using a simple gameplan

hi!!

One of the most common problems I find new players have in Guilty Gear, and particularly new Dizzy players, is that they lack a cohesive strategy when playing neutral. Because movement in Xrd is so fast and the mixup options are so powerful, it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to overwhelm your opponent with pure offense (often by using YRC to bully your way in), or attempting to sidestep the neutral game entirely by playing randomly in the hope that the other guy can’t keep up. These are not formulas for long term success! Against most decent players, you’ll quickly find that although you’re stealing the occasional round, more often than not you’re starved for meter, getting anti-aired constantly, and getting frustrated at how overwhelming it is to play the game.

What I want to encourage new players to do is follow a very simple and easy-to-follow gameplan in the neutral game. I’ve listed out a few easy rules to keep in mind while playing, and I encourage you always use them when you first start playing a matchup before trying to use anything else. You can also apply these concepts to any character; just make sure to use tools that emphasize your character’s strengths and keep it as simple as possible. With that in mind, here’s a very straightforward way to approach the neutral game as Dizzy:

• If the opponent is trying to approach us, try to hold them off with f.S, or if you have more space to work with, IAD backwards and set a P bubble. (Make sure to hit confirm f.S into 5H, 2D or ice spike, or jump cancel it on block!)
• If you think they’re going to zone or play passively, you will start your offense with either an airdash or run up 2K, or set up a TK H fish to apply pressure if they’re far away. (If you’ve already summoned a fish, you can try using K bubble instead.)
• If they’re going to jump or IAD towards you, crouch and try to 2S or jump or IAD backwards and use j.S.
• As a last resort, if they get too close, use Faultless Defense to limit their offense, and then super jump and airdash away once you get some space.

That’s it! You want to keep your neutral blueprint as basic and fundamentally sound as possible so it’s both generally useful and not hard to remember. Because you’re not constantly at a loss for what to do, you’ll also be able to immediately recognize those situations where these tools don’t work and start exploring with other tools.

For instance, you might have a hard time dealing with Faust’s Rerere Thrust when you’re trying to zone with TK H fish, but because you have a good plan to deal with him in most other situations, you won’t feel so overwhelmed by his options and you’ll find it’s a lot easier to find an answer to that one particular problem. By layering those specific answers on top of your default responses, you’ll naturally begin to introduce more and more nuance into your neutral game. Eventually, you’ll outgrow the need to follow this basic outline, and instead develop your own series of strategies and counter-strategies for each matchup in the game. Just make sure you’re starting with a sound gameplan, and only start deviating when it doesn’t work.

It won’t be easy, and you’ll lose a lot when you first start out since there’s so many unique situations in Guilty Gear that demand specific answers. Just make sure to keep your fundamentals in mind, stay calm, and believe in Dizzy!

thanks for reading!!

(ps just block scalpel pull since it’s -11 or you can beat it clean with 6p, you get that one for free)