Matchup Strategy
Avdol
Really oppressive matchup. As A. Pol, you’ll have to respect the priority that Avdol’s normals has over yours. He has a variety of long-ranged normals that can easily stuff out your approaches, such as his amazing s.5b and 2c pokes. He also has a strong anti-air game with both s.6a, his DP, and 236aa, so jump-ins aren’t a good option; s.j.c contest you in the air, and if a sensor is on screen, you will be in a serious problem, and it’ll got even worse if he decides to go on remote mode. While sensor forces you to stay defensive, Magician’s Red gains a great walk speed on remote mode, and a lot of control over the screen as a result. On this situation, you have to guess when is the Avdol going to realize sensor. Overall, be patient; stay checking out the habits of the opponent. If he likes to wait for you to doing everything, do the same and wait for the Avdol to get the offense. Feel free of pressing 2 while Avdol applies pressure, because you can duck both s.5b and crossfire, which are important parts of his offense. If you’re feeling like you can’t do it, a d.2a can take Avdol by surprise during a blockstring, thanks to the speed of it. You can punish his crossfire blockstrings on read by pushblocking his s.5b and immediately after inputting 214aa, on this range approximately: https://wiki.supercombo.gg/w/File:Unknown.png
Tech grabbing in here can be threatening. Avdol uses to setup a tick grab from any jump in or from his s.2a, if he successfully grabs you, the grab will leave you open for a huge tech chase; you could interrupt any tick grab attempt by 1ac’ing him, but instead if you guess wrong and the Avdol decides to block, be ready for losing a 4th of your health. Keep guessing when he’s going to grab you, nothing much to say. Anti-airing him is really hard, not only for sensor, but because he has no one or two, but THREE jumps. If there’s the case that you end in front of Avdol while he has his stand out, you can use 2b for immediately deactivating his stand and also deal increased damage, but watch out for tandem. Leaving the remote mode topic a little, 214aa can be very effective against Avdols who likes to jump. The nature of Avdol’s rushdown is pretty straightforward, constantly chasing you with both d.2B, d.2c, s.d.2a and s.j.c, occasionally putting fireballs on screen for create mixups. D.2B and d.2c can also be punished on prediction with a fast pushblock and quickly pressing 5b, but it’ll depend on how far the Avdol ends after it. As stated before, you don’t have to worry about fireballs, just duck them. S.d.2a is mostly used for tick grabs due to his low combo potential, so do what you need to do.
Avdol is the king of reversals. Is very common to see an Avdol doing a 236aa after wakeup or a roll. If you see it coming, 214aa will beat it without any problem. He also has his DP and, naturally, tandem; is very annoying to deal with their i-frames so, you need to workout on baiting buttons for wasting his meter or making DP whiff and create an opening. If Avdol lacks meter, pokes like s.5b or s.2b are punishable on whiff. If you see a s.5a coming out, you can outpoke it with 5c.
Tech grabbing in here can be threatening. Avdol uses to setup a tick grab from any jump in or from his s.2a, if he successfully grabs you, the grab will leave you open for a huge tech chase; you could interrupt any tick grab attempt by 1ac’ing him, but instead if you guess wrong and the Avdol decides to block, be ready for losing a 4th of your health. Keep guessing when he’s going to grab you, nothing much to say. Anti-airing him is really hard, not only for sensor, but because he has no one or two, but THREE jumps. If there’s the case that you end in front of Avdol while he has his stand out, you can use 2b for immediately deactivating his stand and also deal increased damage, but watch out for tandem. Leaving the remote mode topic a little, 214aa can be very effective against Avdols who likes to jump. The nature of Avdol’s rushdown is pretty straightforward, constantly chasing you with both d.2B, d.2c, s.d.2a and s.j.c, occasionally putting fireballs on screen for create mixups. D.2B and d.2c can also be punished on prediction with a fast pushblock and quickly pressing 5b, but it’ll depend on how far the Avdol ends after it. As stated before, you don’t have to worry about fireballs, just duck them. S.d.2a is mostly used for tick grabs due to his low combo potential, so do what you need to do.
