GGACR/Zappa/Matchups

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< GGACR‎ | Zappa
 Zappa



Matchups

NOTE: Old matchup subforums can be found here: http://www.dustloop.com/forums/index.php?/forums/forum/50-zappa-matchups/

Things to note when discussing matchups:
-General ratio
-Optimal/inoptimal spacings
-Strong/Weak buttons
-Things to watch out for
-Character specific confirms
-etc etc

The following matchup descriptions are just the opinions of a few players averaged so they should not be taken as fact. They are here as the first step towards more comprehensive matchup descriptions.

 A.B.A Even
 Anji Mito Slightly Favorable
 Axl Low Slightly Unfavorable
 Baiken Even
 Bridget Slightly Unfavorable
 Chipp Zanuff Slightly Unfavorable Write-up Complete
 Dizzy Slightly Unfavorable
 Eddie Slightly Favorable
 Faust Even Write-up Complete
 I-No Even
 Jam Kuradoberi Slightly Favorable Write-up Complete
 Justice Slightly Favorable Write-up Complete
 Johnny Favorable Write-up Complete
 Kliff Undersn Even
 Ky Kiske Favorable
 May Even
 Millia Rage Slightly Unfavorable Write-up Complete
 Order-Sol Slightly Favorable
 Potemkin Favorable
 Robo-Ky Favorable Write-up Complete
 Slayer Slightly Favorable
 Sol Badguy Slightly Favorable
 Testament Slightly Unfavorable
 Venom Slightly Favorable
 Zappa Even

A.B.A

 A.B.A

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Anji Mito

 Anji Mito

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Axl Low

 Axl Low

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Baiken

 Baiken

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Bridget

 Bridget

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Chipp Zanuff

 Chipp Zanuff

Overview

Chipp is extremely hard to catch for Zappa but his vortex is not as threatening as many other pixie characters. This combined with the fact that his projectiles don't make it easy for him to deal damage without getting close to you results in a very scramble heavy matchup. He dies pretty fast if you can get a good hit in (you can stun him off just one CH 2H sometimes, and pretty much always off of CH 2H 2H) but getting a good hit is difficult since he's very fast and often in the air. Try to stay mobile and chase him around the screen consistently because it makes teleport frc less threatening.

Overall the matchup feels like a game of cat and mouse a lot of the time, and it often comes down to whether you can manage to pin Chipp down successfully.

Naked

236P is very nice in this matchup, it's throw invuln throughout recovery so it can save you from leaf grab, plus it is one of the only ways for you to knock Chipp down when he's in the air. Be careful about summoning in neutral because he can punish you from full screen with teleport if you're too predictable.

Triplets

Triplets: Probably the best normal summon vs Chipp as if you curse him he has to be a bit more careful about his movement. It also lets you knock him down in midair if you get lucky with pots. With this in mind try to keep him cursed as much as possible. Just remember that he can punish ghost tosses off a read if he's on the ground due to teleport so don't mindlessly spam them. If Chipp is in the corner he will often try to jump and wall dive out, so consider using P/H toss to jail him. 2H can be an interesting solution to teleport crossups, it's air blockable but extremely active and can hit him out of his jump-ins, just be careful not to run out of triplets.

Sword

You want to avoid overextending the sword, don't use sword normals in neutral unless you think they can connect. Chipp is so fast that he can easily cross the screen and catch you attempting to zone, plus he has teleports to make it even easier. Due to this it's really easy to have chipp catch you while the sword is far away, so you often want to keep the sword next to you until you can make him block something. Sword dp can be a good tool to stop H/D teleports as it hits right where he appears, you could even negative edge OS versus D teleport if you're feeling fancy. Just keep in mind that it is air blockable so if Chipp decides to be safe and block after a teleport you need to be ready to frc. I find this summon to be the weakest in neutral in this matchup, but you can still oki loop him to death if you get him on the ground in the corner, so try to land an air throw or something.

