(source: http://nage.hatenablog.com/entry/2018/04/22/234217 – translator’s notes at the bottom)

Hi, it’s Nage.

I’m still managing to do these regular updates…!

This isn’t a character I have a lot of experience fighting against, but I’ll write what little I can.

This time, it’s Dizzy!

~ Fighting Dizzy ~

Summary:

• Have a “pursuit” mindset.

Because Dizzy’s options open up once she has something on the screen, it’s best to try and make it difficult for her to summon risk-free. If your character has long range, you can try to interrupt the startup directly with an attack, and if you’re more of a close-range character try to think about your options for closing the gap. However, don’t get tricked into thinking she’ll always do airdash back->summon; airdash back->airdash forward, ice spike YRC, and the attack-absorbing property of fish can all punish reckless approaches, so be careful.

• Dizzy’s hitboxes

Dizzy has low HP and is easily stunned, but her hitboxes are strong if she’s able to get them out, both in the air and on the ground. When thinking about specific attacks (like falling j.H, airdash j.P, 2S, 6P, 2D, 5H etc.), I feel it’s best to think in concrete terms about which of your attacks beat them and what you want to do if you manage to avoid them. It seems like my attacks lose unexpectedly when things turn into a scramble.

 

Basic strategy:

First and foremost, by maintaining that “pursuit” mindset, you restrict the times where Dizzy can summon. Even so, Dizzy is really good at retreating, and if you run in without thinking you open yourself up to her forward airdash, so don’t force your way in too much.

When fighting at long range, my main thought is “block in the air as much as possible” so I don’t give Dizzy easy opportunities to do airdash high/low mixups on my guard. However, if you do this too much, she can use it as an opportunity to anti-air you.

 

I look for the following things to cut back on my risk in the neutral game:

• When you’re trapped by D fish (shield fish), because the fish only attacks if it’s struck, you can try to dash or use an attack that goes underneath the fish to hit Dizzy directly.
• Try to instant block ice spears (421S) in the air, but be careful of getting anti-aired by 4S.
• Bubbles do nothing if Dizzy or one of her summons doesn’t pop them with an attack, so there are times where you can run at her without fear while they’re out. Just be aware that the fire bubble explodes with a different timing. (The explosions can be hard to see, so try to rely on watching Dizzy herself to determine if she’s popping them or not.)

Bubbles and D fish in particular really open up Dizzy’s options. I’m satisfied if I can hit her or make her block before she can pop the bubble; this is what I like to focus on whenever possible.

 

Specific things to look for:

• Ice spike YRC

Since it’s hard to deal with this move directly, if you can avoid it or block it, I’d say that’s good enough. Afterwards, Dizzy can go for a throw/strike mixup, but it’s not that bad compared to her high/low mixups, so just take it and accept that at least she had to spend 25 meter.

• D fish

If your character has a multi-hit projectile, you can use it to activate the shield fish intentionally; remember you can always try to avoid the fish by going in.

 

Other points:

• There are a lot of opportunities for you to burst when pushed into the corner. Faust can gold burst by crawling under the laser fish with 3, which usually works unless they know what I’m doing. Otherwise, you can also burst the 6H during the corner combo. Be careful bursting her dust combo in the corner, and remember that she can bait bursts with 2P.
• Single blitz is often very effective if she keeps doing ice spear (421S) okizeme.
• When dealing with her corner okizeme, consider things like holding up, backdash, or blitz that can make it difficult for her to convert; it’s hard for her to adjust her combo in response to these options. To be honest, holding the mixup and just blocking is something I only do as a last resort. (If I mess up and she does a bunch of damage into another mixup anyway, I’ll start going back to relying on blocking and using meter for reversals.)
• Dizzy will often try to make way for other summons by using her P bubble or her ice spear. When she does P bubble, see if you can get in an airdash attack or make her block. (Make sure you’re ready to go in so you don’t miss this situation.)
• My friend who plays Dizzy says that you can just crouch guard under fire spears (421H). (It seems like some characters don’t get hit by the second explosions, or something.)

 

That’s all!

To deal with corner okizeme, just try to be a hard target to pin down. Because nothing really jumped out at me to talk about first, this is how the article turned out.

 

Well, until next time.

 

(tl: thanks to everyone who helped in this very sloppy and rough translation; any mistakes are my own. i made some assumptions in the writing of this article that may not be correct, so if you find anything that is incorrect, please contact me @tenpai_miko and i will correct it as soon as possible. a lot of this was for my own practice as well. thanks for reading!!)

