General Strategy and general tips
Try to play it safe and not to take many unnecessary risks at all. Be aware of all the shit your opponent can do and always keep in mind what you need to do in order to counter it
If your opponent has lifelead and is playing defensively, thats your queue to approach (usually by just walking forward in stand on mode, ready to block/poke if needed or by turning
stand off, dodging, and immediately turning stand back on so as to avoid any unnecessary chip damage)
Against most character that have a projectile/ranged move, try to keep in mind at what range you can activate tandem for a full punish and keep yourself in that area.
If you have lifelead you dont need to approach, but try to keep yourself out of the corner so that you arent potentially putting yourself in an unfavorable situation
In neutral, s2B s2C/s6C are effective for disrupting approaches and checking buttons, just try not to get too obvious with it because it is punishable.
If your opponent consistently blocks your unblockables you either need to make it tighter, or if that doesnt work, change the timing up so your 662A will hit first or vice versa
If you hop and force an opponent in the air to block an air-to-air 8A you can follow that up with S.6C while theyre still falling from blockstun
If you hop and hit an opponent in the air with an air-to-air 8A depending on how low to the ground you were when it hit you can probably combo that up with S.5C
On the other hand, if you hop and force an opponent in the air to block an air-to-air 7/9B (while theyre a bit farther away than 8A reaches) you can use the time they spend falling from the blockstun you forced them in to reposition yourself closer to them (you can grab, 662A or just dash forward a bit and turn stand on so youre in poking distance)
When youre pressuring your opponent, dont just do a bunch of 2A 6C 214Cs, youll get blown up against someone who knows how to counter it. Instead go for a blockstring like s2B s2C, no need to commit to something like 214C in the middle of your blockstring
When you airtech in stand on mode, keep in mind you can airdash and you still have a double jump too, so if you want to airdash to a better place for you to be (either in position for something like a spaced dookie drop into j.A/j.B, or for a backward airdash to retreat into dookie drop for a fast and safe landing landing)
Neutral hop j.B is a pretty strong poke as it can't be easily punished by most of the cast (chars like kak and ice who eat sleep and breathe anti-airs are an exception) and goes over lows, mix it up with some of ice's stand on normals and you can use swat people who try to air-to-air/jump-in against you and also hit people trying to approach with a low normal using j.B.
Habits to Avoid
Dark Space(Ball) Addiction
Now while his strategy may seem simple there are a few things you need to stay away from when learning Vanilla Ice. Spamming Stand on and Stand off Dark Space
Every new Ice player makes this mistake and believe it to be a strong strategy since newbie players will get mixed up and hit over and over again. The ending of the move is incredibly laggy; ranging from small punishes like pokes to huge punishes like kakyoin's stand crash punish. Another thing to note is that projectiles and good pokes will stuff this move because the hurtbox is bigger than the hitbox...
Stand-off dark space is 100 times worse than Stand-on as there is always a guaranteed punish/super incoming after it is blocked or whiffed, and it only hits if it's used as a very hard read or punish against s.off or passive opponents; which is not only rare but also pointless because of other better options.
Minor Upsides to Ball
Now there are a few scenarios where s.On Dark Space is an ok move to use. In s.On, Ice can throw out s.623AA at the end of his Dark space if the opponent counter-pokes too late. The downside to this is a waste of meter and a hard punish if you whiff the move.
Another scenario is by punishing the opponent's mobility; whether they're dashing unsafely, jumping from s.off into s.on, or incorrectly blocking the cross-up. Again, these situations are going to be rare but if you ever notice a bad habit that matches the criteria, be sure to capitalize on it. It can combo into S.623AA if you land the juggle correctly. The downside to this is similar to the s.623AA problem where you're going to be punished if the opponent anticipates it; some characters can only do pokes, but others have elaborate stand crash set-ups so be extremely careful at all costs.
Lastly, it can be used as an escape option, allowing you travel across the stage if you only aim forward. Though like the prior options, the recovery is extremely punishable (depending on how high you are from the ground). Instant Air Dash will still have a much better priority over Dark Space, since you can control your direction and actively poke to keep your opponent away, a major advantage that Dark Space lacks.
In summary, the move remains pretty bad in common use but can still be used in situations where the opponent least expects it. This section isn't meant to downplay or praise the move at all, but rather point out what's good and what's bad about it. Don't center your playstyle around s.On ball, but also don't memory hole this move from your brain.
Using Roll to start a combo
Many new ice players seem to abuse ices roll due to how fast it seems and can easily start a combo from 2a, but often does not work against players who already know the matchup as its still reactable and punishable with a grab, as every roll in the game is, and often some characters that cant grab can still hit ice with a meaty once he rolls to the other side.
Jumping
Ice's jump arc is not very good while his stand is off. His normal jump is incredibly high compared to other characters and can be seen from a mile away. While still useful for some mix ups ecessive jumping can get you punished.
