Alessi
Avdol
It’ll be funny when you rage about his big active normals constantly but then hit one big combo for the win and call yourself very good for it.
They’re very obnoxious, but you can definitely contest Abdul’s normals, especially since you get much more damage from confirming your own hits. Try to stay at a range in which s.6B won’t get beaten by 2C, and will beat 662C. Tip range of DIO 66C is also effective as usual since it’s out of 2C range and can interrupt 662C. Abdul's s.5B covers a lot of spots but it’s fortunately not very damaging and if you condition him to quit mashing 2C in favor of his other pokes, you’ll get to bait them with walking and dash cancels.
Whenever you want to reposition by moving back, get used to just walking instead of backdashing. You’ll likely get tagged by his d.2C on backdash, and it hits mid so you won’t get caught by it while walking back. Abdul has no very threatening lows so unless you’re very close, you can afford to mostly block high since another common approach of his is hop S+j.C similar to Chaka. His d.2C is punishable on early pushblock with 2A if you happen to be close enough for it. d.2A works too but it’s very difficult.
His fireball can be low-profiled with d.2A, d.2B, and d.2C, but it recovers very quick so don’t count on getting a full confirm or even reacting to it a lot of times, so it’s most reliable to d.2A 236S. Sensor has way more recovery than you might think at first so when you see it, don’t hesitate to punish as it can be a pain to navigate because even though he might only get a single hit or two from it, it gives momentum either for a mix-up or a tech chase, or if you’re really unlucky he gets a full combo because of it. You can break it with Stand moves but it can also be released and if you’re close enough, combo’d into raw tandem, so it’s best to wait it out usually or get past it by jumping if it’s fullscreen away from him and near you. Sometimes sensor will be misinputted as hitgrab. Whenever you block the s.OFF hitgrab, pushblock into d.2A to punish. s.63214X is safe on block, so maybe look out for it to whiff instead (unlikely since C version goes quite far).
His keep-out normals are very strong, especially his anti-airs having good damage and giving tech chase, and 2C being safe and knocking down which gives a free sensor. Approach with walking and quick dash cancels so you don’t get slapped around, and it allows you to look out for his cancels (fireball and s.623A DP) which aren’t that threatening. Crossfire covers good space but can be punished as mentioned prior, and while DP only has 1 frame of grounded recovery, you might as well punish it with whatever you can get or even attempt d.2A on his landing since it can win you the round. Spaced s.2A also meaties the landing at a specific range when you’re not too close, but you’ll have to get used to it. Punishing DP consistently is very important since Abdul players love to mash it on block, getting either Guard Cancel or the DP itself. If you anti-air it, make sure to follow it up with good tech chase so he doesn’t just shake off the damage. His Guard Cancel is also punishable on block if you manage to get into that situation.
Another move you’ll have to watch out for which he can use to beat your punish attempts is 236AA. It’s air-unblockable and has a hitbox before the flash, making it very hard to see coming. It does great damage on hit and can force you into a high/low mix-up on block. If you block the pre-flash hitbox, try to jab before the flames come out and it’s possible to get a full combo. However, he can attempt his own jab to stop you or hold up to just take an anti-air instead, so it’s risky regardless. (Test pushblocking) On whiff, you can easily interrupt him after the flash if you’re close enough with s.6B s.236AA which he can’t roll and will kind of combo since the Stand’s recovery won’t allow him to block, though it leaves a frame he can roll if he’s player 1, in which case you can do s.2A s.236AA instead which he can’t roll and will reset when you’re player 2 for good damage. Watch out for that super on wake-up as well if you’re not confident in your meaty timing.
Spaced early s.j.C as a poke isn’t easy for him to deal with so it can get you in, and if you’re looking to whiff punish some of his best pokes, full jumps can go over both his s.5B and 6C. The former is also punishable on block from close with (d)2A, the latter you can try pushblocking to punish. Hops also go over his 2C.
Abdul’s 623AA, especially the s.ON version, is also something you need to look out for. Ankh gives him around two seconds of invincibility when he places it, and then some once he actually releases it. Because placing it takes no meter, he can keep mashing s.623AA to be completely unbeatable, or he just abuses the move often without releasing which is known as ghosting in which case you can feel free to quit the match. Common legal uses for ankh come up in okizeme in which he’ll place it, then grab you as he releases to get extra damage and a hard knockdown from the grab. Jumping will still get you hit by the ankh, albeit for less damage and potentially no hard knockdown. You could do that or attempt to reversal tandem just to get out. Otherwise, he can also simply use it like almost any other super to reversal your move, but actually release it quickly so it remains fair play, and he can also use it in combos which you’ll never see since Abduls will lab their unscaled TODs, maha tandems, optimal sensor high/low mix, but then only use 2C, s.j.C, and 236AA in matches.
If you’re any good at this game you should realize by now how important it is to vary your tech direction and timings after getting anti-aired, especially against a character like Abdul who can cover a lot of options with few moves. If he sees a back tech, expect a sensor so that you can throw knives, but chasing is also not too bad since he has so much reach, though with high s.ON defense, descending j.A, double jumps and the threat of air knives, you can eventually land without getting bruised too hard.
Abdul has a pretty strong remote mode and like with any remote, you shouldn’t be too eager to do teleport>236S for a deactivation near him since he can tandem to punish or mix you up, or if you don’t TP directly to the user, the Stand is easily able to walk for a grab since they’re much faster in remote. Air knives are a safer alternative but he can stop them by back jump air blocking. There’s no need to rush for a punish. Either get him to waste a meter by faking an air knife punish if you manage to jump over (or just trade the meter so you don’t get anti-aired from behind in some cases), or fight Magician’s Red head-on and carry it near Abdul with some loops so you can end with 236C. If not that, rekka will also deactivate it and is still solid damage after three 214A loops.
5B doesn’t hit Abdul crouching, so maximize your 214A loops, get a tandem confirm with 4ABC reps, or 2A 2B while repeating 236, then end in a rekka which will still do easily over half his health. It’s advised not to get greedy by doing s.5A>s.2C 236C oki because of how dangerous it can be to get hit by 236AA. If you want to air muda loop him, use s.j.A or s.j.C.
Divekick is something you’ll rarely see in either mode. s.OFF version can be punished even on hit with (d)5C 236S, s.ON isn’t punishable on block so if you can react, put him in a tandem unblockable as Magician’s Red lands. If it comes out, he’ll be in remote.
Abdul’s own 236S also activates remote mode, and it’s very interesting in that it activates immediately after input. Meaning it’s another reversal option since if you miss a meaty it’s guaranteed to at least trade. If he activates it raw from very close, it can also be unblockable since there’s no time to enter pre-block. Thankfully it’s not very damaging either. If he chooses to combo into it and it doesn’t hard knockdown due to low hit count, it can be punishable by ground tech 214S in s.OFF, or teching into air knives in s.ON. If he combos into it enough that it would hard knockdown but you’re s.ON, you’ll just stand there and be able to punish immediately. If you manage to block it, punish with 2A or s.5A.
Black Polnareff
Black Polnareff’s only significant advantage is high damage which he can execute quite easily on DIO, but he has no safe way to initiate pressure that can reliably give him a combo.
The most simple gimmick he has to try to open you up is with rekka. Pushblocking too late on the first half gives him time to beat jump-out attempts on the follow-up. Fortunately you don’t even have to pushblock to be able to do that. Blocking the first rekka then holding up will escape both the low and overhead follow-ups, and even if he doesn’t follow up at all you can get a bit of damage with rising hop s.j.C which will punish if he’s close enough. You get a full combo if he misses the second half of the rekka on your hop. You can also attempt a more risky punish on the first rekka- that being an early pushblock then 662A which will hit regardless if he inputs the second rekka or not. It’s precise so it’s not the most reliable answer, but go for it when you’re ready from a failed hitconfirm of his. If he hits rekka as close as possible, just pushblock into 2A also works.
Speaking of hitconfirm, watch your toes! His best one is 2B, usually the dashing version which has a lot of active frames, range, and hits low. Because it hits on the ground the way it does, it can also easily meaty landing recoveries, which you don’t have to worry about with Stand ON DIO since he doesn’t have a low hurtbox on his vulnerable landing frame. In general B.Pol has a hard time with an airborne DIO as even though his 5A and 2C are somewhat consistent anti-airs, they do very poor damage to discourage you from attempting jump-ins,and teching down or forward into him. Not to mention a bad call on your tech timing (if you vary it enough) can mean a bad whiff which could mean a combo. Add the threat of air knives, s.j.C plus air muda keep-out, and the lack of ways to initiate, a good life lead is pretty easy to sit on in this match-up. Just keep in mind s.5A whiffs on his crouch!
Another beloved move of many B.Pol players is the 214AA super. You can count on him to have meter for it almost all the time. Its animation before super flash is a bit subtle, and it starts almost instantly after super flash meaning you can’t reversal if you’re too close in case you whiffed something. This means that on the ground you need to work on your hitconfirms and safe ways to initiate pressure. So no 236S or 214A cancels all the time. If you get to block it, pushblock immediately then use d.2A 214A because even though he’ll be unable to block on recovery, near the end of it he’s able to move so you don’t want to give him time with 66C for a potential crouch, roll, or jump-out. If you pushblock it from afar or it whiffs, raw 236S will hit Chariot too. 214AA is also air-unblockable. This means your air mudas need a bit more purpose, and that you need to be aware of your remaining air actions in case you need to double jump, stall with air mudas if you’re high enough, etc. It’s also great to buffer 236 often, so that when you see the super, you might be able to just press AA after the flash to get air knives. Knives are also a good punish in general from mid to far ranges.
236AA is faster than 214AA, but it’s not air-unblockable, doesn’t hit as high as the animation might suggest, and you can actually reversal it before the flash. You won’t see it much, but keep in mind to punish with 662A 214A since 66C 214C tends to whiff because The World will stop where Chariot was.
When pressuring B.Pol, you need to look out for his Guard Cancel since it’s one of the best and he can add a bit of extra damage with something like a 2C or a jump attack. If you ever get to bait it, he might execute 623X instead which you should pushblock for Chariot to get out of range and then punish with d.2A. B.Pols also love their 3punch macro. He has some hefty roll ghosting regardless if it’s standstill or not. Both his 5A and 2A are active on frame 2, which means he can get them covered in i-frames if done right after a roll. This is usually done with 5A because it confirms easier, so you can try meaty the roll with your 2A since it will low-profile. Though 2A will still be a threat, he has a difficult confirm from it. Play around his roll depending on how he uses these jabs.
If he does 236S 66C when you're Stand ON, it won't launch so you can throw knives.
Don't bother with 236C oki except maybe unless it kills since it won't fully connect on his crouch and he'll probably GC it easily.
B.Pol is quite thin regardless of standing or crouching, get used to that.
Chaka
One has the damage, the other has a scary counter and GC. It’s an interesting clash of win conditions. If Chaka “learn” counters an important move like 2A or (d)5C, it can make fighting him so much harder. Any time he blocks a learned move in s.ON, he can cancel the blockstun into any normal of his choosing and get a full combo on you (or kara cancel into s.236AA), and you can’t even tandem through it once you see it. Still, you need to remember it’s his potential to win the match through the counter VS your near-guaranteed round if he misses the counter and you kill him with a Stand crash combo, and that there’s ways to play around his counter. You still have safe s.ON confirms, and can still use 5C from afar to pre-emptively anti-air, or s.5C which you can cancel into s.236X if you confirm the hit. And since Chaka can’t double jump or stall his air time in any way, he can be a good tech chase target with s.5C, s.j.B, 2B, and 5C.
