iad back

hi!!

I wanted to quickly break down some of Dizzy’s options after IADing backwards. If you find you’re having a hard time finding answers to Dizzy running away in neutral, particularly midscreen, it’s usually because you’re not controlling this movement pattern well enough.

With that in mind, let’s break down four of the most common options Dizzy players like to use out of IAD back.

• bubble

This is one of the most common options at around round start distance or further, and for many characters dealing with it can be difficult to do safely. If she is far enough away that you cannot realistically punish her for doing it, your best response is to either back up slightly and be ready to jump if she’s using it to approach, or run up and FD brake to bait her into popping it early. However, at many ranges, it’s quite feasible for most characters to simply run up and anti-air her, particularly if you have a normal like Ky’s 2H or Johnny’s 6K that can reliably clip her out of the air. This option also loses to pre-emptive IADs, which may be a better choice depending on your character. Once the bubble is out, she can airdash again, but usually if you’re not on top of the bubble, you can 6P Dizzy out of IAD forward and low profile the bubble pop.

• j.H/j.S

This is a relatively low-reward way for Dizzy to discourage people for chasing her, and basically the only way she has to cleanly beat you if you IAD’d forward right as she tried to IAD back. j.S will basically never give her a followup combo, even on counterhit, but it will beat almost every IAD approach due to its disjointed hitbox. j.H is much more rewarding on hit, particularly on counterhit, but it’s slower to come out and has much more of a tendency to trade. Sometimes, at close ranges, she may use j.K as a last resort, but it has a tendency to trade and has no real chance of beating anti-airs.

• low H fish

This is basically only ever used if she sees you retreating – any approaching option will beat it, often even on reaction. Just make sure to buffer into something if you clip the fish before hitting her, and be careful that you’re not too late using moves like Leo’s Berserker Slash that might get eaten by the fish.

• nothing

This is often what Dizzy has to do if she IAD’d back any closer than round start distance, particularly if she sees you approaching. While she can try to j.K or j.H, the risk/reward can be pretty rough for her. Press something like Sol 5K to pressure her on the way down and then start your offense. If you’re too slow on reacting to it, just be careful you don’t run into ice spike YRC range.

• IAD back again

Purely a spacing tool, though it’s often the safest option. Dizzy usually uses this if she’s confident you won’t chase her too far, so if she like to do this a lot, take up as much space as possible (again being careful about ice spike YRC once she lands) and get ready to airthrow her if she just cornered herself.

• IAD back IAD forward

A lot of Dizzy’s options off of IAD back lose to simply chasing her down and hitting her out of whatever she was doing, or at the very least running up to contest her space. This is why IAD back IAD forward is such a powerful tool – it will nearly always catch you standing as you’re running, which means she often gets a huge confirm into knockdown. Dealing with this option usually requires you to down-back or anti-air in place, both of which mean you’re not effectively dealing with her other options. It can also function as a generic whiff punish in neutral if she sees that you had pressed something like a far slash as she was IADing back. It’s crucial that you’re aware that her IAD back represents both a passive zoning stance as well as an opportunity for one of the best whiff punishes in the entire game. If you can scare her off of using this pattern even once, you’ve gone a long way towards containing Dizzy in neutral.

• conclusion

Hopefully this wasn’t too rambling; I felt bad about not making a post in a while, so I wanted to get something out there. There’s plenty of choices Dizzy can make that I didn’t list out here, but by being aware of her basic risk-reward structure, you can make meaningful decisions and swat her out of the air.

thanks for reading!!