AC: Videos

[Digital Watches]

Lulz. Tell that dizzy to stop teching or start blocking. Buuut... All in all, it seems like you have zoning basics down to an extent, now try to work in some offense and trickery. Maybe combos so that you get damage from all those hits you're getting.

[Shoto]

Another contribution, yay^^.. Well you have the idea and are on the right way, but: - generally play safer.. If you decide to block you actually do it very good, but there are many situations where you can't hold your feet still even that it is obvious you have the disadvantage. - No 214 catches in short range.. if you want to use a counter go for the 623P; and even than consider if there is not a different less risky option (or be sure your opponents only good option is a high hitting move). - No catches on Wake up against uppercutters.. even if you await a Volcanic Viper, blocking would allow you to go for a more damaging combo and is much safer.. - Your dust and rashousen setups where always the same. while I don't blame you for that as your opponent didn't seem able to react to them I just wanted to make sure that you know that a player more used to them would kill for that :P. - As Watches already said, a few days with the combo thread (for now just the basics not the wacky stuff^^) and practice mode would help your game a lot^^. Basically nearly all of Axls gameplay seems to be there and just needs to get better^^.. So if you got the chance try to play against players that are a good part better than you (but do not totally dominate you) do get rid of the unsafe stuff^^.

[ForestBlazer]

Thanks for the feedback, yeah I definitely think I need to play a bit safer too and be more patient when im defending. Hopefully when I learn to execute my full combos I will post some better matches. Also I think Axl's catches are pretty good, especially against people who do predictable moves. I like to use it vs uppercut because even if I block the uppercut, people always RC it and keep rushing. The catch forces them to eat a 10 hit combo instead. I will try experimenting with the fast 623 one, I never use it for some reason

[bizarro]

dizzy nooooooo!! T_T

[Shoto]

@ Blazer from the 4 times you did a catch as okizeme, that Sol only hat enough meter to RC once :P.. If you want to be safe from VV RC then go for long range okizeme, start with moves outside of VV range.. even if they get a limp hit they won't be able to combo if they RC and it should discourage them to VV anyway as if you just hesistate for a few frames so that your attack is slightly not meaty he will be open for anything you have. 2H or 2 P is quite good.. even 3P if you time and space it right (here you can even try to make it a bit too early so that it won't even hit, but its hitbox will be out of range when he does a reversal VV so it will whiff). .. and don't rely on the OD.. if they get hit in most of the cases it was because they where careless.. (there are a few sitautions where it can be done on reaction, but many of your uses where pure guesses.. If you want a defensive measure for 50% Tension use your DAA.. just try it out.. much safer, much more accurate and if they fall for the super they will fall for the DAA as well (less damage, sure [exept you get the wall bounce] but therefore much safer. (I recommend doing a DAA with P+K as with this you still get a 6P if you shouldn't be in hitstun and this is the fastest move Axl can "option select" his dead angle with). ..and for those of you that still get away even with a blocked OD Tell your opponent to block the first part, then jump and start with a jump in attack.. Nevertheless right now I think all you need are players that are a good chunk better then you to get the unsafe stuff out of you, all the rest is there^^.

[ForestBlazer]

@ Blazer

from the 4 times you did a catch as okizeme, that Sol only hat enough meter to RC once :P..^^.

Hahaha yeah I spam the catches too much, it's sort of my trademark with Axl.

Also I hate using Axl's DAA, it never works for me. Maybe I just suck at using it, but with TE I can hit the DAA 95% of the time. With Axl almost never, it always misses

[Digital Watches]

Hahaha yeah I spam the catches too much, it's sort of my trademark with Axl.

It was my trademark too, back in #R...

When I first started playing the game.

And by that, I mean I was a total scrub.

Needless to say, I got hit out of it a lot.

And by a lot, I mean quit doing that move so much, jeez. Some of your game is smart, but that part's just really a bad idea.

