Millia vs. Potemkin: I PB you and take 80% of your life! KEKEKEKE!

[TGS]

After getting my ass handed to me by Mike Z a while ago and Ken I last night, I've decided that the Millia vs. Pot matchup is borderline bullshit if you try to wing it out without a solid gameplan. For starters, throw EVERYTHING you know about the matchup from pre-AC days out the window, cuz that shit just does not work here (like trying to rush him down lolz). With that said, here's a couple of tips on the matchup.

1. Be a DICK, literally.

There's a video out there of Kaqn being a dick to a Pot player by abusing Secret Garden all day (one of those gamechariot vids), and Kaqn ends up winning easily. However, there's another vid of Woshige letting up vs. FAB after he had a fat lead, and Woshige ends up losing the match because his heart thawed, and we all know what happened to badass dicks who had their heart thawed (look at Shin, Juda, Thouther, Raoh, hell, all of the whole Hokuto no Ken villain cast); they start off as certified beasts only to lose the match, and subsequently their balls once they grew a heart. Don't be like them.

2. Stay awake!

See FAB making comeback after comeback on Woshige. Not to mention countless Pot vids where all he needed was one knockdown into guessing game into massive pain into grown men crying all because the other guy decided to stand there and scratch his nuts when the match wasn't over yet.

3. Watch out for Slideheads.

One of those, and you're at a disadvantage already, or are likely dead. Backdash, iad (most likely double iad), jump, Turbofall, or Iron Sabre far Slideheads, jump, TK Bad Moon, TK Turbofall, or block low for close Slideheads. A blocked Slidehead is -11 on block, but unfortunately Millia doesn't have much in punishing blocked Slideheads, so your best bet is to jump it or 6K it whenever possible (as long as you're not stuck in blockstun). Beware that Pot's hitbox during Slidehead changes, causing some stuff to whiff if mistimed, which means Pot gets a free PotBuster if you mistimed an iad attack to try to punish a Slidehead. Usually, the best bet for Millia is to jump to avoid the Slidehead, and find some way to move in close to try to throw him, like doing TK Turbofalls into Throw or whatnot. Alternatively, you can 6K over the Slidehead to avoid the move without putting yourself at risk (like when you're far across the screen and he's spamming Slidehead); instead of jumping, 6K over, and you'll have decent frame time to start up Secret Garden. If you're up close, 6K works wonders as well; if timed right, 6K will prevent you from getting knocked down, then you should have time to launch him on recovery (both Slidehead and 6K will pass through each other if timed right).

4. Stay away from the danger zone!

Generally, I'd like to think of the "danger zone" as the max range of Pot's 2S due to it's unique vaccuum properties as well as the ability to cancel it into Hammerfall Brake, which obviously would pull you in range of his "oh-shit zone", or rather, his PotBuster range. Any closer than that would be his "Russian Roulette" range where you have to deal with his overhead, low, throw, and anti-backdash mixups (pray that the Pot player can't do meaty Slidehead on wakeup or you're fucked for good). Also, the range where he can do a Hammerfall Brake into OTG combo after a Slidehead would probably be called a "uh-oh zone" because while the OTG combo doesn't hurt much compared to his other combos, the fact that it leaves you in his "oh-shit zone" makes you go "Uh oh, OH SHIT! Russian Roulette time!" after you eat it.

In the event you do land in his "oh-shit zone" and "Russian Roulette zone", be prepared to play his guessing game, which leads to all sorts of stupidity. Now, let's see what he can do.

a. Go low. His 5K hits low, and depending on what he wants to do, he can go for an easy knockdown (5K-5S-2S-2D) into another spin on the roulette, harder-hitting easy knockdown (5K-5S-2S-2H-Heat Knuckle) into another spin on the roulette, or cash in for big damage (5K-5S-2S-2H-Heavenly Pot Buster) but no spin on the roulette unless you're already in the corner and in that case you're fucked anyways.

