Introduction
Hugo and Poison both joined the tournament for different reasons. Poison intends to kiss as many people as possible with her Poison Kiss. She doesn't know it's poison even though she shouts poison kiss when she does it.
Poison is a dominant midrange and setplay character, sporting some of the best buttons in the game. All of her normals involving her whip are completely disjointed and delete projectiles, allowing her to safely control space without much threat of whiff punishes, or anti-air extremely consistently with simple buttons. Her 5LP is a standout fast jab that works great for low commitment poking, where 2MP can stuff their movement or buttons. 5MP and 2HP stick out as top tier anti-airs, and both lead to extremely consistent combos with HKD enders. Even outside of her whip normals, buttons like 5MK, 2MK, and 2HK have staggering range to work with.
Poison is more than just buttons however. Her dash carries a ton of momentum, allowing her to slide forward with ease and whiff punish from extremely far away. She also has a Hyperhop, which is done by tapping down quickly before jumping. This covers a ton of ground while staying very low, allowing her to jump over a ton of things and snipe the opponent. These two movement options are backed up by a top tier walk speed as well. Every hit can lead to a combo through 214P Whip of Love, ending in 214KM EX Love Me Tender and its followup, letting her easily secure hard knockdowns to run her amazing setplay with 236HP Aeolus Edge.
What truly sets Poison apart is her aforementioned setplay. Off of her extremely potent hard knockdowns or resets, she can use her Hyperhop to create an instant overhead j.HK, and cancel this j.236P Air Aeolus Edge to start a combo. She can mix this with a meaty 2MK cancelled to EX Rekka for extreme plus frames on both a high and a low, or her powerful normal throw which leads to her highest damage. Poison makes you guess on every knockdown, giving her an amazing vortex that can melt health quickly.
Poison is a great option if you want someone who can both play dominant neutral and skip over neutral entirely, with high reward in both situations. She has some of the best setplay, simple and fun combos, and amazing buttons.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
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Normals
Note: Poison does not have any chains.
Standing
- 5LP: Quick and disjointed whip jab. Great for checking approaches, late anti-airs, poking, baiting, etc. Also your main normal for deleting single hit projectiles. Can whiff on crouchers.
- 5MP: Fast anti-air pillar. Leads to full combos on anti-air hits, making it much more rewarding than DP. It can link from a 2LP if you're really close to the opponent, and the opponent is standing.
- 5HP: A giant fast whip swing, with faster startup when done in close range. Great "fuck you" normal, hits crazy far away and confirms into a full combo with heavy rekka. Becomes safer when done out of a dash, which also extends its range substantially.
- 5LK: Low light kick. Doesn't actually hit low, though. Really good standing light to check with, similar to 5LP, but unlike 5LP this will hit even some extremely low profile moves. When done from a dash, this gets a new animation and becomes extremely plus, making for a great meaty option.
- 5MK: Long ranged mid kick. Great for confirms, as it links from 2LP really consistently from far range, and combos into medium rekka easily. Strong frame data also makes this a solid standing poke, you can bully some characters with this.
- 5HK: Huge roundhouse kick which also has faster startup when done close. The far version has somewhat slow startup, but also has a pretty beefy hitbox, so you can kinda swing with it sometimes. The close version is Poison's primary heavy starter, you want to use this in combos as much as possible for more damage.
Crouching
- 2LP: Standard crouch jab. One of Poison's only plus on block normals without dash, so it's a cornerstone of her pressure. Links to 5MP, 2HP, and 5MK to secure knockdowns.
- 2MP: A disjointed whip swing downward. Despite the animation, this only really hits right above and in front of Poison's head, and doesn't actually hit the ground at all. Despite that, this is still an amazing normal: it's extremely fast, the disjoint beats out basically anything the opponent did, and it confirms easily to her rekkas. This can even anti-air as well, though you have some better options.
- 2HP: The tower. A huge whip swing above and slightly behind Poison. Amazing anti-air with a massive hitbox, this makes jumping on Poison nearly impossible for characters who can't alter their jump arcs. Despite being a heavy, this is also extremely fast, and links from 2LP or a dash LK. This also makes it really useful in juggles, alongside the fact that it launches a bit higher to make rekka enders more consistent.
- 2LK: Standard, but very good low light kick. Chains into itself and other lights, good on block, and has great range. This becomes a huge threat when EX rekka is on deck, as she can hitconfirm three or four of these into corner carry and a hard knockdown. Without meter, it's just a good 2LK.
