Zato vs Millia

[president]

The struggle continues. The MU had some drastic changes from AC; what are peoples thoughts?

 

+ Hairpin is worse! This is a blessing, it can still snipe Eddie but Millia can't convert into combo if you get tagged from fullscreen with it while trying to get Eddie out.

+ No FB disk means no conversion off random j.K tags out of flight escapes at the ceiling.

+ SG and BTL YRC makes for a general safer movement around the screen, I feel these added options are especially valuable against Millia.

+ Overall higher damage levels coming from Zato's abare / aircombos are great in this matchup of "kill it before it kills you".

 

- Her backdash is still hard to deal with midscreen, reading backdashes with 22H still lets her airtech out and escape.

- Lack of a fast overhead coming from Eddie won't let us force damage on her once finally caught, again I miss this on Millia more than on other characters.

 

How are people dealing with Chroming Rose? My local Millia doesn't run this much yet and prefers to spend meter on 236H YRC but I'm expecting it to be really strong, even a round ender.

[Synyster17]

i have seen it been played the same really. as u pointed out yeah there are some changes, major ones being that Rose super being hard to deal with. idk if there is an answer yet besides blocking. i would try to maybeee be more agressive with the Shadow in neutral to force he into the corner quicker. also u could try to call out Backdash with Drill YRC and get Oki after it

[Bossguy]

I've been fighting Milias by the dozen, and is it just me, or is Nobiru not as effective? what do you guys do in the neutral against her? Challenge her in the air? She seems to have all the advantages.

[president]

Nobiru is not AS effective since Millia can actually work her way around it. Doesn't mean it's bad, but Millia has extremely high horizontal mobility and a combination of jump height, arc and falling speed that makes it difficult to actually tag her. Nobiru is very important in the matchup (Due to how much time she spends airborne probably even more than you'd think) but it still takes a lot more than just that. Millias biggest fear in that matchup is how she basically suffers a complete touch of death the moment there's a starter leading into an unblockable. It's alright to go a little bit more yolo on her than usual and approach the matchup on a complete high risk/high reward mindset.

 

If you look at how Millia plays matchups like Sol you realize how it doesn't make all that much difference for Zato to not have solid defense options against her; she wouldn't care either way. Her oki is strong but her pressure game is lacking, you don't have to just block forever and actually get out after guessing/reacting correctly if she doesn't throw the meter around to keep it running. That's actually a lot more space you get than in other matchups; however, never challenge her in the air. If you're forced to fly without Eddie around your main concern is to get back to the ground without dying for it.

 

As for neutral, I'm still in the old habit of needle camping. Her needle isn't the end of the world anymore so I'm aware this isn't the absolutely right thing to do at all times but it's a rather comfortable ground to get things started from. If you don't know what else to do, fluster her by removing that precious tool.

[Bossguy]

Aww, thank you. I'll try depending more on Nobiru.

[Antihero11]

I share the same sentiments President mentioned. Millia's fall speed and extreme horizontal mobility makes it really difficult to land a Nobiru on her. But if you do manage to land it and go into something like j.K > j.H > -S- > j>D, you have successfully taken out half of her life. She's an extreme glass cannon and relies a lot on knockdown and momentum. So do your best to play keepaway.

How do you guys feel BTL is in this MU? It seems better than using flight to avoid her.

 

[Bossguy]

I play this MU a lot, and I honestly don't use flight or BTL much. In my opinion, once you take to the air against Milia she immediately has the advantage over you. She can either take out the shadow and then challenge you in the air or go straight to you. You have to guess which route she'll take, and one wrong move in neutral can mean the round. Likewise, if you use BTL she can get in very quickly and take out the shadow, leaving you stuck helpless in the ground. Instead, I would dash around and control the ground with -p-. Force her to take to the air, and then you can anti-air her or merely dash under her.