Fuzzy Guarding

Wonder if this is the right place to ask this. (Sorry...)

How effective is Fuzzy Guard online?

or, that is to say, I play casually, online, with little chance of playing this offline much less competitively (consistently). Is Fuzzy Guard worth learning?

In Soul Calibur V, the "Just Guard" mechanic is fairly easy to do online once you have a feel for the technique- I can pull it off even in severe lag. But, JG has at least a 6-frame effectiveness window, and this is a different game.

 

Fuzzy guarding works just fine online for most connections. If I can't fuzzy guard I'm not going to rematch someone and that rarely happens.

 

OK. I guess I'll try practicing that sometime. Thank you very much.

 

Agreed with Tricky, not being able to fuzzy online is like not being able to space people on SF. If I can't do it then I'm not playing again.

 

Here is the sideturned fuzzy plus TE.

 

i'm slightly confused. why is he breaking sidegrab with 7? and is it saying that you have to do 7 and not 4 otherwise you'll get grabbed?

 

What about Crouching Fuzzy Guard? I was thinking about this today and I figure it's like 1st Fuzzy Guard but reverse, no?

Is there a way to block the mid/low mix-up, I'm sure there was in previous VF's so they should still be in there.

 

I think that sort of pure fuzzy was in vf3 but i actually don't know the details.

However techniques like ECDG skew subsets of the mid/low guessing game, while creating new mind games as long as the opponent supplies the appropriate answers to keep them mind games

Skewing and redirecting mind games is what I love about VF

 

apologies for the necromancy, but didn't seem thread worthy: do you actually need to fuzzy after a blocked 2p? or can you just hold g and get the same effect since you're already crouching? i've never been 100% clear on your recovery state after a 2p.

 

If your purpose is to avoid high throw and block a mid attack, then I recommend doing CD fuzzy because it times well. At least that's how it feels to me.

However, if you low punch, it gets blocked, and you simply let the stick go to neutral... I believe the usual result is that if your opponent did a throw ASAP, it will whiff, but if they were late by a frame or two, then it'll get you.

By the same token, you can get low-thrown after your low punch is blocked if you do not dash or attack or low throw escape (or do anything that stands you).

 

thanks! i've had that low throw after 2p happen against fatbear's goh, that's always fun to deal with. does an evade stand you up in time to get out of that? i'll have to test that out.

 

Yes, doing an evade will stand you up. ECD and EDG (Evade-Dash-Guard) is one of the many good options there ^_^

Funny thing is when you abare a high throw against their low throw

 

What about Delayed/Crouching Fuzzy from blocked 2P?

 

I'm not the expert, but here's my take at least:

* Yes, you can manually choose when to let the stick go to neutral to extend your crouch if that's what you want to do. When we suspect a throw, this is a VERY VALID option--just hold down if you sense the throw. If you get fast, hit the opponent when you identify the throw whiff.

* I still like how CD-G times here though. Probably just a preference thing.

* That said, there is something to be said about finding the balance in yourself and the proper placement of when to commit to an option and when to react! Honestly, this is a huge point and VF makes me challenge my own notions of this ALL THE TIME. This is probably the best lesson I learned at Sega Cup and it's key to that East Coast Hyper Fast Playstyle. Those guys are reacting properly, but they know their options fast enough to commit early and not waste the frame advantages. This is more common in East Coast VF than West Coast VF imo. This lesson became clearer to me when playing Denkai and he pointed out that I always wait to throw after interrupting someone, instead of committing early to it--this definitely made a world of difference in my nitaku game. It's simple, but it's so important and sometimes we don't realize that's the missing link in a person's game. BTW, I'm not saying the West Coast doesn't have it, it's just less common among the players I've seen. Some of the West Coast players that have this sharpness and ASAP Commitment of Options in serious play are Goat Cheese Blues, AyuFanb0y, PD (when he's playing a lot), Renzo, Dennis0201, Dre Fei, LA Akira.

* In the above rave, when to commit is implying committing to a correct option ASAP. When to react is not meaning react fast, but playing to react to what the opponent is doing, in this context I mean you're playing a more reactive game and not committing to anything. The balance is hard and it varies from opponent to opponent, but usually fast commitment and good reflex wins. Speed matters in VF the higher level you fight. Ask Panda about his little session with Itazan ^_^

* The options I personally prefer if I go moral defense is to just use CD-G or ECD-X. ECD-X applies against a delayed throw and a mid attack (see GT's article on Defense for an excellent explanation).

* I do have a manual-fuzzy bad habit and Renzo figured it out when we fought in Cobra-Tron's hotel room at Sega Cup. He realized that there's a timing/habit I have from Vanilla where I just manually do a crouch guard for a split second then return to neutral and Guard when nothing is happening and in very specific situations. I still have this habit... Renzo had a blast timing his 3Ps to hit me with this timing consistently "seemingly out of nowhere" and it can also be used to target guaranteed lows and guard breaks against me. HABITS ARE BAD, DUDE! lol -- The funny thing is one way I try to break this is to just introduce another option (but this one can be just as bad actually). Sometimes I get myself to do K(G) when I get all twitchy for this habit. It's working so far, but the point is to just use it enough to taper me off the 2G5G habit... I gotta go cold turkey at some point.

Random Note: List of (some) Chanchai Bad Habits which will kill him at Northwest Majors!
1) Will try to win by low attack at the end of a round (this is getting better).
2) When life is low, is too afraid of low attack and will sometimes abare (with 8K) needlessly as a result. Getting better but still a horrible vice.
3) The Manual fuzzy above.
4) Either I'm throw escaping like a champ and actually getting a feel or I'm only throw escaping one direction the whole round or game It's like an on/off switch I cannot yet control!
*) So right here I'm basically saying: "Bring it On!"

 

I was going to go into a convoluted explanation of my gut feeling for why I would rather just CD-Fuzzy instead of holding down for the extra frame or two. But instead I'll do this:

Fuzzy (timed by buffer) >> Fuzzy (approximated by feel or timing) >= GTE >> Just Guarding

However, in this situation of crouching -5: Low Throw > All the Above.
(Evade-Option Selects were isolated out but are equal to fuzzy in general)

But Low Throw is killed by dashing (preferably into option select like GTE), evading (preferably as option select ECD/EDG/ETEx), attacking, reversing/input parrying (really need to consider your situation on this), throwing (not recommended here), or low throw escape (I'm not sure the reasons to do LTE when the low throw is not guaranteed).

That said, I don't worry about Low Throw against Fuzzy (which I think is a strong option) until the opponent does it. I haven't run into enough opponents that low throw people that fuzzy, but I honestly think more people should do it at certain levels of play. Fuzzies are usually easily read and you should make the opponent earn your respect by showing you that they will adjust to you low throwing them out of a predictable fuzzy guard attempt.

(btw, I went convoluted on low throws but I think it's important in the fuzzy guard discussion!)