In generell I think Paul is better as second character and is particular good for zoning teams as a switch cancel or crossrush into him means a huge distance gain due to phoenix smasher (e.g sagat uppercut SC, or guile flash kick SC, sim crossrush etc).
Paul is not a team player tho, he is build around himself with link combos overshadowing cross rush combos most of the time and having no real solid way to make use of switch cancel. he is good to tag into, but not to tag from.
He also lacks zoning game, why I think he needs a character that can deal with that, making a zoning character on your own, again, a reasonable option as partner.
After testing through a good bunch of characters I’m settled down on guile (till cody arrives that is). it great to have guile on front, zoning and building meter, while switch canceling / cross rushing into paul for damage and distance makes guile even better and guile has a very good cross rush (c.mk, s.hp, h). paul has also a very good corner pressure game, with a huge reward game out of nearly anything, where guile usually lacks good options.
Been running the exact same team. Been starting with Paul on point just to learn the character though, since I already have a strong foundation on guile. My problem right now tho is neither character has a good way to switch out to another one. Guile’s best way to get out I think is Alpha counter, tag cancel, juggle with paul, but that eats two meters. I’m thinking of playing some more Paul + Law, but it’s hard learning two Tekken characters and getting beat up without the SF cast safety net.
I run Ryu/Paul. Pretty similar strategy to what you describe with Guile/Paul. Paul’s very strong mix-up game works well with tag-cancelling EX Shoryuken. If you get a hit with it, Paul has enough time to charge up an EX move to dash cancel for a counter hit (you actually get enough time to charge up a super, but you aren’t allowed to juggle anything after EX Shoryuken so that’s a moot point). If they block the EX SRK, assuming they did so at somewhat-close range (so Ryu goes into his proper full animation for it), they’re locked down for quite a while, and you can make use of this to do Paul’s mix-ups. Yeah, it’s expensive, but it’s also absolutely 100% safe and you get a really good situation afterwards no matter what happened.
I am running Ken on point with Paul in the back. I feel Ken has decent pokes and ex-tatsus really push opponents into the corner, where Paul shines. I considered playing Paul on point, but I believe he has terrible defensive options and terrible walk speed to keep up with good keep away such as Dhalsim and Guile.
I’ve been running rufus on point with paul on the rear, and so far it has worked out pretty well. Rufus gets in easily on pretty much everyone, and i tag cancel paul in as soon as i can keep pressure on my opponents and i just blow them up. I feel like tagging into paul is a huge part of his game, it gives him good damage and mixup opportunities afterwords. With rufus able to hit confirm from cr.fr into a tag from so far away it makes paul pretty damn scary
I’m using Rolento/Paul atm, Rolento on point. One thing I like about Rolento is switch cancel from patriot circle allows tag into fwd+mp, hp, combos since patriot circle hits them so high.
I’ve been running Paul/King and I know that it may be odd but I’ve been using Paul to get in for King and it’s been working wonderfully. Paul has alot of good normals that seem to beat out some of the more popular teams. I don’t have any of the data except the bible, but it’s been working quite well.
im running raven/paul. i was originally doing hugo/paul, but im forcing myself to pick out someone less used lol. gonna start on that LABBBB. my combos do decent damage but still gotta work on it.
I started with that team but soon dropped raven. not because he is bad, but because paul doesn’t fit raven (and I’m a character loyal biatch, so I stick rather with paul). raven needs to combo into c.hp and paul is not really constructed around cross rush or switch cancel as he lacks comboable switch cancel options, making paul a hinderance for raven’s strong tag-in game.
I think every character combination works kinda, and raven is very solid in all aspects alone, it’s just that IMO they don’t have a good synergy. but who am I to tell someone, I’m gonna play cody/paul and don’t care if they fit each other x)
I’ve actually been running Paul/Gief. Paul on point. It feels weird not having a speedy character or a good zoning character, but the damage is worth it. Besides, Gief is the shit.
The reason for this team was simple at first, I had been playing Balrog previously in SSF4 and had enjoyed playing him immensely. When SFxT hit the stores I thought I would give him a shot and see how he faired in this type of engine and after a few casual endless matches I came to the conclusion that he worked well, his combos although for high damaged required use of metre, extensive use in some cases was actually all in all a great character in my eyes, a select few of his normals were great (primarily Cr.HP) and his defensive game if played right was also good. This was the time a parter had to be selected, I began to work my way through character trials when I came across Paul and I instantly fell in love and from that point on i’ve been working on defensive and rushdown techniques, mix-ups and tag combos in order to improve my game, so far so good.
Running Ryu/Paul as my team, they really flow great for me as I’m still trying to learn this game and mainly still grasping how to play Paul. Once I get more comfortable with Pauls speed and mixup abilities this team is going to be scary…
Exactly how I run my team…I don’t think Paul is a great point character
, His strengths play into the anchor role as he deals great damage being tagged in. Soften them up and get in with Ryu, them finish em up with the juggernaut Paul…