In s.ON he has the counter and a good GC, in s.OFF he has no counter but a great GC which he can easily combo from as well. So blocked 214A is nearly out of the question. With pushblocks he can also counter your 214A which also learns 236S, or s.236AA it. If you’re airborne when he GCs you, he combos it into j.C and then strong tech chase. He can easily meaty your air techs if you time them the same way, so as long as you escape, the risk of taking an extra juggle hit because you delayed your tech isn’t so bad. While your anti-airs are better against most characters, his jump is very fast so you need to quickly react to his hop with 5A 236S, or pre-emptively 5B or 5C them. s.6B is also decent for his hops if you’re at midrange, and stuffs grounded approach, but is quite whiff punishable by his 236S and s.5B, the latter of which leading to combo confirms if he has meter. Once you do anti-air, however, he dare not tech into you in fear of 2B, (d.)s.5C, and especially tandem.
As for Chaka’s anti-airs, his 236S doubles down as one of his best ways to beat you on the ground, your hops, and spaced jumps. If you get right above him, instant j.C will likely beat you or trade favorably. s.5B is similarly good to 236S but it recovers much slower so it’s a lot riskier, though it can confirm into rekka, custom combo, and s.236AA at near max range. Failed confirms into rekka can mean death for him. Block the first hit (don’t pushblock) and then stop the 2nd with a (d.)2A or 5B before it comes out. If you block the 2nd as well, he can cancel it to counter, or do his high/low enders which you can beat with 236S, or try to frame trap with his launch ender which isn’t too bad to get hit by and is death on block for him. Failed confirms or punishes into s.236AA are also punishable on pushblock, whereas custom combo you can simply block low against since his overhead during it is punishable even on hit with 2A. You can try to 236S when his Stand bar is low to crash him but it’s risky against counter. Also watch out for tick grabs at the end of it, or instant overhead hop s+j.C. Chaka hops are definitely reactable to at least block if he does them late enough to combo after, even if he tries to reset into them from a custom combo. Just be on the lookout even in neutral while still blocking low so you don’t get caught by a 66B or s.2C. When done from too high, you can try to press 5A or 236S after blocking s.j.C since the former hits him crouching Stand OFF and it will anti-air if he tries to do another jump after it to catch you off guard. Don’t press immediately after the 5A since he can duck under it by turning off with 2S+A, which can lead into a custom combo.
Should your 236S or 214X get countered, be careful to space blockstrings so that 236S whiffs instead because they’re both learned if one of them gets countered. Never do 214X pressure of any kind if that happens since kara s.236AA will hit The World. Taking a combo in s.ON against Chaka can be painful because of his unblockable resets and mix-ups. After a custom combo in s.ON, you may find yourself launched and unable to tech. From here many Chakas will opt to do a high/low between instant s.j.C or 5B, 2A, or s.2A. The true UB resets are frame perfect on DIO since his s.ON landing has no legs to meaty for a frame. What you can try to abuse this with is timing reversal 214S which will go through lows and block a non-meaty high, but it is frame perfect and you’ll still get Stand crushed by s.j.C if your gauge is low enough.
He can punish your knives with a custom combo, but s.236AA won’t go through so don’t get scared when you see it. Anti-air juggles can end in an untechable launcher (s.5ABCB) which leads into a super or a reset attempt. If your Stand gauge isn’t low enough to get crashed by s.j.C, just block low and watch out to react to a comboable hop s.j.C.
Chaka’s meterless punish to grab and GC is pretty consistent but also weak so give it a shot sometimes. If he grabs you in a corner while s.OFF, you can punish with down tech S+j.C into s.5B rekka, or d.s.2B if you’re very precise. If he ends his combo with rekka ender at 6 hits, down tech S+j.X into a full combo. If he ends it with 7 or 8 hits, ground tech into tandem or 236C. 214A is also possible but hard and you might get a road roller if you mess up.
Devo
There’s a lot to know here but once you get it all down, it’s pretty annoying for ol’ Dave.
A lot of times, DIO may find himself getting one-touched in this match-up whereas Devo is more awkward to combo due to his very low crouch, so you’ll want to learn some new routes for that, but always gauge the importance of your meter depending on how much damage you’re doing, since the great equalizer in how Devo treats you is the access to knives, mostly the air version. Any of Devo’s s.OFF specials, and s.ON pressure as a whole, is at risk of a clean shot of knives. Just don’t rush to use them any time you see him go s.ON since he can turn it off pretty quickly and roll to avoid them.
You’ll want to stay in the air a lot, as even though his air normals are quite strong regardless of mode, you can space yourself for s.j.B to beat Devo himself pretty consistently, whereas the puppet will mostly be under you to enforce mix-ups on landing, and has to be wary of knives. Constantly doing j.A on landing on top of the doll then quickly pre-jump cancelling with jump+S is key to minimizing risk of playing at the range where the puppet is under you. Obviously, this creates a stalemate if Devo doesn’t activate his puppet in a way to get you to land, often with his s.j.C. You can choose to not air block when he’s going for this as to not let yourself land into a potential high/low into TOD. DIO’s s.ON thankfully has the highest defense so you don’t lose much health from this. It’s useful to note that the puppet’s low into s.22C does not Stand crash you from a full bar, so you can try prioritize high blocking, and if you do take an s.22C from the low, jump away again and let your Stand recover as you land with j.A, or punish the s.22C on hit with s.5A or s.2A if he has no meter since he can cancel it tandem. s.5/2A is a 1 frame punish to it, whereas if you get hit by it in s.OFF it’s much easier to punish with 2A. In 2A’s case and possibly s.5A (which is also crouch cancellable so you can hold 1 instead), they can be made safe to tandem by walk cancelling backwards and then blocking low. His instant overhead s.j.6B is also punishable on block (preferred not to pushblock) with jabs, but you will mostly see instant s.j.C against your s.ON since it fully combos. This stalemate is broken when Devo decides to force his mix-ups on you as stated above, or when DIO starts to approach. It’s much safer to do this from the air in order to avoid doll activations into a combo or pressure. Should you get into that spot, keep an eye out for pre-jump cancelling, reversal tandem, grab (should try sometimes since his punishes are situational and awkward), and 236S instantly turns off remote and lets you get a combo since he won’t be able to block after it as Ebony Devil recovers, so safest bet after that is s.2A since if you take long trying to get something like S+2A, he can mash or roll, as 236S isn’t very advantageous on hit. Don’t get too greedy to deactivate with 236S since a tandem through it can end you. Though if you have s.214X install ready, you can before 214 before a potential flash and press S after it in which case it’s a meter trade where nothing (ever) happens. Not a bad use since it’s much easier for DIO to build meter than Devo.
Jumping to him is covered with his air-to-air j.B or instant s.j.C, and he can also just bring his doll a little closer for insurance. But the main goal once you’re pressuring is to get a knife punish, or bait a reversal tandem or 214AA since he can kill you from both. You’ll want to constantly make airtight blockstrings once you CONFIRM them (for example: don’t 2A after a j.A immediately as he may have went through j.A with 214AA), and reset occasionally into jumps while making sure The World isn’t vulnerable. When looking out for 214AA, block it in s.OFF and take some chip or s.ON double jump over and use air knives once it’s past you. Tandem you should simply jump out against. Rolling might put you in a spot for an easy unblockable. At first you may find yourself frustrated that while your safest approach is jumping, you’re getting pressured after his anti-air 5C since it puts you on the ground and he cancels into 236X usually which gets the doll close and Devo himself can lock you down during it. What changes this whole dynamic greatly is the knowledge that anti-air 5C is very punishable on hit since it brings you down instantly. You can immediately down tech j.A/s.j.A if he hits you while you’re a way above the ground, or just let yourself land and 2A if you get anti-aired close to the ground. If you miss and then ground tech instead, instant 236S can also work. An option select against his anti-air 5C is to press your jump-in, then quickly 2AA while you’re airborne in case you got anti-aired, from which you can confirm if you connected j.A, or got anti-aired and then punish him. Just keep an eye out for his meter. Once you remove his anti-air 5C, your pressure is more threatening since you can reset into jumps easier and approach more freely. His other s.OFF anti-airs are quite weak in damage or consistency.
When getting pressured on block by Devo, his goal will be to get his doll close and then force a high/low. He’ll do this by either slowly creeping in with s.ON when you’re not in his face, or doing blockstrings on you with 5C, jump attacks, 2A, 66C, and 236X. Once he does get the doll close and you’re sandwiched, expect a sudden high/low, or trying to catch your escapes with tighter strings. The issue is a lot of times he won’t be able to safely confirm without a bunch of 2As, and he’ll need to cancel 5C into 236X to confirm from that too. You have to be aware of the doll’s specials’ recoveries, and what Devo is doing during them. He knows he’s vulnerable so in order to keep his turn he’ll try to get in on you himself with a jump-in, d.2A tick grab, or 66C. His jump is quite slow so he generally does j.C early and you can take your turn back on block (just watch out for 214AA), and his cancels into 236A (usually 5C and 66C) leave him too far on pushblock to do much if the doll isn’t right next to you, so you can jump out as 5C won’t reach and 2A won’t hit. If you pushblock early enough, things like 5C (on PB) 236A 2A can be interrupted with your own 2A before 236A connects, but it relies on preemptive PB which can give a confirm to death in s.ON, or roll which lets him mix you up which isn’t good either. Knowing you likely won’t grab, he’ll try to avoid you completely as 236X is getting close by rolling during it. If 236A hits too early, you’ll still be at an advantage, or you can just minimize the risk altogether by jumping away. When sandwiched in s.ON and expecting a high/low, once again prioritize blocking high since his overhead options will do more Stand damage. Of course this is trickier if your Stand is already hurt. Devo’s failed 2A confirms into s.5A should be pushblocked and then jumped on to avoid a mix-up after it.
If Devo tries pressuring you on his own with the doll far away, he’ll likely be fishing for grabs and trying to get you to airblock and land into one. With the puppet far, your grab is almost completely safe so you can try to tech it normally and there’s little threat of combos since his puppet is far. You’ll likely win some air-to-air exchanges as well and if he’s meterless you can easily 2B if he techs back in. If metered, s.j.B is much safer and still consistent. Devo can’t change his jump arc at all unlike the other active Stand characters so tech chasing with s.j.B and air muda is pretty effective and he doesn’t get much damage from air-to-airs either. If he happens to grab you towards the corner you can down tech S+j.C d.s.2A rekka/214S or s.j.C d.s.2B s.6B rekka.
Should Devo knock you down, you’re in for death by unblockables or some scary mix-ups. A common one when you’re sandwiched is activating 236C and then rolling through. This counts as a cross-up only if he does this while you’re sandwiched so switch block side if you see that. Spear unblockables are truly inescapable if done correctly but they’re not as braindead as Vice’s so it’s both harder to hit and harder to combo from. Try quickly switching high and low blocking in case he misses it, or reversal tandem sometimes. Or try this option select of 2141S41 mostly reserved for 214X 2C which may block meaty fake UBs or reversal tandem. There’s also his standard s.j.6B and s.2B high/low but it’s not as threatening without meter to confirm to tandem with, but an s.22C will give him the meter to use later as a reversal or combo. Meter economy as stated at the start is the biggest threat in Devo running his game. Build it up when you can with whiffs and get your combos down. If you suck at mashing enough in tandem, it’s not worth confirming them on his crouch.
Against crouching Devo on stretched screen from being on the opposite end away from the puppet, you can 2A 5 S+2A>s.5B 214S and it’ll connect on its own. Otherwise tandem confirm with 2A 5 S+2A 214S (2A after flash). Make the tandem sequence 2A*3 then mash 2A 2B with 236 to get as many hits as possible. The screen pull will allow you to jump over midscreen even if you were facing away from the puppet and near the opposite wall. Then confirm your tandem end with 2A 2A 2A 236C 2A d.2A 2A 2A 5C/jump away (5C must be linked from 2A in this case), or do a 214A loop and then do the same thing. With all of this, you’ll be able to do over half of Devo’s health even when he’s crouching! If you don’t trust the 2A 236C combo, end with s.2A>s.5B>rekka instead.
DIO
Hol Horse
Hol Horse has a lot of knowledge checks, many of them being unforgiving due to his easy TODs on DIO. But his greatest strengths are that, and his anti-airs. DIO can easily play around both of those.
