General Tactics
Axl plays somewhat differently from a majority of the Guilty Gear cast. His normals give him coverage of a lot of spaces, but compared to characters that have, for example, a jab to throw out, he has to commit pretty hard to any option he chooses. Using Axl properly requires thorough matchup knowledge, and involves identifying the situations that opponents cannot handle well and forcing those situations upon them. The first step is to understand Axl's own advantages.
Axl's pressure takes place at mid-range. By mid-range, I mean outside of the range of most characters' fast pokes, such as 5Ps and 5Ks. At this range, Axl has a lot more ability to play safe, going for options like f.S, 5K, 2K, and 3P allow him to bully the opponent without much opportunity to punish him, and so while you don't have the ability to open opponents up quite as easily as some others, you can keep them in frame traps for a long time, and for many characters the only recourse is to try something risky. With Sickle Flash YRC, Axl can keep opponents in blockstun for a long time, and his mixup tools are unusual and force opponents to make big choices (jump over an unblockable, switch blocks or jump to beat a crossup, etc.).
Axl can also excel at approaching. From far away, a lot of characters will try to either set up or run in. Axl gets to stop both with fast, screen-crossing pokes that force most characters to either throw something out that will whiff if you do nothing, or get punished for running or trying to set up projectiles or whatnot. A full-screen knockdown can still often net Axl a safe jump overhead that puts him in the middle range he wants to play neutral/pressure from. A Sickle Flash YRC can simply force the opponent to concede offensive momentum in most situations where they can't immediately hit you.
Lastly, Axl is good at reactively stopping approaches from just outside his optimal range. Sickle Flash and Heaven Can Wait are difficult for long-range characters to get around, and his dominant anti-air game with tools like 5P, 6K, 2S, 2K net him a lot of control over opponents trying to jump, and sickle flash, 2H, and f.S form a strong base of tools to react to ground approaches with. While whiffing an attack can be dangerous for Axl, having breathing room means you have time to react to whatever the opponent is trying.
So the basic gameplan is: Identify the matchup. Are they going to have a hard time approaching you? Stay back and stop them. Can they beat your f.S at midrange? Bully them from there and keep them in blockstun. Are they going to try to stay back and set up? Punish them from further away than they can deal with, then keep offensive momentum with oki. There's a bag of tricks to learn on top of this basic strategy, but your number one job is to identify which of Axl's three strongest games you want to be playing, and play it.
When Axl is under pressure, he can rely on FD to push opponents into the midrange he wants them to be in, but as far as fast options to get people off of you go... you're kind of out of luck if you want to be safe. If you can get a window big enough to jab, your counter is a good option if you know they'll throw an attack and which way it will hit. If you know you don't have the frames, you can DP or super, but they're pretty risky, so make sure you're right! And then Axl does have the option to throw if you can get a good IB in, so throw OS with 6P or c.S is probably your go-to breakout. Occasionally you can get away with throwing a 2K to low-profile or a 6H or 5K to low-crush, but I would consider those to be very matchup-dependent and hard reads in most cases.
Tips and Tricks
- Okizeme Options
- j.P - Delayed safejump, can lead into a second overhead depending on timing. Also a good tick throw.
- j.K - Can be jump cancelled, can lead to big damage on jump-out counterhits, horizontal range means safer against throws
- j.S - Safe from a long range. Second hit can meaty can lead into Thunder Shadow Chain cross-ups.
- j.H - Lots of blockstun on block, can potentially lead to big damage.
- j.D - The riskiest aerial option due to the recovery/landing animation but can lead to big meterless damage on hit.
- 2K - Relatively safe, goes into a tick throw.
- Thunder Shadow - A decent crossup in some situations, and the YRC lets you just air-approach with it (Not a bad way to get an airthrow, either)
- Spindle Spinner - If you're pretty sure they'll block or blitz on wakeup. This can lead to very fat damage with 50% meter.
- 2H/3P - Both pretty safe from a certain range, baits out DPs and stuff.
- Sickle Flash - Forces them to be in blockstun. At the right range, most characters can't do much besides block, and will take a knockdown if they don't.
- TK Bomber
Globally, the chain route for TK Bomber is 6K > 2S > TK Bomber (j.6321417-3H or 6923H or 9623H, delay the H). Depending on certain characters, you may have to delay either 2S or TK Bomber. The input for TK Bomber is different than other TK inputs due to the height requirement in order to use it. This chain route can be done from throws, Artemis Hunter (DP) RC, and anti-airs that can be jump cancelled (6P, 6K, c.S and 2S). From a DP RC, you can add an additional loop of 5P > 6K > 2S > TKB. In the corner, you can loop the TKB chain route off of a throw: (6K > 2S > TK Bomber) x n > 5K > 2S > TK Bomber, where n is usually 2.