. After tanking a hit, a Tank & Heal deck will follow up with a card like Acerola to heal the damaged Pokémon. 

Resource Denial

A Resource Denial strategy aggressively removes resources from the opponent, whether they be Pokémon in play, attached Energy, cards in hand, cards in deck, or something else. While there are many forms of resource denial, the most common are Energy Denial, Mill, Knocking Out the opponent’s Pokémon, Tool & Stadium Removal, and Hand Removal. Energy Denial is the process of putting the opponent’s energy cards into the discard pile or Lost Zone, such that the opponent cannot attack or retreat. Tool removal and Stadium removal (discarding or Lost Zoning the opponent’s Pokémon Tools or Stadiums) are very rarely win conditions on their own, as opposed to energy denial, but they can disrupt the opponent’s gameplan and aid with another strategies such as energy denial or retreat lock, depending on the tools and stadiums being removed. A Hand Removal card attacks the opponent’s hand, forcing that player to put cards from their hand into the discard pile, Lost Zone, or deck. To learn more about Hand Removal cards and strategies, see the appendix.

Anatomy

Control decks are very different in structure from other decks. Rather than focusing on powering up a few attackers and then using those attackers to take Knock Outs, control decks focus on setting up a powerful board, and then attacking the opponent’s resources while looping their own. Furthermore, Control decks need to be able to deal with whatever the opponent can do at any given time, which means that they need to include a high volume of disruptive cards. This puts a huge strain on deck space, which forces control decks to obtain the maximum value from every single card in the deck. Deck space is the most crucial concept to consider when building most types of Control decks: if a card is not absolutely necessary to help to set up or help to win the game, it cannot be justified as an inclusion. Thus, control decks prominently feature four fundamental packages that are often less important or absent altogether in other archetypes: consistency engines, draw engines,  resource loops, and prize fixers. These packages allow control decks to maximize deck space, and still have the resources to win the long game.

Consistency Engines

Control decks need to be able to set up consistently, but they also want to remove as many unnecessary consistency cards from the deck as possible, both to make space for disruptive cards, and to remove potential late-game bricks that would prevent control decks from being able to reliably respond to the opponent’s plays while under hand disruption. Thus, control deck builders turn to consistency engines. A consistency engine is a set of one or more Abilities, attacks, or Trainer cards that allow you to completely set up your board. A consistency engine must be low to the ground and easy to set up, and thus must not involve setting up any Stage 2 Pokémon or setting up multiple Evolution Pokémon at once in order for the engine to start. A consistency engine must be able to set up the board completely, so consistency engines are composed (for the most part) of repeatable attacks or Abilities, rather than Trainer cards or one-shot Abilities. Such cards can supplement consistency engines, but rarely can be considered consistency engines on their own. There are many types of consistency engines, but the most common are the Growth (Stage 1-based Pokémon search, always via Abilities), Lead (Basic-based Supporter search, always via attacks), and Beacon (Basic-based Pokémon search, usually via attacks) engines, as exemplified by Grotle, Xerneas, Chimecho and Alolan Vulpix. 

A deck can also combine multiple engines into one. The Artazon engine (the set of cards including Artazon, Guzma & Hala, Capture Energy, Colress’s Tenacity, Arven, Technical Machine: Evolution, any number of retreat cost reduction tools, and sometimes Jet Energy and/or Green’s Exploration, as well as type-specific cards that serve a similar function), a large package of cards that search each other out and allow you to set up your consistency engine and aid you in setting up the rest of your board, works fantastically well with other consistency engines. 

The Artazon engine works particularly well with the Lead engine, as shown by the Ralts Control archetype (list shown below). Ralts Control uses the first half of the Artazon engine (Colress’s Tenacity and Guzma & Hala) to set up Xerneas, and then uses Xerneas to search for the second half of the Artazon engine (Green’s Exploration and Arven), using those Supporters to set up the rest of its board. 

Consistency engines allow decks to set up more reliably while saving deck space. The only drawback is that consistency engines often require time to set up and always take even more time to set up the rest of the board, so they are incompatible with a deck that wishes to attack aggressively. Many more aggressive decks use a partial consistency engine, but only very slow decks can afford to run a full consistency engine such as the one found in Ralts Control. While not every control deck needs as comprehensive a consistency engine as Ralts Control, nearly every control deck requires a consistency engine to function.