First off, learn the grab punish. Down tech S+j.X or down tech j.A both work. Once you can consistently punish the grab with good damage, it’s the most important step to getting around Hol’s zoning since rolling is risk-free unless he tries a hard read against it. More on that later. Aside rolls, you want to be Stand ON at least 80% of the time to make sure he can’t easily TOD. It will also avoid chip damage as otherwise it’d be an easy way for Hol to keep pressuring you to take action. DIO’s high defense in s.ON will also ensure that most trades will be in your favor, active Stand takes few hits from anti-air glass shards, and is almost impossible to anti-air with Hanged Man 214X unless you turn s.ON while rising. With all of this, you can tell a lot of your approach will be rolls and s.ON jumping, especially when you have meter to punish specials with air knives. s.ON superjump often goes over 236X, short hops can contest Hol’s anti-airs with early s.j.C, or if you jump high above him, with j.A. Hol has to be very careful about his anti-airs as one fail leads to a BNB and over half his health missing along with your meter at a net positive. Of course, he’ll only be this cautious if your combos are on point to actually dissuade him from attempting them, especially with the poor damage and juggle from anti-airs against s.ON, and you must think about each approach, air block as soon as you jump and dash cancel (with 4/1S to go s.OFF and roll if need be) if you want to get closer without worrying about pushback. Jumping in s.ON also helps avoid glass pressure and mix-ups or unblockables. If your Stand gauge is low, turn s.OFF crouching to so glass doesn’t hit as early, and roll. You’ll be almost full by the time your roll ends.
When you’re actually in on Hol, be on point with your hitconfirms even if it only reads into rekka, as that also goes into 236C mix. Otherwise, keep it safe and chip him a bit while you’re there. He’ll pushblock so he can get distance again, which you can catch with 66C or 662C if you’re diligent enough. Or you can safely chase with dash cancels and the like, or bait a pushblock to make him roll and do a mix-up on it. Even crouching hits will be significant since he’s relatively easy to combo, and 236C mix is quite effective as mentioned. 5B 236C will also work on him after a tandem. Once you have a life lead, it’ll force him to take risks- those being all of his specials, particularly glass and Hanged Man as they have the highest reward, and slow bullet to try to cheese you. Being on the look-out for a dash-in punish or knives can beat all of these. In slow bullet’s case, make sure to input 236 slowly so it’s registered properly, and hold then release AA with a bit of delay so it gives a press and a negative edge attempt. Slow bullet is also a great anti-air, however, and the slowdown essentially leaves it to chance on whether your normals and jumps will actually go through. Pray and turn s.ON if you’re not in it already, then try double jump away and knife. If you happen to be close to him and on the ground when he slow bullets, you low-profile it with 2A and 2C.
An issue against Hol that many players find unintuitive is how glass and Hanged Man force pre-block: for the entire time that shards fall, and as long as Hanged Man is doing the stabbing animation. It inhibits walking, but dashing still works. The main issue that comes from this is when Hol does a blockstring particularly into glass as it will mess with rolls since pushblock will come out instead even if the normal’s blockstun would’ve ended much earlier, but holding a direction the entire time will “combine” the blockstun and glass’s pre-block, and will give pushblock instead. Fortunately, the solution is very simple. Let go of block, then roll. Glass is slow, so there’s no need to panic. Crouch to make it hit later so you have more time to do this. Also works when he does Hanged Man into glass. Pushblock 214X (which you should always do anyway since the blockstun is massive otherwise), then you can roll or whatever other action you’re planning (aside walking but you probably never do that anyway). Get familiar with how Hol wants to pressure or TOD you when he has you nearby. He might try to get a bit of extra chip with 236C/AA, but it’s punishable on pushblock with (66)2A if you’re close enough. Remember that his 5C gets low-profiled by 2A but you should do it ASAP to avoid getting your dash caught. You can minimize the threat of any string if you’re s.ON so you can just not take risks if there’s no need to, you can dash into him with little risk in cases where he can’t 5C or 2C such as pushblocking his 5B and trying to punish a cancel into glass or 214X, or just mashing if he’s close.
Teleports are also similar to rolls in that it’s a relatively risk-free way to get close unless he hard reads against them. Usually the best he can do is meaty it and get some chip, or you happen to punish a 236X or glass and win. A smart Hol can try predict your teleport or roll and set up a glass onto the place where you would stop, and meaty with an unblockable that can potentially TOD. Avoid this by threatening punishes when looking out for his projectiles to discourage their use, and/or teleport and roll at distances where he can’t set up a good UB. His glass+4C unblockables only go into Hanged Man if he cancels 4C’s first hit. Many fake UBs can be blocked by switching low to high, with the biggest risk being that he can let the other hits rip and do 236AA from that. Other common glass mix-ups can be glass with no low which you can either block just high or crouch and roll, IOH j.C into air glass which you can either knife or air-to-air s.j.B/C into air muda, etc. Hol might try to run away with back jump air glass but sometimes you can run under it and anti-air d.2B/5C, try to punish the landing, use empty tandem to make the former two easier, or just use knives.
S bullet is a move he should rarely be able to get out because of how slow it is, but it can be threatening once he does since it can stop some approaches and combo into Hanged Man, start pressure along with good chip damage if you’re in s.OFF, and cross up. But air blocking s.ON will limit what he can do afterwards. It’s your safest bet just like against glass.
One way Hol can get a lucky TOD is by punishing your s.OFF 214X either by catching it with Hanged Man from afar which really shouldn’t ever come up, or usually by rolling through and doing 2/5A into 5C which will sort of combo because The World won’t recover right after being hit, so you won’t be able to block the 5C. Make sure to meaty his rolls to avoid this, or avoid missed 214X altogether either by confirming your dash-ins connecting, or doing the 4214X OS to get teleport instead. Similar things can happen with 236C oki if he pushblocks you, so cover The World as safe as you can so it doesn't get hit by Hanged Man but also that DIO doesn't take the jab into 5C. You might be able to mash 2A against that string but it's tight.
Hoingo
A lot of this match-up is the same as Hol but easier. He has generally worse normals to keep you out both for your grounded approaches and anti-airs, the few that are decent of course don’t combo into anything but start S bullet pressure (more on that later). You don’t have to worry about his anti-air 4A so your j.A is more likely to get in against his 4B since it’s also slower than Hol’s, though you can opt for more standard spaced s.j.C so anti-air glass combos aren’t as much of an issue.
Grab punish is same as Hol - down tech S+j.X or j.A - 236X/AA are even easier to punish than Hol’s- once again, push block the last hit then d.2A. Glass pre-block gimmicks apply similarly to Hol. Let go of walking, then do whatever you wanna do next, or make sure you pushblocked the prior move early enough. Meaty and mix his rolls properly. His 2A is pathetically slow and the best he can realistically do from a missed meaty is 5A into truck.
Your chip damage won’t be as significant as with Hol since some of Hoingo’s S bullet pressure can cross up or set up something else like an airblock into truck meaty (s.ON only), and playing s.OFF against him is far less intimidating than against Hol since you’re not worrying about a random 2C, 5C, or 214X into death… meaning you’ll be more prone to chip and he has more presence than a meterless Hol. Any time he beats your pokes and cancels into S bullet, odds are it’ll be with 2B or 5B which will push you at a midrange in which you won’t be able to stop him on hit or even on block a lot of times.
Raw specials and S bullet you should try to stop on anticipation just like with Hol, and you can afford to s.ON air block whenever you feel threatened until he pulls out specific set-ups for that as mentioned prior.
His win condition is hitting a truck. If you ever block glass or a close S bullet, expect him to go for it since it connects on block too. Still, from midrange you can afford to risk running into S bullets since it has way less hit- and blockstun than Hol’s making it much harder for Hoingo to confirm a truck from it. He might get a lot of meter on hit but it’s not that threatening. Truck will only hit when you make a big mistake and pipe maze is easily reactable usually, and even if it comes out you can double jump and take very few hits in s.ON or get even a single cheap hit to cancel it. Don’t get too greedy though as that’s often what Hoingo looks for during a pipe set-up: threaten you with pipes, but not actively try to hit them specifically. Pipe start-up has flickering hitboxes that are quite big and will knock you down if they connect which can make things messy if Hoingo knows how to trap you from a meaty S bullet set-up. The most consistent ways of stopping it are knives and tandem obviously, then very high jump-ins if you can get those in time, then s.5/6B and 66A if you space them properly. Things like 66C and 662A will be at risk of getting hit by the start-up and a trade is also unfavorable because of the hard knockdown. Blocking the pipe start-up will remove any upcoming hitboxes, so you can freely d.2A or d.5C in that case. If desperate, grab him if he has no meter and his punish will be pretty weak, maybe a good S bullet pattern at best against s.OFF.
As for his pressure, it mostly comes in the form of mid-range keep out from constantly hitting his projectiles. He can’t set it up easily due to DIO’s great effective range and punish potential, so a good Hoingo will choose wisely on when to use 236X instead, and when not to use either at all to potentially bait a waste of meter from you. Blockstrings into S bullet are very risky since from up close, 2A will interrupt, and even from farther away in theory DIO can just instant air knives or hop s.j.C if he’s already in s.ON, or simply jump over regardless of what mode he’s in to take his turn with little risk as Hoingo would have to create a specific pattern to cover that or be ready to anti-air; either way it loses potential momentum. Instead he might space a 236C to try to get safe chip which you should still attempt to punish with PB d.2A, or keep using his pokes to push you into the range where he can get it out safely. Until Hoingo starts to consistently confirm his bullets connecting or just consistently crossing you up with them, keeping on blocking is relatively safe. Truck isn’t truly hitconfirmable from S bullet so a well-timed jump, GC, or super can win you the match then and there as whiffed truck is punishable by the most optimal starters you can think of. His punish to GC isn’t too hard, especially against s.OFF, but him hitting a 236AA will do around the same damage as truck but with less time for okizeme so you might as well risk an escape with that if you’re blocking glass grounded and worry about him hitting truck from it. Speaking of glass, it’s sometimes even easier to punish than Hol’s since he starts to fall as soon as he shoots it even if it was right after leaving the ground. So something like an IOH j.C into air glass will comfortably fall right into your anti-air 5C, 2B, or an easy air-to-air. Though it might be safer than Hol’s when he uses it as cover while running away.
A common mix-up Hoingo can do from any of his knockdowns is set up a meaty 4C and then cancel into either 236C/AA or truck. Truck will hit you even if you blocked the 4C, but holding up to take the hit and attempting to get out of truck will get caught by 236. 236AA can also knock down but it does less damage since Hoingo’s 4C scales unlike Hol’s. A well-timed guard cancel can go through truck and interrupt 236C, but will likely lose to 236AA. Otherwise the best he can do is go for a left/right mix with S bullet depending on his pattern. While he can set it up in a way that it connects, travels a bit behind then comes back for a cross-up, it’s even easier for him to do that if you pushblock, and PB won’t give any advantage in these cases anyway.
In theory the best things Hoingo can do from knockdowns need some luck to confirm his best ender. His glass, 2A, and 4C are all much slower so it’s not nearly as effective as Hol’s even from a spaced 2C. From truck he’ll usually be too far to instantly set it up so he’ll either meaty you from afar with S bullet or get a guaranteed UB with glass+236C. But if he is at the proper spacing that he gets a good bounce and gets to set up glass, he can technically repeat that knockdown by going into S bullet and ending with 66C which cancels into more glass, meaning more unblockables. For now, this remains training mode only theorycrafting.
Iggy
Even though Iggy’s one of the weirdest characters in the game, DIO has a pretty simple gameplan against him. He has a lot that simplifies counter-strategies against Iggy’s unique options, and just overall strong tools that will help against other characters as well.
