Summary
Stand off Iggy has the smallest hitbox and the fastest walk speed out of any character in the game, which means many combos and moves will flat out not hit Iggy. You can try to bait an opponent into attacking Iggy's large stand hitbox, just to turn it off and punish accordingly. Be careful, though, many moves can still hit even if the animation doesn't look like it. He has an airdash, but it's more of a glide forward, and can only be done once per jump. His combos aren't very long or complex, but do decent damage for what they are. His grab is also excellent, a hard knockdown that lets you set up your many oki options.
Iggy heavily relies on his ability to either force his opponent into nasty guessing games or his okizeme options. In some matchups, he'll be rushing you down, in others he'll be hanging back, waiting for you to make a mistake. He needs to have a good grasp of when to switch from stand off to on (and vice versa). You'll need how to know how his sandballs work, and to apply creative pressure and reads. If you get your opponent in the corner, his pressure gets very scary. As Iggy, you'll want your opponent to get panicked and predictable. If an opponent is on very low health, his sandballs suddenly become a lot scarier. That minimal damage is gonna be a water(sand?)fall of potential death to a very low health enemy.
Iggy's IOH (Floating, throwing a sandball and landing with an aerial as early as possible) is very important to his game. You can go into your BNB or even start a corner loop from it. Many characters have trouble approaching you and your sandballs, so sometimes you've got to lay back and let the opponent run into you. If you get predictable, you will get anti aired. So be careful when using it, but dont get scared of using it.
Stand Off Grab Okizeme
One of the reasons iggy is so powerful is because of how many options he has on most of the cast. But one of the most important things to remember when playing iggy is which oki works on which character. Before we didn’t have the data but thanks to DDjames we now do. This section will go over iggys main options from stand off grab.
Meaty 2b/6b
This is a very good option and basic since it works on almost everyone and 6b is a fast 19 frame overhead meaning it's hard to react to. After you hit them you can go for a tandem, a super or 236s. And with 6b you can do 63214c for good meterless damage if 6b didn’t hit meaty. The only downside to this is because of how iggys grab works some people can jump away from this setup but not everyone can since you can catch some characters jumping with 6b.
Meaty sandball
Meaty sandball is a very powerful tool since you can do a lot with, the most basic option being going for a ioh with it or just making them block it and go for a low or grab and put them in the same situation. If they try and pushblock it they put themselves in more block stun and the only good way to deal with it is to gc buffer.
Command grab oki
This option works on characters with medium to slow wakeup speeds. Since you can get hit by a command grab while in block stun you can do 63214c then go for walk 2b or j.a if they block it then they get hit by the command grab which does a lot of damage because you can do 2ax4 6b [2] ]8[c.
Meaty 2a into tik throw
A very basic but still somewhat effective oki because it puts them in the same situation if you’ve already grabbed them. Most people after getting hit by this once or twice will try to tech or jump which leaves them open to your other options. It also catches prejump frames but in hftf after a knockdown the opponent has 2 frames of grab invulnerability after a wakeup.
Close 5c to unblockable tandem
This option works on most of the cast and it works by doing close 5c after a grab and making them block it. After that you do a normal tandem but start with s.2a instead of s.5a. The s.2a hits low but iggy has time to do a j.c at the same time s.2a hits which makes it unblockable. And even if you don’t do it perfectly it's still shooting stars level hard to block
Walk up s.ioh
Basic ioh that's unreatable and leads into a tandem, bnb or knockdown. Can also hit meaty but s.jc is active for 2 frames but s.j.b is active for 4 frames and only does slightly less damage. You can also mix it up with a low or just a grab and other options if they start blocking up or upbacking your oki.
Stand on sweep oki
While not as good as stand off grab oki since Iggy has less options here, you still have options that work with against most of the cast. And its good to learn since having constant oki in most situations is really good for Iggy and he still has some strong options here.
IAD oki
This one is pretty basic since its leads into a 50/50 high low mixup that loops into itself on most characters. It can be done by doing IAD and going for a meaty s.j.b by pressing any of Iggy's air buttons so you fall quicker and go for a meaty 2a. This doesn't do to much damage but it does loop into itself and you can mix it up with a stand off grab or use Iggy's air buttons and do an IOH into a tandem for damage. This oki is a bit harder compared to Iggy's other options since IAD has to be done very quickly for it to work on some characters due to their faster wakeup speed.
Walk up oki
This is a decent option since its and easy to do, safe and works on most of the cast depending on the range. Iggy can turn stand off and walk 2a and be +6 on normal block and +3 at worst if they pushblock you. you can also mix this up with walk up grab to get even better oki on most of the cast or walk up s.jb depending on the character since that takes the longest. Walk up 6b also works but only on a few characters and if they pushblock early the move will become unsafe even if you cancel into 236s.
| Character | Plus frames |
|---|---|
| Petshop | +26 |
| Polnareff and Black Polnareff | +31 |
| Avdol | +34 |
| Rubber Soul | +35 |
| Hol Horse and Hol Horse and Boingo | +36 |
| Shadow Dio | +36 |
| Ice | +40 |
| Chaka | +41 |
| Devo | +45 |
| Iggy | +46 |
| Mariah | +52 |
| Midler | +52 |
| Alessi | +53 |
| Khan | +62 |
| Dio | +62 |
| Kakyoin and New Kakyoin | +65 |
| Jotaro | +79 |
| Old Joseph and Young Joseph | +82 |
