Hey All,
I’ve been wanting to see a more comprehensive but accessible breakdown of AE Dee Jay for a while now, and so I came up with this. It’s still being worked on, and I would love for everyone to have some input as well. I will be tending it and updating it if anyone has additions, corrections, or suggestions of any kind.
A couple of disclaimers: These are all obviously my opinions, and I don’t want to tread on anyone’s toes if they take issue with suggestions I have for Dee Jay beginners. Readers should know that a lot of the tips and knowledge in this guide is contested or subject to debate. This can only ever be a launching point from which to view the rest of the discussions on this board.
I have only listed combos I feel can and should be part of Dee Jay’s regular play. To that end, I have not listed sub-optimal combos, pointless variation combos or combos specific to very few characters. There are plenty of easy but sub-optimal combos for Dee Jay, but I am assuming a fairly decent level of dedication and execution skill. Nevertheless, I have listed alternatives to combos with 1-frame links, allowing for the fact that there are a lot of online players, and simply players not yet 100% comfortable with 1-frame links. I have also rated the combos in terms of difficulty, as having a learning curve is important to learning a new character.
The difficulties listed are personal to me, and are relative to Dee Jay as a whole. A combo rated 9/10 in difficulty might seem basic to a Viper or Sakura player, so please take these ratings with a grain of salt.
Without further ado, enjoy the guide!
Thanks and Credits
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I wrote this on my own, but I need to thank almost everyone on the Dee Jay boards for elevating me, over a period of time, from a total scrub to an intermediate scrub. Special thanks go to JCool, Hatrify, Da Knut, Thunda, Icefuzion and 4th letter, from whom I’ve gleaned a lot of knowledge[/details]
Glossary
Spoiler
I use lowercase letters to denote directional inputs, two capital letters to denote a normal, and three capital letters to denote a special or unique move.
cr. - crouching
cl. - standing, at point blank range
st. - standing, and if the move has a cl. version, then st. represents the far version
j. - jumping
nj. - neutral jumping
LP - jab, light punch
MP - strong, medium punch
HP - fierce, heavy punch
LK - short, light kick
MK - forward, medium kick
HK - roundhouse, heavy kick
KST - Knee Shot
SBT - Double Rolling Sobat (dreads)
JCK - Jacknife Maximum (upkicks)
MGU - Machine Gun Upper
MAX - Air Slasher (max out)
U1 - Sobat Festival
U2 - Climax Beat
FA(x) - Focus Attack, charged to level 1, 2 or 3
FADC - Focus Attack Dash Cancel
(CH) - counter hit
Other terms:
Command Throw - Any unblockable throw move with inputs other than LP+LK. Command throws are immune to throws on startup, and thus cannot be teched. They also usually deal a lot of damage. Examples are Zangief’s Spinning Piledriver, or Abel’s Tornado Throw.
Counter Hit - A move will gain the special “Counter Hit” property when it hits the opponent during the startup of his move, or more rarely, in other situations (such as the recovery of Dee Jay’s MAX). Moves that Counter Hit deal 25% more damage and cause more hitstun. In the case of normals, this means that Counter Hits usually open up new combo possibilities. Inducing the opponent to make an attack in order to predict and counter hit it for a big combo is one of the most advanced skills a Street Fighter player can learn.
Cross Up - A jumping attack where the jump starts on one side of the opponent, but hits on the other. This requires the opponent to switch blocking directions to avoid being hit.
Crouch Tech - Inputting a throw while crouching in order to counter an opponent’s throw. If your opponent did not throw, this will result in a short coming out, referred to as a tech short.
Footsies - This term has no technical meaning, but is generally meant to describe a situation where characters are at mid-range, and are using normals or specials with long range (such as cr. MK for Ryu) as “pokes”, to try to beat the opponent’s attacks. Combos are rarely a part of footsies, positional advantage is the more important goal here (although there are notable exceptions).
Hitbox - All moves have a hitbox and a hurtbox. The hitbox is the area where an attack is capable of dealing damage to the opponent (programmed to look like a square, and invisible during gameplay.) A hurtbox is the area where the character can be hit during his attack. Moves with an extended or large hitbox but a retracted or small hurtbox are best.
Meaty - An attack your opponent will perform on your wakeup with an aim to having frames of the attack active when you first become vulnerable to attacks, preventing you from doing anything but blocking. An important part of wakeup pressure.