b. Go overhead. His 6K is an overhead, and can be combo'ed into a 2H, so he can either go for easy knockdown (6K-2H-Heat Knuckle) or big damage (6K-2H-Heavenly Pot Buster). Also, his 6K apparently has some anti-throw frames during startup, so mashing throw on wakeup won't beat it.

c. PotBuster. Go figure. Just pray he doesn't have an FRC ready if he lands it. If he does, it's back to another spin on the roulette wheel...

d. Anti-backdash. If he knows that you're keen at doing Reversal Backdashes on wakeup (Reversal Backdash can beat all of the other above options), he can do a 6H to catch you in the recovery of your backdash. Sure, 6H will hurt, but if your back is not in the corner and you're still alive and not stunned, guess what? You're all the way across the screen out of Pot's ideal range, and live to fight another day.

e. Meaty Slidehead. Now this is where the stupidity truly shines if your opponent is any good at doing this repeatedly. Nothing will beat this except 4 things, and chances are, you probably won't have access to those 3 of those things 90% of the time. They are: Burst, Reversal Winger, Reversal Emerald Rain, and Reversal Backdash. Option #1 is probably going to be Reversal Backdash, but if you have the Tension, Reversal Emerald Rain is your best option here because the startup negates the earthquake of the Slidehead and Potemkin gets juggled by all 3 discs, which means free combo for you. If you do NOT have access to a Burst or at least 50% Tension, the round is literally over if you can't do Reversal Backdash cuz Pot can keep doing his Meaty Slidehead loop and you can't do anything about it except pray that your Burst meter fills up before your life depletes to zero. So brush up on those Reversal Backdashes!

And that's not all, he's got some frame traps to keep you guessing if he feels like he wants that PotBuster. For example, he can do 5K-2S-Hammerfall Brake into a guessing situation where he can get that PotBuster if you freeze up via ticks to screw up your backdash input (5P, PotBuster), a Heat Knuckle if you try to jump away, letting Hammerfall finish to catch your backdash (and FRC'ing it into another combo), or another reset into that same guessing situation by doing another 5K-2S-Hammerfall Brake. Same thing with his 6K-2H string; if you guess right, he can cancel the 2H into a Hammerfall Brake like usual. However, in the event that you actually do guess right, your best bet is to FD the blockstring to create some space and backdash to safety. If you have the Tension, you can Dead Angle Attack to defeat the mixup (and plant a Disc or runaway or whatnot).

5. Respect his defensive abilities.

Namely Hammerfall, his backdash, Heat Knuckle, Heavenly Pot Buster, 6P, j.D, and Mash-Buster. When I mean respect his defensive abilities, I don't mean "don't attack at all", I mean watch out for those moves when you're attacking, because each of those moves will either lead to a knockdown, massive pain, or in some cases, both knockdown and massive pain.

In the case of Hammerfall, if Pot knows you're gonna commit to an attack that has some recovery and he has meter for an FRC, you're likely gonna eat a Hammerfall FRC into a Heat Knuckle combo. Hammerfall WILL cut through your strings like a hot knife on butter, which sucks. However, there are some situations where you might be able to do something when your opponent does Hammerfall in the middle of an attack string.

If you're on the ground and he does Hammerfall, you can stop attacking and block the Hammerfall if you were using an attack that has quick recovery (namely, 5P or 2P...), jump-cancel a jump-cancellable attack into a 1-frame FD jump to block the Hammerfall, cancel your attack into a Command Roll immediately to avoid the Hammerfall and end up behind Pot and throw or combo him, or cancel your attack into Emerald Rain if you have the meter, because Emerald Rain cuts through Hammerfall's armor and nets you the knockdown.

If you're in the air (usually iad'ing in) and he does Hammerfall, your best bet is to block, but most likely you're gonna be committed to an attack. Again, if your attack is jump-cancellable (most likely j.K and j.D, but if you were iad'ing, forget about it)), jump-cancel into FD block to stay safe. But, if you committed to any other attack (except for j.H, you're screwed), you may be able to interrupt Hammerfall before it hits you if you were able to do a quick two-hit string such as j.S-P, j.K-P, or j.P,P since the 2nd hit of your string will stop Hammerfall from completing since he used up his armor by then.