If you look closely, you may notice that Iggy is very small- the shortest character in the game in Stand OFF. You’re probably not used to dealing with a low hurtbox that often, but he has low defense and is surprisingly wide compared to his collision which will compensate a bit during combos. Learn the 2A 5 S+2A link so you can combo into rekka for better damage than just ending in d.2C against s.OFF. s.2C is never worth it since you don’t get good oki anyway. 236C combos also kind of suck because if his Stand is significantly weakened (at around 60%) you won’t be able to side switch in time. Doing three 214A loops into rekka will earn a full meter, and even get a Stand crash for a small extension or easy tandem confirm in which you’ll do 2A*3 then mash 2AB with 236 to get more hits which allows you to sideswitch midscreen. Without Stand crash, you can confirm tandem with 2A 5 S+2A 214S (d.2A after flash)
Now with the combos out of the way, we’ll get into how his size impacts neutral… not much against DIO. Iggy relies on it combined with his walk speed to tech chase and catch landings with his 2A/B or grab, but your j.A hits even then so it’s not as impactful. Access to knives and double jump plus s.ON DIO having no legs on landing make it difficult for him to get anything meaningful if you hold up and double jump unpredictably while covering your landing with j.A and threatening with knives occasionally. A lot of knives won’t hit him, but the low defense makes it worth it sometimes, though not as abusable as most other characters.
Grabbing and guard canceling midscreen is safe on hit!
Iggy will mostly look to keep you out with his sand balls while floating. He can do them while air blocking jump-ins, which makes them one of the most successful air-to-airs in the game, and that’s when the tech chase would start. They’re very fast and also cover ground approaches. But because they only do 1 damage, you can afford to constantly attempt going under sand balls with 66C and d.2B 236S since he can’t combo much from them in that case. No double jump also means you can afford to tech chase him with more 2B after anti-airing, with a common threat being his s.j.2C which often loses anyway, doesn’t knock down against crouch in which case it becomes punishable on hit by d.2A. If he floats high for too long you can also attempt laser and teleporting to him which lets you catch his landing or anti-air, or 236S in case he went down early enough to attempt to stop you. His normals aren’t very good at keeping you out either so a lot of times you can keep ramming your fist against the sand wall until you get an anti-air or combo.
There’s not much room to use meter in this match-up, so tandem unblockables are worth doing when you have the chance. If he manages to pushblock your set-up into it, keep an eye out for 236AA which is slow enough that you can turn s.off in time and punish on block, or teleports which you can wait for to release the tandem, or grab.
Iggy trying to open you up isn’t that threatening. He’ll usually poke you with far 5C, s.ON mediums, or try to get in with instant airdashes which you can anti-air preemptively with 5C and s.6B. He has little low threat from midscreen, so the main thing you’ll want to look out for is walking for a grab since it’s quite fast, but you can mash 2A against that quite easily if you’re looking for it, or he’ll just walk into your keep-out buttons. What he can also do against your 2A is jump over with a float or airdash. Should he get a combo on you, it’ll either end in s.2C for a knockdown which you’ll want to pay attention to, or a charge which is punishable on hit with d.2A. Charge is also punishable on block with 66C. Learn it ASAP. When he does oki from s.2C, look out in case he’s far enough that you can prioritize blocking low since his overheads take a bit longer to execute, so if he has to walk a bit before them, he may not be able to combo from one, and then you can first watch out for low/throw, then overheads. He has all the time in the world to set up a mix from grab, though. There’s just one oddity: Iggy’s grab is the only knockdown in the game from which you can truly reversal on wake-up, so you may attempt a tandem with 214(1)S depending on if you wanna block high or low in case you miss the reversal. Aside high/low/throw, you’ll also see oki in which he’ll set up 63214C sand dogs which command grab, then meaty your wake-up. If you block it, you’ll get grabbed and take a chunk. Easiest way to avoid it is simply hold up once you see the dogs. He needs specific countermeasures against this. You can also GC his meaty if you’re fast enough; usually it will be j.C. Iggy can also meaty your wake-up easily with a sand ball, and might try to grab you if you pushblock it, or a standard tick grab from it, or just another high/low from float.
Old Joseph
Old Joseph wants to face you at a midrange in which he can poke with his keep-out moves like 5C/s.5B, (s)2C, j.C, s.j.A, s.5C, s.3C, and overdrive. He relies on meter to hitconfirm into custom combo even from raw hits on some of his stronger normals, which can really hurt since he’s able to combo into his command grab and then get oki from it. Even when he’s defending from your block pressure, a single mash out can confirm 214S or wrap and do a lot of damage even meterless. His strengths can’t be denied, but unfortunately you can play in a way to avoid them. His approach options are rewarding and confirmable on hit but lead into very dangerous RPS for him on block, and he has no good ways to stop DIO from downbacking or upbacking if he has no meter. And even then, the risk-reward isn’t much in his favor.
Dash cancelling or jumping as you dash may be especially important in this match-up since you can easily get caught by s.3C, overdrive, and wrap s.236C if you’re carelessly tap dancing around. s.3C isn’t seen much but is very long and low, though it’s uncancellable on whiff so it’s death if you jump over it, and can still whiff punish its long recovery with 66C. Overdrive is punishable on pushblock with d.2A and you should watch out for it any time you block one of his s.OFF dashing normals, while s.236C can be used during neutral to surprise you from afar. It hits mid and is punishable on block with 66C. Don’t pushblock it since you’ll be too far.
When you approach and do block pressure, his main confirmable defense there is (s)2C and s.5C which both lead to wrap and CC. Spaced s.j.C and j.A from directly above are very easy ways to approach him since they’re hard to anti-air with his normals alone, and if you can condition him into letting you in closer, instant overhead s.j.A air muda works against his s.ON but it’s harder than with most characters. Instant overhead j.C is also very easy to connect on him. His most consistent anti-air is custom combo 214X which can fall out if it Stand crashes, but is usually not that strong anyway and leaves him without a meter that can take him a while to build back up. Also try to predict raw 236AA since it’s invincible, hits quite high, but is not air unblockable (though also not punishable on air block). If it comes down to it, try to cancel your air normal into knives once you see the flash. It’s a strict window, but you gotta try! The damage cannot be ignored! He might also attempt his counter against your jump attacks, which is punishable on reaction with knives or double jumps if you don’t fall for it. Any time you feel unsafe when close to him, hopping away is the least risky retreat. The worst that can happen is he catches your pre-jump but can’t combo into command grab in that case, which is avoidable with pre-jump cancel. His s.OFF guard cancel is pretty bad but still consistent against 214X, and s.ON GC is quite strong and even does a ton of Stand damage which he can combo from if he somehow crashes you with the last hit. If you manage to bait a pushblock while he’s s.ON, he’ll get his unique roll which shifts his hurtbox very low but you can catch it with a 2A at any point and kill him from there.
There’s little need to take risks. If you get him to come to you, he’s not very hard to anti-air, no (good) overheads or fast dash-up grab to watch out for, and his dashing normals are potentially punishable, either by punishing their recovery or by waiting for a punishable cancel, and the worst that can happen is he catches you with a custom combo mix-up which generally doesn’t do much damage, since it’s either a raw 360 or a combo into 214X. Pushblocking his CC will let him catch you with command grab, not pushblocking forces him to delay his 360 cancels which lets you tandem or jump out, jumping can be anti-aired with (5C)214X but if you get a chance you can hit him with air knives before he anti-airs.
6C and s.6C are overheads you can punish on hit with 2A. 66C has a similar animation but launches and you can punish with ground tech 214S or 236C. Chained s.6C is plus and he can combo from it in the corners.
Very important to note Oldseph’s okizeme revolves around a strike/throw. From both, he can get another knockdown and vortex. But remember that wake-up has grab invincibility, so you can try to time an option select in which you block a meaty then jump as soon as your grab invul is done. If done correctly, you can even hop out to punish a whiffed command grab. This OS loses to delayed meaties which can get beaten by reversal tandem (or Bloody Summoning). Another OS which works similarly is 2141S which will either block a meaty normal, or punish a 360. There are a few things he can try tricking you with on oki, like whiffing 66C and crossing over with it, jumps, etc, but it all boils down to strike/throw.
A neat install Oldseph can do is execute 236S or 623X, which installs a cancel property into his counter, much like DIO doing only rekka 1 will install 214S/rekka cancel property into 236S. From there, his usually negligible counter which does low damage, will be cancellable into s.236C wrap, and can potentially get him huge punishes on your grounded moves because of how it freezes your animation. It won’t punish jump attacks, though. You can always block the wrap on landing.
Jotaro
Pick Shadow Dio instead
Kakyoin
Khan
Khan has low defense, s.ON DIO has the highest. So him playing solid midrange won’t cut it since you can beat his normals pretty well and his d.2A confirm is quite hard, meaning you win damage exchange often. Khan’s offensive pressure is also quite simple. Pushblock jump-in, pushblock 2A, then you jump out shortly after since your pre-jump goes over his 2A and anything else that hits higher doesn’t confirm well at all or is too slow. He can’t contest back jump s.j.C almost at all and if he manages to low-profile it, you’re safe while s.ON landing to his 2A. His anti-airs are both weak in damage, can’t tech chase well aside cross-under mix which you can avoid easily with double jumps and/or air muda, and he has to worry about getting blasted by air knives. Khan pressure just boils down to IOH j.C. Problem is if he does it as early as possible it’s punishable even on hit, potentially giving you a full combo if you catch his landing with 2A, or an anti-air 2A 236S which will still outdamage. If he delays it slightly it will make the punish more difficult but still possible, or it will become reactable. This means you should almost always block low against Khan even if you know an IOH j.C is coming (and it will be safe on a back hop) since it’s not worth taking the risk of a combo and another knockdown from 2A. He can add grabs into this, but it’s either a reset to neutral with little damage for him or you can attempt to straight-up punish it by ground teching into tandem then doing 66C. The input (when buffered to make it easier) would look something like this frame by frame: 2 1ABC (ground tech) 1 (needs to hold only for a frame after teching in order to make the buffer possible) 4S Then 66C before the tandem reaches. Use a crouching tandem sequence in case he tried to block low. The grab punish isn’t necessary to make this match-up easy, and you might even screw up and get an accidental road roller while attempting this so don’t worry about it too much, though you get some funny damage if you can manage it.
Try grabbing him while s.ON to see if he can punish it since it’s kind of weird. As with most chars, he can also punish ground knives from close-mid-range with his 214AA super.
There’s little need to overthink about punishing his rolls since it’s quite slow and you can get left/right mix quite easily, 236C mix is unnecessary risk, tandem UB is decent and you can cancel it if you see his super flash.
Preemptive (d)5C will anti-air him at midrange since his pre-jump is the slowest, (d)5B also hits at just the right angle for it, and while you should watch your toes, s.6B low crushes his 2A and anti-airs jumps if he doesn’t press early and is somewhat close. If he presses early he doesn’t get much pressure anyway or is just disadvantageous. s.5C he can duck under with d.2A making it quite punishable. After anti-airing, most Khans will try to be smart and try to escape your tech chase by trying to fight back, with some free 2Bs and s.j.Bs they’ll learn their lesson and remember to spin away when they tech to a side. If you notice this, use knives if they’re high up enough. Or attempt tiger knee air knives if they’re going down quick and you’re feeling real slick. Though even if he spins away for “free” it’s not a bad thing.
Very important to note that in order to combo into 236C against Khan, you must use two 2As before d.5A or it will miss. He’ll be pushed a bit far but it’ll work no problem if you dashed deep enough beforehand, and will still do great damage because of his bad defense.
Khan’s 214AA is easily punishable regardless of block or pushblock. With the latter you can get a 66C.
236AA is punishable by either blocking it completely then pushblocking him to make the last part whiff, or mash 3punch to roll behind him and either get the meanest confirm possible from j.C or 66C, or troll him with a road roller.
If he messes up a confirm, you might end up blocking his charge move. The mid version is cancellable into DP so act fast to punish with (d)2A before he notices it was blocked. Or wait for him to DP then punish on block or whiff since it has a lot of ground recovery. Regardless, there’s little risk. The low charge isn’t cancellable so it’s certain death if he misses that.
His DP has no invul and is blockable in mid-air so don’t worry about it too much. Both DP and GC are equally punishable if you manage to bait them, though you don’t want to get cocky on pressure since if his Guard Cancel hits, it gets a hard knockdown against s.OFF and potential (though still quite weak) okizeme. If he hits GC in corner against s.ON, it’s punishable since it won’t knock down.
