JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future/Devo/Matchups

Overview

Movelist

Combos

Strategy

Matchups

Misc

Avdol

Avdol's normals have too much priority. You won't have many opportunities to attack with your doll. Play patiently, and only punish what you are comfortable with.

If Avdol goes into remote mode, he most likely has the upper hand in neutral. Pushblock/guard cancel to get Magician's Red off of you. Keep in mind that 214+AA as the other specials will chase who is closest to the puppet;any special or some moves like IAD will cut Avdol's remote mode.

Don't be scared of his jump-ins, anti air accordingly with 5c or S.5b.

Do not do any other oki besides 236+C crossup. Avdol can easily reversal you with his 236+AA.

Alessi

The main thing to watch for in this matchup is his Stand ON normals, his crossup, and his gun.

Abuse his lack of anti-airs, but don't get too predictable. J.c is your friend.

The hurtbox of Alessi's stand on normals appears before his hitbox so you can stuff any move except s63214x who has no hurtbox.

If the Stand ON baby glitch happens, turn off your stand or tandem posthaste, or may the gods have mercy on your soul, use F3 if you are player 1 too.

Black Polnareff

One of you will be playing defensive once life lead is established as the next move could end the round.

Black Polnareff has limited ways of getting in when you have the lifelead

Through d.2b/2c, a jumping attack like j.b/j.c or even cancel into j.s for a small air momentum. But overall pushblock into remote will keep him out, as for his jump ins you either win air to air with j.b/j.c or trade. Anti air him with Ebony Devil and sometimes 5c, you can use 2c against his j.b since it won't hit you even if he cancels into j.s.

If you get hit by one his normals it could be the end, as he has a loop for short crouch characters, don't neither get caught by 214x overhead reset after the first 236x so be ready to block or if you know your opponent will do it you can tandem to punish. After finishing his loop on a knockdown with 623b you'll be forced to block a 50/50 that uses 236s and goes into either a low(662c) or a high (j.c) which if you don't guess right..the round will be over on the second loop. The good thing is, it only works on the corner, so if you end up getting hit and there's no wall behind just crouch block as Bpol's j.c doesn't go into anything.

If you don't hold the lifelead...

Things will get complicated, Bpol has two 1 frame startup normals but you'll be seeing most of the time 2a that confirms into 236x loop whether it hits Devo or Ebony. Be careful when throwing S.j.6b as he can easily punish it and convert into a combo. Don't try to beat it either as it will either trade or you'll get hit. 5c is another strong button with a huge horizontal rage that will hit Devo and Ebony, but it leaves him open when whiffed.

Remember he can cancel most of his normals into 214aa which is his strongest reversal, it's air unblockable so if he catches you doing careless jump ins you might lose your just gained lifelead, Devo can crouch it but sadly not the puppet, from close range if you block the reversal do 2c, if the puppet is close you can punish from anywhere with a combo. Black Polnareff's 236aa will cover 214aa when you don't hit meaty Black Polnareff so you're better just using crossup oki.

Last but not less important, his counter..oh boy. This is his other option when whiffing a normal or a read as he can cancel any of his normals into the counter. if he gets to learn some of your best moves(2c,5c, j.c, s5a/s66a s.j.6b) it will trouble you a lot more to open him as he can now cancel the blockstun and hit you back with any normal(A second guard cancel if you will..), so you might want to mix your approach with grabs or wait for it to end if you see it coming.

If by any chance you hit his counter and the hitbox doesn't touch you(unlikely to happen), he is the only anubis user who has no hurtbox through all of the animation so you can't punish it at all, although you can hit him with 236c once it ends as meaty.

Chaka

Chaka is incredibly quick and has very good moves. If your opponent knows how to block, you're fighting an uphill battle.

Watch for the quick hyper hop. He can catch you if you have the doll out.

Devo can low-profile Chaka's s.5B. He won't be able to do a full BnB if you are crouching.