Mix Up - Another term with no technical meaning, but is generally used to describe situations where you force the opponent to make extremely rapid decisions about where to block (high, low, or cross up block), or whether to tech, with the ultimate aim of making your opponent guess wrong, which results in damage for you. A classic mix-up is Ken’s EX Tatsu, which on block leaves the opponent facing a 50/50 mixup: Ken can either SRK or kara throw, and now the opponent must decide which option he thinks Ken will go for, and react accordingly.
Safe Jump - A jump that is timed such that the last active frame of a jumping attack coincides with the first frame in which your opponent can act, on your opponent’s wakeup. This means that the jump-in is “safe”, that is, your opponent cannot beat it out. The only options he has are blocking it or avoiding it (with backdashes, teleports, etc.) This is extremely difficult to pull off without specific set-ups, since different characters have different wakeup speeds and reversal options. As a rule, if your opponent has any reversal that comes out in 3 frames or less (like Ryu’s SRK), it will be impossible to safe jump that opponent.
Techable/Untechable Knockdown - Most knockdowns are techable. This means that you can tap up or three buttons when you hit the ground to stand up again more quickly, also known as a “quick rise”. Some knockdowns, including most sweeps (cr. HK for most characters, cr. MK for Dee Jay), most throws and command throws, and almost all Ultras, are untechable, meaning you will stay on the ground for longer. This gives your opponent time to set up his offence, and is generally advantageous.
Zoning - Another term with no technical meaning. Originally used to describe the strategy of attempting to keep an opponent in a specific “zone”, that is, an area of the screen. This can be mid-range, long-range, close-range, on the ground, in the corner, etc. It has now come to mean any sort of defensive, keep away play, especially if it involves copious fireballs and anti-airs. Characters which are recognised as good zoners include Sagat and Dhalsim, although I would say that Zangief’s ability to walk opponents into the corner is a powerful form of zoning in and of itself.
About Dee Jay
[details=Spoiler]It’s a good idea to go over some basic passive facts about Dee Jay, before we get into what he can actually do.
Dee Jay has 1000 Stamina and 1000 Stun, putting him at the dead midpoint of the cast, on par with standards like Ryu and Ken. This fits in with his “jack of all trades” kind of character build.
Dee Jay has a very good walk speed, which helps him a lot in his footsies, an area sorely needing help.
Unfortunately, Dee Jay’s dashes don’t fare as well. They have decent distance, but aren’t particularly fast, and simply feel clunkier than the dashes of the rest of the cast.
Dee Jay’s jump is quite “floaty”, and much slower than characters like Blanka, and he does a full flip during it. In terms of horizontal and vertical movement, it’s more or less average, moving further horizontally than Adon, for example, but less than Gen.
Dee Jay’s throw is quite mediocre. It deals the least damage in the game (besides the twins’ forward throw in AE), at 120 both ways, and has a very short range. The forward throw puts the opponent a character width or so away, and lets you set up some nice safe jump options, while the back throw puts the opponent at around 3/4 screen, and is best used to restore distance for zoning.
Dee Jay’s hitboxes are a fairly standard shape, and although you’ll find some combos may sometimes not work correctly on him, this is quite rare, and your opponents will generally not need to worry about their combos in the same way as they would against a character like Blanka or Sakura.[/details]
Before the Match Starts
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There isn’t much to keep in mind concerning Dee Jay’s costume and personal action. I prefer Alt. 1, Colour 3, but Dee Jay’s not one of those characters (like Cody’s combo glitch or Blanka’s ridiculous third alt) where the costume will have a gameplay effect.
As far as taunts go, I choose no. 5, because I think it’s cool and not too disrespectful. Dee Jay doesn’t have any “useful” taunts like Adon or Cody’s fireball avoiding taunts, so this is an almost entirely aesthetic choice. If you want to piss your opponent off, for fun or for mind games, go for no. 9. It never fails.
Finally, pick your Ultra Combo. There is a dedicated thread to Dee Jay’s Ultra choice, and it ends up getting talked about in a lot of other threads too. For the moment, assume that you’ll be picking Ultra 2 unless there’s a very good character matchup reason to pick Ultra 1. An obvious example is T.Hawk, where U1 punishes all blocked Condor Dives (except EX). However, even in this case it might not be the best option, since you can bet T.Hawk will know you can punish Dives this way, and in any case Dives are punishable by HK sobat.
