Kikuichimonji

I wouldn't actually stop at bt.P unless I was intentionally trying to do something weird, but I can confirm the block and go into bt.K, which is +1 and allows me more offensive options than bt.S. bt.S > bt.H isn't a guaranteed blockstring, especially on crouching opponents. If they crouch or IB during bt.S, the bt.H hits meaty, so they can reversal blitz or whatever. Also, your options after they block KPSH are really bad because you're outside of bt.S range, so you're placing yourself at a range where you have weak pressure options in a stance during which you can't block. I actually really dislike bt.S > bt.H on block. I think just stopping at bt.S is stronger, because even though you're -1, a follow-up bt.S is extremely dominant at that semi-poking range since it's a blazing 6 frames startup. I really disagree with this. There at a few really good answers to stance, like VV RRC and backdash YRC, but most of the guessing games that people try to run against Leo in stance are actually better for Leo's risk/reward than the actual mixup, and you can mix in soft reads to real 50/50s to keep people seriously guessing. The only way Faust can get away with stuff like 5D YRC is by doing stuff riskier than blocking occasionally, like attempting to throw Leo, blitz, hitting his slow 2P, or fuzzy jump. Leo has mixup strings that just auto bait each of these and they're incredibly easy to execute, which helps put the onus on Faust to make the good call defensively. Faust has to have super strong defensive instincts to break Leo's offense apart, and Leo can just change his flow to blow up Faust for that mindset. Like you said, Leo definitely has to play against the player more than the character, but defending against Leo's offense consistently is as difficult as defending against I-no's when executed correctly.

https://youtu.be/tFOXMyBvmUo

I think your answer is bad. If you're relying on the OS to beat the dust, you're committing to bt.K > bt.P every time (if you're speaking of the OS I think you are, which is bt.K> bt.P~S). This deletes many of Leo's best mixup options because bt.P is a really bad stopping point, so the best you can do is bt.K > bt.P > delayed bt.K or bt.K > bt.P > bt.H. Simply committing to a single bt.K gives you more options on block (like bt.K > bt.K or bt.K > bt.H or bt.K > dash through bt.K). Just because you have an OS to beat an option doesn't mean you should use it every time. Now, if you were talking about whiff 2P > 5K gatling to punish the wakeup Dust, that's an option I use all the time because that leaves you in a significantly advantageous situation on block. Leo's stance knockdowns are a valuable resource and you need to try to get as much damage as you can while you're close to Faust. Faust is going to try to maintain max range f.S because that's his best range against Leo. Every Leo player is expected to run forwards. If, very occasionally, you retreat a bit (say after blocking f.S > item toss) and throw a H fireball, you can help negate the really hard battle of getting from 2/3rds screen to 1/3rd screen. If your argument is "well he's just going to run forwards and hit f.S," that's exactly what I want him to do because that forces him to approach me, and I can take advantage of that in other ways, like jumping forwards, S fireball YRC, or dashing forwards with 5K/f.S. I really think you're overestimating the willingness of most Faust players to advance on Leo. If he's sitting there reacting to what I'm going to do, then I can just dash up f.S to get him blocking and go from there. Test it in training mode if you don't believe me. I was surprised it worked too. I'm not going to say the matchup is even for Leo, because it's not. But you're actively shutting down every idea I put out there, and these are the ways I play the match-up with moderate success. This would be fine if you offered an alternative way to play the matchup, but you seem dead set on the idea that since everything Leo does is punishable by Faust, you can't make good decisions. All you've suggested is "don't do these things."

My point was that you don't have to OS to punish Dust, you can punish it on reaction after seeing yourself whiff. Not from maximum screen distance, his f.S doesn't have the range. Scalpel pull whiffs too. This range is pretty common in my experience. While Faust can totally anti air your j.k on reaction every time, he can't play footsie at the same time. You can just lazy jump at him and check if he did a big punishable footsie move, and if he didn't just air dash or double jump backwards to relative safety. It's not a solid way in because those don't exist in this matchup, but jumping towards Faust is a useful alternative to trying to 6P or 2H his f.S. 6P totally beats j.2K clean if you throw it out earlier. It works now, and it worked in 1.0. You're probably hitting the 6P too late. You can also 2H the drill if you get it out super early.