While his counter can be a problem, as long as it’s not 2A you’ll probably be okay. And if he does miss it, make sure to win the round off of that. If he’s learned a jump-in, try to vary how deep you do it to throw him off, or use another one entirely or use empty jumps in case he’s fishing for it. If it’s 214X or 236S (learning one applies to the other as well), you probably shouldn’t use them almost ever at that point.
Mariah
Mariah only really has 5C, 2B, and low damage zoning and frame traps. A lot of times if she actually tries to fight back, you can afford to keep ramming her with 66C, 662A, or s.662A until you either punish her straight-up or you get in for pressure. Grab is also a part of your pressure since midscreen she can only punish with an outlet which does almost no damage, and getting your grab will lower her magnetism level by one even if she tech hits. Just be careful not to let her grab you instead as that gives some momentum. Not scary, but an inconvenience when dealing with outlets in your way.
From far away you can afford to approach with dash jumps into Stand activation or s.ON hyper hops since she can’t stop it and it lets you react to her cutlery and cable specials with air knives. Some Mariah players will blunder in forgetting the activation range for 214X wires (since it grows with levels) and if you see her attempting it when you’re too far it’s the easiest dash jump-in or 66C punish ever. Outlets and cables you can break very easily with s.5A, s.2A, or s.ON jump normals depending on where she places outlets (s.2A for 2S, aerials depending on your approach, etc). Cables you can cut much earlier than the animation would suggest. They have a bit of hitstop upon destroying them similar to when you cut Kak’s nets, but she can’t capitalize off of this almost at all. Outlets also have very little hitstun and blockstun, so if she sets them right on you, it’s back to neutral in which you can try pushing advantage. An early pushblock into full jump will go over common outlet cancels, but comes with the risk of rolling, and grabbing is one of the worst things she can do to you (very sad). There’s no need to rush in trying to punish outlet cancels or focusing on RPS depending on if she cancels or not. Go up to her slowly when you’re in Mariah’s (d)5C range, then eventually she’ll corner herself or you get a good whiff punish. DIO’s 2C is also effective in mid-far range to low-profile and outrange her 5C, since it’s her most threatening poke. Mariah's 5C is also a decent anti-air for hops, so to beat it s.OFF hop into early S+j.C is as uncontestable as usual unless she keeps mashing it a lot in which case you haven’t done a good job of dissuading her from that with 662A, 2C, s.662A, 66C, and to some extent s.6B and s.66C (good for back jump outlet attempts). High jumps she can’t really deal with from the ground aside 214AA but it’s not air unblockable and it’s not much to worry about at low magnetism + only 1 super meter. If she hits that, watch out for two things: she can loop it if she has more meter, so if she drops it you just win from there. Or she resets with 2A which can set up a bit of mix. Keep an eye out since the car will obscure your view a bit. Make sure to punish air blocked 214AA with your 662A.
Mariah with high magnetism might remind you a bit of Hol Horse since she fills the screen a lot, has many hits to chip with, and can actually do chunks of damage if given the right hits such as 214AA as mentioned earlier, or her cable okizeme similarly to Hol’s glass. Much like against Hol, you can make it as long as you take it easy by avoiding chip with s.ON and you’ll rarely have to worry about cable trapping you as long as you break it with s.5A in time, possibly take a hit from cutlery on purpose as you do s.j.A just to stop her momentum. High magnetism cable will put you in a ton of blockstun which gives her mix-ups. You could try Guard Cancel as she gets close but we all know how reliable that is, so it’s best to not get in that situation in the first place. Air blocking it is also not ideal since if there’s a lot of magnetism or she’s simply close, she might be able to get anti-air 5C or 3C into 214AA. Taking a few hits in Stand ON to try escape the juggle is better than potentially letting her have the super guaranteed.
She might also try reversal 236AA at times. The boobies will stun you for the bolts to connect. But if you manage to block the boobs or they whiffed and you’re somewhat close, empty tandem d.2A is an easy punish. Otherwise, block s.ON. If you see her using the air version, use knives (ground from close, air from far) or alternatively from up-close do an empty tandem to switch sides and get an easy 5C 236S anti-air.
Mariah’s jump isn’t particularly fast but her j.C is overall very good and she can be a bit obnoxious with outlet cancels. But no matter how deep she does j.S, it will still never be very advantageous if she spawns it on you similarly to ground outlets. You can afford to react with knives or empty tandems if she jumps at you to get easy anti-air chunks for a meter since as long as you break cables you’re never in need to punish anything with air knives.
If you find yourself blocking Mariah’s cable, you will unfortunately and likely have to take a high/low. Pushblocking won’t accomplish anything that’s worth the risk of her grabbing you either. Both her 6B overhead and IOH j.C are unreactable however you might find it better to occasionally keep blocking low since rising j.C won’t let her combo easily from low magnetism, and 6B is a bit slower so you might be better off blocking high soon after blocking meaty low. A good Mariah may optimize their cable combos so she gets repeated vortex and even more levels so while it doesn’t come up often, she’s actually one of the bottom tiers that can legitimately snowball on you if she gets that chance.
Midler
Beating Midler comes down to three things: winning ground exchanges which are generally in DIO’s advantage since he has longer ranged confirms, not letting her get away with jumping too much, and dealing with car super. The latter two are what you’ll see almost every Midler ever doing and it’ll be one of the most boring fights imaginable, while the first is rare and will throw you off guard, but isn’t much to worry about since you have 662A, 66C, and s.6B, and meterless she’s not that good against DIO pressure since her jab confirms aren’t too strong. Knowing this and the following more specified advice below, stay a bit closer in this match-up than the usual max 66C range since that’s when she can still reach with her dashing lows and cars for a preferred effective range, and you have more variety in how you can choose to fight. She’s also surprisingly fast and responsive similarly to DIO so she can maneuver well if you give her the space to do so.
Most Midlers only know jump attacks, (d)2C, and cars, maybe harpoon sometimes. Cars are air-unblockable so obviously don’t rely too much on jumping from mid-far range as an approach; make yourself threatening there by closing distance with 662A or 66C, stuffing out with s.6B from close-mid range if you don’t want to commit and you expect her to attempt keeping you out. She can cancel all of her normals into cars or harpoon which means there’s some rock-paper-scissors in you attempting to stop her cars but her possibly firing a harpoon instead which you can punish on pushblock with d.2A, her 2C also being punishable when not cancelled from which you have to watch out in particular for car super, though you can tandem before it hits if you were in the middle of an attack, or just to avoid a high/low mix. Guard Canceling when blocking 214AA could catch her off-guard if you see a jump, but it’ll likely only work once in a while if even that or it’ll trade with some disadvantage to you, so usually just try to switch block accounting for her 2A speed and potentially her pre-jump. You might get hit anyway at some point but you’ll at least avoid some damage from prior car hits. Making her waste the meter is really important if you block it when she reversals, attempts keep-out, or tries to mix up from it, because it’s often annoyingly safe since you can’t escape if you block and she just stays away to chip a bit and reset to neutral. If you manage to roll past it she can dash back to drag the screen and cars towards you so you’re not necessarily safe when doing that either. Should you make her 214AA miss, she should try to lock you down with her own normals so you don’t get to punish, in particular jump attacks so she takes minimal damage. Don’t try to force punishing cars since she’ll just get cheap damage from it often. Take it as a win that you were able to waste her meter! Still, you can definitely attempt something like a landing punish if she jumps into you with tandem (empty or otherwise), if she runs away you can force a roll with knives if you’re still early into the car super then meaty her roll, or if she’s not too far do an anti-air tandem sequence in case she jumps (5C in tandem then 2B with DIO himself) so you can get a bit of damage or if she rolls instead you might have time to meaty. This isn’t always possible so don’t run into cars by getting too greedy. This requires some heightened awareness if you want to optimize these interactions but it’s also not crucial. If 214AA fully connects (as in, all the cars hit), she might try get a bit of extra damage at the end with 5C or j.C into 236S. With enough launch scaling, it’s punishable on hit with ground tech tandem or just 236S if you want to be safe.
Harpoon isn’t a problem if you dash cancel on reaction (with 4S if you’re s.ON), and if you look out for it you can tandem through, 66C after the flash if need be to punish faster. Again- it’s punishable on pushblock with d.2A if it hits as early as possible regardless if it’s the s.ON or OFF version. You’ll often see her 2C cancelled into it or 236S if it doesn’t hit. Pushblocking it then attempting d.2A is decent as it can make her 236S whiff but she can late cancel to beat that, though the risk/reward is in DIO’s favor as usual. Just watch out for 214AA always. Her 2C and 5B are her best ground keep-out normals, and them being cancellable into 236S helps to at least hope for a trade instead of getting beaten into a full combo, or beating jumping over those normals, even confirming in 5B’s case. Still, well-thought-out and spaced 66C and 662A can beat the start-up of her 2C, and 5B can get out-prioritized by 66C, though it fares well against DIO’s 662A.
She might end small combos in 236S or hit it raw. From here you want to gauge Midler’s tech chase habits in order to escape more easily. It’s not advised to attempt fighting it since her j.C (s.ON and OFF) is a very common response to early techs which will meaty with little risk and has great range. It being heavy also makes it unpleasant to get hit by repeatedly. Late teching is a good response if she often does that, as even if it combos it will be scaled into minimal damage or it won’t reach at all. She can’t afford to be slick with 5A or s.2C usually since they often get stuffed by falling j.A. Otherwise she’ll get near guaranteed anti-airs by utilizing tandem for decent damage and then getting another tech chase from it. Or she might use cars (special or super) to get momentum when you tech far from her.
Inevitably, Midlers will resort to holding s.7 for at least half the match in which case you’ll plan your pressure all the way to the mid-range with 66C, s.66C, and 662B in order to get as many anti-airs as you can. Midler also struggles against UB tandem if she’s Stand ON due to how wide she is and you’ll get easier standing confirms, the same applies to IOH s.j.A air muda since she won’t get pushed out in time even though she has a lot of Stand bar. Her roll isn’t hard to spot for whenever you want to try a mix-up on it either.
When it comes to contesting Midler’s jump-ins, it comes down to if she wants high risk/reward or not. Her j.C has great range, active frames, and a lot of hitstun which she can easily combo d.2A from into a tandem. Issue is it hits very high and has a huge hurtbox around it. When it gets anti-aired it’ll look like she’s getting shadowboxed from halfscreen away. When spaced well you can afford to go for anti-air 5B or 5C so that you won’t be at a big risk if she presses j.A or j.B, and also being good against s.j.B. 2A can also low-profile it, and it’s treated similarly to a special since she can move but her Stand will be in recovery, letting you attempt a whiff punish if she misses j.C. Her s.j.C doesn’t have this problem, but she has weak confirms from it anyway and still about the same hurtbox. DIO’s s.j.B and s.j.C are also good at tagging this extended hurtbox if you’re under her, or if you press after her to hit the recovery. Close j.B and j.A are actually quite problematic and she’ll confirm them easily so just pushblock and reset to neutral. You don’t want to let her get pressure in hopes of punishing it since a grab can be obnoxious because of her okizeme and her 2A is pretty safe anyway. Midler’s j.B is perhaps the most consistent cross-up normal in the game, so you obviously don’t want to ever press 2A when she jumps over but that’s a standard DIO habit you should have in almost every match-up. Instead, pushblock her j.B (preferably on reaction so you don’t get accidental rolls). On cross-up, you will get only 1 frame of blockstun from pushblocking if you’re s.OFF. If midler tries to extend pressure after this you can attempt a punish with d.2A, s.6B, or 236S.
