Avdol
Avdol has a fast wakeup speed and a really good reversal super that 95% of Avdol players will always use if they have meter, so oki isn’t that good. However, Iggy also has a fast wakeup and Avdol has to go for worse combos when in stand off. This leads to a matchup that you spend mostly in neutral. This might sound really bad, but Iggy actually can keep up with his neutral fairly well. He’s able to use 5c against a lot of Avdol’s pokes, he can stuff out aerials with sandballs, he can walk under projectiles and other pokes when in stand off, and he’s able to punish remote mode pretty well with his charge moves. Sandballs and iad’s aren’t as effective in this mu, since Avdol has very strong anti airs. Despite the animation, Avdol’s sensor will still hit you stand off. However, it’s very easy to react to the startup and punish with a charge move at any range. This is a fairly slow matchup, but don’t lose your patience.
Alessi
The main thing you want to do in this matchup is zone him and counterpoke. All of Alessi’s stand on buttons have hurtboxes that come out before the hitboxes, so anything with any amount of disjoint works. Moves like s.2b, 5c, and sometimes even 2c work well for this. Alessi doesn’t have many great anti airs, so sandball camping him is fairly effective. His only real answer is 214AA and sometimes j.c. While 214aa is good, it does cost meter and only hits close to him, and j.c is liable to get punished by sandballs. If the Alessi has a quick draw, you'll want to make sure not to press too many buttons, lest you eat 13 bullets to the face. Iggy’s child mode is pretty bad, so you will eat a lot of damage if he does it. And always keep in mind that it’s extremely easy for him to punish your stand on bnb.
Black Polnareff
This is a matchup where zoning is strong, except with a twist. Black pol has his 214AA super, which has a ton of i frames and is air unblockable. What this means is that if you mindlessly float, that move will plow through your sandballs and you will lose a third of your lifebar. The best solution to this is to make sure you don't get predictable and mix in more safe pokes as well. Also, despite the animation, that super will still hit stand off Iggy unless he does 2b. If he doesn't have meter, then this matchup shouldn't be too hard. The only other thing that's concerning is his damage and good air to airs. Other than that, his neutral is pretty bad, so you should be fine poking him out. His pressure also isn't great, so you should usually be fine just pushblocking and maybe 5c if he does a stand move. He is very hard to oki, so be careful on that.
Chaka
This matchup is one where you will probably spend a lot of time in the air. Chaka has good air buttons and is also ridiculously fast in the air, but you also have sandballs to stuff him out. You should be more careful throwing out aerials, though, as Chaka has one of the best air to airs in the game in his j.c. However, this move doesn’t hit below him, letting you 2b if he gets too comfortable with it. If you get too comfortable in the air, Chaka has his 236s which can anti air you fairly well. My best advice would be to sandball between his 236s range and hyperhop range. Any closer, and you can react with up charges. Chaka also has fairly decent dashing moves, but these will lose to a well spaced 5c. Chaka has an excellent whiff punish tool in s.236aa, so this strategy isn’t foolproof. However, Chaka also relies on meter for combos and has bad meter gain, so this isn’t as big of a problem as Jotaro’s star breaker. One thing that helps a lot is that the second hit of his rekka will whiff on stand off Iggy, messing up a lot of his combos and blockstrings. Don’t get overwhelmed by his speed and play patiently around his options.
Devo
The Devo matchup for other characters is often made difficult by his very low crouching hurtboxes that make some combos/neutral options impossible. While this does affect Iggy, it is to a lesser degree. Your main Stand ON BNB will link as long as you start it with s.2a/s.3a. Your main tandem-confirm button, d.s.6b, will require you to be very close if you want to link into it from other normals like s.j.c. Be wary however that normal abc reps in tandem will not hit Devo in his crouching state. Instead you may want to go for 2b(n) or perhaps 2a5bc(n) if you relish a challenge.