Overall, U2 deals more damage, is effective as an anti-air, and can be comboed into frequently. U1 has longer range and limited fireball passing capacity, but is otherwise very mediocre. You can even focus the first hit of U1. Some say it is technically possible to link U1 off of EX MAX on hit, but this is the stuff of tool-assisted combos.
AE 2012 brought an intriguing change to Dee Jay’s U1. It is now cancelable from a Super. This has the potential to deal a massive amount of damage (571 raw damage), but its real appeal lies in the ability to easily combo into Ultra as long as you have super stocked. With the AE buff to st. MK, it’s now ridiculously easy to work MK or HK SBT into all of your BnB combos, so canceling into Super has never been so easy. Another, possibly more important advantage that people are discussing lately is the fact that it’s a true blockstring, and deals huge chip damage (up to 200 for the full combo starting with LK SBT) (thanks to Jcool). This might prove to be useful in closing out matches, although applications are yet to be thrashed out. [/details]
Basic Strategy
Spoiler
What is Dee Jay’s basic game plan? This is a more difficult question than with a lot of other characters. You know what a well-played Ibuki or Dhalsim looks like, but there is a lot of debate over the “correct” way to play Dee Jay. I will just give a basic overview here, with the caveat that for the purposes of this guide, solid knowledge of Dee Jay’s fundamentals will always be a precursor to working on a unique, unpredictable and effective strategy with Dee Jay.
Dee Jay has the capacity to zone fairly effectively. His fireball is decent, his air-to-air and ground-to-air tools are good, and he has flexible mobility options with EX SBT and KST. Most Dee Jay players begin each round by zoning the opponent to about three quarters screen distance (this is heavily dependent on matchups, though.) Once a knockdown has been achieved, usually through an anti-air or cr. MK, Dee Jay generally likes to go on the offensive, using KST and j. MK to create mix ups, using SBT and cr. HK to pressure at mid-close range.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that Dee Jay’s damage output is really quite good. A lot of his normals have top-shelf damage for similar moves, such as his j. HK (130), his cr. MP (80), his st. MP (90), or his two-hit st. MK (110). His SBT now deals decent damage following the buffs in AE 2012, now dealing 90/110/130, on par with the rest of the cast. His HP MGU does more meterless damage by a long shot than any move that isn’t a command throw (192). Thus, Dee Jay isn’t a character reliant on long combos as much as short, sharp exchanges.
Getting your opponent into the corner, as with most characters, is one of Dee Jay’s goals. DJ’s EX MGU combos get better in the corner, and until you learn dash Ultra, this is how you’re going to be landing most of your Ultras. Dee Jay has great corner carrying tools, like his EX SBT and his MK JCK into HK JCK anti-air juggle. Use these to your advantage. Also be aware that Dee Jay’s back throw puts the opponent a lot further away than his forward throw.
Remember that Dee Jay is a reactive character. Compare him to Makoto, who will always rush down, even against an extremely effective rush down character. Or Dhalsim and Guile, who will almost always zone defensively, even against another defensive character. Take a page out of Bruce Lee when thinking about Dee Jay: When the opponent expands, you contract. When the opponent contracts, you expand. When you’ve become a top-level Dee Jay you will find that when there is an opportunity, you won’t be hitting, it will hit all by itself. 
Anti-Airs
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Dee Jay has a great anti-air game, and one of the most commonly cited frustrations of playing against a good Dee Jay is the feeling that the opponent “can’t jump”. We want to compound this impression as much as possible. Here are some basics:
LK JCK has a fantastic hitbox and will beat out almost any aerial attack. it deals great damage and auto-corrects extremely well. It’s an excellent guard against crossups. You will be using this a lot, it’s your basic anti-air. LK JCK also has the most invincibility frames of all the JCK versions.