Also I hate using Axl's DAA, it never works for me. Maybe I just suck at using it, but with TE I can hit the DAA 95% of the time. With Axl almost never, it always misses

Yeah. The DAA is essentially the same hitbox as the 6P, which is pretty... bad. There's a reason people only use that for anti-air when it's super-close (Besides 2S being ridiculous). I dunno about Shoto, but I for one would rather waste my meter on faultless pushback or even IB->Super (Also a pretty bad idea, but at least it can hit and do damage sometimes) than that terrible-terrible DAA.

[Shoto]

@ Blazer Well find your own way, all what is written in the forums is just some sort of second oppinin and can't make up for matchmovie analysis and first hand VS experience^^. Well yeah, the DAA only hits high (= every crouching attack will doge it), which means you have to use it at the right places (anti air being on of them^^, but as well moves with deal high blockstun and pressure string where you know that the next move in a gatling / pressure string is high). Nevertheless id say 80% of my DAAs hit (counting in opponents as Chipp which have a lot of ways to counter, bait or avoid DAAs), not counting in the ones where my opponent threw me or worked around it with crossup stuff as he exspected me to do the DAA, which in a way are failed DAAs as well (even that I didn't lose the tension). FD is always an option, especially for Axl, but it does not serve the same "purpose" as a DAA does.. Axl has generally worse defensive options than many other charas, but therefore he has more.. so you just have to "explore" all of them (and still have to rely more on blocking then many other charas) to stand a chance. I don't say DAA is the first thing you should do if you have 50% tension and are pressured, but I say it is a valid option in it's own right (and yes I would say it is usually way better than OD attempts; but I haven't considered IB, OD until now.. but isn'st that even more situational than the DAA? [especially since the input takes much more time]).

[Digital Watches]

I don't say DAA is the first thing you should do if you have 50% tension and are pressured, but I say it is a valid option in it's own right (and yes I would say it is usually way better than OD attempts; but I haven't considered IB, OD until now.. but isn'st that even more situational than the DAA? [especially since the input takes much more time]).

Well, I admit that I was exaggerating when I said that. IB into OD obviously is not a very good option at all. Really, I just hate DAA a lot, due to being very easy to bait or react to (Slow) and very easy for it to miss. I can think of several instances where I've tried it, and opponents need not even predict my doing it to stop, maybe backdash, and punish it as a reset into combo, just because they have 17 frames to react before getting hit, a good chance of it missing entirely even if the opponent tries what they would have done anyway, and a nice 8-frame recovery to punish it (Since the only good feature I can think of is that it's fully invulnerable until the active frames end.) Either way, it might be a personal bias, but it feels like Axl's DAA just isn't that useful. (IB into OD, however, is useless in the same way, for a lot of the same reasons, but worse, and I don't actually recommend doing it unless you're trying to be flashy, and know for a fact that it will beat what the opponent is trying. Its only real advantage over DAA is that its larger hitbox will take more effort to get around, but this is largely offset by the extremely large window in which an opponent who has succeeded at this can punish the move.)

[ForestBlazer]

Some more recent matches, these are from a team tournament in Toronto. I tried playing a lot more defensive this time and took much less risks.

Round #4 (AX-vs-OS) INSANE MATCH, my opponent had 1% life left at the end of the 3rd round. Was definitely a heartbreaker to lose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M2EiofpM2U

Round #3 (AX-vs-KY & AX-vs-AX)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eohvSw-LDkw

Round #2 (AX-vs-KY)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkDsf62g038

Round #1 (AX-vs-ZA & AX-vs-AN)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzbiB10pHqY

[Digital Watches]

That ordersol just froze the fuck up. Good job zoning, that's a strong tactic vs. OS, but you've got to learn how to switch into offense mode. Basically, while that ordersol seemed fairly inexperienced (at least in that matchup, but all the combos he dropped lead me to believe that it's true in general), he could have killed you a lot sooner if he hadn't dropped a lot of pressure opportunities. While it's good that he fell for 2P rashousen like... five times, a more experienced opponent would have punished you for not feinting it at least some of the time. You also should FRC your rensen and lay down more aggresive pressure when you get the opportunity. Your defense is decent, but your offense is lacking. I'll watch the other matches when I have more time. Good job though.

