Caer-caveral

Maybe, but I can't be sure. My tests were a bit unscientific, but I didn't really find any noticeble difference at all between my test subjects, Chipp and Sol. If it's true though, that would mean about 8.5 damage per tick for base damage.

Okay, let's bring this discussion down a notch please. I can't speak other peoples minds, but I don't think anyone means that the matchup is/was really easy for HOS, but perhaps just not as hopeless as many people want to paint it as. I don't know much about the matchup really (which makes linking my vid a bit silly. I don't know how to play against HOS and the guy I'm playing doesn't know much about playing HOS.), but my general experience teaches me that if both players are good, you pretty much never get easy wins. And yes, warrant doesn't work against rock it. It's facts, make sure you know them. Also, I must agree that the notion of nets killing everything is something of an urban legend. Players have to work hard to get past them (along with other traps), but Testa also has to work very hard to make use of it. It's hard to see from the other persons point of view. When I meet someone whom I feel I have huge difficulties in keeping away, more often than not he finds it incredibly difficult to get in on me. Moral of the story: there are no free wins, and why the hell are we discussing Slash in this thread? It's confusing, since most of the time I don't know if we're talking Slash or AC. Please keep the games separate, there is an old thread for Slash still.

Not anymore, it's not. I mean, come on. Tetzusansen looks way more like what a razorcrane should look like! Your concept has been hijacked.

New ranbat, only 6 combatants this time. Pools ended with 1: Yonasu 2: Caer 3: Shinjin 4: Nehle 5: Godfrog 6: Paddy Vids: Semi 1: Yonasu vs Nehle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOC-_xHp-Mw semi 2: Caer vs Shinjin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfBFSY41CeU Third: Caer vs Nehle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XogbuFmvlnE final: Yonasu vs Shinjin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFBscL3sfxY Shinjin did well after his 1-ranbat-recess, picking up his game after the pool play, so congrats to him! I have insufficient X And I pity you fools who do not understand the hillarity of our comments

EXE Beast = 41236S or HS GD: Gravedigger = 214 D MoP: Master of Puppets = 236236HS I suggest reading up on the frame data for more info on each of them. http://www.dustloop.com/data/ac/testament.html

No. Read the quote in my post. I tested it out, and damage varies with amount of health left.

If I'm not mistaken, buttons help for getting out of dizzy, but not stagger.

A state that the opponent enters when hit by Nightmare circular, MoP trees, warrant or Fausts poison bottles, designated by them glowing purple. To quote myself:

I'd say make sure you get a knockdown. That's priority one. Apart from that, just try to do as many as possible. Sometimes doing 4 on a medium weight will make them able to tech, while doing only 3 on a light might mean that they get a tech because you haven't done enough of them. Also, I usually try to end the loop with a BL that knocks them into the corner. It might be worth dropping one iteration for that as well.

Two ranbats have gone by with no updates, because... ehm, I guess we're just kinda lazy that way =p The second round of ranbats had Nehle missing and, due to unforseen circumstances, capping was all whack. In any case, it ended with the following results: 1: Yonasu (sl) +10,5p 2: Caer (te) +7p 3: Shinjin (ba) +5p 4: Godfrog (ve) +2,5p 5: Zae +0,5p For the most recent ranbat, Nehle returned from his excursion to China, but instead Shinjin finally succumbed to the pressure of his studies and had to withdraw from this round. He will hopefully have time to join us for the next one. Only 7 players for this one, resulting in one massive pool and single elim finals. Vids: Pool play: Caer vs Yonasu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmVcMDE8zzQ Semi1: Yonasu vs Godfrog http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwd9uHLMLcA Semi2: Caer vs Nehle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKKNqea-mgo Third: Nehle vs Godfrog http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJjqNlksPeQ Final: Caer vs Yonasu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-4nC-VQa8k Next ranbat this weekend, which will be the last one before Showdown in Lund II. Gotta get my quartercircles down by then And in case anyone's wondering, guiltygear.se is kinda in limbo for the moment, mainly due to the driving force (Shinjin) being so busy, as mentioned.

Wee, three metric tons of Shounen matches. It's like christmas and birthday combined.