Draw Engines

In order to reliably respond to the opponent’s plays throughout the game, a control deck must be able to find crucial cards at any given moment. The main way this is done in GLC is by drawing cards. There are a few ways in GLC to tutor out specific cards via Abilities, but they are much rarer than card draw Abilities, and even when used in control decks are best when combined with draw engines (Ability-based methods of gaining card advantage every turn). Every type except Fighting has a draw engine (although Electric’s draw Abilities require decks to be built in a very specific way in order to be utilized in control), and most have multiple. However, not all draw Abilities are created equal. The best type of draw Abilities draw cards directly from the top of your deck, with no cost further than that of discarding a card from your hand, such as Kirlia’s Refinement, Drakloak’s Air Mail, and Slurpuff’s Tasting. Draw Abilities that draw you cards until you have a certain number of cards in your hand or that discard or shuffle your hand into your deck are much less powerful in control decks, as control decks want to continually amass a grip of cards that allow them to deal with anything the opponent does. These abilities can still be used in control decks (see Zebstrika’s Sprint in Shock Lock), but they are much less powerful. The draw engine is the core of a control deck, and without it a control deck will never be able to win games. Thus, every Control deck must include at least one draw engine, if not more. 

Resource Loops

In order to avoid running out of resources in the late game and to maximize the value of each card in the deck, control decks must be able to recover resources indefinitely, using a resource loop of one form or another. Some control decks can get away without infinite resource loops of any kind (although they at least have ways to recover some resources), but that is usually only possible with very specific control strategies and only in the Standard format. In GLC, every deck must be able to indefinitely loop some of its resources in order to deal with the many non-meta decks in existence and to have enough gas to close out the game at the end. Some resource loops are completely Trainer-based, such as the Lt. Surge’s Strategy + Lusamine + Team Yell’s Cheer loop or the Lusamine + Cynthia & Caitlin loop (see the appendix), and some are Ability-based, like Florges’s Wondrous Gift, but most are attack-based, using attacks like Floatzel’s Floatify, Sableye’s Junk Hunt, or Lanturn’s Salvage. 

Many resource loops require an empty deck in order to function, so control decks will often include cards like Professor’s Research, Battle Compressor, Explorer’s Guidance, or Hapu in order to empty the deck earlier in the game. However, not every Control deck can afford to run these cards, and most only include one or two. Of these cards, Battle Compressor is particularly strong, as it can act as a consistency card in a pinch. As shown above, control decks include an abnormally high number of recovery cards. Battle Compressor can put any card you want from your deck directly into your discard pile, so if you have a recovery card in hand as well as Battle Compressor, you can use Battle Compressor to discard the card you need, and then use the recovery card to put it into your hand.

Prize Fixing

In order to avoid the potential of poor prizing in a singleton format, most GLC decks are forced to include redundancies, as prize-fixing cards beyond Hisuian Heavy Ball and sometimes Gladion would greatly hinder the tempo of those decks. Furthermore, decks that aggressively take Prize Cards can make up for bad prizing by attacking and hoping to take key cards off prizes. Control decks, however, do not usually have to worry about setting the tempo, rarely take aggressive Knock Outs, and tend to have a higher percentage of crucial cards than other decks, so Gladion and Peonia are almost always worth including. This comes with the massive benefit of increasing deck space, and the downsides are very slim. Some control decks use only one prize fixing Supporter, but doing so is very risky if the control deck can’t take prizes aggressively in case of particularly poor prizing.

Execution

Now that we have all of the core pieces of a control deck, it is time to put these pieces together and examine how a typical control deck executes its strategy. Control decks tend to be more difficult to play than other decks, however, for a variety of reasons. They tend to have more moving pieces than most other decks, and because of the cookie-cutter nature of control decklists, most tend to punish misplays much more strongly. Combined with the often radically different play patterns required by control decks, these factors greatly steepen the learning curve of control decks and contribute to their relative lack of play in tournaments. However, control decks are quite possibly the most powerful decks in Gym Leader Challenge, and while they are difficult to learn and difficult to play, they are very rewarding and tend to have the highest power ceiling of any deck in Gym Leader Challenge. Furthermore, learning to play control decks can vastly improve your resource management and long-term planning skills, as well as refine your deck-building expertise. Learning to play a control deck can improve your overall skill in the Pokémon Trading Card Game, and can reward you with a few wins along the way.