- 2MK: The god normal. Extremely long range, very fast, hits low, and confirms a medium rekka anywhere on screen. While Poison's whip normals control the sky, this controls the ground. Use it to zone, to whiff punish, out of a dash to approach and start pressure or combos, in conjunction with her fireball as a cancel, as a low mixup in her resets, etc. Spam this a lot.
- 2HK: Like 2MK, but farther and launches. Extremely long range, and causes a hard knockdown if you don't take the combo after, which you should always since the combo also leads to a hard knockdown anyway. Great for simply hitting the opponent when they're out of range for a 2MK, and has some usage in combos as well.
Jumping
- j.LP: Fast swing with the whip. Basically 5LP but in the air. Primarly overshadowed in most regards by other air normals, but has two niches, one as an extremely fast and disjointed option out of her backdash, and the other as a fuzzy overhead on taller characters.
- j.MP: Like j.LP but instead of swiping the whip outwards, she swipes it inwards. Similar usage, a bit slower but does more damage and continues juggles instead of causing a reset. On some characters, hyperhop j.MP combos after a Love Storm, allowing for high damage extensions with it.
- j.HP: Hell on Earth for your opponent. Massive, disjointed air normal with a hitbox that travels as the animation does, starting slightly above Poison's head and ending far behind her legs. This is nearly impossible to anti-air without a DP, and makes for a belligerent option out of hyperhop. It also crosses up extremely ambiguously, which is the main threat of Poison's setplay. Done out of a hyperhop, this hits crouchers as well, and you can still get a combo off of it even when done extremely early thanks to air EX fireball, turning this into a nearly unreactable combo starting overhead. The only weakness of this move is the relatively slow startup, which isn't really even that slow anyway
- j.LK: A simple kick. This can cross up, and is a fair bit faster than j.HP as well, but since it's a light it can be harder to combo from this than j.HP and it's much less plus on block. Mainstay reset normal, sets up very hard to see mixups post reset and the speed and range make it very easy to reset opponents when they don't expect it.
- j.MK: High upwards kick. Huge disjoint makes this a stellar rising air-to-air, but since it only hits above her, it's her weakest jump-in. This is also a core combo piece, either for landing after a rekka and juggling a grounded normal, or cancelling it into j.214LK for a groundbounce.
- j.HK: A much more standard jump heavy than j.HP. Hits pretty deep, fairly fast, and is her highest damage jump normal overall. While j.HPs massive hitbox provides a lot more utility, this is still the higher damage option, and the faster startup gives it a niche over j.HP still.
Command Normals
- 6MP: The slaps. Primarly used for brawling range since the first hitbox is fairly disjointed, and despite the height, hits crouchers just fine. Can also be used as an anti-air for the same reason, and unlike her other emergency anti-air 5LP, this will start combos. The two hits also make an auto hitconfirm. Done out of a dash, this is significantly more plus on block and hit, so it also works as a pressure tool.
- 6HP: Poison leaps up and drops an elbow on the opponent. This is an overhead, and while it's a fairly slow one, it's also really plus, especially when spaced out. The leap also lets her go over lows with this. Cancels to either of her air specials on hit, block, or whiff.
Specials
- 236P: Aeolus Edge. Generally just called fireball. This is Poison's main tool for zoning the opponent. The LP version goes fullscreen, MP goes about halfscreen, and HP stays in place. These also have frame data differences: the LP version has the slowest startup but the fastest recovery, the HP version starts up really fast but has more recovery, and MP is somewhere in between. Learning when to use each version is a key component to proper zoning. EX goes extremely fast and is plus on block, you'll spend a bar on it frequently to keep the opponent locked down from far away.
- j.236P: Air Fireball. Each version is identical frame data wise to the grounded versions, so LP has the most startup and HP has the least. These bounce Poison back a bit, making them relatively difficult to punish, but also making them useless for Akuma style air fireball approaches. LP goes fullscreen if used near the top of Poison's jump arc, as the angle is very shallow. HP has an extremely steep angle but is also the fastest, so it's a good option to TK in the midrange at times. MP is somewhere in between the other two. EX is primarily used in Poison's instant overheads with j.HP, as it combos from j.HP on grounded crouching opponents and leaves Poison plus enough to link 2MK.