Also note that Midler cannot double jump after turning s.ON mid-air. If she didn’t already have it on as she jumped, her only way to stall her air trajectory is with j.2C and s.j.2C. The former can be quite annoying but you should attempt to punish it both on block and hit with 66C. s.j.2C will never be used from s.OFF jumps but if you ever see it, it has massive recovery which you can easily punish as soon as you see it. Midler air blocking while s.ON will strangely make her invulnerable until landing. For example, air blocking knives will make only one of them connect, then she’ll fall as the rest phase through her. So obviously don’t rely on that for easy anti-airs, and watch out in case you press air mudas after attempting to air-to-air as if she blocked she might land then do cars to punish you. You could attempt a mix-up on her landing if you’re close enough when she air blocked the knife.
She might try to poke with s.5C sometimes but know that it’s punishable on pushblock and you’ll get remote damage which will be more noticeable if you managed to knife through them before it connects, though on pushblock you want to do 66C or 662A. 623AA is also massively punishable by simply jumping over on reaction, or using empty tandem or teleport in case you were in an animation. Remote damage applies from there too. s.214AA cars make her stand still so if you passed them somehow, get the nastiest combo starter you can.
New Kakyoin
Petshop
Infinite loop him or pick Shadow Dio instead
Polnareff
You know the speech DIO has with Pol in the story about peace of mind? Neither player has it in this match-up, honestly.
Pol has easily some of the most accessible, rewarding, suffocating, and safe pressure in this game, and great keep-out from long range, but should always be on his toes because of DIO’s speed and damage.
The first thing DIO needs to learn in order to not get steamrolled is to know how Shooting Star interactions work, particularly Pol’s set-ups for it on block and hit. Generally, instant pushblock on 2C once he releases SS is always punishable by d.2A even if he doesn’t dash in. Keep an eye out for that, just know it’s not suggested you try to preemptively time pushblocks because an accidental roll when Pol slightly changes his blockstrings will give him a very easy mix-up opportunity, forcing you to tandem or teleport to escape, if that even comes out. If you pushblock 2C not too late, you can still d.2A if he decides to dash in, but that loses to him simply pressing 2X, but you can beat that with s.5/6B. You need to make sure you don’t pushblock after SS is starting, because then he won’t get pushed back at all and will lock you down with a 2X which is good to pushblock if you can, or pre-jump cancel and take a small hit. Generally there’s times you can rely on pre-jump cancelling to minimize risk. Take small damage just to avoid the potential mix into combo. Not pushblocking 2C>SS at all will also leave you some room to jump cancel out of there, assuming he’s been pushed back far enough, because of doing a 2A before it, for example. Any time you expect a d.2B/C during SS pressure and have a gap to move before it, you may attempt a reversal tandem to get a full combo. Crouching Pol is quite tall so you can get 5B 236C on him after s.4ABC tandem, or empty tandem and 2A d.2A 236C after a 214A. Another common SS set-up on block is 2A>SS. This makes use of the habit to pushblock later when expecting 2C, which will put Pol at more frame advantage because of the late PB, sometimes even getting you to roll. Not pushblocking it at all and then jumping (if he’s not in range for another 2A) might trip him up and let you get a jump-in, or at worst make you take an anti-air SS. Pushblocking and then jumping can also work but may give him a free anti-air or make you land into another SS set-up. In almost any kind of SS rock-paper-scissors, Pol will have Chariot to cover him any time you slip in a punish attempt, which he can convert into a combo or at least more pressure. This is why jumping away and taking anti-air damage, cutting your losses, is constantly mentioned, especially since DIO has air knives to threaten him which you can use in anticipation if you buffer 236 in the air, and the right timing with the right version will get more hits. Even ground knives aren’t so bad against SS since if it’s already out, he has no reversal tandem to worry about, and if he rolls, many times Chariot will get clipped by knives and perhaps trade, but if Pol was advancing with a jump or dashing normal, he’ll take it like a champ.
If Pol sets up SS after a combo ending in 2C, even midscreen it’s hard to fight back. He can d.2B right after which is nearly inescapable, so try to block and PB that, and in case it doesn’t come, pre-jump cancel out since the overhead can’t start immediately. Rolling, once again, can put you at way too much risk, and the window to jump out or reversal is sometimes just not there. You should pushblock Pol whenever you can while SS is out so that you get some room to escape.
SS resets in corner are all too common and are way too strong. Attempt reversals while blocking as best you can, and pray. He has great combo extensions in corner and he can make the reset mix-ups extremely tight to block, while also being easier to confirm due to Ray Dart.
If Pol throws out SS from fullscreen, jump back into it to trigger the release and air block or use air knives so you don’t take anything stupid. If you’re struggling with meter, just air block it so you don’t enable meterdump 214AA to approach you since GC stinks, and to have it ready for defense.
All this for SS alone, yet no mention of neutral. It’s not much better in that situation either. 2C is a great poke, but can be beaten with 5C from afar and s.6B mostly. d.2C is also good, but unsafe on pushblock and can be punished with d.2A if early enough. Keep an eye out any time you can interrupt Pol before he throws out SS or plan around it. If he pokes you with 2C, it can be worth jumping into him since he might try to keep you out with another while he charges SS. Or pushblock a blockstring from a jump-in (late PBing the aerial usually) in a way that you get pushed out of his 2A or 2C into SS then 66C as soon as he starts setting Chariot. He’s got a good jump with very powerful aerial normals. It’s advised you don’t try to anti-air him from the ground as even if he does them early enough he can’t combo from them, odds are you won’t beat anything regardless of how late he does it, the risk also not being worth it since any SS pressure he starts is bad news, and that’s if he doesn’t just straight-up combo you. Stand ON aerials are especially obnoxious. You can believe you’ll never straight-up challenge them from the ground and he can keep you out very easily with them. You may try air-to-air which is pretty good, but his grounded anti-airs are also great and while he tech chases you he can set up SS as well or just keep anti-airing. Vary your air tech directions and timings as best you can to avoid both of those. Against early jumps, try lock him down with a tandem UB, or early pushblock IOH s.j.A air muda in case he tries to confirm with d.s.2A. It loses to non-dashing jabs, but it’s tough to confirm then so you won’t take as much damage. The most threatening way you can really beat his jumps is to air-to-air with early s.j.B/C, air muda, and j.C, and looking for any opportunity to cross-under and do a high/low against his s.ON. Delay the mix-up so that you don’t get crossed up by his s.j.A, or try to catch his landing with 5A instead of 2A which is less likely to get clipped if you’re a bit farther.
If you managed to get in on Pol, it’s not so grim. His s.ON mash buttons aren’t so good so you can attempt a high/low as soon as you can, with the main threat being that his animation when turning s.OFF has some invul, from which he can mash 2A or 5A which are both very fast. His guard cancels are great so don’t get predictable, but he may have stored charge while blocking so if you manage to bait it, it could give him Ray Dart which you can beat on start-up, or even just a normal which is fine too.
Keep in mind Pol’s charges reset as soon as he changes Stand mode, so even if he’s been downbacking in s.ON, he can’t turn off and immediately do SS afterwards.
Pol’s s.4B alone is also a great source of misery for many of his opponents, with DIO potentially even more so since it’s great at anti-airing as always, but low-profiling it is also not as rewarding since you’ll mostly be far, staying clear of jumps and d.2C, so d.2A from that range often won’t combo well unless you’re perfectly spaced and maybe slightly delay 214A, but then his other normals are a problem. d.2C 236S is still okay too. But regardless of what he’s keeping you out with in s.ON, you should make use of his recovery to get in instead of attempting to just beat them head-on, as little as the recovery may be in many of his moves, like s.5B too.
Pol may also choose to frame trap you or end combos into s.214X instead of reset into SS. If it hits raw, you can down tech j.S+C d.s.2B for a full confirm. If it hits raw and he follows it with 214AA, you can take hits until the upper bounces then down tech s.j.C in case of the horizontal pattern (or down tech ASAP twice), down tech j.A which only sometimes crosses up on the vertical pattern, and on the diagonal pattern down tech twice into your jump-in of choice.
If he combos into s.214X and it ends with less than 10 hits, you get to ground tech and cancel it into tandem, 236C, or 214A to punish him.
His Stand is vulnerable during s.OFF 214AA so you can stab it when you can, and he’s completely immobile during s.214AA so you can get full combos if you’re familiar with how the sword bounces.
Some Pols will try to troll you with Stand crush Requiem set-ups, but even those are fake and you can still d.2A before it finishes.
S. DIO
The main thing you have to focus on is to not get grabbed. It's his best way to get his strongest mix: j.S cross-up or land (2a) 5c which both go into full combos. Shadow Dio often tries to achieve this by block pressuring with 5S in order to bait a bad pushblock into roll s.off or jab s.on, and tick (d)2a or jump-in into grab (mostly the former). In order to get him out of your face as safely as possible, the general rule of thumb with any character against S. Dio pressure is to pushblock normals on reaction to them connecting, not pushblocking 5S and also holding back instead of downback after already blocking a non-light grounded normal, and anti-airing as best as possible, or jump out safely, often taking a small hit in the process, usually by pre-jump cancel. By attempting to pushblock only on reaction, you avoid accidental rolls which are very easy to grab for him, and s.ON jabs which he can also hit you out of for good health and Stand damage. Pushblocking 5S late can give him more frame advantage than normal if you're a little late so it's simpler not to PB it at all, and holding straight back after blocking a normal makes your hurtbox thinner which will make 5S whiffing more likely, and it will be a lot riskier for him to get back in since he can't block while 5S is out, and you can move.
Anti-airing Shadow Dio is a source of misery for many players. Still, as with many cases throughout the game, DIO has a lot he can do. The struggle comes from S. Dio's air hurtbox being small- the hurtbox starts surprisingly high, and coupled with j.S stalling his air time, your anti-airs can be sure to whiff often. The best normal to circumvent this is 2B, since it hits high enough it can anti-air all his air options except for a perfectly timed j.S which he can't get much from anyway. If you predict a j.S, you can tandem through it and easily punish its long landing recovery. Other than that, pay attention to when he jumps with his Stand out, since that means you can use 5B, s.5C, and 5C more freely too as he can't stall them out. Other than 2B, most consistent is s.j.B, which of course connects to air muda for good damage or chip on block. If you want to pre-emptively stall him out, air muda is very strong against ground approach and all his jump attacks. You may lose or trade every now and then, but s.ON's great defense, your double jump, coupled with the threat of knives makes it incredibly risky for Shadow Dio to tech chase you. A large part of this match-up is really just the skewed risk-reward of S.Dio trying to anti-air and put you on the ground somehow. Effective abuse of this is to stay away. Far enough that he can't combo from 662C, and should he try that, after whiffing 5S from the far starter, it's back to neutral with his Stand out for a bit. He may catch your jump-outs often with 66A or 662B, but in s.ON the damage is negligible, especially since S.Dio retains his standing hurtbox when he's in hitstun, so you can easily steal back a life lead with a single combo. Once you take a hit airborne (get used to it), make him beware the threat of s.j.C against further anti-air attempts, air muda, falling j.A, and knives. They all hurt. Another benefit to staying far from S.Dio is that you can move in and out of the range where you can make his j.S whiff and punish his landing recovery with a full combo.
One very bad way you might let S.Dio easily stack up damage on you is giving him too many guard cancels. He can combo it into 5C almost every time and it really stings. So don't make your jump-in timings, 236S, and 214 predictable. Even if you do bait it through 2A and jump attacks, it's very hard to punish since he can move after the GC, so he can roll through your knives or tandem. So just avoid giving him GCs. Should that happen, however, you will easily get a mix-up on S.Dio's roll by moving in front of it, setting up 236C and getting a high/low or confuse him with left/right movement. This is something to watch out for in the whole match-up since his roll is the slowest!