Neutral-wise there are some things you should look out for. Be careful where you're hovering, as if you you end up falling from your hover between Devo and his doll, you're liable to get anti-aired or schmixed into oblivion. Devo has a comparatively strong answer for sandball camping in his s.j.c, and can himself camp out your camping by turning off his stand and waiting for you to eventually land, to then punish. What kind of punish he can get depends heavily on doll placement, though.
Okizeme-wise there isn't much of note. You get pretty much everything this time, command grab, meaties, unblockables, you name it. Make sure you time your meaties correctly though, as devo has his 214aa, a powerful reversal super with tons of i-frames that can lead into a full bnb combo.
Because of Capcom Magic™, in Devo's 236b/c specials, the doll will not stop to attack even after running into Iggy from behind in his stand ON state. This makes Devo's traditional bnbs impossible, forcing him to use extra normals to compensate. Oftentimes this leads to Devo having to do more 2a's, which is a normal that triggers IPS. Devo is already a character quite susceptible to IPS, which makes this even m̶o̶r̶e̶ B̶S̶ f̶o̶r̶ D̶e̶v̶o̶ greater game design.
DIO
This is one of the scarier matchups that you will go up against. First, remember to be EXTREMELY careful when jumping against him as he has way too many moves that can hit you out of the air. You’ll also need to be more careful with using 5c(far) as he can run in with d.5c and kill you. To punish that, you have to be walking back from him before he even does it. Dio also has a teleport, so make sure to react and grab him out of it. Even if he teleports to a different spot, your 5c can sometimes just hit him anyway. Knives are definitely one of the hardest parts about this matchup, though. They can punish almost everything you do (including stand off charge), make it infinitely harder to tech chase him, and can even hit you at superjump sandball height. There aren’t many ways to get around it besides getting him to waste all his meter on it. You should try to turn stand on to negate chip damage if he does it. Guard cancelling can sometimes beat the pressure that comes after, but he has enough time to start blocking after. When he’s going on the offense, guard cancelling is usually the best approach. Dio has a lot of strong anti pushblock normals, so try to use it more sparingly. At least he has a slow wakeup, so if you grab him, you can do whatever you want. Just remember to play carefully in this matchup, and you can make it work.
Hol Horse
Ideally, you will want to camp Hol out, since active stands can negate his chip. It takes a long time for him to drain your stand gauge, so you can pretty easily force him to approach. Try not to stand within glass range, since he can set up unblockable there. Also, if he does a fullscreen 236AA after a glass, remember to jump back. Camping him is very strong. However, this isn't always going to be possible. When approaching him, charge moves are a much stronger option than usual. If you can react to the glass, you can almost always punish with this. Even if it gets blocked, Hol can't get much damage on you anyway. But if he starts throwing out bullets, this won't work. You'll usually want to approach in stand off, and try to roll or teleport through the bullets. If he starts doing glass, you can usually 5c or charge. If he gets too comfortable throwing out C bullets, you can also turn stand on and iad him for a full combo. His B bullets will hit your iad, however. This can create a guessing game of either airdashing over the C bullets or walking under the B bullets. If you end up blocking, be sure to pushblock the hangman special to reduce the advantage he has. Your ultimate goal is to work him to the corner. Your best option is to stand at a distance and 5c, then get him to commit to an option you can punish. While tech chasing, be sure to hit him as early as possible so he doesn't have time to use air glass. And when talking about slow bullet, it's fairly easy for iggy to deal with. He has a small hurtbox and tons of mobility options, so you should probably be fine. You can always 5c him if you manage to get close enough. This can be a slow matchup, but don't get impatient.
