Margaret vs Labrys

[Fortune]

Discuss the matchup here. If needed, this post will also fill in relevant summaries for both characters.

[TastyPancakez]

For Labrys:

• Strongest points in neutral are her going in a top-down arc, and straight forward. Best choices are to bulldog her to force her into the air and make the hitboxes on her air fireballs whiff, or be just out of her j.B range in the air. Really you wanna make the judgement of whether or not she's going to try to rain down on you with air movement options and fireballs or if she's going to prefer to stay grounded.
• Neutral buttons to be noted
  • 2A: Gigantic low slide
  • 5A: Big, silly, fast, chest attribute
  • 5B: Gigantic forward charge that starts pressure from a long distance
  • 5C: Gigantic Persona normal which can AA but is also chest, still don't recommend sweep vs Margaret
  • Sweep: Fullscreen shockwave, can hop it, no gigantic reward on hit/block but a good round ender/way to make you block
  • j.A: very quick, gatlings into itself, usually done for quick air to airs
  • j.B: Quick large space control, basically air 5B
  • j.C: Like Adachi j.C. That's it. Basically that
• Pressure
  • involves a lot of reverse beating and pressure resets. Has dash cancels off 5A and 5C, can do 5B twice in a blockstring (ex: 5B>5A>5B)
  • can attempt a command grab with 5D or try to preemptively AA you with 2D. If you see Ardha come out and react, 2D will not catch you because it will hit too early. 2D only catches pre-emptive jumps, but not jumps on reaction to Ardha coming out.
  • if she makes you block 236D you can mash IB and 5A the persona after (don't try in corner however because her frametrap options are too good.
  • Can DP if she commits to most of her extended persona pressure, If she tries hop j.C however DP will get blocked
• Defensive options
  • 2B: On block if she doesn't go into another ground button immediately as possible, or it isn't blocked point-blank, she'll go into the air and can't double jump or air dash until well within your 2B timing
  • DP: Can be outspaced by many of Labrys's strings.
  • Power Slash: If meter is available, she is guaranteed a free out when doing arrow oki, since you can't roll it or it will hit Ariadne and be active enough to hit Labrys as well. On non-arrow oki, just roll it on reaction. Can get IK'd.
  • Panta Rhei: Not very much invuln, loses to good spacing. Can be rolled if point-blank. Will beat rolls if too far, in these cases you can SB Chain Knuckle it, and can use the pull in to be invuln (chain pull with no followup is projectile invuln) even on block.
• Buttons to use
  • 5A: not anywhere near as strong as vs other characters but still good if you're close enough
  • Sweep: despite earlier comments, Sweep may be a decent option now and again just to establish ground spacing with a large and quick button
  • j.A: Pretty strong air-to-air with how Margaret angles work
  • j.2B: fantastic at air-to-air vs Margaret
  • 5C: helpful at midrange but be wary due to Margaret's air angles
• In addition to these, Labrys has a special Margaret-specific frametrap with 5AA>delay 5AAA which will OS her DP and still bait 2B mash. Here it is in action, a slightly neta combo route but the concept works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN6VnKj2NEY

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