Nives

best move is kind of hard to say, since most of the moves are situational. j.H is pretty ridiculous. personally, i think it is overall more useful then j.P, but like i said, moves are situational.

the fact that after sol is in DI mode, sol has his tension reduced to 0, ends in negative penalty state, has his tension gain lowered, takes extra dizzy damage, and receives a lower dizzy rating makes using DI mode pretty moot. if you really don't have any health left, and the other person has no health either, and there are less the 10 seconds left in the round, and you can control DI sol. then maybe (just maybe) DI might be helpful. DI would honestly be fine if it werent for all of the crap that happens after.

well there is a matchup section which is incomplete though. matchup is really opinionated. you should probably ask a question more specific like ... "who are sol's bad matchups?"

and i hope you read the part that said "by your logic", because it illustrates a point. you have to stop asking why is it he doesn't use a specific move, but why in certain situations he decides to use a specific move. what is he trying to accomplish?

4 frames makes quite a difference. they are 2 different moves used for different purposes. by your logic, 6H is superior to 2S in every way, better guard build up, better damage, better dizzy damage, and blah blah ... when i start combos with 6H they do more damage then if I do combos that start out with 2S. The 3 frame difference in start up is a small price to pay.

2K is pretty good for beating out most lows in general. its a pretty fast low poke, with better range then 2P. 2S for sol is good, but its not as fast as 2K. using 2S at max range for spacing is great and all, because the recovery and advantage is good whether it connects or not, but it has to come out before another move. 2K is good if your at the range where it is guaranteed to connect and snuff out a number of moves, and you can always cancel it into 5S -> 2S to still have the advantage in the situation. i believe despite the pushback, you can toss out 5H or 2D after to try and score counterhits if people try and poke out.

bandit bringer is an okay move against axl. well, combos should be something everyone should be working on all the time. kewlAZNguy, you seem to throw out a lot of moves without any real direction or purpose other then being hopeful that it is going to land. need to put more thought into what your opponent's mindset is so you can land more solid mixups. that isn't just with your mixups but also your movements in general. shouldn't spend time to move places just for the same of moving there, but try to keep a purpose in mind.

saying something is "necessary" and "more necessary" is redundant. if you want to play the game effectively, u should have blocking skills equal to how u play against eddie in any matchup. if you block well and its effective against eddie, then blocking just as well against any other character makes your game even more effective. some characters have more weight when they land hits, but i dont think it makes it any less necessary to have good blocking skills. "you dont need to block as well against _____ " is not a very good mindset to have, it just opens you to getting hit.

you speak english? i thought i just understood japanese somehow.

people dont really play like the CPU.

i think slash was a lot more balanced with just the exception of robo-ky on the bottom tier. everyone else was fine.