Dog

If you try to turtle with dog a lot of chipps will just sit back and throw shurikens trying to hit it, so what I like to do is run at him without the dog and then move the dog in after one of us is blocking (or use the dog to hit him if he jumps over you). Keep in mind that he doesn't recover from the slow shuriken until he lands, so make sure to use that opportunity to go in. Gamma blade is very annoying to deal with but it doesn't multihit, so just block it and then have the dog approach behind you. As mentioned earlier a single CH 2H 2H can end the match, so going for 2H 2D traps can be very rewarding, just keep in mind that jH hits twice so it can go through the dog and still hit you.

Raou

Severely limits Chipp's air movement due to LE, but throwing orbs in neutral is a bit risky since they're slow. Try to run him down and make him attempt jumping over you, then hit him with the DP. Generally I think Raou is worth aiming for in this mu, he's not amazingly better than the other summons (teleport is very annoying to deal with) but just making Chipp a bit more afraid to jump helps out immensely, plus you kill him off any good hit as always.

P/K Counterpoking

5K is quite useful in this matchup as it can go over Chipp's 2D, a move that is otherwise very dominant versus Zappa. Sometime the moves will trade, which results in a mutual knockdown, but 5K tends to win more often and practically never loses outright. 5K is also pretty good at stuffing some of Chipp's standing buttons such as fS and 5H. 6P is useful as well as it goes under the majority of Chipp's moves, but the threat of 2D checks it somewhat, which is one reason why 5K is so valuable. 5K, 2S, and 6H are the most problematic to counterpoke, especially 5K, which is maybe the hardest Chipp ground normal for Zappa to deal with. 5K can trade favorably with it sometimes but it is not consistent, and his only other naked normal that can get through a wall of 5K spam is fS which is somewhat committal vs such a fast character. With triplets or sword this situation becomes less problematic as their fS normals can beat cS clean and are significantly faster.

Defensive Situations

As mentioned previously, 236P is an especially useful defensive tool vs Chipp as it is throw immune throughout recovery and gives you a knockdown on hit. Just keep in mind that he has plenty of fast normals to bait it with if he's looking for it. Backdash is useful as always but Chipp has good tools to call it out with (alpha blade/gamma blade) so be careful about being too predictable.

Anti-airing

One thing Zappa has going for him is that crossups on oki don't work as well as vs most characters as you can press 44 and get a forward dash even if he ends up behind you, which can low profile his jump in sometimes. He is still able to hit you if he delays the attack as most of his air normals hit quite low (many can even hit 6P) but at that point the mixup is significantly less instant and you might have time to react. You can also DP (OSable with 2363214P) and catch him trying to jump on you if it is timed correctly, which is very good for you as it gives you a knockdown and a chance to blow him up.

Match Footage

https://acpr.keeponrock.in/#/?p2chars=zappa&p1chars=chipp

Dizzy

 Dizzy

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage


Eddie

 Eddie

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage


Faust

 Faust

Overview

A very chaotic matchup with a lot of rng but generally both characters have strong tools vs each other resulting in a fairly even match.

Naked

236P is a strong counterpoke in this matchup and also works well as an anti-air. It's basically your only option when Faust is in pogo stance as your regular ground normals won't reach him. Summoning in neutral is often not very difficult due to Faust's relative lack of mobility and the fact that he will probably start throwing items after you run away rather than chasing you immediately. Do keep in mind though that he can punish neutral summons full screen with FB Door if he's on his toes. FB Chop and FB Pogo are both very hard to deal with as the former goes over most of your pokes and the latter being nigh uncontestable unless you read it with a summon or airthrow. One of the few characters where 6H can crossup on oki.

Triplets

Triplets do a very good job of bullying Faust and keeping him from throwing items easily, and unlike the other summons actually deal with air stalling quite well. That being said the low damage means he'll get a lot of chances to beat you in neutral and his buttons are just as good or better than yours. If you can get him cursed then you have the advantage, make sure to start pressure when you get that chance.

