- Fisticuffs Johnny: The frame data on Johnny's normals and strings are nothing short of excellent, sporting multiple plus-on-block normals, a 9f mid, a 10f whiff punisher, and multiple safe string extensions; only a few of these strings have gaps to interrupt with Armor;
- Bobbing and Weaving: He has the best ground movement in the game, as his forward dash covers a lot of ground quickly; mastering block-dashing with Johnny is enough to shut down attempts to zone him out. He also has a command dash, Shadow Dash, which gains projectile immunity when Enhanced;
- White Men Can Jump: His Jump Kick is notorious as the single hardest jump-in to reliably anti-air, forcing opponents to commit on Up Block more; Ball Buster also guarantees a safe jump setup thanks to its excellent knockdown frames;
- Excellent Reversal Game: While his Show Off parry has been nerfed, Johnny can still make enemies pause their okizeme with threat of Enhanced Shadow Kick's frightening speed; his Fatal Blow is also a parry when held and can be cancelled into a Shadow Dash if the opponent doesn't take the bait;
- Install Super: Considered icing on the cake, Johnny has an additional meter, Hype, which builds with special moves and taunts; when filled, he gains a super mode, Wowing Out, which lets him freely cancel his special moves up to three times in a row for even more insane block strings and high damage combos;
- Kameo Independent: He has an well-tuned kit which gets even stronger with almost any given Kameo; he has answers for different match-ups and multiple avenues for preferred playstyles.
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- No Projectiles: While he remains strong in spite of this and Kameos can help shore up this weakness, it remains a noteworthy omission in his kit;
- I Need my Close-ups!: He needs his movement to make his neutral work, as aside from sweep, B3, and the odd YOLO Shadow Kick, his attacks are lacking in range;
- 950 HP: Losing 50 HP may seem like a slap on the wrist but this has a knock-on effect in his choice of Kameos; most of the Kameos he synergizes with the best also reduce max HP, making him pay harder for his mistakes;
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