Digital Watches

I'd honestly say stop learning combos at the point where you have your confirm into an easy knockdown, at least at first. Play a bunch of matches. Start getting a gameplan down. Play against people you lose to. Figure out why you're losing. Get your nerves of steel. Learn to block. Learn to keep blocking until your chance. Learn to make that chance happen with the other defensive mechanics in the game. Learn to confirm into knockdown. Learn to put pressure on. Learn where and when you can throw. Learn what your buttons do and what buttons they beat. Learn your matchups, at least the ones you have the ability to encounter. Some people take notes. Then deal with doing damage. I see way too many players who have their training mode stuff down pat and just freeze in matches, because they're spending so much brainpower remembering what they practiced, and being so predictable trying to land their big confirm. I've watched people land a 200+-damage combo into knockdown for ten different confirms in training mode, then bodied them without seeing it happen to me a single time. If you're new to fighting games, or even Guilty Gear in particular, you need to learn to play before you practice your big rewarding combos.

For your oki, I'd still recommend going for safe jumps against Sol, but 3P is a good tool in *neutral* because if Sol's using H VV then, it's a pretty big guess, and you do have answers to it.

I can list a ton of things every character has. Without perspective on the actual matchups in the game it's all meaningless. Potemkin has a YRCable movement option with super armor and gets huge damage in the corner. Bedman has pretty good moderate screen control with his projectiles and movement. Axl can get ~150 and KD with 50% meter off any hit. Eddie doesn't have any good reversals so he's bad. Everyone has a 4F jab (Except Axl). May is where she is because other characters have better stuff, or, to be more specific, because the aggregate of her matchups are worse than the same aggregate for Millia or Eddie or Sol or Ky or Ram or Elph. Tiers are real, but most discussion about tiers is about irrelevant information. Who does the character beat? Who beats them? How badly? How does this compare to other characters? That's what determines what tier they're on. What tools they have matters to those matchups, but discussing them in a vacuum is meaningless.

6-4 Axl IMO. Max range 3P is an easy one-stop-shop to kill Sol's whole neutral game, and he doesn't get to jump against you most of the time. What's a sol to do? Just watch out for wild throw and you'll be golden. (Okay, so it's not actually that easy, but I do think it's Sol's worst matchup, and I have a lot of experience in it. I'll post more later)

6P is really situational and I'd say pretty bad. It's slower than c.S, is basically the same hurtbox and startup as 2S at the relevant frame without as easy a confirm and giant upper hitbox. Of course, you're forgetting your other AA options: 5P for far-away jumps (Remember, this move is not really good for ground exchanges, except in certain matchups) 6K for jump-ins and airdashes. Extremely relevant against most characters that want to approach this way DP because it's a DP. You can wait to guess for a super long time and still tag something because whatever, it's invincible, and the hitbox is super tall now. 2K is easily one of your most versatile anti-air options. It'll go under a lot of aerial moves all the way to the ground, and can give you more time against a lot of other things, or even make someone cross you up when they didn't mean to. tl;dr 6P sucks, use 2K

Yeah, 3P is 11. No worries, just make sure you know your frame data before you say numbers. Anyway, I looked at sking's vid and he's looking pretty good. I have general advice, but I'll do a timestamp-by-timestamp later: 1. You're giving faust too much space. This isn't a matchup where you want him out, you want him in. 2. Don't jump so much. 3. Don't use stance. Even in the combo you got it in, confirm into TKB is about the same damage and knockdown, but puts you closer for oki

Please don't spread misinformation. Far S is 9F startup, and also a 3F punish window is perfectly reasonable to try for. Frame data is available on the wiki

