Stand Off
While stand off, you will want to be playing aggressively for the most part. You want to fish for moments when you can get out C Shooting Star out safely and pressure them in order to make the opponent stay on the defensive. Here is some stuff before we get to the meat of the bones of his gameplan in Stand Off, C Shooting Star.
- Polnareff's j.B is a great jumpin as it has good priority and it's hitbox stays until you touch the ground. His 2C/d.2C are great for poking/outpoking and getting in your opponent's zone without you having to commit due to it's fast startup.
- If you don't want to go Stand On but stay at a distance, you can use C Ray Dart, catches people holding 7 and it's air UB. It still can be risky but it's alright.
- You can do s + 4B to immediately turn stand on for a great anti air, same with s + 5C.
- Stand Off 214AA is a good tool to control space and punish laggy moves from fullscreen. You'll be using mostly the AB variant, never use up close.
- Pol has good movement and backdash, make sure to utilise it as movement is really important in HFTF. With this you can bait moves and punish them accordingly
Shooting Star
C Shooting Star is what makes Pol so dangerous in the first place. The move hones into the opponent's stand and SS hits overhead. He can control when to release it by holding the button so he can catch rolls or wait for the opponent to make a mistake. If you learn how to use it, then this gives Pol crazy pressure and amazing mixup potential. The mixups can be blocked but they are very hard to do so. Oh yeah, you can confirm into BnB with this as well.
You can roll as soon as you send Chariot out by letting go of C as Chariot is travelling to the wall, roll, then hold C again. With this, you have the ability to dodge supers and tandems. Also useful to counter zoning, while still sending out it. But don't get overreliant on this as you still can be grabbed and you still can't block while it's out there.
The Mix
The basic formula for mixing your opponent up with SS is this:
- Send out C Shooting Star and keep C held
- Keep your opponent grounded (Using 2A right after sending out or j.B are good ways of doing this but the 2A option can get punished by tandem so be careful)
- Use his lows and a well timed C release to make sure that your opponent has to guess which comes next (low or high). Here's some examples on what you can do:
d.3B 2A (Release SS) d.3C 2C
d.3B (Release SS) d.3C 2C
2A 2A (Release SS) d.3C 2C
(Release SS) d.3C 2C
These are only some examples but usually, the opponent will have to guess which one will go first during your pressure, the low or the SS. And still, if they know what you are going to do, it's still very hard to block. Just don't use the same one over and over again, it's called a mixup for a reason.
You still have to be careful with SS because you can't block, making you susceptible to various punishes.
- The longer you held the button, when it connects, it does more hits. Try to time the followup correctly.
- This formula is the same even after combos, which is why you should opt in for reset a SS mixup. You should almost never go for knockdown as Pol, he has some niche okizeme which is detailed in the miscellaneous section but it's not too useful.
However, the formula isn't that cut and dry. You have lots of movement options while SS is out and you can wait for them to do something or be aggressive and just go straight in. Pol has a lot of options when it comes to this.
Here are some basic things you should think about after you send out SS before you make them eat your mixup:
- If you are going against someone more on the defensive side, you could go for a dash then hyper hop j.B. In an ideal world, this would lock them down in the air and allow you to continue with something when they hit the ground. After that, you are able to open them up with 2A or SS.
- You can also d.3B straight after sending out Shooting Star if they try to play more defensively. This will keep them in place and allow you to 2a or 2b and Shooting Star to mixup since d.3B (Stand Out Variant) is + on block. However, if you keep doing this, they can just preemptively super, and since you can't block, you are screwed. They can also use an empty tandem and get a big punish on you, which can lead to death in this game.
- If they are really aggressive, you could try to roll after you send out SS. Usually, you will roll past an opponent and punish with your tandem confirm. You still can be grabbed (obviously) and if your opponent isn't absolutely on the offense, you can get punished since you can't block. This can also be used to dodge incoming projectiles, supers and laggy moves that aren't whiff cancellable.
- Backdashing is a really good tool to test the waters with your opponent and can be used to whiff punish. Pol's backdash goes quite far back so they might not be able to catch it. Backdashing and jumping in is also a good option to mix up your opponent.
- If the opponent rolls, you can catch them with 2A at the end of their roll and it'll work most of the time. However, they can reversal with moves like Alessi and Avdol's 236AA so be wary. You can also catch their roll with just SS if you want that overhead or you conditioned them to block low.
