[AC] AC: Matchup Guide/Discussion

[RedBeard]

Click on the character name below to go directly to their matchup information.

MATCHUP SUGGESTIONS AND INFORMATION

General

A.B.A.

Anji

Axl

Baiken

Bridget

Chipp

Dizzy

Eddie

Faust

I-No

Jam

Johnny

Ky

May

Millia

Order-Sol

Potemkin

Robo-Ky

Slayer

Sol

Testament

Venom

Zappa

[RedBeard]

GENERAL MATCHUP INFORMATION

MATCHUP ADVANTAGE OVERVIEW:

This is a quick overview on matchup advantage/disadvantage. This is highly subject to change as gameplay in AC evolves.

5-5: Anji, Bridget, Ky, Robo-Ky

4.5-5.5: Baiken, Chipp, Dizzy, I-No, Order-Sol, Sol

4-6: A.B.A, Axl, Faust, Jam, May, Millia, Slayer, Venom, Zappa

3.5-6.5: Potemkin, Testament

3-7: Eddie

[RedBeard]

A.B.A. MATCHUP INFORMATION

The overall strategy against ABA is to keep her from changing modes.

When shes in normal mode, you want to lock her down. 2K and 2D discourages sliding. Watch for if she tries to jump out. Dashing back in after a MC can be risky at Lv1, you may get Key'ed. Cancel your dash into a FD in case of Keygrab or sweep. Try not to give ABA to much space, but at the same time don't be too reckless.

Berserker/Moroha mode, ABA becomes a monster. Her monster-ness is off set by her hurting herself. When she's all over you, a well placed InstantBlock, backdash, or DeadAngle can win you the round. I find FDing to be somewhat useless against ABA. Alot of her moves have forward movement built into it. She's going to jackup your guard gauge regardless, better to have tension, to threaten with, then no tension at all.

Outside of ABA rushing you down, 5K is a pretty good poke. It's fast enough and has enough range that it can stuff out a fair number of what ABA might try to, while being quick enough that it's difficult for ABA to punish you for whiffing.

Knocking ABA down while she's in Moroha mode will remove a little under 1/3 of her Moroha time. Three knockdowns (four, if you start knocking her down from a full bar) is enough to force her out of Moroha. ABA doesn't get her life back when forced out, and you get a free combo and sometimes and Instant Kill.

Watch her Moroha bar, count her bloodpacks, and keep your cool. ABA does half the work for you.

Specific Combos:

2D>LMF2

// A 2D>MMF2 won't connect, but luckily this one will connect with no special timing needed.

Additional Notes:

At the start of a round, a keygrab has enough range to hit you, and enough speed to beat out what ever you can do at this range. Jumping or moving a pixel or two backwards is a good precaution.

The rekkas. IB'ing the 1st or 2nd strikes lets you retaliate, before the next strike would connect. Normal blocking the 1st or 2nd strikes lets you backdash, or OD, the next strike. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd strike is a free retaliation, if not followed up with next strike or not FRC'ed/RC'ed.

[RedBeard]

ANJI MATCHUP INFORMATION

Filler text! Needed! Necessary! You love it! You need it! I hax0red your mom's ass last night!

[RedBeard]

AXL MATCHUP INFORMATION

Boy, writing these guides sure is hard work! Look at all the text!

[RedBeard]

BAIKEN MATCHUP INFORMATION

Baiken's big boobies are tough for Johnny to counter.

[RedBeard]

BRIDGET MATCHUP INFORMATION

Bridget used to be a tough match back when he was actually good and Johnny had limited ranged options!

[RedBeard]

CHIPP MATCHUP INFORMATION

Man I hate this matchup. Chipp is all "ZOOM ZOOM, LOOK! LOOK! YOU CAN'T HIT ME! WATCH ME RUN ALL OVER YOU AND MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE A SCRUB!".

[RedBeard]

DIZZY MATCHUP INFORMATION

General idea is to not give Dizzy any room to launch an offense. While at the same time not being so close that Dizzy just throws you.

The start of the round is crucial. A wrong guess and you might face a slow death as you chase Dizzy's tail. Or a single right move can cut off over half her life and seal you the rest of the round. Opening the round with any backwards movement is a bad idea. If Dizzy decides to go on the offensive, then you're just handing here the momentum. If she decides to take defensive action, then you're just giving her more space. Starting the round by jumping straight up is a conservative option. It saves you from all of the moves that Dizzy might open up with, like IceSpike or f.S. You have a double jump if Dizzy takes any offensive movement, and you have an airdash if she takes any defensive movement. An IAD or dash forward has its risks, but also has its rewards. It's your call.