Generally good places to burst

• Any ground-to-ground gatling besides 5P->2P and 2P->2P. None of Dizzy’s other gatlings will ever steal your burst unless you were too far away, so outside of tense set-end situations against greedy players, you should really never be too afraid to burst most ground strings. Dizzy has to throw these combos away to take your burst, so don’t be afraid! If you absolutely need safety, she can do nothing to steal your burst after 5H, 2D, or 6P; just make sure you’re close enough.
• Basically every air-to-air juggle. If you were not aware, Dizzy j.PP, j.KP, and j.SP do not recover fast enough to block your burst. As long as you are mindful of her jump cancel and her air momentum (never burst someone that’s falling or drifting away), you can consistently burst her air combos if desired. You can even burst her if you’re high above her since her j.D significantly extends her hurtbox vertically.
• Her bread and butter ice spike RRC combo with fire dagger and fire bubble is safe to burst towards the beginning. This is the combo where she airdashes after you and does a j.H into fire bubble. You can freely burst almost any part of this combo before she detonates the fire bubble – the safest place is after the first j.H that she cancels into the bubble, but really anywhere should be fine. In general, if she ever has to airdash in a combo, you can freely burst.
• Immediately after 5D->6. This is universal, but it’s good to keep in mind, as Dizzy often combos into her 5D in the corner.

Generally bad places to burst without thinking

• Do not burst 2H. Dizzy has a trivially easy OS to block your burst if you burst 2H(1). To make things worse, Dizzy will almost always do 236H after 2H(2), and you will usually be too far away for your burst to hit. There are some combos and spacings where your burst might connect after 2H(2), but in general, you should avoid bursting this normal if at all possible. Since 2H is her normal ender for crouching combos, this is even more of a reason to consider bursting earlier ‘unsafe’ normals like c.S, as once she reaches 2H(1) her big damage is guaranteed.
• Airdash strings are generally burst-safe. If you burst late in the airdash string, you can sometimes force her to make a read to punish your burst on landing; however, it can be hard to predict exactly when Dizzy will land, and in general you should save your burst for the follow-up ground combo.
• Throw combos. Most Dizzy players will use 2P->2P after throw, which is burst safe, and the follow-up 4S is often spaced far enough for burst to whiff. To make things worse, follow-ups like 2P->4S will usually beat a burst done on the second hit after throw. Make sure you thoroughly understand what she plans on doing after throw before you go for a burst; this is a surprisingly common way we take your burst, and it’s not usually worth it.
• Blindly bursting 4S juggles. You should be very careful bursting 4S, especially immediately bursting it, since you’ll often be juggled too high or far away for Dizzy to get hit. You may find it advantageous to burst the 3rd or 4th hit on occasion, as Dizzy has to commit to a laggy ice spike to knock down from 4S, and although your burst will usually whiff, if she was planning on using ice spike on the last hit, you can possibly score a juicy punish. Especially in the corner, however, Dizzy can choose to ice spike earlier, and at some heights where it won’t knock down she may choose other options, so you should generally only burst if you’re confident you are close enough or low enough to hit her.
• f.S, 5H, or 2D at long range. While these normals are fine to burst up close, Dizzy’s 2D can actually low-profile bursts at long range, and ice spike does not extend her hurtbox forward at all (which may not be a bad thing – see the note at the end).
• Bursting high on the screen to avoid getting hit by 6[H] or 6H is usually bad. You can occasionally get a punish off of Dizzy players doing certain metered juggle combos if you burst on the moon and they airball 6[H], but this isn’t recommended. By simply releasing H on reaction to your burst, she can usually punish you easily. 6H on its own isn’t a terrible burst point if she’s using to pick up a juggle midscreen, but be aware that it does not extend her hurtbox vertically, so make sure you’re not bursting too high above her head.

A note on bursting ice spike

• If you burst the normal immediately preceding ice spike and are far enough away that you don’t hit Dizzy, you actually recover seven frames faster than she does! This means that characters with very fast long-range moves like Slayer’s Dead on Time and Baiken’s Tsurane Zanzuwatashi can punish Dizzy by using their own burst, similar to how Sol can be punished for doing Grand Viper. Even if you cannot get a true punish, the frame advantage and positioning may make this a worthwhile gamble for slow characters like Leo and Potemkin to consider, since it can be frustrating trying to close in on Dizzy after using a normal blue burst. Just remember that you’ll be punished severely if she did anything but ice spike! You should generally avoid doing this if you’re being juggled, as bursting in the air has slightly more recovery.