New big tourney in Japan coming up: Dream Fighter's Festival 2 http://www.guiltygear.se

Heh, yeah Dizzy, this is kind of my forte After getting used to her in Slash, it's really hard to adjust to her in AC. You used to be able to rush her down madly, but not so much anymore. Anyway, first off, fishes are of course the main problem in this match as they mess up so much of your game. However, as long as no fish is out I'd like to say that you have the advantage. Make full use of this. It's possible to stop her from summoning most of the time as long as you're not knocked down, but as you yourself said, this demands anticipation from your side. If she's far away, be ready with an EXE, otherwise far S. If she does get one out, and she will, it's mainly about patience. If the Dizzy player allows it, you can often punch the fish when it gets close, but this may be an invitation to pain so be careful. Try to leave out traps likely to kill off the fish. A P skull is very good for this. Nets actually quite rarely work since it's too big a chance that either the fish or Dizzy will eat them. Trees take out fishes well if Dizzy rushes with it, but then you'll still have a rampaging Dizzy who did not get hit by the tree. If you can't destroy the fish, try to get past it quickly and pressure on Dizzy. You can start off with getting under it with 2HS or something like that. The fishes turn around now which is really annoying, so be sure you keep moving once you're past. Quite often though, you will be forced to simply block the assault if it's fish-covered. In these cases, just be patient, especially when you're in the corner. Unlike many other characters, Dizzy has no really good way of resetting a pressure string. This means if you can block an assault for the entirety of the time the fish is out, you will most often get out and you're back to neutral. Blocking Dizzy is not insanely hard, but harder than it used to be. the main problem is that you have to always be on your guard for throws while you block. Have full concentration, and you have a good chance of getting out alive. Remember, one hit and Dizzy will get a clean pressure reset on you. Oh right, there is actually one chance to get out of her pressure. If she throws out a fish and does an IAD, you will often have time to get out under her with a GD (that will hit the fish). The important part is that she must be high enough, or you're dead. Try it out but use with caution. Anyway, at neutral, the things you need to look out for are mainly j2S and jS, the last only because it will pretty much always reach you. Dizzy's ground game isn't very strong, especially with the nerfed 2D, but she is far more dangerous in the air. With correct spacing it is possible to take out a j2S with a 5P, but don't count on it. That move owns most everything. I prefer to battle Dizzy air to air. jD is very good for this, an can be thrown out either as a shield or as a (very) long distance IAD attack. jS beats her pretty good for most air battles. For anticipated jumps/air dashes, I prefer to dash and do jump and jK. If you guessed wrong you often have time to recover and dash back. A note for comboing Dizzy: You can pretty much only BL-loop her if started from a tk BL. Don't even try otherwise. She is however the easiest character to get a sideswitch on, thus making up for the previous flaw. I suggest the following combo for max damage and setup from a corner hit on Dizzy. It's pretty easy on her: corner starter combo to 2D > HS EXE FRC > jHS > jD > BL 1-hit > HS > Net > dash > jS > jHS > BL 1-hit > (land in the corner) > HS > Net > tk BL > 236P To sum up: Try to keep her from getting a fish out. While under pressure, be patient. It will end soon enough. Don't rely too heavily on traps while in neutral because they are quite easy to disarm and you might give her a free opening while planting them. Concentrate more on poking as you generally have the advantage there.

Well, ideally you should be able to tell if you will make it or not, since it's preferable to stay back and put up shit if you think there's not enough time. Alas, I know it's not always that easy. Anyway, I'd say it depends alot, like what character your facing and what he does after teching, what your position is, etc. If you think you can safely put him down on the ground and keep pressure, then by all means do so. I can't really see any drawbacks there. Backing down will never be safe for more than the moment since your opponent is free to follow you, but depending on who you're facing, this may or may not be a problem. so yeah, long way of saying "it depends".