While each control deck is different in its gameplan, they all tend to follow a similar pattern of play. At the start of the game, a control deck generally focuses completely on setup. For the first few turns, most control decks use attacks like Alolan Vulpix’s Beacon or Chimecho’s Auspicious Tone to fill the board and stock the hand (and occasionally discard pile) with key resources. Once a control deck has some semblance of a board, it is also often necessary to fix prize cards with Supporters like Peonia or Gladion, because Control decks tend to have less redundancy in terms of deckbuilding than other GLC decks. The rare control deck, such as Egg Mill (see below) attacks aggressively on turn two, but even those aggressive attacks tend to use disruptive effects to slow down the game and buy time to set up rather than high damage. Because of the relatively high maintenance required by most control decks in the setup stage, they tend to be most vulnerable in the first three or four turns, and can sometimes be run off the board by aggressive decks before they set up. After the setup phase, a control deck will employ a number of strategies in the midgame to attack the opponent’s resources, such as taking Knock Outs, playing disruptive Supporters, gusting liabilities and forcing the opponent to move them, milling the opponent, using disruptive attacks, and a multitude of other strategies. Once at least one crucial area of the opponent’s resources is nearly exhausted, a control deck will commence its endgame, closing out with the relevant win condition, whether it be retreat lock, taking six prizes, aggressive mill, or something else. Not all control decks follow this general gameplan, and most control decks will adapt to whatever the opponent is playing and will thus stray from this at times, but for the most part, control decks will execute this general sequence.

Now, control has one major issue to combat in GLC: the timer. Nearly all GLC events use 40-minute timed rounds, and many control decks can struggle with winning in that amount of time. Experienced players can usually win in 40 minutes (although this can depend a lot on the specific control deck being played), but a player picking up a control deck for the first time will have difficulty avoiding ties. Furthermore, some opponents will intentionally play slowly against control decks, so knowing how to deal with an opponent’s slow play can be very important. The time issue is the main reason that control decks do not see considerable tournament play, so it is critical to learn not only how to play a control deck well, but also to learn to play it with speed. Learning to play a control deck competently can be very difficult, but learning to play a control deck quickly as well as competently requires tens of hours of practice. The best way to learn this is by practicing with a timer until your pace of play and knowledge of the deck is sufficient.

Incarnations

I have taken a general look at control as an arch-archetype, so now it is time to view specific builds of control in GLC.

Egg Mill

Credit: GhoULS

First off is “Egg Mill” by GhoULS, assisted by RDalton. This deck aims to set up some combination of Vileplume, Exeggutor, and Venomoth as early as possible using the Grotle engine coupled with a partial implementation of the Artazon engine (boosted by Turffield Stadium) and Roserade, in order to prevent the opponent from being able to set up. At the same time, this deck will loop disruptive Supporters with Lusamine, Cynthia & Caitlin, and Team Yell’s Cheer in order to strain the opponent’s resources and further prevent them from setting up and attacking. The deck can end the game either by locking something in the active spot that can’t attack easily and looping Team Rocket’s Handiwork to mill the opponent out, or by using Torterra with a Luxurious Cape to sweep the opponent’s entire board and take six prizes. Torterra doesn’t always have to take six prizes, though—it often only needs to remove one or two key threats to further strengthen the power of the lock later in the game. It also has a particularly powerful method of winning by energy denial with Team Flare Grunt, Plumeria, and Pokémon League Headquarters, since the opponent can’t play recovery Items under Vileplume lock, or recovery Supporters under Exeggutor lock. Notably, this deck’s draw power is low, relying completely on Sawsbuck. Thus, Egg Mill can often rely on locking the opponent for several turns in order to obtain a considerable card advantage and make up for its otherwise poor draw power. This deck has the strongest lock of any control deck on this list, so if you enjoy preventing your opponent from being able to play the game, this is the deck for you.