- 214P: Whip of Love. Poison's rekka, her primary combo tool and pressure tool. This can go into a punch followup, and then either into a punch ender which acts as your primary hard knockdown combo ender, or a kick ender which launches at low juggle and can be jump cancelled. The first hit is fairly safe, and the punch followup is even safer, but both enders are unsafe without meter to super cancel or charge to CC. EX Rekka is a beast of a move, being absurdly fast (enough to combo from lights!) and being VERY plus. EX Rekka 1 is so plus, you can link normals after it for some of Poisons best damage.
-- 214P~4P: Rekka 2. Simple continuation for confirms. Great for pressure, as it's safer than rekka 1 and also frametraps from rekka 1. Risky against an opponent with charge as most of the time, they'll Alpha Counter this. There are ways around that however. EX Rekka 2 has multiple bridges, a 3rd and a 4th, each progressively less plus (though none are punishable)
-- 214P~4K: Kick ender. Can be done right after rekka 1, which is better for scaling but riskier on block. This kick launches and can be jump cancelled, leading to Poison's juggles, which are the core of her damage. This also has some invuln during startup, which lets her pass right through an opponent trying to Alpha Counter rekka 1. EX launches with better juggle potential, allowing for groundbounces with 214K and another launch with a meterless rekka, giving it great damage.
---214P~4P~4P: Punch ender. Primary way to end combos, as it always juggles and causes a hard knockdown. You can do this after a blocked rekka 2 as a frametrap, but this is risky without resources, just like the kick ender.
---214P~4P~4K: Kick ender, done after rekka 2 instead. Works the exact same regardless, this just gives you the extra hit to hitconfirm. EX is the same as the EX kick ender, but this will always come out whether you do it with a kick input or a punch input, and can be done after any of the EX rekka bridges.
- 214K: Love Me Tender. Axe kick, these hit overhead and are good for pressure and useful as a low crush in neutral, though it has some overlap with hyperhop in this regard. The endlag of these can super cancel, which allows for combos to Love Storm. The EX version has projectile invuln, and goes into a followup which gives Poison her absolute best knockdown. On air hit, these groundbounce when done early in juggles, leading to big damage. When you CC these, Poison does a little hop. These can be CCd on hit block or whiff as well, which allows for yet another approach option, albeit a slightly expensive one.
- j.214K: Air Love Me Tender. A sorta kinda divekick, this sends Poison flying forward and down regardless of how she jumped before. Can cancel air normals into this for a double overhead, which can be cancelled into Love Storm or CCd for a combo. Unlike the ground version, CCing these sends Poison flying downwards, which can be useful to land on someone with j.HK. These also groundbounce, and where the ground version only groundbounces at low juggles, the air version always groundbounces. Fit lots of these into your combos for more damage. EX does the same followup,
- 623P: Lovely Shoryuken. Poison's DP series, the LP version has real invuln and is very big and fast making for a stellar anti-air and reversal, while the MP and HP versions don't have invuln to the hit but are bigger, deal more damage, and allow you to mash 3 punches for extra damage at the cost of dealing white life damage to Poison. The LP version is your main anti-air and reversal, and a standout DP in general that can be CCd on hit block or whiff. MP and HP are fairly situational, and generally not very useful compared to LP. EX is extremely invuln and deals more damage, while also causing a hard knockdown. You can spend meter on it occasionally as a more rewarding LP DP.
Supers
- 236PPP: Love Storm. Comically, hilariously good fireball super. Invuln, plus on block, extremely fast, can be done on whiff, massive, starts combos, this does literally everything you want a super to do in Remix and then some. After a brief period of hanging still in front of Poison, it quickly shoots out to fullscreen, making it also useful as an anti-zoning tool. You can cancel unsafe specials like rekka enders into this, and it's fast enough to combo after a 214K hit, which again leads to full combos. You can even CC it on whiff, making it near impossible to punish, though this technique is a bit pricey. Be wary about using it as a reversal against characters with good crossups, as it loses outright to a crossup.
- 214KKK: Mistress Kick. Cinematic super that launches with a similar launch to EX rekka, which means it leads to massive damage. This is also fireball invuln like EX Love Me Tender, though much more rewarding in exchange for costing one more bar. The slow startup and complete inability to hit airborne opponents means this only combos from rekkas and heavies, but when you have the meter, cashing out with this as a launcher is generally very worth it.