Sword

Sword can make Faust's life difficult by forcing him to switch up his regular "hang back and throw items until they approach you" playstyle and go on the offensive. Sword makes it very hard for him to fight on the ground and Faust's huge air hurtbox makes it easy to bully him when he inevitably takes to the sky. That being said he has some very strong tools such as his jump FD hurtbox making it easy for him to jump out of sword pressure, his ability to stall in the air outside of the sword's effective range, his low crouching hurtox making certain sword strings whiff, and FB Door/FB Pogo. The best answer to his air stalling is to look for opportunities to air throw him or run under him, just watch out for FB pogo.

Dog

Dog gives you the usual benefits but you must be very careful of Faust's 2K which can kill the dog very easily and still hit you due to its 3 hitboxes. FB Chop is also a threat since it goes over 5D and 6D. If Faust is doing it too often though you can bait it and get a highly damaging punish with 2D. Because of Faust's huge crouching hurtbox Dog is stronger vs him in the corner than usual, 5D will hit him even when the dog is all the way in the corner.

Raou

He can low profile 236S so don't try it as a reversal on wakeup. FB Door stops you from zoning with orbs safely so you generally need to approach if you want to apply pressure. If you can make Faust jump he's very vulnerable as 236S reaches high enough to stop him from air stalling with Love safely and he'll quickly run out of meter doing FDC drill. If you can get in and run pressure be careful of resetting with orb since doing the followup can make you vulnerable to FB Door. If Faust does FB door and you do block it however he's probably going to die. Generally not the strongest summon in the matchup but the threat of straight out killing Faust if you land a good hit still makes him worthwhile sometimes.

P/K Counterpoking

5K is a useful tool in this matchup because it beats 2P and 2H, both of which are some of Faust's best tools to deal with Zappa low profiling most of his normal pokes. There is a sweet spot range vs Faust where 5K and 6P are especially effective, it's right around the max range of 6P.

Defensive Situations

Vs 6H oki gambling on wakeup 236P is very risky, backdash will get caught, and 632146H will whiff vs the move's recovery so generally you just need to hold it. After a ground blockstring fausts will often do scalpel pull to catch you backdashing away, but if you predict this you can run forward instead to low profile it and punish.

Anti-airing

6P or even just running at Faust makes it difficult for some of his usual air to ground moves such as j2K to connect but jD is a strong tool that is very hard to contest for Zappa.

Match Footage

I-No

 I-No

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage


Jam Kuradoberi

 Jam Kuradoberi

Overview

Slightly favored matchup for Zappa MAKE SURE TO PAY ATTENTION TO HER METER. It is very important to keep her in range when but not do anything too high-risk when she has 25 meter because of the fear of FB puff. You don’t want to give her too much space or else she will be able to pull off 22D and be able to really aggressively start her game, so maintaining a nice midrange against her is very good.

Goals

Try to keep enough pressure at her round start that she doesn't get the time or meter to 22D and set up her gameplan.

Neutral

On round start, 5S is a very good move for taking up a lot of space that jam usually wants to occupy. By doing this, you can quickly set up a summon and force her to jump in the air at round start. You can just run at a lot of her moves and they’ll whiff. 6P is very good against her puffball and bakushuu. It will low profile and trade or more often straight up beat the starting frames of puffball (as long as it’s not FB puff) and also beat her pass through follow up (236S~P) and low follow ups. In general, running under Jam when she is in the air is what you should be doing instead of going for air throws because she has very scary options that can delay her fall or change her trajectory.

  • Ghost - You can’t do 236P FRC ghost oki on jam unless you time your 6P or 2K (low options) at the same time that the ghost will hit. If you do it correctly and she tries to parry, she will be hit low into a combo. Once she is already cursed, super jumping and camping with ghost tosses is a very valid strategy. In neutral, using any ghost special other than 236K is a scary commitment against a grounded jam because of bakushuu and its followups’ low profile. Make sure to always try to cover low to the ground with your hitboxes until she starts entering the air.
  • Sword - be wary of her FB puffball when stagger pressuring. If she blocks 63214H, she can FB puffball all the way up to you for free.
  • Dog - turtling with dog is a very good strategy if you keep doing dog 2D and standing on dog. Because of her stubby range, she doesn’t have any good approach because she has to run up and hit the dog since it takes priority for hitboxes, which leaves her open to a free CH from naked Zappa.

