Oiboi

Zappa Love at FRXI! Three Zappas, including myself, Rudy, and another guy whose name I didn't catch were bringing the zappa (But I choked hard Vs. Kenji first round:vbang: ). As a note, jump ins just don't work people, especially on Zappa (WAY too much of that. Like, 4 Sol's jumping in on my Raou. Free Edogai. It's silly) Rudy was bringing the pain as usual, but I heard the other zappa got damn far too. There may have been a fourth, but I don't know how good he was doing. Good general matchup stuff: Got mad experience on Kenji's anji. I'll post up full strats after sleep, but quick notes: f.S is your friend for stuffing autoguard attempts at full/near full range. Follow up for pressure if he tries for gaurd counter off that (Don't expect it, it's free either way). Eddie was messing stuff up. Lots of Ogawa unblockable stuff. Give me time to try to figure out a way to get out of that on wakeup, but my best guess is to Slashback one move than then other if he's off by just a few frames (Good luck with that). I was trying 1 frame jump, but it wasn't happening on wakeup =/ Get that defense on and your good, He was trying that crazy mixups but I was blocking it all until that unblockable came up, and I was like :< ABA can keygrab through f.S. WEIRD shit going on there. I'll play around and figure out what's up. Fought a few mays, but I was playing like a scrub at the time. Nonetheless, get your mixup pressure in and it's yours. Lots of may's think most of there moves are free counterhits if someone tries to hit through, but summon and it's done. Lot's of Robo-Ky's, but honestly, I didn't see anything special. I don't think one got past first round. I've fought Robo-Ky a lot before though, so that's probably why it's nothing new. Dog was raping. Not even close on anybody. Got the dog bite combo into unsummon OTG summon Raou stuff on a really good bridget (His name was Brian? Kyle? Sorry, I heard a lot of names... Still, beastly buri. Mad props to him), and that was the end of that, pretty much. Sword's great for free overhead combos. Mixups are Love. Don't underestimate the insanity of that stuff, seriously; MAD Pokes. Ghosts get stupid insane pressure all over. Watch out for rushdown pressure, and get a 5D (ID combos are epic, Rudy had some sweet ones). Lastly, don't unsummon Raou. I know he gets bad matchups, but your in for a world of hurt if you just unsummon. Just crank the gaurd bar and play it safe. Tick throws are nice too. Don't get too fancy or they'll just DP you or something. I need some sleep, but I'll get more up later. GG Players can bring the hype, guys. Zappa brings the love.

This man speaks the truth.

Do your burst randomly. That scream is hilarious and disorienting, not to mention the whole crucified pose. Also, use HS with the sword alot. He'll do that deep "HAMEDA" or whatever yell that he's got that get's annoying after the second time. Real advice: Play keep away with the ghosts, out prioritize with the sword, trap opponents with dog, and bait them with Raou. That's the basics, at least =D

I'd really like to know when getting a throw is bad.

Zappa has a 1 frame vunerable backdash too.:8/:

I'd have to agree, somewhere just about slightly in Dizzy's advantage. I've never really found many great Dizzy vs great Zappa matchvids (generally, one of them ends up being subpar so you don't get a clear idea of what the match is like at a more equal level, but it's still known that even with the advantage, Dizzy can be beat). It's also tricky since Zappa and Dizzy both have very player specific strategies; I've rarely seen any 2 dizzy's play identical, same with zappa. Some setups are going to be harder to deal with than others, so if the person your fighting is really good, it can be pretty overwhelming to deal with the setups.