Match 5: Zato-1 Okay so unlike your other opponents, this guy seems to somewhat know what he's doing, so you made less wrong choices in the match... because those wrong choices got you killed way faster. 8:21: Seriously quit doing that. Jump back jS is not your jam. fS is a really solid opener in this matchup. 8:23: You love jump back jS. Why? What are you getting from it? The Axl bomber might have been a solid way out if you had the meter to YRC it, but you didn't, so you wanted to land. 8:28: fS was a good poke, but it's gonna push him out of DP range for sure. Either rensen or just capitalize on the frame advantage from hitting. 8:30: Very solid 2P. That's exactly the kind of situation you want to use it in. But again, what you get out of it is NOT jump. 8:44: If you're going to tech, you're either looking for an airdash out or a falling poke, probably jK. You can also delay your tech to go through his next hit. Don't tech just to tech. 8:49: Just don't use counter in this matchup. He can fuck with you too many ways and he doesn't have stuff that DP isn't better against (Though DP is pretty bad too, since you can't RC it if it hits little mans) 8:59: Solid blocking but the 3Ps are iffy. That's not where he's going after that drill, so either try to hit him (5P), or cover somewhere he can approach (5P, fS, or 2S) It's not wrong to keep blocking though, and 3P was a reasonable thing to throw out since he couldn't really punish it. 9:06: You're swinging at frame disadvantage. Don't do that! 9:10: A little janky timing for a burst, but it worked... and then you didn't capitalize once you hit him with it. Recognize when you're at advantage and stop backing off. 9:14: Solid guess with the 2K, you just got outplayed, that happens. 9:16: That tech into jS is going to get you in trouble one day. He could have had littlemans uppercut you! 9:26: Woah, did you block that unblockable or did he just fuck up? Either way good job. 9:29: Very solid confirm into knockdown. I don't agree with OTG 6H though, just fucks up your entire oki. 9:32: You made him block 5K and then backed off! You can't afford that in this matchup. Either you stay on top of him or he stays on top of you. You do not want distance in this matchup, you want to be at frame advantage on top of Zato 9:35: The jS to punish the drill was nice, but you could have airdashed to make it more of a momentum grab, or even RC'd it after hitting to get some damage and even more momentum. Don't let your good reads go to waste. 9:36: Don't jump to anti-air, and don't use jS for air to air! You wanted 2S, but jK would have been a better choice once you had jumped. Airthrow would be good too. 9:45: 6K isn't a good guess at that range. He doesn't want to jump, he wants to summon on you. A good Zato's not gonna jump at that range when he's at frame disadvantage and has a drill set up already.