While his Stand is ON Ice has a very floaty double jump, but can utilize his air dash to approach or retreat quickly. Note that if Ice gets hit in the air while his Stand is ON he can get stuck in very long block stun until you hit the ground.
Okizeme
Your options on opponents wakeup, your okizeme
214+A/B/C - 662A - 2A - 6B - 214S
50\50 that if timed right can leave 1 frame for your opponent to switch their block. Button pressed depends on how far away which ever character youre fighting.
If your opponent is blocking this correctly either go for another oki or learn how to switch up high/low and low/high with 214A 662A.
Best option against characters whose wakeups are 34 frames or lower. You can read wakeup speeds on the System Info page.
214+A/B/C to force block into superjump, j.A/grab/2A
Good mixup overall
Beats buffered GCs/GCs on wakeup in general Against most (all?) characters, if the 214A is timed right then GC cant punish it, and since youll be superjumping over it you should be able to punish their GC with a full combo.
214+A/B/C 664 5B UNCOMBO ...
Completely unblockable(?) because both 214A and 5B hit meaty, what you do after the "..." is up to you
Will reset back to neutral, also the only unblockable you can do against Petshop
Dookie Drop into 9C 2A 6B 214S
Good for chars that wake up really fast and you need to quickly pressure them.
Dookie-okis are a good option for characters whose wakeups are 33 frames (yes in actual matches ive found that the 1 frame difference matters) or faster, some can still punish you if your timing isn't perfect so it's usually recommended to just reposition yourself and not go for oki instead in that situations
Dookie Drop is explained in the important things section.
Empty Dookie Drop into 2A 6B 214S
Effective mixup if theyre expecting you to throw out 9C.
Empty Dookie Drop to bait out counter\super ...
Good against people who are expecting the dookie
Dashing Dookie Drop to go over and cross-up slower wakeup characters
This is only useful after something like (in corner) 236AA or S.623AA (as they both leave you in stand on and in perfect position) and your opponent is blocking/GCing your 50/50 consistently for some reason
(Midcombo AFTER 6 HITS 66A 2B) 214+A 662A 2A 6C 214S
Allows you to set up oki safely against characters that could punish you like Rubber Soul. Also the only way to knock down Petshop. If you're confused about (midcombo blah blah) basically you use 66A to combo into 2B as a combo ender after 6 hits in a combo and it should knock down instead of launching and let you recover faster than 2C, allowing you to oki rubber more easily
IAD 66C s.2B s.2C S+6C 214S
Easier in the corner, but still doable midscreen depending on distance, solid 50/50 that can be used if you don't want to look like a geek depending on near unblockables constantly
s.2B s.2C S+6C/S+6B 214S
another 50/50 and also a decent meaty, use if your opponent knows your IAD shenanigans
IAD Side switch into another IAD 66C or s.2B s.2C S+6C
Somewhat of a mixup on those not expecting it, not very useful but looks cool if done
2C
Big fat juicy meaty with big reach, use if your opponent loves to wakeup super/counter, do whatever you want while they rethink their choices on the floor
Important things
If you want to wake up reversal, use his tandem, It has a huge amount of i frames, leaves you safe for only 1 meter and youll just build it back up anyway. Dont use every time you wake up but keep an eye out for whenever you might be able to pull it out.
The easy guide to buffer Instant Air Dashing:
Tech passed down from generation to generation, heres a vid explaining how to do it
Ice is one of the characters that gets access to an air dash while his Stand is ON. It is preformed by pressing 66 or 44 during a jump. its relatively quick and can be used to approach OR retreat from your opponent. Its sole existence is enough to put the fear of god in your opponent, at the thought of the deadly mixup that is dashing low/instant overhead off of an IAD that both lead to full combos and possibly a ToD.
Another way to perform his IAD is to press 6 or 4 while going Stand OFF. This will cancel the Stand OFF animation and install the dash. When you go and perform the IAD, jump, turn Stand ON, and press 6/4, depending on which direction you installed.
ALTERNATIVE: An alternate way to do Ice's IAD is 6S to install the forward motion in stand mode, then 9, 5S, 6C. You pretty much have to press S while whatever you're using is in neutral. Doing so, you installed a forward movement in stand mode and if you jump and do 5S, 6 you'll dash instantly.
Dookie Drop
One of Vanilla Ice's best techniques is his dookie drop.
In short, the dookie drop involves Ice turning his stand off during a midair jump, which can lead to interesting mix up situations due to how unpredictable the jump arc is. The dookie drop can make ice extremely hard to tech-chase and even scary to approach if he manages to pull out j.6B as he falls, since the properties of the dookie drop creates a delay in his fall which makes it hard to punish. The j.6B version also good for a mix-up if they respect it and even if you get counter-poked, you can still escape with no additional damage.
An example can be js.669 (stay in midair) > dookie drop > j6b .