With that said, the next thing to look out for is his backdash, since it has the most invincibility frames out of all the backdashes in the game, and naturally it leads to all sorts of stupidity if he guesses right and backdashes your offense into a PotBuster. If you can bait out his backdashes, (usually doing some running and FD-braking stuff), you can punish it with all sorts of shit, but however, smart Potemkin players will use this much like the same way they'll use Hammerfall, so shit is gonna suck. All I can say is watch out for it and don't put yourself in that scenario (like doing blind iad's into his backdash-PotBuster range, or running in and 6P'ing trying to start something only to see the 6P go through Pot during backdash-PotBuster...), even though Millia's game revolves around trying to start an offense.

Next up is his anti-airs. Heat Knuckle leads to stupidity if he guesses right (usually if he knows you're trying to jump to avoid PotBuster mixups), Heavenly Pot Buster is there to keep you from staying in the air forever, and 6P can be used to stop jump-ins (and naturally combos into Heat Knuckle, lolz). Silent Force stops all of the above if used correctly. So ideally if they're keen to anti-air you, fire off Silent Force and work with what you've got off of it. Otherwise, stay at an angle where his anti-airs will whiff or stay grounded (and away from his "danger zone").

For some reason a lot of Potemkins like to use j.D after whiffing a Heavenly Potemkin Buster or teching very high in the air. And for some reason his j.D seems to beat out a lot of attacks (must have buns of steel, I guess) and cause confusion over which side he will end up. Usually you get a free Gold Burst if he ever does this, but if you don't have a Burst ready, you can use 6P, 5S©, or 2H to clash with it (you have to time all 3 attacks somewhat early though depending on the height, but for simplicity I prefer to use 2H so you don't have to worry about side confusion), and do whatever from there.

Mash-Buster should be self-explanatory; if the Pot player is sniffing out holes in your attack strings, chances are he may be trying to mash out a PotBuster to interrupt your string and therefore make you look stupid for delaying your string (intentionally or unintentionally) without having a back-up plan. Therefore, if your opponent is known to try to Mash-Buster at times, you can bait out his Buster and punish it hard by making sure that your blockstrings end at attacks where you can jump-cancel it WHILE still staying close to Pot (a Pot player who Mash-Busters on blockstrings that leave you outside his PotBuster range isn't likely to make that same mistake twice in a match) so that when you do jump-cancel your string and he whiffs PotBuster, you can make him look silly for even trying it. But then again, the rewards are greater than the risks for attempting a Mash-Buster (hello FRC PotBuster...), so I'm sure your opponent is bound to try it a couple of times.

6. So how do I attack?

Follow Kaqn and Nakamura's style and literally be an asshole with Secret Garden vs. Pot. Sure, he can try to Slidehead you in reaction, but while you're lying there not taking damage, Pot has to worry about that big ball before even trying to get in close, and that ball deals out damage while keeping him at bay. Sure, he can Flick it, but the ball will still move and hold him back even if he does Flick it. Hell, you can even use specific patterns that avoid his Flick while still keeping him locked down (like F, DB, F, B). Basically anytime you get a knockdown, summon Secret Garden then rush him down trying to fish for another knockdown into another (you guessed it) Secret Garden. Don't worry about doing combos on him that don't do a lot of damage; your goal is that knockdown. In the event you do knock him down in the corner, that's when you can pull a Nakamura and literally rape his ass with Secret Garden + air-dash mixups.

