Thundering into the Vortex

Since my raid group (and I as well) have become less focused on PvP - at least for community tournaments like the Silph Arena - these have gone by the wayside for other convenient options like the Go Battle League. But certainly I'm not prevented from discussing them on this blog and discerning things about them. And so the current Silph Arena season continues, this time with a themed cup that might throw competitors for a loop - or rather, into a vortex. That's because the themed cup is titled exactly that: Vortex. It could be a real doozy.

The standard and current stipulations apply, being based on the Great League and no Mega Evolution. For this themed cup, there are quite a few other restrictions, this time directly pertaining to the Pokémon: the Fairy type is disallowed, Legendary Pokémon are not permitted, and the list of banned individual species is even larger than for the previous Labyrinth themed cup (which may also have been called Maze) - 20 species this time in all, and the full list can be seen on the themed cup page.

It seems that this themed cup can be construed as an effort to apply the most restrictions possible to the Great League format. Fairy types are a given ban, since they tend to have powerful attacks - a fact that I can testify, having been on both sides. Legendary Pokémon not being allowed keeps things level and prevents oddities from taking over. Most importantly, the individual species bans prevent those that have become popular meta Pokémon regardless of theme and have been identified as such over time.

Even with restrictions that attempt to cast aside previous meta, there is still a definitive meta for the species that are still involved. There are several key domains of types involved in the meta: Electric, Ice, Dark-Dragon, Fighting, Grass, and Ground, and they go around. Compounds of these with Steel and Water might also stir up key matchups, and they're the ones to look out for. A good team would have to be able to deal with any or all of these domains depending on their presence in a team.

With the Great League having been fleshed out for a considerable amount of time, certain Pokémon have been able to appear time and time again, and the current Silph Arena themed cup appears to try to stem just that. What will then be able to decide how things turn out is how Trainers will choose their team Pokémon to "thunder into the vortex" and make headway against any of the possible remaining Pokémon. At the least, it could be an alternative to making one's headway into PvP in some form.

One year ago: A Taste of the Poison Paradise

Two years ago: Everybody, Polkamon

Three years ago: Action or Strategy?

Four years ago: Thank Heaven for Little Boys