Bah, next time I won't be missing out on all the huge amounts of damage that's just lying around. As they say, next time, Gadget! Feels good to be starting up with this again. Also feels pretty good with the sticking, even though it's hell of an embarassament when I miss a quartercircle-input

Yeah, dust is nice. People who has seen it a few times will pretty much always block it since it's slow as hell and very telegraphed, but that doesn't really matter that much due to the frame advantage. It's a dodge move in several situations, and you can also use it as a sort of bait. An old Shounen tactic is to do several dusts in a row when you have them in the corner. Then when you think they will actually try to do something about it, you punish it instead. It's kind of silly, but fun. I should add as well that the chances of it landing are increased when you have cursed the opponent, since they might very well be looking more at the crow than at Testament. The damage and setup-properties of dust combos are very good indeed. And yes, it is actually an antiair of sorts if used correctly. Also note that it is untechable on air counterhit, giving you a free combo in that situation. GD is very good in several situations. It's actually really good as a poke, and it will punish anticipated backdashes/jumps extremely well. You can even use it as an antiair, since people will often forget to FD when they try to block it. If blocked you have a good chance for a throw, and you can even bait a counterthrow by shifting the distance you did the attack to be out of throw range. Then just land and do HS EXE. It will trade and give you a combo if the opponent tried to punish you in any way. Just be careful against characters with a very fast attack like Jam, Sol, Slayer and the like. GD can also be very good in combos since it is Testa's most damaging move. It's often worth it to add one or two GD's in an unprorated combo to add to the damage.

[Regarding deleted post with strategy information] I have to say I disagree with quite a bit of this, and some of it is just outright wrong... =/ The thing I reacted most to is the notion that you can't be thrown if you place a net on okizeme. This is very wrong, you can always be thrown if you stand within range, it's just quite a tight timing for the opponent. However, there's no risk involved for them in trying, so sooner or later you will be screwed if you're not careful with this. It's true about command throws though, since as far as I know, all of them have some statup frames.