Strongest Counterpokes

When To Play Reactively

When They're Playing Reactively

Anti-airing

If you low profile a Ryujin, you can antiair with CH 2H 66 2H jc j.K j.S jc j.S j.D. About half of the time, this will be an instant stun, which can be followed up with an IK activation into IK. Be warned though, that the timing is tricky, because if you 2H too early, you can get hit by the Ryujin still, and if you 2H too late, Jam will be hit grounded. The trick that I found to timing it is trying to time the press of your first 2H to right when she is about to say the cha in hua-cha. Hitting the 2H grounded still leads to a good combo, but not as good as the antiair CH 2H.

Most other times, trying to air throw her when she is in the air is the best thing you can do, which is what you should generally just be trying to do in most Zappa matchups.

Offensive Situations

Defensive Situations

Match Footage

Johnny

 Johnny

Overview

Generally a strong matchup for Zappa as he can low profile many of Johnny's pokes and more importantly all of Johnny's reversal attacks (including his DAA!). Johnny can still compete by using his plethora of air options in neutral and his excellent backdash to escape pressure but he is forced to play Zappa's game.

Naked

236P is a potent counterpoke in this matchup but Johnny can bait it by poking you with his disjointed buttons from outside of it's range so be careful. Summoning safely in neutral can be a bit difficult because of Johnny's mobility and range (plus tools like up coin) but you can use your low profile dash and buttons like 6P to counterpoke him and combo into a summon.

Triplets

Triplets limit Johnny's usual anti-zappa strategy of abusing his air options but be careful of using throws reactively as anti-airs; it raises Zappa's hurtbox quite a bit and is prone to getting you CH by a jump in jH. Instead you should try to predict where he will move and then use the cover the throw gives you to start pressure. When Johnny is cursed it becomes very hard for him to maintain pressure since you can usually just block low until an item spawns. Be careful of TK ensenga or tick throws though, Johnny players will often be desperate to open you up before they get bonked by a pot or golf ball.

Sword

Probably the weakest summon vs Johnny as he has enough air mobility that he can easily get past it. Make sure not to overextend and get punished by jackhound and be aware that Johnny can use his reversal super to hit Zappa's hands when he poses for sword moves. You can trick him into doing this with an early 6H; if you time it right the move will recover before his super comes out and allow you to block, like a pseudo safejump.

Dog

Although pinning down Johnny with dog can often be difficult because of his air mobility, getting him in a sandwich can sometimes be checkmate. Since his DAA is low profiled by 2P, 2K, AND cS you can do gatlings with those three normals and prevent him from being able to use it. Usually to escape Dog pressure Johnny needs to either burst or IB backdash out, both of which can be baited by a smart Zappa player.

Raou

Raou forces Johnny to stay on the ground or risk being CH by Last Edguy and also gives Zappa long enough pokes to contest Johnny better from range. Orbs can absorb a coin and still hit Johnny if the coin hits before they start moving.

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Justice

 Justice

Overview

This is a volatile matchup as sword is very strong but triplets struggle and Dog dies very easily. Be careful as Justice needs far fewer confirms to kill you than you do to kill her; just a few mistakes could cost you the match.

Naked

Generally retreating and then summoning safely is easy in this matchup because of Justice's low mobility but be careful of Michael Blade punishing you from full screen. Sometimes you may want to not summon full screen and instead attempt to run in and use 236p's invincibility to go through a nuke and hit her out of the startup. Round start 66236p is not recommended because of the threat of counter (with a microwalk even dashless 236p will trigger the counter), generally backdashing once or twice and summoning is a safer option.

