Pretty Colors of the Prism

Something that organizers of PvP battling in Pokémon Go might face at the moment is how to create novel formats that are beyond the ordinary "vanilla" or open format of the established leagues, as well as the typical modifications applied to them to change things up a bit, most likely simple restrictions of different types. Even then, these simple restrictions might prove to be a bit too simple, and something else needs to be restricted in a significantly wilder manner in order to make a difference. The current themed cup of this month for the Silph Arena may just be one of the answers for that situation.

This month, the theme is called "Prismatic". It's called as such because the theme involves colors, being those of the Pokémon. Some setup of the team is also in order. Besides the standard Great League basis and no Mega Evolution - plus, Shadow Pokémon are not allowed this time - as mandated for a Silph Arena competition, one selects a team of 6 Pokémon, and each of these Pokémon are to fit 6 color groups: red, blue, yellow/white, green/black, brown/pink, and purple/gray. Each of these color groups contain a selection of Pokémon (40-50 or so) that may be chosen for that group, which may be seen on the page for the themed cup. The additional stipulation that no species may be duplicated also becomes important, as the forms of Wormadam, for example, are divided according to these color groups, and they cannot all be chosen.

This themed cup represents a radical structuring for Pokémon allowed for it as well as the teams that appear in it. The overall breadth of available Pokémon has been narrowed down to less than a few hundred, and of those Pokémon, they may only be selected as part of a team in specific ways, by color restrictions. Those color restrictions are similar to those for the Rose Cup of a past Silph Arena season or even the Love Cup from GBL some ways back, but expanded with more colors; this time, they're also designed not to intermingle within a team and only when that team is put into battle.

As usual, a selection of species always leads the pack as the meta. It has been suggested that the meta for this has three "domains": "ethereal" Pokémon with mostly Psychic, Flying, Ghost and Fairy types, "fighter" Pokémon - not necessarily of the Fighting type - that can deal blows of different kinds, and "natural" Pokémon of types like Grass, Ground, and Ice that represent things from nature. The three "domains" deal with the next one down the list or back to the top. This meta framework may have to be kept in mind while constructing teams representative of the colors.

And those colors are pretty indeed. While they are not exactly representative of the spectrum an actual rainbow, they do represent the abstraction of the color spectrum of Pokémon present in Pokémon Go and have been "shoehorned" as such. That "shoehorning" also becomes an incredibly novel way of restricting available Pokémon to make a format that is definitely different than most other similarly usual formats, in the ever-continuing struggle to "shed light" on new Pokémon battle challenges based on the colors that make it up.

One year ago: Writer Shortcuts

Two years ago: Pokémon Go Fest 2017 T-Shirt Replica

Three years ago: 1000 Pokémon Species?

Four years ago: That Way You've Got