Obviously Pot is gonna try to take this battle to the air, so what do you do? Secret Garden . Well, if he does get close, try to keep him at bay with j.D's and short air blockstrings like j.K-P-K to try to interrupt whatever he's trying to do in the air. If the string does connect, proceed into a combo that sends him across the screen again (like j.K-P-K, dj.K-D, adc.D or insert an air FB Disc somewhere in there into land, 6H, Secret Garden lolz). If you're not confident in your air game (especially if you do fuck up and Pot gets an air throw, which lands him next to you on wakeup lolz), you can always take evasive measures such as doing Iron Savior to get outta dodge and go under him all the way to the other side of the screen, or you can do a defensive FB Disc to force Pot to re-think his jump-ins (remember, FB Disc does not go away if Millia is interrupted after the disc begins to form after 4 frames of startup, so use wisely!) and buy you some time to get away or do a combo on him if he gets juggled.

Generally, you don't want to risk doing long combos unless you're 100% sure you will get a knockdown. Nothing feels shittier than doing a double relaunch combo only to fuck up and Pot techs in the middle only to PotBuster your ass on recovery into death when you could've done a simple combo that only does a couple points less damage, is much easier to execute, and nets you the knockdown.

That's all I have for now; hope this helps...

[Luigi-Bo 87]

Good stuff. Didn't know 6k could beat a slide head. I've been holding my own against Pots at tournies. I somehow always find a way to get a throw or a CH into air rape. How do you know if you did a reversal backdash right?

[TGS]

Good stuff. Didn't know 6k could beat a slide head. I've been holding my own against Pots at tournies. I somehow always find a way to get a throw or a CH into air rape. How do you know if you did a reversal backdash right?

If whatever Potemkin was doing on your wakeup didn't connect, chances are you did a reversal backdash right.

If you want to practice reversal backdashes, go to training mode and program Pot to do a short knockdown combo (like 5K-2S-2D), then time his 5K as a "meaty" on your wakeup. You should be able to avoid the meaty 5K on wakeup if you did a reversal backdash correctly. Alternatively, instead of a meaty 5K, you can program a meaty Slidehead (how to tell if it's meaty: hold up on your wakeup and if you couldn't jump and still got knocked down by the earthquake part, it's meaty) and practice with that too.

For me, I seem to get consistent reversal backdashes if you begin the double tap input during the animation where Millia is pushing herself up off the floor with her hair. But practice it to be sure.

[jabhadouken]

Every kaqn vs. Potemkin vid on youtube that I've seen has him "being a dick literally". Lol. That style of play ought to be called kaqn true style Or, with phonetic liberties taken: cockin' literal style. Methinks it's only fair play though, given Pot's pure priority + damage silliness.

[zer0kage]

Goddamn Pots. There are a few things I'd like to note which comes in handy. IBing the meaty 6H depending on how early it hits might net you a free hair car to get him off his slidehead. Haircar can also beat a 6H unless Pot's 6H is already active and you run into it. Do not SG even when he is on the other side of the screen unless you create a situation where he can't slidehead you on reaction like throwing out a pin or knockdown. Blockstrings. DO NOT 6K especially against the naughty PB buffering pots. It will net him a free Pot buster (out of your 6K!!!) to FRC Millia combo which hurts so much thanks to an additional 5S. Use things like 5K, 2K to space him out and get out hopefully he won't counter your getaway attempt. What Pot will slidehead on block if a 2K can take that out I ask you. So use your strings for the purpose on opening space for runaway purposes instead of trying to mixup hits in. As tempting as it is. Keep rushing Pot down to a minimum as TGS emphasized. Sure the match might get boring but being a jerk just lowers the risk of receiving potshots and a facepalm to your head for losing a round due to impatience. If you think you're up to it SB his 5S or 6H. Still in 20ish matches overall in that entire session (not only Pots thank god) I only SBed 3 things and what got capitalized on is Pot 5S on the ground. SBing a ground move while youre in the air isn't really favourable as it's risky (mistime and get killed) and you can't seem to do much unless you're close in range. In a situation you want to do a disc up close like Pot not teching after a throw or a 2D close. Primarily go for a iad crossup as this messes up with wake up Pb motions or haircar. If he blocks the disc MOVE it's just not really that worth it to take a guess and get greedy for knockdowns. I'm not keen on this matchup as much as Slayer or Testy. Well thing is playing against Pot requires you to adopt a way more passive style with Millia which isn't how I want to play my character overall.