Should Dizzy escapes your grip, then take a deep breath and prepare to weather the storm. Hold out long enough till you see an opening and take it. Rule of thumb, that I follow, is to never block any of her projectiles, while on the ground. Doing so gives Dizzy an opportunity mix you up. Evade, destroy, or Instant Block the projectile in the air. Remember, IBing in the air restores your doublejump and airdash. When in the air, prepare your self against a f.S, 2S, airthrow, or dropgate.

Dizzy has some tight tick-throws. Most setups involving her projectiles don't give you a large enough window to poke out. Backdashing might get you nailed by whatever other projectiles are lingering around. 1-frame jumping will always work, but can be hard to execute given small windows of opportunity and what ever projectiles are waiting above your head.

Dizzy has almost an endless array of setups, that she can adjust on the fly. It would be hopeless to try and list all of them and the out points for each. But I might try, latter.

Additional Notes:

Dizzy has huge throw range. This goes for her airthrow, aswell.

[RedBeard]

EDDIE MATCHUP INFORMATION

4r5's how-to to blocking unblockables.

Start by blocking high. Keep blocking high intill the very last minute, then block low. As soon as you start blocking low, let your stick go neutral.

The above only works on unblockables involving a single high and a single low. For unblockables involving crossups or the big drill, good luck.

Blocking good unblockables are still nearly impossible, but atleast with this you won't be giving them away for free.

[RedBeard]

FAUST MATCHUP INFORMATION

236P

Air 236P

???

Win?

NEEDS MORE DOOR MIXUPS!

[RedBeard]

I-NO MATCHUP INFORMATION

Ehhhh I like how ABA and Baiken look better. Maybe if you're into getting stomped on or something then I-No would be more your thang.

[RedBeard]

JAM MATCHUP INFORMATION

You know, it's kind of funny. My copy of GGX is so scratched that Jam creates unblockables whenever she screams. I'm not even kidding. Her other voice files are fine, but if she does any move that involves yelling, the game freezes for about 4 seconds. Not exactly freezes, but any action you were doing just as she yelled, you would continue to do until the game popped out of the freezing. Was kind of hilarious fighting her as I'd be forced to walk forward nonstop or something any time she yelled, or do 6H for like 4 seconds straight while she beat me up.

After I block Jam's 214k, and she lands in front of me, I always feel like I have enough time to throw out a 5k. I always get owned by her 5k though. Am I just throwing it out too late, should I be using a different move, or should I just keep blocking?

Well, I'm a Jam player, and I've played a variety of different Johnnys and I live with a Johnny player too, so let me just start off by saying that tossing numbers and frame data isn't too important for this specific situation.

In the end, the only thing that matters is how deep Jam did her IAD 214K and if you IBed or not. Those two things are going to determine whether you can successfully slip a 2HS in the pressure or not. If she does it too deep and if you IBed, then that's a free throw attempt for you because she's in massive recovery. If she does it at max distance, then this would be a good time to consider 2HS'ing.

Also, try not to use his 5K as a pressure stopper for this situation. You'll find that it's not as reliable when Jam starts doing more than just 5King after landing. 2HS is a better rush stopper in my opinion. Just remember that the only drawback is that Jam can parry this if she expects it.

However, as a Johnny player try not to get into situations where Jam is IAD 214King you. Johnny is one of the better characters at keeping Jam out. 6P obviously stops low IAD attempts, and Johnny's 5P also happens to be good at dealing with IAD, jump-ins, and also handles Jam's obscure cross-ups automatically. If Jam mistimes her 214K on your wakeup even by a few frames, Johnny has enough time and airthrow range to throw her out of her 214K (the motion is just 7+HS). Also, if Jam tries to IAD 214K you on your wakeup in the corner, you can backdash it in most cases because that move isn't meaty, and Johnny's got a decent backdash.

