[CP] Azrael vs. Bullet Match-up Discussion

[zeth07]

Discussion about the Bullet match-up goes here.

First post may be edited as important information arises. If any information seems wrong please feel free to correct it, hopefully with actual proof / examples. Anyone is free to post info as long as it is constructive and helps with the discussion of the match-up.

• Will post info later.
  

Notable Matches:

Tahichi (AZ) vs. Bullet

MC (BU) vs. 10th Dan Azrael *3

Shirou Madoushi(AZ) VS MC (BU) *4

Edited October 23, 2013 by zeth07

[Tage*Proto]

This is the match up I currently play the most, winning it with decent consistency. Her pressure takes a bit to get used to but once you can react to her standing overhead, and utilize your back dashes I feel like az has the better medium range neutral shenanigans. If you ib the second hit of her 3c I think it is you can 2a punish for free. Growler is always an option if she starts her oki with the tracking and u call it.

If I had to id say their game plans are somewhat similar but az's superior normals tip the scale in his favor. Hit for hit he just hurts more imo.

[Phones01]

3c is a weird lunging crouch forward single hit move. 2c is the double kick which is unsafe. be careful of using growler when she does cross up J.D( the target circle) since she can use that as a bait to your growler and then get a 5c punish (the fire punch which is a fatal).

[SoWL]

be careful of using growler when she does cross up J.D( the target circle) since she can use that as a bait to your growler and then get a 5c punish (the fire punch which is a fatal).

To elaborate, she can cancel her Drive circle and go for the punish right away. Even if she doesn't cancel it, she can simply clash with Growler and stay up-close to you (which is not bad for Azu-nyan, but you should have a good plan for such case).

[Lunar_Divider]

So I think if she blocks your 3c she might be able to punish you for it with 2/5b though it doesn't seem like it's a counter? Also no surprise really but if you backdash while she has enough drive meter then she can just 66 enough into range to smack you with 5b or 2b, essentially punishing you for trying to escape. Not sure if I've just been led to believe that 3C was fine in your pressure strings or not. Can anyone confirm this?

[Lucalibur]

Depending on the spacing, 3C will be more negative and characters will actually be able to hit Azrael out of the recovery if they have a fast enough attack with that much range. If properly spaced you can backdash out of just about any punish attempt if it gets blocked, since there is too much distance for most characters to cross by that point to be able to do anything about it without committing to something silly.

If Bullet is sitting on heat level 2 you usually want to avoid backdashing if too close. That thing has way too silly of a hitbox. You can trade with Growler but that is it. Also, if they try to cross up you with it and you growler, 5B will come out instead and sometimes CH them out of it it. Pretty funny to see it happen.

Her 5B is good but anything that works against Ragna's 5B works better here, since hers is slower and has less range(although it's much safer). Backdash is usually a free ticket out of trouble like always mid-screen and if you space stuff well enough she can't really do anything about it.

[Lunar_Divider]

What really perplexed me was that I was only using 3C at the appropriate range and yet it just seems like her 2B has enough range to smack me on the last couple frames of 3C.

Maybe it was just netplay because I can't replicate it in training.

[Lucalibur]

Bullet's 5B is 10F and her 2B is 9F. Unless blocked at point blank range or IBed at a still rather not recommended range, it's pretty much impossible to punish it with 2B, and even there it's a 1F punish.

[Warhound]

So maybe it's just because Azrael needs to be in her face, which is an ideal way for her to fight as well, but I find this matchup to be very annoying if the other guy knows what he's doing.

 

Her pressure is friggin' obnoxious, and her normals have some weirdly long range to them, her 5B especially. What makes her so lol broken-needs-to-be-rebuilt-from-the-ground-up terrible?

 

I'm sure she sucks ass against zoners, but then again so do we. I was even reading up on the Kagura boards and their responses weren't anything like "watch out for these few things, but otherwise this matchup is free."