Triplets

P toss stops justice from throwing nukes without frc and curse is very difficult for her to deal with, but the damage differential is more stark than ever and Justice metered options can make using triplets safely a struggle. A smart justice will avoid throwing nukes until she has meter to frc one and jump towards you while blocking triplet tosses. If she does this then you have a few options: you can attempt an airthrow, backdash through her jump-in and stuff her if she presses something after landing, or try to antiair with triplet 2H. The nuke makes the second two options more risky as even if you put her in blockstun the nuke will interrupt you, but going for airthrow carries its own risks so choose wisely based on your read of the opponent. Be very careful when she has more than 50 meter as triplet tosses without frc are liable to result in you eating a fullscreen punish. Generally you want to try to close in and start pressure on her rather than zoning if possible unless the Justice player insists on trying to throw nukes fullscreen. Once you're in you with curse you can lock her down very well but be careful to minimize risks and don't allow her to reversal out. If you use Triplet 6H with less than three triplets Justice can easily put you in blockstun (or punish you if she blocks) with fS afterwards so generally avoid the move unless you have meter to RC. Threatening overhead with 214D can be good as it gives you a chance to reroll into dog or sword.

Sword

Justice's lack of mobility makes escaping sword pressure and closing in on Zappa very difficult, but with meter she has some ways to make Zappa sword pressure more risky than vs most characters. Michael Blade can punish sword normals full screen if she has 50% and counter makes poking with sword normals other than low 2Ss dangerous. When running oki with sword vs a justice with at least 50% meter you should try to meaty with either a safe jump jH or the very last few frames of 6H (the low recovery means you will be able to block before Michael Blade comes out). With 25% meter she can also dash past sword with Saperia Trance and hit you so be careful. Generally you should focus on poking and keeping her out rather than orbs/damage so end strings before using 63214H if she isn't in the corner. It is worthwhile to lab "meatying" Justice with 2S/jS on the last frame of her backdash because if you hit her too early she will be airborne and get to tech out of your pressure. Her counter is also a threat to keep in mind, especially if the sword is too high for 2S to hit low, try not to get too predictable with your swipes in neutral.

Dog

A lot of the time full screen Dog will just act as a sacrificial pawn to detonate a nuke safely but if you can get the dog close to Justice it can also threaten her and prevent her from shooting nukes. If Dog is vulnerable and Justice uses Michael Blade the super will prioritize the dog before Zappa so try to hit 5D after the superflash if you can't block. It might be worthwhile to keep an eye on the timer and try to sacrifice the dog then summon with the timer at 0 in order to get sword out. If you do have her in pressure with dog be sure to be careful of SBT, as it low crushes and multihits. The best button to discourage her from using it is 2H as you get a very strong punish, so try to represent it frequently as a meaty and in block strings.

Raou

Raou is relatively weak in this matchup if you summon him full screen as he has a much harder time getting around nukes than other summons do. Because of this you generally shouldn't prioritize generating orbs over damage or knockdowns. If you do get Raou he can still be useful once you're in Justice's face; just make sure you dash break FD or use the extended hurtboxes on his normals (2S works best) to deal with the nukes. Orbs will usually get eaten by nukes but there is an angle in the air where k orb will slip over k nuke and potentially hit Justice if she's not being careful. You can also punish nuke set with Raou's super from full screen, as most of the orbs will go under P nuke. If you close the distance and get her blocking you can perform an instant overhead with jS even when Justice is crouch blocking which can combo to jH on CH. This means that fS leads to a 50/50 if Justice's guard bar is flashing (either JC jS for an overhead or 5H for a low).

P/K Counterpoking

Zappa generally struggles to avoid Justice's hitboxes with 6P or 5K but 5K can still be useful as a counterpoke as it tends to trade in Zappa's favor due to 5K knocking down on counterhit.

