Uhhhhhh wtf is wrong with people.
- Slayer has better and safer ground pokes than pretty much everybody not named Ky or Eddie (the shadow, not the main guy). All of these pokes either lead to knockdown (ie. his scary scary oki), him getting right up into your face (ie. his scary up close game) or 50-100% damage (ie. whoops you DIED).
- I’ll say it again because people keep forgetting this- not only are Slayer’s normals safe on block, they are advantage on block. Which means his moves go from high-priority-kill-you-on-CH moves to high-priority-kill-you-on-CH moves that set up CH for him. They also are advantage on hit which leads to 3S style hit-confirms into tons of damage.
Let’s be real- Slayer has brutal frame traps and many of them just feed back into pressure anyhow. CH 5K leads to a lot of different ways to kill you- all of which can be confirmed. Same with CH c.S, or spaced out CH 2D. - The best way to get out of most Slayer pressure is to jump back- but then you end up in the corner if that’s what you’re always doing, which is where Slayer is trying to push you anyhow. And you certainly can’t jump backwards there. Some characters (May) can FD jump straight up to get out sometimes.
- Slayer has brutal anti-airs. 5P creams a lot of airdashes, 2S beats a lot of stuff coming in from above and slightly in front of Slayer (and sometimes right on top, depending on the move), 6H preempts airdashes and jump outs and spaced well can catch people on the way down pretty well. All of those have combo options on hit, and huge combos on CH. 6P and BBU are more situational but lead to tons of damage. Generic GG anti-air of jump forward mash P works pretty well and leads to a knockdown air combo at the very least, though with a good eye you can sometimes turn it into a corner carry knockdown. Of course there’s airthrow. Also 2P and 5K against some characters.
All that to say- if the best option to get out of Slayer pressure is jumping, and he can kill you for trying that…
Slayer doesn’t really “rely” on jump-ins, just some characters can’t do jack squat about Slayer coming down on top of them with jH so why not?
Slayer also has some absolutely crazy tech traps but people aren’t dumb enough to fall for the obvious ones anymore, and almost every Slayer combo ends in knockdown anyhow.
But yeah… it’s either crazy or stupid to say Slayer doesn’t “put the pressure on.” He isn’t a Jam or Ky type character who keeps you in this constant flux between blockstun and like 2-3 frames of not-blockstun. He’s a character who backs you into a wall and punches you in the face and then you die. FD to push him off you? He’s better at midrange than most characters anyhow. IB? He’s still safe. Anything else is a guess, which may or may not work- just like getting stuck in anybody else’s pressure, except Slayer does so much more damage than the rest of the cast.
If you don’t feel pressured by Slayer then maybe your local Slayer needs to learn some bigger combos ;(
And the reason you don’t see Slayer winning tournaments? Other than how almost every tournament you see on youtube is a team tournament, or how only a few people really make use of Slayer’s options while most people spam Dandy Steps and BBU and say Slayer is easy/scrubby?
Almost every AC Slayer you will ever see has some weaknesses in their fundamentals that you can hardly blame on Slayer. The problem with Slayer is that he makes it too easy to get away with that for a while, but then you hit a wall and you have to start using more than random BBU into crappy 170-200 damage combo to bail yourself out of the rut you’re in when people get used to fighting scrubby Slayer.
There’s the likes of Niga and Hase, then there’s everybody else.