Hol & Boingo
Similar to Hol in a lot of ways, but also different. First, he doesn’t have his hangman special anymore, which is a major buff for you. Without it, it’s harder for him to run away with plus frames like Hol usually can. Many of his normals are worse (besides 2b), so he’s overall much less threatening. However, Hoingo does have some things to make up for it. His s bullet is significantly better, as it’s fairly fast and can catch you at odd angles. This is a strong option, but it’s also harder for him to use. He has to specifically angle it if you decide to walk under or jump high over, which creates a similar guessing game as Hol’s bullets did. Dealing with them really just depends on adapting to the opponent. His supers are another point of interest. His truck super is one of his stronger tools, but it’s less effective against Iggy. First, Iggy is an evasive character that spends a lot of time in the air, so it’s generally harder for him to get an opportunity to use it. And even if you do get hit, the truck does less damage to Iggy for whatever reason. So that move isn’t something you need to worry too hard about. His pipe super is another interesting move, but also not that threatening. First, the activation has a fairly large hitbox that lasts a while and stand crashes into a hard knockdown. This might sound bad, but it also does extremely low damage and he doesn’t get good oki off of it, so it’s no big deal. If you’re standing if front of him when he does it, just 5c or tandem. The bullets themselves can come out of one of three locations, and are unblockable. Thankfully, the pattern in the pipes always tells you where they will come out, so you can look and react accordingly. If you don’t know, just try floating, as even if they hit you, you can tech away and take almost no damage. This is a slightly different matchup, but ultimately an easier one.
Iggy
Probably the most annoying matchup Iggy has. Iggy is very strong at countering his own options. For example, 5c(far) beats almost every button Iggy has, but you don’t want to use it too much as it whiffs if he jumps or IADs. Then again, you usually don’t want to float against Iggy, as hitting him with sandballs is obnoxiously difficult, and he has plenty of anti airs for when you come down. If you do IAD on stand off Iggy right next to him, the s.j.c will whiff and you’ll land behind him, which is interesting. It’s hard for Iggy to punish stand on charge even on block, so that suddenly becomes a much stronger option. Iggy is one of the few characters who can’t jump out of 2b on wakeup, giving you much stronger oki. Regular tandem sequences also whiff, so you have to replace the s.5a with s.2a to make it work. In summary, this matchup is extremely weird, and you both constantly feel like you can’t do anything. So if you somehow fight another Iggy player, F3 as soon as possible.
Old Joseph
This is one of those matchups where it’s super easy to turtle. Joseph doesn’t have many good answers to it, so just sit at the top of the screen until the clock hits 0. If you do decide to go in, fish for grabs. He has the slowest wakeup in the game, so you can just go for whatever mix you want. You can also walk through him during wakeup, so you can have your 4 way mix if you want. One very important note is to avoid charge moves, as he has very strong punishes against it.
Jotaro
This is a matchup where both sides are trying really hard to get the lifelead. Both characters have trouble approaching each other, so keep that in mind. If you try to sandball camp here, you should almost always superjump since he has a lot of good anti airs. His s.5a whiffs against you, which helps you a lot. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t get combos, though. He’s still able to get good damage on you, especially if he gets a standcrash. Poking him out from afar can be really good in this mu. There is one big problem though, that being his Star Breaker super. This super can plow through your pokes and catch your Iads if you aren’t careful. If he hits you during your Iad, he can get even more damage on you. It’s not all bad, though. If he does it while you’re poking, you can usually tandem on reaction before it hits you. If you block it, try to pushblock as soon as possible. It should leave you in just the right spot for an s.2a. However, he can delay or cancel it to bait pushblocks, so only do this if you’re confident. The oki in this MU is very good for you. Star finger whiffs against you, and he also has a wake-up almost as slow as the Josephs. If you want to know more about this mu, there’s a whole essay written about it on the Jotaro page.
Kakyoin
Definitely your toughest matchup besides maybe petshop. If Kak ever gets the life lead, it is very very very hard for you to get it back. He already has the best zoning in the game, amplified even more by Iggy’s bad approaching options. He has great mobility, great anti airs that shut down iad, and can also convert off of air hits like no other character. And he always has nets to stop you from approaching. In general, the best way to play this is to make his approach you. It’s not easy to zone him, but it’s a lot easier than approaching him. It’s still possible to counterpoke his normals, although it’s way harder. When he approaches you, your main advantage is oki. He has a slow wakeup time, so you can usually get whatever you want on him. Also, if he doesn’t go high enough when he airdashes out of the corner, you can try going for a superjump s.j.b to at least get a little more damage. At least he’s banned, so you won’t see this matchup much.