I actually had some problems with this lately, and have asked some other zappa players i know. So some of this is what I speculate from playing Shogun17, zappa in minnesota, and Ukyo Tachibana's advice. There is a ton of stuff to say about zappa since its a different game for a different spirit so bear with me. Also since there is so much to cover, this may be a bit incomplete, but this is my understanding. Matchup Statistics: 5.5 - 4.5 in Sol's favor or some say 6 - 4 in Sol's favor. I think it's really not that bad depending on what spirit zappa has. Openers: 5S, 2D, or just block since a # of zappa's i have played seem to like to summon in the beginning if you like to stick stuff out. Okizeme: Command grab will beat out most of what zappa can wakeup into, and if zappa tries to summon, you can command grab him (if they have less then half tension). DP -> RC will also snuff out anything zappa throws out. Other options I use are, GF if they are lower than 1/2 tension, otherwise, super safe j.S, or GF -> FRC -> jump if you have the tension to do it. zappa can super through gunflame, and even if you do block it, you can't really punish it. GF -> FRC -> jump, straight up, or d.GF -> FRC over them usually lets me avoid things completely and i don't have to guess either. Zappa also gets some invulnerability if he wakesup with a summon on chance, so to avoid random bad stuff happening, both options help out. Punishes:you get a free 5S -> 5H and gain the offense if you block a summon. depends on how close, otherwise if you are close enough you can get a free command grab. i often get pushed back a lot from blocking a summon. zappa has a good backdash, so a lot of the time when zappa has a summon blocked, i usually see zappa's backdash to try to compensate for their mess up. so throwing out GF to anticipate this can prevent them from doing something other than block, or else 5S -> 2S, and try to use the anxiety of compensating for a mistake to land a mixup. if you block the 236S follow-up, you can do mostly whatever you want to zappa. Counters: Sword is really annoying for me. Mainly because zappa has some range on his sword. Grand viper is pretty risky, but its useful, and if you are blocking and spacing right, throw isn't really a threat to you at that range, so you could save up for tension. d.GF -> FRC also helps a lot to compensate for the difference in range. Anti airing: I never had any problems 5K'ing a lot of zappa's tools. No really ridiculous jump-ins, minus raoh stuff. Zoning: Their game plan: With ghost and sword, it just feels like they are trying to annoy you. Actually, I was talking about this briefly with a friend while getting a burger and as he straight out said, "Zappa has a lot of tools to annoy you, and if he does, he is pretty much winning." With dog, zappa just wants to catch you. Whenever I see anyone get caught by dog, they usually get killed right then. It is a lot better now than like #reload, since dog pushes back. It is good to understand dogs patterns, and options, for when there are holes, but for the most part, once your caught, your options are pretty restricted. Having DP is good and all to get out, but it can be expected from the zappa player. Dog absorbs one hit when it is active, isn't and then you get hit by a free summon, which is no good. With Raoh, it feels like zappa just wants to get you to do something brash, like run in and get hit, or bait a jump, anything that leads to damage. Strategy: Ghost spaces where sol really can't do a whole lot. Zappa can run away and throw crap at you. Playing a good patient defensive game until you get in range. Any amount of ground you can close in the match can help. When Zappa has dog, I usually just try to not ever get caught. If I can, I will kill dog or poke zappa, and my goal is one or the other, but focusing on one too much makes u lose sight of the situation, since both can cover each other. I do throw out gunflames from a distance to prevent dog from running in, but zappa can counter by letting dog take the hit, and running through the gunflame to punish sol for it. The strategy is not guaranteed, but it can prevent dog from advancing. I usually try to predict when zappa might try to advance with dog, and FRC-ing the gunflame, then playing it as if it were just sol and zappa on their own. Against sword, 2D can go under a number of his attacks, but sword seems to be able to keep sol out of range to slide in with 2D. At close range, sol does fine against sword, but the main problem I have with sword is that zappa doesn't have to get into that range. GF -> FRC to open up offensive options, if you can space it right, then you can advance if zappa is forced into a position where he has to retreat, or block GF. GV will go under sword, but it can be expected if you do it too often. Sword feels the most annoying to deal with against sol. With Raoh, I recommend just killing time until Raoh runs out. Raoh can do massive damage, but his mixup game isn't too hard to see. 5D is a slow overhead, and if he runs in, you have to guess between hit or throw. GV can go under his projectile, but not when it is aimed downward. The game turns into a 50/50 guessing game in that case, and it is a lot worse for sol if he gets hit. It is not a good idea to attack Raoh, and DP can be great if he is in range to counter some of his attacks, but Raoh does not have to get in range, and messing up is a lot worse for sol.

i meant all people trying to bait DP, sol vs sol is a little narrow. i don't think anyone tries to only counter with DP. that would be stupid. um, i dont know what you are talking about. a lot of sol players end their combos with VV KD, and who said anything about not using DP completely? it isn't too hard to wrap your head around how to use DP. i m talking about using it by not using it.

i think that is again really based on how predictable u see your opponent playing. as a general method of playing, ur more likely to miss then to hit something. i think there are better things to counter some pokes with then jump immediately to VV as a solution i think people all know what sol's DP generally beats out, im talking bout playing against people who have a mindset of always baiting DP. It feels like a lot of sol players in general ... ... jump to VV as a solution when they cant think of another way. i think people can use it better without necessarily using it like how people hold bursts to bait burst baits, and get out of stuff for free.