Match 4: Ky (Fuck Ky) This matchup is pretty hard for Axl. It requires a lot of patience and you might need my secret tech for it to be doable against a good Ky. Still, let's look at some specifics: 6:18: Capitalize! You guessed 5P, and if it was gonna whiff you already dropped the soap, so don't wait until you see it hit to go for a meterless confirm. The confirm you want here is 5P-6K-TKB for the instant knockdown. I think you can get 5P-6K-2S-TKB, but Ky is iffy for that confirm at certain ranges. 6:19: Don't throw out 5P if it's not gonna hit. You can beat stun edge with rensen, jump over it, or 2K under it, or block it. 5P might tag ky out of the startup, but not that late and not that far away. 6:21: Jump is almost never the right answer against someone rushing in, and this is particularly true against Ky. His 2H and jK are both options he can do to punish you for jumping basically on reaction. Stand your ground and stop his approach, or block. 6:24: That stun dipper was a free punish for you, but at least you got the knockdown from counter. 6:27: Backdash! On oki! Stop! 6:28: 2P is a very situational move that's very beatable and very slow. It's not your go-to poke. Either throw something solid on top of him or guess the jump, but don't throw out 2P at that range. 6:30: Once he jumps your 2K, you should be looking for overheads. Might have been a good place to throw a DP once you saw the airdash. 6:32: You can punish stun dipper, don't stop blocking! 6:33: What are you swinging with on wakeup here? The inputs don't look like DP, but maybe it's just misexecuted? Either way it's not bad to block on wakeup, or at least try to throw. 6:37: Not a bad situation-burst. Getting better. But then you jumped against Ky again! Stop jumping so much. 6:38: Be holding back when you land, you could have blocked that. 6:49: Again, if you're going to throw a poke, be ready for it to hit. 6:52: OTG 2H, don't do it! A jS that gets him in the air so low to the ground is always going to knock down, just oki him. And remember, jS into 2H isn't even a string if he blocks it, so there's no point in doing that. 6:56: Huge drop. Again, have a plan when you throw out a poke. Assume it's going to hit. The confirm you want here is c.S-2S-TKB 7:04: You got crossed up, right? If you wanted an AA, you wanted 2S, but if that was an attempted K (While holding back) then fair enough, that's pretty reasonable. 7:10: You hit him then give him a full 2 seconds to set up any positioning he wants here. You're at advantage when you get a hit, don't let him breathe afterward. 7:11: If you're going to try to AA him, you either need to be throwing it out way earlier or just going for a DP. 6P might have worked there too, but not against Ky's other air normals. 7:13: If you tag him with something low-stun like 5P, your next move should be about either keeping the pressure on or stopping his next approach. 2P does neither. Like I said, it's not your go-to poke. 7:16: Try to work on IBing the second hit of stun dipper, and go for 5K as your punish until you're sure you'll hit with something else. 7:19: 2S is an anti-air, and he was too busy being in split ciel recovery to jump at you. f.S here to try to force him to block instead (I don't think you could have hit with 5K, but either might have even been a punish, since he didn't hit you with the split ciel) 7:20: If you want to contest fireballs with jS, you want to airdash. 7:22: Stop jumping when he runs in! Stay on the ground. 7:23: If they're in the air and you're in the air, your main pokes are jK and j6P. jS is janky and takes forever to recover. 7:26: Say it with me: 2P is not your poke. 7:34: God I wish stance weren't so bad. Like, it should be a projectile at the very least. Oh well. That knockdown that traded with the fireball was a good chance to get in and start pressuring him. Don't just throw out normals from fullscreen where they won't hit. 7:37: The jK was an excellent choice, but I don't understand 2H after it. He's gonna be in the air, whether he's teching or not. 7:38: Don't stop blocking until you know he's out of moves to cancel into. You could have DP'd there, but nothing else was a valid choice. 7:41: Good DP. Never let him get away with such an obvious meaty (A throw might have worked too). The oki capitalization was a little hesitant, but you got the job done with an EXCELLENT safe jump into confirm into another knockdown. Next step is getting real oki off that second knockdown. 7:45: This worked out, but it was still the wrong move. Jumping up could have gone very badly for you, and staying on the ground could have been a much better confirm. And again, if you must air-to-air (Which you're going to lose against Ky, consistently), use jK, it's a much better poke. Still, you got your bomber into knockdown, so kudos on that, but you probably gave up good oki by going for the OTG 2H. 7:49: Even if it was going to connect, going into bomber is almost never a good blockstring. Landing would have been way better. Maybe you were trying to bait dead angle or something? Oh well, you didn't get punished, but you did put yourself at frame disadvantage in the corner... 7:51: I don't understand these inputs. Are you trying to RC from block? Either way, probably should just keep blocking instead. Or DP the greed sever if you called it out. Uh... the match just gets silly after that point. I don't think I need to tell you that X.x

