Avdol
While still in your favor, this can be a tough matchup due to Avdol's strong normals, incredibly fast wakeup paired with a dangerous reversal super, and overall solid defense. You will need to space yourself very well in order to beat out Avdol's options, as at some ranges you will not be able to counterpoke certain moves at all. Remote mode can be annoying, however Kakyoin possesses good options to deal with it with a good GC, strong normals, and nets. (d.)2c>236aa is also a cheeky anti-remote option that can bag huge damage. You will have to condition the Avdol player VERY HARD with baiting reversals (as most Avdols love to mash 236aa on wakeup) before you can safely oki, he gets up way faster than you'll expect and the risk of getting hit by 236aa is huge due to the initial hit stunning. If he uses ankh heavily, play an extreme runaway game and don't let him get lifelead AT ANY COST.
| 5-5 -Pathetic. | 6-4 -Acute Angle | 7-3 -Sereja | 6-4 -Light-Speed Lucas | 6-4 -Mewtastic |
Alessi
The only move Alessi can break nets with is s.j.a. Gun is punishable on hit with sweep when done close enough and punishable on block with s.663c. You must always use 6A 6B 6C tandem. Cannot tandem while crouching. WIP
| 4-6 -Pathetic. | 8-2 -Acute Angle | 8-2 -Sereja | 7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas | 8-2 -Mewtastic |
Black Polnareff
Black Polnareff may rely on whiff punishes, but you never have to give him the chance to strike. Proper blocking and spacing alone can wall him out completely with no hope. Just watch out for his 2B and its dashing variant, it can meaty your landing really easily and is a good low. Passive stand and 0 fullscreen game means even at life deficit you are winning through meterbuild and chip. Circle-camping makes the matchup cruelly and completely unwinnable.
One solace he can take is that you can't tandem him when crouching.
| 6-4 -Pathetic. | 9-1 -Acute Angle | 9-1 -Sereja | 9-1 -Light-Speed Lucas | 9-1 -Mewtastic |
Chaka
s.j.236X helps VS jumpier opponents. Don't over-rely on s.2C, if he hops over it you're dead meat. Because you'll spend so much time in Stand On, Chaka's damage output is actually pretty resepectable. With his hyperhops, he can keep up with you if you attempt to run away and aren't confident in your anti-airs to deter him. WIP
| 9-1 -Pathetic. | 7-3 -Acute Angle | 8-2 -Sereja | 7-3 Light-Speed Lucas | 7-3 -Mewtastic |
Devo
Devo is an annoying character. His crouch is the second lowest in the entire game, and this means he can duck a whole ton of your important moves. The Doll is also fairly short as well, meaning some key moves whiff on him too, mainly S.6B. Devo possesses the fastest roll in the game, and visually it is similar to his crouching animation, and hard to spot without the sound cue. He has some pretty fast normals in 2A, 2C, and 5C. 5C is a pretty strong anti-air, however note that you can quickly tech down and punish him at certain heights. Devo has huge damage combos, and his oki includes unblockable loops and multi-layered guessing games. If Devo gets his hands on you, be ready to block for your life. All of this makes it sound like Devo has a good matchup against Kakyoin right?
Well, no. Kakyoin simply out-neutrals and out-normals Devo. Kakyoin has multiple ways to invalidate his Doll. One example would be by sitting on a net and performing S.5C from a small distance away. This normally niche move can almost completely lock down the puppet with its active frames, and the net protects you if he attempts to find a way through them. The move also keeps Devo himself from approaching by ground and gives you plenty of time to react to any other approach. Devo is then forced to patiently look for a gap in your moves (which can be even harder if you throw in some net cancels and other moves, or take a risk and use a bar of his precious meter to reversal the puppet out of the situation. Forcing this situation however, may require getting the opponent to respect you first. S.236X under a net can be a strong option to keep the puppet out, as it struggles to approach vertically and this will lock down horizontal approach. Furthermore, if the puppet does not block these, some of them may fly past him and hit Devo for extra damage. Nets in general can lock down the puppet, as well as things like using S.2C like you do S.5C, upbacking with S.J.B and S.J.C and a net, and many other low-commitment walling options.
