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Josh Ballard

ABA's Fuzzy Guard: How to land it, why it owns

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ABA's fuzzy guard setup leads to a ton of damage, but it was always something of a mystery to me. Sometimes, at midscreen, I would land it and get a full combo, while other times it would whiff altogether. And I found it extremely difficult in the corner.

Well, I have finally figured out the secret! First, for the sake of any new people who just might happen to read this, here is the basic how & why:

What is ABA's fuzzy guard setup, and why does it work?

To execute the fuzzy guard, perform a deep j.S, then immediately jump cancel into another j.S. After a SLIGHT DELAY, chain to j.H then land and combo. When done the right way, this will hit every character in the game (yes, even the Baiken/Faust/Zappa types). This works because of a bug prevalent in many fighting games: After blocking high, you maintain your standing hitbox even when crouch blocking, so you can be hit with certain overheads (read: jump attacks) which would normally whiff.

Note that you cannot jump cancel if you hit the j.S too low to the ground.

This sounds simple enough, but as I mentioned in the beginning, it often seems not to work even when it should. With that in mind, here are the proper ways to perform it:

At Midscreen:

Yes, ABA can use her fuzzy guard at midscreen and convert it to a juicy combo on anyone. There are two ways to do this.

When close to the opponent, jump forward and j.S, then jump forward again for the second j.S. Simple as that.

From farther away, the ideal method is slightly less obvious: Dash jump toward the opponent for the first j.S, then NEUTRAL JUMP for the second j.S. The fuzzy guard is easiest when you can tag them with the lowest part of j.S's hitbox (the "sweet spot", so to speak), and a dash jump followed by a forward jump will cause that part to miss, making it many times harder.

In the Corner:

Forward jump with j.S, then forward jump again. My mistake here was always dash jumping - DO NOT DASH JUMP IN THE CORNER. It makes the setup needlessly difficult, and literally impossible on Baiken. With two standard forward jumps, it becomes easy to use on everybody.

Why fuzzy guard?

It's the basis for one of ABA's strongest mixup games: Fuzzy guard, or j.S into 2K, or j.S into throw. When timed properly on the opponent's wakeup, it is safe from almost all reversals, so it is especially valuable against characters like Sol and Potemkin. If you make the opponent afraid of her ground pokes, you may even be able to sneak a fuzzy guard in the neutral game every once in awhile.

What to watch out for: Jam's parry and Anji's autoguards have instant startup, but there are ways to punish these. Against Jam, just land and throw (or perhaps even use Orbs as you're about to land), and vs. Anji jump forward then double-jump straight up to bait autoguard normals. It may also be impossible, or at least extremely difficult, to safe jump into fuzzy guard on Robo-Ky; his level 2/3 DP is only 3 frames, and remember that you cannot land j.S too low to the ground. If that's the case, you can jump in and FD, then hit him with a big combo to make him wary of trying reversals.

That concludes this guide. Practice this stuff in training mode (record the dummy to block high for a bit, then low) and have fun with it! =)

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I don't think it's a bug if it's in so many games, they put that in there on purpose. What is the general followup if you land this fuzzy? For some characters you can do j.hd orb into orb bnb, but I don't think this works on every character. Is there another more damaging option with orb frc and such?

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Oh hi there, didn't know you were interested in ABA. =) Well, it's one of those things that was probably a bug but left in so many games because it's cool. Like the entire idea of canceling a normal into a special, you could say. And I always just land and combo with 5S into 2H etc. You can let the 2H launch or go into rekkas or FB Danzai, whatever best fits the situation. Since you will catch the opponent in crouching hitstun, you should always be able to land the 5S without a problem.

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Yeah after seeing you wreck people in GGAC casuals I decided that if I wanted to get into this game I might as well pick Aba. After playing with her in Moroha mode I've determined my choice was correct. I've fallen in love with this character. One of the first things I did was play around with j.s fuzzies so this topic interests me greatly.

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I'm quite new to ABA so allways wondered why this double jump 'trick' was working (usually happened when i wanted to J.S > double jump crossup J.S). Nice to see it explained more technically than just "he may have screwed up his guard".

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Josh I find it actually easier and more consistent to do the fuzzy guard in the corner if you dash jump? Not sure why, but it makes it easier to get the deeper j.s for me. I didn't know you could do it midscreen though, that is good shit.

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This works because of a bug prevalent in many fighting games: After blocking high, you maintain your standing hitbox even when crouch blocking, so you can be hit with certain overheads (read: jump attacks) which would normally whiff.

Please don't mislead the newbies. This is not a bug, glitch, or anything of that nature -- which is why it continues to appear in virtually every 2D fighter that has seperate high/low blocking. Saying it is a bug is like calling combos a bug. Sure, once upon a time, cancelling normals to specials was a mistake -- but now it's by design. The game is created to work that way.

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Yeah, by my understanding, fuzzy gaurd is when someone gets hit because they blocked low expecting the enemy to land and do a low attack instead of staying in the air and doing another attack; At least, that's exactly what this is described as. This isn't a fuzzy gaurd, it's just mixup; the opponent must block low for the j.HS to hit. If they keep blocking high, then they block it, simple as that. Also, doesn't j.HS hit crouching opponents?

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It is a fuzzy guard. Of course it hits crouching but I think you're missing the jist of what makes it "fuzzy" per say. If you did j.S and it hit the opponent while they were crouching, a dj.S after would wiff because their hitbox isn't there. Fuzzy is an attack that normally would not hit crouching but does do to their hit box staying taller for a short period after they crouch.

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Oiboi: The reason to use j.S-dj.S instead of j.S-j.H is because the latter won't work if you do a deep jump-in (which is a must to be safe from reversals).

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Oiboi: The reason to use j.S-dj.S instead of j.S-j.H is because the latter won't work if you do a deep jump-in (which is a must to be safe from reversals).

Ok, I see what your saying, your using it more as a safe jump in than a mixup? That makes more sense to me. I wasn't saying this can't work as a fuzzy gaurd, just saying that the opponent would have to block incorrectly for it to happen anyways.

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It actually is a mixup. Though difficult, you can hit-confirm the first j.S and just land instead of jump canceling. The "hitstop" on impact helps with this.

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Ok, I see what your saying, your using it more as a safe jump in than a mixup? That makes more sense to me. I wasn't saying this can't work as a fuzzy gaurd, just saying that the opponent would have to block incorrectly for it to happen anyways.

That's how all Fuzzy Guarding works anyways. A HOS player can do a deep j.S, then dj and do dj.HS dj.D for a fuzzy guard, much like A.B.A.s

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