- 623PPP: Thunder Whip. Reversal super, though with the existence of Love Storm you may not use it too much. This super is extremely fast, and the first hit does have great range, which can make it useful as a defensive option against spaced out specials. Unlike LP and EX Lovely Shoryuken however, this can only be CCd on hit and block, and only during the second DP, which makes it a guaranteed punish should it be blocked. You can mash punches to net extra damage at the cost of grey life, but this sacrifices the hard knockdown.
- 63214PPP: Poison Kiss. Command grab super, leads to a full combo, decent as a fast reversal, etc. Sadly, pretty useless as a throw mixup, since it can be jumped after the superflash. It also can't be used in combos like some command grab supers can. You can CC part of the endlag of this, but only after the heart breaks, which takes a decent amount of time anyhow.
Unique Movement
Dash: Poison's dash is somewhat unique in that it maintains momentum for her normals, allowing her to slide forward into any of her extremely long ranged buttons. Besides that, it's a standard but very good dash.
2~7/8/9: Hyperhop. Done by tapping down and then up, Poison jumps at an extremely low angle depending on which up direction you input. This is one of her defining features, as it allows her to quickly approach, retreat, or put any of her amazing air normals out very low to the ground. This opens up instant overheads as well, and even without that, the ability to hyperhop over an opponent on the ground and position ambiguous j.HP crossups is enough to open up just about anyone. You can drift this as well by holding 4 or 6 while midair, making things even more ambiguous.
KKK: Backflip. More like a standard backdash, which is nice since Poison's backdash is anything but standard. You can cancel normals into this as well. Be careful using it on defense however: this can't cancel to anything, even CC, and has more endlag than it looks.
Universal
Forward Throw: Poison slaps the opponent a bunch, which leaves them staggered long enough to dash up or hyperhop into a combo. Standard Remix throw, extremely rewarding but hard to hit due to the tech system.
Back Throw: No combo, but nets a hard knockdown and throws the opponent decently far. You would rather do forward throw pretty much always though.
Alpha Counter: A quick whip attack. Hitbox is almost entirely on the ground despite looks. Good for punishing from far away, such as Alpha Countering a fireball string or a spaced special, but lacks utility as an anti-air AC.
Backdash: A unique leaping backdash that has invuln while she's rising, and allows for air normals or specials on the way down. A solid defensive option, but misuse can lead to bigger punishes, as you can be anti-aired once you press a button, and anti-air punishes can hurt a lot.
Strategy
Neutral
Most of Poison's neutral is simply zoning while trying to approach with her great dash and hyperhop. Poison has some of the best normals in the game, and a lot of her neutral revolves around these, especially 2MK. You'll be using this to space and whiff punish, and also as an approach tool out of a dash, buffering it to 214MP every time. When opponents start to watch out for 2MK, they'll usually try to counterpoke the hurtbox, since it isn't that disjointed. Once they start doing that, stuff their pokes with 2MP, or hyperhop over their normal. If they're trying to play farther out, throw 236MP to make them move, or swing with a 5HP to try and hit them.
A jump happy opponent is easily beaten with 5MP, 2HP, and 623LP into full combos or oki. Generally speaking, you should be shutting down about 9 out of 10 jumps with Poison: there aren't many times where you can't anti-air someone. Even if they jumped your fireball, LP fireball tends to recover fast enough to squeeze out 623LP, and with meter you can whiff cancel to Love Storm which will eat midrange jumps and anti-fireball tools for huge reward at virtually no risk to Poison herself.
Offense
Much of Poison's offense centers around stagger pressure with 2LK and 2LP, and hyperhop. Hyperhop is extremely difficult for many characters to deal with. You can essentially think of it as an extremely fast and extremely plus overhead that leads to full combos and crushes lows. Opponents will often try greedy options to anti-air this on defense, which are eaten by simple frametraps into 2MK.
The stagger pressure mostly consists of frametraps and spacing traps into 2MK. 2MK is Poison's best low when she has no meter, so if the defender is blocking high expecting a hyperhop, this will open them up cleanly.
Poison unfortunately doesn't have a ton of plus frames. While many of her specials are safe, none of them are plus. That is, besides EX rekka, which is absurdly plus. On offense, you should be buffering into this constantly if you have the bar, as it will leave you plus enough to either 2MK low or hyperhop j.HP after, and on hit you can link into 2MK or 2HP. EX rekka turns Poison's pressure from just okay to amazing.