That’s all I have for now. I’ll try to write more in the future.

thanks!!

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!!

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)

hi!!

Dizzy is a complicated and unpopular character, and a lot of people make some pretty basic mistakes when fighting her. In the interest of spreading matchup knowledge, here are some of the most common pain points I’ve found people struggle with when they’re fighting Dizzy for the first time!

• Not respecting ice spike YRC

This is one of the fundamental layers of the Dizzy matchup for every character, but one that a surprising amount of players – even ones who are otherwise quite strong – consistently fail to respect. Ice spike YRC is an extremely fast tool for controlling the space at around round start distance, and a huge amount of our round wins come from people carelessly entering its range, particularly against characters like Johnny or Ky who can get complacent with their dominant long-range pokes. If you’re in ice spike distance when Dizzy has meter, don’t linger in that space any longer than you have to!

• Bursting airdash strings

While there are times when you can do this and not get punished, this is one of the most common mistakes people make against Dizzy, and it’s one of the chief ways we steal rounds. Dizzy’s burst punishes are very strong and it can be difficult to gauge if your burst will hit or not based on her airdash momentum, so in general you should save your burst for safer points like 6H and ice spike.

• Not representing defensive options against weak midscreen knockdowns

In contrast to her corner setplay, which is typically safe against most reversals, most of Dizzy’s midscreen okizeme is vulnerable to defensive counterplay. Before establishing what choices you have to disrespect her pressure, however, it’s important to first understand that not all of Dizzy’s knockdowns are created equal – importantly, ice spike gives Dizzy significantly less frame advantage than her other knockdown options, and okizeme performed after a midscreen ice spike knockdown is almost universally vulnerable to practically any defensive option you choose. The other situation I wanted to cover is 2D into laser fish, which many seem content to downback and hold the subsequent airdash mixup. Almost every character in the game can superjump while holding FD and escape this setup without much risk, and even if they can’t, most of these mixups are highly susceptible to basic defensive options like blitz, IB -> airthrow, and even simply pressing 6P. Experiment with your options, and please, do not let Dizzy players get away with lazy setplay!

• Dead angling fish

Do not do this.

• Respecting 2D on block too often

This situation is why I wrote this post, because so many players at all levels are far too respectful of Dizzy’s options after she does 2D on block. Don’t be so afraid! Dizzy is actually playing a very dangerous game of RPS after you block her 2D. Her safest option, and one you’ll see most often, is a cancel into fire pillar. This generally covers people running forward or mashing, and although it appears to be a dangerous frametrap, there is actually a significant gap between 2D and fire pillar that can be exploited. This depends heavily on your character, but possible options include backdashing, jumping and IBing, using a move that can beat the projectile properties of fire pillar like Mist Finer or S Graviert Wurde, or (range permitting) using a fast forward-moving attack like Dauro or K Mappa Hunch to evade it entirely. If that wasn’t enough, fire pillar is a whopping -11, which makes it punishable at certain ranges by moves like Elphelt’s 5H. Remember, this is her safest cancel option, and it still loses to lots of options! Once you show Dizzy that she can’t force your respect with fire pillar, and once you punish her for summoning fish, you can start forcing her to give up on using 2D cancel options entirely, or force her to start spending meter or calling out your defensive options with ice spike. It’s a nuanced situation with options on both sides, but don’t let her get away with those fire pillars and fish summons without a fight!

• Bursting air combos

Dizzy is unable to score a knockdown from her air combos, and although she gets some good damage off her air strings, she has a hard time maintaining offensive momentum after ending a combo high. Unless she’s about to combo you into a bubble, which both drastically increases her damage and can lead to a knockdown at lower heights, it’s usually best to take the damage and hold your burst to escape corner setplay or a damaging RRC combo.

• Using single-hit reversals against fish

Do not do this.

• Failing to handle TK H fish in the zoning game

One of the most meaningful buffs Dizzy received in Rev2, Dizzy’s air H fish is exceptionally fast and is now one of the premiere zoning tools in the game. While it’s difficult to challenge directly at long range, Dizzy has a significant cooldown after she summons a fish before she’s able to summon another. If you’re a zoning character feeling frustrated, try to weave your zoning in during this downtime instead of trying to fight it head-on, or start zoning her in the air where H fish is less of an issue.

There’s a lot more I could write, but these are most of the main points I wanted to cover. If there’s any questions you have about fighting Dizzy, feel free to contact me on Twitter and I can put them in my next writeup.

thanks!!