Anji Mito: Questions and Answers

[Chomite]

Ok, I can understand 3K. The computers just either backup or move forward match start.

For butterfly: Is it a good idea to shoot it if I geta knockdown on Nagiha (236H/s~s)? Guess it depends on how close you are to them, but is it a good idea? The computers usually block if I'm close, allowing me to start some pressure. If its far, they jump and AD at me and I either catch them with 623H or anti-air them (if they don't start some fast pokes).

Who do you practice against anyways? I tend to try to beat Slayer (done it, with difficulty if not impossible), Axl (can't think of a pressure game), Robo-Ky (just a joke), I-No, Baiken (to hell for this one), Ky (50/50 for me), Sol (25/75 favor in his), Potemkin (like Baiken), HOS, and Venom. The others I have a damn good chance at winning. They're all on maniac too if that helps for practice.

The most safe distance to butterfly is after throw. Keep that distance in mind. Then you can adjust your combos into knockdown to get safe distance for butterfly. If nagiha hits too close, then no you won't be safe; not just nagiha, but any knockdown that is closer than that 'safe distance' is not really safe. But it's not written anywhere that you can't butterfly. You just have to be smart with it. Do a butterfly and guard. If opponent saw that you did butterfly too close and try to beat you out, he will eat a falling butterfly. This is just one scenario but definitely, after a knockdown, you will lead the mind game.

623 as anti-air is Don't. Use 5P, 6K, 6S, or 6P instead.

Fight only against Maniac Potemkin. I don't really recommend fighting against CPUs because they block mix-ups too much and your pressure string tend to get repetitive and does not improve much. But it's nice once in a while to practice your new ideas with moving dummy. And Potemkin is just perfect. But best is, fight with real people.

[Hi-C]

I'd fight humans, but like I said before, I'm practically the only GG player in the area that I live in. Thanks for the tips though.

[Hi-C]

Oh, I just found out a friend of mine plays GG, just not as often as I do. Anyways, I have more questions based off of our matches. Against Potemkin: I hit him with FB Rin. I then proceeded with fan overdrive when I got the bounce. Is that a good idea? It did a good deal of damage and my reaction time isn't good enough to start a sprint and get a nice combo. Not too mention we were in the middle of the screen and not at the corners. Any good ways to deal with Heavenly Pot Buster? God knows how many times he 3-hit comboed proceed with heavenly PB. Anji can't take that much freaking damage! Sol: Uhm, ok, this is practically all Sol. But, I managed to beat my friend after he got a little repetitive. He keeps on activating Dragon Install, wall bounces me with 6P, and does that at least 4 more times, then VV's me. Any tips on beating down a DI-Sol? The best thing I can come up with is spam butterfly and 5H.

[Chomite]

Against Potemkin: I hit him with FB Rin. I then proceeded with fan overdrive when I got the bounce. Is that a good idea? It did a good deal of damage and my reaction time isn't good enough to start a sprint and get a nice combo. Not too mention we were in the middle of the screen and not at the corners. Any good ways to deal with Heavenly Pot Buster? God knows how many times he 3-hit comboed proceed with heavenly PB. Anji can't take that much freaking damage!

1) Don't combo into OD Ever. Unless you don't want your opponent to use the burst (ie if you can win the round/game with combo into OD). There are tons of nice guide here which you can learn many useful combos. If you hit with FB Rin in mid screen there are several options to continue combo but easy one is dash fujin(2366HS)>K follow up>5P>On.

2) Don't jump too predictably. You can try to beat HPB out with well timed j.P or j.S.

When Potemkin has 50% tension, just watch your self in air...I don't really recommend on getting in on Potemkin in air anyway unless he does some mistake and allows you to IAD in like doing a slide head on half screen away.

Sol: Uhm, ok, this is practically all Sol. But, I managed to beat my friend after he got a little repetitive. He keeps on activating Dragon Install, wall bounces me with 6P, and does that at least 4 more times, then VV's me. Any tips on beating down a DI-Sol? The best thing I can come up with is spam butterfly and 5H.