Fire Mill

Credit: Espio

Next, we have Fire Mill. The list featured is “Meltdown: Reforged”, Espio’s modern take on a GLC classic. This deck focuses much less on disruptive Trainers, and instead mostly attacks the opponent’s resources by discarding cards from their deck or by Knocking Out their Pokémon. This deck is very fast and aggressive, and can consistently mill the opponent for several cards every turn. It will generally end up winning by milling, but if it mills enough key resources, it can easily take Knock Outs with Charizard, Moltres, or Centiskorch. Because of its aggressive nature, this deck has very little recovery when compared to other control decks. But what this deck lacks in recovery it makes up for in draw power. It has arguably the strongest draw engine in the format, using the combination of Magcargo to find whatever card is necessary, and Salazzle to draw that card—as well as two more. This deck is barely a control deck by my definition, but because it focuses on resource denial as a win condition, it still should be considered as such. This deck also has no issue with winning games in 40 minutes due to its highly aggressive nature. If you want to play an alternate win condition deck but like to play aggressively and finish games quickly, then I would recommend picking up this deck.

Leviathan

Credit: Wheatr

“Leviathan” by Wheatr is quite possibly the most powerful control deck on this list. This deck aims to set up slowly, attack the opponent’s resources by looping disruptive Trainers with Floatzel, taking KOs with Wailord and Inteleon, and then finishing the game by attaching Luxurious Cape to Wailord and sweeping the opponent’s board completely (similar to Torterra in Egg Mill). This deck makes fantastic use of the Beacon engine, using both Alolan Vulpix and Hisuian Basculin to quickly and consistently set up the rest of the board. This can combo with the Inteleon line to generate very explosive starts. While this deck can occasionally win by some sort of deck out, this is very seldom, and it will nearly always sweep with Wailord to win. This deck’s recovery options are somewhat slim when compared to other control decks, but it can still infinitely loop Trainers with Floatzel. It can even recover Supporters and Stadiums through VS Seeker and Lusamine, respectively. Lost Zoning the opponent’s cards is one of the most powerful things any deck can do in a singleton format, and this deck abuses Lost City better than any other deck (except for possibly Ralts Control), since when Leviathan plays Lost City, it’s in combination with an invincible Wailord, preventing the Stadium from backfiring. This deck also has the most potential for explosive plays, due to the Shady Dealings Inteleon line (and, to some extent, the Sparkling Ripples Milotic). Shady Dealings allows the Leviathan player to create nearly any necessary combo, even as early as turn 2 or 3. This deck’s draw power is also fairly strong, due to Swampert’s power draw. In all, this is the most streamlined control deck in GLC, and is well worth trying.

Shock Lock

Credit: WitherGaming001

Shock Lock is one of the two control archetypes in GLC that was inherited from Standard and Expanded, so this deck may seem familiar to more experienced players. It aims to mill itself as quickly as possible, and then use Lanturn’s Salvage attack to continuously loop items every turn, drawing into them with Zebstrika and Electrode. With these items, the deck spams disruptive Items (and Supporters, by way of VS Seeker) while using Devolution Spray or Scoop Up Net to Paralyze the opponent’s Active Pokémon each turn with Raichu’s Evoshock Ability. Once the opponent runs out of switch outs, they cannot move their paralyzed Active Pokémon for the rest of the game and they lose. However, this deck is very fragile when compared to most other Control decks. In order to play around being decked out by the opponent playing a card like Iono or N, this deck has to use Super Rod or Rescue Stretcher to ensure that they have at least a total of 7 cards in hand and deck at all times, which reduces the power of the Lanturn loop. Furthermore, this deck is weak to gust, as if the opponent gusts a Pokémon like Zebstrika or Raichu, or if the opponent KOs Lanturn, the Shock Lock player must keep Electrike benched in order to Thorton into the new target while recovering Electrike and the evolution of the KO’d Pokémon. While other Pokémon work fine as Thorton targets, Electrike is best as it cannot be affected by Supporters like Boss’s Orders or Guzma. However, GLC decks almost never include enough switch outs to take six prize cards against this deck, so if you can keep your engine alive and Evoshock every turn, you will win the game against almost every deck. This deck can often feel like it’s on the edge of defeat, but it can also instantly win games by running the opponent out of switch cards. If a risky but oppressive control deck seems interesting to you, then I would recommend this deck. However, be aware that this deck is more frustrating to play against than most other decks due to the lack of interaction possible against it (although not as much as Doll Stall, since that deck is even harder to interact with), so if you want your opponent to have a good time, this may not be the best option.