Khan
Sandball all day. Khan literally can't do anything about this. Keep him out. Only way you're losing this one is if you're being careless, his air to airs and anti airs are very negligible at worst. Maybe you won't be hitting cool combos or keeping up the aggression, you'll maybe even win by the timer - but that's just how it is with this matchup.
Mariah
Super easy mu. A lot of Mariah’s moves either don’t have good range, are super slow, or go over stand off Iggy. Just standing at range and doing 5c is really hard for her to deal with. Her anti airs are also bad, so jumping over her is effective. If you go for grab, not only do you get good oki, it even makes her lose levels. Once you get a lifelead, you can camp her really easily. As long as you remember to break wires, she can’t really do much to you. The only thing you really have to worry about is her 5c against iad.
Midler
Similar to fighting Jotaro, you'll want to try and preserve your life lead in this match-up. Midler is a very neutral-focused character and has tools to keep you at bay if you stay in Stand On for too long. Be careful about using hover and Iads in this match-up has Midlers car super is air-unblockable and is likely to catch you if you're too careless. You get a lot of your okizeme on her because of her relatively slow wake-up, so if you manage to knock her down, go nuts.
New Kakyoin
This matchup is pretty similar to kak, with the key difference being it's harder for him to zone you out. His s.236x only goes halfscreen now and he only has his crazy dash in stand off, which you won't get zoned with. It's still definetly possible for him to zone you, but it's not unbeatable anymore. A lot of them are going to be sticking around midrange, which is where you can try and counterpoke him. Try not to let him stay too close to you, since he has his super fast overheads that go into high damage. He also does have low health, especially in stand off. Grabs even turn the stand off, and he has the same awful wakeup speed as kak, meaning you can easily take almost half his health if you can guess correctly. He still does have nets (although a worse version), great pokes, great anti airs and good mobility, so this is far from a winning matchup. Still, it's much more bearable than regular kak.
Petshop
Pray. Petshop essentially rolls you in this MU, but if the petshop isn't used to comboing Iggy you might get a chance to grab, and then get nothing out of it but a potential IOH due to petshop's hitbox. A very, very tough matchup for sure.
Polnareff
A MU heavily in favor of Polnareff. Pol has an easy time stuffing Iggy out with his godly jumping Stand On normals and j.b that lead into damaging combos and resets. Your safest way of approach is conditioning pol to anti air and then quickly walking forward in Stand Off. You absolutely CANNOT abuse hover or Iads in this match-up, pols s.4b, s.6c, and forward charge move are all very good methods of shutting down your attempts at getting close. You can however use hover in combination with sandballs to prevent getting mixed-up by pols Shooting Star special, as being in the air will most likely make the special hit you on block, in addition to your sandballs keeping pol from getting close. The latter is especially pertinent, as pol will not be able to block your attacks while Shooting Star is out and will, if hit, release the special. Thanks to his very fast wake-up speed, you will hardly get any okizeme this time around. Focus instead on abusing your small hurtbox in Stand Off in combination with turning your stand on for high-altitude sandball turtling and high-low mixups.
Shadow Dio
Not the easiest of matchups. Sdio does not lose most of his meaningful tools when fighting Iggy, whilst you have to contend with minimal okizeme setups due to his faster-than-average wakeup speed and useful reversal tools. Any kind of approach or even pro-active defence with Iohs will have to be executed with care, as sdio's dashing pokes both out-prioritize many of Iggy's moves and have the potential to lead into very consistently deadly combos or tech-chases. Because of this, you may want to play more defensively, but watch out, as sdio has surprisingly good anti-airs which lead into tech-chases that can be hard to get out of due to normals like his j.b and j.s. If you want to go for high-altitude sandball turtling you should do so at a far range, as Sdio's knives special will hit you out of the air (blocking). Depending on the distance between you and your opponent, this may lead to you getting anti-aired and then tech-chased, or simply pressured when you hit the ground.