Some other random Johnny vs Jam tips:

If Jam is running towards you and if you're expecting her to throw out a generic normal poke (like max distance 2D, 2S, 5K, 6P), Johnny's 2HS, 5HS, and even f.5S are all very good at CHing her. Throwing out Johnny's 6P when you're both on the ground will either lose or at best clash with Jam's 6P, and it will lose to 2D no question so I never see Johnny players have much luck with that (it's strictly for anti-air). If you think Jam's going to 2D, then Johnny's 6HS is extremely effective, and it leads into all kinds of follow up combos if you're willing to take that risk. If you time all your Johnny pokes right, you'll soon find out that Jam's only answer for her ground game is to either running parry all your mid moves, dash brake and backdash your moves and punish, or wait for tension. (Just keep in mind that Johnny's 2HS and 5HS, although great rushdown stoppers, are only active for a few frames so it's very easy for Jam with her fast backdash to dodge these and punish... this is where you start poking with 2D).

[RedBeard]

JOHNNY MATCHUP INFORMATION

I don't have a single bad thing to say about this wonderful character. 俺を本気にさせたのは・・・ミステイクだったなぁ.

[RedBeard]

KY MATCHUP INFORMATION

My advice would be to wait for Ky to be about jumping distance away from you, and then lazily jump forward and come down with an amazingly powerful j.P.

[RedBeard]

MAY MATCHUP INFORMATION

Oh man EX May saying "Mist Finer" is just way too cute.

[RedBeard]

MILLIA MATCHUP INFORMATION

My friend used to main Millia all the time, and he was like the only person I could play during #R. Oh my god, that matchup was just a nightmare. Pin pin pin, mixup mixup mixup BLAH DEAD. I had to pick Axl as a secondary, and those two share like the exact same bad matchups for the most part. Great!

[RedBeard]

ORDER-SOL MATCHUP INFORMATION

I wonder how much more badass OS would be if they made his sword slam FB thing JCable...

[RedBeard]

POTEMKIN MATCHUP INFORMATION

Potemkin has never been a tournament winning character...til AC that is! Hope you've got good backdash timing buddy! Cause I do!

4r5's How-to to Potemkin:

Look at Potemkin. Now imagine two invisible Potemkins, one standing atop the other, standing in front of the visible Potemkin. NEVER TOUCH THE INVISIBLE POTEMKINS! You can attack through them, but never get in contact with the unseen Potemkins.

[RedBeard]

ROBO-KY MATCHUP INFORMATION

Yknow, who DOESN'T want Vortex Infinitum to be Robo-Ky's official theme?

[RedBeard]

SLAYER MATCHUP INFORMATION

Remember back in the day when you got bitten once and you lost!? Not including Slayer's awesome damage output...or sick mixups...or his huge invul on his BDC and the craziness that he can do with that. And people complain about AC being unbalanced, PFFFTT...

[RedBeard]

SOL MATCHUP INFORMATION

Matchup Favor

5-5, No Favor

Poking Game

Matchup Strategy

Specific Punishes

Volcanic Viper

Assuming you block/dodge a VV, there are multiple punishes depending on whether or not he does the 214K followup or not as well as if you hit in the air or wait for him to land. When Sol lands from his VV, he is temporarily considered ducking. You can take advantage of this and land some rather huge damage, or aim for landing an air CH if you think he will do the followup 214K.

Combo: c.S->5H->MC->f.S->6H->MSJH->Throw->Coin

Damage: 194

Tension: 25%

Starting MFLv: 1

Increases MFLv?: Yes

Character State: Crouching

Combo: c.S->5H->MC->f.S->6H->MSJH->Throw->j.KSKSDE

Damage: 216

Tension: 25%

MF Level: 1

Increases MFLv?: No

Character State: Crouching

Combo:

Damage:

Tension:

MF Level:

Increases MFLv?:

Character State:

[RedBeard]

TESTAMENT MATCHUP INFORMATION

I recently lost to Jamie 3-2, but we only played once! I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE! I DON'T BLOCK TESTIES MIXUPS WELL, SO SUE ME!

uh, how should we play aganist testament? Is there any option during the Zeinest okizeme or barney FRC pressure strings? My only options to win are some random TK ensenga and if I land an Enkasu/5K connects...

Fighting against testament. Best I've come up with so far is to maintain a position just outside of Forward EXE Beast range. If he does Back EXE, move forward. If he does Front EXE, If you see it early enough, CH 6K or dash through it, or IAD. Or Lv2MF through it, tkEnsenga over it, whatever. If he doesn't do an EXE, then do whatever as appropriate. When Testament gets 25% meter (like with any character) it kind throws a wrench into this, be on the look out. If Testament gets away an starts up his garden, then it's just a whole lot of funny business. Get whacking, don't let it build up into a jungle.