Goth Mom

Credit: Joey

“Goth Mom” by Joey is a very unique build of control that attempts to completely brick the opponent by removing their hand and controlling their topdeck, while simultaneously taking KOs. This deck includes nearly every hand disruption card ever printed, and can completely stop the opponent’s setup, especially when combined with Wobbuffet. Once this deck has established a board, it will then attempt to completely remove the opponent’s hand, or at least put them to one or two cards in hand, and then use Gothitelle’s Ability to control the opponent’s topdeck. While the opponent struggles to do anything at all, this deck uses strong attackers like Necrozma, Arbok, or Gothitelle to take KOs and decimate the opponent’s board. This deck also features the classic Kirlia-Gallade engine, which allows you to draw cards in the early game, and then find whatever Supporter you need each turn in the mid-to-late game. In many ways, this deck plays like an extremely disruptive version of a traditional Psychic build, since it includes many of the Psychic staples, such as Malamar, Gallade, Dimension Valley, and Necrozma. Even the Supporter line is similar to a traditional build of Psychic. If you wish to play a control deck, but don’t want to stray too far from more “normal” decks, then this one is for you. Note that this list has not been updated since Marshadow’s ban. You could easily substitute a different card for Marshadow, however. Since the Marshadow ban, Celebrations Mew has been put into many Psychic decks in its place, and this deck is no different. Xerosic’s Machinations or the upcoming Meddling Memo could also be options, as well as a plethora of other cards.

Sablelock

Credit: GhoULS

“Sablelock”, another deck by GhoULS with assistance from RDalton, is a very low-to-the ground Item-heavy deck that relies on an extremely powerful resource loop to constantly disrupt the opponent. The deck revolves around using Sableye’s Junk Hunt attack to retrieve Items (and Supporters, via VS Seeker), and then using those Items to disrupt the opponent. Sablelock features a unique draw engine, using Liepard and PokéStop to generate card advantage while conserving resources with Sableye. This deck also features Morpeko as a backup option, and it can take big KOs with Galarian Moltres. For further resource denial, Sablelock includes Alolan Muk, which can mill the opponent’s Items upon evolution and can be looped with Sableye via Scoop Up Net, as well as Yveltal, which discards the opponent’s Special Energy. Yveltal’s second attack can come up occasionally as well. On the surface, this deck doesn’t have a weakness. It has the most versatile resource loop of any control deck in GLC, which allows the deck to do basically anything. It has more options than any other control deck because of its very low space requirements, and it can dig through the deck fairly quickly due to its high Item count. However, it can lose if the opponent withstands the disruption long enough to attack six times, due to the relatively low hitpoints of this deck’s attackers. Luxurious Cape can help with that issue, but it doesn’t completely solve the problem. However, this deck’s very low setup cost makes it the fastest, most consistent, and most versatile control deck in the format.

Doll Stall

Credit: WitherGaming001

Doll Stall is the second control deck in GLC that was inspired by a Standard deck. This list is a fairly stock list, inspired by ZManCuddles’s “Control of Fae” as well as my own experience with the deck. Doll Stall aims to use the Lead engine to set up, and then infinitely recover and draw into Lillie’s Poké Doll and Robo Substitute with Florges’s Wondrous Gift Ability in combination with Slurpuff’s Tasting Ability, preventing the opponent from ever being able to take prizes. This deck also has the huge benefit of Ribombee, which prevents the opponent from using Boss’s Orders, Guzma, and Hex Maniac (among other Supporters) to wreck the deck’s otherwise extremely fragile board state. As such, this deck is actually quite resilient, and can withstand assaults from the opponent that a deck like Shock Lock may not be able to. In addition to the stall win condition, this deck can also win with Klefki + Double Turbo Energy, locking a support Pokémon in the Active spot forever. Doll Stall tends to be very frustrating to play against (even more so than other control decks) due to its very passive manner, so if you want to keep your friends, then this may not be the best control deck to play. However, this deck is very difficult to interact with, so unless you whiff, you will instantly win a lot of games simply because your opponent has no counterplay.

