All the Silph Arena Themed Cups Prior

Back when Trainer battles (now more commonly known as PvP) in Pokémon Go was realized, the Silph Arena was also realized shortly after. Yet, I do have to say that I did not start right away; I only started a few themed cups in, precisely as I explained about thematic battles beyond its scope. At that time, the Rainbow themed cup was in full swing, and it was the sixth themed cup of its inaugural season. The five others that preceded it - Boulder, Twilight, Tempest, Kingdom, and Nightmare in that order - have (or had) certain nuances as well, and I ought to round them up and discuss them for posterity's sake.

I've already actually explained the themed cup of "Boulder" in a post about looking back and looking forward for them, and "Twilight" as it was reused as a Factions battlefield, so my earlier explanations mostly suffice for those. That leaves the other themed cups, which demand at least some further explanation, starting with the next in line, "Tempest". The featured types for this one are Electric, Flying, Ground, and Ice, and because of the type relations, Ice types become a sort of an emphasis - in fact, teams would be composed of "flyers", "anti-flyers", and others to mediate between the two.

Moving on down the line, there was the "Kingdom" themed cup, which I've also explained in the first linked post but no further than the types involved - for reference being Fire, Ice, Dragon, and Steel. The key counter relationships here are Fire against Steel, Ice against Dragon, Fire against Ice, and Steel against Ice, while Dragon against Fire and Steel against Dragon serve as buffers. Even so, it seems that most of the interactions - based on the run of the themed cup - center on Lucario as the biggest offender and others that can mitigate that, which might still remain true even if it were active today.

Then there came the "Nightmare" themed cup, with its featured types of Fighting, Psychic, and Dark. Immediately it becomes obvious that there is a rock-paper-scissors relationship here, and only the "best of the best" suffice to counter others. Specifically, there was Xatu with its power to fend off Fighting types and Poliwrath to fend off Xatu, as well as Dark and Poison types together to hassle the other two. They were lucky that Charm (ahem) wasn't the norm back then, which could be the norm now. It was a real "nightmare" of a themed cup, which is why now the Arena seeks to move away from such a relationship in recent ones.

While I did mention "Rainbow" at the beginning of this post and in the first linked post, like "Kingdom", only the types are mentioned with no further explanation, so it's fine to discuss about it as well. As the featured types are Grass, Fire, and Water plus Electric and Flying, it becomes apparent that it may be considered as "Element Cup++", as the Silph Arena basis is the Great League and there are those other two types in addition to the ones that make up the themed cup above. Species picks for the first three types are certainly important, but so are ones for the other two types, overlapping if possible.

Silph Arena evidently has a quite rich history, even (just) prior to my involvement in battling under its themed cups. Admittedly, it could be considered slightly based on trial and error, but that is essentially what paved the way for the design of later themed cups. In the same way, my current involvement might be said to be sparse at present in comparison to back when I started, but that good start still prepared myself for what came down the line afterwards. The hope may be that there would be a lot of fruitfulness for us - my participation in the Arena and the development of its future themed cups - as we look back and move forward.

One year ago: Travel to Atlantis

Two years ago: Reminiscing More of My Early Days with Go

Three years ago: A T-Shirt for One's Journey

Four years ago: The Wonders of Weather in Go

Five years ago: Going Back to the NDS