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Notes on neutral/defense vs zato
Neutral:
- Zato's zoning is quite weak against I-No due to HCL punishing summon/unsummon and drill. Due to this you want to stay at a reasonable distance against him most of the time, around HCL tip range.
- To punish HCL Zato has to commit to options like run up 6P/2S, or late flight jH. Keep those in mind and don't mindlessly press HCL.
- If he gets oppose up at a distance there's not much to worry about as you can HCL as he uses shade to send it out, scoring you a free hit.
- If oppose is used at midrange it's a bit trickier as Zato can actually punish you for trying to HCL. I'd lean more towards options like double/superjump sdive to get to Zato's other side where Eddie is effectively not a threat.
- Sdiving over his head is generally nice if he manages to get eddie out in midrange unless he uses frog
- Zato's normals other than 2S are kinda meh on their own and I-No can generally contest them with hers pretty easily.
Defense:
- It's possible to react to 5D/2D mix if you look out for normals like 5K/2K/cS that they're typically cancelled from. It's not possible raw and looking too hard for the 5D might get you thrown but it should get you past the first layer of zato mix.
- Eddieless 6H stuff is a total gimmick, you can just 6P after blocking 6H and it should be fine.
- Respect stuff into drill.
- Zato is not plus enough after fang to do a real meaty and you can gold burst his fS/5H pretty easily if you have the resources to do so. It's pretty easy to bait tho.