Ralts Control

Credit: WitherGaming001

And now we come to “Wondrous Echo” (Ralts Control), my magnum opus. This deck is extremely different from a Doll Stall deck, even though the Pokemon line is very similar, such that it should be considered a completely separate archetype. This deck leans more heavily into the Xerneas engine, using that to set up quickly. Rather than using Florges to loop dolls, this deck uses it as a way to gain resource advantage and abuse broken cards such as Counter Catcher or VS Seeker. Ralts Control plays much more aggressively, often responding to early KOs with Mimikyu or Xerneas. This deck can react to the opponent’s moves excellently, using Diantha to recover cards like Counter Energy, Lost City, or one of the deck’s many Tools, and using those cards to instantly respond to the opponent’s attacks using Mimikyu. Once the opponent has expended resources trying to take KOs turn after turn, this deck will usually move into attacking with Ralts, looping Supporters like Team Flare Grunt to lock a Pokémon in the Active spot and prevent the opponent from attacking. Ralts Control can win in many ways, but usually it either runs the opponent out of energy or takes six prizes with Xerneas and Mimikyu. Ralts Control, of all other control decks, abuses Pokémon Tools the most. Since most GLC decks only include one Tool removal card, the opponent will only be able to get rid of one of this deck’s powerful Tools, and all of the others will run rampant and obtain an incredible amount of value. Lost City is also particularly powerful in this deck because while the opponent can often retaliate by Lost Zoning the attacker in Ralts Control’s Active Spot, Ribombee prevents them from Lost Zoning a key support Pokémon. Losing the attacker is rarely impactful, since in the matchups where you need to use Lost City you either shut off the opponent’s gameplan with that one card or you don’t win by taking prizes. However, this deck does have weaknesses. Firstly, its draw power leaves a lot to be desired, so sometimes it can whiff an early response against an aggressive deck and be forced to pursue a less streamlined gameplan. Furthermore, this deck’s action economy (the number of actions that it can take in a single turn) is quite low. This is not necessarily a problem in control decks, as it can be made up for by taking many turns while the opponent does very little, but this deck can struggle to establish a lock for more than two or three turns until the late game, and so it sometimes can’t quite take enough disruptive actions in time to stop the opponent from winning. Furthermore, this deck is quite possibly the most difficult control deck to play in all of GLC. It forces you to think several turns in advance in a different way than one otherwise might due to its low action economy and its pre-retrieval of Supporters via Ralts, in addition to the usual difficulties found in most control decks. However, this deck is very powerful, and it can respond to nearly everything the opponent can do. If you have a lot of time on your hands and want a challenge, I encourage you to play this deck.

Ursaluna Control

Credit: leonardo

Finally, we have “The Dark Side of the Moon” (Ursaluna Control) by leonardo. This deck has the most powerful engine overall of any control deck in GLC, using Snorlax and Fan Rotom for brilliant setup power, and then using Cinccino and Pidgeotto (with some aid from Oranguru) to draw a massive number of cards each turn. Once this deck is set up, it uses Ursaluna to loop resources, alternating between retrieving Triple Acceleration energy and Max Potion with its first attack, and dealing damage with its second attack. This deck has further tank potential with Luxurious Cape, and, similar to Leviathan, it will attempt to sweep the opponent’s board with an invincible tank. However, Ursaluna Control can deck out the opponent much more easily than Leviathan. Using the same tank combo to prevent the opponent from taking Knock Outs this deck can loop disruptive Trainers rather than use Ursaluna’s second attack, eventually decking the opponent out. Similar to Shock Lock, this deck also uses Thorton to chain Ursaluna against decks that can one-shot it, and it abuses Lost City just like Leviathan and Ralts Control. In all, this deck has a ton of options, and it will practically always have what it needs at the critical time due to its engine. Note that this list has not been updated for a long time, so it would probably need to undergo some revision, particularly as regards the consistency engine. I know Wheatr has a more updated list that includes Fan Rotom and Buddy-Buddy Poffin, as well as some other new cards. However, this is the original Ursaluna Control list, and it shows the idea of the deck very well.

Conclusion

Control is an incredibly varied arch-archetype of deck, enveloping several archetypes itself. In Gym Leader Challenge, control is a relatively unexplored field, with only a handful of specific decks being nailed down. There is still a ton of room for innovation in the arch-archetype, and the existing control decks tend to evolve rapidly as well. I urge you to try playing control yourself. Even if you copy-paste one of the lists in this article, it is well worth your time learning to pilot one of these archetypes. And if you disagree with any card in one of these lists…the cycle of innovation begins anew.

