GGML/Potemkin/Matchups

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< GGML‎ | Potemkin

 Justice

This is easily the worst MU in the game and quite possibly the worst MU in all of Gear, coming incredibly close to being 10:0. Realistically, no human being is capable of winning this. However, Potemkin CAN play the game, unlike most MUs people would consider 10:0. However, this requires a near TAS level of play from Potemkin to beat the most braindead flowcharts from Justice, not even accounting for her ability to stall.

Tarkus' TAS Notes

For this test, one assumption is made: moves cannot be buffered round start to get them to start frame 1 when the round begins. If this turns out to be possible, then Justice gets 5 extra frames to work with, making it unlikely Potemkin gets to do anything of value at all.

The first hurdle Potemkin faces is round start. Potemkin needs to stop Justice from pushing him out of range. If she can box him out successfully, then he loses the game, because she can zone him and timer scam him from there. As such, Pot needs to either hit justice out of Imperial Ray, or close the gap in some way.

At round start, Potemkin has 3 options which can reach round start distance:

  • Mega Fist ForwardsGGML Potemkin MF-1 Hitbox.pngGuardOverheadStartup20Recovery0Advantage+8
  • 2SGGML Potemkin 2S-1 Hitbox.pngGuardLowStartup10Recovery0Advantage-10
  • 5HGGML Potemkin 5H Hitbox.pngGuardAllStartup22Recovery7Advantage-11

2S and 5H both trade with round start Imperial RayGGML Justice 641236S Hitbox.pngGuardAllStartup3Recovery0AdvantageVaries and push Justice and Pot to nearly full screen away from each other. If Pot uses 5H, then the situation is ±0 on trade. If pot uses 2S, then Justice recovers 4 frames before Potemkin, effectively winning her the game. As a result, Potemkin is left with one and a half options. He can Mega Fist, which will catch Imperial Ray, or he can walk forwards, block the Imperial Ray, and then super late guard cancel into Mega Fist to punish Imperial Ray. This is an ideal situation for Potemkin, because it scores some damage and leaves Potemkin at ±0 on hit.

Now here's the problem. Justice should not be doing raw, round-start Imperial Ray. She has a much more sneaky option. Justice's backwards walking animation is 100% invulnerable, and proximity guard does not activate unless the two characters are very close together (closer than far slash distance). As a result, she can hold backwards at round start and cause all of Potemkin's round start attacks to whiff. To make matters worse, Justice's backwards walk is faster than Potemkin's forwards walk, as well as his move speed during forwards Mega Fist. Not to mention, Justice has a full invulnerable backdash with 0 recovery which is even faster than her backwards walk. As a result, Justice can safely avoid Potemkin with 0 risk and extreme control as long as she has room to move backwards.

With that in mind, Justice's optimal round start option is to walk backwards until she reacts to the opponent's choice of option, and then respond to it appropriately.

We assume that Potemkin uses his best option: Mega Fist Forwards. This is his best way to close the gap, and is the only move he has which can truly contest anything in Justice's kit. Justice walks backwards until she makes Mega Fist whiff. It's hard to get a real whiff punish on Mega Fist due to it's 0 recovery frames, so we have her opt for the lowest effort option, Imperial Ray (we are not trying to pilot Justice optimally in the exercise, but instead see if a perfect Potemkin has any chance against Justice's flowchart). Potemkin then blocks Imperial Ray.

Now, let's go through our guard cancel options:

  • Potemkin BusterGGML Potemkin potBuster.pngGuardThrowStartup1RecoveryN/AAdvantageN/A
  • Slide HeadGGML Potemkin 623P lv2.pngGuardAll,UnblockableStartup27Recovery26AdvantageN/A
  • Nitro HookGGML Potemkin nitroHook.pngGuardThrowStartup17Recovery0AdvantageN/A
  • Mega Fist ForwardsGGML Potemkin megaFistForward.pngGuardOverheadStartup20Recovery0Advantage+8

First of all, Potemkin Buster won't come out as a guard cancel because he is out of range, so that's one option off the list. Slide head is -13 on hit, and thus will lose him the game if it lands. But what about Nitro HookGGML Potemkin 41236P Hitbox.pngGuardThrowStartup17Recovery0AdvantageN/A? It's invuln through startup during guard cancel! Well, because the move extends his hurtbox beyond the grab box, this causes Potemkin's hand to get shoved into Justice at the same place that the projectiles spawn from her, and thus Pot gets hit. No dice. This means Pot is left with no option but to late guard cancel into Mega Fist Forwards again. Best case scenario this works, hits Justice, and resets back to ±0 on hit, and starts another RPS, at which point Justice can stop flow charting 1 move and use any of her other options. For example: her j.PGGML Justice jP Hitbox.pngGuardOverheadStartup6Recovery5Advantage- and 2HGGML Justice 2H-1 Hitbox.pngGuardAllStartup1Recovery11Advantage-12 which are monster combo tools, the first of which combos into a tall-character-specific infinite combo, and the latter of which combos into Imperial Ray for a touch-of-stun kill combo.


In essence, this matchup forces Potemkin to not only play perfectly executionally, but to make mind-reader level decisions just to enforce a rock-paper-scissors game with Justice that is weighted in her favor.

His theoretical best hope is to get below half health on purpose while also not dying in order to gain access to his desperation super spam, at which point he can use it as a guard cancel to attempt to punish Imperial ray on block. This, however, is not a very good thing still, because

  1. Potemkin will still suffer chip damage in this process.
  2. His super does not quite reach full screen, and Imperial Ray pushes back significantly on block.
  3. Justice can still just do something else, like time scam him with her insane mobility or use other moves.

I do not think there's any reason for a Potemkin to beat a Justice player. All of this perfect play just gets him a fighting chance to do something. As a result, I don't want to say he can get X:1 in this MU. At the same time, he does have the opportunity to do something, and so I don't want to call it a 10:0. This is why I rate this matchup as 9:0.

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