Devo

This is a matchup that will push you both to your limits. Devo isn't particularly good at turtling, but great at offense, which makes this a very lively fight, and because of his flexible gameplan, you will have to constantly adapt to your surroundings to win. There are a lot of things you have to pay attention to, but the single most important one is the meter of BOTH you and your opponent. Having meter makes a lot of things safe and opens up tons of options. Meter lead is even more important than life lead, to some extent.

What to lab

While chaotic, this is a very technical matchup, and having any kind of edge over your opponent will not hurt.

D.s.2b xx s.22c

If your opponent is a semi-advanced devo, he'll probably be conditioned to block the doll high, so try to punish him for it with d.s.2b xx s.22c (xx 214s if you're confident).

The wakeup time

While crossup oki is a guaranteed meaty, holding 6/3 will always block it, so try to mix up spear oki with it. However, it's highly plausible that, if your opponent has meter, he will try to reversal with 214aa, so getting consistent at meatying devo can be very useful. If he doesn't have meter, you don't have to be as careful.

2a 2a (5) 2c

This niche, tight link gives you the option to squeeze in a bit more damage and get a precious HKD if the doll is far away, allowing you to reposition and maybe even set up oki.

The grab punish

If the opponent is between you and the doll, they will most likely grab you, especially if they don't have meter. While devo's grab is pretty good in other matchups, in this one it's quite easy to punish if devo is landing on the doll. Tech into s+2b xx s.22c can get you some much needed meter and even get you a tandem, if you're skilled enough.

5c antiair punish

Tech down+j.b into combo. If you get good at it, you won't understand how capcom let that slip.

Other advanced stuff is also recommended, such as the d.s.5a loop, which can get you a tandem from almost anywhere and fancy no ips loops for damage.

If someone challenges you to a devo mirror, be player 1 if possible. This makes the s.22c xx 214s link 2f instead of 1f and enables you to use 5c as a tandem confirm, which are both good advantages, with the drawback being supers having 1 less iframe, which isn't as important.

In a match

Positions

For almost all of the following situations, particularly if devo is s.on, 214aa will get you out of most of the trouble if you get it to hit. If it gets blocked, it'll most likely get gc'd for a small trade, advantageous for the GCer, unless the attacker is much lower on health. Staying pinned is not recommended, as devo can reposition both himself and the doll that way.

Ideally, you want to keep the doll near the opponent, while staying clear of the opponent's doll. This allows you to apply high pressure, and if the opponent is also close to you, he's in grave danger, particularly if he has no meter. But we don't live in a perfect world and other things can happen.

The other way around.

GET OUT. SOMEHOW. This is a bad place to be in, s.off you don't have any moves that can cut remote, other than the grab, which is usually punishable in this position. Jumping out is a good option, but you can get anti-aired and tech chased by the doll.

The doll duel

In a neutral position, where you're both close to your dolls, but far away from each other (like the start of round 1), you'll probably try to get the doll into a better position and fish for a combo, which usually involves going s.on, resulting in a doll duel. The first one to bypass the other one's doll will cut the opponent's stand and probably get a full combo, so don't let it happen. S.5a can stuff out some of the doll's best approach tools, as well as start a combo and the doll can be antiaired if it tries jumping over you. If you antiair with s.2c, it will also send devo flying, so you’ll lose your target for some time that way. Keep in mind that you'll most likely be unable to stand crash the doll, as it takes only half the stand damage if it gets hit, but double, if it blocks, so it's easier to get a stand crush.

If the situation gets heated for you, go s.off, try to pushblock the doll and counter it s.off. You can try to get 214aa to hit, which will either pin the doll and get you over to devo or hit devo for a good chunk of health, depending on which is closer. The doll can still move for a bit after devo gets hit, which can allow him to activate tandem, thus getting out on its iframes, and getting hit yourself will cancel your doll's 214aa, so get it into hitstun or stay away from it. 5c will most likely whiff j.s.6b’s hurtbox and get outprioritized by j.s.b, unless you're right under the doll.