- If you see the opponent starting some move, you can always just release Shooting Star to get some free damage in.
- To counter neutral jumping, you can just 5A since all grounded moves are air unblockable. You can also utilise some other options such as cross under where you dash right below them.
- To counter chicken blocking (air blocking to avoid the low high mixup), you can 5A like previously mentioned or you can clip their feet with a 2A afterwards and get the confirm off that. The latter won't normally work for stand ON Vanilla Ice as an example due to the floaty nature of his Stand ON. But, this still will work on regular Ice.
- Using j.A as a mixup can be done to add an extra layer to your mixup game. Most players will expect a low when playing with Polnareff so they won't the high high mostly, it will fuck with their muscle memory. Make sure to short hop with it and not a normal jump or else you wont be able to confirm properly into tandem. You will just go over their head.
Stand On
This isn't going to be a full on thesis about the intricacies of using funny neutral winner move. Because, your gameplan while stand on is quite simple. You'll be using your fantastic stand on moves such as s.4B and s.5C to turtle or poke them to death. If you go all out with stand on mode, you'll be winning one hit at a time. Some Polnareffs who play like this are Kakky and Cy002.
Kakky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsJOAkP0vWw
Cy002: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg6gWlqKFQA
If you don't want to go all out with the turtle, you can actually pressure with stand on. His d.s.5C, d.s.5A and his air buttons are good ways to approach while also creating some large hitboxes in front of you. You can poke into tandem confirms with his jumpins which are all very, very good.
You have extremelyyyyyyy good antiairs while in stand ON in the form of s.4B, s.5C and dash back d.s.5C respectively. These have huge hitboxes, allowing for easy antiairs. Use them.
Stand ON Polnareff has decent tech-chasing, with moves such as s.j.C (due to how high it hits similar to Jotaro's s.j.C), and s.4B (move with a long ass hitbox and quick startup). Make sure to utilise it, under looked by a lot of players. Definitely not as good as say, Jotaro's or Ice's but it is still pretty useful.
In addition, once you turn Stand On, you have the ability to double jump, allowing for some tricky movement while in the air to catch your opponent off guard. If you want to use a tick throw, you can use d.s.5A to set up one and it's pretty effective too.
DO NOT PLAY JUMPOL EXCLUSIVELY. Jumpol is when you repeatedly jump up, using your stand on air buttons and when you land one of them, you confirm into your stand ON tandem confirm. It's effective against worse characters like Alessi since he has no antiairs but it is not to be relied on. It can be easily countered if they know what you are doing. It isn't good lol
Remote Mode
This is mostly situational but usually you are going to use 236S to fish for a stand crash and extend your combos with it. This is a good way to get some damage midscreen or if you are in the corner, confirm into tandem while in remote mode.
However, there is one situation in which you could use remote mode to your advantage. If you end your combo in the corner with 236S, you can basically trap the opponent with Chariot. If the opponent tries to jump, you can hit him with an anti air. If the opponent tries to roll, you can react with a grab. If the opponent somehow sneaks around chariot and goes to hit you, well guess what buddy, you can tandem and punish them for even trying to touch you.
You can confirm into tandem from pretty far away using remote mode (almost past midscreen!) and doing something like s.5C 214S. However, it's pretty situational.
You can also use it to mess up an opponent who doesn't have or doesn't realise they have horizontal range. All his dashing normals in remote are quite powerful can easily leads into super.
One little thing is that you can do a tick throw in remote mode with d.5B. In remote, it gets this sliding property which sets up an opportunity for a grab perfectly. Don't completely rely on this though.
Important Stuff to Note
If you have meter and you want to wakeup reversal, use wakeup tandem. Lots of i-frames, many options afterwards. But as with everything, don't do it too much.
On the note of meter, Pol has insane meterbuild which is especially useful for these reasons:
- You will almost never be limited when doing a combo.
- He can whiff punish a lot of things with 214AB, even at fullscreen! But don't rely on it and use it more as a last hit thing.
- You don't need to worry about wasting meter on anything, so you can wakeup tandem or neutral tandem. Tandem has a lot of i-frames. Don't rely on this however.
If you dash with a low right after sending out SS (like d.3B), you can actually get punished with a good tandem so be extremely careful because in this game, a single tandem can be death.