You can just whiff bt.K and do it again on whiff (or bt.D it) to punish wakeup Dust from Faust unless he YRCs it. You can punish that on a guess with a slightly delayed bt.P. In my opinion, Faust is actually REALLY bad at getting out of Leo's offense. All he can do is try to punish you for being predictable, and if you call his dust out with a YRC he's probably eating a full combo. This is a matchup where Faust has very little to stop you from doing H Fireball from completely full screen. If he runs away hardcore, throw a H fireball and react to his escape (which will probably be a super jump or an air dash over it). He can try to react to your fireball with a door teleport behind you, but that's not really a good option. Leo does better in this matchup when he tries to occupy the opposite zone that Faust is in. For example, jumping is pretty decent if Faust is grounded, but Leo can't beat Faust air to air without frame advantage. Faust also outpokes Leo on the ground at midrange, but if you get a lucky j.K on his f.S you can get a full combo out of it. Leo's 6P is an acceptable risk against Faust's air options, especially if you can threaten H Eisen Sturm anti-air. Lots of Fausts rely on Leo respecting the threat of Faust's footsies without actually enforcing it. If the Faust isn't trying to keep you out with grounded pokes and is instead relying on Faust's air priority on moves like Faust's bag projectile and j.2K, don't be afraid to whiff a 236H to close the gap. If he's doing an immediate air j.2K or f.S, that will obviously beat the run, but otherwise it's a great way to close the gap.

I will in the next week or so.

Remember, RRC is invincible on frame 1, so RRC on reaction to burst will never get hit by the burst.

This matchup is hell until you get close. Venom wins footsies so easily it's not funny. Fortunately, jumping at him is extremely strong because while his 6P is effective, he gets nothing without CH at most ranges, and even on CH he only gets a knockdown. Your 5K can beat his 2S about 50/50, and it's worth rolling the dice on this because Venom has practically zero options on defense. His fastest normal besides cl.S is 6 frames 2S, as well, so don't worry about him mashing jab too much.

2S beats her Stroke the Big Tree. Buffer 2S into 6K for a big combo. 5H beats Horizontal Chemical Love if you can get it out in time, and you can confirm with dashing 5K. Her low air dash height makes 5H pretty good at stopping it, but 5H loses to Stroke the Big Tree. If you predict a wakeup super, you can do a crossup 236H with a delayed timing to CH her from behind and get bt.S CH combo. She can just throw this or mash on it, though. Leo's 236H goes underneath Horizontal Chemical Love, but I wouldn't rely on it. I-no has lots of setups to safe jump or safe meaty Leo's H Eisen Sturm, but if you have 50% Tension you might as well do it anyway because even just getting her to block it and RRC is worth it. This matchup relies heavily on who keeps oki going, so don't be afraid to take a few risks to get her off you.

H Eisen Sturm RRC is extremely strong against stance mixups. Remember, you can't mess up Leo's reversal inputs by sideswitching. Besides that, Leo does really poorly when he's at frame disadvantage in this matchup, because he doesn't have a faster midrange poke than 7 frame 2K or 8 frame 5K. Fireballs are very risky in this matchup because Leo's IAD j.K is so strong. In general, the Leo that gets above the other will gain control of the matchup from j.K. Whiffing moves besides 5H is risky because of IAD j.K. Meter management is crucial to earning an advantage. Don't waste your meter.

https://youtu.be/lIPhJyelGPU

I think you misread my initial post because I was talking about bt.D > bt.214H, not the 214S/third rekka. This works midscreen against the lightweights.

New burst punish combo: cl.S 6P (jump install) cl.S (sjc) j.K j.S(2) (jc) j.K j.H j.236H = about 180 damage on everyone. https://youtu.be/ckdKOU5uvU8

It actually feels incredibly hard to me on light characters because you have to delay a really specific amount of time on light characters. 6K > 2P works on Slayer too. The 2P link adds a few points of damage, but it's highly spacing specific and if you start that same combo off a 5P it probably won't connect consistently. If I'm really hungry for damage and meter, I personally do the 5H > Eisen Sturm combos (the combos I said were never worth it in this thread, lol). I do the crouching 6K > 5P combos, though, because those can do just shy of 200 with a little guard crank and you build a ton of meter. I remember getting 5K cl.S 6K 2P 5K cl.S 5H on one character, but I can't remember what character. But the damage on that is silly.

You have (approximately) 10 frames after you stop charging to release the fireball. This is actually pretty lenient, so if you're not getting the fireball, make sure that you're doing the dash as fast as possible and also that you charged long enough. It's just a Sonic Boom with a dash before it. Don't overcomplicate it. You can do whatever you want for input as long as you start with a back charge, get a dash, and then hold 6 while hitting S. This isn't terribly important either. I personally prefer not to do the dash for H fireball and just do a meaty after the YRC to stop them from moving. This makes the fireball hit later, which gives you more frames to abuse.

That does around 150 damage, but the 214H combo does around 180. Against characters like Sol, you can't do the 214H, so a combo like bt.D > 236H > j.S(1) (jc) > j.K j.H > j.236H becomes optimal. I actually didn't know about the 236H bt.P combo before you posted though, so thanks. 214H also works on I-no. It wasn't in any of those videos. Do you mean the wallstick? That's pretty well known at this point I think.

