To put it shortly, I’ve had around 5-6 weeks of having a main crisis and kinda just fell in love with how Guy plays over the past couple of days. Whether I keep at it or move onto another new venture remains to be seen and I’m still working on my game with him exclusively for now.
Anyways, I’m more of a grounded Guy and don’t go overboard with the flip at all, I find it a generally bad option sometimes and only use it during block strings as a mix-up or for 1f flip set-ups. I’ve been compiling the short list of his moves to get his ground offense going and didn’t come up with many sound options at the end, with only about 4/5 hitting the bar I’d set.
So to begin grounded approaches, so far I have on my “Acceptable” list
Target combo max range > run stop
far st.mp > buffer shadow kick/ex hozanto
shadow kick > FADC out
EX Run was something I was considering, but honestly the stop portion is so slow from anywhere viable(1/2 screen or less?) your opponent is gonna see it and throw if you run too far. I still want to try EX Run out in the neutral, beat a poke and get a freebie shadow kick combo? I can imagine it’s good in certain match-ups like maybe Abel and Ken with their long ass pokes.
I’m in heavy need of expanding my knowledge pool, any more ground offense tips would be greatly appreciated. Currently reading my way through the informative stickied threads, have about two more to go.
Imo. If you want a strong grounded character, play Elena. Her crouch jab is the strongest cancelable poke in the game, both her dashes and her focus attack are superior, and her ground mix ups are much more threatening.
The character is a mess, if she gets completely fixed maybe. But even then I kinda dislike her character design, her stance and everything is unappealing to me personally.
I already had all of those other than the MP Hozanto approach, I know after Target Combo xx MP Hozanto is a gimmick but I’ve rarely seen them just thrown out randomly in neutral. St.mp seems to be my best friend, buffering it leads to a knockdown on counter pokes and offensive pokes.
I think TC xx MP hozanto is more for the corner push than for the counter hit.
It’s good that you realized the weakness of Guys air approaches, but you shouldn’t neglect them completely, it’s better to make opponents wary of all possible strategies, it makes him have to think more.
I wouldn’t say I neglect them, just rather I’d like the primary basis of any of my characters to function through fundamental play with secondary character specific elements, so footsies leading into the mix-up/pressure game with run/stop and overhead. I play a little more reserved compared to the average Guy, but I like being slightly more passive in my play as it opens up new avenues for the character, his footsies imo are also really underrated. St.mk for instance is a wonder button, it does so many things and stuffs a lot of normals. Same goes for cr.mp/st.mp, absolutely brilliant poking tools and great for counter poking, 5f normal that has that much reach is really good to me, I come from a Cody/DeeJay background though so my expectations can be easily met.
So in short, I don’t want to be a Marq Teddy and go crazy every game. I like to play a shoto-esque game with the character. Average paced, but when the momentum moves into my favour via a counter poke knockdown/Hozanto hit I usually start my pressure off. Or if I walk them into the corner I usually just count my blessing and start applying frame traps while they’re there.
I played Guy for two years with a mindset where my entire game plan was based on out prioritising the opponent on the ground with stand mk.
Its a strong plan, but you won’t win against characters with stronger buttons with a solid ground game alone.
Guy is like a swiss army knife. You’ll short change yourself if you decide you just want to focus on one tool. I’m just saying this as someone who wishes that someone had told me back then. Maybe you’ll find a way to make it work for you
Edit: Here’s the kicker about revolving your game around playing solid at s.mk poke range. At that range, the opponent has the option to go for a jump in. Its a good strong option, and if he catches you pressing a ground poke, you’re eating 30-50% for attempting a poke that would’ve netted you 7% on hit.
On the other hand, Guy’s jump game isn’t very good at, this range, so you can’t do the same thing. This is a huge disadvantage, especially against opponents with low profile moves.