ajinkris

Just wanted community input about this nightmarish matchup. I'll write a few bullet points and then add more as I receive more responses. Slayer vs. Testament is one of those matches that makes you sigh, mainly because Testament's entire game is focused on keeping you out of reach and beating you out in several situations...into pretty painful amounts of damage. I play against a pretty beastly Testament, and I can tell you, I don't win very often (that also has to do with my inexperience and lack of skill). I'm just going to bullet off things that I notice: -Random Dandies and Mappas will be punished by traps, so don't go around carelessly with those. -You can, however, punish Tree set with a Mappa if you're quick enough and 2D if you're close enough. -Your Ks and Ps will be crucial for disarming traps. Always keep your eyes peeled for the blown skirt and arm rip animations. -Beating Testament is a test of patience. It's important to get a knockdown because Testament has poor ways to deal with pressure. Once you have him under your mixup, keep on pressuring and don't let up. However, if the gap is large enough, discontinue your pressure, as Exe Beast will trade or straight up beat out almost everything you have. -As far as mixup goes, I like to stay grounded and aim for cheap, easy knockdowns. If you're feeling gutsy, you can dash through stuff like Exe Beast and throw him. -Saving tension for DoT is a common practice. DoT flies through and disarms all traps, so watching for trap-set animations becomes important. If you land the CH DoT, your chances of winning greatly increase. -Testament's mixup is vicious. Between 2K, 6P, 5D, and being bounced back and forth by FRC'd Exe Beasts, blocking will become quite the challenge. This isn't to say that it isn't impossible though, it just takes experience and focus. All of it can be blocked on reaction, just get used to the deceptive animations. -Testament's reach is generally better than yours and right out of your 5K and 2HS range, meaning you won't be winning the poke wars. Advancing slowly by disarming traps and catching him while in trap animation is your best bet at getting in. EDIT -- Added from the matchups forum (original post by POscrub): ============================== Page 03: Slayer vs. Testament ============================== -------------- Slayer Basics: -------------- Learning how to deal with and get around Testament's Zeinest (Webs) and Hitomi (Trees) is the basics of this matchup. Jumping in with a j. K on the way up, and a j. HS on the way down, the j. K will trigger Zeinests before Slayer is in range to get hit, and if j. H is blocked, the Hitomi will pass harmlessly underneath, this is the best way to approach them from the air. Against this tactic, Testament has the option of K Phantom Soul and 6K, early on, you can IB the Phantom Soul for additional tension, and double jump to avoid the 6K. Once you have the tension, you can try to look for an opening to turn things around with a Big Bang Upper, or a K Dandy Step -> Pile Bunker. Kenchan's comments: Slight disadvantage. Testament has the upper hand in general, but Dead on Time and Big Bang Upper are just too good. Slayer hits like a truck, so it's definitely still a fight. Picture: Against Okizeme that uses Zeinest, you can use K Dandy Step FRC to evade. ---------------------------- Exploiting Gaps ---------------------------- If Testament gatlings f. S or 2S into 2D, if you Instant Block (IB) the attack before the 2D, you can counterattack with P Dandy Step (214P) -> Pile Bunker. If he does 5S or 2S into 2H, doing the above to get a Pile Bunker is effective, however, countering with Big Bang Upper also works. If Testament gatlings any normal into H EXE Beast, you can reaction back K Dandy Step -> Pile Bunker to punish. However, if he did 2H -> H EXE Beast, you need to IB the 2HS. Picture: Opening up gaps in Testament's gatlings using Instant Block to make him wary is important. ------------------------- Aim for the Dead on Time: ------------------------- If Slayer manages to land a CH Dead on time, that single hit might very well end up deciding the outcome of the match, so aim to punish an opponent for making careless autopilot decisions. Some common situations that result in a CH, if Testamnet does any gatling canceled into Set Zeinest or Set Hitomi, if he just tries to set a Zeinest in a neutral situation, there's many attacks that cancel into 2HS and 2D, so if you see any of those attacks, get used to entering the motion for Dead on Time after blocking them, so that if he cancels into a Set, you just need to tap the button to punish. Note, if Testament decides to Set a Hitomi (Tree)in a neutral state, the animation is quite hard to see, so it's not something you aim for often. Picture: Look to attack when he tries to Set something. When you have more than 50% tension, you should be priming the super motion, all the time. (ED note: ALL THE TIME ) Note at the bottom: Slayer's Big Bang Upper can trigger a Zeinest and still be capable of hitting, so use it with good timing to bust through attacks that hit high, like Testament's f.S, 6K, and 2H. That's all I can think of for now. Please add more!