If you get past the opponent's doll, try to cut remote, as devo will be unable to block while his doll is launched because of the cut. Using raw tandem or s.236aa is also an option, but one can be countered by another tandem and the other one is very fast and sets up oki, but deals mediocre damage compared to other options and costs meter.

Dolls on each other, close to you, opponent far away.

Be patient. You can go s.on and start mashing s.5a, as this will get you some meter and stuff out the doll's attempts at anything that isn't metered, while being quick enough to react to metered options. This is one of devo’s best ways to turtle. Of course, trying to rushdown with the doll is a death sentence.

Dolls on each other, close to the opponent.

Go s.on. A doll duel would be very advantageous. You have the distance advantage and can 50/50 for meter or tandem, while keeping yourself relatively safe. If the dolls are behind the opponent, you can start fishing for combos.

Dolls far away, devos both close.

You'll most likely trade some 5cs and 2as, maybe a tick grab. 2a 2a (5) 2c is quite useful in this situation. Generally, you want to reposition. If you take to the skies, j.b is your best air-to-air and anti air 5c can always be punished if it's predicted.

Everything in one place

It won’t last long. Either one of you will run away, or someone will get a combo. 214aa shines here the brightest, if you catch your opponent attacking with the doll. Rolls will happen, you can try to grab.

Players far away from each other, with the wrong dolls close to each other

Two things can happen, with the first one being much more common. You can either dash forward and try to get close to the opponent and the doll at the same time, the other devo doing the same will result in you engaging each other s.off or you can try going s.on. In that case, keep in mind that the risk-reward is on the side of the more patient player. If you’re the first one to activate the doll and get the hit, the best you can pull out is a tandem, which is hard to get if the opponent gets hit low, and if the doll gets pushblocked, an IAD will definitely end in a tandem and 214aa will bite off a huge chunk of your health.

Cutting remote

When remote is cut, the opponent’s doll will get launched into the air, causing devo to be unable to block

The following moves will cut remote in 1 hit:

j.s.b - the doll will get launched very low, which reduces the time when devo can’t block

j.s.6b - gives reset opportunities, as the doll gets launched quite high, you can experiment with it

(d)s.2c - if devo techs down, it’s possible to catch him landing while he still can’t block

s.22c - it will face the doll, so get closer to your enemy than usual

(s)236a/b/c - for punishing dumb stand activations with low risk or having the doll too far for other oprions

Combos

Once you get a confirm, it’s showtime. Standing devo gets combo’d quite easily, but if he’s crouching, you’ll need some tricks. If you started the combo from 5c, it’s recommended to go for 236c 5c as a followup, with a 2a into tandem afterwards or the 236c loop, if you’re good enough. if you instead hitconfirm the doll, you’ll want to bring it as close to your target as possible in case you drop, so use the d.s.5a s.5a loop. The further the action from you, the better.

If you hit the opponent’s doll and cancel into a special, but your doll will target devo, you’d better have used 236a/b/c, if not, the doll will recover and won’t get remote cut, which means you’ll get hit, as your doll won’t recover in time from the attack.

If you finish the combo with s.22c, which is unsafe, the opponent will probably try to punish it. Using tandem is usually suboptimal, as it has some startup, but can catch them mashing. If they don’t, it’s good to try to s.on grab, which will catch them blocking and rolling. If you throw the opponent to devo, crouch to shrink your hurtbox, turn s.off and block high.

If they’re between you and the doll, you shouldn’t panic tandem, unless you’re low on health. the best they can do is grab you, which is, of course, punishable. Other options still apply.

DIO

Stand on Knives are an easy way to deal huge damage over any mistake especially on remote...
The air version of knives it's almost unpunishable...
66C just beats any normal...
Teleport can get him out of sandwich situations or put him straight into your face...
236S hurts and it will kick you out of remote and if he did install with 214x he may as well cancel into rekka...
Meaty s.2a will catch any attempt to wake up reversal...

