A.B.A vs. Potemkin

[Josh Ballard]

There isn't a thread for this already wth i mean potemkin is like the scrubbiest character and everyone whores him so ANYWAY LET'S DISCUSS A.B.A. vs. Potemkin Japanese ranking: 4-6 Potemkin Getting into Moroha is the real bitch here, thanks to Slide Head of Doom. For the same reason, you MUST have your reversal backdash timing down; go into training and record Pot performing meaty slide heads, 6H -> slide head, etc. And always be on the lookout for random slide heads in his various offensive strings. So, what can we do? Well, essentially, look for keygrab combos, and do everything you can to encourage him not to slide head so you can maybe fit a bloodpack in (a good time is when he's high in the air). Your slide seems to be mostly ineffective, sadly, though the force break is nice. j.H is pretty cool, just make sure you get the hell out of there if it's blocked! And look for anti-airs and make sure you convert ALL of them into a keygrab. Another important note with Normal mode here: Blocked 5H into bloodpack gives him a guaranteed slide head combo! However, if you instead cancel the 5H into a bloodball, it will hit him before it comes out. Let your opponent know this, and you might be able to score an extra bloodpack every now and again. Once you're in Moroha, things get much better obviously. Once you get in, rushing him down isn't so hard since he lacks a true DP, though Pot Buster does restrict you in a couple ways. For instance, rekkas up close are not an option since he can grab you after the first one; they're still fine from a distance, though. 2H is obviously great on offense, particularly with its throw invincibility, but be careful with followups - even if not instant blocked, 5P is your only ground normal that's safe from buster. Thus, you'll want to work in your air game to prevent him from getting too reversal-happy, and throw him once he's scared. Always be conscious of the backdash as well, and look to punish with 5S or 5H; the latter actually has 1 more active frame, but the former nets you better combos via the 2H gatling. Once you get him in the corner, his weight will allow you to convert just about any ground hit into a double keygrab. This will mainly be accomplished through 2H combos; it is especially important to learn the 2x orb loop into double keygrab, but experiment with all possible combos! You never know when you'll need to cut things short... One thing to note for midscreen combos: Thanks to his size, you can get super jump install combos into keygrab -> bloodpack. Not as hugely important as the double keygrab, but still worth learning! On defense, you're in for a rough time since all of his options can knock you down. Backdash seems like the safest guess when in doubt, as it dodges buster/slide head and requires good reaction for him to punish with a knockdown, but I'm not really sure. Danzai is worth remembering since it has the super armor and beats throws, but it carries its own risks - on block, you're getting knocked down one way or another! This is just one of those situations that requires you to know the opponent's specific tendencies more than anything else, and you must avoid it at all costs. That's about all I can come up with for now. I'm sure some things in here are actually terribly wrong, so please correct me and add anything else important! Thanks, Josh.

[DonPatch]

Good stuff so far. A little extra note I wanted to throw in, if you're in the air right up next to pot and use the orbs, his size automatically makes it hit twice. Also, if you combo him into 2HS and the combo isn't too large yet (maybe around 3-4 hits, possibly more though) you can wait for him to fall just a little, IAD and j.S overtop of him before he hits the ground, and get another free 2-hit from your orbs. I don't know if that helps a ton or not, just wanted to mention it for anyone that didn't know. some contribution's better than none, right?

[furix]

Awesome, thanks for this. Honestly, I still have a hard time against potemkin. Getting in on him safely gives me trouble, then keeping the pressure can be more troublesome as well.

[Josh Ballard]

Thanks, 2-hit orbs are always fun! Also, after blocking a 6H or on wakeup, you can danzai his slide heads! I find this easier than backdashing since you can perform the motion then mash on H - this seems to work kinda like the piano input technique in Capcom games. Depending on distance the second hit will whiff, but you'll still get a knockdown and the initiative.

[Moroha]

Your slide seems to be mostly ineffective, sadly, though the force break is nice. j.H is pretty cool, just make sure you get the hell out of there if it's blocked!

Slides are still useful against potemkin; while they get crushed by slide head, they go underneath a decent amount of his moves, including Hammerfall and possibly his 5H and 2S? from what I remember.

Close-ish Danzai = Free Buster for Pot after the first hit. Of course, Danzai startup is throw invincible. Using mid to close range Danzai against Potemkin without 50% tension is generally a poor choice, since if you're wrong, you're eating a knockdown, big damage, and devastating oki. Also, size is of no concern for ABA with SJI combos into Keygrab, she gets them on the entire cast.

