One of the most important things in this game I’ve found to be learning how to use your advantage and disadvantage. When you have advantage it’s your chance to press the attack, when you’re at disadvantage you guard, basic stuff right? One thing that helped me out a lot was watching my replays with the information display on, so I could find out when I was + and when I was -. Here are some situations that will happen a lot and how to deal with them:
First, off, one of the best ways to create a favorable advantage is off of a simple jab. On hit a jab is +5, this means if they try to press any buttons, they will get beat out by 4P (comboes, but duckable/steppable, will get beat out by 2P), 6K+G (mid but steppable), or HCB+P(catches step towards Wolf’s stomach). If they do anything slower than a jab or 2P, a 6K or 6P+K are both useful. Keep in mind that a few characters like Pai have 10 frame moves, meaning that you’re going to have to use a P;2P;3P mixup on them.
Once they realize that you’re beating them out on frames, most people’s second reaction is to guard. Once they begin to guard is when you can mix in your lows and throws along with the above. 2K (i16 low, -6 on hit), 62K (low, shakeable stun on hit) and your choice of throws.
If the opponent is a little bit wiser, they may try to step after eating a jab to avoid some of the above. This is when you start using your tracking and semi-tracking moves. HCB+P, 43P, KK, K+G, P+K. Sometimes they may backdash, and you can use 6K; 46P; 3K to catch them.
2P on hit and P on block are both minor advantages (+4 and +2 respectively), so you can use 3P or another P_2P as frame traps here and use the same stuff for step and guard.
Also, note opponents that try to use 2P to break out of anything, even at disadvantage. If they try to 2P after a jab string, 3P will stuff them if they are at -2 or greater. 9P and 9P+K jump over 2P. You can backdash and punish the whiff with a fast move like 46P; 4K+G. You can also backdash~crouch throw them out of a predicted 2P, but you have to be quick and commit to it. Wolf also has 2P+K which is a 2P reversal
But basically the game is about learning how your opponent reacts to situations, then punishing them. It’s very simple stuff, but you have to know what your tools are and what they beat in every situation. You have to play pretty basic at lower level, just because most newer plays just attack a lot, meaning you have to do dumb stuff like jab and 4P over and over and a lot of 46P whiff punishing. On top of some of the more frequest and basic stuff I described here, there’s also advanced stuff like 33~G which is a fuzzy guard to duck throws and block mids. This should give you a good start though.
