With the imminent release of Gym Leaders 1, that makes 5 sets in the US plus
promotion cards.  This means that control decks should see a rise in play. 
This article takes a look at some of the Trainers, Stadiums and Pokemon that
work around the control theme.

Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal
    These Cards are great b/c they control the board itself and can be quite
effective when your opponent has a short hand.  Give yourself the advantage
with the board

Team Rockets Trap
    This Card should be broken when Gym Leaders come out, flip a coin if
heads opponent loses 3 cards, that is INCREDIBLE!  One of these first turn
gives you a huge advantage, especially if most of his hand was basic. 
Possible Scenario, you start with 2 basic he has 3 you use the Trap and are
successful and he has 1 card in his hand.  This will be broken

Imposter Professor Oak's Revenge
    This is another dangerous card, if your opponent just used his oak, use
this to
make him go down to 4, 2 cards for 3 or 4 isn't bad.  This one should be used
sparingly because if he has 1 card, its worthless.

Rockets Sneak Attack
    Everyone knows how important Trainers are, this one gives you the
advantage by making your opponent lose 1, if you are familiar with Magic The
Gathering think Duress

Gust of Wind
    This card really hammers an opponent in more ways then one, first it
allows you to choose who you want to fight which is always helpful, second it
can force a newly retreated pokemon out of hiding, then it can also stop a
powerful pokemon by shoving it on the bench.  This card is very strong and is
good as control and agression.

Stadiums

Narrow Gym
    Talk about a hammer, this one shrinks the bench sizes to 4, this not only
weakens fatties like Wigglytuff, but cuts the number of threats down, making
it harder for those combo creature decks like rain dance and stall.  Haymaker
loves this card, less creatures means faster wins.  This one controls the
game quickly

Team Rockets Gym   
    Like Dark Muks Power, This one mimics it.  Talk about a slower. This one
hammers energy intensive pokemon.  I think it could see play in certain decks

Hallucination Gym
    Wow this card is powerful.  It will make your opponents think twice
before playing that trainer, because it might come back at him, ughh I
shudder to think about that SER being reversed.

Pokemon

Dragonair/Golduck/Poliwrath/Dark Vaporeon
    These 3 All have built in Energy Removals, all of them can fit in a water
deck and only Poliwrath is a 3rd stager, I could see a deck being built
around them, but I don't see it very effectively b/c of speed, still getting
one of these guys pumped can be a nightmare

Dark Vileplume
    Wow These guys are strong, if you manage to gain an advantage with a
trainer, these guys will lock the board up in a hurry, combined with
Dragonair and ouchie.

Aerodactyl
    Wanna make Raindance cry, toss one of these suckers down second turn,
then follow up with something that hits the hand hard.  Ouchie

Dark Muk
    Uhh, is this fair.  He makes retreat costs go through the roof and then
poisons his enemys, um.  Use him for a turn or two to gain an advantage then
scoop him up, get a quick retreat and replay him, thats not what I call fair.

This ends the list on Control Cards, the most viable archetypes are likely
going to be Green Control or Blue.  With the new Gym Leaders Pokemon, I
expect to see some type of control decks to arise, the reason being is that
beatdown pokemon are starting to fade.  Since fossil haymaker has gotten
little except trainers, turbo raindance has gotten little period, and stall
is getting weaker.  Being able to control or Lock the board can be a strong
advantage especially early in the game.  Any advantage that you have should
be exploited and that is what a control deck does.

                                                    Comments/Questions
                                                    thegreat177@aol.com
                                                    Steve Harrison