well i get the wonderful opportunity of fighting a potemkin player on a weekly (when i drive 55.44 miles to play according to mapquest) and another potemkin player on a daily bases . After reading most of this thread, the only thing i really got out of it was riot stomp works well against slide head(which was really helpful ) and a bunch of whining. So I thought I'd give a shot at dissecting this match up, and going through how I approach the match up.
Match up Statistics: I'm not sure what the Japanese rate the match up. I see a lot of people really don't like the match and think it's almost 6:4 pot. I'd give it 5.5:4.5.
Openers: Right off the start of the match it's a guessing game. If you want to risk opening the match with anything, you can 5.S>2.S which will beat hammer fall and a lot of his pokes but slide head and forward mega fist will beat it. If you're feeling like a psychic and know he's gonna mega fist you can j.p>j.S>ji>j.HS>CLSW it. safest choice is to just jump back but that can get boring.
Okizeme: I have a bad habbit of doing OTG 2.k>5.S gunflame frc> 50/50 mix with empty jump or late air dash vs pot to avoid pots bullshit wake ups.
another option thats seems to have worked for me is when i got him backed in the corner on the floor, I run towards his body and as he wakes up i jump forward to bait his wake ups. If he wake up pot buster or back dash i can punish it with a falling j.D> to corner combo(i enjoy kusoru inspired br>frc j.d combos ). if he does nothing then i do a meat j.S/j.p/j.HS(which can be mixed up with WT) or a late air dash j.s>j.hs>land>5kand pray to god i don't get pot bustered (flashmetroid tends to instant block my air dash j.s>j.HS when he plays pot, in which case it can get ugly ). It really depends on the player and their tendencies. The pots i face are pretty wake up happy so i find creative ways to bait them.
You can still attempt the basic oki mix up just be wary of Potemkins wake ups. I actually do meaty 2.k>2.HS/WT mix ups sometimes just because we go for so many matches where i play it safe just to be unpredictable. I wouldn't suggest doing that against a pot you never played before though.
Punishes: Slide heads can be riot stomped on reaction pretty often. occasionally I VV pot buster/anti mix ups from hammer fall breaks, I don't do it very often though because it can easily be baited. i may do it purely to regain moment.
a blocked non FRC/RCed hammer fall can be punished with a dash up 5.k>combo of your choice.
Potemkins 5HS has a lot of recover on whiff. If you jump as he throws it out, you're free to air dash in and punish with j.s>j.d/j.s > combo.
Counters: HS can cleanly counter with a lot of pots pokes as well as slide head from max distance as long as you through it out before pot throws out his pokes. If he hammer fall it you can 2.D or jump and you should be ok most of the time if you react fast enough.
when on the offense i like to 2.P (not deep) followed by a late 2.D to try and bait a counter hit.
If the Potemkin you play against likes poke with 2.S you can easily 2.D under that for a free counter hit as long as you know it's coming. After a air reset situation when pot recovers from far my friend has a habit of throwing out a 2.S after he lands to try and vacuum me in while i dash at him so i just 2.D under it.
Anti airing: 5k and j.p usually get the job done. just know when to throw it out at what distances and when to just block. pots j.S and j.HS are pretty nasty.
Also pots j.D(i like to call it "the booty butt") beats just about all of your anti airs and clashes with VV . The pots i play like to do it after teching from the air to throw you out of your groove. just don't anti air it. I like to instant block it and then 5k>2HS>GV if the j.D was deep. I'm pretty sure you can punish it after instant blocking. i wish i had frame data to verify who's favor it's in after being instant blocked but i couldn't find anything on j.D. If you're far from them as they tech, you can throw out a gunflame and let them fall on it and possibly land a counter hit gunflame to hotness.
Zoning: I tend to play the match a very patient(aka turtlish) kinda just jumping around seeing if potemkin throws out anything to give me an opportunity to get in. I find much success approaching pot from the air. Be very wary pots 2.p can be pretty nasty. usually i find an opening when jump just as he throws out a poke then I can attempt to punish the whiff accordingly. here are some situational attempts of getting in i usually try. here are some of my zoning gimmicks.
I can usually do silly jumping forward j.p air dash back zoning shenanigans to see if he does anything which sometimes can pay off. For instance, if I jump forward just as he slide heads I'm guaranteed to land a falling j.d which gives me a nice combo or a free knock down and a chance to go on the offense. If he does nothing or tries to anti air, I air dash back and we're back at the drawing board. Some times the pot play likes to do something like j.S/j.HS. In which case after i air dash back i can do a falling j.d or j.HS and i may get lucky and it connects.
Another little zoning shenanigan i like to do would be just just neutral j.p to see if he does anything. if he throws out a 5.HS it's a free air-dash j.S>j.HS>combo or if you like to be fancy air-dash j.S>j.D>CLSW(it has to be a bit deeper).If he does a slide head you can air-dash in as well but beware if you're too late he can back dash or 2.P you.
I'm not a big fan of approaching pot on the ground cause his pokes has so much reach and if he lands a counter hit he can combo to slide head. on the ground from max distance i may throw out a HS to try and get a counter hit>iad. don't iad unless the HS hits on counter or else it's a free 2.p counter hit combo for pot. also random slide heads can be annoying.
If you got meter you can always dash up VV>RC whatever he throws out. just watch out for head slide in which case you can VV with RC and beat it pretty cleanly as long as you execute it quick enough.
Their game plan: IMO Potemkins goal is to force mistakes on your part. If you're in reset situation, his objective is to offensively get as is yours; however, if you're on the offense then he's playing patient waiting for the opportunity to strike. The other situation is when pot lands his pot buster/anti-air and scores the knock. In this case the pot player gets to play his guessing games, but he has 1 more variable in the game VV. I think the majority of the match the pot is dealing with situation number, but just because it looks like sol is rushing pot down it doesn't mean anything if he's not breaking his defense.
Strategy: see Zoning. pretty much the Zoning plan is my strategy. once you get in it's a matter of just know when it's time to back and not try to force pressure. always be cautious even if it seems like your winning round. If you both are at 50% health just remember all it takes is pot 1 good pot buster to close the deal and put you down to a spec of health while you still have a long way to go.
Char specific details: I'm pretty sure everyone knows their character specific combos. only real note worthy thing is off wild throw you can do like 4 or so j.d>CLSW.
thats about it. I wasn't intending to write up this but i thought i might as well contribute something since i play pot so damn much and there weren't much specifics of the match up written yet. If you're wondering, i think my play style and handling of this match closely resembles kishitaka in this vid. http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=IT19cMDAJBM . Of course the caliber of the potemkins he face are much higher than what i face (no hate to my homies). if you have any comments/critisms or anything to add please post. I'd still like to get be more confident in this match up myself.
hopefully you were able to get something out of this.