Match 3: Slayer I have played this matchup more than any other match in GG in general, and have played a long set with a slayer pretty recently, so this might get a little in-depth and technical, hopefully that's not annoying: 4:23: If you're going to guess a jump, throw out 6K or 2S right away. Slayer has no approach angle from where you can hit him with 5P but not 6K at match start, and if both are going to whiff he's in 2S range. For all these options, don't walk back. It gives him too much time. 4:26: Don't poke unless you have a plan. 2K is easy to confirm into something, even if you're too late and he gets to block, it's better than just backing off. 4:27: Don't mash buttons when you're staggering out, it doesn't help. Try to get low block if you can, but it's better to mash and get hit at neutral than to eat a counterhit. 4:28: Again, don't throw out a poke if you don't have a plan for it hitting. You want a confirm into at least fS or rensen, and at that range DP would have worked too. 4:29: If you're going 2H into 6H, do it right away. If you delay, you're giving them a lot of time to react, and a free anti-air counterhit, which means big damage for a lot of characters, Slayer being one of the more dangerous ones. 2H delay should go into a frame trap or a callout of what they're going to do to punish you, so I'd suggest 2K, 5K, 3P, fS, or DP. If you're not confident, just block. 4:34: Good instincts on finally getting some oki from a knockdown. The safe jS was a strong choice, but you need something to connect from that into 2H: You don't get enough blockstun for that to be safe, as you surely noticed when he stuffed you. Landing 5K or 2K is safe, and I think you were high enough that you could have gone for j6P for the overhead mixup with 2K, or even just j.P for the tick throw. (Not completely sure you weren't too low though. 4:38: What did you try to do there instead of blocking the mappa? Any answer that's not DP or throw is wrong. 4:39: 6P is not a good poke for getting out of slayer pressure. You can roll a fS for approximately the same frames, and that would have tagged the P-dandy he threw out to bait you. Consider that your go-to poke in this matchup. 4:40: Under pressure (Dandy-->S followup) is always a frame trap, it's in the name! Don't swing at it with anything not invincible (or throw), and even invincible stuff is likely to get baited here. 4:42: Good breakout, but you've got to recognize the situation: Jumping can get you out of the corner if you airdash, but you're at frame advantage here (Counterhit fS means they're going to have to stagger out, and anything fast enough to trade with it is usually going to be less stun), so you should be standing your ground and getting slayer into your pressure. Jumping forward into jS is not a strong option at that distance anyway. 4:46: VERY good chicken block. I respect the shit out of that choice. 4:49: Gotta assume that 5P is a missed input, since you're in an oki situation there. Work on capitalizing on your knockdowns, it seems to be your biggest weakness (Though I suspect you wanted 3P? That's definitely a solid choice in that situation, though you're too close to bait the super without a YRC) 4:50: 2P isn't a poke you want to throw out at that close range almost ever. He jumps over it, but even if he hadn't, he could have beaten it with a lot of other things, and it puts you in a lot of recovery for not a lot of reward. 5K or fS if you wanted to swing there, but the correct guess was obviously 2S (I don't expect you to be psychic though, so just work on choosing more solid options.) 4:52: I'm not sure you could have gotten this throw, because slayer has a bigger throw range than Axl and I think he spaced it right. Try to recognize that situation against him and also Zato. 4:59: 2S is a HUGE guess at match start, so if you're going to throw it out, don't delay it even at all. In this case you turned out to be wrong, but if he had jumped forward and done jH (Which is what you're trying to beat with 2S if you throw it out), he would have still beaten you because you did it too slowly. 5:02: A better burst than you've been doing, but probably not worth it. That jS isn't getting him anything off that little meter, and all you got off of it was stance setup, but I guess that worked out in this case (Still not worth a burst). Remember, bursts are a precious resource that can save your ass or give you full meter. 5:09: Excellent job getting some oki. I like your choices through this whole section, and you're actually picking up on one of the few places where Rashousen is a good move. 5:15: Backdash on oki again! Being fullscreen away is a good position against slayer, but oki->pressure is a better position. 5:16: Rashousen is *usually* a bad option. Use 2K if you want to low profile things. I would have actually tried a 3P or 5H there, but that might have lost. 2K would have won. 5:20: lol, good thing this slayer doesn't know his combos. 5:22: Very strong blocking, I'd work some IB in there against the special moves, but you kept him at bay very well. 5:27: Good instincts with your pokes, but try not to OTG him. The sweep is a knockdown, and you want knockdown (I realize that was probably supposed to be an earlier rensen, but then again, rensen doesn't knock down anymore, so I'm not completely convinced that's always good to get) 5:29: Very good mixup, but no capitalization! Just throw out the close slash afterward no matter what when you're going for 2K. If he makes it whiff, you don't get anything, and if he blocks it he's in a blockstring. Gotta work on your confirms, man. 5:33: The counter was a sick read! And then you had knockdown in the corner! Why did you jump back? 5:36: If you're going to try to swing at mappa that late, it should be DP or nothing. 5:39: Okay, you're just missing inputs when you're getting OTG rensen I gotta assume. Grind that out if you're missing it so consistently, or better yet just take the sweep. It's knockdown and rensen isn't. 5:42: Portland punish! You took a throw when you could have had anything you wanted. A combo into DP RC there would have been the round. Also, grind out 2S-TKB, it's your main source of knockdown and you're missing it a ton. 5:50: Very good poking, I'm glad you're not letting those dashes bully you. 2K will beat slashes pretty consistently, so it's a solid choice. 5:52: Way too late a jump to be a safe jump, and did you try to throw out jS? Bad. This is oki again, you need to get better at it. Run up 2K would have lost to the super (And I get tagged by it a lot), but an earlier jump that you could make safe wouldn't have (Tag him with jK or jH though, not jS at that range). 3P is a pretty valid bait from that distance too, if you're not confident in your safe jump timing yet. Slayer is a character that can and will reversal you, either with super or BDCing, so be aware that you'll want to make your oki very safe.