Defensive Situations

Be very careful to avoid being knocked down in the corner when Justice already has nukes out, this can be a very difficult situation for Zappa to escape unless he gets lucky and summons Dog on wakeup. Even with dog it can be a difficult situation as the nuke multihits could easily kill the dog if you're not careful.

Anti-airing

Her jH is huge and has leads to a lot of damage so rather than attempting an airthrow it can often be better to just run under her if she superjumps towards you and doesn't nuke frc first. Don't try to low profile jH, you'll just get counterhit. Triplet 2H, Sword 623H, and Dog 8D (or 2D2H traps) can all work nicely if she is using jump-ins predictably, just keep in mind that they are all air-blockable without FD.

Match Footage

Matsui vs Hotta Netplay Supercut Matsui vs Hotta at Shinjuku Sportsland

Kliff Undersn

 Kliff Undersn

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage


Ky Kiske

 Ky Kiske

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage


May

 May

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage


Millia Rage

 Millia Rage

Overview

This is a fairly hard matchup as Millia has great mobility, especially in the air, and her vortex is extremely threatening as SG oki beats all of Zappa's usually strong defensive options. She also is much better at stopping Zappa from summoning in neutral than most characters which can make round start very difficult. That being said Zappa has better solutions to basic disc oki than most characters and his normals tend to out rps Millia when she's on the ground.

Naked

Be very careful about summoning in neutral, Millia can whiff punish you quite easily due to her speed and access to pin. Most Millias will try to stay at around mid range (usually in the air) and wait for you to overextend or go for a neutral summon, then punish you. Probably your best bet is if you can manage to airthrow her, but you can also sometimes anti-air her with 236P if she decides to be aggressive. Keep pin in mind, if she's used it already things get significantly easier just be careful not to let her pick it back up for free.

Triplets

Triplets are very useful vs Millia as cursing her makes it much more dangerous for her to dance around you in the air. With this in mind, try to keep curse up as often as possible and take advantage of her being afraid to move around as much. One important thing to keep in mind is that triplet tosses can cancel out pin, which makes H toss very useful vs airborne Millia. You still need to be careful however as triplet toss has enough recovery that she can sometimes counterhit you with a jump-in even if you do cancel the pin out, so frcing the H toss is recommended.

Sword

Sword can be rather hard to use vs Millia in neutral as she is very good at outmaneuvering it with her air mobility, roll, and somewhat low profile run. Try not to overextend the sword and instead keep it close to use it as a disjointed poke or after making Millia block something. j236H can be useful sometimes as an air to air if Millia won't stop airdashing around, but it's also fairly high risk so don't use it predictably. If you do manage to catch Millia on the ground always prioritize getting a KD over damage/orb extensions, you want to keep her blocking on the ground as long as possible. Watch out for her backdashing on wakeup, as you don't want to hit her airborne on accident.

Dog

Dog suffers somewhat similarly to sword due to Millia's mobility and ability to stay in the air for long periods of time. That being said Dog can help defend you against pin and other jump-ins and it gives you the usual pressure and defensive power too. Millia will probably start turtling if she sees dog come out in neutral, but if you have the life lead you need to just be patient and wait for her to decide to approach, as moving towards her will force you to reposition the dog and give her a chance to move in.

Some things to keep in mind when doing dog strings:

  • Be very careful of is Millia's reversal super Winger, as it multihits and can easily hit both the Dog and Zappa. The horizontal range is not very big but it hits on frame 7 and cannot be low profiled making it a constant threat during dog pressure if she has the meter.
  • Millia's best tool to escape dog pressure is her backdash, as it is very fast and puts her airborne until its last frame. This means that if you hit her while she is in the middle of backdashing she can usually tech out and return to neutral with only a minor amount of damage taken. You can somewhat stop this with 2K as it whiffs vs the airborne frames of her backdash, but the timing and spacing is somewhat tricky since her backdash is so fast and travels a long way. You also may be able to knock her down if you hit her with 2H, as this will let you combo into 4DD or 214D.
  • Millia's reeling animation when she gets hit crouching can often move her out of the way of 5P, so use 2P during dog combos instead. 5P will also whiff vs her crouching hurtbox if you're very close to her (roughly throw range) and she holds 2.