Don't lose the hope yet, Dio is barely a better character

Notable Dio Normals

Stand off

2A/D.2A

Quick jab that converts into his bnb , he can frametrap with delays on pressure, cancel into 214x to keep the pressure or 236S if he's too far

Your crouch normals low profiles its extended hurtbox so he'll always hit you first, but Ebony's jab beat them.

66C

As i said, a strong normal that easily beat yours but you'll never see it by itself as its recovery is bad, it will be cancelled into 236s for high damage and safety

or 214x for pressure.

Even so there's nothing stopping you from doing s+5a to whiff punish or send Dio away with pushblock.

5A/5B/2B

Dio has a plethora of anti airs so think twice before doing a jump in

5A is the fastest but it's mostly there to stop you from doing empty low.

5B is not an anti air you'll see often but you have to take into account it.

2B is his greatest anti air, it will beat any of your jump ins even if you are above him.

All of them can be cancelled into 236s for extra damage and to keep you away.

j.A

Dio mixes j.A with empty jump 2A but either way it goes into his bnb.

Anti air-ing is tricky with Devo, it will trade with 5c or Devo gets hit so it's better to respect it and pushblock.

Stand on

s.5A

The meter building jab, decent poke and it links into s.662A for tandem confirm.

You can low profile it just by crouching and also make him change his tandem reps for a weaker alternative.

s.5B

One of Dio's best pokes to stop your approach.

It has two hitboxes:The first you can low profile but the second one will blow you up.

You can still punish the recovery with IAD, but beware that it can cancel into anything.

s.2A/s.662A

The meaty that stops the robbery attempt, it also has a fast startup plus good hitbox to stop both Devo and Ebony.

Dashing version is a great way for him to get in and it's his main tandem confirm.

Just be careful and pushblock.

s.j.A/s.j.B

The other way to safely get meter, since you can't really do any big damage against airborne characters.

You'll see Dio upbacking and waiting for knifes once he gets lifelead.

Just anti air him, or even air to air as j.b beats both normals.

Specials

236S

Great follow up from stray hits, anti air and pressure.

It's also very fast and...for some weird reason on its recovery, it has two frames with no hurtboxes.

Can be cancelled into tandem or 214x with install(using the first rekka of 214x).

Safe as hell so pushblock > s+5a may not work.

You can still punish its recovery but you have to predict it.

214x/s.214x

Stand off is a combo tool and it extends his pressure.

Can combo from any normal that doesn't knock down.

Easily guard cancelled and punishable with a normal on block/hit if Dio doesn't follow it up.

Stand on is a two part rekka that either wallbounces or gives a delayed hard knockdown if the combo counter is 3 or up.

The second hit can't cancel into anything so you can safely punish or reversal it.

236x/s.236x

Stand off is used on oki after s.2c for a 50/50 mixup between 2A or j.A

Also works as a combo tool to get tons of meter.

Sucks ass anywhere else, just 236aa since Dio will be jumping and pestering you with normals

to try and cover the shit he just did.

Stand on however is used to keep you out or as a frametrap with s.214x.

You probably won't see it often as you can easily punish it.

Stingy Ripper Space Eyes/6CBA6

Nice name, nice tech chase tool.

Unblockable but stand on Devo will low profile it.

If Devo or Ebony are close you can easily punish it.

The World/623x

A teleport which sends him to 3 specific locations depending on the button.

As stated at the beginning, it can get him on your face or out of between you and Ebony.

You can't really hit him, but you can throw him.

If you know he's gonna teleport on your face, stand off and grab.

If he teleports away and the puppet is not that far, you can also grab him with Ebony or mix him with IAD.

Bloody Summoning/BA6AC

Lol, no.