Zeinest oki, you either block or reversal with a backdash/OD/goldBurst. If you burst, you still have to deal with the net on the way down, which leads you back into either blocking or reversaling it. Be warned that Test's 6P can clash with OD. And a very deep 2D can make OD whiff. Best solution is to just not get knocked down...

EXE(frc) pressure. Critical points to look for are either before the EXE hits or after it hits. Depending on the position, it's either one or the other; or both, if it's really bad positioning. I've been told, you can always jump out (watch out for anti-jump measures). It's been awhile since I fought a really good Testament, so I'm not sure if there are situations where you can always attack out, or if my opponent is just being sloppy. FD Testament, but not the EXE, to foul up his positioning. IB to increase the size of your window of opportunity.

[RedBeard]

VENOM MATCHUP INFORMATION

Free Ballin'!(Free ballin', yeah I'm...free ballin')

[RedBeard]

ZAPPA MATCHUP INFORMATION

Amamamamamamamamama....

The hardest part I find especially dealing with Zappa is his Dog Summon. The Far s. can be beat with a coin, a tk ensenga, or a mf k. For easy damage, since his hit box is pretty big in the air you can do the K-HS-KJT-KJ frc into air combo is choice for 200 damage for 25% Tension. Regardless I need some other tips in dealing with Zappa so please bring the ideas.

2H and 2S are pretty good against Zappa, except he can run up 5K your 2S.

Ghosts are the biggest pain in my experience, though Dog is a close second. The problem with Ghosts is that Zappa doesn't really have to fight you anymore once he gets them out safely. Other than patience and using stuff like jS and 236P to hit him from far away, you pretty much just want to avoid getting killed by a billion random low damage hits. Just don't commit to big moves like 5H, 6H, TK Ensenga, any Transport because you are probably going to run into a ghostring or a golf ball/flower pot and get frustrated.

Dog... don't commit to big moves to kill the Dog, and don't go out of your way to kill the Dog when Zappa is chasing it. If there's a lot of space between Zappa and the Dog, feel free to 2P it or something... or go after Zappa if you have that kind of space. f.S is pretty bad against the Dog (and Zappa in general =/ ) but 2S is alright. I like to jump and airdash back whenever I have space, then I wait to see where Zappa goes from there... if he starts charging straight at me, I've been doing jump -> airdash (not IAD) to dodge Dog 6D to go straight for Zappa (usually with DB FRC). If he hangs back and sends the Dog out first (ie. looks like he's attacking with the Dog and not just sacrificing it for orbs) then I'll superjump and airdash... generally that'll take you out of range for the next Dog attack and gives you at least one shot at Zappa. If he sits there and waits... then shrug. Wait more and try to bait him into committing first. If you NEED to attack, throw a coin from right outside its max range or so FROM THE DOG. If you space it well, it should hit any Dog attack that would threaten your approach, then just go from there.

Sword... eh. I dunno, haven't played against AC sword enough with JO lately. Other than new combos and better mixups, it's the same ol' sword in terms of your general gameplan... safe pokes, don't jump at him, be mindful of uppercut FRC. 2S is still a decent way to stop him from running in. You MIGHT want to risk moves like 5H against his pokes, simply for the pay-off. Also coins are good if you get into a poking fight.

Raoh... bleh. Block. If you can block Dusts, great. Force him to waste time and bar on blocked supers- yeah it burns your tension and/or chips you a bunch but that's better than dying in one combo, and that's 50% tension he's not using to kill you in one combo or to do uppercut RC. If you're feeling gutsy you can try hitting him out of Dusts (Jackhound, if you're super gutsy).

Please please please do not tech OTGs in the corner. Better to deal with the mixup than just die for free. Also remember to FD when you try to jump out of pressure- uppercut, Raoh-doken and all the Raoh-doken extensions need to be FD'd in the air... and eating any of those while airborne sucks.

If you aren't being cornered and if he isn't in an immediate position to rush you down, then just make him chase you a bit, but do NOT jump without the intention of either doing high up DB FRC or FDing. Not worth the risk- how much damage are you going to do to him? (200-250ish if you land a jump-in) How much is he going to do to you? (you die ahahaha)

shrug dunno how much that helps, a lot of it seems like common sense because I play against Zappa so much but hopefully something in there is useful for y'all.