Raou

Raou can be very useful in this matchup as he makes Millia afraid to jump, which lets you force her to deal with unfavorable RPS neutral on the ground (as will be detailed in the next section). Be careful about using orbs in neutral as she has the mobility to punish you, and she can also roll under P orb so generally RPS with either K or S. Be careful about using Raou S/H normals if she's close to you outside of blockstrings as she can roll under all of them, so opt to use your regular Zappa normals such as 5K, 2K, and 6P as starters instead. The extra proration won't hurt, you should kill her in one confirm anyways. If you get knocked down be patient, Millia is quite good at baiting 214S with crossups, roll, or just by blocking and letting you get hit by her oki projectile.

P/K Counterpoking

5K is very useful in this matchup when Millia is on the ground, it's capable of going over 2K, 2S, and hair car cleanly and it usually wins vs 2D as well (when it doesn't it trades for a mutual knockdown). The move can also stuff many of Millia's pokes such as 2P, fS, and 5H, and it even trades with her 5K favorably at the right spacing. Millia's safest grounded solution is 5P but as this move doesn't hit standing Zappa much less running Zappa it's a fairly specific callout.

6P is also quite good, letting you avoid pretty much every move that will usually stop 5K such as 5P, 6P, and 2H. Keep in mind that while 6P can work well vs Millia's 5K you need to be close to her, so if Millia is putting up a wall of 5K spam your best solution is either to fish for a trade with your own 5K or use fS.

All this being said, Millia will probably spend most of the match in the air rather than playing grounded footsies with you, and she also has the speed to whiff punish you easily if you are throwing out pokes predictably. If you do end up fighting a Millia afraid to jump however (such as with Raou out or when she is cursed by triplets), don't neglect these moves.

Defensive Situations

Since Zappa can crouch (and run) under disc oki he has more options to deal with it than most characters. This lets you poke at Millia if she doesn't do anything meaty and also means you can choose when/if to block the disc after waking up (you can even go for a slashback if you wait out the 10 frame lockout window). You can safely use 2P and 2K while under the disc without getting hit by it, and 6P will low profile it until its recovery frames as well. Millia's 6K will low crush all of these moves during its startup, but 6P is able to low profile it and hit her during the recovery if you time it correctly (needs to be late, so do it on reaction if possible). Midscreen you can also backdash away from the disc if it isn't put down point blank, and if Millia crosses you up you'll run under it instead.

All this being said, Secret Garden oki is an entirely different beast. Generally you just have to hold it, but if you get dog you might be able to have it eat one of the SG hits and jump out if you time it right (Millia can lock you down with normals if she sees the dog though so even this is not always possible.) If Millia does a greedy SG in a situation where it doesn't hit you meaty be sure to jump and block immediately to avoid her mix. If you have a gap you can try to DP her, you'll get hit by the SG orb afterwards but as she'll be knocked down if you hit her it can still be a favorable trade.

Anti-airing

Millia has various air normals that can hit you dashing or crouching (jP, jK, jS), but they have to be done low to the ground which opens her up to airthrows somewhat. You can also low profile any of her air normals with 6P and make her block when she lands, but be careful not to get baited and have your recovery punished. Always keep in mind whether she has pin or not and be ready to try and backdash to avoid it.

Match Footage

Order-Sol

 Order-Sol

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage


Potemkin

 Potemkin

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage


Robo-Ky

 Robo-Ky

Overview

Generally a good matchup for Zappa since he can low profile many of Robo's strong tools and he generally outclassses him in neutral. Despite this Robo still has some strong options to fight back with and can be quite threatening if he gains momentum. 6P and 5K are generally strong vs Robo since 6P goes under most of his of his ranged pokes and 5k goes over his 2K/2S. Be aware though that 2P/5K will beat both so be careful if you're right next to him. Generally you should be going for rps in neutral when Robo doesn't have a lot of meter/heat as you will have much higher reward for being correct.