Defense
Poison has a wide variety of defensive options. Her Alpha Counter has good range to it, making it a bit harder to safely end blockstrings against her. 623LP is a great DP, and it can be CCd on block for safety, on hit for combos, and on whiff to make it a bit awkward to punish. While her backdash is unusual, it's still very strong, and smart usage of it leads to huge punishes in some situations.
Her mash is great as well, as all of her lights are fast and her MP normals are extremely disjointed. Even 2MK makes for a great mash, since it's so fast for the range. Hyperhop can also come into play on defense, as she can either quickly disengage while getting off the ground, or hard call out a throw with a forward hyperhop.
Combos
Notes
- In any combo using j.214LK, you can replace it with j.214MK for a guaranteed sideswap every time
- In the corner, j.MK > j.214LK will sometimes steal the corner on a few characters. Doing jump back j.MP > j.214LK will keep the corner, and doesn't lose much damage
Meterless
- 2MK > 214MP~4P~4K, jump cancel j.MK > j.214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4P
The meterless BNB. There isn't much else you can really do with Poison without meter. On some characters cl.HK into rekka works in juggles, and on some characters you can also do heavy rekka instead of light, but this works on everyone. If you get a punish, start this with cl.HK into 214HP for more damage.
- Anti-Air 5MP/2HP > 236MP, 2HP > 214LK, 2HP > 214MP~4P~4K, jump cancel j.MK > j.214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4P
Anti-air bnb. Great damage off amazing anti-air normals, very good to know and do every time you land an anti-air.
- Throw, hyperhop j.HK, cl.HK > 214HP~4P~4K, jump cancel j.MK > j.214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4P
Throw combo, does a ton of damage.
1 bar
- 2MK > 214PP, 2HP > 214HP~4P~4K, jump cancel j.MK > j.214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4P
EX rekka 1 links to 2HP, which makes for both a great confirm and an alright damage increase.
- cl.HK > 214PP~4P~4P~4P, jump cancel delayed j.MK, 2HP > 214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4K, jump cancel j.MK > j.214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4P
Massive damage punish with EX rekka. Unlike meterless rekka, doing the delayed j.MK right before you land allows the grounded version of 214K to still groundbounce, leading to more damage overall.
- 2MK > 214MP~4P~4K, jump cancel j.MK > j.214LK, cl.HK > 214PP~dl.4P~dl.4P~dl.4P, jump cancel j.MK > j.214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4P.
EX rekka mid juggle will always give you the full launch for the followup. Doing this tends to require manual delays however due to how fast EX rekkas individual parts all are. You may skip the rekka bridges, which makes it easier in exchange for less damage.
- 2LK > 2LK > 2LK > 214PP, 2MK > 214MP~4P~4K, jump cancel j.MK > j.214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4P
Since EX rekka combos from lights, having 1 bar makes confirms like this possible, which makes Poison's strong 2LK a huge threat on offense.
2 bars
- 2MK > 214MP~4P > 214KKK, jump delayed j.MK, 2HP > 214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4K, jump cancel j.MK > j.214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4P
The Mistress Kick confirm. Deals great damage by Poison standards, around 550, but more notably it has fullscreen corner carry. Even starting it with both you and an opponent point blank in the corner, you can dash twice after the hard knockdown and put them in the corner.
- 236PPP, 2HP > 214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4K, jump cancel j.MK > j.214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4P
Love Storm starter for when you use it as a reversal or anti-air, or when you catch someone trying to punish rekka or go through a fireball. Deals great damage, as a super starter would be expected too.
- 2MK > 214MP~4P~4K, jump cancel j.MK > j.214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P > 236PPP, hyperhop j.MP > j.214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4P
A character specific (list coming soon) extension using Love Storm. Great for cycling meter, as you can use this to squeeze extra meter build for more CC later on.
Charge Cancel
- 2MK > 214MP~4P~4K, jump cancel j.MK > j.214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4K > MP+MK, 2HP > 214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4K, jump cancel j.MK > j.214LK, 2HP > 214LP~4P~4P
The standard CC extension. Adds almost 200 more damage and a ton of corner carry, so very worth doing if you have a CC stocked. You'll do this often when doing full meter dumps, since you can do this CC extension any time you would normally end in a rekka.
Street Fighter IV Remix is a mod of Street Fighter IV developed by MiriamBurgers and Anotak.