Rubber Soul
This is a matchup where you want to try and zone him out as much as possible. Rubber has terrible mobility, so it shouldn’t be too hard. There are a couple things you need to watch out for, though. His j.a is an amazing air to air that can beat almost anything, including out air buttons. Luckily, you have sandballs, so you won’t have to worry about that too much. If you do want to challenge it, remember it doesn’t hit below him at all, meaning a low s.j.b or 2b can beat it easily. He also has some moves that are strong at anti airing you, mainly 5b and 4s. Try to challenge these moves with 5c. Another important thing to note is that whenever he does an s move, the stand stays out for a long time, giving you an opportunity to punish. For example, if he does 236a when you’re out of range, you can almost always hit him with a charge move. One important thing is that if you get too predictable with you offense, he has a very strong counter. Of course, you get a full combo if you bait it, and you can grab him out of it. He might use it to catch a mistimed meaty, but 2b can catch him doing this. Also, if you use 2b or a spaced 5c, his counter will whiff. On defense, pushblocking is your best option. If rubber tries to jump at you, vertical charge will beat it easily. As long as you keep him at a good distance, you should be fine.
Vanilla Ice
This is a matchup you have to play like any hit will kill you, because any hit will kill you. You should try to play as defensively and safe as possible, since otherwise you will get combo'd and die. There are a couple things of note. Firstly, his roll is really fast. If you try to grab him out of it, it’s recommended to turn stand on/off. Otherwise, you might mis-input a charge move and then die. Speaking of grabs, ice is almost impossible to get good oki on. At most, you may get a high or low mix-up with Iad or Ioh, or even a meaty setup if done after a fully grounded, mid-screen 236aa or fully launch scaled 2c. With the latter, it's even possible to setup your cmd grab oki, but the timing is strict. In neutral, you'll want to stay in Stand On for most of the time, as through it you're able to use the few options you have against vice's pressure. In stand off, 5c is your best friend. Vice has tons of super fast, long range normals at his disposal. These will beat pretty much anything you do besides a very well spaced 5c. He has tons of great anti airs, including extremely high hitting normals and a frame 1 anti air super that knocks down and leads into an unblockable okizeme, so mindlessly airdashing at him is not recommended. Really, your best approach option is either a well-spaced s.j.c, s.j.b, or 5c at a safe distance until he does something dumb. However, there are still some things that Iggy can do. If he mistimes his 214x oki, you can use 236aa to hit him out of it, and it will get all the hits if ice is still on the ground. If he starts airdashing at you, you can usually react with an up charge or sandball to hit him out of it. Also, his airdash stall isn’t very hard for Iggy to deal with. You can usually just do s.j.b or an up charge to hit him out of it. Ice is very floaty in the air, so if you can get a few good reads, you can rack up damage quickly through tech chasing. Finally, just please remember to be careful in this mu. Ice can sometimes have a hard time approaching you if you're turtling, so this is your main strength.
Young Joseph
This matchup is very strange and annoying. His 236x and clacker volley will whiff on you, which sounds good, but his other pokes are very hard for you to deal with. His d.5s in particular will stuff basically anything you do. Not even a far 5c can beat it. Thankfully, these pokes aren’t very rewarding. With the clackers, them whiffing is good, but not as good as it sounds. Once he throws one over you, you aren’t allowed to walk anymore. Additionally, if you get launched or grabbed, all of the clackers will hit you at once, doing massive damage. You’ll have to run or teleport to move around. Interestingly, his C crossbow will fire low to the ground specifically on Iggy. Now, this might sound like a con (and often it is), but that also means it won’t hit you jumping, meaning you can sandball camp to avoid the pressure. Sandballs are also good at dealing with j.s, which is normally very hard to challenge. His j.s will actually turn him around if you cross him up, making it very hard to use walk under 2b during tech chasing. When he gets grabbed, he has the same terrible wakeup as Oldseph, so you can do whatever you want there.