[Kjorteo]

I seem to be running into a new problem against my friend's Potemkin: his freaking Megafist. I can block it, but that's where my troubles begin: he seems to have gotten good at buffering either Potemkin Buster or Heat Knuckle for the moment he lands from Megafist. I've experimented in practice mode with the dummy doing Megafist --> Potemkin Buster, but unless I'm blatantly missing something (someone please tell me I'm missing something ,) the only thing I have time to do after the Megafist blockstun without eating the Buster is to jump backwards. Which worked just fine, until he figured out Megafist --> Heat Knuckle....

Now, unless I can think of a better followup-independent answer to "What can I do after blocking Megafist," I'm basically forced into a jump-or-don't-jump guessing game where the penalty for guessing wrong is astronomically high.

Dead Angle if I have the tension and am desperate, maybe, but is there something a little more economical? Even my usual defensive Pretty Maze trick (throw a ground Pretty Maze in anticipation of being owned by something, eat the first hit, then laugh as the opponent was too busy hitting me to block and eats the Pretty Maze) fails me, since either followup in this situation is one of the few instances I've seen in which something is fast enough to interrupt Pretty Maze, and even if I do get it off, Potemkin Buster and Heat Knuckle appear to have that same complete invincibility to residual projectiles during the throw animation as anyone's regular throw. (This is my karmic retribution for throwing Venom just after he throws a Dark Angel, isn't it....)

[Luigi-Bo 87]

Yeah it's pretty nasty. I sometimes roll or use Emerald Rain to stall him/oush him back. Sorry, that's all my sleepy brain can come up with at the moment. I'm actually going to play wit a few peeps this weekend, one plays Pot, so maybe I can post if I find anything crazy out.

[Teyah]

Forward Megafist -> PB is like the oldest Potemkin mixup ever, even the XX CPU did it. You shouldn't really have a problem with this since it leaves Potemkin at a big frame disadvantage. Megafist forward is -4 on block so you can just block then backdash to escape for free, since Pot won't be able to catch you during your backdash. However since Megafist is pretty slow, you should be able to IB it on reaction to seeing it come out. If you do this, you can quite easily punish with a 5S -> Emerald Rain, or 5S-5H(-2D) if you don't have meter. You can also just block and TK a Pin (which is way faster than -4 and Heat Knuckle), then use that to move in.

[Luigi-Bo 87]

I like to be cool sometimes and 6p it.

[Kjorteo]

Is there anything you can do about 2S-Potemkin Buster besides try to backdash? The fact that it vaccuums into Buster range even if you block it is just dirty, and I can't tell whether it's just my reflexes sucking or if it really is fast enough that, after blocking 2S, I only have time to get out the "oh" in "oh crap" before eating a Buster. Even trying to remember to backdash every time I block a 2S only works most of the time, though that could just be because I'm slow.

Can you jump, maybe? If so, are there any good air attacks that will beat/stuff 2S-Heat Knuckle?

[stinkymonz]

IB 2S and backdash or 1F jump. Usually what the Pot would do is 2S -> Hammerfall [cancel] in which case a backdash would be most effective at escaping; you could 1F jump but I *think* he can immediately Heat and catch you out of anything that wasn't an immediate pin or back airdash; Idk, not sure about this part. In your case if it's just uncanceled 2S -> PB then IB -> backdash still saves you from both 2S -> PB and 2S -> Heat. And yeah, you're gonna have to learn to IB 2S very quickly, but it ain't that fast, actually. Just a matter of getting used to... knowing/seeing when a 2S is coming. You would have to keep in mind that if you are too caught up 'looking' for a 2S, he could just cancel whatever normal he's using to make you block and PB.