Last updated: 13:05 25/04/08 updated with mixup section and additionals on jS I took down the AC discussion thread because I felt it had to much of a pre-release feel to it that it never got over. Here is instead the new thread for any discussion of Testaments gameplay that isn't directly combo-focused. Also, ask any questions you have regarding how to play Testament in this thread. Hopefully we can keep this thread all nice and structured in some way. Overview: Testament used to have a strong focus on zoning and keepaway in his gameplay, but with the additions in AC, he can be played quite freely. In many matchups you will still be best served by a careful zoning strategy though, so keep this in mind if you are considering wether or not Testament is for you. His gameplan revolves alot around his traps and his long range pokes, both designed to keep the opponent at a distance. Offensively, his main weapon lies in HS EXE Beast, as this move allows you to combo from most hits you get in. It also serves a purpose, both offensively and defensively, to simply beat out another characters pokes, as it does not disappear even if you're hit. Damage is perhaps a bit above average, but considering the damage output in AC I can't be sure. You could say that depending on the setup, damage will be quite small or huge. One of the more interesting points of this character lies in the move "Phantom Soul". If this move hits the opponent he will be marked (or "cursed") for a certain period of time, during which Testaments crow will continually attack him with one of four different patterns. Using this fully is often very hard as you need to constantly synch with something largely out of your control. You can do well without the crow, landing the curse only when opportunity happens to arise and using it only as a source of annoyance. For me though, the crow is really what makes Testament special and genuinely fun to play, as the possibilities with the crow are close to endless. I'll try to make a rundown of Testament's basic gameplay options in the most common situations. If I don't mention a move in a certain situation it means it either suck there or it's too situational to list. Neutral/poking situations: Generally what you want to do is get your traps in place in order to make the battle happen at your terms. The trick lies in finding the time to get them out as you want them without being punished for it, i.e. you need to keep the opponent away until you decide it's time for him to get close. I'll list the main moves for this below. f.S. Far slash is the longest reaching move, and has decent values for both startup, active and recovery frames. This is generally the move you want to use when the opponent is far away in order to keep him there. Connect with it in some way and chain it into a web or tree. Also, note that on counterhit it chains into 2HS, Badlands and Gravedigger for some damaging options. 2S: f.S has a weakness in it's hitbox not going very low. Many moves can thus punish it by going under (like grand viper, Big bang upper, etc.) It's for situations like that that you want to use 2S instead. It has a bit longer recovery which combined with its low profile makes it a bit more vulnerable against people going for jumpins. It does though reach almost as far and as stated stuffs low profile moves. Also, 2S is one frame faster than f.S, meaning it combos from 5P, 2P and 2K, which is important to know for some matchups. 5P and 5K: Two moves for when the opponent is a bit too close for comfort. 5K is most common, but against certain characters 5P is prefered in some cases (e.g. Slayer). It's mainly when 5P is used as a poke that you need to remember to chain it to 2S, since you often won't be in range for close S. If a close range poke is blocked, just combo it further to get the opponent away and end with 2HS or 2D before placing a trap. Since those two are long reaching, high level attacks, they will give you more time for trapping. 6K: For 6K, you have to be pretty sure it's going to hit because the recovery is enormous. Also be vay of the fact that Testa's hitbox is huuge in this move. The main reason to use it is either to punish someone you think will jump or do a slow move, or because of its chaining properties. 6K can be chained further at any pont during it's animation. This means you can try to fool the opponent by doing blocked 6K, wait, and then chain to HS, 6HS or EXE. It gives you a good chance to get a counterhit, so combo potential from those followups is high. 6HS: Long reach but very slow and has a terribly large vulerable box. It also doesn't hit close to you, which sucks. Recovery is on the humongous scale, often demanding an FRC just to keep it safe. Despite all this, it is viable to throw out once in a while because it does reach very far, knocks down on hit and a counterhit is one of the best starters you can get. Just use it sparingly. 2HS: Reaches far and has a good deal of invulnerability, making it very useful against some characters. Should however be used with care because it i very slow and can be punished severely. Slayer is an example of a character that can rape you really badly if you try to use this move outside of blockstrings. EXE: S EXE is your main tool for forcing the opponent to move. It makes turtling useless, but can be baited. Count the opponents jumps/airdashes and catch them with it on landing if you want to be sure. HS EXE, also known as HADORYUKEN! will win over pretty much anything and is +9 on block. It can also be baited with an IAD or the like, but it is an excellent tool nonetheless. It's mere presence can make opponent think twice about attacking on the ground. Also very good defensively since it will come out even if you are hit, and a ch HS EXE will most often lead to combo even if you traded, but at the very least gives you knockdown. Air to Air Testament is rather good at air to air, mainly due to his range. Badlands untechable time makes for good combos or at least knockdown from any landed poke. Always try to get a 1-hit in. jS: Main air to air. Has very good range and a pretty good vulnerable box. I have slowly but surely come to realise that this is indeed Testaments best normal. It is one of your few moves that doesn't have a vulnerable box as big as its hitbox and it can outpoke most characters in the air. One very important thing when poking with this move is to think of your hitconfirm. If you land a random hit and hitconfirm it into Badlands, you just turned a slightly annoying poke to a knockdown and free mixup opportunity, possibly changing the pace of the match right there. jK: Faster than jS and thus a good choice either if the enemy is close or just to stuff characters that can move in on you really fast. Not that good range though. I often use it preemptively, by e.g. dashing and doing jump and jK immediately if I think the opponent will jump/dash in. It's a better choice than jS since it also recovers faster. jD: Very long range, but the vulnerable box really sucks and it's a bit slow. This should be used only at long range, as something like a shield. Its common for this move to be spammed a bit too much, but it's