Zato-1 vs Any Character

Alright then last one fr fr #GGST_ZA pic.twitter.com/JPkGsXvwcG— Sly | WATER-1 (@SoakedRat) December 7, 2022

Zato MU chart + Season 2 Tier List (mostly ordered). Was done on stream with some help from @Nagato1992. #GGST_ZA #GGST pic.twitter.com/gRInGvXbCy— WPG | WATER-1 (@SoakedRat) October 30, 2022

Zato MU chart + Season 2 Tier List (mostly ordered). Was done on stream with some help from @Nagato1992. #GGST_ZA #GGST pic.twitter.com/gRInGvXbCy— WPG | WATER-1 (@SoakedRat) October 30, 2022

Fuck it, ordered. #GGST_ZA pic.twitter.com/aPFTgYVv01— WATER-1 (@SoakedRat) April 2, 2022

my thoughts on a #GGST_ZA matchup chart. the number system feels arbitrary. pic.twitter.com/eJbe9IROt0— Osmosis (@OsmosisFGC) December 20, 2021

We're back with a breakdown of how I feel about Zato's matchups in Guilty Gear Strive! Make sure to check me out on Twitch at: https://www.twitch.tv/thebeautifuldude Twitter: https://twitter.com/BeautifuldudeGG

Here is my Zato matchup chart that I talked through on my stream tonight. Make sure to check out the VOD if you want full explanations and tech on each matchup #GGST_ZA https://t.co/o6KjVrvSWD pic.twitter.com/DFDVtXEfbO— MWM| Macho (@FGCMacho) August 18, 2021

You can fly over Ram's beam and you can stall Sol's grab with instant down back flight for a 2D knockdown punish into oki. We all know the Ram and Sol army are out there. Just don't let them get away with scrubby bullshit. #GGST #GGST_ZA pic.twitter.com/mMmTGamQ7M— Mark Kirollos (@Mark_FGC) June 19, 2021

#GGST_ZA画面端投げ多い重ねジャンプからのリバサ対応集後半ラム、ジオ、アンジ、イノhttps://t.co/GIVe7fuVva pic.twitter.com/mLbPiThzxs— ヘッポコ (@Heppoko_gamer) June 23, 2021

#GGST_ZAダウン追い打ち多いすると、その後の崩しのコンボを変えないと駄目という一例。安くなりがち逆に近S張り合う投げが完全バー対になるという利点もhttps://t.co/GIVe7fuVva pic.twitter.com/3Rupd5RUgM— ヘッポコ (@Heppoko_gamer) July 4, 2021

