Basic Strategy
Anubis Polnareff's movelist is very lacking, however, he still has a lot of tools that make regular Polnareff so good, most notably his amazing jump-in j.B and a long range poke that is 2B (regular Polnareff's 2B) in this situation. His attacks are generally quite powerful and his normals can be devastating if used correctly. His major weakness are his special attacks and supers that can be easily punished if used improperly, as well as his lack of long range attacks, forcing him to chase down all of his opponents. Black Polnareff is very powerful up close and his normal attacks are fast enough to interrupt a lot of other characters.
His j.B has some pretty strong priority making a good air to ground AND air to air option, while his j.C has the largest hitbox out of all of his jumping attacks. Both are decent in their own way, while j.A is generally your fastest option.
Outside of his loop, Anubis Pol doesn't have the long combos and high damage other characters can achieve, forcing him to play relatively defensive until you can confirm a hit into his Rekka or in some matchups, you can opt for a more offensive strategy constantly pressuring the opponent with quick jabs and air normals and looking for opportunities to confirm into combos. This will usually end in a knockdown giving Black Polnareff some minor Oki but its not very effective in most of cases. During okizeme, use either a jump-in attack or 2B as a meaty. Note that every successful combo will build a lot of your meter.
What you do need to be on the lookout for are jump-ins and whiff punishes. A.Pols 214+AA is air UNBLOCKABLE and does a very large amount of damage. This makes any mistake by your opponent a huge advantage for you.
The super also has a very long amount of invincibility, starting from once you activate the move (before the super flash) to after Silver Chariot thrusts forward. Still, it is a tool that cannot be abused as some characters can punish it point blank.
Tech Chase
While they're not too damaging by themselfs, A. Pol has tons of launchers that opens some tech chasing options; you could get huge damage from this, specially when close to the corner. Here's a list of things of what you can do depending on the other player reaction.
>If they like to downtech, do a 2c xx 623a or a raw 623a (this depends on the angle you are) a little bit before they press 2aa, this will launch them and you can continue with your tech-chasing peacefully.
>If they like to neutral, right or forward tech, you can do these things: -Wait and then 214aa them, this will cause a lot of damage and it will give you a hard knockdown. However, the usefulness of this will be depend on how close you're of the corner; remember that 214aa does NOT travel fullscreen, so you will eat a punish if it's off range.
In that case, opt for the following alternatives
-d.5c xx 623a/b; a good poke that also launches
-meaty d.2b, to keep pressuring
-d.2c xx 623a/b could work too
You could also use a raw 623a/b if they neutral tech too.
J.B is also a great help for tech chase. J.B's active frames can intercept any attempt at pressing buttons, so it forces the opponent to block in the air, leaving into unblockable situations with 5a xx 4s, or even into supers.
- How to deal with double jumps?
You can bait double-jumps by inputing an empty dash or just a 5a, the rest will depend of if using any anti-air at that moment it's safe or not. Space a 5c or just guard cancel any overhead that can come from that moment. If they press any button too sooner, 214aa them.
Using j.s
As stated before, j.s can be used as a mixup tool. As many other passive stand users, B. Pol can perform a double overhead. Condition your opponent to block when you're doing any jump in, and then surprise them with j.s. If it hits, you can convert it into a full loop! J.s is likely to whiff against crouching opponents, so you will mostly use this on active stand chars cause of their big hurtbox.
It can be also used as an okizeme tool, which is explained later.
Okizeme
[Meaty 2b/d.2c > Loop / IOH 7c / Empty Jump > Grab] Simple, easy, and reliable. 2B has a bunch of active frames so it's far easier to use as a meaty, and j.c although doesn't having as much as it, it has enough for it to being to be meatied easier. Safe on hit in most of the characters.
If d.5c is used as a combo ender after 236s; you have to use d.2c instead.
[236S, j.C/d.2C, 5A 5A CrC 5B > Loop] The way this mixup works is similar to DIO's 236x okizeme, maybe being more unsafe, but with way better reward. You should use j.C as your overhead as it has a better hitbox and damage (except in the case of Polnareff). It's mainly used in the corner but is functional midscreen, while being more unsafe and harder to convert from because of IPS. The way this works is that you want to hit your low/overhead as meaty and extend it while giving Chariot time to recover in time for you to do rekka. Pretty much a honest 50/50 option
[236x (whiff), 214x, 5B > Loop / 236x (whiff), 236b xx 236S > Loop] Rekka okizeme.... ridiculously unsafe, since you have 2 frames to time it correctly for a meaty, and some wakeups also do not allow for it to be setup correctly. Given it's difficulty to setup and the sheer unsafeness of it, you should probably avoid this option. The way this oki works is that you want to setup a meaty followup and convert into loop accordingly. Don't use.
[j.S, d.2C, 2A xx 236B.../Empty jump low/grab] Extremely memeable okizeme option, perhaps being really useful on the cases where it works. In fact you're only going to use it on Kakyoins/Josephs matchups, because some wakeup speeds simply don't allow for the oki to work, and because of the fact that j.S's janky hitbox makes it overshoot half the crouching cast. Very easy to setup and convert however, and also very safe on Josephs's case, as j.s has a lot of active frames, can link into 5b and is +9/+12 on either block and pushblock respectively.