[Sking]

Nice matches I see your more in defense than ofense, that's not bad cause that's a important thing in axl's game, but, when you see oportunity to attack take don't think it twice. I see your don't dominate axl bnb combos, that's somthing you need to work. Good job!! P.S.: There's a ranbat coming soon in my country, I will post the videos as soon as I can, in the meanwhile I try to record a few casuals

[ForestBlazer]

Well I usually play a lot more aggressive, but because it was a tourney I took some previous suggestions and tried to play it a lot more safe. I only used range moves for wake up pressure, I didn't want to eat any level 3 uppercuts or supers ^_^. I'm still trying to find safer ways to rushdown OS and go into offense.

While it's good that he fell for 2P rashousen like... five times, a more experienced opponent would have punished you for not feinting it at least some of the time. .

Hahaha yeah I did get pretty lucky landing 4-5 in one match, but I don't like using the feint as a mix-up. I prefer to use "Rensengaki" instead because I try to do my unblockable mix-ups only at close range to my opponent. I find it's very hard to react to the unblockable at that range, pretty much forcing them to guess between unblockable and Rensengaki. The latter can lead to high damage combo too. Thanks for the feedback

[Digital Watches]

The problem is that once you've committed to the rashousen, if you don't feint, they can simply jump and kill you with a counterhit. Doing rashousen at that range is risky as hell in the first place, as anyone with a fast move can hit you out of it on reaction if they have the faintest clue of what's going on, and in cases like Sol and OS at level 3, you'll get hit out of rensen, too. Rashousen <> Rensen is actually a smaller part of the Rashousen mixup than Rashousen <> Feint, since it can be punished by the exact same things.

[ForestBlazer]

I'm pretty sure 2p->Rensenakgi is a safe chain, even close range. I'll check when I get a hold of a PS2.

[Digital Watches]

I'm pretty sure 2p->Rensenakgi is a safe mixup, even close range. I'll check when I get a hold of a PS2.

2P+Rensen is pretty safe, but it's not gaining you anything unless you FRC it. Mixup should be a matter of forcing your opponent to guess which thing you'll try, both of which will advantage you if they guess wrong. While you may not be able to be punished for doing rensen (I still think VV could beat it if the 2P is IB'd), you'll certainly lose your initiative to a good player.

[Sking]

I'm pretty sure 2p->Rensenakgi is a safe chain, even close range. I'll check when I get a hold of a PS2.

It's not that safe as you think because faust can punish you with 5s, and johnny with 2hs if you do it too close and I don't now if others charactes can punish that. So if I do 2p, resen I always follow it with 2 to gain more separation and avoid the hit

[Shoto]

Wacky.. the frame data says the tap 2 follow up gives more frame disadvantage then the rensen itself.. and I shouldn't get punished by Fausts S(f) (I would have sworn it does!!).. have to do some testing..

[Sking]

Ok here it is:

These 4 matches are from a Ranbat:

Sking(AX) vs Barbaro(SL)

[Kobayashi]

I guess I'll give some input. First of all, I don't think that Slayer was all that good, really D: I feel I've played a few who can play him better. I say this because the Slayers I play don't jump in as often as Barbaro did. Learn to use Axl's anti-airs, especially 2S. It might not always beat Slayer j.H, but it will at least trade most of the time, forcing him to learn to approach some other way. You showed some good patience in that first match when you blocked all of his pressure, despite his not trying any overheads or throw attempts. =P However, after that it seemed you might have been getting nervous, as you started to get hit by more and more random pokes. Slayer thrives on random pokes. Random counter hit 2H is death! Even though Barbaro showed no evidence of proficiency in Slayer combos, I believe it's better to be patient in this match up. Honestly, I was a little surprised to see that you have some proficiency in doing combos, but you missed a bomber loop in that last match! Didn't get to see much of your pressure game, so I won't comment on that. :D Overall, I don't think anyone should be losing to that Slayer. D: So many Crosswise Heels on block...