[LegendaryRath]

What makes her so lol broken-needs-to-be-rebuilt-from-the-ground-up terrible?

Personal opinions about her legitimacy as a "competitive" character aside, she suffers in several respects, some of which Azrael can sympathize with. Her neutral game is lacking and just looks awkward. She has no smooth way to maneuver around the screen, giving her huge issues with characters that can control a large portion of the screen, Kokonoe being the best example. She's honestly not scary at all until she can power up, which is a big risk for her to do in neutral (most characters can punish on reaction, IE:  GUSTAF). At her default level, her drives are punishable on block. Her standard overhead is very easy to reach to. Similarly to Azrael's pressure, her pressure is not very effective once she gets pushed back some distance. Even at level 2, Bullet's drive mixup (high/low) is not as effective as people would hope it would be. First of all, it requires her to lose a level (which is a HUGE deal for her). It's also possible to sort-of "option select" block both options, high and low, because of how the low is always a few frames slower than the high (IE: stand up and then delay block low. Try it out in training mode and you might see what I mean.). I feel that her only "real" option for mixup in many cases is grab based.

 

While she has potential for explosive damage once she gets her heat gauge up, in general it actually seems pretty average. Her DP is pretty mediocre. Going back to neutral, she definitely struggles getting in. Most bullets tend to be more defensive during neutral. her anti-air is fairly strong and her drives can be used to catch sloppy approaches and reckless anti-airs. Many characters get to run all over her in neutral, but I feel Azrael needs to take it a little slower because of how similar his neutral is to Bullet's. Don't take too many unnecessary risks. It's ok to be fairly passive until you can get started. The difference between Bullet and Azrael is how it's easy for Azrael to win off of one touch. Bullet has manageable mixup/pressure, with less damage in most cases.

 

I don't play Bullet myself, but hopefully that helps understand her shortcomings, which might help you understand how to fight her a little better.

[Warhound]

Yeah, thanks for the small synopsis. It sort of does, outside of blocking her drive (which for some reason I've never been able to punish, I'll just chalk it up to netplay) I still find it hard to poke the holes in her pressure. Any time I try, it feels like an Az mirror match, never sure when the hell to throw out 5B, because you don't know what's going to hit who next.

[LegendaryRath]

I still find it hard to poke the holes in her pressure. Any time I try, it feels like an Az mirror match, never sure when the hell to throw out 5B, because you don't know what's going to hit who next.

As a starting point, I would suggest simply using barrier to push her away and then either backdash or jump out once you feel like you're at a safe distance to do so. It's not "THE" way to deal with her pressure, but escaping is generally safer than pressing buttons.

[Warhound]

Right gotcha.

[A.X.I.S.]

Things you should do:

 

Do not give bullet any room for heating up, stay in mid range here, she can't do much about you here.

If you do get knocked down and she goes for safe jump/hard call out instead of 2Aing the delay tech do a forward roll, she can't do anything to stop you.

If she does get a heat up then play keep away and always keep away or block the drive, make her lose heat levels.

 

Things you don't do:

Don't try to compete with j.C, you will lose.

Advise against stand up blocking in some cases since she has a command grab that only grabs standing.

Don't be predictable approaching her from the air, 5A, 6B, and AA grab too good.

[Warhound]

Things you should do:

 

Do not give bullet any room for heating up, stay in mid range here, she can't do much about you here.

If you do get knocked down and she goes for safe jump/hard call out instead of 2Aing the delay tech do a forward roll, she can't do anything to stop you.

If she does get a heat up then play keep away and always keep away or block the drive, make her lose heat levels.

 

Things you don't do:

Don't try to compete with j.C, you will lose.

Advise against stand up blocking in some cases since she has a command grab that only grabs standing.

Don't be predictable approaching her from the air, 5A, 6B, and AA grab too good.

 

Do you mind expanding upon this one a little more?

[Fatalis]

If you get knocked down, and she isn't punishing your delay techs, forward roll.