As for his tricks... punish knives and lasers with knives or even tandem if close enough. 41236S (3hit Stand attack) has a hurtbox after it ends so you can smack it with 236S or knives. If you're too late to interrupt his timestop, double jump away and he'll do minimal damage. If you have even one meter you can do road roller before his TS which will put you high enough he can't reach, then at the end you can infiltrate his timestop to hit it. Otherwise dash in, jump in, knife, whatever. His 662A is punishable on block by your 2A, though it's tight. 236S might work easier. Pre-jump cancel or reversal or something, you don't want him to get a tick grab from something so stupid. It's very risky to attempt a throw tech too since if you accidentally grab him, he has a pretty easy and strong punish. Should he grab you, the biggest threat is his fake cross-up j.S - jump over (2A) 5C oki. They both lead to loop and a potential tick grab attempt. You'll just have to guess, though against many S.Dio players you can afford to block the j.S first, then switch side to block the 2A since many mistime it too early, acting as a sort of option select against that. Otherwise, if you guess his j.S and block it, you'll recover instantly on pushblock and can jump over his follow-up and get a full combo, or pushblock j.S into tandem, or pushblock j.S then press 2A before he does. His 2A after jumping over isn't as punishable but you'll get him off you with a pushblock. S.Dio's normals aren't very meaty so against many players it may be worth trying to just jump out of it sometimes, as usual by pre-jump cancelling through turning s.ON. His oki isn't as threatening from 3C or 9th hit d.2C (techable earlier). He can go for standard strike/throw or The World 21 into a high/low, or his command grab which is punishable by jump.
The j.S cross-up mentioned above is something you must watch out for even during his pressure. Many will try to do an instant overhead past you, then j.S once behind. You will often fail to anti-air him here, or worse, try to punish his landing which will just miss, get you hit by j.S, and give him a full combo. Use empty tandems, just try block, turn s.OFF and whiff something that low-profiles, or do instant air to air to beat this.
When S.Dio starts a loop against you as your Stand is on, watch out for his 5B. He can cancel this to 5S when your gauge is low for a very hard to escape reset which will get him huge damage. Fortunately, it can be avoided if S.Dio is a little far by timing your Stand deactivation or a tandem. You will prob mess it up mostly, but another potential saving grace is that the reset retains IPS.
As you get better you will get hit by this move less and less, but it may be good to know that his 236AA (knife super) can be punished on hit depending on where you were when it connected! Even though it's rare, you can jumpscare an S.Dio trying to close in after it, by ground teching and doing 236S after, or maybe some other wacky cancel if you're bold.
Remember that his 623AA is overhead, air unblockable, and can be held. So either punish it with a reversal depending on your situation, or wait for it to connect when you block and then get your full combo.
Book is very dangerous on the ground so watch out for things like d.2A cancelled into it, but he doesn't get much if it connects on your air moves.
Don't get scared. Keep these in mind and you will give him so many less tools to work with to open you up, it's kind of sad for him. Many characters can exploit S.Dio gimmicks in similar ways as written above, but DIO is especially dominant and punishing.
Rubber Soul
Rubber is kind of like an OG grappler in that he has really sickening offense once he gets his knockdowns and he has obnoxious defensive options that also mostly have knockdown potential (though grabs aren’t the main inducer of these tricks). Like against many grapplers, you have to make it hell for him to approach. 5C is by far the best anti-air against his jump attacks, and you get to grab his rolls, albeit fast, which are another common approach of his, but DIO’s speed lets you dash into it often and you can implement it into your pressure since he can’t counter or guard cancel it.
This might be the match-up where knives are most central to your gameplan. If you’re any good at punishing his S moves with them, it changes how Rubber plays completely. Air knives can punish any of Rubber’s S normals on whiff when looking out for them, which will make him think twice about the way he anti-airs and tech chases in particular, especially with 6-S since it has by far the longest recovery along with 2S. Just don’t do air knives while jumping towards him since he can guard cancel them for a nasty juggle into a knockdown if he blocks. Any time Rubber is too scared to approach or trying to get you to close the distance instead, take the opportunity to whiff s.5A to build meter for knives and tandem as that can also be very good defensively.
Some Rubber players will fish for a guard cancel, leaving more room to keep grabbing which puts you in a good range where his dash-ins aren’t too threatening, and you can anti-air comfortably. Once they start to mash or attempt jumping out of them is when you can put the standard pressure to use, while also watching out for any counters as they can be deadly due to how easy and strong Rubber’s vortex is against DIO. Meatying Rubber’s rolls is also not very advised since he can fish for backbreaker, GC, or counter after them, the first of which can either force a scramble or knock you down at worst, the others will probably just knock you down if they come out.
A lot of noob Rubbers like to follow their counters with 236AA because the damage and hit count gives them a fuzz; and while it is good, the key thing to note is that if they try to follow it up, it can be dangerous to them. Down teching after they 5A can go through an S move cancel, or similarly with j.A j.S. Make sure to block after down teching in the latter’s case to make sure you don’t get knocked down by j.S if it connects. If not, he has landing recovery you can punish either by landing or ground tech cancelling depending on how high you were.
236AA is a common approach tool for Rubber, but it’s not nearly as strong against active Stands since they can superjump over it then double jump to avoid almost, if not all hits as long as they weren’t recovering from another action while it started. Even if you have to air block some of it, you can then let go, take a few hits, then tech out and regain your double jump as well. Coupled with knives, it can sometimes be a free escape. If he supers while you’re near the corner, you can either punish his anti-air pressure with knives, or use them before the super ends so he’s forced to roll and you switch sides, or try double jump over him if he’s close enough and then use knives for either some chip, or forcing a roll at worst. Either way, it escapes the corner. If you’re caught blocking the super s.OFF (since s.ON doesn't have instant PB recovery on any projectiles), pushblock the last hit and jump if you expect a backbreaker, since it will connect during blockstun. This can be grabbed normally, but pre-jump cancel will make it more likely to avoid the grab, so taking a bit of chip s.OFF in order to escape these dangerous traps can be worthwhile. Otherwise, late/high jumps are easily guard cancelled since he’s bad at punishing them on hit. Watch out for j.S/2A high/low mix-ups towards the end of the super. Should backbreaker hit you, try to punish it with down tech S+j.B since it is sometimes techable. You can tech almost immediately after he throws you away. It has a subtle animation after the 3rd crack.
In neutral, you can try to make Rubber chase you and keep watching out for rolls, occasionally poking with s.66C since it doesn’t get hit by counter at its max range, has less recovery than s.5C, and is fairly safe against wrap confirms. Use dash cancels and double jumps to bait his best pokes. 5B, 236X, and especially 4S are what you will have to watch out for the most as all-purpose keep-out. 236X Stand has no hurtbox so you’ll have to play around the projectiles and whatever Rubber is doing. 5B has the most recovery but is cancellable into all his specials including counter, 4S has no cancels but lets Rubber move quickly after and disappears pretty fast.
Carelessly jumping in is bad since even a well-spaced s.j.C can get anti-aired or guard cancelled, leading to his tech chase. Fortunately, DIO’s active Stand and access to air knives make it much harder for Rubber to achieve, or even attempt anything meaningful in tech chase. Vary your tech direction and timing so that he can’t meaty it with j.A into a juggle or air block trap. If he’s exhausted some juggle hits, he can’t truly combo into j.S so tech as soon as he does a j.A after a few hits to avoid one. Remember to intentionally take some small anti-air hits just so you’re able to escape or even potentially punish with air knives.
On his oki the standard options to look out for are high/low/throw between j.S, 2A, and his grab. Each of them lead into another knockdown which is what gives him such a strong vortex. He can also tick into grab from his high/low starters, or bait mashes with counters and GC buffers. He can also jump over for the high/low which might mess with reversals but is otherwise the same in practice. As player 2, Rubber also has an unblockable cross-up j.A j.S which he can't combo from but you should press 2A against when he does it outside oki. If Rubber keeps going for his vortex combos (j.S starter or 2A 2S or 236X) then either is safe to GC. You can attempt a tandem reversal against potential missed meaties which will guarantee a punish against whiffed j.S or 2S and 236X, though you should still OS with the direction you want to block in in case he does meaty (214S for high, 2141S for low). Teleport can be used similarly but loses to grab, which tandem would beat. Against tick grab resets you should try to just pre-jump cancel away which is safe against it and counter, or tandem which beats both. He can also try reset into a double overhead which you can GC or mash against, otherwise blocking j.B/C then hitting j.S will let him combo into wrap.
Double overheads are a common way for Rubber to pressure and start combos. Any time you expect him to cancel into j.S, you can GC the jump normal that came before, or GC j.S itself. This is baited with not cancelling into j.S and doing 2A instead, which gives a high/low, though not as threatening as from oki. Regardless of if he does j.A>j.S or j.B/C>j.S, pushblocking the normal before j.S will make him much less threatening regardless, as PBing j.A will push him too far to confirm a j.S hit, and PBing j.B will push Temperance far enough so j.S won’t hit! Make sure to confirm when his jump normals connect so you don’t get an accidental roll or mash.
Doing 236C mix against Rubber isn’t ideal since one mistake can let him GC and get oki, so just grab his rolls and don’t go nuts for oki. Max range s.2A is safe against his GC and counter. s.5A does hit him crouching, 5B 236C works after tandem, and you must superjump to get over him during 236C combos when he’s standing.
Like in many match-ups, even though knives are perhaps more important here than against any other character, they’re not an end-all-be-all. DIO is still very threatening without them, so don’t panic; be smart with your meter, as missing knives can cost you dearly when you can essentially buy an escape at the cost of a bar.
A wise man once said: "Mind the Counter, and play around it. If you smell one coming, then do not press any buttons and grab Rubber Soul. If an opening to take your turn feels too good to be true, DO NOT take it. This matchup is not about the buttons you press, it is about the buttons you do not press... Grab a lot."
Vanilla Ice
There are so many ways Vanilla Ice can play that are all effective and it can be especially nightmarish when one combines them and refines them in a way to torture DIO.
The main problem with V.Ice is he can keep you out better than almost anyone and punish your block pressure very easily in Stand ON with little risk and big damage threat. A Vice player willing to sit and smack you out of all attempts to get in might be one of the greatest hurdles you'll face. At first you'll struggle against his s.2B>s.2C meter dance. It whiffs way too fast so it feels unpunishable and is way too big so it can stuff a lot of your dashes and jumps. Best ways of beating it out are spaced s.j.C (usually early to not get anti-aired), s.66C, and well-timed 66C or 662A which aren't as consistent but pose the threat of a full combo. You need to establish this midrange you can actually stay relatively safe in so that you can actually get in from there. What helps in this is also pre-emptive cancels to air muda which stall you in air so you don't make a fool of yourself by whiffing 66C and get cross-up roll 2A'd like an idiot, and actually stuffs Vice's approaches well. Cancel your s.ON dashes more precisely by turning it off, usually after backdashing specific distances to return to that threatening midrange. His roll is dumb so don’t commit too much in general. Another way of preventing getting roll 2A’d like an idiot is “option selecting” from your 66C by doing 421C4C after it so that if it connects or his roll doesn’t sideswitch you get 214C which meaties his roll or lets DIO move in time to do so, and if he rolls past, you get teleport.
Then you have to actually think about Vice's approaches: d.2A, roll, instant airdash, d.5C, d.s.2C, and ball are his most common. Because his longest range option of these is airdash and d.s.2C, if you're a little far it's safer to block high and just watch out for him dashing into you from the ground to block or stuff his d.2A, low-profile d.5C, or plan a countermeasure against roll (likely tandem unblockable, let's face it), whereas d.s.2C’s damage on its own isn’t too threatening. Ball is something he can really cheese you with if it catches you off guard. Good thing the s.ON version often gets stuffed by some of your best keep-out moves you'll constantly be using in neutral, while s.OFF is slow enough that you won't run into it as much even though it's disjointed. Should you see s.OFF ball, you meaty it with 2A. s.ON is trickier since he can control how he lands somewhat. Regardless, decide on pushblocking it or not depending on how it's going, go Stand off mode if you have the time, and meaty the landing with 5A. This applies to s.214AA as well. Use 5A for that (VERY difficult so road roller is fine) and 2A for s.OFF 214AA. Another Cream landing punish is s.421X dig which you can meaty with IOH s.j.B air muda. Just watch out for ball going behind you and making contact with the 2nd hit as that can be a cross-up or same side depending on a bunch of unclear factors like pre-block and pushblock. Juggle punishes against ball kinda suck. At some point you'll want to never use them unless you have no choice against s.ON (due to some time or range problem). As s.OFF version is truly meatyable with 2A, don't even bother with juggles. s.ON version you want to raw 236S or 5C 236S(whiffed) s.j.C s.j.236X/AA. Keep in mind to do the 5A meaty against s.ON since it gets a full combo otherwise there is very little risk in him using this version of ball!
