[Xrd] Leo Whitefang vs Potemkin

[DaRealZil]

Discuss the Leo vs Pot matchup here.

[Maho]

Matchups against grapplers aren't usually really good for characters like Leo, you need to be close to do your thing but as the same time you don't want to be for obvious reasons.

 

So first thing, he can punish 236S on IB with PB if you do it too close, doing it after 5H will make you too close everytime, so poking with max range fS into 236S is a bit safer, note that you can be PBd between the two if fS get IBd but if you're not too predictable, that shouldn't happen that often.

Of course if he looks for this, you can try to go into the second rekka to beat the PB attempt, here doing that on block is even worse than usual, you're forced into a stupid guessing game as rekka 2 gets punished by PB on block and your only way to beat it is to do rekka 3, so unless you have meter to RC you're betting a third of your life for a 37 dmg reward, and of course if he IBd rekka 2, you're screwed either way.

 

For stance mixups, his backdash and the low invuln on megafist might look annoying at first but they aren't really that much of a problem, when you want to go for a low do bt.K~P+K~P+K, on hit block you'll get the classic bt.KPK, if he does backdash or megafist, bt.K will whiff but bt.P will come out right after it to CH the megafist (forward or backward don't matter), it can punish backdash on most situations except midscreen j236H because bt.P won't have enough range, in that situation you can use the bt.K~P~S~S OS to punish backdash with a bt.S but this loses to megafist.

bt.H will punish backdash from 236H when done asap, from a rekka/2D knockdown you'll have to delay it a few frames or it will whiff (and you'll probably eat a PB right after), this looks risky but it doesn't really matter as if he mashes or try to throw you, you will loss even if you do it asap.

Potemkin players I encountered tend to use low blitz quite a bit against bt oki, probably because they know we might fear getting reversal PBd if we go high and therefore Leo players are inclined to start with bt.K, now if you see it coming, you can either bt.H or backdash (safer as it also beats high blitz and you're safe from some mash), then if there was a blitz, walk forward a bit and do CH btS > 63214H > dash 2P > 5k > cS > jK > djK > djH > j236H for some good damage.

Don't use bt.D on oki against a Potemkin that looks like he knows what he's doing, he pretty much doesn't have any reason to mash anything other than PB there, PB beats more things than any other mash (including bt.D) and only loses to bt.K, P, and backdash btS.

The only thing he might mash other than PB is the mirror super (loses to bt.D and forward dash), but even there I would recommend to backdash as it's a lot more safe than going for bt.D, note that if you do a bt.D and that the Pot does a crouch blitz, you can get a CH bt.S punish.

 

You can also try to do oki out of stance, a good number of Leo's normal have short recovery so you can punish backdash attempts, for example after a meaty 6K or 5D, if the Potemkin backdashes, you can punish with 5P, and by doing it with 4P you'll be safe from yolo reversal hammerfall.

You can also do meaty 2S > 4K for the same result but with a low starter (that combos on CH), 2K > fS > 2D another good low option (double tap fS and 2D to be sure it gets out if 2K whiffs against a backdash), but you need to hit with the last 2 active frames of 2K to punish the backdash with fS, it will also beat reversal hammerfall without having to think about it, and if you space it right (not really hard) you'll be safe from reversal throws, he also won't be able to punish the 2D even if he IBs all the string.

6K is really cool for this thanks to throw invuln but you have to be wary of blitz as it's a mid, 2S can be done outside of throw range so that good too (though you need to be close if you want to go for a 2P combo), but if you want to be able to do the backdash punish with 5D you'll need to be quite close and be exposed to reversal throw (also 5D gets punished by PB on IB), note that meaty ranged 5D is safe against anything Pot can do on wakeup (except high blitz of course).

 

In neutral, you can avoid the slide head knockdown with 5K on reaction, if you're react fast enough and are in range, 5H can punish it afterwards.

 

For combos, he's one of the characters you can get 2P after a standing 6K hit (6K > 2P > 5K > 2H > rekkas), you can also get 2P from 2S a little farther than against most of the cast, from CH AA 6P you can do 6P > 6H > 236H > jP > jK > jS > djK > djH > j236H, 236H will make Pot bounce in two ways depending on how it hits, but the combo will connect in both situations. 

In stance from a close knockdown (not j236H) you can get bt.K > P > K > S > H > S > rekkas for a bit more damage and good corner carry as the third rekka won't switch sides, from j236H you can get this with bt.K > S > H > S > rekkas, from bt.D you can either go for dash K >S > H or dash K > P > jS(1) > j236H for a bit more damage.