not to be a pain, but shouldn't this be discussed in the combo thread? i am at as much fault, didn't think bout this. anyhow, sol thread hasn't had much discussion about things other than combos lately. was looking through other matchup threads, and noticed how a lot of matchups talk about baiting VV as a very general tactic in playing against sol. so how about what happens when people play a sol who just doesn't use VV? VV is great and all, but with the risk, i actually think its the fact sol has a DP like that that is capable of beating out mostly everything that is a stronger tool for sol to use. if people try to bait DP all the time, doesn't that just make their offense weaker and limit certain options they could have normally tried if they were to predict when someone was not going to DP? don't get me wrong though, as a general tactic when i play sol vs sol, i try to use a lot of DP safe options, but thats when i get hurt by sol's who don't use DP that often then. playing the general DP safe game seems to work for the majority though. personally for me, i ve been trying to DP when its guaranteed, or if the player has to go out of their way really to bait the DP rather than doing stuff like DP safe offenses, instead of basing my DP's off of educated guessing. i think that when u land DP's, often times it can be ambiguous to the reason why the DP landed then, and gives the opponent the illusion that you are just good at guessing, or that you are throwing it at random and being lucky.

isn't all that pretty important for just about any matchup?

i m surprised that nobody is interested in talking about this matchup. matchup thread has been pretty dead lately, and don't really want to see the sol thread get inactive. i try not to block anything that lets eddie get his offensive on me. course blocking is the lesser of 2 evils (the other being flat out hit), but if sol gets his offense on eddie, eddie can die right there. if i throw out GF -> FRC with lil eddie out, i try to do it so that i m too far for lil eddie to hit me, but eddie has to back off if he doesnt want lil eddie hit. i also try to keep in spaces where a drill cant outright hit me. if GF is out on the screen after i FRC it (with lil eddie out), i treat the game as if i didn't have anything else out on the screen. it forces restriction on how eddie and lil eddie can act, which gives me much more free reign over the screen than if i didn't have anything else on the screen. if lil eddie isn't on the screen, i m a lot more aggressive, since it feels like sol has the upperhand then, and the whole goal i am aiming for is getting the offensive advantage, not to do any immediate damage. damage comes a lot easier when u get the offense, and vice versa for when eddie gets ontop of you. amorphous will miss if you are right next to him, he has no DP, his backdash isn't anything particularly special, and he doesnt have any really fast moves up close. so sol's offensive game is all about snuffing out the options he does have. 2D will go under his dead angle. 5K to beat out his jumps. GF -> FRC for mixups, and to generally beat out most of the things he can throw out. Even normal GF up close can be hard for eddie to deal with. it is -3 on block, and sol has fast attacks he can throw out, also that -3 is if GF is blocked immediately, since sol gets more positive frames as GF is blocked later, and poking a pillar of fire is no good any how. thing to keep in mind bout throwing on an effective offensive game is not to throw it out too quickly. otherwise you can't see what your opponent is trying to do, and u also can't give them space to mess up. after you see what your opponent is trying to do, you can come up with a better approach to how to beat them.

2K -> 2H is pretty safe for slayer to throw out generally, and also pressure sequences involving 5S -> 5S. so learning to instant block, and then DP-ing those are pretty useful. i dont think u have to instant block them some of the time to still DP them. people who notice you start doing this can perfectly just block in the middle of their sequence, but its a nice thing to have in your game to break up options slayer has and reduce his offensive game by a bit (every little bit helps). i like using GF -> FRC -> block to deal with dandy step, mappa punch, and wakeup super. GV is useful to deal with dandy step and mappa punch, but since slayer can murder you for blocking it, it is probably a better idea to educate yourself on how your opponent likes to use dandy step and mappa punch before you start trying to abuse that. i met a number of slayers who like to do dandy -> FRC -> 2H, so if u do try to punish dandy step, u get stomped (i jest, but seriously you'll get yourself killed). GF -> FRC beats out all those options besides dandy -> FRC -> block, but then you get a chance to throw out your offense once they shrink back and play defensively. i probably say a lot about using GF -> FRC in the way i play, and tension is a luxury, but not that much in accent core. if you don't have tension, try to play safe with 5S pokes, 5H, j.H, and all into you have some to work with. not jumping to unnecessary risks is generally a good thing, otherwise you get very unreliable results. i dont like taking big risks and guesses to what slayer will do since most of the time, slayer can get much better results for landing random hits then sol does.