Illyasviel — Today at 10:58 AM How would you guys rank Zato's matchups so far? Me, from the characters I got to play, from hardest to easiest: Axl, Chipp, Faust, Leo, Ino, Giovanna, May, Ramlethal, Sol, Ky, Millia, Nagoriyuki, Potemkin, Anji. What do you guys think? LARA — Today at 10:58 AM Could you explain a bit on how you've ranked them , would really appreciate it(edited) Illyasviel — Today at 10:59 AM Sure, I'm not sure about where to start with my reasoning. LARA — Today at 10:59 AM Hmm how about general game plan and how easy/hard it is to utilize on these characters. Illyasviel — Today at 11:00 AM For Axl: Maybe it's a matter of me not dealing properly enough with his tools, and not punishing him well enough. But his ability to keep you away, kill eddie, punish jump-ins safely, use his command grab when you stay full screen away from him, and all gave me a lot of troubles when playing against him. LARA — Today at 11:00 AM I see that makes hella sense Illyasviel — Today at 11:01 AM So, the interactions where I could get juicy combos on him were few, and I had to rely on safer, less damaging options, and was forced to follow his pace. Using BTL wasn't that efficient for moving around or countering his options because of how little recovery he has on a few of his he can use to freely inhibit BTL usage Bonzer — Today at 11:02 AM (Break The Law)=BTL [11:02 AM] If anyone that didn’t know was reading this(edited) Illyasviel — Today at 11:04 AM For Chipp: His speed overwhelms me in neutral game, stopping me from setting up eddie as freely as I can in most other matchups. He's really hard to catch, you can't anti-air him by accident with the frog because of how easily he can stay high on the screen with his jumps, he also has great pressure once you're cornered, can punish whiffs and eddie setup attempts with his downward alpha blade from high up; and his buttons have good priority over mine, he's good at whiff punishing my 2S in neutral. And got good damage. Crazy mixups when he goes to town on you, and can open up your defense pretty well. And random alpha blade users, and wake up reversals really beat many of the pressure attempts I went for. His reversal is strong and very useful. The thing making him not my N°1 is because of how much he explodes when you do catch him, because of how little life he has. @AzaeL here's a good block string to practice https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1053671892?t=00h56m45s Sky — Today at 11:05 AM thanks a bunch, will keep at it Illyasviel — Today at 11:07 AM For Faust: very long range and strong options in neutral to keep you away, prevent you from normal jump > dash, anti-air and deal great damage while keeping a very simple gameplan on his end. Can deal with you poking him with eddie with good positioning if your timing gets read/predictable which happens easily. strong and fast low-hitting move that interrupts a lot of your pressure, he's able to punish openings in zato's pressure easily, in ways that other characters struggle more. And the randomness doesn't help. You not being able to win the range game in neutral against him, unlike most other characters in the game who can't deal with 2S and eddie too easily, makes it pretty rough and uneasy to play. He doesn't get as much damage usually as the other two I feel? And is more easily punished on whiffs especially if you get used to blocking well his overhead scalpel bullshit especially(which he can cancel).(edited) Illyasviel — Today at 11:16 AM Imma be short to explain my reasoning for the bottom ones quickly: Anji: eddie is disconnected from you, and you have a lot of fast moves so you can block if he super-armor your offense. I believe you can reflect butterfly if he ever uses it in neutral, easily because slow startup. Anji is slow and can't move around too easily, if he jumps too much, eddie's frog move -s- catches him easily, and puts him in your corner pressure game where he's in big trouble like most characters. The only thing is that zato doesn't have a reversal so he can't deal with Anji's pressure as efficiently as other characters once Anji is in. But you can make it so that anji never gets in in the first place more easily than most I feel. Potemkin: punish megafist with pppp, and the matchup is basically about potemkin trying to kill your eddie from fullscreen while you grab a cup of coffee and chill while eddie fights alone, I feel. Potemkin has to take risks to close in, and if he does most eddie options cover multiple I feel especially the -HS-. Nagoriyuki: You can really wait him out and camp him, he cannot approach or do much without increasing his blood gauge, and you can BTL his clone easily so he just wastes blood gauge gains. So you give him enough rope to hang himself, and poke him down slowly with eddie. The burden of approach, decisions, and thinking is on him most of the time, and once in blood mode, you just sit from full screen and block for 5 seconds.(edited) Bonzer — Today at 11:24 AM Have you watched Fame96 nago? I don’t think it’s that simple as waiting him out [11:25 AM] He can increase his own blood gauge and then approach and still manage to not enter rage Illyasviel — Today at 11:30 AM Am watching Peppery Splash(zato) VS FAME96, maybe I understimate nago because of the ones I played. Indeed when played well, he has insane pressure in corner on top of his general high damage and his good buttons. I feel like maybe some BTL or BTL+RC into grab shenanigans might force his blood gauge to increase when pressuring you in corner using Fame96's playstyle but I'm not sure. Overall when Zato managed to keep his distance or capitalize on eddie -HS-, it felt one sided to watch even against Fame96. Bonzer — Today at 11:31 AM Fair enough I can’t lie. Feels like zato has a lot of answers for characters [11:32 AM] fact that he’s hard to learn and rarely seen but casuals and just from my view top tier play BoBoketto — Today at 11:32 AM What do you all think will happen to this character once people know about the huge gaps between Eddie's strings? Illyasviel — Today at 11:32 AM I think zato will feel way less strong once people will get used to punishing eddie's -p- because that thing is very punishable when done predictably, and gives zato so much for free when you block both eddie -p- attacks Bonzer — Today at 11:33 AM Well it can be canceled into drunkard [11:33 AM] Can’t it? Illyasviel — Today at 11:33 AM Lol had the same thing in mind BoBoketto Overall I think Zato is pretty well designed, feels fun to play and feels strong Yeah it can be cancelled into -HS-, into many things Bonzer — Today at 11:33 AM Can can’t the blocks strings not have any gaps at all [11:33 AM] ? Illyasviel — Today at 11:33 AM You still have options and can make it less predictable. But zato having to try other things than just -p-'s 2nd hit reduces his strength imo Bonzer — Today at 11:33 AM Or maybe I’m bugging Illyasviel — Today at 11:33 AM Yeah you can make them gap-less [11:34 AM] But not forcing zato to make it gap-less makes him so overwhelming I feel, for so much less eddie gauge, and no unsummon(edited) [11:35 AM] Tho the matchups will become deeper and much more fun for both players once that's an option everyone is ready for, -p-'s 2nd hit without cancels BoBoketto — Today at 11:36 AM Yeah he's super fun, but at later floors (9-10) people know about his BS, I see some shit that just makes me stare at the screen, Chipp outranging my 2S, Sol jab literally kept killing eddie whenever he came out, and when people decide to stand and wait I have no idea what to do, also he has really shit AAs, this is what I found lacking in the character, atleast for me Illyasviel — Today at 11:38 AM I'm about the same floors right now, indeed the more zato gets punished for trying to play braindead and auto-pilot, the less strong he feels. He still has many options for most things, and many strong tools to use especially if you can get inside your opponent's head. And for the Chipp matchup I'm starting to feel like good use of eddie -HS- becomes more and more vital, and later on as we all improve, keeping eddie alive as well. [11:39 AM] If people wait, that's the "you're free to wait and use eddie too" signal, which is the best thing a more campy-playing zato like me wants to hear. Even if it's just about building RISC gauge and letting them hang themselves with little mistakes against your pokes, it works. Your goal is to keep eddie alive as much as possible and poke people out of patience, and their goal is to kill eddie and rush you down when you're alone. [11:40 AM] Coming from Xrd Rev2, I feel like his AAs are soooo much better. Just eddie's frog replacing nobiru feels sooooo good(edited) BoBoketto — Today at 11:41 AM From the looks of it tho, to stay strong as Zato on later floors, he's gonna need some real precise hits to stay In the match I think I'm gonna drop the character, not because he's "too hard", he's super fun, but I don't have the time to lab everything he does when other characters just press S or something(edited) Illyasviel — Today at 11:41 AM And 6P actually hits people and doesn't lose to 90% of the game's moves this time, this is great [11:42 AM] Oh also: Zato is gonna feel stronger again when we spend time labbing tough and precise 2D follow-up mixups. Because Zato is looking to have some very insane ones and hard to deal with when done well. [11:42 AM] high/lows, left-right from the air, left-right from the ground, grabs and grabs, even eddie unsummon and return to neutral. [11:44 AM] But yeah Zato is that kind of character: very bad at complete beginner level, very strong at intermediate levels(lol eddie go brrr autopilot), and at high levels requires a lot of dedication and work to make him work again, a mix of execution(for oki/pressure mostly), strong neutral(timing, spare use of pokes but enough to keep them at bay) and reads. BoBoketto — Today at 11:45 AM Yeah, I played him t