It starts up before superflash so if he does it on your face you may just get hit if you weren't holding 4.

Lots of iframes and active frames but...you can punish it anyways, horrible super.

Road Roller/214AA

Block/roll and punish.

Knives

Grounded 236AA/s.236AA

-The stand off version is one of the worst supers on the game, huge startup with huge recovery, just punish it with tandem.

-Stand on however is one of the best: Fast startup with iframes and if it hits you remote it will kill you.

-If you block it airborne, you'll get hit by s.5c/s.66c.

-For you to punish s.236AA after the superflash with tandem, Ebony has to be really close as its recovery is pretty fast.

-Despite all of these traits, if Ebony is in front of Devo, you can remote crouch block the knives as Devo will not get touch making Dio waste meter.

Airborne

s.j.236AA

-The most reliable way for him to use his knives as like i said before: It's barely punishable with some pitiful stuff and it still deals a ton of damage.

-You can't neither catch his landing with tandem reps(s.2b/s.2a) and while you can hit him with 236AA, the timing is a bit tricky and the damage is poor.

-Depending on the angle between airborne Dio and grounded Devo it may miss most of its damage or not.

-Plus, you can tandem on reaction with enough distance between you and him to dodge it.

-Since it doesn't cut remote mode, you can deactivate it to reduce damage(as long as the puppet does not get hit).

-You can see it coming most of the time and turn off Ebony to dodge with roll.

Overall a strong tool but it leaves him quickly without meter letting you use Ebony more often.

After reading that you may have been thinking:
-He's great at neutral and keeping you out with anti airs
-CAN and WILL turtle given the chance and heavily punish mistakes with knives
-The pokes are superior and can easily beat your normals
So... ¿What makes this matchup not so bad?

Offensive

Okay...he got normals...but how does he open you up?

-No actual mixup outside of empty jump low, jump in or 50/50 with 236x.

-Terrible moves like s.623x that just will get him killed if he actually missinputs it.

-Trash pressure that you can reversal punish and against 2a 214x pressure you just have to pushblock Dio's normals.

-Loses tons of damage and can't air muda loop just by crouching

Guard Cancel

Garbage.

Multi hit moves(2c s.2b) or Ebony's quick jabs(s.5a>s.5a) will just interrupt it as its first hitbox starts really high

punishable ON HIT by tech into tandem

Grab

This mf can't grab you since you can punish by down teching into puppet special > 2b, if he's s.off or tandem, if the doll's close enough to dio.

A more consistent, universal (both s.on and off), but harder punish is tech > special cancel > 5c, smacking the world's hand, but you have to fit within 23 frames (assuming a perfect tech)

a special cancel, 10 frames of doll activation animation recovery and 5c with 5 frames of startup for its 2nd hitbox.

Or if he grabs you in the corner, forget everything and just punish with puppet move > 5c for huge damage, abuse the ROLL

Hol Horse

-Chase Hol Horse, he can't get away or else he'll start using 236x and force you to take huge risks approaching as Devo.
-D.2c is great but you have to be careful with Hanged man(214x) so you may ocasionally hyper hop.
-Grab that bastard, he may try to roll once you're in his face so try to bait him into doing so.
-Don't let him just use j.623x over and over, you have many anti airs:

s.6a, s.5b, s.4b, s.2c, 5b, 5c or

you could just dash outside of the glass.

-Control the screen;he has trouble zooning you out after Ebony gets in the other corner, forcing him to fight you directly.
-Make sure to mix your approach with Ebony since he can always do pushblock > 236AC/BC for big damage over unsafe moves.
-Devo is going to get hit by 214AA if Ebony is too far away blocking.

Hol can't loop slow bullet as:

-Your wake up is too fast for 2c to go into slow bullet

-Crouching on wake up makes 5c whiff

-d.2c leaves him far away from you

That doesn't mean it's fine to get hit by hanged while standing into 5c>slow bullet.