His most common s.ON airdash approach is s.j.6C which is 3 hits and should be s.ON guard cancelled IF he's high enough. Watch out for s.OFF j.C since it's also multi hit so keep blocking till he lands so you don't get caught by a dumb confirm. Pushblocking a hit usually brings him too far to do that, though.
With the above in mind, you'll have established a threatening enough midrange which will make Vice hesitate, letting you actually start your own game a bit. At first you'll just be getting mashed on, pushblocked into s.2B>s.2C. Brush up on your stagger pressure and sharpen your execution because this is possibly the match-up where a quick hitconfirm can be most important because of how hectic it can get when you're in Vice's face. Then once that's become a threat, keep watching out for turning Stand off into a roll, and learn to do the instant overhead s.j.A into air muda against Cream. It's harder since he's much shorter than most, but it is very powerful to have against Vice. Make sure you don't instantly pre-jump cancel so that you don't get a full jump. It needs to be a short hop, but also an early s.j.A. Another thing working for you is Vice's guard cancels kind of stink. s.OFF version gets ducked under or stuffed often, whereas s.ON has a landing recovery you can punish on hit with down tech s.j.B/C into a full combo.
Vice's hurtboxes are generally weird so make sure to nail every 2A 663A link and 66(3)A after tandem confirms. 236C oki doesn't fully connect but instant j.A isn't so hard to hit so you can take the chip that comes after. A unique combo option you might want to try against Cream is an interesting unblockable reset in which you knock him down with a scaled (8th hit) s.2C in tandem, and meaty his landing with a jump attack or 5A. If done too early the combo won't reset and you'll get standard scaled damage into a Stand crash combo which isn't bad anyway.
Sometimes you may find yourself getting pressured by Vice's infinite airdashes. Obviously while airborne he can't be punished strongly, but there's pretty consistent answers to discourage him and make him lose out on the exchange, even if you got hit. Though it needs to be emphasized, you will often lose a bit of health due to frequent chip or occasional hits, so while the damage can be in your favor, it's nearly checkmate against you if you're low on health and he's not. If Vice is high enough after doing an airdash attack towards you, after blocking it you can 236S him for a good chunk. If you're in Stand ON, keep blocking and watch in case he double jumps to turn s.OFF which will make him land pretty quickly. Otherwise look for an opportunity to go s.OFF so that you can access 236S, as it's both fast, knocks him far back, and does decent damage. If he's too high for 236S and midscreen, he can often glide over you and troll with sideswitch slaps. This can be avoided by upbacking so you're pushed back farther, pushblocking, stall with rolls, or being s.ON if he's low enough for that. You can also crouch and attempt 2B anti-airs which will go under his aerials if he’s really high up. If you expect Vice to land from an airdash a bit above the ground but not low enough for him to be plus on block, you can attempt a landing punish with 5A, though it's quite risky since it's instantly techable mid-air. After an anti-air, tech chasing Vice is quite nice as s.j.B beats forward tech, and neutral/down tech can get threatened by later s.j.B, s.j.C, and air mudas, along with him landing which lets him act later than usual. Just watch out for ball since he can do it in mid-air too!
Get used to getting cornered on occasion. Vice can easily force you in an uncomfortable range when you're in corner that makes it extremely difficult to get out or fight back. Block well since he can combo from IADs easier, build some meter so you can cancel anything you may need, oftentimes s.5C or your dash-in potentially cancelled to tandem to give you some invul to work with in order to just get out with minimal damage. Any careless roll can be costly since even though Cream's grab doesn't cause a hard knock down, it leaves him very advantageous for tech chase. Instant neutral, down, and forward techs easily get caught by his anti-airs, teching late can give him air juggles sometimes even into his DP super, so tech back if you have room for it as the safest option, or time your forward (to escape) or down (to punish with s.j.C) techs a little differently so that the air tech invul makes his anti-airs go through. Both from grabbing rolls in s.ON or from anti-airing your bad jumps, he can tech chase you quite effectively. He's very fast and catches up quick, anti-airs cover a lot of spots, and sometimes combo into DP. Should he chase with s.ON aerials, find an opportunity to turn your Stand on and block until you land since he chips so much health. Also keep in mind when you can double jump, and sometimes be okay with using your air knives simply to get out of pressure safely even if they don’t do damage! You cannot let Vice rack up health just because of stinginess over a super that’s not even very good in this match-up. Should he grab you in s.OFF, you can attempt to punish it with down tech S+j.A into either air mudas, knives, or a really difficult link to d.s.2A. The s.j.A on its own is hard enough.
Some other more minor tricks he has are 6B spam which is deceptively safe and confirms tandem so just don't rush in early; tandem mix/unblockable through combining s.6B or 214X with 2A.
If he drops 6C 214B/C, pushblock 6C and stuff Cream with 5C 236S or knives. Blocked DP needs a frame perfect punish with 2A. You may try a sort of failsafe for it: 2A 214S. This will save you from another DP if you miss the punish, and on hit or block it can get you a tandem UB attempt.
Now for the elephant in the room: V.Ice's damage. It's perhaps the most consistent and deadly in the game, mostly due to his unblockable oki of 214X + d.2A. Done right, this opens up the easiest consistent TOD in the game by far and is inescapable. But most suck so you should attempt to block it anyway if you can. Hope they miss the meaty with 2A either too early so you don't have to block it at all, or too late so you can switch block high to low. Even though in most tournaments this unblockable oki is banned, there's still plenty of things to watch out for. Many Vice players will set up a meaty 214X, then jump and hit a deep jump attack or empty jump into a low. Just pay attention to if the 214 is also hitting, as that can be timed or spaced to whiff in order to confuse you. His "dookie drop" (turning s.OFF mid-air) makes him fall to the ground even if he was rising as he deactivated, so it can be used combined with empty hops or slightly delayed deactivations for real high/low mix into full combos. Sometimes can also be combined with sideswitches so if you see him jump over for that, switch to high blocking until he lands in order to not get crossed up by j.C. Instant airdash also lets him do left/rights from DPs and ball knockdowns, or simply high/lows once more.
Young Joseph
This matchup is a very standard DIO gameplan-based one. You determine everything and you run your game plan freely. In practice, you are a giant muscular tough black guy in the prison showers behind 5'5 skinny Young Joseph bending over to pick up his dropped bar of soap.
You are constantly able to breathe down his neck, and if you ever get close enough to start your pressure, he has a tough time escaping. Escaping alive that is. Young Joseph is a very wide and tall character, so all of your combos will work on him. He is even tall enough to be pressured with 66A, which allows free form pressuring and roll baiting, meaning you can very easily mix his roll up in pressure and kill him from even blocked hits into dropped pressure.
Young Joseph has a handful of tools to work at about every range, but DIO has the measures to counter all of them. At about every interaction the risk/reward is highly skewed against YoJo. A slow roll, bad guard cancel, below average defensive value, weird ground tech giving him harder punishes, tall and wide hurtboxes, weak reversals make him highly susceptible to block pressure. 214X is still guard cancellable quite easily, so as always don't make it even close to one of your first picks for offense. Otherwise his slow normals, usually weak damage, and slow roll and GC will make it dangerous for him to escape. As his uppercut super is not instantly invincible or fast, rolls can easily be reacted to to put him in a 236C mix-up. Instant overhead j.C also works on him very easily for an obnoxious chunk of damage. His wake-up is also so slow that a well-timed 5C ender from 236C will let you get another 236C mix-up.
Grabbing and guard cancelling isn't too bad in this match-up. His punishes are both weak and difficult. Both 5S and overdrive do less damage than the grab in particular. Guard cancel still has tendencies to fail due to the speed and high-hitting start. Guard cancel's range is still useful since it can punish multi-hitting clacker moves on reaction like 5S, dashing S, j.S, and boomerang.
The greatest threat YJ has on DIO in particular is his IOH j.A which easily hits crouching DIO even in Stand OFF mode, comboing into j.S and then into a rekka knockdown, giving him another easy 50/50. Making it loopable is taxing, but it's a strong option he can repeat on you and the best way of opening you up, as DIO can punish projectiles on reaction very easily by low-profiling boomerang with d.2C which goes into 236C high/low, or with (air) knives and tandem. The same applies to roundabout crossbow. Forward crossbow can stuff you attempting a normal punish, but supers will beat that and a single hit from that won't hurt much, whereas you can nearly win from a good punish. Should he safely set up a projectile, this can open up his most devastating combos, especially unscaled enders to uppercut super, or Aja Stand crushes (crash on block) or 2S knockdown into the beam. Regardless, even though he can't blindly charge into DIO's strong keep-away options, it's one more extra layer of safety he can bait you with, and/or massively combo from. If you can't manage to punish it as he sends one out, block a boomerang standing so the second part doesn't stay behind you. Should it already be there or a crossbow is on its way, Stand ON jumping away will greatly reduce the threat, as his anti-airs aren't very damaging and neither is his tech chase great, especially when you have meter to throw air knives and make him think twice about trying to chase you.
At close ranges Joseph will aim to mix you up fast with IOH, lows, and grab since he doesn't have as much threat from afar and one pushblock, jump back, or dash back will put him in that spot, whereas DIO can start his game easily from there. Still, it shouldn't be seen as his "weak" zone, since he has big moves that hit relatively hard for how much they can keep you out such as 5C, overdrive, and 2C, though they're always a commitment. A good jump over or super and he won't be saving himself. Many YoJos like to get in with j.C to j.S but it's noticeably slow, meaning you can attempt anti-airing with 2B or instant air-to-air s.j.B, j.C, j.A. Stand On lets him threaten with easier IOHs and Stand crashes. Don't fall for silly repeated overdrives after you're already hit by one since they'll put you in a dangerous range of getting crashed, and opens up Stand crush reset routes.
Punishes
Clacker boomerang and crossbow: even from almost fullscreen, low-profile 663C (not on forward crossbow), air knives, and tandem>66C will tear him up good. A teleport that predicts them will end him but open you up to a grab or a high/low if wrong.
Rekka standard ender: If he doesn't combo 2 or more hits before it such as d.2B>236S, or he does and doesn't connect all the clacker hits, it won't hard knockdown and you can do ground tech > 236S / 214S / 214A / 236C. Safe against Stand ON.
Overdrive: When it doesn't connect too far, in s.OFF a pushblocked overdrive will only have 1 frame of blockstun. From there you can do 663A>214A, 66C>214C, s.5B>rekka. On prediction knives and tandem will go through it.
Clackers: If j.S, 5S, or dashing S do a bunch of hits, they will be guard cancellable pretty easily. GC on the late(st?) hit to avoid trading. Also applies to the high/low rekka enders which are very reactable and gimmicky. You can easily mash on them as they come out. The overhead isn't really punishable on landing, so the easiest thing to do is 2A which will beat both, or just empty tandem. Early pushblock to a not so far dashing clacker will be punishable by 66C.
Stand crush Aja: When your Stand gauge is already low enough, it might be worth not blocking in case Jojo resets to overdrive which will Stand crush you, letting him get an easy Aja. If he doesn't hitconfirm and you let him hit the reset, you will recover quicker and punish an incoming beam with 66 662A, 669C, or even some meme like s.OFF knives or 66 BA6AC.
66X: The overhead dash attack is not a hard knockdown, so ground tech into 236S, 236C, tandem all work easily. Just make sure to delay the punish enough to get a grounded combo rather than launch him. He has plenty of recovery. The backdashing version is safe. Just make sure to tech so you don't give him a free knockdown. On block for 66X you can either pushblock 66C or just block into 2A, 5B, or even 2B.
6C: This looks similar to the previous, but it won't knockdown/launch at all, so after recovering punish on block/hit with a full combo.