This matchup is in Slayer's favor. However, Zappa is a unique character and you'll have to know your way around to avoid getting zoned by certain summons. Zappa has 5 possible states: naked, dog, sword, ghosts, and Raou. Vs. Naked Zappa -This is the form that you must take advantage of, similar to A.B.A. in non-mohora mode. -Watch closely for his summon and play very conservatively - note that Dandy moves if executed to slowly or too closely will be punished by the summon. In short: stay out of point-blank range. -Zappa has few ways to punish Slayer's lows, so keep at simple pokes (5K, 2H, 2K, 2S, 6P) and keep landing knockdowns so he can't summon. -6K okizeme, if executed too slowly, can be punished by reversal summon. -OVERALL: Play it safe and force Zappa to summon without hitting you. Letting him have orbs is a no-no. It's often smart to burst if he hits you with a 2D to deny him the orbs from the summon. Vs. dog -This is a problem if you aren't patient. The dog is an excellent zoning tool and if not played against correctly will have you eating way too much damage. -Do not recklessly dash/jump/iad at Zappa, he dog's anti-air hits an extremely large area. -Whenever the dog is within 2P range, spam it. This is the most effective way to kill the dog. -Don't use any moves with lots of recovery (such as BBU), because the dog will eat the hit and Zappa will have free reign to punish you. -OVERALL: Play it safe and poke the dog when the opportunity rises. Vs. ghosts -In my opinion, this matchup is just as hard as the dog. -Watch for the backdashing mixup, the exploding ghosts WILL beat out your AA moves. -Most Zappa players will zone you to death with these - the key is to learn to block well and slowly advance forward. -If the Zappa player tries to go more offensive, watch his air motion and 2S accordingly. Otherwise, watch for his landing and throw him afterwards. -OVERALL: Play defensively! You WILL get zoned, but rushing in will get you punished! Vs. sword -Not as hard as the other summons because he can't zone you as well with a sword. -Zappa's 5HS with sword eats a lot of Slayer's pokes, so be careful. -You can BBU after the sword rush attack. -OVERALL: Not as hard, watch for long-ranged pokes, try to punish the slower attacks. Vs. Raou -This is my own particular experience against Raou; most others prefer to play extremely defensively, but I differ. -Raou makes most Zappa players feel like they're in control. In reality, Raou can be punished quite easily. -Blocking against Raou eats a lot of chip damage and opens up room for mistakes (such as getting hit by the deceptive looking dust). -Your priority is still superior in many cases, try to go for knockdowns and throws - run the Raou timer out! -Watch for Dark Anthem (super) and DoT it on reaction for the win. -OVERALL: This is a tossup. You can play defensively if you want to, but be very good at blocking. In my opinion, Raou can be punished because Slayer's priority is still higher...so take advantage of that. OVERALL This matchup is definitely in Slayer's favor. The main thing that you will lose to would be careless mistakes and doing unsafe moves that lead to getting hit by summon or getting zoned. Lows are amazing in this matchup, especially 2H and 2D. Keep him at a desired distance and don't let him hit you with summon. I'm sure you guys have a lot to add, I sorta just threw this together rather quickly. Post below and I'll add to the list.

I don't actually play against Venom a lot, but from what I gather... -Dubious Curve can be punished severely. Either P Dandy Pilebunker or BBU once you see it coming at the end of a combo string. -You can teleport dash through balls already hit. -If he's ball summoning, you can Mappa Punch and score a CH. -If he's ball summoning carelessly, you can IAD in with a j.HS and score a fatty CH. -I'm pretty sure 2D trades with a lot of moves and beats out stuff like DHM. -Venom has a hard time breaking out of pressure and lacks quick pokes. This puts Slayer at a pressure advantage against Venom. -Don't be too jump happy: 6P is a deadly AA move that leads into CR loops for big damage. Just throwing out some small stuff, please correct me if I'm wrong. And sorry if some of these are captain obvious.

Everyone says Slayer is Venom's worst matchup, but from the videos I see...the matchup seems pretty even. Even though Slayer has many tools to dodge and counter Venom's moves, the fact is Venom is still an excellent zoning character and Slayer's weakness is getting zoned in neutral situations.

To anyone who doesn't know, casuals at Chris's on Friday (29th). IM any one of us for details.

My main question is it worth the extra damage to work on the combo?