Your safest Oki is always going to be falling j.H. It's a safe jump, and you have a lot of options from it. If they block you have a blockstring, if they DP you block it, if they backdash you punish it, and if you hit you get knockdown. If you're too far away, jS will work in a pinch, but make sure it's a safe jump! Stuff like 2H, Raei, or 6H are higher risk if they have a reversal, but worth trying sometimes. 2K is solid as fuck against a lot of characters. I wouldn't suggest always throwing a 6H on top of them, as you get almost nothing for them blocking it, and it's a lot less safe against reversals than safe jumps.

Match 2: Chipp 2:36: Don't jump at the start of the round unless you *know* what's going to happen. Usually your match start meta is: Safest: Run FD Fairly safe poke: f.S or microdash 2K or IAD back jS (Not just jump back) If you're sure they're going to swing: Raeisageki or DP or counter or backdash If you're sure they're going to jump: 6K or 5P If you're sure they're going to approach: 5K or 3P If you're sure they're going to airdash: 2S or DP 2:34: At the frames you have there, your options against alpha blade are DP, Counter, or block. If you really want to get fancy, you might be able to 2K under it. If you had the meter you could also have blitz'd it. Don't throw out 5P unless you know you can tag the startup really cleanly. 2:38: Burst is a bad panic button, don't do it! 2:43: In most matchups, 5P is not a ground poke at all. Throw out 2K or 5K here, maybe fS but I don't think you had enough time. And not to put too fine a point on it, but you can often just DP bullrushes like that pretty easily (Though high level players will bait it out with run FDC) 2:51: If you're getting an AA 5P that close in, that should be a confirm into knockdown. You need knockdown badly. Throwing out an AA against an approach instead of blocking is a risk, so if you're going to take that risk, be ready to capitalize on it. 2:56: Nice instinct to try to hit him out of command grab, but 6P is a weak hitbox to be throwing at it. Just DP if you recognize that situation. 3:05: Quit doing jump back j.S. It's a very weak position to put yourself in and gives them a lot of time to react and hit your chain. If you're doing jS, it should either be to punish them for something or to cover your escape, which should be an IAD back. 3:08: Fucking awesome. That 5H AA read was sick. You can capitalize on it more than you did but well done. 3:09: You got the knockdown and backed off again! Don't do that except *maybe* against potemkin. Even characters with DPs can't do them against safe jumps, and that's better oki than backdashing away. 3:29: You had frames to act and you did jump back slash again! Even staying on the ground and blocking would be a stronger position. 3:44: Stance is bad, don't use it. Ever. 3:51: Excellent gold burst 3:53: If you have full meter and haven't jumped yet, you can totally capitalize on hitting with j.S with an RC. This might have been enough momentum to win the match if you got a knockdown off of it (The confirm you want is RC, Airdash j.HD, c.S-2S-TKB) 3:58: I know I sound like a broken record but, you gave up oki again! I know confirming a counterhit 5H is hard, but you got the knockdown without a confirm, so there's really no reason to backdash there and give up your momentum. 4:00: I really thought that raw 2D into delay was gonna be a frametrap with a DP. If you're going to go rensen, do it as soon as possible. If not, that should be a DP or maybe a counter (Hint: DP is better, and you had the meter to RC it into huge damage and KD) 4:02: If you whiff a 2K and he's not in range to punish it, throw something else out. DP if you think he'll go in fast, f.S or 5K if you think he'll try to approach. Worst case, block low! Don't let whiffing put you in mental stun! You need to stay on the ground or low in the air if you're playing defensively. Jumping back is giving them a lot of space to move in on you, and you're trying to run away when you should be aggressive a lot. Stand your ground and throw out something to stop them rather than trying to dodge their approach. Also, capitalize! Axl gets to play offense when he gets momentum, just like everyone else. In fact, Axl has some pretty good oki, because he can set up his positioning to keep the opponent in very dangerous spacing traps, all of which go into more knockdown. Trying to run away will not serve you well with this character.

