GGACR/I-No/Blockstrings

Pressure

If you just made contact with the opponent or got them to block a note projectile, you're set up to create pressure.

You can lock them down so that the only thing they can do is block the next attack in a string. For the most part though, your opponent can just crouch block everything without feeling threatened.
That's the ideal situation to try to run a high/low/throw mixup. I-No is very good at going high or low from various points in her blockstring.
- However, going high generally leaves a gap your opponent can act in.
- Going for a throw always leaves a gap. This is because there's a restriction on throwing when your opponent is in blockstun or has just left blockstun.
If you can move before they do (plus frames) and don't have a way to keep them in blockstun while you act, you can still put pressure on them. But, you will need to be mindful of their remaining options and deter their use just enough to let you run unsafe options like overhead and throw.
Having your opponent in the corner helps because it weakens some of their options. They can still reversal backdash, but it's easier to punish when they don't move because their back is to the wall. So even if your opponent isn't in blockstun, having the corner helps your pressure game.

Blockstrings

Most new players will autopilot their ground combo on block. This wont get you anything. It might even leave you open. If you want your pressure to overwhelm your opponent's mental stack, you need to make full use of all of your options. If you only run a high/low mixup when your opponent is blocking note and always run the same blockstrings you'll give up a lot of opportunities.

This is a guide to understanding pressure on a fundamental level so you can find more opportunities to mix up your opponent, rather than simply running mixups at them.

When you get your opponent to block something, what are your options?

Make contact (if they were locked down by a projectile)
- This is notable because you can start your offense directly with a mixup (j.S overhead or 2S low for unprorated damage). This is what most people are going to say, but...
- ...you can start with something early in your gatling chain like 2P, which is good at setting up throw.
  - Also note that you can use an overhead like j.K or j.S, then land and use 2P. If they got hit you still have the combo, and on block you get the benefits of starting your chain with 2P.
Gatling choices
- 2P can be used to tick throw. When you don't tick throw you have delay gatling options to enhance your frame traps (which makes tick throws better).
  - 2P goes into 5P, 5K and c.S. All three of those moves can be gatling canceled to a low, or jump canceled into a TK overhead.
  - If you went for j.S > c.S following a note and they were blocked, you still have TK Sdive / 2S mixup on the table, but you're further in the chain and have fewer total options left.
    - Though it's also worth mentioning that c.S is 0 on block, so you could try walking forward into throw here.
Jump cancel
- You can't jump cancel 2P, 6P, 2K, 2S, 2H, 2D. At almost any point you can go into 5D, but that move is so slow that it's not a mixup tool. You really need a jump cancel to run a proper mixup.
  - You can 2P > 2K, but you can't 2P > TK dive. Even though you're +2 your opponent has like 12 frames to mash a button at you.
  - If you chain to 5K, now there's the danger of 5K going into TK Sdive or 2S. So if your opponent read the 2P > 5K correctly and blocked, they're already dealing with the threat of another mixup.
Special cancel
- This enhances your frame trap options, and because I-No has overhead and low specials it does tend to give her mixup opportunities.
  - One that players fixate on is STBT-H jump cancel into special cancel STBT-S for the low, or let the jump cancel actually complete and TK Sdive for the overhead.
- If you expect your opponent to backdash using a gap in your pressure, you can special cancel to STBT to catch it.
  - From your opponent's perspective, you could be doing the fast one (41236S) or the slow one (41236H) since they look almost identical, so your opponent has to do more guesswork with their timing and escape attempts.

So you have lots of options. Your goal is to have your opponent commit to blocking right when you run a mixup they're not blocking correctly, or to bait them into trying to "steal" a turn right when you're ready to punish them for doing it.

Frame trapping

The basic idea of a frame trap is:

You got an opponent to block something.
You then gave them a gap in block stun to allow them to act.
But you had an active hitbox in their face before their chosen action could successfully start up, so they got hit.

I want you to take note that a frametrap does not specifically require using a move that is + on block. As long as there's a gap, but it's small enough that it's difficult to utilize, it can be a frame trap. This also means that if a character's fastest move is too slow to punish you when -1, you can also still frametrap from a minus on block situation.

However, you need to consider that your opponent can use the gap to perform another action.

Your opponent can use an attack with invul like a DP, most supers, or in some cases a 6P due to partial invul. This can blast through your follow-up move that leaves the small gap.
Your opponent can backdash through the follow up move, and if the move has a lot of recovery they can punish it.
Your opponent can just continue blocking. On one hand, this means they didn't take the bait and you didn't get a juicy counterhit. On the other hand, this is what you wanted since now your opponent is choosing to block in a situation where, next time, you can go for something that leaves a gap and includes risk of retaliation.

The most effective frametraps are the ones where you can recover to a position that is safe or in your favor, or where you have already done so. That would mean that you can safely bait the invulnerable reversal attack some of the time, since your opponent cannot react to a familiar string where you intentionally leave a gap, because they cannot guarantee the punish. As in...

Sometimes you can take the risk of going for the mixup which only may succeed. Example: Going for TK dive overhead from 5K leaves a gap.
If your opponent catches on and tries to punish you for the TK dive by mashing 5P, you can punish that attempt with your frametrap. Example: 5K > delay gatling 6P.
If your opponent catches on and goes for DP, you're pretty limited in how you deal with this. 5K does not recover in time to block a DP so you'd need to go into something else.
- You could jump backwards since that's relatively safe and would allow you to punish a whiffed DP.
- You can go into 2S to continue the blockstring and enforce that your opponent should block low. You successfully stopped the DP by keeping your opponent in blockstun, but you also didn't open up your opponent's defenses.

But there are tools where you can fully recover or keep the pressure up...

Late Gatlings from 5P/2P

Any 5Ps & 2Ps that can self-gatling on whiff seem have access to this. It allows them to "late-gatling" to themselves or each other, or into 6P, or 5K, or 2K.
What does that mean?
Why does that matter?
Important questions if you didn't immediately think of a bunch of things to try out when reading about that.

Normally your gatling window on contact is during active frames. If you buffered the input for the next normal, that normal comes out right away. Or, you can wait slightly and press the next button during later active frames. If there were enough active frames for the normal you made contact with, you could intentionally leave a gap on block. This is fundamental for certain types of frametraps.

However, I-No's 5P and 2P have can also be gatling canceled late. And by "late" I mean at any point during recovery frames. This is actually a big deal for structuring pressure even if most characters have tools like this.

I-No's 5P is even on block, meaning that you can let it fully recover and go back to a "neutral" situation after it makes contact.
I-No's 2P is +2 on block, meaning that you can move 2 frames before your opponent if you let the animation play out in full.

So you have the ability to let either normal fully recover and then do something else, or you can push a button again at any point during recovery frames to start the next normal. Simply going into another 5P/2P would have some uses, but you also have 2K, 6P and 5K on deck, which also open some things up:

6P can be used to smash through a counter-mash attempt.
5K puts a lot of options on the table for a follow-up if it's blocked, and can be converted with HLC 6FRC6 on hit for big/unprorated damage.
2K is a low.
You can use another 5P or 2P and then do something else. Consider pushback before you mash 2P a bunch of times and then try to do something else.

If your opponent is the type to want to mash a DP or super to steal a turn you can simply allow 5P or 2P to fully recover and block it. So now your opponent can't tell if your 2P is a throw setup or a bait against a DP or Dead Angle or something else.

And consider that even if your opponent IB's with intent to counter-mash a fast normal, you have the ability to do your delayed gatling slightly earlier.