Block. Knock him down. DI-Sol is not God and DI isn't that even good. DI comes with serious negative effects on Sol and if you can't utilize that, better learn how to now

[JinSaotome]

1) Don't combo into OD Ever. Unless you don't want your opponent to use the burst (ie if you can win the round/game with combo into OD). There are tons of nice guide here which you can learn many useful combos. If you hit with FB Rin in mid screen there are several options to continue combo but easy one is dash fujin(2366HS)>K follow up>5P>On.

2) Don't jump too predictably. You can try to beat HPB out with well timed j.P or j.S.

When Potemkin has 50% tension, just watch your self in air...I don't really recommend on getting in on Potemkin in air anyway unless he does some mistake and allows you to IAD in like doing a slide head on half screen away.

Block. Knock him down. DI-Sol is not God and DI isn't that even good. DI comes with serious negative effects on Sol and if you can't utilize that, better learn how to now

Nah, don't even IAD over Slide Head, since Slidehead = free fuujin. Maybe if he's blocking the hawk part of a butterfly, then jumping in is a good idea, but thats about it.

And yeah, just score a knock down on Sol when he's in DI, you can possible kill him for it

[Chomite]

Nah, don't even IAD over Slide Head, since Slidehead = free fuujin. Maybe if he's blocking the hawk part of a butterfly, then jumping in is a good idea, but thats about it.

Can be tricky to time and measure the distance. I don't think that he is on that level yet to get used to pokes and specials. Whipped fujin>LOL BUSTER But yes, fujin indeed works wonders. Good tip.

[Hi-C]

For HPB, I don't even jump into it. >.> I just have to watch him in general. As for Slidehead, if I'm close enough I simply whack him with 5S or 2S. Otherwise I jump/backdash/IAD. Either way I'm going to hit him. He generally fakes me out, making me whiff or miscalculate some move, hits me with a basic punch... I think 2S, follow that with 2H (uppercut) go into HPB. No way to dodge it but burst, but I want to save that for later if possible. Any good ways to actual counter it? Or is it unblockable? As for mix-ups on a knockdown, does Anji's aerial P (after Fuujin) do anything great besides make someone block? I tried it against my friend on wake-up after a knockdown. Results: He has to block, jumps and blocks, or takes the hit. I can't really imagine this being any useful though. Thanks for the tip on DI too. I kept sweeping with 2D and the effect wore off in no time. Then he started spamming that flying kick... I think 214K. But that was pretty much it.

[Chomite]

For HPB, I don't even jump into it. >.>

I just have to watch him in general. As for Slidehead, if I'm close enough I simply whack him with 5S or 2S. Otherwise I jump/backdash/IAD. Either way I'm going to hit him.

He generally fakes me out, making me whiff or miscalculate some move, hits me with a basic punch... I think 2S, follow that with 2H (uppercut) go into HPB. No way to dodge it but burst, but I want to save that for later if possible. Any good ways to actual counter it? Or is it unblockable?

As for mix-ups on a knockdown, does Anji's aerial P (after Fuujin) do anything great besides make someone block? I tried it against my friend on wake-up after a knockdown. Results:

He has to block, jumps and blocks, or takes the hit. I can't really imagine this being any useful though.

Thanks for the tip on DI too. I kept sweeping with 2D and the effect wore off in no time. Then he started spamming that flying kick... I think 214K. But that was pretty much it.

1) Then he simply did HPB as a combo THUS, NO, you can't get out. It's not Blazblue where your command throw is throw-breakable LOL. You have to burst out before HPB comes out if you don't want to eat that damage. if he does HPB anticipating your jump in, you can still get out by mashing j.P or Gold burst!

And lol he does slide head that close? Punish with stomp please. Hell, if he is doing it that close than might as well go for fujin and fat combo. No good potemkin player would ever do slide head that close, heh.