Naked

If Zappa or Robo falls back to summon/lay a mat it generally allows the other player leeway to do the same, so weigh the risk/reward of going in vs running away at round start. Summon will clash with robodash a lot of the time so be prepared for whatever option you want to do out of the clash. fS puddle can sometimes beat robo trying to robodash if you start fS early enough but be careful not to get counterhit doing it too late.

Triplets

Be careful tossing triplets carelessly if Robo is being patient as they are easy for him to instant block and farm meter with. S toss is generally risky because he can 2K under it or robo charge through it. Robo can also cancel the toss projectiles with his 6P or 6H hitboxes since they count as projectiles. That being said you can catch him shooting rockets by doing P toss and frc K/H toss are good for approaches. Once he's cursed you can bully him pretty well just watch out for his DP.

Sword

Robo having 5 frames of jump squat makes it harder for him to jump out of sword pressure than most other characters, but his fast airdash, missiles, and FB copter give him some decent options once he's in the air. He can also DP on wakeup and clash cancel into a normal or frc the DP to escape. This can be somewhat counteracted with late hit 6H or meaty 2H as the two hits will make him have to DP twice and 2H may be able to hit him after the DP's invuln wears off. If you end a string in 6H(2) you can catch him out of jumpsquat with 2H if you time it correctly (+4 normal into a 7f move vs 5f jumpsquat so you have a 2f window) and have the right spacing. Once he jumps out be careful not to eat a missile to the face trying to airthrow him. Level 3 missiles in neutral are more useful for robo if Zappa has sword as they prevent Zappa from using it until he moves out of the way. Make sure you don't start any sword strings while missiles are headed towards you. It's difficult for Robo to punish no-followup sword car even on block because of the pushback and sword car will beat his horse charge move so don't be afraid to throw it out in neutral occasionally to try to fish for a counterhit.

Dog

If Robo has meter for level 3 DP doing dog pressure can be fairly dangerous due to the move multihitting. Since he can frc it to remain safe it's a pretty strong option for him to avoid dog pressure. Robo's backdash is also quite useful for getting out of dog pressure since it recovers very quickly. All this being said his long jumpsquat can make jumping out difficult. If you get dog on wakeup and robo is doing his bazooka oki then be careful not to activate the dog too early and get it killed, you have to be patient and keep in mind what level the move is so you can activate the dog safely. Since robo 5K is 5f, self cancels, and beats the startups of Zappa 6p/5k he can use it to kill dog and then hit you trying to mash out if you're not careful.

Raou

If robo has time to get out a mat he can continually generate meter to FD your orbs so getting a chip kill on him can be difficult. If he is in the corner and putting down a mat whenever you try to throw an orb to rest pressure try mixing him up by doing H orb and running in or throwing out a 5H when you think he might lay the mat.

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

If he does bazooka oki close to you you can 6P under the missile and CH him. At the same time if he does it from too far away you can bd out. There is a sweetspot where both options won't work but if you have 50% meter you can reversal super him. If he is running at you don't try backdashing away, robo dash has enough active frames and speed to hit you out of it most of the time. Zappa can easily avoid level 3 missiles by waiting until they separate and then dashing forward. Level 2 missiles also whiff very easily if Zappa simply runs forward under them.

Anti-airing

Most of Robo's air normals will whiff vs Zappa's running hurtbox, with jS being his best option to stop you. 6P will low profile any of Robo's air normals if timed properly but Robo can space jS so that the 6p will whiff and then punish Zappa's recovery. Going for airthrow is generally your best bet just be careful of level 2 missiles.

Match Footage

Slayer

 Slayer

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage


Sol Badguy

 Sol Badguy

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage


Testament

 Testament

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage


Venom

 Venom

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage


Zappa

 Zappa

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raou

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

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