[Sking]

I know what you saying but that was my first match vs slayer in my 6 months that I have playing GG so the entire match I was thinking: What does slayer do:?: . So I just play defense and that affect my game play because I miss some Frcs and combos:sweatdrop:.

[ForestBlazer]

I thought you played pretty good, I definitely agree that you need to 2S more vs people who jump in predictably like that. But aside from that you kept him out fairly well.

[Digital Watches]

I agree with all the good stuff people are saying, however, I have a few more criticisms that might help you out: 1. Probably want to cut down on the tenhousekis (214P). Seriously, there were a few moments where you tried it out of the blue, and a stronger slayer could have eaten you alive for it. This applies DOUBLE for low tenhouseki (214K). If you must use a counter, use housoubako (623P), which comes out in one frame (as fast as Jam's parry), has less recovery, and won't get eaten by projectiles. Lastly, tenhouseki is NOT an oki option, (except maybe OCCASIONALLY against sol), so don't use it as such. 2. You're a little impatient when trying to combo a 5P, which lost you a lot of combos due to doing it too early and not getting the back-hit. Remember that when you get an anti-air counterhit, a successful tenhouseki, or a bad blue burst, you have all the time in the world to react, and too soon can be as bad as too late. I also saw you lose a combo at least once by JCing after the first hit of your 2S, which is another patience thing. Gotta wait until it connects. 3. Don't throw out pokes unless you think they'll connect. At 00:59, you get punished pretty hard for this, and if you were playing a better slayer, you'd have lost a good 50-70% of your life. 4. When you miss a rensen, don't do a followup unless it can realistically connect. Doing a random followup will just make for more time for the opponent to react. 1:09 is a good example of this. Also, don't do it if the opponent blocks a rensen. It just loses you frame advantage, and as demonstrated at 8:52, it's fairly easy to punish you for it. 5. j.S to 2P is not all that great. I'd go for a special (rensen, rashousen, or Raeisageki) or a faster normal, such as 5K, 2K, or f.S, (Depending on distance of course). The reason being that you're losing all the advantage of the blockstun from j.S when you give the opponent something so slow and easy to react to afterward. 6. Don't try to beat stuff up close on reaction, and if you must, use something fast, like benten or housoubako or 2K. Doing stuff like 5H way too close and way too late instead of blocking is what lost you round three. 7. When you hit with an anti-air 5P, there are almost 0 times ever that you want to cancel into rensen (Note, the times that you do are all against heavy or big characters like Pot, Johnny, and occasionally Anji and Venom.) Even if you're not close enough to combo, throwing in a rensen will seldom help you against people who aren't dumb enough not to block the followup, and it just gives you more recovery. If you want to trip someone up for teching, go for a 6K or another 5P. Not only do they also have to be faultlessed, but they're much less of a liability in terms of recovery. 8. You use your sweep naked too often. It's really too slow to be a good poke, and the only times I can think of to use it are in situations like slayer trying to teleport in and throw you (or things like Anji and baiken, when they're sealed into blocking high.), or any time the opponent is in recovery and you've blocked or IB'd in time for it to come out (Which I see you use once pretty well at 4:25) In the meantime, the move takes forever to recover and makes your hitbox very large. I can think of virtually zero situations besides the ones I've mentioned where you couldn't be better served by 2K (to make your hitbox tiny), 2P (To hit low from far off), or 2H (To fuck up a ground approach attempt). 9. I'd agree that you need to trust 2S more as an anti-air. You seem to use tenhouseki as your main AA game, and like I said before, it's not reliable. 