5K goes right through Fuujin. It's really funny. I've seen 6P go through it too, in the right situation. I've fought a lot of anji's. I'll post a more in depth strategy against him later, sorry for the delay :< Edit: Oh, and zappa has pretty much no grab invincible moves, save for his sword DP (and even then, it's very limited). I think he 'might' have one more, but the sword DP is the most effective (which is really sad). Get used to throwbreak attempts/backdashing or just being grabbed. Edit edit: Throwing in my strats here. Anji can be a terrifying matchup if the player knows his frames and how to get the autoguard combos for the win. A good Anji will stuff any predictable rushdown; Thankfully, Zappa has some of the sickest mixups to throw him off. Naked/Unsummon: -f.S IS LOVE. Spam this. It's crazy. Learn the ranges to play with his autoguard attempts and get hit confirm into combos. -Don't summon randomly. Anji will hit through it like nothing else and punish. -Watch for his pressure and mixup. It's quite popular for anji players to do taunt to mix up with 6P; Don't fall for this stuff. Get your reaction time on and you can beat it, as soon as you see the taunt do 2K into summon combo (I suppose 6P will work too, but 2K is faster, which is necessary to beat the inevitable 2D mixup that he's going to try to do). -When you see him do the stomp, don't get hasty. I got messed up by the K Stomp when I was expecting the P Stomp. Get the summon in deep, the closer to you can get to pulling it out before he hits, the better. Ghosts: -Anji can't do much here, but don't get cocky. He may try to attack throw a ghost toss to hit you on rushdown. -Nothing too special. If you get the triplets while being pressured, your not going to be able to do much until his string ends. Sword: -Crazy pokes. It's hard for Anji to counter through this stuff. 5HS punishes for free. -DP and swipe are good. Slide hits through Fuujin, but don't get overzealous or they'll mix you up and cancel early. -I love this summon in this matchup, definitely beats the ghosts in my opinion. Just don't get cocky. Dog: -This is rape. Seriously, Unblockable. It's free; Set it up when he goes for Fuujin and it's yours. -f.S + 5D stuffs everything. Dog is no contest in this match, so long as you don't let him kill it for free. Raou: -Fuujin goes through P Darkness Anthem. Watch out for that. Insane clash and gaurd counter stuff going on here, so don't think it's over just because he gets a counter (Throw out edguy to clash/stuff it). -Fuujin will NOT go through K DA toss. S too, I believe, but S will stuff the stomps anyways. -Don't throw out random meaties. Start with K toss and hope for hit confirm from there, Otherwise he'll get counter and hit you before your edguy comes out. All in all, this is a strange matchup. Anji players can have some major differences in playstyle, which makes a 'standard' strategy difficult to comprehend. Anji can dish out pressure with the butterfly and Taunt fakeouts, or ruin pressure with autoguard. You'll have to work out a method within the first few seconds of the match. Learn what beats what and you can stand a chance. Bottom line, I'd say 6-4 in zappa's favor (But perhaps only slightly, it's hard to say exactly).

"IT'S BIGGER THAN HIS FIST!"

You're just now noticing this?

Raou isn't that amazing, especially in this matchup. Yes, he can do a full combo of damage; but he can also drain your tension, crank your guard bar, and chip damage half your health if you just sit there and try to block. Especially as Slayer, you should be pressuring Raou. It's not that difficult, since most of your pokes will limb hit Raou, and DOT goes straight through DA. Certainly he's scary, but he's far from being the best way to fight Slayer.

I'm a Zappa player, and I've fought a good amount of slayers, so I thought I'd throw in a few tips. Feinting Zappa is a great way to make him whiff, if the player tries to summon on reaction. If you get too close, or try to go for anything other than pilebunker or the kick followup of dandy step (both of these will generally hit zappa right out of a summon), you'll get hit. Dashing around him is a good way to confuse and make him miss summon, but it's got backward range, so the placement for when you dash has to be specific. A good Zappa will almost never get rid of all three ghosts unless he really needed to, and can make it look like he's out when he's getting a ghost back right away. If you see the vertical ghost toss, DON'T dash. Your just going to get the straight or arcing toss in your face as soon as you come out. As for the dog, Zappa probably has a slight advantage. Trying to kill the dog will get you killed, though, so just try to hit Zappa (Some zappa's think they're invincible with the dog, and will try to attack even when a pilebunkers coming into their face, which generally goes straight through anything Zappa has). Slayer's pokes scare the crap out of me, personally. There just too damned good. The Sword isn't as good, no, but it shouldn't be discredited at the least. It's the only summon whose pokes are on par with Slayer's at close range, so beware of that when trying to pressure. As for Raou, theres not much Zappa can do with him. His options are really minimal here, since Slayer's pokes and damage qualify him as a raou at pretty much any time anyways (Raou's 6HS being beat by pilebunker is frustrating crap, seriously). As it's been said, Slayer's got a clear advantage. Getting a huge combo isn't too difficult, from what I can tell, especially with Slayer's stuff beating nearly everything Zappa has. Once you get the Zappa to screw up, the match is pretty much over. Still, if your inexperienced with the fight, Zappa can be very intimidating and dangerous.