Avdol is the king of reversals. Is very common to see an Avdol doing a 236aa after wakeup or a roll. If you see it coming, 214aa will beat it without any problem. He also has his DP and, naturally, tandem; is very annoying to deal with their i-frames so, you need to workout on baiting buttons for wasting his meter or making DP whiff and create an opening. If Avdol lacks meter, pokes like s.5b or s.2b are punishable on whiff. If you see a s.5a coming out, you can outpoke it with 5c.
Don’t worry with Avdol using oki. The much that he can do is meatying you with a s.j.c or s.2a; easy to react and he wouldn’t take too much damage for it (This doesn’t means that you shouldn’t care for getting knockdowned, it works as a sensor setup after all). Moves To Learn: 2b, 2c, 6c, s.5a, s.2a, s.5b, s.2b, s.j.c, 236aa.
Alessi
Similarly to Avdol, you need to watch out for his fast normals, most notably Alessi's 2C sweep. A lot of Black Polnareff's meaty normals will pass through Alessi's offense.
[UNDER CONSTRUCTION]
Black Polnareff
If you see the opponent preparing 214+AA super, respond with the same thing. Remember that B.Pol's the strongest while he's controlling the ground, not the air. Be careful when you use some of your heavies as they might be punished easily.
Chaka
Watch out for his fast jump-ins and you should be fine. 623a and 214aa are you're best friends at this. Your 2b can beat his s.5b too.
He has a good tech chasing and a way better air-to-air game than you, so don't jump too much. Being the most unpredictable as possible; he could punish you with his fast s.236aa, Guard Cancelling you and get a full BnB, and since he's an Anubis user too, counter your moves and limit your tools more than they are by themselves.
If the Chaka is noticing that you're likely to anti-air him, he will mixup you up with dash-ins and 2a's. Be careful on spacing your 2a's since his 5B and d.5B can beat ALL of your bottons if done right.
[UNDER CONSTRUCTION]
Devo
Keep assaulting Devo with your ground normals and try to block all of his jump-in attempts, while he can just 214aa you and won the round. You won't be able to punish the doll if it's right behind you unless you push Devo away, jump back and time one of your jumping attacks right.
DIO
DIO'S playstyle is a trollish one. D.2B is a very effective punish tool, while 2A and d.2C have good hitboxes and are pretty quick, and there's 5C that has huge range. Watch out whenever DIO has his Stand On, as any whiffed move will most likely cost you a ton of life (also don't anti-air him, you should know why).
When he noticed that you're disrespecting his offense he will try to bait you in order to get an opening. Be patient and don't panic.
Hope that you don't get TOD'd if he connects his 2a lol.
Hol Horse
You'll end up chasing Hol all around the stage. A well-timed dashing attack can interrupt his attempts at spamming glass, forcing Hol to either use some close range attacks after the recovery or try to roll past through you. Don't whiff attacks from fullscreen and you should be fine. 214+AA can be very useful in this matchup. Note that your grab, while doing damage from punishing rolls, also knocks Hol all the way to the opposite part of the screen. It's up to you whether you want to use it or attempt to punish Hol's rolls in some other way.
Hol & Boingo
Same deal as with the regular Hol, except, it might be harder to approach him due to the nature of the S bullet. Still, once you lay your finger on him, Hol will have a hard time.
Iggy
d.2B is your best friend and it can quickly interrupt Iggy's attacks. Watch out when you jump-in as Iggy might counter you back with his down/up charge or block the attempt while gliding.