Hol & Boingo

Hoingo is not as threatening as Hol horse but you still need to be careful with S bullet.

He still can punish unsafe moves with 236AC/BC but he has no 214AA nor slow bullet for big damage.

Just because he doesn't have hanged doesn't mean he can't cover ground with S bullet, definitively not as fast as Hol Horse tho.

Don't let him just use j.623x, on this case he can use command grab if glass gets blocked after landing.

His new 421AA causes stand crash and the pipe bullets are unblockable, you just have to hit him once to stop it all.

Overall the same as the Hol horse matchup but better for you.

Iggy

Iggy's oki game still applies in this matchup, don't get knocked down. His hitbox is very small, meaning your combos are much more likely to drop on him or for him to get pushed out from between you and the doll.

His wakeup is fast and he can reversal with 236aa. Use the crossup oki on him.

You can punish his S.on charge in almost any situation, e.g with S.5a into a combo. It will not turn your stand off if it hits devo, you can capitalize on that.

If he tries to fly and spam sandballs, knock him out of the air with S.j.c or S.2c if he's low enough.

Fortunately, Iggy is unable to hit you meaty after a grab, you can always reversal his oki if it started from it, but it's tight.

When he's s.on, some jank can happen when you attack him from behind. First of all, 236x will not hit him until the doll finishes its run (as if it didn't run into anything). You also can't grab him from behind and tandems take a bit before the doll starts attacking. Sometimes even 214aa refuses to hit him for some reason. Stand crash him whenever you hit him in order to avoid these situations.

In conclusion, it's an annoying matchup, what did you expect?

If you still crave for knowledge, here's a devo main's rant on this matchup: https://discord.com/channels/400670301291151361/564316695314038805/864671251372572672

Joseph

His hermit grab can't grab the doll, but its range is long enough to catch you on small stages most of the time if you don't block it with the puppet.

Harass him with the puppet, but be mindful of his 236aa. Respect him more if he has meter.

You can low profile his 236a/b/c in both s.on and off.

Jotaro

Always run away from him, don't ever try to pressure with the doll. If you want to go stand on for whatever reason, you have to make sure that Jotaro can't touch you. If he's anywhere closer than fullscreen, s.on is a bad idea, especially if he knows what he's doing. He has tons of ways to bypass the doll and go for you. Keep the doll close to the middle of the screen and fish for confirms while he's on the move.

Playing patiently will usually get the job done. Jotaros tend to mercilessly rush you down, as it is usually their only option given Jotaro's short effective range.

If he's in your face, crouch and keep pushblocking. 214aa is an option, but you might mess it up and have him break your defense, which means you're dead. Get out of there, GC or 2a, don't get grabbed rolling.

His low stand gauge means you don't have to do any special stuff to SC him, doing so will probably lead to you taking the round, granted you still have meter.

You can low profile his s.5A, but not his s.5B.

Jotaro can also do ~s.214+A > s.214+C to cover massive ground and even if that fails, he can still cancel it into star finger. Don't get caught. He can still oki you, even if you block low.

Kakyoin

Nets are the killer of this matchup. Break them with s.5A or s.5B.

Kakyoin can easily IAD and get to Devo quickly if you have the doll out. Do not get caught.

The only upside you have is your crouching hurtbox. Kakyoin cannot do a tandem against crouching Devo.

Kakyoin has a large Stand meter. Account for this when doing your Stand Crash combo.

Make use of that option select because these newer generation Kakyoins like to do IAD into grab.

Khan

You're winning this matchup. Gain the life lead and turtle.

Don't get shmixed by j.C and 2A. Your j.C beats Khan's j.C if you angle it properly.

Remember that Khan's j.S can be used as a movement tool. Don't get caught with the doll out because he can quickly move towards Devo. Knock him out of the air with j.c.

If he lands 214aa on you while stand on, you can still attack him before the second hit to avoid big damage and have him waste meter or even tandem if the doll's too far and have him fall between you and the doll for big damage and oki.