MK JCK is what you’ll use when you’re sure that both hits will connect on an aerial opponent, after a particularly predictable jump-in. If they do, then you can juggle with HK JCK for 170 damage and fantastic corner-carrying. If you only manage to hit with the first hit of MK JCK, then you can follow up with a juggle MAX or with cl. HK for good damage.
cr. HK is Dee Jay’s slide. It’s great for opponents jumping over your fireballs or otherwise jumping with an aim to land a little in front of you rather than point blank. If your opponent lands deep enough, he will enter a juggle state where you will be able to juggle with U2. If you manage to land it as a counter hit, then you can juggle with MK JCK instead, if you have no meter.
cl. MP and st. MP are good anti-airs, but require a lot of character specific knowledge. You’ll need to go into the training room and really work on the timing as well. Once you do, though, you’ll have good success with them. st. MP is especially promising as an anti-air following the AE 2012 buffs, with an extended hitbox and the ability to cancel into a MAX for extra damage (thanks to Jcool)
st. HP is a mediocre anti air. It has some applications, but I usually avoid it unless you have no charge (say, if you’re walking backwards).
cr. HP is a useful situational anti-air. In certain match-ups, such as against dive kick characters like the twins and Cammy, and against Adon’s jaguar kicks, it can beat out these air attacks without your needing to preserve charge. (Thanks to Shakka, Thunda and Da Knut for the tip)[/details]
Footsies
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Dee Jay has a lot of difficulty with footsies, but he has some good normals to fall back on, and if you stay at a specific range, you can really mitigate the worst of Dee Jay’s weaknesses. I’m just going to go over some of Dee Jay’s most commonly used footsies moves. Unlike many rushdown characters, Dee Jay’s footsies game is really quite reactive, so I won’t try to give generic strategies. You need to learn each and every matchup, and discover the range you need to be at during that matchup, as well as what moves of yours beat what moves of theirs (which is basically the blood and bones of footsies)
st. MK is one of Dee Jay’s furthest reaching normals. The normal itself moves him forward a little (you can actually do a microscopic kara throw with it if you really want). It’ll be a useful spacing tool and deals great damage if you get the two-hit version.
cr. MP deals fantastic damage and has a really deceptively extended hitbox. It also cancels into all of Dee Jay’s specials, and tends to beat out quite a few other footsies moves. As such, you’ll be using it quite often.
st. MP has been buffed in AE 2012, and it now allows you to cancel it into any special move, as well as having an extended hitbox. This may mean that it turns out to be a useful new footsie tool, as it allows you to hover around middle range and buffer a sobat into it, hoping to catch an opponent’s standing poke. Remember that this will not hit crouching characters using low pokes, so its applications are specific and relatively few. However, it might be worth keeping in mind if you find yourself being frustrated repeatedly by one standing poke.
LK SBT is, at the appropriate range, one of Dee Jay’s best footsies tools. It has invincibility to low moves and causes knockdown on hit. Although it’s no lunge punch or scissor kick, it’s fairly safe if spaced correctly (except against Guile). Be aware that it can often whiff if your opponent is using a low move that also lowers his hurtbox. This isn’t usually a huge deal, since you’ll often also be invincible to their move, but it can be a nasty surprise.
Knee Shot (KST) is an important part of Dee Jay’s footsies game. Although instant KSTs won’t usually hit crouching opponents (keep this in mind!), if you delay just a fraction of a second, KST will hit crouchers, and probably result in a 200+ damage combo, or even more if you achieve a counter hit. Use this to go over low pokes. Unless your opponent has really excellent reactions, it will be difficult to anti-air on reaction, so it’s a good example of low-risk, high reward.
cr. MK continues in the vein of low risk, high reward. It’s one of the quickest sweeps in the game, and is one of the only moves Dee Jay has you can get away with throwing out a lot speculatively. Of course, as with all of Dee Jay’s gameplay, you CANNOT spam this move if you want to win.
cr. HK is slow as hell, but can be a great counter to a lot of your opponent’s mid range footsies tools. Try it against Ken’s step kick, or against long range lunge punches and jaguar kicks. It’s difficult (impossible against some characters) to keep safe on block, so again, learn the matchups.
cr. HP is useful in Dee Jay’s footsies game as an “anti-poke”. It’s got a huge hitbox which extends deceptively far forward, so if you think you’ve got a good read on your opponent’s footsies, this is an important part of your arsenal at a range few of your other normals reach. (Thanks to Shakka, Thunda and Da Knut.)
EX SBT comes out very fast and has good fireball invincibility, and the second hit sends the opponent flying towards the corner. This move is useful against shotos who use fireballs as a mid-range poke, and in longer range zoning games if you have lost the life lead and need to get in quick.[/details]