Potemkin is the "boss" fight. You'll want to play it fairly patiently and realize that, as Josh said, good ol' 5H -> Bloodpack is not a good option unlike in most matchups. Any Potemkin will be able to slide head dry bloodpacks. You're going to want to get in there and go for a keygrab combo, or again, BP if he's high up there / anti-air into KG combo. Potemkin isn't really a character that will lock you out of Moroha for the duration of a match like Eddie; instead, he wins rounds by catching ABA once and shipping us out on the Oki train to frowntown. Be VERY careful about your backdashes; Pot has anti-backdash options that give him a free combo into Heat Knuckle (which is of course another knockdown), and ABA's backdash isn't anything amazing.

Like every matchup in this game, you are at a disadvantage in Normal mode and obviously when Pot has the pressure, which means against most of the cast - Pot included - that if you've got at least pixel of health and are at the neutral game, you are in the position you work to be in. What's different about Pot moreso than other characters is, if you get too careless, he will backdash your jumpins or deep normals and buster you, and when that happens, any momentum you once had is completely erased and you're on the verge of losing.

The good news about this fight is, when you get there, you are able to run your Moroha game on Pot, double keygrab combos come all the time, and while he does have high HP, ABA damage is still ABA damage. So fight your way into Moroha safely, poke him with 2Ds, 5Ses and 5Hes, do NOT be afraid to AA him ever, and if the pot is reversal BD happy or reversal Buster happy, realize it early and punish accordingly.

[Josh Ballard]

Many thanks! Just wanted to add a couple comments.

Also, size is of no concern for ABA with SJI combos into Keygrab, she gets them on the entire cast.

Well, it depends on the situation. I should have gone into more detail here, but in particular I was thinking of the Dio throw combo into SJI stuff. That doesn't work on the majority of the cast. 6P-2S may be the same way if the opponent is too high in the air, not sure.

Be VERY careful about your backdashes; Pot has anti-backdash options that give him a free combo into Heat Knuckle (which is of course another knockdown), and ABA's backdash isn't anything amazing.

Yep, this was one of the main things I was wondering about. I wasn't sure if it was easy to hit-confirm Heat Knuckle from that kind of thing, but apparently it is.

Also, there were some good comments on this matchup in the general thread. Mainly, play a poke game with 5H etc, and go for fuzzy guard games on wakeup since your jump-in is safe from backdash.

I guess this is why I do better in this matchup than in most others right now - it's actually a bad thing to be highly aggressive here.

[Keizion]

Moroha, I've been practicing so, i'm gonna go play Jan and put some of what i've been learning to the best test i got. But if i beat him someone has to get me a kick ass ABA Avatar lol.

[Moroha]

You send me a recording of you beating him, I will make you 1x kickass ABA avatar.

[Keizion]

lol of course i'll record the matches. i need to anyway so i can study those little annoying patterns

[ZéroGén]

haha aba can bloodpack thru Slidehead..flashy yet unnecessary..

[Josh Ballard]

haha aba can bloodpack thru Slidehead..flashy yet unnecessary..

Wait, is this in or out of Moroha, or both? Neat find!

[4r5]

both but in different places

[furix]

Yes please, record it. I can't beat Jan's pot. Last time I lost to him it totally threw my game off for the rest of the day. D:

[Moroha]

You have invincibility frames on transforms; 4 frames of invincibility when entering Moroha; 1 when leaving. Technically you can go through all sorts of shit - if you're super tight.

[ZéroGén]

yeah.. i guess that means u got tight skillz to pull it off in pots face..avoiding SH coming out of Moroha is easy...its going in Moroha thats a problem..longer animation. but both can be done..~cool tool...

[Keizion]

Yes please, record it. I can't beat Jan's pot.

Last time I lost to him it totally threw my game off for the rest of the day. D:

Well Jan's pot is just really good, i literally sit and play for hours with this guy, losing. what's even worse is he'll tell me what's going on. But basically it was testing my progress as an ABA player against one of our bad matchups. The result, felt like i was tryna learn multivariable calculus after i just learned to graph something.

Another thing is he's pretty good at several characters. if you don't want to play his Pot ask him to play Venom, it's worse so much worse lol.

[whytesakura]

venom is in aba's favor though

[Moroha]

venom is in aba's favor though

Potemkin is tougher, but the Venom fight is in favor of Venom or even (somewhere in between).

[whytesakura]

forgot about the bastard randomly hitting aba out of ex danzais on the way up lolz

[Keizion]

forgot about the bastard randomly hitting aba out of ex danzais on the way up lolz

From what i've seen it's never really random, it's more of a this is the time i think they would use it so i'll throw out a safe quick poke instead of something else.

[Recna]

Ugh I got totally hammered in this match-up this weekend. Got perfected twice by GhostBoy's potemkin in a tournament this weekend. Even in casuals I bet him only once out of like ten times. Even triple unblockables into IK from Eddie doesn't depress me as much as this entire match-up in general.