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reaVer

An idiot's guide to beating Potemkin

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Se lets see whether we can get something rolling again. I'll start by filling up some matchups that I have frequent access to but the rest on this forum apparently don't know a lot about. I'm not posting this in the matchup thread because it's been filled up quite a bit with pointless banter.

Now, to beat Potemkin:

Round start:

Starting positions usually give plenty of openings in many matchups. Against Potemkin this is not entirely the case. Three major things to consider are: Heat Knuckle, Hammerfall and Slidehead; anything else you should be able to beat with either 2D, 2S, 5S or jump attacks. While these three moves seem rather stupid individually, the mixup between these would effectively deny you from opening with an attack and therefore with momentum. Now 2 of these moves are countered by doing nothing(guarding), the third by a backdash. However, these actions set up a new set of mixups for Potemkin, which can result in you eating a Potemkin buster, Potemkin's 6H or a forced Slidehead from guarding that 6H normally. Essentially you want to make sure that the opening mixup stays among the big three for if it takes on a metagame of its own you will give momentum to Potemkin(who can really put that to good use).

To beat both Slidehead and Hammerfall, I recommend starting with IAD.PPP, it will evade Slidehead and will always stuff Hammerfall. One of the weaknesses to this is obviously heat knuckle(but you will still beat it if he tries to react to you). A lesser weakness is 6P, I'm calling it a lesser weakness because OS's jP clashes OFTEN with Potemkin's 6P, which is in your advantage.

An alternative, which essentially renders you immune from the big 3 during round start, is Gun Blaze. The move will hit before Slidehead executes, will completely evade(and punish) Hammerfall and will plant you right next to a Heat Knuckling Potemkin in his recovery. This move is countered by pretty much any low/throw, so use sparingly.

Another option, which leaves you only vulnerable to Hammerfall is Ri, the move will beat Slidehead when it's launched at the same time as Slidehead and will get you a knockdown against almost any Potemkin opening.

These are some 66% or better openings I know off. I mix them up with the regular normals and simply moving away to get the best effect out of them.

Situation neutral, distance far:

Whenever Potemkin seems to be forcing this situation, he wants to slow down the match. There isn't a whole lot of things you can do to him, nor that he can do to you. If you like leveling, now you're getting it for free, just keep dodging/charge bursting the Slideheads and you will end up at level 3 in no time. If you prefer to keep level 1 or are already fully charged, you will need to close the distance... without eating a Slidehead. I put emphasis on that last part, because if you close the distance while eating one of those, you end up right next to Potemkin and you lose momentum. In fact, when this happens, you did Potemkin's work for him! So move forwards, bit by bit, always be ready to jump and always be ready to faultless guard. If Potemkin mistimes his Slidehead, you can do a runjump and get a combo on him. To get closer: when you end up right outside his 5H range you will almost always want to stop, as that 5H is very likely to come out. If it does, you have a free run in. Otherwise, you've end up in a neutral, midrange situation.

Situation neutral, mid range:

This distance is defined as being inside 5H range but outside Bus tour range. At distance, you should be careful about attacking high while standing on the ground. Your primary tools (5S(f), 5H) can get Slideheaded. Preferably you want to gain a little extra distance and attack with 2D or 2S, from there you can start your offense. Though for as far as I know, both 2D and 2S can result in you taking an involuntary bus tour. However, when you 2D at maximum range and it gets backdashed, you're out of Potbuster range. If your gut feeling tells you he's going to attempt to take you on a busride, either fake forward movement(and backdash) or jump. Both of these options have their weaknesses, jumping makes you vulnerable to Heat Knuckle and to a lesser extend; his AA normals, while backdashing makes you vulnerable to 6H, 5S(f), 2D and Slidehead. If you however managed to pick the right choice, you get a free combo or you gain offense.

Situation neutral, close range:

This situation doesn't exist in this matchup. You will always force an offense or be forced to defend depending on how you got into this type of range.

Offense, close range:

This range is basically, Potemkin bus tour range. As anyone that knows math knows, getting caught in a bus tour twice generally means a round lost, so be very careful about how you go about this. Things you should know is: Potemkin Buster doesn't track, it can only be executed to the left or to the right, if you see a large enough timespan, you can turn a Potemkin buster into a jab by Gun Blazing(or by faking one). The much simpler trick is to set up a jump. I'm talking set up here as you don't want him to AA you now do you? Now if you feel he's going to open his defense with a plain Buster, feel free to jump immediately and convert that free jH into a combo. If he's waiting for you to start stringing, normals like 5S(any) and 5K should provide you with enough momentum to allow for a jump. When doing these kind of jumps, you're either looking for the IAD.PPP(which stops Heat Knuckle and Hammerfall) or a jS which you convert to fuzzy mixup.

In the more common situation, Potemkin will look for something that he can backdash so he can use your whiff recovery as an opening. One of the options to prevent him from doing this is Rock it. The other way to prevent getting punished is by opening with the quick normals such as 2P, 5P and 5K. Do not open close range with your slashes because the recovery on it is simply too big. The same problem is found on your 6K, which despite it's active time will often completely miss Potemkin in his backdash. Once you see a backdash, either backdash yourself and do a fafnir, do a l2/3BRP or if you're quick enough do a BHB and AC FRC it.