Alright, I'm gonna make a loose assortment of notes. Good analysis takes a while, so I'm just gonna do one of those matches for now. Match 1: I-No You're not being nearly aggressive enough with your spacing game. She doesn't get to run around in the air like that in this matchup, you need to be calling her out for it. When she throws notes, either tag her for it or run under them, not standing there waiting to block it. Bad bursts - Never burst if they're not in range of burst. If all they have to do to dodge your burst is to *not* run into it, they probably will succeed. Against a character like I-No, doing OTG 2ks usually isn't good, since she wants to tech out and seldom is just waiting to reversal. OTG 2H is never good unless it's going to kill them, don't do it. Backdashing against I-No is usually a bad idea. Your backdash kind of sucks as Axl, plus she can throw it, chase it, or just tag you with a projectile really easily. Stand your ground and wait to either block/AA her approach, or 2K/3P/6H/DP a stroke. There are matchups where counter is useful, like Faust and Sol. I-No is not one of them. Any situation in which you can counter I-No is a better place for a DP or even a blitz. You did a lot of not blocking and not throwing out moves around 1:50, were you giving up? 5K is a pretty good AA against I-No, since she has to get in and it puts a hitbox between you and her. Normally your other AAs are better, but she comes in faster and lower than most characters, so 5K is often your man. Consider that I-No is always either going to approach you with either a hover dash, air dash, or stroke. You have amazing AA reads you can kill her with in 5P, 6K, 2S, 5K, DP, and even 6P. There's no reason she should be getting to approach you so often uncontested. 1:55: When you get a knockdown, run in! You're not trying to make space here, you want oki! This I-No feels no pressure from you at all and it shows. Stuff you should have done about notes by timestamp: Rensen - 0:16, 1:56 5P - 1:04, 1:30 Run under - 0:41, 0:57, 1:05, 1:07, 1:10, 1:40, 1:43, 2:08, 2:10 IAD over: 1:20, 2:06 Basically, quit being so cautious! You win this matchup really hard, and you need to make I-No think twice about every time she jumps (And since she almost always jumps, you got this!)

I think Faust's is actually considered "unblockable" whereas Leo's is still like, a mid or overhead hit that just has the weird "Staggers you on block" property. Slayer's is actually a command grab, can you really blitz shield it?

Honestly, potemkin is much less of a threat in this version than previous ones, I'd say it's even better than 6-4. His approach tools are just too weak to really stand a chance, since ICPM consistently puts him in 2S territory. I will say that I don't think sparrowhawk is all that strong in this or any matchup though. It's a lot to set up, so you can't really react to things with it, and getting blitz'd out of it or tagged with something (Since they're hurtboxes) might be the chance potemkin needs to get his momentum back. Just stay patient and punish him for trying to do anything.

I've played a lot of this in previous games, but don't yet have much experience in Xrd. This time around, you've got a DP to shake his pressure, but no knockdown for tagging his ball set attempts. Still, you've got to prevent him from setting up, because once balls are on the screen, he owns that space, so rensen and 5P are your friends at neutral. More on this later.

Stay calm. Try to watch what they are doing in their combo, how much recovery each thing has, when they are close to you and when they are far away. When they're close and in recovery, you can burst out. Don't mash tech. Don't think of a tech as something you do to get out of damage, think of it as an invincible movement options you can do after getting hit. While you're still in the combo, if you want to get out, try teching right before each move, so that you can go through a move when you tech. Think about where and when you want to land. Remember that getting hit by a reset is much more damage than getting hit by a black-beat combo. Patience is the difference between getting out of the combo and being back on your feet and getting reset into more damage or bad positioning.