Devo isn't completely useless though. One 2a, one IAD, one opening and you're taking huge damage and being forced into his dangerous oki game. He has gimmicky options like air tandem and puppet tickgrabs to whittle you down further as well. His S.J.C will likely be your biggest obstacle, it's fairly fast, multi-hit, pretty active, has an alright disjoint, and leads to more pressure with dashing momentum. It's not an infallible normal, but it's just about Devo's one way to make you feel uncomfortable sitting at fullscreen.
I mentioned reversals earlier, and in addition to tandem being a good one like normal, you'll more often see Devo using his 214AA as a reversal. This move instantly causes the Doll to get up and start flying towards you invulnerable for a good time, gives Devo way too many iframes, and allows him to mix you up with quick lows and instant overheads on block. If it hits, Devo can continue the combo into oki, or cash out damage with S.22C if you're in range to kill. If the Doll is hitting you from behind, you can't GC it. You must hit Devo, which makes GC unreliable in that situation. It can also deal absurd damage on its own, ESPECIALLY IF DEVO IS LOW ON HEALTH DUE TO THE RAGE MECHANIC. This move is a ginormous momentum stealer and something you should always be on guard for when Devo has any meter. Keeping to the air can keep you safe, as you can easily tech out when hit by it, but be careful of overextending on oki. An invincible Devo 5C can confirm into this even if the Doll is nearly fullscreen.
Overall this is one of those matchups where you'll want to stay in Stand On way more. Getting knocked down can lead to your death, and your slippery nature doesn't matter when you'll struggle to effectively hit Devo too. However, if Devo manages to Stand Crash you with S.22C, he gets the easiest tandem confirm of his life, so watch your stand gauge. If it doesn't, you'll likely want to jump out to avoid an accidental (or cheeky) tandem, or whatever else he may try after since he's left slightly minus. Due to the Doll causing strange corners midscreen, you'll have more chances to do your corner loop. This is good, as it means you can get big damage even if Devo is crouching.
| 7-3 -Pathetic. | 8-2 -Acute Angle | 8-2 -Sereja | 8-2 -Light-Speed Lucas | 8-2 -Mewtastic |
DIO
"How good are you at Guard Cancels?" Shuts down his entire stand off gameplan if consistent. Never use Remote Mode, Knives will murder the shit out of you. WIP
| 9-1 -Pathetic. | 7-3 -Acute Angle | 7-3 -Sereja | 7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas | 8-2 -Mewtastic |
Hol Horse
Be reserved about using raw or reversal tandems. If Hol Horse cancels into 236AC/BC then your tandem will become stuck on him, won't attack, and leave you vulnerable because of collision issues. You'll want to familiarize yourself with the space of the screen Hol controls with each of his moves, as you are going to either turtle incredibly hard and not have to care about this, or have to maneuver Hol Horse's shaky zoning game to try and have any interactivity. Once you do come to understand the "rythm" of how to get through this, along with picking up on your opponent's cycle and habits, you should be able to push him back to the corner or to the dangerous close range. Hol Horse lacks a good reversal when pressured, and while his 2a is fast, it doesn't lead to much for him. His roll is fast but not unreactable. This leads to Hol Horse being weak to getting steamrolled from continuous oki, mixups, and pressure. WIP
| 9-1 -Pathetic. | 8-2 -Acute Angle | 8-2 -Sereja | 8-2 -Light-Speed Lucas | 9-1 -Mewtastic |
Hol & Boingo
Be reserved about using raw or reversal tandems. If Hoingo cancels into 236AC/BC then your tandem will become stuck on him, won't attack, and leave you vulnerable because of collision issues. S bullet can shred you if it hits Kakyoin while in Remote Mode, be warned. WIP
| 7-3 -Pathetic. | 9-1 -Acute Angle | 9-1 -Sereja | 9-1 -Light-Speed Lucas | 8-2 -Mewtastic |
Iggy
Cant Combo at all, probably your hardest matchup if you like doing fancy things. Resort to S.2C because Iggy cant do anything about it. Iggy cannot catch you if you run away (smartly), fullstop.
