AC+R: Axl v. Testament

[Digital Watches]

Placeholder for general/consensus information! Feel free to discuss this matchup in this thread though.

[Izusa]

 So should you for some ungodly reason fight this match up, I'm going to tell you exactly what's scary about this.
 

• Testament mouths (EXE Beast) are going to keep you in place. You know how Axl likes to make people jump? Well, you're going to be jumping a lot. Mouth to Mouth will really grind at the average player. This is a match up where Axl has to play patient, and really know how to defend. Back mouth guarantee's a 50/50 so if you get knocked down, you're going to have to need good judgement.  You jump back FD on your wake up, you give Testament time to set up. If you sit there and block it, be prepared to guess a 50/50 between a low or an overhead, either way you're going to eat a skull. 
• Speaking of Skulls, Testament has like 5 curse patterns, and can easily access curse from tapping you once if you're playing bad. Get hit by those, you won't be able to play your game without eating a counter hit. It's bad enough that you have to look out for webs, and be constantly mobile because of mouths, but skulls make it so that if you do anything, it's going to be a counter hit. The last thing you really want is to get styled on by Testament.Also keep in mind that Force Break Skull hovers over you, and gives 10 curse reps instead of the usual 3. You can block high skull and low skull, but FB Skull will hit you on block.  You can however, hit him once to make the skulls disappear, but this is much harder than you think, given the situation you're in. 
• If Testament goes for warrant because you've been throwing out chains predictably, make him feel bad by doing counter because chains are hit-cancellable. If you have the same problem I do, where you react a bit too late, do the guard point once it hits. It'll OS into the counter because Testament crossed you up via teleport.
• Testament is tall, so you can toss out 5P if you predict he's going to try and cast something. Your chains are also really good for clearing out webs, but a good Testament will always have at least 3 of them on the field, somewhere so don't get too happy that you cleared out the landmine. However you have to take what you can get.
• On knock down, Testament will probably try to go for warrant, so if you toss out a spaced 3P cancel that into a counter if you call it. Also make sure you space enough so you don't get thrown, Testament's range is quite nice. Keep your eye on Testament's meter though, some of them do like to toss out FB Gravedigger on wake up if they think you're hungry. You scored the knock down, don't let it go to waste!

 

I feel like it's a generally annoying match up. Axl want's to control airspace, but Testament has ways to keep Axl staying in one area. The match feels like you're playing through an obstacle course. Force break skull makes it so that you're forced to move, one way or the other. You'd have to be playing on point during this match up, and capitalize on damage whenever you can, otherwise it's going to go horribly awry. The good news is, as long as you can keep consistent pressure on Testament, he can't get anything started. You get lucky and score a knockdown? Ride that, harder than usual.  Now if for some reason, a Testament isn't going completely nuts and turning the screen into an obstacle course, you're free to just block, and punish when you see blatant and obvious gaps. But yeah in general, be patient, or be prepared to go through Olmec's lost temple.

[Digital Watches]

Woah buddy, there's some misinformation there.

 

-Testament can't have 3 nets out, max is 2

-No, chains are not whiff-cancellable. They are cancellable on hit and block, and hitting a counterattack stance like warrant counts as a hit. Notably, you can't special-cancel 2H, so it becomes a pretty risky tool because of warrant, but the others all definitely work fine. You can option-select here with 236P (Which does nothing if he doesn't warrant, and tenhouseki if he does)

As far as the matchup goes overall, I'd still call it 6-4 in Axl's favor, and one of Testament's worst matchups, if not his worst. The reasons why are pretty complicated, but I'll try to explain them quickly.

 

-Testament needs to set up, and you don't need to let him. Getting skulls, nets, or trees out is basically impossible from neutral if you're doing your job. With full-screen rashousen, IAD j.S, and rensen, you have no excuse for letting him get stuff on the map if you haven't lost an exchange and gotten to frame disadvantage.

 

-Even when testament is set up, you have a lot of annoying tools to break it all up. At range, there are often lots of opportunities to just knock out webs, and you've got attacks at a lot of convenient angles that let you thread the needle against relatively stationary stuff like trees and barneys.

 

-Testament can't win exchanges at any range Axl wants to operate, and his approach tools are very weak. Combined with the fact that he can't set up from neutral, this means that you're going to be forcing Testament out of his defensive comfort zone. He also has a very hard time preventing your approach. j.S in particular is a tool Testament doesn't have many good answers for.

 

-You're right about not wanting to get hit by skulls, mostly because this is Testament's best and really only way to turn this matchup in his favor. Against testament, I tend to burst combos I know will end in curse, rather than ones that will do a lot of damage. You don't want a curse on you. However, they become a lot less scary once you remember Axl's solution to every bad situation: Block until it's over.

Both Testament and Axl have pretty weak tools for getting out of pressure. Fortunately, Testament's defense basically melts against Axl, so really your job is to just be extremely aggressive and not let him play his game. Keep him knocked down and stay on top of him. If you get behind, block, know that Testament's offensive game is finite and will end, and then you'll be in a neutral situation again. Neutral is bad for Testament in this matchup.

[Izusa]

Well, good thing I'm now walking into a Testament match. I'm going to test out some of these against the player, and see where it goes with the info I have now.

 

edited out some of my data though.