What's your combo for the 217 on Ky? Didn't they increase the RRC proration duration to 6 seconds or something so you can't avoid it by delaying attacks?

I don't know if this is new to 1.1, but on May, Millia, Elphelt, I-no, and Ramlethal, you can do bt.D > bt.214H > dashing 5K cl.S (jc) j.K (jc) j.K j.H j.236H.

I did some testing with Leo uppercut versus Damned Fang recently. Just because the Damned Fang was unjumpable didn't mean that I couldn't Eisen Sturm it. But I think it's possible to punish with a perfectly timed command grab, but only on IB on the burst usually. You can still get the unjumpable WT without the IB, but they can reversal it. Either way, it's like 98% guaranteed as a punish, so I'd go for it every time.

I think that you get the non OTG damage on Wild Throw based on what I tested. That would be silly as shit otherwise, because the WT would be an OTG and maybe wouldn't knock down.

Start of round test results: Elphelt's 2S beats everything except a [*]delayed Leo 2D to whiff punish. You can't even H Eisen Sturm it because you'll trade. You can crouch block (you must hold back!) then stand up and 5H right as it's whiffing to punish with 5H. If you block standing or don't block, the 2S connects. If you jump, you get over the 2S... but she can just hit 2S again after recovery and anti-air your j.K. Elphelt's f.S beats everything except immediate H Eisen Sturm or jump forward j.K, which leads to a combo: j.K j.H 5K 2H rekkas Elphelt's 5H loses to 5K, 2D, f.S, and a slightly delayed 236H. 2D leads to a small air combo at this range on CH against Elphelt, which would be something like 5P (jc) j.P j.K j.S (1) dj.K j.236H. 236 CH's and leads to (walk forward after CH) bt.S bt.H bt.S rekkas. However, this is a big call out because 236H obviously loses to her other options, as well as a differently timed 5H. If you jump, you'll get tagged on the way up. Don't hit 5K at the start of the round, it trades with both f.S and 2S, but you lose heavily on the trade and she can actually combo from these trades. If you Blitz Shield the rifle shot from anywhere closer than half screen, you can punish with 5H. Otherwise, forget about it.

