GGST/Axl Low/Starter

Core

Gameplan

Guilty Gear's dedicated zoner, Axl uses his long chains to control large parts of the screen, forcing his opponent to aproach slowly and carefully at the risk of eating an attack and being thrown back fullscreen away. Axl also has some useful close-range tools allowing him to pressure his opponent should he decide to.

To balance this, Axl's doesn't have the best defensive options: He takes more damage than the average character and has poor Guts meaning that scaling is less of an effect on him. He also lacks a meterless reversal but has one of the best jabs in the game in which, despite its average startup, has a good low-profile hitbox allowing Axl to escape pressure that doesn't account for it.

Key Moves

2KGuardLowStartup5Recovery11Advantage-4 - Your fastest button. This button can poke holes in your opponent's pressure if used correctly, on top of catching them not blocking low.
f.SGuardAllStartup10Recovery19Advantage-8 - Your main mid-range poke. It has good startup, a disjoint on the tip of the hitbox, and good recovery. It is generally a safe move to throw in neutral, and has a useful gatling into 2HGuardLowStartup11Recovery26Advantage-18 [-8]
2HGuardLowStartup11Recovery26Advantage-18 [-8] - Your best move to control the ground. It reaches far, hits low and will beat low-profile moves. It is an essential harassment tool that your opponent will have to keep in mind when approaching you. It can be beaten by jumping over it, but that's where Axl's anti-airs come into play.
c.SGuardAllStartup8Recovery12Advantage-1 - Your close-range normal. It is very versatile both on block and on hit due to its large gatlings options and special cancel to frametrap and disengage on block, jump-cancel for combos on hit or mixups, and dash cancel for pressure on block or more commonly after using it as an OTG.
j.SGuardHighStartup14Recovery18Advantage- - Covers an important part of the screen from the air making it difficult to contest, on top of hitting high.
[4]6SGuardAllStartup24Recovery29Advantage-19~-9 - A commital but very important zoning move. Opponents will constantly have to respect it, as the different followups allows you to beat opponent that either try to avoid it or contest it after blocking. It also allows you to win projectile wars as it is multi-hitting. Correct use of Rensen can reward you with plus frames to continue pressuring your opponent.
5PGuardAllStartup7Recovery19Advantage-11 [-3]: Your lowest and quickest anti-air. It covers the space usually taken by IADs, which are some of the most common responses to Axl's ground pressure. Its special cancel allows you to send opponents back fullscreen on hit.
2SGuardAllStartup9Recovery23Advantage-16: Vertical and disjointed anti-air. This is what you will use for opponents above you to beat their jump-ins attacks or simply trying to double jump above you. This is the move you are most likely to score counter-hits with, and the reward in that situation is very high.
6PGuardAllStartup12Recovery22Advantage-13: The universal anti-air. Unlike Axl's other options, this one has upper-body invulnerability, making the timing on it more lenient, at the cost of less reward on hit. This one is also used for opponent above or slightly in front of you.

Combos

(c.S) > f.S > 2H > 214H
2K > 2D > 2H (OTG)
6P > 214H
(CH) 2H > [4]6S(8) > c.S (OTG)
(Anti Air) 5P > [4]6S(8) > c.S (OTG)

Zoning

Use your long-range attacks to keep the opponent away from you. Make sure to vary between ground-hitting attacks like 2HGuardLowStartup11Recovery26Advantage-18 [-8] and f.SGuardAllStartup10Recovery19Advantage-8, and high hitting attacks like 5PGuardAllStartup7Recovery19Advantage-11 [-3] to keep your opponent guessing between advancing on the ground or in the air.

can punish opponents that try to counter your ground attacks while can punish opponents that respects your pressure too much and resolves to blocking, as it will force them to resume the cycle of guessing between the air or the ground. At mid-range, you can bait your opponent's attacks with and stays at advantage if they block.

Pressure

Up-close you can frametrap by going into from one of your S normals, throw them with / and, once you have conditioned them to avoid throws, bait their tech attempt or their abare by running up to the opponent then using or finally mix them by using 2KGuardLowStartup5Recovery11Advantage-4 > 2DGuardLowStartup10Recovery17Advantage-9 for a low and for an overhead.