Mariah

Mariah isn't scary until she gets levels and sets up her stuff. Pressure her with the puppet, but don't get hit with her counterattacks.

The cables will home in on devo, not the doll, while also having the potential to turn your stand off. Cut them ASAP.

Don't let her set up anything, grab her whenever she gains a level. If she ever dares to do a special when you're in front of her, end the round.

214aa isn't as useful here as a reversal, if she's close to you and attacking, there is most likely a cable on you, you have to take the chip. Baiting her to attack you while s.on is risky, but possible. You shouldn't find yourself in a situation where you have to take risks if you don't make mistakes.

Don't get caught in outlet shenanigans. Block accordingly. Don't GC if there's a cable on you.

Midler

This matchup is very annoying. Midler loves to dance around you. You have to control the match.

Cars will catch you if you have your doll out. Once the doll blocks the cars, Devo is guaranteed to take damage unless Ebony is really close. She also happens to like reversal 214aa on wake up , use 236c crossup oki if she has meter.

You might catch her crossup j.B with 5C, but I wouldn't count on it. Use s5b/s2c instead.

Midler's 5B can meaty and can combo into 623+A/B/C. Don't get caught mashing on wakeup.

Watch out for her grabs; she has insane grab reach. Use option select to escape the shmix.

New Kakyoin

This matchup is an overcomplicated game of cat and mouse.

Nkak's movement makes him really hard to pin down, however, managing to land a single hitconfirm usually means death for nkak with his low hp and slow wakeup time.

Don't IAD when he's on the move, it will almost always miss. Stay close to the puppet, as 5c will bring him down, breaking his flow, meaning you'll get a confirm or a mixup, depending on whether he reacts. If he's pressuring you, 214aa can be used, but it will be hard to have him take the hit, meaning you have wasted meter. Just gc or pushblock and roll out of there. Your dash is fast enough to get away from him.

If he decides to turtle and sit on nets, break them with the puppet and go for a mixup.

If he starts getting too comfy with wavedashing over the puppet, do s+5b, it has amazing priority, a lot of active frames and it's pretty fast. If you're lucky and REALLY ambitious you can link it with s.5a d.s.5a into full bnb, but don't count on it. You'll most likely hit him in the air.

Nkak's s.236aa will hit devo if he's stand on and the doll doesn't block close enough to devo (about 1/3rd of the screen). This deals very low damage, unless nkak is low on health and gives you a bit of time to reposition. Some nkaks refuse to do this because of these reasons, but still, do watch out for it.

Don't try to bait him into hitting you while you're stand on and surprise him with a puppet attack, his d.s5b turns your stand off immediately.

Petshop

If your opponent can block, the match is over for you.

Your 2A and 2C get high-profiled by Pet Shop. You will have to substitute with 5C and 5B respectively.

Anti-Pet Shop tech is dashing through Pet Shop while he's knocked down. He will get crossed up.

If Pet Shop flies into the air, use j.s.C to hit him. He cannot block while flying.

Block like you've never blocked before.

Polnareff

NOT A FOUR PLAYER MATCHUP, you'll get spanked regardless if you use Ebony or not.

Shooting Star is a nightmare you'll fight from round start

Don't bother trying IAD against Pol, since he can jump or roll while you or Ebony get hit by SS.
Same goes for any special or super(214aa as an example), Ebony will get hit by SS.

Either get away from Pol and respect SS or do a risky jump in.

Ray Dart whiffs while you're crouching so you can 2c to punish.

Polnareff's normals are superior to yours in the ground, in any way.
His crouching normals beats any of your crouching ones so don't try d.2a/d.2c while Chariot is stalking on the other corner.
You can beat any of those with 5c but... you shouldn't bother attempting that.

Airborne you can easily air-to-air him with j.b
His main stand off jump in when you are with Ebony is j.c as it cuts remote and possibly gets him a combo.