Yeah, 2P is nice in tight situations (with the proper timing and FDing, it can beat the last hit of Grand Viper), good defensive move. Still, if I'm anticipating something and know I have a little leeway, I like to use 6P to take advantage of invul frames. I've been playing around with ridiculous Raou shenanigans. For instance, Edguy into Darkness anthem. Edguy RC 66 Edguy DA K toss for instance. It's super character specific according to timing and setup, but the general idea is to continue combos when you would otherwise be forced to end because of knockdown, or perhaps to throw in more edguy hits (since you can get a minimum of 5 edguys if you use the generic 6HS DA K loop to set up between hits). I'll give more info on character specific later as I hammer it all out, but so far it's worked on nearly every chara I've tried. Again, this is just silly shenanigans. While the damage is good, it's not exactly good for mixup or anything, and the Raou loop would probably work just as well. Still, if you want to go for humiliation points, this'd be the combo to use because it's so ridiculously flashy.

hm... Not that bad of a combo, though perhaps a little advanced for a 'beginners' vid. Nonetheless, the timing is obviously strict, though I'm not sure if sol is crouching at that point (2HS staggers, and the c.S pulls them up anyways, right? Or perhaps I'm thinking of the swords c.s stats) I just tested it, and it's tricky; having trouble with it myself. If I figure out what the trick is, I'll post, but maybe it's momentum (hard to say from the vid itself). In any case, my preferred full meter naked combo is 2HS 2D 236P RC 66 c.s 236P RC 66 c.S 236P. (You can also substitute c.S with 2HS with some characters, but c.S helps get the heavier ones) Edit: Lol, after looking at the vid in full, this combo was there too. Ignore me! Anyways, I've never been a fan of the whole 2P 2K Summon combo. 2P isn't exactly safe as a rushdown, and I usually prefer to end my summon combos with 2D summon (because they have to fall through the air and wait to stand up, giving me more time to figure out both which summon I have and prepare for wakeup pressure, not to mention a little better damage*). But there's tons of ways to play zappa, that's just my personal opinion. *Don't quote me on the more damage bit, just speculation.

Got some more practice with a pretty damned good Sol lately (2piece), so I'll add a bit more. He has some deceivingly good pressure strings, but it's not completely unbeatable if you watch. He would often do a 6HS into gunflame after generic gatlings; there's a very tiny time frame in which you can summon when he goes for 6HS (the first hit will whiff, the second hit never connects). IB if your unsure of your execution times. FB's are good too, but don't get to defensive or he'll go for a command grab. Most Sol's will do gunflame FRC command grab; if you anticipate this, jump and FD; the gunflame will likely be blocked and you'll drop safely to the ground, ruining the grab attempt. Sol really only has Volcanic Viper to deal with pressure (you can even 6P tyrant rave), but don't get too predictable or he'll anticipate what your going to do. Go for grabs and punish whiffed moves (running under attacks is a good way to avoid hits like BB). Practice airgrabbing Sol whiffed/gaurded VV until you can do it reliably enough to use it as an option (This is really good for free summons). Zappa doesn't have too many combo openers unless he gets a counter hit off, particularly on Sol, but anything helps. Also, don't make the mistake of getting too close for f.S Wakeup pressure... VV's hitbox is huge.

I think I got into the 400's before I got bored? Survival can't keep my interest for very long lol....

Yeah, for impossible dust to work you have to hit once at the very end of the 29 frame untech time, which lengthens it to 48 more frames. As an example, 5D puts 29 frames untech time. Any hit within these 29 frames immediately cancels any tech time left, and replaces it with 48 tech frames. However, if you hit AGAIN, the tech time is again cancelled, but this time replaced only with the normal untechable time. Thus, the idea is to get the maximum amount of untech time by hitting as close (but not after) to the 29th frame, and land long before your opponent to set up for another attack, continuing the combo.