understandable since a counterhit is arguably the best combo starter Testament can get. jP: Fastest move, if only be a small margin, but no range. Use only when you need to hit an opponent who is waaay to close for comfort. Air to Ground An area in which Testa is severely lacking. Try to avoid having to use it at all. jHS: Best air to ground only because it hits in a large area under Testa. It is however very, very slow and easy to antiair. Preferably use it either very close to the ground (e.g. as okizeme) or high enough up that you have time to chain it to jD, or you will get thrown when you land. jP: Hits under Testa making it viable in this case. However, the hitbox of jK and jS makes it so you don't have any really good options for chaining into from it. jD: Hits pretty well under Testament, and once again gives excellent combo opportunities on hit. However, the vulnerable box stil sucks majorly, as it can be anti aired easily by almost anything the opponent decides to throw out. Should preferably only be used at a decent range. Anti air An area of varying profitability. Against some characters, you will own them majorly in this field and against others you have almost nothing to work with. 5P: Main anti air in my opinion. Will beat or clash with a very large number of attacks, and you can usually chain it to close S for a combo. This move is mainly used for people coming down at you from above but can also stuf IAD attacks pretty well if not too ranged, especially IAD pressure such as that of Jam and Slayer. This move makes or breaks Testas AA game. When it works, you can own the opponent. When it doesn't, your only remaining options lie in guessing games. 6K: Good against airdashes if used early enough. This means you will mostly have to predict a dash-in to stuff it with this. It does however work fairly well for that and gives you free combo through 6K > BL on hit. 6HS: Takes heavy predicting since it's so slow. Mainly good if you have the opponent somewhat in the corner, where you can almost guarantee it to be at least blocked. As stated it's very nice on counterhit so you can try for it now and then, but be ready with the FRC. 6P: Very situational. It upper body invulnerability is good, but it's very slow and hits way too low. You just have to figure out what specific situations where this is good. Mixups Testament unfortunately has quite few mixups. The ones he has are very good but the lack of variety may very well pose a problem against seasoned opponents. Main mixups lie in the use of 2K and 6P, and to an extent also 2D. 6P hits high and has quite a subtle animation, making it a very good mixup tool. 2K, of course, is your fast low poke. The proration off of that move is really horrible though. 2Ds biggest merit surprisingly lies in the fact that it's quite slow. This means that using this may throw off people who try to get the right blocking of 2K and 6P purely by means of timing. As an added bonus 2D has not proration and can lead to really big damage. Now, the next step is to not just try for a mixup as your first attack. Especially 6P is quite flexible in when you can gatling into it, so try and mix that up as much as possible. potential gatlings are from 2P, 5P, 5S, 6K and 2K. Doing it from 6K is actually bullshit as you can't do a low after it, removing the mixup potential but it still works sometimes. Going after 2K is a bit iffy as it is probably impossible to hitconfirm from the 2K alone meaning if you do hit with 2K you just wasted your combo for a new mixup. However, this can be viewed as more of it's own mixup by itself. You make a conscious decision to not care about the 2K hitting and going for biger rewards. The upside here is that many players reflexively block low after being hit by something low. This means that it's possible to land a 2K and then get a 6P in, for less proration, as they hurry to block in the wrong direction. If your opponent has instead figured this out and forces himself to always block standing after a 2K, you can nail him with a 2D from it as well. After a while of doing the same shit, people start to learn, making throws more and more important. It's unblockable, baby! Testament has many good tick throw setups. Some of the most common are after an okizeme net, after an EXE FRC, after most crow hits and after a meaty jHS. Testament gets very good damage from a throw, making it' inherent fear-value rise. After a while, the throw becomes a mixup since you can go for a 2K instead of the throw and catch people off guard as they are standing in preparation for a counter throw. Testaments best mixup as in hardest to block is probably the tree crossup (see okizeme section). However, please note that in attempting it you are gambling your pressure on that one move, as a failed crossup will result in at best neutral situation, and at worst you jumping into the corner. Okizeme Basic okizeme revolves around nets. If you have time for it, planting a net over a downed opponent is quite like having an automatic meaty when they rise. This comes in handy as you can use it to ensure that they block. For example, against Sol you can plant a net and then wait for a fraction after he rises, until you see the net being blocked. This way you do not need to fear reversal VV's. An alternative is to use a well spaced S EXE instead. If you don't have time to properly place the net, you can run up to the opponent and do a S EXE that hits meaty (or at least close to it). This will let you keep frame advantage without FRC (since S EXE has 19 active frames and is only -2, there's plenty of room for frame advantage to be found) The correct spacing is so that they are pushed just close enough for you to do your mixups after the EXE hits. The distance will keep you safe from quite a lot of reversals. Number three that I have come to like a lot is to jump in with a late jHS. You should ideally hit with it just before you land. jHS > 6P is a good mixup, since many players reflexively block low after the high jHS. You can slo try for a tick throw after it. The nice point about this is that landing after a jHS kills the recovery, meaning it will keep you safe from most reversals. Next up is the Shounen crossup. After a knockdown that lands them sufficiently close to you, run up and plant a meaty tree. Now do an IAD over them as fast as you can. This will result in the tree hitting them while you cross them up. If the tree hits, do a BL and go into a loop. After doing this enough times, you can actually just plant a tree nd then do nothing and make that be a mixup. If your opponent is scared of the crossup, he might block wrong without you having to do anything. Also, a similar variant is that you plant a tree and then backstep at the last minute in order to bait a throw. Badlands and it's usage Badlands is that hip new move Testament got instead of his old Gravedigger. It carries some cons with it but it's mostly all good. Important to note is that it connects from 6K if you hit an airborne opponent with it, making the old 6K > 6HS almost obsolete. Also important is that since badlands knocks the opponent behind you, it suddenly becomes a bad idea to do the old standard