Stand on is a different beast:
s.j.a or the knee is a godly normal, you don't have any real answers if he jumps at Devo with that as any anti air does not hit him(except a well timed s.2c.)
s.j.b works as jump in and kinda as an air-to-air although its hitbox is a bit deceiving..you can still anti air it tho.
s.j.c cuts remote and works as a tandem confirm like any of the above.

Learn how to block SS mixup:
Low High Low: d.2x > Release Shooting star > d.2x
High Low: Release Shooting star > d.2x
Low Low High Low(You didn't pushblock the first low): d.2x > d.2x > Release Shooting star > d.2x

Beware of reset on the corner with delay between 2x while SS is out , or you'll get tandem confirmed again.

Shadow Dio

This one can become hell in a handbasket real fast if you're not careful. Shadow DIO can shmix you day and night if you don't play patiently. Pushblock his pressure and only punish what you can confidently punish.

If you keep throwing the doll at him, especially using 236c or 214aa, it's very easy for him to punish it with 236aa, it iframes through the attack and hits even when the doll attacks him from behind.

Make use of option select here so you don't get caught by his tick grabs and his multiversal oki.

Don't have the doll out for too long or else you'll take a lot of Stand damage from Shadow DIO - a free Stand Crash.

Use IAD sparingly as he can easily punish it, so better mix up your approach with other normals.

Be patient at close range; his wacky hurtboxes make anti airing him a high risk , crouch and get away from Sdio.

Don't get too predictable either, if you're going to use reversal 214aa 5c, think twice before pressing 5c as he could just use 412x and punish you.

Rubber Soul

You must play patiently or else you are going to lose this matchup. Rubber will capitalize on every opportunity to shmix and/or vortex you. Do not underestimate his buttons.

His counter won't work if you attack from the opposite side he's facing.

You cannot do spear oki in this matchup. Use the crossup oki instead.

Stay unpredictable. If you get countered by his 214+S, you're taking massive damage.

Do not jump in. You will die.

Vanilla Ice

Compared to Polnareff, this matchup is more simple.

One touch and you're dead:
If he has meter he'll hitconfirm into his powerful tandem, ending in a 2c.
If not, he'll just go straight into 2c

In any case, it's game over as he has UB oki with 214x and d.2a after the 2c if you aren't dead post-tandem
Compared to Hol horse UB oki, this works on anyone so your crouching hurtbox or wake up speed won't help

So this is a loop, if he touches you and doesn't kill you in one tandem, you'll get knocked down by 2c into UB oki to end this.

If he's not turtling with his powerful normals(s.2b > s.2c, s.2b being cancellable into super/tandem, s.6c for anti air)
and also getting meter while spamming s.2b > s.2c
He'll be fishing for a tandem confirm with d.2a or IAD s.j.66c...Don't get hit by raw 6b/6c either.
Vice will use his roll most of the time so try to be patient and either grab him or jump rather than try and meaty with a normal.
s.236x is really dangerous if it touches Ebony or Devo, and after landing he's probably using s.623AA to punish your attempt to catch his landing.
Don't bother using 5c against the ball since downtech into die is a possibility, 5b should do the trick.

You still can apply crossup oki on him but not spear oki as his wake up speed is really fast.
A well timed IAD may beat his s.2b > s.2c but pray to god it actually does.
Your 2a doesn't beat his, 2c will but gets beaten by his 2c.

Young Joseph

Another game of cat and mouse, this time way easier.

Yojo's mobility is pretty good and his pokes can stuff out the doll's approach. Anti air him if he gets too comfortable in air.

Keep the doll halfway between you and yojo if you're far away from each other, so that you can punish him if he tries to throw clackers and reversal if he commits to an approach too much.

Knocking him down gives you a lot of time to reposition the puppet and setup your pressure. 663c is your friend, since the amount of his moves you low profile is just sad.