Appendix

The general types of lock are as follows: Item Lock, Tool Lock, Supporter Lock, Stadium Lock, Trainer Lock, Ability Lock, Retreat Lock, Evolution Lock, Hand Lock (not to be confused with the resource denial strategy), and Attack Lock. Item Lock, as shown by Vileplume and Trevenant, prevents the opponent from playing Items. Tool Lock, as shown by Banette and Jamming Tower, prevents the opponent from playing Pokémon Tools, or nullifies the effects of those Tools. 

Supporter Lock, as shown by Exeggutor and Kabutops, prevents the opponent from playing Supporters. Stadium Lock, as shown by Palkia and Chaotic Swell, prevents the opponent from playing Stadiums, or, in the case of Chaotic Swell, discards any Stadium either player plays before it takes effect. 

Trainer Lock, as shown by Whismur and Walrein, prevents the opponent from playing any Trainer cards. Ability Lock, as shown by Garbodor and Silent Lab, removes some or all of the Abilities of the opponent’s Pokémon. 

Retreat Lock, as shown by Snorlax and Klefki, prevents the opponent’s Active Pokémon from retreating. Pokémon Lock, as shown by Archeops and Chimecho, prevents the opponent from playing Evolution Pokémon, but generally only from the hand. 

Hand Lock, as shown by Gengar & Mimikyu GX and Alolan Golem GX, prevents the opponent from playing any cards from the hand. There are currently no Hand Lock cards in GLC. Finally, Attack Lock, as shown by Glastrier and Iron Bundle, prevents one or more of the opponent’s Pokémon from attacking. 

Complete Hand Removal is the process of removing your opponent’s hand entirely, generally done by combos such as Lt. Surge’s Strategy + Xerosic’s Machinations + Delinquent, Red Card + Delinquent + Gothitelle, and other similar combos. Generally, a player will attempt to remove any Ability that the opponent controls that allows that player to draw or search for cards and implement some form of topdeck control in order to sustain complete hand removal.

The Lt. Surge’s Strategy + Lusamine + Team Yell’s Cheer loop is the most powerful resource loop in GLC that is purely Trainer-based; it allows you to play a fourth Supporter every other turn, as well as an additional time at the beginning of the combo, while also recovering or playing additional Supporters or Stadiums. In order for it to function, you must have an empty deck, be behind on Prize Cards, and must have a draw engine in play, as well as have all four Supporters in hand. Technically, you can start the combo with either Lusamine, Team Yell’s Cheer, or the fourth Supporter in the discard pile, but you will need to modify it slightly or start on step 2 or 3. In order to begin the combo, play Lt. Surge’s Strategy, followed by the fourth Supporter. Then, play Lusamine to recover both. The next turn, play Surge, the fourth Supporter, and then Team Yell’s Cheer, shuffling back Surge, Lusamine, and the fourth Supporter. Then, draw with your draw engine so that you will have access to all 3 Supporters next turn. On the third turn of the combo, you have two options: you can either play Surge, Lusamine to recover Surge and Yell Cheer, and a fifth Supporter (which you will not be able to recover without decreasing the efficiency of the loop), or you can simply play Lusamine to recover Yell Cheer as well as a fifth Supporter or a Stadium. Then, repeat turns two and three as many times as you like.

The Cynthia & Caitlin + Lusamine loop is much simpler than the above loop, but it’s also less powerful. It allows you to loop a third Supporter every three turns (with an additional turn at the beginning of the combo), while optionally allowing you to draw cards. The combo has no prerequisites, other than that you must have Cynthia & Caitlin, Lusamine, and the third Supporter in hand to start the combo. Again, you do not technically need to have all three in hand to start the combo, but you will need to modify the combo slightly or start on a step other than step one. To begin the combo, play the third Supporter. Turn two, play Cynthia & Caitlin to recover the third Supporter (and optionally draw cards). Turn three, play the third Supporter. Turn four, play Lusamine to recover Cynthia & Caitlin and the third Supporter. Turn five, play Cynthia & Caitlin to recover Lusamine (and optionally draw cards). Repeat turns 3-5 as many times as you like.