Tell us a bit about yourself outside of Smogon.
Honestly I’m really different outside of Smogon which really makes this kinda interesting, but mainly, I’m a biology major that’s hoping to specialize in genetics, and I’m a very passionate artist!
What is the origin of your username?
“ausma” is actually the name of my mascot character that I’ve used for about 5-6 years or so? It’s a pretty straight forward, catchy name and the character in question is one that I have a really close connection to.
What got you into CAP?
It was a combination of the really welcoming art community as well as the fact that I’m a massive sucker for dissecting Pokemon mechanically. I decided to weigh in on Saharaja’s concept assessment off-handedly after lurking for a while, and from there I just kinda realized getting involved is fun as hell.
What is your favorite CAP Pokemon?
It’s a tossup between Venomicon, Equilibra, and Pajantom. All of which are really solid concepts competitively with unique roles, and the flavor attached to them all are not only incredibly clever, but really well executed in and of themselves. If I had to choose one overall, though, I’d probably have to say Equilibra just because I’m a sucker for Future Sight-esque strategies.
What is your favorite regular Pokemon?
This is a tough question because my favorite Pokemon honestly changes quite a bit depending on my mood, but generally speaking the most consistent one is Fennekin.
What is your favorite CAP art submission that didn’t win?
BaffleTome’s CAP 32 submission, for sure.
What is your favorite generation of CAP?
Instinctively I have to say probably Gen 7. It’s not a generation I’m super experienced with, but it seems to combine the best of CAP’s additions to the metagame with the generally wide range of options Gen 7 allotted players. It’s a super teambuilder friendly metagame that has felt like it rewards creativity well, so it’s naturally something I feel partial to.
What is your favorite CAP OM?
Honestly I’m not super familiar with these so I’m not sure.
What would you say are your biggest contributions?
Hemogoblin and Saharaja’s processes were definitely the ones I contributed the most to. In particular I feel I had a pretty heavy influence on a lot of Hemogoblin’s typing and movepool!
What is your favorite part of the CAP process?
If not the design phase, I have to go with Ability. I think this is where things really start to get interesting in the process as there’s a lot to think about when it comes to the relationship of abilities to your typing, as well as how well the combination can enable your role. It’s a very dynamic stage imo.
What is a lesson you learned from a recent CAP process/buff process?
I recently learned that it’s important to never pigeonhole on one idea and concept. I think it can be really easy to get consumed in the excitement of your own ideas and observations without really considering the merits of others your ideas may fundamentally disagree with. I learned this with Hemogoblin and Pixilate. I personally was very unsure of how much I was subscribed to the combination since it felt like we really had to rely on Extreme Speed to a fault and it would really limit the general direction and potential set combinations. But I’m glad we stuck through as, while its niche was fairly linear on paper, we wound up having a really uniquely powerful revenge killer anyway that had some unique ways of playing to its strength of Pixispeed.
What is your favorite moment from a CAP Tournament?
I don’t recall what the tour was for, but the Bossaru C-teaming trend that happened last gen was so funny and this replay is a personal favorite due to the goofy Dwebble lead.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen8cap-1538010266
Thoughts on the current Gen 9 CAP metagame?
It’s weird, but honestly refreshing. Generation 9 introduced a lot of interesting dynamics with the Paradox Pokemon (for better or worse) that weirdly pair well with the existing CAPs. Sun as an archetype is really fun since we have a setter that’s actually somewhat competent. In general I appreciate that the metagame is leagues less volatile than SV OU since we have a lot more role compression and more consistent defensive staples like Venomicon and Arghonaut.
If you could change one thing about the mechanics of Pokemon, what would it be?
Make Bug resist Ghost. It would be such a simple but effective change as Ghost feels very overtuned offensively and Bug packing a Ghost-type resist would really cement it as something distinctly useful from Flying, whose typeholders can often be overwhelmed by Ghost-types’ relentless assault in tandem with hazard pressure.
Hopes for The Teal Mask/The Indigo Disk?
I personally would love to see some more cross-gen evolutions and Paradox Pokemon!
Can you share a team that you are proud of?
I don’t have it on hand unfortunately, but I had a Chromera Dark-spam comp that I ran after the buff process, which was a lot of fun. If I end up finding it I’ll post it in the thread.
Anything else you want to say to the viewers at home?
don’t ask who joe is, biggest mistake of my life