2) Using P follow after Fujin is...It is just there so we can have some giggles. No really Using it on Okizemi is just bad since it's not overhead or anything and you can't even follow up after it. In other words, you just lost your pressure and advantage that you had when you knocked down someone. It's good to use once in a while to throw people off during pressure strings. Learn FRC for more awesomeness.

3) Good that worked out for you

[Dawnbringer]

Slidehead: HS Fuujin that.Make him pay for recklessly using Slidehead and punish with a combo or a knockdown into shitsu okizeme. HPB: That's a combo.There's no way for you to actually get out of it.Just don't be reckless and control your space.Try throwing shitsu at him sometimes before rushing in.Mix that up with 6S and he'll have to start guessing what type of approach you're going for(You should also include random IADs).Also,if he whiffs HPB,the usual thing potemkins do is jD.You can punish that with 6K autoguard into P for gaining tension. Fuujin (P):The P follow up is one of the "safer" variations of Fuujin stance(and also if you pulled it off successfully,you have quite a bit of frame advantage).However,you should be throwing shitsu for okizeme because that is Anji's main risk vs reward game.When he blocks the first hit and before the "hawk" lands,that's where Anji shines most.The more of these opportunities you get,the better your chances of winning. Note: You should also abuse 5P against potemkin.He can't do jack squat against it (especially if you can chain them since hammerfall can ruin you).

[Hi-C]

BB's command-throws are breakable? Wow. But I don't own it so I wouldn't know. Well, I got to play him one last time today. I don't know what happened, but for some reason he jumped after my butterfly became a hawk. Free air combo rape! xD He said claimed it to be a mental flux. As for Stomp on Slidehead punishment, which one? K or P. Or it simply don't matter? He told me that he hopes that by using slidehead close on the rare occasion, he hopes to score a hit and possible combo. Doesn't didn't seem so good after I started slashing him. Oh Chomite, your avatar is the swordgirl ghost from Touhou right? Just suddenly noticed for som reason. >.> Thanks for the help again.

[Chomite]

BB's command-throws are breakable? Wow. But I don't own it so I wouldn't know.

I don't play BB either (and I don't even personally find that attractive anyway. Probably I would just play for fun and for the sake of having more people in competitive fighting scene if people around my area starts to play seriously). Apperantly, when the command throw is combo'd into, you can throw break out of it and I heard that it's not that even hard to do so.

Well, I got to play him one last time today. I don't know what happened, but for some reason he jumped after my butterfly became a hawk. Free air combo rape! xD He said claimed it to be a mental flux.

As for Stomp on Slidehead punishment, which one? K or P. Or it simply don't matter? He told me that he hopes that by using slidehead close on the rare occasion, he hopes to score a hit and possible combo. Doesn't didn't seem so good after I started slashing him.

Oh Chomite, your avatar is the swordgirl ghost from Touhou right? Just suddenly noticed for som reason. >.>

Thanks for the help again.

P stomp would be the one you are looking for.

And yes, another person who knows about Touhou! Yap, her name is Youmu

[Shining Aquas]

P stomp would be the one you are looking for.

And yes, another person who knows about Touhou! Yap, her name is Youmu

I'd imagine K stomp would be equally as effective if you needed to cover more distance, simply because once Slidehead is active it doesn't stop until completely finished (although your timing might need to be a bit faster). I suppose if you wanted to humiliate your opponent horribly and waste 50% you could try TK Orb RC --> 5P, On; but that's just somewhat silly.

Bah, it's all about Cirno.

[Shining Aquas]

Okay question: I recently started playing against someone who has the most inhuman reversal throwing I've ever seen, and he almost always throws me after any Fuujin followup (assuming he blocked that far). Not entirely sure how to play someone who can destroy Fuujin followups so easily. Granted, I'm still beating him with well placed Fuujins and Autoguards, but I have to practically abandon the pressure game for a random damage game now, and it's killing me. Any suggestions? EDIT: Specifically, the following tends to happen: K - it's about 50/50, he throws me about half the time before I can throw him. Usually based on good timing and luck of the draw. P - either blocks and rushes, or somehow SJ's into airgrab (which is just plain scary for me) S - Blocks, rushes, throws. Can't escape unless I RC (cause I'm not good enough to FRC that one yet) H - Grabs me before it hits FB - Same, but I hit about 40-50% of the time due to speed. Granted, he still blocks it about 60% of those times.