combo gatling > BL (standard with GD that is...) if you currently have the opponent in the corner. You do not wish to knock them out of it for a meager 30 extra damage. Keep them there for future high damage combos. Get them cursed instead if you can or set up a loop (see below) that can knock them back into the corner again. Right with that out of the way, I'd like to adress the basics of combos with BL. BL-loop This is that thing that everyone is yelling "broke" at when they see it. It's strength lies in it's ability to get damage from many situations where it was previously impossible, often without any tension involved. The "trick" to the loop is that all but the first BL's should be tigerkneed, i.e. you do the aireal version, as low as you can. This version starts up faster, reaches farther and recovers faster. A tk BL can be done witht the input 2147P. The easiest way to practice this is to do throw > 6K > BL > tk BL > ... You can do 3-4 loops on mediums and 6-7 on lights. Important usage for the loop is from throw, warrant, Nightmare Circular, Dust and any random 6K hit on airborne opponents. These are situations where your other options are very limited or require an unnecessary amount of tension. two important notes: 1: When you use tension to set up a loop, you gain close to no tension from it due to tension penalties. Do not deceive yourself by thinking you're making up for the loss. BL doesn't even have that good a tension gain to begin with. 2: regarding the "curse loop", as I just dubbed it ( go here for more info), all I can say is "learn it". It's really not easy, but it is definitely the best thing you can do with a BL-loop. It can be done from many starters, notable ones being throw and warrant. Learn to see when it's possible and when it's not. And don't feel bad if you can't get the curse at the end. It will come with practice, and until then the combo is still close to the best variant in that situation. I do not really recommend using tension for setting up the loop, e.g. doing combo > HS EXE FRC > 6K > BL or the like, unless you're confident you can get a curse loop from it, as the loop generally gives you a fairly poor knockdown (far away and/or midscreen). Tension is better saved for 1-hit combos, as they generally have a higher strategic value. Exceptions are when you either need just a bit more damage or can't continue the combo through normal means. It is however often possible to go from a normal gatling combo to the loop without tension. More on that can be found in the combo-section. 1-hit combos If you hit an opponent that is high enough or deep enough with a BL, only the first hit will connect. This causes very long untechable time and they fall down pretty much right in front of you for easy continuation of the combo. This is a central part to Testaments combos in AC, as they give excellent setups, carry you into the corner and grants you knockdown from almost all combos. They particularly make random aerial hits much more threatening, as you can now get both a decent combo and knockdown from them, something that was impossible in earlier games. Note that a 1-hit from a ground BL has shorter untechable time than both aerial 1-hit and the 2-hit of both versions. The most basic and useful setup is to lift the opponent in any way you please and do jK > jS > jHS > BL. The only problem with this setup is that the jHS will only connect early in a combo. This means it will not work if you try to get a second 1-hit in or if the setup was unusually long. A good alternative is to do jK > jP > jK > jD > BL. However, getting 1-hits is not an exact science. It varies a bit from character to character. It's really a matter of practicing and getting to now the correct height. Experiment for great success When doing an air combo, there is most often no reason for doing a 2-hit BL at the end. You can almost always get a 1-hit with some planning (adding punches or whatever), the difference in damage is negligable, and even if you can't follow up on it you either get a knockdown close to you or a chance for a tech-trap. It's not always easy to get the 1-hit after a random setup, but try your best. Net-lands I'm not going to say much about this, as I find it to be kinda crap, but what the hell. The basic idea is that you knock someone into a net with BL. From this, you simply lay another net and do tk/jump BL. You can see it in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA0HUjLO2UM The damage is crappy, but you can gain quite a lot of tension from it. Easy to be bursted out of though. The main use I can see is if you can get them poisoned before it, as it pretty much guarantees full poison damage, which is nice. Of course, if you happen to get the chance, by all means go for it. I'd not really recommand trying specifically for it though. Sidewitching I decided to go ahead and make this into it's own topic, as I think it's very important for Testas combos. The idea here is that you do a 1-hit combo that makes you switch sides with your opponent. This can be made to work even deep in the corner, and gives the advantage that you can end the combo with a P skull. Example combos for this are: corner 6P > S > 2D > HS EXE FRC > jHS > jD > BL 1-hit > HS > Net > dash > jS > jHS > BL 1-hit > sideswitch > HS > Net > tk BL > 236P and 6P > S > 2D > HS EXE FRC > dash S > delay > jK (or jP) > jS > jHS > BL 1-hit > sideswitch HS > net > tk BL > 236P There are several things needed for making the switch work. They are primarily momentum, timing and getting the opponent high enough. First off, you need some momentum in you air combo in order for Testament to fly further than the opponent. There are two ways I have found to attain this. First off is the easy way of trapping the opponent in a net and then dash and do for example jS > jHS > BL. The net gives you time to do a dashing jump and thus gain momentum for the combo. The second way generally starts from a HS EXE FRC. You then dash in and do 5K or 5S. Now, if you jumpcancel immediately, Testament will make a normal jump with no speed retained from the dash he did before the previous attack. However, if you wait for just a moment before canceling to a jump, much of the momentum will be left, enough for you to get the sideswitch without nets. Step two is that you need to get the opponent pretty high up with your combo, as you need enough time to land and adjust yourself after the 1-hit. I'm not sure of how this works exactly, but simply try to keep the opponent high up. It often helps to delay jS or jD if you're using them. Last off, on most characters it is imperrative that you time it right when you do the last HS. You often need to do it as late as possible for the sideswitch to happen, but do it too late and you will get an OTG hit instead. This is very hard from some setups, but you'll get it with enough practice. A final note for the curious: The last Net > tk BL is needed to get a knockdown in many cases. Even though the frame data says otherwise, air badlands second hit seems to have longer untechable time than the ground version. Also, the net is advantageous as it saves you from screwups when you mis-time the HS.