Old Joseph
Pretty fair matchup. Old Joseph is an honest character that capitalizes on the gaps of his opponents pressure, as he lacks of proper ways to open people up; a similar sense of gameplan as yours. You can find yourself struggling at his good counterpokes, footsies and okizeme; the joke is that the same applies with him. You both struggle at getting in, perhaps you have slightly better chances to do it and you’ll have a better reward for it. OldSeph’s tall hurtbox plays against him in this matchup, as he can’t crouch under j.s, which makes of double overhead an actual thing to watch out for. It is true that he can interrupt you with a jab, gc or a super, yes; but the key in here is to conditioning. If he likes to mash jab then string him with 2a or 2b; if he likes to gc then answer with your own gc or pushblock into a 5b punish once you get in the ground; etc. Gain his respect, and when you have done it, it is time to apply j.s offense.
You’ll have to respect him in the air. Old Joseph has some high priority normals that will take care of your j.b, such as j.c; although, you don’t have reason to go for an aerial fight. His hurtbox in the air is fat enough for anti-airing him. Any dumb jump-in will hit hard by 214aa. Don’t be as dumb as him; watch out for obvious jump-ins as they can easily get 236aa’d. Speaking of 214aa; it is a strong option in this matchup. OldSeph will rely on d.2a, d.5b and d.2b for getting an opening; these moves extends his hurtbox further and have a long recovery. If you go for a 214aa and OldJo ends in your face, he will be forced to spend meter or start to vary gimmicks with counter. If the dash is blocked then he will cancel it into 236a in an effort to trying to be safe. This however is punishable at close range; time a pushblock for 236a and immediately after do d.2b. If the timing is too tight for you, then use 5b, but you will have a lower reward. Also, both d.5b and Turquoise Blue Overdrive (236a) can be crouched. If that wasn’t enough, 2b and 2a can beat OldSeph’s approaches with d.2b; d.2a can beat 2b but not 2a and 5b, also don’t forget that you can just jump over from his attacks easily; might be risky if OldJo has meter, but it can caught him off guard anyways.
Sometimes he will try to trap you into his command grab after you have blocked some of his moves; pushblock and you should be fine. Old Joseph can do some tricky stuff with custom combo on block. If you have pb’d him before, you shouldn’t worry of this, press 2b to stuff him out.
If you don’t, then he can mix you up with command grab and his lows. If he goes for a command grab, jump over
If he doesn’t, pushblock and smash him with 214aa, but be aware of rolls.
Speaking of mixups; Old Joseph gains access to a 50/50 oki between command grab and meaty 3b/3c from any successful combo, with each option leaving into another hard knockdown and guess situation, however, his oki can be punished hard if you guess right. J.a should cover command grab, but watch out for baiting into jumps. If he goes for a meaty 3b/3c, then you should time a pushblock and immediately make him pay for it. Of course, he can just use s.2a instead, but he will be forced to end the vortex if he doesn’t have meter and is away from the corner. Also, you can always option select this by buffering 236abc and then pressing 1, or with 1ac. A common error between non experienced players is to respect mid meaties. 2a, d.2a, and also (by some even more stupid reason), 6c and d.5c/s.d5c are mids (perhaps of s.6c being an overhead) If the Old Joseph keeps doing this for whatever reason, you can calmly OS his oki by pressing 7: if he goes for a command grab, you jump over it; if he goes for a meaty, you block it.
Your main issue in this matchup will be his s.2c and s.5c. They are very disjointed moves with a fast startup and high priority, all of them beating your buttons and with the ability to hitconfirm into a full custom combo. Perhaps them being very strong, there are ways to work around them. S.2c can be jumped over and s.5c has a slow enough recovery for it to being baited. In fact, the key for beating them is to bait their use, then punishing them with 5b or 5c. Perhaps of d.2b being beaten by this buttons, Old Joseph will need a very good positioning and timing, and still, it can be used for intercepting their startup. If you manage to learn this moves, 2c and 5c can work well as a replacement. S.3c has an insane range and disjoint too, but is quite slow, so don't worry about it too much. Another thing to pay attention with, is his s.236c. Sometimes, he will throw it out with the hope of intercepting dashes or just catch you by surprise. Perhaps of this move looking like a low, it’s a mid actually. It can be easily jumped over and has a long recovery + you can sniff it out at his entire effective range.