[Chomite]

You are not supposed to end your block string into fujin or make fujin predictable that it gets blocked. It is just so easy to counter out the followups, it is not even funny. Only time that I would do it is during butterfly pressure and opponent is trying to throw out poke hoping that it would hit you and kills butterfly. I used to end my block-string into fujin all the time because it looked so good...but when I stopped using it, my win rate jumped. Now-days, I usually end it with butterfly if I land successful high lv normals (2HS), or just wait and measure the distance then try to counter according to how opponent moves. It sucks that anji doesn't get any good moves with + frame advantage like certain characters do. Disregard the last part past half. I read it wrong. But still a tip.

[Klaige]

Fuujin mixups are fine on the right characters, you just have to make them respect all the options. If you have a blocked fuujin, and you aren't attempting FB Rin pressure, you need to be doing max delay on your follow ups. When you max delay it, you force them to wait out, if they move, you have options to stuff them. Nagiha especially stuffs them the minute they decide to move forward. Keep in mind there are characters who will flat out rape Fuujin mixups. Jam, May, and Axl all come to mind. There's nothing wrong with using them, and it's part of Anji's game. You just can't be reliant on it, as it's just one piece of a very large pie. Also keep in mind that if you get a blocked fuujin, you don't have to do a follow up. If they are waiting to do something on reaction, and you do....nothing. There is nothing to react to, and now you are in good range to throw a good poke into another mixup. I'd say close to half the time on a blocked fuujin, you are not incorrect to just not perform a followup. Keep in mind this doesn't work against mashers and twitchy players. There's never a good reason to just stand still in a CH state if you are up against someone like that.

[vedasisme]

Fuujin on its own is great, because of the invincibility and priority, at least most of the time people are forced to block...

I started learning anji a while ago, and when I started abusing Fuujin, it didn't take long for my friends to find all the different ways to escape my mixups.

You have to throw Fuujin as if you're using a shoryuken; expect to be punished if you don't connect. The main thing to do if blocked is, like Klaige says, to delay for a split second, and depending on spacing, choose a follow-up, or none at all.

I have a couple vids I uploaded right after I overcame my dependence on fuujin for zoning, and learned to love the butterfly pressure options. It's not perfect, but that's one of the areas I'm hoping you're all willing to offer suggestions!

So here are a couple vids:

vs Order Sol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9adjjSNtr0

vs Johnny:

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

[Klaige]

