Character Matchup Guide
Amy
her 1A low is neg on hit but she can beat you after it if you dont' know your options. her 6BB beats anything that doesn't TC. WS K trades with her 2A.
she may crouch dash into 2B+K, a low foot stab, punish with WS B
her 2A+B is a knockdown low you cannot punish, learn to block on reflex
if she hits you with 3B and does 3BA, the A will tech trap you. stay down and the A will miss you, and you can stand up at advantage
Astaroth
Astaroth will try to raise your soul gauge with his 1[A]A and 1[A]B. jump attack him with 9B or 9K right as he's swinging it toward you to get a free hit and kill the mixup entirely. if you jump too early you will miss him! if you block it, keep blocking low unless you see that he's doing the mid, in which case there is no reason not to 6G (only 6G) into a free mixup.
1KA=WS [B| guaranteed, if he does A followup you hit him on CH
many moves he'll do like 4B, 6K, 66K, all leave him at great disadvantage on block, and you can frametrap with 3B
unfortunately many of his moves like 6K and 66K have TC frames, and he can punish 33B extremely easily on block with 66K. I think this will still be a tough matchup. luckily now you can step his 6K and 66K easily, so don't let those go unpunished on whiff
his A+B is his main long range tracking mid move. if blocked far out you'll be pushed away. if you block it closer up you can get a free 11K or A+K. if he hits you with it too close and doesn't knock you down you can get free moves 66K speed or faster as well
after blocking his 4[B| you B+K will evade his 6K, but not 66K. 66K seems to crush basically anything you do after GS B, any version of the move, unless you do GS B6 into a very late GS A.
Sophitia
Ah, everyone's favorite matchup from SC3!
3B can be punished by her 236B but 3[B| NSS bA evades and punishes it.
WS [B| on block do NSS bA to beat 236B, and clash with 236AA. if she does 236AA and clashes with NSS bA, after the clash you have time to low block the second hit and punish her. legitamate way to take advantage of the clash system here. sadly you can't block second hit of cass 236AB like this, so in that case clash system bad. =[
don't throw out 33Bs unless it's gonna hit, cause she will own you for it. don't do much stuff into GS period
after blocking 4B your WS K will trade with her 2A, as will your FC K. both trades are better for you, especially WS K.
her 22B is advantage on block even uncharged, so don't attack
Lizardman
his 1[K] goes to crawl now. annoying. WS B punishes 1K and flapjack punishes 1[K]. NM 1K punishes both but is obviously lame punisher.
1AK should be blocked on reaction 100% of the time and punished with 33B or 3B.
if you block a crawl move like his low hitting crawl A, do 1K to make him stop. crawl has a mid auto GI to keep in mind.
do not low block against crawl if back is to edge or risk RO by mids. his lows cannot RO. the low, mid move crawl A+K B is safe from you on block. -_- stupid it's his only move that leaves crawl once he's in it
Mitsurugi
omg 2kB. what to do? first off if you block it you can get a free 33B or 3B. however, being forced to guess whether to block high or low is what you want to avoid
B+K dodges his 2K well even at close range. backstep and bA will not. sidestep to the right will work, sometimes sidestep left will work as well. if he whiffs it because of B+K or sidestepping it, be sure to launch him for it hard
when you whiff punish with 3B use 3[B|, more dmg
66BB is free FC 3B on guard, if close enough, but I recommend 6B:B for reliablility
Nightmare mirror
now that 3K is slower by a whooping 2 frames, you can't use it to beat GS stuff anymore.
33K will usually beat GS stuff after guard, sometimes will get GIed. other than predicting GS A and duck and punish you don't have options for better damage. A+B works against GS A and GS KK after blocking 33B6 or 66K6.
however, you could just keep blocking high to punish the GS move they will probably use. GS A can be punished by agA, duck and punish GS KK second hit with WS [B|, and GS B you'll have to guess what he does if you want to punish. blah
66K also stops NSS K traps. if you block NSS K, NSS bA (jf included), or NSS A+B you can punish with a:gA
punish other nm 1A with WS K, WS [B| may result in your death
Siegfried
punish 3[B| on guard with 6K, 6A, or a:G+A (if you are super pro). however, on far block you will get trades against his knee, and the 6A and a:G+A will be GIable if he goes to B+K
WS [B| on block you can beat knee with sidestep, B+K, bA (harder/less consistent), or A+B. same goes for a+k[A]/22k[A], however...
22kA string you can duck second hit on block and get WS B or FC 3B whiff punish.
his [A] on block, 9K or throw him should deal with most of his options
SRSH B=A+K
SRSH [K]=WS [B|
88B/22B on guard nothing guaranteed that works against both but 66K, bA, and NSS are good bets. 66K beats all his moves but he can step it in both stances, irritating
Yunsueng
his 66A TCs but is high, and punishable by 3K or faster on guard
his 1K2K is low, low and punisable by WS B on guard
his 236KK is mid, high, so you can duck second hit and backthrow him as he lands
Cervantes
good for nightmare is that SC3 A+B is gone so you dont' have to worry about that. now for SC4
After his 1K hits you will be forced into crouch and he will have frame advantage. However, B+K will evade his 6K, WS K, and FC K in this situation and you can whiff punish.
His WS A will hit you out of B+K, however, that move is punishable on guard with A+K.
his 2A+B is a new move that forces a crouch on block, tracks, and gives a combo on CH. you cannot punish this on guard. his A+B TCs and tracks as well but is not safe on guard. be sure to break the stun A+B causes. his A+B is a free hit vs NSS transitions till i figure something out -_- also punishes NM 33B lawl
main block punishes
1A=WS B
1K=WS B
aB=A+K
WS A=A+K
iGDR=33B
normal GDR=agA or a[B| NSS K combo (preferable)
A+B=a:G+A (difficult)
if lazy you can do a quick throw, and if he did iGDR it's a back grab, for normal GDR you get a throw mixup he can't duck if you are quick
Raph
if you block his 3, step RIGHT to avoid his prep A. this is not the usual way to step but it's the way to step for nightmare in this instance.
after blocked 4 can step either way to avoid prep A
difficult matchup on ver 1.02, but not on ver 1.03 (current)
Yoda
Most of your high moves miss him. Except 6K, so don't hesitate to use it, especially since yoda is pretty slow. =]
All throws and attack throws of any kind will fail. no flapjack, A+K, FC 3B attack throw, etc, it all fails. Your launchers also don't launch as high. Because of this, you're gonna have to use some dumbed down combos.
other stuff that whiffs:
CH 4KK second hit whiffs
second hit of 6B:B whiffs
Combos to use:
33B > 1A
33B6 > GS B
3B > 1A
3[B| > NSS bA (this is harder than it normally would be but works)
66B > agA
WS [B| > NSS A+B
CH WS [B| > NSS A+B > 1A
anything involving otg GS KK will fail, second hit will miss
At the most basic level, your gameplan is to abuse mid attacks that will be hard for him to dodge. beware of his B+K parry though, as it can parry mids, so mix in some lows as well. Yoda is vulnerable to CF because his soul gauge is only 2/3 normal durability.
Defensively, it shouldn't be too hard to deal with him because he has very few lows and the ones he does have are weak. His 6A+K low knocks down but takes a while to come out and he moves forward low to the ground before doing it so you should be able to see it after a while.
He can do force cancels from his air attacks, which allows him to go into more air attacks. However, there's no mixup from this because while he's in the air the only low he has is a retreating low move that won't hit you unless you're running into him. He does have a mid, low attack with 66AA that comes from the air, but you can punish the second hit with WS [B ] on block, and there's no mixup to the string anyway.
