[P4AU] Naoto vs. Margaret

[ludwig van]

Discuss the Margaret matchup here!

[Syklone]

Put her in the corner then kill her. This MU is extremely difficult from what I've played. Her projectile bodies gunshots and her jump ins are godlike. She got so many tools too. But her DP is easy to bait and Fatal recovery so throw baiting in general is strong. I'm not sure about her anti air but you may be able to jump alot in pressure as previously stated. Get in and stay in. Traps are damn near useless and trying to DP+6 is really risky unless you got the read. All in all my first impression after playing a few different Margrets with Naoto is that so far it's difficult but not impossible and we may learn something down the road. This needs to be the most important matchup thread in the Naoto boards. Good luck and share as much info as possible!!!

[Ichipoo]

I agree, this matchup really is a pain. I just played LegendaryRath's Margaret last Friday and I felt helpless for the most part. Fighting her up close seems scary plus she has long range tools to deal with Naoto zoning/setting up a fortress of traps while at the same time, keeping her pinned down there. I do agree that traps seem a bit useless in this matchup as well as that once you find your opportunity to get in, you need to stay in her face since it's no fun trying to work your way in. Going to need to play lose this MU some more in hopes to answers to her.

[Syklone]

Did you find anything out? I think rolling is good in her pressure. It gets past the overhead for a punish and may pass through the command grab before it hits (haven't tested this yet) since it's kinda slow.

[Shadow_BCE]

Yesterday i got some matchs against a really good margareth, this MU is really annoying. Traps are useless when the guy stops to rushdown and try to zonning. all my IAD attempts to start a combo where bodied by her simple 5A godlike hitbox. Her whirlwind super blocks the sniper shot super of naoto.  after some matchs where both of us started to respect each other, i simply gave up to start any combo on her and my game plan resumed in abuse my shield of justice and pistol to deplet all her fate counter and kill her with hamaon/mudoon later. If i ever face a margareth in a championship, i will use my shadow yosuke, Naoto really probably is 3-7 against margareth, totally not worth the pain.

[Zeromus_X]

One thing that's probably essential to know in this matchup is that the same fuzzy guard that works on Narukami also works on Margaret because she's so tall - it even works midscreen! Apparently Denpa was really blowing Taihichi up with it in a recent Mixup Night. You can actually do low jC (blocked) > 9jA mash, falling jC and repeat, and actually get Guard Bonus. S. Naoto can really capitalize off this with rising jA > Berserk > etc., but regular Naoto will have to spend a burst on jA > j236A(1) > OMB > 2[C] > 5C > IAD > jA > jC > 5C > 236B > etc. Without Berserk or OMB, you can only really get a sweep > 236A knockdown. But regardless, you can put Margaret into safe, repeatable 50/50 mixup with jA and 2A once you knock her down, and just generally make her life miserable. 

 

So, once Naoto gets in, it's nice, but getting there is the hard part. Her 5A and 5B are pretty hard to deal with in neutral. Sweep can beat her 5A, but 5B moves her forward and bodies sweep, letting her get a CH combo, or reverse beat into 5A to get in and start her pressure.. Shots aren't very good but I try to use them every now and then to keep Margaret honest at fullscreen.  Awakening super is good to react to her throwing spears or sweeping fullscreen. IAD jC seems pretty decent to flail at her with sometimes, since she doesn't have the best tools to deal with disjointed hitboxes. I'll have to try and play with Rath some more before giving a halfway informed opinion though.

[Syklone]

This is officially Naoto's worst match up. Followed closely by Minazuki.

[SGD25]

Yeah... Let's stop exaggerating lol. Marg is annoying, yes. It's tricky to effectively set up traps against her and such, but once you get in on her you can really stay in as long as you have your pressure down. Since her DP is a techable grab, you really need to mess up to for it to CH you on offense (like going too ham and not being aware of her defensive options). Also, Minazuki isn't even a bad MU... At least he's not IMO, but this isn't the Minazuki topic so I won't even get in to that lol.