| 3-7 -Pathetic. | 9-1 Acute Angle | 8-2 -Sereja | 7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas | 9-1 -Mewtastic |
Just run away wtf is he gonna do this character sucks to fight normally. He ducks all your moves and grabs in this game are braindead. 7-3 I guess if you let him play the game. -Mewtastic
Jotaro
Jotaro is very dangerous and will prey on your impatience. He gets a fucking stupid amount of iframes from his roll if he doesn't cross you up with it, so don't even THINK about pressing anything, because he has a 1 frame normal to whiff punish you with. Instead, this is something you'll want to mentally watch out for. When you see him attempt to abuse these iframes, grab him instead. He also possesses a lightning fast, highly damaging reversal super to tag you for bad pokes or projectiles, gross damage with stand crash combos, and a dangerous 50/50 oki. The good things to note are he lacks options at full screen past the reach of star breaker, he usually has to get a read to punish your pokes (if you somehow can't tandem on reaction), and your crouching hurtbox ducks his S.5a. 2b will also duck it, and can counterpoke him which is useful. This fact is extra important, as Jotaro completely shreds your stand gauge, so cycling to keep your stand healthy is even more important in this matchup. At the end of the day, Jotaro will usually be the one approaching you whether he likes it or not, so simply wait for your opportunity to safely punish him.
(Note: Kakyoin's crouching hurtbox is very short, and this makes him hard to IOH. Obviously you should not downback every oki, but it's worth testing the waters to see how well your opponent is at doing them.)
| 6-4 -Pathetic. | 7-3 -Acute Angle | 8-2 -Sereja | 7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas | 7-3 -Mewtastic |
Kakyoin
The Kakyoin Mirror is a very strange matchup. Kakyoin does not like dealing with his own bullshit very much. Nets can shut down IAD approach/pressure, and add unnecessary hitstop to his pokes. Not to mention, you likely don't have much experience fighting your own character, and learning how to play against nets won't be easy just because you know how to play WITH them. His more horizontal approach means that s.236x can be more annoying than you think. Remote Mode oki just makes the game plain unfun, since the walk speed and screen crunch allows for another meaty mixup after chain S.2C, creating one of the most braindead blenders in the game. Once one player has the substantial lifelead, it is incredibly grueling to retake it, as the healthier Kakyoin no longer has to take risks, something the losing Kakyoin desperately needs so he can do an extended tandem to even things out. (Learn how to maximize your damage for this matchup!) Since the risk of HKD is so terrifying, you'll find yourself in stand on a lot, which generally means you'll find yourself low on stand gauge, making defense scary. J.C is a pretty good tool, it has a large disjoint, is a stand attack, and is two hits. This can allow you to approach/begin pressure on the enemy, since J.C will eat up a net and still be able to hit Kakyoin. Grabs are very good, disabling the opponents nets, turning off their stand, and giving you oki. s.6B and s.66b are very strong moves that just tends to work way better in the mirror that any other matchup. Can completely shut down an opponent who wants to close space and challenge it if used repeatedly, forcing them to return to neutral. Cant tandem while crouching.
Khan
Khan is a "strange" matchup. Some of your good moves will whiff on him even standing, but Khan sucks so it's just a minor annoyance. This can make up close "scramble" scenarios hard to poke out of, so just focus on blocking and returning to neutral where you dominate if he gets in your face. He lacks a good reversal and struggles to deal with your pressure, so the Khan player will usually have to play out of his mind to make back the life deficit. Also, unlike other low tiers literally every single move Khan has will break nets, so take note of that.
