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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	Slightly Favorable
Anji Mito	Even
Axl Low	Slightly Unfavorable
Baiken	Even
Bridget	Slightly Unfavorable
Chipp Zanuff	Slightly Unfavorable
Dizzy	Slightly Unfavorable
Eddie	Slightly Favorable
Faust	Even	Write-up Complete
I-No	Slightly Favorable
Jam Kuradoberi	Slightly Favorable	Write-up Complete
Justice	Favorable	Write-up Complete
Johnny	Favorable	Write-up Complete
Kliff Undersn	Slightly Favorable
Ky Kiske	Favorable
May	Even
Millia Rage	Even
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

Raoh

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Anji Mito

Anji Mito

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raoh

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Axl Low

Axl Low

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raoh

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Baiken

Baiken

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raoh

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Bridget

Bridget

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raoh

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Chipp Zanuff

Chipp Zanuff

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raoh

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Dizzy

Dizzy

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raoh

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Eddie

Eddie

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raoh

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.

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.

Raoh

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

Raoh

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.

Raoh

Raoh 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

Zappa generally does well in this matchup because all of his regular summons are good at circumnavigating nukes and Justice's lack of mobility makes it hard for her to catch him. Be careful though 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. If you play patiently you can slowly whittle away her health and it will be hard for her to hit you but be careful because she can easily do as much damage off 1 confirm as you do with 3 or 4. If you are too predictable with non-frc ghost throws she can punish you with Michael Blade; try super jumping and throwing from high enough to make it whiff.

Sword

Justice's lack of mobility makes avoiding sword difficult for her but 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 still threaten you with Saperia Trance 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.

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.

Raoh

Raoh is relatively weak in this matchup if you summon him full screen or at least makes Zappa more vulnerable to nuke spam than the other summons. Because of this you generally shouldn't sacrifice KD/damage for orbs. If you do get Raoh he can still be useful; just make sure you dash break FD or use the extended hurtboxes on his normals 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. 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

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. Don't try to low profile jH you'll just get counterhit.

Match Footage

Matsui vs Hotta Supercut

Kliff Undersn

Kliff Undersn

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raoh

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Ky Kiske

Ky Kiske

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raoh

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

May

May

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raoh

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Millia Rage

Millia Rage

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raoh

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Order-Sol

Order-Sol

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raoh

P/K Counterpoking

Defensive Situations

Anti-airing

Match Footage

Potemkin

Potemkin

Overview

Naked

Triplets

Sword

Dog

Raoh

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 don't go for low profile/low crush rps up close. 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.

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. If you end a string in 6H(2) you can catch him out of jumpsquat with 2H if you time it correctly and have the right spacing. Once he jumps out be careful not to eat a missile to the face trying to read an airthrow him. Level 3 missiles in neutral are more useful for robo if Zappa has this summon as they prevent Zappa from using sword 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.

Raoh

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 definitely a sweetspot where both options won't work so don't try them unless you notice he made a mistake. 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.

Anti-airing

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