It's basically a surprise trick you can pull off in certain situations. On the one hand, being able to RC it into basically any combo is a huge improvement, but without the range and speed it had in +R, it's very easy to read and thus not all that useful in high-level play. One thing it does still have is being low-profile, which means it can be a situational read/punish, but for the most part, throwing it out is just asking to get bopped.

Oh right. I forgot about that gross fact for a second. Nevermind. Also, fuck that so much. 1.03 fix plz

Yup. I love having something invuln that isn't that godawful super. 'Course, you could always do it with H-Benten, and Potemkin is basically a free matchup anyway... But hey, it's a DP, and that's awesome. Merry Christmas! Real talk though, if you can see a slide head a little earlier, you can rensen it for the knockdown. Try to do that when you can.

3P is #R status, which is to say Godlike. Fucking amazing. It's an absurdly good poke. It's a frame trap, a spacing trap, a launcher on counterhit, a decent blockstring starter, a low that goes into other lows and also overheads. It's amazing, basically. I use it a ton.

Have frame traps, will travel. If you're having trouble with dragon punches, space against their dragon punch (Like versus Ky, time meaty 2K to go under it. Versus Sol, space out 3P or 2H to make him whiff, etc.). If people are just mashing non-invincible moves at you, you should be wrecking them. Keep your spacing such that fast attacks don't reach you, based on what character you're fighting. Your midrange pokes (f.S, 5K, 2K, 3P, 2H, etc) give you access to really strong frametraps, especially given that you now have a fast DP that you can also confirm into big damage. Spacing and frametraps are your pressure now, but it's actually a really good way to capitalize on someone trying to mash. Axl's normal gameplan is great for beating that particular kind of play. Also, I'mna move your question and my response to the Q&A thread. Granted, it's slightly redundant to have discussion and Q&A be separate threads in the first place, but I think this makes sense there.

So combos into bomber are tough, because there's kind of a balance between when they can tech out and when you won't be able to relaunch. If possible, you usually want to be pretty low when you do the bomber, and have them be pretty high, so you can land, recover, and connect with something before they hit the ground. Fortunately it's a little easier than #R in that you only are ever likely to get 1-2 additional reps at most. I haven't done enough science yet to say for sure. Also, reversal super is useless. I see no point to it now that we have a DP that's safer, very invincible, and RCable. The only thing super has over DP RC is like, being a super, which I guess is nice if you need more burst-prevention than the fact that it's a combo with an RC in it, or really need to activate hellfire for some reason? Not a good use of meter. I'd rather have a combo-extending RC (From benten, from rensen-8, from 2H-6H into jD, or even like, shark strike from 5P as a combo option), and I'd definitely rather have two YRCs for movement or aborting bad guesses.

TK bomber is janky because there's a minimum height requirement on the move. This means that no matter what, if you're below a certain height, you get HS instead of Axl Bomber. Period. This means that you *can* TK it the traditional way, with 6239, but you have to delay the button press until you're at the correct height. Many find it easier to do a longer motion (e.g. 6321473) or a motion that jumps sooner (6923) because it's nice to have a consistent fluid motion to time, but basically what you need to know is that you're not hitting the button until a few frames after you leave the ground.

Way less aggressive for sure. With Rensen FRC at 50% meter and without the 2H-2D gatling, you're playing a lot more of a neutral-conversion game than an oki/pressure game. Neutral game is still heavily focused on staying in midrange and getting them into the air, but you don't really get your damage as often as you did in +R, making Axl a weaker character overall. What they did give us was a fuckin' sick DP, and the ability to abort any bad guess for 25% meter (If you threw out a long normal and didn't hit them immediately, it's a bad guess, YRC it). Axl was always a powerhouse in neutral and with a DP, that's even more true. What he lost was the strong offensive game he had in +R, but he gained the ability to break out of oki and tick throws, which I think is a valid choice for them to make, albeit one that puts him in a weaker metagame position than characters like Ky and Zato, who gained a lot from the Xrd changes. That said, you do still have an offensive gameplan should you gain the advantage. Your pressure is about spacing them correctly and setting up frametraps, so the holes in your blockstring happen while they're not in their character's optimal range to hit you. This game is why Sol has such a hard time with good Axls.