More 23 on 23, now Dizzy-edition http://www.gamechariot.com/g3_07_23.html Niiyama (AX) vs HH (DI) Yossan (IN) vs HH (DI)

Okay, I just went ahead and took my last combo off the record (and off this thread) because this is just plain better. Finally playing stick has paid off in some way. I'm going to assume this needs to be said because since no one has mentioned it, people either didn't know it or you're all spiteful bastards for not telling me about it I was practicing my superjump combo on stick today (god I hate superjumps to the right), and since I can't do things on automatic like I could on a pad I actually had to think about how I was doing it. It turns out that what made the combo work was that if you delay the jumpcancel after the close 5S, you will retain much more momentum from your dash than if done immediately. I have no idea why it's like this. Anyway, this means that if you do the following: 6P or 2K > S > 2D > HS EXE FRC > dash S > delay > jK > jS > jHS > BL 1-hit > sideswitch > ... you can get a sideswitch without the superjump. It works better the longer you delay the jump cancel, so you might want to do jP instead of jK, since it's faster and thus easier to connect with. Now, the beauty of this is that first of all it's way easier, secondly it works even if you're deep in the corner (so did the other one actually, but once again, way easier) and best of all, it works on absolutely everyone. You just need to remove the jHS on light characters and add another jP for Potemkin. Also important for making it work is to do the HS after the sideswitch as late as possible. Don't know why it's like that either. Superjump combos are not obsolete, since they work from a farther distance than this one. Also for the characters it works on, I suggest still doing this as a corner combo: 6P > S > 2D > HS EXE FRC > jHS > jD > BL 1-hit > HS > Net > dash > jS > jHS > BL 1-hit > sideswitch > ... since it does a noticeable amount more damage. Characters I've found this to work well on so far is Dizzy, Ky, Slayer and Faust. ------- Regarding curse loop, yes you need to do the input like Badguy said, and yes it is by no means easy. It's all about perfect spacing on both the dash before 5K > HS and the dash before the skull. If you dash too short the first time, you won't be able to reach with the skull, and if you dash too deep you won't hit with the next tk BL. For the last dash, you just need to know you opponents hitbox well and dash the absolute minimum. I recommend Sol as a training dummy, since he is moderately easy compared to most, but still a challenge (unlike Anji on whom it's quite easy). Also, I often find it a bit easier if you switch 5K to 6K.