I've got some free time at work here so i will offer up some advice after watching your vids. In general it looks like you have a foundation building to get the basics down, so keep up the good work. I've got lots of criticisms here, but it's a tiny sample of vids to work with, but here are some things to work on that i think will quickly take your game up another level. -Tone down the jump in's, especially J.H. You can jump in, and J.H, is argueably Anji's best Air to Ground poke, but this will get your slaughtered against players who know their anti air game well. Situtions like the one in the corner where you double jumped out of pressure and had a fairly ambiguous crossup on the way down are good places for J.H. But it looked like you relying on it a lot to start your offense, Anji has far better ways of getting in. A blatent Jump in with J.h Should be a last resort. If you want to go in by air. Instant air dashing with j.p is good option to catch someone on recovery, or if you are looking for a falling attack to cover your landing, J.S. also works well. -More use of anji's great pokes. Use 6S. It's godsend for zoning and mid range anti-air. It will force people to think twice about how they approach. I saw use of 2K and 5K, good foundation built there. Learn to utilize max range 2D and 2S, they snuff a ton of attacks. 5P is a really safe and solid poke as well. 3K also has it's uses but focus more on learning how to use the others to build up your poking/zoning game before adding it in. -More knockdown combos. You've got the basics of comboing into FB rin, good deal. Now you'll want to start taking it to the next level and getting more damage and knockdowns. If you FB rin them into the corner, throw HS fuujin, and then get a knockdown with one of these options: A: Let them wall bounce, and after the recovery on fuujin is over, juggle into On, which puts them back in the corner. B: Run up and finish a juggle with 5H, which will knockdown. Cancel into butterly for your okizeme setup. When you aren't in the corner keep in mind you have tons of options to make a knockdown. 2D, juggle to 5H or On, FB Rin (provided the combo isn't super long), and Nagiha will all knockdown and setup the butterfly game. One of Anji's biggest threats is that he can touch you for half life and a knockdown with little bit of tension, you have to put this fear in your opponent. if you are in a situation where you will have a hard time getting a knockdown (I.E. off Kick stomp, punch stomp, etc.) Make sure you get the most out of your damage with a jump install combo into J.D or orb. -throwing random moves for punishment I saw a lot of random On, and a couple supers as an attempt at punishment. You did get one On connected with a solid guess against johnny, but in general just tossing On out there to grab them is a bad idea. If you suspect a blatent jump in, go up and air throw them, then combo into On for a knockdown, or go up and beat them with J.D. or J.K. Remember you have a plethora of anti-air options. 5P, 6K autoguard, 6S, instant J.D. Use them, and punish accordingly I also saw you try to punish once with run up Fan super, forgo that and nail them with a HS Fuujin into a painful FB rin combo. 50% tension is a ton of damage for Anji, make em pay with it! The stomp super has it's uses too, but they are situational. Tossing it out randomly usually is not in your favor on the risk-reward factor. Saw a lot of K stomp, which isn't bad, but just don't get too predictable, since it will start getting instant blocked and punished badly. Make sure you utilize the FRC on it for a mixup now and again. -Butterfly Zoning Your basic use of butterfly zoning is coming along well. Just remember you need a good deal of range to get it to full potential. Butterfly is punishable on reaction by a lot of characters with a good IAD, keep this in mind when you zone with it. -Okizeme and throws I can't stress this enough. Throw, Throw, Throw, and throw again. Tick throws, butterfly setup throws, mixup throws. Use that throw. It setups another butterfly, anji's mixups give him so many options for the throw game. You MUST use it to be successful, period. Throw people until they are blue in the face! Your basic okizeme with butterflies is starting out nicely. Now just get more mixup in there. Run up throw or tick throw. Start incorporating the overheads even more. You use the stomps alot, now add in 3P and TK Orb, (occasional dust is ok too, but Anji's dust is meh at best). I saw you throw out meaty moves a couple of times on okizeme (5K mostly). If you don't have a butterfly for your meaty, max range 2S and TK orb are your friends, the occasional P stomp is good too just to keep them honest. I know that seems like a lot of criticism, but like i said it looks like you have an idea of the basics, and that's a good thing. You used bursts intelligently, which is very nice to see. Now just start adding in the next levels. Watch lots of match vids and jack every good combo you see. Being succesful with Anji in AC centers around a few major points. -Max damage off your abare and punishment -Instilling Fear with his okizeme and mixups -Proper use of zoning and counterpokes (including autoguard). Obviously there are lots of more advanced things to come, such as burst baits and setting up things like Fb butterfly unblockables, but work on these basics for now and you'll see dramatic improvements. Keep up the good work.

[vedasisme]

Wow, this is probably the best crit I've ever received! Over-reliance on 5k has resulted in me not getting to know the rest of Anji's normasl/command normals, I'll definitely start using 6S and 2S more. Finishing up combos I'm dropping has always been a focus, I'll try using HS Rin some, and also just ending some combos with 2D. Gotta try and figure out those SJ-install combos, too...those are hard for me. Also gotta just be smarter with oki, you're right I don't throw enough. It kinda results from the fact that I'm kind of telegraphed when I try to tick throw, and I get poked out of it a lot. As for autoguarding...I've tossed plenty of matches going for those. I'm not yet at the level of understanding where I can purposefully autoguard with any move other than 6K. I expect that's something to save for later, no?