In the event that Potemkin shuts down and doesn't try anything except for guarding, you will have all the mixup freedom you want. When you get into close range, your throw will beat the Potemkin buster 80% of the time, 5D is available. l1BRP and 2H are not useable in this situation. They are both -1 on guard and that means potbusterable on impact guard; 5D often reaps you much better rewards for its risks.

Defense, close range:

When guarding, there's only a handful of things that Potemkin will really commit too. It's either going to be Potemkin buster, or 5K into knockdown. Anything else is good for him if he gets it, but it won't be something he intends to break your guard with. Shinjin posted an article on an option select guard. I've not been able to execute this myself so I still rely on hardcore guessing. To throw off Potemkin's timing, you will want to mixup impact guards with faultless guards, doing so will give you the option to stay on the ground(perhaps even backdash) and still not get bustered. This in turn means that Potemkin doesn't have a 50/50 game with Heat Knuckle anymore giving you more breathing room.

Some generic things you should keep in the back of your head: Potemkin doesn't use a full Hammerfall as an offensive tool; always mixup between back jump faultless or back dash when you see one. You can also Storm viper, but I don't recommend this. If you see a Slidehead, you should always jump or fafnir, the move cannot hit you high or in the air and should not catch you as you jump; in short, always a clean get away. Potemkin's normals tend to do fairly well at catching backdashes, so only backdash in situations where you will end up out of range of those normals. If Potemkin is taking long for one of his setups, faultless guard it, usually he will miss it completely.

Special things to consider:

Potemkin players can decide to heat extend you across the field. They are not going for damage, knockdown or lockdown here, they purposely intend to slow down the pacing of the match. Whenever you're sent across the field, charging is recommended.

This fact might be both laughable and fearsome at the same time: Potemkin can mash and queue up a potbuster at the same time by rotating and pressing P everytime 6 is hit. You should consider not pulling through with BHB combos and be extremely wary about trading up(using your combo as a GB or 5D setup), if you're confident enough, you can backdash when a "PB opening" occurs and punish with fafnir; if you're less confident, you're back at IAD.PPP...

When doing superjump combos and regular dustloops, Potemkin will be able to tech in the air and can consider attacking you with any of his attacks, if you're not getting input jammed, Gunblaze, otherwise jump up to where you can guard, impact guard the attack and throw him as soon as you hit the ground. If for some reason you're forced to guard jD take defensive action as it's a really strong setup for potbuster.

Be on the lookout for Potemkin's tech direction. If he's teching backwards, he's trying to prevent an attack from you; most likely he will have a potbuster queued up when he hits the ground. Just wait outside his range, or jump at him. If he's teching forward or neutral, he's a Gun blaze target. If you see him guard(or getting ready to guard) you can airthrow him. Do not try to attack him air to air in this situation, his attacks will beat yours, even if you're coming in from behind. If the first GB misses while he's above it, consider GBing again as it might hit him, otherwise... it's still +a shitload.

AntiAiring:

In the case that Potemkin jumps at you(and thus does not end up above you), you will find that his jS and jH take a lot of priority. However, both of these moves are vulnerable to a well timed sweep and his jH can be beaten by a l1Ri at any timing.

Okizeme Offense:

When you're doing a Gun Blaze, always be sure you are outside potbuster range before potbuster can hit you. Just a small dash should help you; AC FRCing to level 2 and using that is also viable. l1Ri also seems to be a good way to not get thrown during okizeme, and it links to 5K... Other than that, if you hit your meaties spot on, Potemkin buster cannot hit you. But to be safe from pretty much everything, jump and go for fuzzy mixup. Potemkin has a huge hitbox and is really easy to attack this way. Backdashes in these situations, I really recommend waiting them out and jumping in at the proper timing, or doublejumping and attacking at the proper timing; 6K will not save you and any other ground normal isn't reliable. As for previously unavailable mixup tools, 2H becomes available if done early enough(as long as Potemkin doesn't backdash it).

Okizeme Defense:

Whenever you see Potemkin do something that is not a safejump, an early 5P or an early 5K, you can storm viper it. I'm putting emphasis on the 6K(head butt) and Slidehead, both of these attacks are fairly telegraphed and an easy get out of jail for free card. Even if you miss the storm viper against the Slidehead, he has too much recovery to punish you and if you AC FRC it you even gain offense. Do not try to be fancy and Gun Blaze this, 6K will hit you out of it.

If you see 5P, jump. If Potemkin is safejumping, mixup between impact and faultless guard, getting this right can pretty much instantly shut down Potemkin's offense and put you back in a neutral situation. You can mixup your wakeup with backdashes but be careful about that 6H. If you have level 3 Tyrant Rave available and you see him doing an early 6H, use it; it's 200 damage pretty much for free and you can charge to full level right after again.

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