Shounen vs Tsubasa , Nakamura , Komayuki http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RthGT8F1WJE I suppose everyone's seen it by now but I thought it deserved to be commemorated here. Shounen plays really well here, and shows why he's the best. Frankly I've been a bit disappointed by the matches of him after the first ones against Ruu, but these are back to his usual level. Nice stuff with curse loop from random setup on Tsubasa, and he just baited out Nakamura like anything.

@fragile: I don't really get it. She shouldn't really ever be doing high gekirin. If it's the dash-version, it's very hard to punish, so it's best to just block and try to maneuver away. However, it sounds like it's the regular version and that shouldn't be a problem. If he does double jump gekirin, it will either miss you and you can run up and punish with absolutely anything when she lands, or it will hit you high up, giving you time to punish after block easily. Baiken: The first thing to take note of in this matchup is that nets will be your saving grace. Use them as much as possible. Try not to pressure her at all unless you have a net placed somewhere close around you. Just having one net in the right place stops her completely from using Ouren and the K-counter. It also makes Sakura less of a threat since there's a 50% chance that it will miss if she FRCs it. If you can get two nets out in front of her (it's okay for them to be pretty far away), you are safe from all counters except the P-counter, and that one kinda sucks against grounded opponents. So ground nets stop counters pretty well, but high air nets are what I consider best for stopping her movement. If it's well placed she'll get stuck in it if she tries to airdash in on you, making her more keen to disarm it. Counter her when she does. High nets also mess up her combos since most of them are on the variety "launch with tatami, jump after and combo". You can bait sakura with poke > dust, but this is no longer truly a good strategy, because sakura isn't used as much. Still, if you hit with a dust that's close to 250 damage on Baiken, so it might be worth trying from time to time. also, 6P sometimes clashes with Sakura, and 2HS sometimes goes through it. Both are risky but might be worth to try for if you already commited to an attack and can't cancel it. Baiken's 6P is very slow, so you can often bait her with a jumpin and then do net > fall down and throw. It does however win over almost all of Testas ground pokes. If she starts throwing it out too much, punish with HS EXE instead. You can duck under jS if Baiken does IAD jS. This means if you make ducking stance your default, you won't be caught by sudden dash-ins as easily (IAD Tatami is easier to punish), and you get a free punish if she tries and it goes over you. Warrant kabari (the chain). You can do it on reaction, and after a while she'll probably stop using it altogether. Generally, just be much more careful than usual. Break off pressure strings early, keep her guessing when it's agood idea to counter. Make use of the jump cancel property on close S and 5K. If he gets you in the corner, be patient an look for a way out. FD often helps a lot. If he likes to get in on you with jHS you can get out under it with 2HS (keep blocking though, you'll be at a disadvantage), or you can be cocky and try for a warrant. It's harder to time it than it would seem though, and if it you get hit, it's all over. Baiken takes a lot of damage, so just take your time and look for a way in. You won't need to succeed that many times before she's dead if you make sure to lay out as much damage as you can each time.

More important question: So what? hypothetically, isn't a characters with only positive matchups except against the two top characters also a top character? :roll:

Okay, I got it. But your way didn't work for me either. You sure they can't tech that for you? Anyway, I got it by catching them low with the first HS, and do HS > net > dash jS > BL 1-hit > HS > net > tk BL Doable, but the timing is iffy as hell.

Still, gotta ask, do you get knockdown on lights from that? Or am I the only one this isn't working for?