Both Young/Old Joseph matchups are those special cases were you gain access to ALL your oki arsenal. As I stated, being so tall plays against him, now with the additional con of having the slowest wakeup in the game, meaning that any hard knockdown can result into the round ending. More info in the strategy section. Also you can do some swag stand crush resets on him. The combo routes are on this video:
(1:52 – 3:16) [A remake for the video is coming soon, the rest of the info on it shouldn’t be taken on count]. In short, your gameplan is the following: Procure to gain the lifelead. Once you have secured it Old Joseph will have a pretty bad time.
Moves To Learn: 2a, 5b, 3b, 2c, s.2a, s.j.a, s.2c
s.2c and s.2a are also important parts of Old Joseph’s s.on blockstrings, while s.j.a is his primary jump-in.
Jotaro
Your low attacks and good jump-ins should open up Jotaro. Still, you need to watch out when you attack him as he can easily punish your attempts.
Kakyoin
You'll need to chase Kakyoin all around the stage while blocking everything he throws at you. You can attempt to use the spinning swords to cut through Kakyoin's nets or just try to rush him before he has time to lay them around.
Khan
Khan will try to carefully approach you without abusing his easy to punish attacks. Try to stay on the ground unless you see an opening, as Khan will definitely try to anti-air your jump-ins. Your attacks should in theory have a slightly better range overall. You can also try to fish out a learning counter on his primary normals to disable his entire game and force him to make dumb mistakes, counter can also really shut him down for good. Also remember that he can lame you out if he gets a good life lead, anti-air his laming attempts while not being impatient, it's what he wants.
Mariah
Just rush her before she's able to lay any traps. Her outlets are quite strong against Black Polnareff, so you should avoid them at all costs. Never back out as you have no way of negating her chip damage. Mariah's electric burn cables are especially deadly to Black Polnareff, as his special Stand attacks aren't too good at cutting them.
Midler
You need to observe what Midler does and learn her patterns. Performing random jump-ins will most likely get you killed before you can lay a finger on her unless you see a 2C coming. Approach her carefully, but mind her Dinner Time super.
New Kakyoin
New Kakyoin without his emerald splash and slightly worse normals becomes a much easier target for Black Pol. Most of his attacks will be easily punished by your 214+AA super. Just watch out whenever New Kakyoin's in the air, as he can quickly dash behind you or super you from fullscreen if you're not careful.
Petshop
I guess I'll just die.
Polnareff
The best way to fight Polnareff is to keep interrupting his charge motion specials. Try to find an opening and never let go. Remember that when it comes to normals, both you and him share some of the best Stand Off pokes he has at his disposal with nearly the same properties.
Shadow Dio
Learning counter can be very good against Shadow Dio's Stand attack, you still need to watch out which button you press to counter his attacks, as you will need to go for Dio's body, not his Stand.
Rubber Soul
Considering Black Polnareff has only physical attacks, Rubber Soul's counter is very powerful. He will attempt to play it safe and dash away while leaving projectile traps, chipping away at your health. You need to wait until Rubber Soul makes a mistake and find a hole in his zoning attempts. If Rubber's more aggressive, try using grabs or punish his Stand attacks with 214+AA.
Vanilla Ice
2B is one of your best friends here. While very risky, using learning counter on his 2A will pretty much disable most of his combo potential, as long as you can still block it of course. His Stand On normals have better hitboxes than your best pokes, but with proper timing, you should be still able to catch him off-guard. Watch out for his ball attacks as they come out very fast and might interrupt some of your slower normals. 214+AA is rather risky to use, even when you think you got the upper hand, Ice's hurtboxes can be very deceiving.
Young Joseph
As with many zoners, try to approach Young Joseph and simply don't let him run away. You should be able to poke your way out of clacker spam by doing a quick dash 2B. Watch out for his overdrive as it will easily interrupt your attempts at approaching him.