Start of round Sin has a minor advantage. Leo's important moves: 5K: beats Sin's 2S clean, trades with f.S in Sin's favor f.S: beats Sin's 5K, loses to f.S and 2S 2D: beats 5K and 2S Jump forward j.K: beats f.S, Sin recovers in time to block after 5K and 2S. Sin's f.S seems dominant here at first, but Leo's jump forward j.K leads to a pretty decent combo (j.K j.H 5K 2H rekkas = 165 damage). If you can enforce the strength of your jump here, Sin can be scared to hit buttons. 2S becomes more appealing to him then, because it doesn't get him hit if you jump. That's when using 5K becomes a good idea, because you get a full combo if you beat 2S with 5K. If f.S whiffs, you can punish with 5H on whiff and get a knockdown or big damage. This is one reason why Sin players will prefer 2S in footsie, because it actually beats your 5H clean by low profiling. At most ranges, you can't whiff punish 2S with Leo 5H, so you still should trust on 2D and 5K to beat 2S. A lot of Sin's pressure revolves around 2S > 236K (Elk Hunt) > 236H ( > 236K > 236H loops. 236K > 236H is always a true blockstring, but there is a gap to Eisen Sturm or Blitz Shield between the 236H and followup 236K. In order to maintain charge, you have to perform the instant block while crouching, so your inputs might look like 1,2,1,8H. This is a fairly small gap and you can get hit for doing it, but the reward is big and this is a string that most Sin players absolutely rely on, similar to Leo's f.s > 5H/6K. You can actually react to the 236K after instant blocking so that you're not just uppercutting on a guess, as well. You can also interrupt his 2S > 236K, but you probably won't have charge for when you block 2S. Bull Bash Of special note is Sin's 214S, also known as Bull Bash. This is a (very slow) overhead attack that hits in a huge arc around Sin. It hits 2/3rds of the screen away, and on hit can lead to half life, even midscreen. The hitbox is disjointed, so even trying to react to it with Eisen Sturm or 632146H will just lead to Sin clashing with you. Overall, you really just need to learn to respect the crap out of Bull Bash. It's Sin's #1 scrubkiller move (think Gunflame), and learning how to respect and properly disrespect it is a big part of the matchup. If you hit whiff normals anywhere on screen, Sin can Bull Bash you to death. If you try to throw full screen fireballs, he might Bull Bash you. Be ready to YRC your fireball on reaction, even before it comes out, because it's better to waste meter than eat a ton of damage. The best answer I have currently is to Blitz Shield it on reaction. From max range, you can get a running 6H rekkas. From up closer, you can punish with IAD j.K j.S(1) j.H 5K cl.S 5H rekkas. From point blank-ish range, you can punish with jump forward delayed j.K j.H 5K cl.S 5H rekkas. Of course, they have the option to counter-Blitz if they have meter, so a lot of the time a dashing 2D, dashing 5D, or 2S 2H rekkas will be all you're confident in going for. There's a lot of intricacies to the Blitz Shield metagame that I'm not going into here, but it's important to be aware that they exist. Remember, you're not trying to win from the long range game. You're only trying to get close enough to run Leo's blender on them. Oki notes Sin has a ridiculously long wakeup period after rekkas and throws. For example, after throw, you can bt.dash forward three times and still whiff a bt.K because he's not up yet. You actually can get a RRC if you try to YRC a H meaty fireball because he's still on the ground, so be wary. Safe jump oki is effective on Sin, but of course you need to delay your jump forever. You can actually do throw > 22 > hold up forward to safe jump, but you need to delay a frame or two to actually force him to block. Hawk Baker Worth mentioning is Sin's meterless reversal, Hawk Baker, 623S. While it has very little range, Hawk Baker is very annoying for Leo to deal with because Sin can cancel it into safe moves for no Tension (only cost is his Calorie Gauge). The strongest way to bait and punish Hawk Baker is to backdash to make Hawk Baker whiff. The problem with stuff like Leo's meaty 6K is that it requires you to dash towards the opponent, which normally means that you can't cancel from your forward dash into your backdash. If you're doing grounded meaties, then you're on some level putting yourself into a guessing game as to whether he'll wakeup throw or wakeup DP, because his DP can be made safer with the Calorie Gauge. The best way to break this pattern is to use what I call the "Millia shuffle," aka FD break backdash. Most commonly used by Millia because her dash momentum and backdash are absurd, this simply involves hitting 4PK > 4 to cancel your forward dash into Faultless Defense, which is then cancelled into a backdash. This is also a much safer way to bait moves like Volcanic Viper because if Sol wakeup throws/OS 5K, he just whiffs. Of course, safe jump oki has none of these problems with wakeup throw when timed properly. In order to avoid the above problem with Hawk Baker, I recommend buffering a backdash OS off the safe jump to make Hawk Baker whiff. If Sin backdashes, he'll get out, but that's a very ballsy backdash because you can also just autopilot 5P 5K to punish his backdash. If you actually do get Hawk Baker to whiff, you get to go to town because Sin is rightly in CH recovery, and the recovery is very long. Dash up 2H > 6H > 236H > 66 5K cl.s (jc) j.K (jc) j.K j.H j.236H is optimal punish meterless from what I know, but something like 6H 5K cl.S 5H rekkas does 177, so just make sure that it hurts him. Spending meter for corner push is fine. 6[H] bt.S 63146S is definitely the best starter if you're spending meter, but as always those combos are pretty spacing and character specific. 6[H] 632146S 2366H 5K cl.S (jc) j.K (jc) j.K j.H j.236H = 261 Damage Defense Sin's offense is like Ky's with an even slower Greed Sever but a safe Stun Dipper. Block low until he runs low on food. React high to j.D, leap stuff, Bull Bash, and 5D. Sin does absurd damage rivaling even Leo, so while Sin's mixup is actually very predictable and weak if you can react high, Sin can steal rounds off one hit. Be warned.

You have to eyeball the distance between you and the opponent after the RRC. If they're farther away, you need to dash before the 6H. If they're close, you can't dash before 6H or else your 6H will whiff or the opponent will be thrown the other way behind Leo. After that, you need to dash as far as possible before 5K. Depending on how long your combo has been, 6H may have enough hitstun to knock down or not. And finally, you can delay the gatling from 5K to cl.S in order to get closer to the opponent from the 5K. I mess up the combo too sometimes, and different characters are easier or harder to land the combo on.

Like Maho said, starting combos with 6P isn't great because of its proration. 5K also decreases the damage of juggle combos, but it's a great starter because it leaves Leo closer, allowing you to get dashing 5K cl.S from nearly half screen. If I were comboing a crouching opponent, I'd use something like 5K cl.S 6K 5P 5K cl.S f.S 5H rekkas (which does over 170). If I were executing a CH punish, I'd go for a combo off CH 5H or 2H (which would be around 200 damage, 250 with meter near corner). I'd never end a combo in H Eisen Sturm without RRC unless it would kill just because the setup options after rekkas are so much better. Whiff 236H, j.K safe jump, and [4]6H YRC setups are too good to pass up.

I recorded a bunch of optimized Leo combos today. Adding the 6P cl.S rep to combos using Eisen Sturm RRC consistently reduced his damage compared to leaving it out. You have to remove a hit from the air juggle in order to make the Siegesparade ender connect. I'll upload them when my internet stops messing up.