10. Get your offense together. You seem to give up Oki situations very easily. For one, if you're going to use 6H, make sure it's very meaty, because otherwise the opponent can block on reaction and get an easy hit out of it. I saw you have your 2P blocked at optimal range with 25% meter several times and you didn't go for Rensen (by optimal range, I mean the range where it's a frame trap, but slayer can't dash in through the rensen and hit you in time if you react to the dash and do a 2 followup) And when you get them to block a rensen FRC, go for something that takes advantage of the blockstun, force them to guess high-low (2K, 3P, 2H vs. TK bomber, Raeisageki, 6H), crossup-noncrossup (Raeisageki, quick airdash+j.P/j.H/j.D/Kokuugeki/Bomber), Rashousen or Rashousen faint, air attack or empty jump throw/low, etc. As an added note, go for tick throws more. Rensen FRC, 2K, and airdash j.P all make great tick throws. 11. You should really get into the habit of defaulting to low block when the opponent is on the ground, and high block while they're in the air. Most overheads in the game (minus I-No) are much easier to react to than lows, and 70-90% of the time, an airdash in will end in a high attack, rather than an empty jump, and even the empty jump isn't going to be terribly hard to react to. I saw you get hit by a lot of IAD j.H's and random 2Hs that probably shouldn't have gotten you. 12. In instances like 5:11, it's better to block than backdash. Axl's backdash is pretty weak in terms of invulnerability and distance covered, so it's just going to get you hit if you try it vs. high active-frame attacks like slayer's sweep, any projectile, or anything Axl does. There are a lot of uses for his backdash despite how bad it is, but that isn't one of them. 13. This is a semi-matchup-specific thing, but Slayer really shouldn't be able to jump in on you as often as he does. Your 6K and 2S are very under-used, and you let him keep his pressure when you could have easily turned things around with some anti-air. (If he's airdashing, he can't even faultless). 14. Don't do 6K against opponents on the ground. There are things you can do with it to be funny (close 6K (2), 2S (1), 6K (2), Rensen (FRC), Combo) but nothing useful.) 15. You seem to like FDing a little too much, and with a slow character like Axl, it really fucks you over as far as blockstun. In long strings, FD is great to push the opponent away, but using it as often as you do is a drain on your meter, and it cripples your ability to get out of pressure, even moreso than choosing Axl in the first place did. 16. This is minor, and it's not something everyone can do on reaction (hell, I can only do it a little over half the time), but if you hit with only the backward hit of 5P, you can still combo into 2S most of the time. 17. Gotta be more appropriate with what's anti-air and what's anti-ground. I saw you get CH'd out of 2H or 2D far too often with j.H, and out of 6K far too often with Pilebunker. The only move you should be doing that you know couldn't possibly connect is 2K, and that's only if you can make it dodge something. 18. If you hit with rensen, don't do the 8 followup. A rensen connecting, even with no FRC, is a knockdown. If you do the 8 followup, you lose the knockdown. Really, the only time to do that followup is when the opponent tries to IAD over a rensen. 19. Because of its disjointed hitbox, far reach, and stagger on counterhit, f.S is a great poke for about 3 character lengths away, and you use it well in that capacity. But you need to have a rensen or rashousen charged for immediately afterwards. If you think they can stagger out, throw the rashousen, if not, throw the rensen and FRC it if possible (Not if the FRC'd rensen won't hit). 20. An FB bomber should almost never be the end of your combo. You can almost always follow up with an airdash j.D, a regular bomber, etc. Even though it was already black beat, you may have been able to continue the combo at 9:16 if you had done a regular bomber or an airdash+j.D+bomber. And uh... just because I have a lot to say doesn't mean I think you're bad, it's just a bunch of little things I noticed. You seem to be making good progress, this is just to help you get better faster. Hope it's helpful.

[Sking]

Thanks a lot Digital Watches I will start to put in practice what you just say

Thanks for the tips

[Digital Watches]

Thanks a lot Digital Watches I will start to put in practice what you just say

Thanks for the tips

No prob. We should play each other sometime