Um... No, zoning Dizzy is probably the worst thing you could do, especially with Raou. If your not right in her face, your not in a good position, simple as that. There really are no circumstances where being away from Dizzy is good.

I'll assume that they use the tension to switch the pressure to them. Also, trying to space out dizzy is just asking for trouble. Really though, Raou can help if you get lucky and spot a mistake. Other than that.... not much else he can do here.

Yeah, it's been a while. I know my advice wasn't that great, but I was hoping to get someone to talk and give more solid advice, which it seemed it worked. I have to agree with pretty much everything you've said. Myself, though, I actually don't have that much trouble when I fight Eddies; but it's been so long that I'm sure what I have is outdated. So thanks for the information. Oh, and by summoning into 6K in the Shadow K pressure loop, I meant exactly that, using the invul frames when it's already about to hit, which would allow Zappa to invul through both attacks. It may be safer to IB backdash/FD Jump, as you said, but this is what I would do, so that's what I posted.

I know that in most cases, Zappa's Backdash can mess up Slayer's pressure, particularly on wakeup. Really, it's all about waiting for Slayer to make a mistake... Edit: Oh god, what happened to my avatar. BRB, KILLING AOL FOR BEING A VIRUS :<

Hi, Dangief here. Couldn't delete the post without taking the thread. Simply put, the other posts have better/correct matchup info. So I had to edit this one. No hard feelings, just trying to keep only the best. Because Zappa deserves it! Don't poke out Eddie's eyes... he's blind already! That's my best matchup advice.

Don't mean to be rude or anything, but these threads are for matchups... Strategies should go into the respective threads. Sorry for me being anal retentive lol:v:

That's kind of what I meant, I rarely use edguy as a counterattack, especially against sol. If anything, I'm using it in combos or a punishing tool. Still, 2S into edguy is hilarious because it can enfuriate your opponent :3

Zappa's got a high learning curve, but he's just as good as any other character if you learn how to use him. By the way, if he spams Warrant, theres a really hilarious way to punish him. With the dog, you can do 6D (I've seen so many testaments warrant the dog, so theres a good chance he'll do it, or you can catch him on reaction) Then press 6H. You have to delay it just right, but you'll grab him out of Warrant. This may be possible with ghost toss FRC's, though I've never tried it. Perhaps even DA. Just keep practicing and you'll get better. If your friend is learning your pattern, lose the pattern and try things he wouldn't expect (2HS naked/dog is actually a pretty good poke).

Well, theres a few things iffy with what you said, which may explain why this matchup is an issue for you. Let's see if I can't help:keke: In fact, the summon will beat nearly every normal Testament has. The key is timing, you need to have the invul frames eat the move. You also sound like you have a huge issue with EXE Beast (How could I tell?!?!), but if you block it, there isn't a lot that Testament can do besides attempt to pressure with another move, which you can summon through. So simply put: Block EXE Beast. It's not so fast that you can't see it coming. With the sword, you shouldn't be spamming the 623HS as much as you seem to be, and certainly not without tension. It's a good move in this matchup, but only when Testament goes for a badlands. Use the sword swipe more often because it will go over EXE Beast and get rid of any Zeinests that may be in your direct path. I'll assume you're using the ghosts properly since you said pretty much what I did. With the dog, You shouldn't be having him attack randomly. You ALWAYS either attack with the dog or set the dog up to get you out of pressure. The dog is quite indispensable in this match if you use him right. It also sounds like your using Darkness Anthem from far away. That's a bad idea on Testament. Darkness anthem should hit Testament, whether on guard or not it has to connect. Otherwise, your setting yourself up for punishment. Really, it's better to bait Testament by pressure a little and doing a whiff charged DA (silly frames) and Edguy the ensuing attack, which well most likely be a Badlands. Don't worry about running under zeinests. You shouldn't be in the air much anyways. Run under them and start beating up Testament, because it'll wear out eventually anyways. If Testament hits you back into an already set Zeinest, then you made a mistake and got hit, so it's really your fault in that situation:vbang: Zappa has more options than you may believe, but it's situational. Don't expect for this fight to be an obvious win or loss no matter where in the match it is; I've come back from 10% hp for a full health win. Hope this helped