playing really patiently and holding up on ur defense til u get the one hit to take her almost to death is usually my strategy on defense. running in on her is usually not a good idea. j.S, and j.H is really annoying. DP does beat both, but resorting to having to DP all the time is not the best idea, though DP whenever she airdashes in with an attack like j.S or j.H since it is guaranteed. u can actually deal with both of them by dashing under it and countering on the other side if u notice baiken doing them a bit too high. that actually gives the illusion sol has normals that can actually deal with her ground-to-air stuff. 5K is good and all, but it gets pretty solidly snuffed by j.S and j.H if baiken is doing it at the right range. 5K only beats it out if baiken is too close with her j.S. I usually see good offensive baikens airdash in with tatami a lot, and to deal with that, i usually just try to dodge tatami completely instead of blocking it and allowing her to get her offensive game on me. if she gets ontop of u, she has a strong offense, but her moves upclose against sol's are slower. all her weapons aren't part of her hitbox, so at a lil less than upclose, everything gets snuffed out, since sol's weapon doesnt really cover that much ground, so u want to get into her immediate range, where u can command throw, and do all the other good stuff sol's offense has. i notice that a lot of sol's stuff doesnt get hit by ouren at all. dashing GF, 6H, 2D, and i believe 6P won't get hit by it either. anything where he leans forward slightly. so with quarter tension, u can do stuff like dashing GF -> FRC -> block, and pause momentarily. From there, u can figure out what baiken wants to do, and start building a better strategy to match how your opponent plays.

should just link the vid, mark about what time the combo you are referring to starts. if it isnt bandit revolver loop (i dunno if by (K) u mean holding it down or just pressing it then), it sounds like you are talking about bandit bringer loop. that is character specific (works on potemkin, zappa, testament, jam, faust, and a few others i believe, but i can't think of them now) and its just about buffering ur movements so that u hit [K] when sol lands. bandit revolver loop and bandit bringer loop are all more cool then they are useful. there is always a more preferred combo to the flashy fun ones, and sticking to the staple damage combos usually yield better results. in some circumstances, say if the person has low health and high guts, the damage doesnt really make that much more of a difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciWXUS8az4Q funny robot-ky vid.

so we don't have any matchups listed. i think this is a little in jam's favor? 4.5: 5.5 maybe. mainly because sol likes close range, but jam likes close range even more, and her crap is faster in general. i don't think its bad, i just dont think sol has the upperhand. not to mention she gets better damage, and has more options that goes into her damage than sol does.

a lot of screaming and feces slinging. seriously though, i dont think there is any single answer to this. it really varies from player to player vs player to player and situation to situation.

it works, but it still feels like you have to guess. its good to know your options, and take risks when you have an educated understanding of your opponent, but as a staple strategy to go with, it is better to play safer than to take unnecessary risks. i don't grand viper right when i see her do her 236S since I don't really know what she is going to do. if the player does puffball all the time, then by all means grand viper when you see her use 236S.

so i don't play this matchup much, but have played it before a few times. i pretty much don't mess with puffball, and just play it safe. if i know its coming, GF -> FRC -> Block, since that will beat out forcebreak puffball and regular puffball. you can dash in and 2D her regular puffball, but it will just whiff against the force break, and it always feels like sol is taking more risk than jam really has to in order to capitalize off of a successful 2D counter against puffball anyhow. i always have problems with 2S and her 2D against jam, and the most productive tactic against her 2S i have had is using my own 2S. although sol doesnt have a super-ranged weapon, the blade of his sword still isnt part of his hitbox, and spacing it sobandi that u outrange jam by that little bit and her attacks dont reach you is pretty useful. bandit revolvers and gunflames off of any of ur generally safe pokes can land her an easy parry, and getting even knocked down by her is tedious. play a safe game, if she likes to parry, u can take advantage of ur strong lows a lot more, then switch it up when she stops.