Introduction
Athena's CvS2 incarnation is more or less of a mix-up type of character, that relies heavily on gimmicks and zoning. She has no reliable way to land any of her supers, so she has no real way to do the damage the other top tier characters can do easily. Therefore, her real main threat would be to use her fireball to zone, incredibly good crouching fierce to poke, and shut down options.
Athena players need to be patient, and find gaps in their opponent's playstyle to get in and start mix ups. Once the person is afraid of your strong pokes, then you can get in some reliable mixups/pressure.
Her main grooves that are played are, A (being the best), S, and N(Not too common, good battery though.)
Moves List
Normal Moves
| Button | Position | Buffers: | Itself | Specials | Supers | Hit | Block | Startup | Active | Recovery | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jab | Close | y | y | y | +7 | +7 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 200 | |
| Far | y | y | y | +3 | +3 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 200 | ||
| Crouching | y | y | y | +4 | +4 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 200 | ||
| Jumping | - | y | y | - | - | 5 | 23 | - | 400 | ||
| Strong | Close | n | y | y | +9 | +9 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 700 | |
| Far | n | n | y | +0 | +0 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 700 | ||
| Crouching | n | y | y | +1 | +1 | 5 | 2 | 17 | 700 | ||
| Jumping | - | y | y | - | - | 7 | 6? | - | 700 | ||
| Fierce | Close | n | y | y | +1 | +1 | 8 | 4 | 21 | 1100 | |
| Far | n | n | n | +3 | +3 | 8 | 4 | 19 | 1200 | ||
| Crouching | n | n | y | +1 | +1 | 5 | 8 | 17 | 1200 | ||
| Jumping | - | y | y | - | - | 6 | 6 | - | 1000 | ||
| Short | Close | n | y | y | +4 | +4 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 500 | |
| Far | n | n | y | -3 | -3 | 6 | 6 | 14 | 400 | ||
| Crouching | y | y | y | +6 | +6 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 200 | ||
| Jumping | - | n | y | - | - | 6 | 20 | - | 500 | ||
| Forward | Close | n | y | y | +5 | +5 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 800 | |
| Far | n | n | y | -2 | -2 | 6 | 4 | 20 | 700 | ||
| Crouching | n | n | n | +3 | +3 | 8 | 8 | 11 | 800 | ||
| Jumping | - | n | y | - | - | 6 | 8 | - | 700 | ||
| Roundhouse | Close | n | y | y | +3 | +3 | 5 | 8 | 15 | 1100 | |
| Far | n | n | n | -2 | -2 | 9 | 4 | 22 | 1100 | ||
| Crouching | n | n | y | down | -14 | 8 | 4 | 34 | 1000 | ||
| Jumping | - | n | n | - | - | 8 | 6 | - | 1100 | ||
| Command Normals | |||||||||||
| f+Forward | n/n | n/n | y/n | down | -7 | 6 | 3(9)3 | 24 | 400+500 | ||
| (air) d+Forward | n | n | n | Down | - | 8 | 20 | - | 800 |
Special Moves
Super Moves
The Basics
Her best poke undoubtedly is her crouching fierce. It reaches far, goes under alot of projectiles, and recovers quite quickly.
Her jab version of her fireball (qcfb + lp) is slow, and big is good for pressure and running behind it.
Many normals can connect after a close standing strong, it has a insanely high amount of +frames. For example, using standing strong then a sweep, canceling the sweep with a whiffed command grab (for faster recover) gives you ample amount of time to have cross-up opportunity.
Her best AA's are crouching fierce (which cleanly beat everyone of Sagat's jump-in's (except foward at a certain cross-up angle) and standing strong. Also Strong Psycho Sword (dp) has upper-body invincibility, so it can work as an AA too.