Always use 6A 6B 6C in tandem
| 9-1 -Pathetic. | 9-1 -Acute Angle | 9-1 -Sereja | 9-1 -Light-Speed Lucas | 9-1 -Mewtastic |
Mariah
One of the meanest matchups in the game, Mariah can do next to nothing against Kakyoin. s.2c, s.6b, s.236x, s.236aa all catch her trying to set up from long ranges, and she has ZERO OPTIONS to break nets aside from hitting you directly. Unless she manages to hit you with 214aa any damage she gets on you will be pretty pitiful, but be careful giving her free levels or else it might turn into a headache. Small stages are even easier for you, giving her less breathing room. If she places the outlet on the floor, it's best to just go around it rather than try to break it.
| 9-1 -Pathetic. | 9-1 -Acute Angle | 9-1 -Sereja | 9-1 -Light-Speed Lucas | 9-1 -Mewtastic |
Midler
WIP
| 7-3 -Pathetic. | 8-2 -Acute Angle | 7-3 -Sereja | 7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas | 7-3 -Mewtastic |
New Kakyoin
A lot of what was mentioned in the mirror matchup can apply here, but don't mistake yourself that this is the same matchup. S.6B is similarly useful in this matchup, and J.C is still both a useful tool and something to be careful for. Nets are thankfully less prevalent for you since NKak has to be in Stand On to use them, and he has debatably worse options to cut through them himself. At fullscreen, you have the advantage. His projectile doesn't go fullscreen while yours does, and he can't do a dashing sweep either. This doesn't mean you'll like to approach him all that much when he has the lifelead, especially if you're even slightly predictable. Momentum flows very heavily in this matchup, NKak's easy vortex can quickly put you in a bad situation, especially considering he can get oki off of grab. You have the better damage in this matchup, and generally outclass NKak in every area, but he still has strong tools of his own. Still can't tandem him when crouching. Possibly still WIP
| 7-3 -Pathetic. | 7-3 -Acute Angle | 7-3 -Sereja | 7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas | 6-4 -Mewtastic |
Old Joseph
Old Joseph really struggles to deal with your pressure, or ESPECIALLY with strong patient play. Most of his openings will come from you disrespecting his options or overextending, which requires either a mistake on your part or a risk on his. Otherwise, Old Joseph is practically helpless to anything you do. By abusing your range and smartly staggering your pressure just outside of his punish range (think S.2C/S.5C distance), the opponent will find themselves in a terrifying position and will be forced to take a huge risk in order to turn the tables. Things don't get much better for Old Joseph outside of this range either, he struggles to break nets despite having a stand, his approach options are predictable, and your incredibly long pokes shut him down long range as long as you are wary of his s.236x. The one thing Joseph does have, is that if he succeeds in that risk, if he clips you with any of his primary moves, he will confirm into solid damage and a free knockdown to use for his Low/Throw 50/50. However, due to being a Low/Throw mixup and not a traditional High/Low meaty, Old Joseph's oki is fundamentally weaker than other characters. If he goes for the 360, you can grab him or use tandem during your grab invulnerable frames.
Other small things to note are that Old Joseph's Stand On roll doesn't make him invulnerable, just makes his hitbox smaller. Essentially gives you a free hit or even combo on him with net. Old Joseph's (S)236AA can hit hard if you're too close and too sloppy. Beats IAD on a hard read as well. If his CC drops or happens in a scramble, be careful of getting 360'd. He has very slow wakeup time, so delay your meaties slightly to catch him.