[Klaige]

6K is your most reliable autoguard, and not becoming overly reliant on it is a plus so don't sweat it. 2H has low autoguard but it's not nearly as fast as it used to be. 6S also has autoguard but you'll be hitting it from a good distance away if you are zoning right, so you won't be canceling to p or k autoguard so much as just letting it hit for a Counter into an Air combo. The mixups will come with more knowledge. If someone looks like they will block the butterfly and sit there, run up and throw them, it will make them twitch more, which makes your mixups more effective. Combo's come with experience too, watch lots of vids, see what the top jap players do for their combos and don't be afraid to mimic them to the T. Anji doesn't need a lot of deviation in his combos to be effective. Some people use 3S cancels galore, other players never go for them and do quite well. Jump installs just take some practice, and they are more of a bonus than anything. Just learning basic super jump combos like K, S, H, Orb on characters it hits is plenty good. If you want to work on JI's. Just work on this rhythem. S, tap up, S You have WAY more time than you think to tap up on your stick/pad. The buffer windows in GG are Huge. You can literally go, Tap...Tap for the slashes and they will combo quite easily. Work on the basic combos/knockdowns first, then once you are confident with those, hit up Jump installs just to get that extra bit of damage on the combos where a knockdown isn't practical. Only other advice i can give is play as good of comp as you can find, the better your competition the more you can improve. Best of luck.

[Shining Aquas]

Like Klaige pointed out, 6K is probably the most reliable autoguard for the most part, but do not limit yourself to just that. Don't forget about 6S, 6H, and also 5D (which I use a lot and it works incredibly well.) Anji's autoguards are good but always be aware of the opponent you are playing against and what you are sure they will do to you, otherwise you end up taking bad risks with even worse punishments. As far as I can tell just from watching matches and playing plenty of my own, the difference between 6K versus something like 6S is staggering. 6K feels like an autoguard attack, while 6S feels more like a zoning attack and overall excellent attack that happens to conveniently have autoguard attached to it. 6K is usually all about retaliation, while 6S is more about plowing through the attack and doesn't usually need a followup. So, yeah, get acquainted with more of the autoguard moves, find which ones are appropriate for which situations, and your game will certainly get more nasty. Also, never throw 6K in the middle of a block string unless you are baiting their reversal, which even then is horribly risky.

[AlmightyNam]

I don't think 5D is a very good choice ever, because of the danger of negative edging the D counter. (Which, in my experience, is usually the least preferred followup to an autoguard) Plus, according to the frame data, it has worse startup and recovery to the 6K so in any situation where you'd think 5D is a good idea to autoguard, 6K is the better choice. Unless you want to hit them with dust for a dust combo... Then disregard what I just said.

[Jais]

Josh Anti-airs w/ 5D autoguard very consistently. Enough that I didn't think it was a risk. Are you just complaining or constructively critiquing autoguards? psyduck

[vedasisme]

Who is Josh? Are there vids of him using 5D?

[Jais]

ZidaneL33t: and I don't about recent vids cause he was doin it at SB3 and I don't think he has vids up past SB3 out.

[Dream Maker]

IMO 5D is very good as an anti air autoguard when you don't really know if you will be hit from behind or not, because all other mid autoguards require you to press forward. You can avoid negative edge simply by not releasing D and doing normal Kou instead. Also while looking at the frame data you can notice that it has autoguard on frames 4-12 which is quite huge compared to other autoguard moves. If you try to use this move as an anti air in a real match situation, you will see that it's not a problem to use it on reaction (provided you have enough time to act of course). Using it as a ground to ground autoguard move is more risky IMO, but if you are psychic then why not. ^^