| 9-1 -Pathetic. | 8-2 -Acute Angle | 9-1 -Sereja | 8-2 -Light-Speed Lucas | 9-1 -Mewtastic |
Petshop
Cant tandem while crouching, play the range game in this matchup. Kill on your first confirm so he can't rob the round from you. His 5S is fast and one of the projectiles goes under S.236X, meaning it often wins projectile wars (Although it does no chip). WIP
| 5-5 -Pathetic. | 6-4 -Acute Angle | 6-4 -Sereja | 4-6 -Light-Speed Lucas | 4-6 -Mewtastic |
Polnareff
Polnareff is one of the more even matchups, as you both possess very oppressive normals, deadly mixups, and strong uses for meter. If the opponent likes to play in stand off, focus on not letting him pin you down. 2c and j.b are strong, but Pol is fairly linear in stand off so outmaneuvering and outpoking his approach is not that difficult. If he does get in however, I hope you're good at blocking. GC is generally your best bet out of SS since the mixups keep you in such heavy blockstun and Pol will usually be in your face, however this requires GC'ing while blocking correctly during one of the strongest mixes in the game. You can also just git gud and block the mixup with pushblocks to put him out of range for more pressure. C net can pre-emptively scare Pol from using SS outside of pressure. If you can find a gap, tandem is your best reversal if only to give yourself a second to breathe. With it, either use an empty one and jump/roll/counterpoke out of the pressure, or input a low chain to steal back momentum and get oki (Example). Absolutely do this if you notice Polnareff is doing o.2b/o.2c during the tandem flash, since he will not be able to roll or cancel the move while shooting star is out. 5c is still a good panic button here, but it requires Pol to stay close. If the opponent prefers stand on, BE WARY OF JUMPING NORMALS. They have incredible priority, and more range and hitstun then you think. Pol S.j.a is one of the few tools that can take on s.5b, with its disjointed range. s.j.b can also be difficult to stop reliably. And if either of these hit at just about any range, the Polnareff can convert into tandem and SS resets. s.665c and s.4b have HUGE horizontal disjoint, making them very difficult to contest. If the opponent gets too aggressive with them, you can low profile and counterpoke in s.off. These normals can eat up your approach, so if they're strangling you at mid-long range, try and stop them with s.236x (and a net for safety), conditioning the opponent to use them more sparingly.
| 5-5 -Pathetic. | 6-4 -Acute Angle | 6-4 -Sereja | 6-4 -Light-Speed Lucas | 6-4 -Mewtastic |
Shadow Dio
Shadow Dio's crouching hurtbox is the same as his standing when he's in hitstun, so he is uniquely the only character who can be hit by normal tandems while crouching. S.5A will still whiff if it is the first move though. WIP
| 8-2 -Pathetic. | 8-2 -Acute Angle | 8-2 -Sereja | 7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas | 7-3 -Mewtastic |
Rubber Soul
Since Rubber is slightly larger than the Kaks, you can actually tandem him while crouching. Super fast wakeup and counter makes your wakeup game mostly mindgames against him. WIP
| 5-5 -Pathetic. | 7-3 -Acute Angle | 9-1 -Sereja | 7-3 -Light-Speed Lucas | 7-3 -Mewtastic |
Vanilla Ice
Against a good Ice, you will die in one good hit. One 2A, one clean IAD, getting caught off guard by d.5C, being whiff punished by Ball, anything that leads into a hard knockdown or tandem means you lose the round right then and there due to UB oki. It can be incredibly hard to catch Ice making a mistake, since his huge normals recover so fast and have cancel options. Due to the sheer size of Stand On normals, and the risk of getting swept, you won't find yourself in Stand Off very much, so you won't get very many combos into tandem. If you manage to get a grounded net, CAPITALIZE. You'll want to play this matchup slow and carefully, forcing Ice to approach you above all costs. Opening up a good defensive Ice can feel impossible.
| 5-5 -Pathetic. | 6-4 -Acute Angle | 7-3 -Sereja | 6-4 -Light-Speed Lucas | 5-5 -Mewtastic |
Young Joseph
Young Joseph is worse in basically every way and loses at any screen position. Slow wakeup, poor reversals, and awful GC make pressure strong in general. Meanwhile, slow projectile options, lack of stand, and no ways to break nets means he crumbles against your turtling. (He does actually do decent stand damage, compared to other bottom tiers). s.236x beats his clackers on reaction, unless they're already close to you which they shouldn't really ever be considering how you can dominate the playing field. (Even then s.2c probably works on reaction at that point)
| 9-1 -Pathetic. | 9-1 -Acute Angle | 9-1 -Sereja | 8-2 -Light-Speed Lucas | 9-1 -Mewtastic |
