Vampire Savior/Zabel
Introduction
Zabel Zarock (ザベル), the Zombie. Zabel has pretty much all the tools he needs to handle every situation and is almost as good of a turtler as a rushdown character. He is very interesting to play but is not as easy to learn as other characters. To be good, you need to master every option that he has, and he has quite a lot of them. To play Zabel you will generally want to get close and then trap the opponent with a poke that gives frame adv. and then applying his incredibly good high/low/cmd-throw game. Also, one should never hesitate to abuse of his air mobility and jumping attacks. Extremely strong and versatile, he is usually considered top tier, his only downfall may be his low stamina.
Primary objective: IAD j.d.HP/j.LK, short short super.
Normal Moves
1
| Standing Light Punch | ||||
| Damage | ? | |
|
|
| Hit Advantage | +3 | |||
| Guard Advantage | +2 | |||
| Renda Bonus | H:+6 G:+5 | |||
| Rapid Cancel | Yes | |||
| Special Cancel | Yes | |||
| Meter Gain | W:0 G:3 H:6 | |||
| Frame Count | 4 | 3 | 10 | |
| description | ||||
2
| Standing Light Punch | ||||
| Damage | ? | |
|
|
| Hit Advantage | +3 | |||
| Guard Advantage | +2 | |||
| Renda Bonus | H:+6 G:+5 | |||
| Rapid Cancel | Yes | |||
| Special Cancel | Yes | |||
| Meter Gain | W:0 G:3 H:6 | |||
| Frame Count | 4 | 3 | 10 | |
| Simplified | 1 + 4 | 3 | 10 | |
| description | ||||
3
| Standing Light Punch | ||||
| Damage | ? | |
|
|
| Hit Advantage | +3 | |||
| Guard Advantage | +2 | |||
| Renda Bonus | H:+6 G:+5 | |||
| Rapid Cancel | Yes | |||
| Special Cancel | Yes | |||
| Meter Gain | W:0 G:3 H:6 | |||
| Frame Count | 4 | 3 | 10 | |
| Simplified | 1 + 4 | 3 | 10 | |
| description | ||||
4
| Standing Light Punch | ||||
| Damage | ? | |
|
|
| Hit Advantage | +3 | |||
| Guard Advantage | +2 | |||
| Renda Bonus | H:+6 G:+5 | |||
| Rapid Cancel | Yes | |||
| Special Cancel | Yes | |||
| Meter Gain | W:0 G:3 H:6 | |||
| Frame Count | 4 | 3 | 10 | |
| Description description description | ||||
5
| Standing Light Punch | ||||
| Damage | ? | |
|
|
| Hit Advantage | +3 | |||
| Guard Advantage | +2 | |||
| Renda Bonus | H:+6 G:+5 | |||
| Rapid Cancel | Yes | |||
| Special Cancel | Yes | |||
| Meter Gain | W:0 G:3 H:6 | |||
| Frame Count | 4 | 3 | 10 | |
| description | ||||
Note: Every "streched" move is chain cancellable. Every dashing move is a crouched one, and keep a bit (or a lot, depend of the length of the hitting frames) of the dash's momentum. Air dashed drills keep the dash's momentum too.
LP: Standing headbutt, decent move, pretty fast, won't use it a lot except in combos and/or as an anti air against IADs. + frames on guard, special cancellable. Some chars can crouch under it (Q-Bee, Gallon).
f.LP: Zabel streches and poke. Good move for poking, better if cancelled into c.lk after either hit or guard. Can work better as an anti IAD than stand lp (highly situational) and is useful in combos. Good reach, special cancellable. Many chars can crouch under it.
MP: Hook with little reach. Pretty much only useful in combos, can be cancelled by specials. Can be linked from c.lp x 2. Q-Bee might be able to crouch under it.
f.MP: Same hook but once against, Zabel streches. Really good in mid screen poking sequences, better if cancelled into stand MK.
HP: Upward hitting move, GREAT anti air. Not much more to say about this move. Not safe. Better used when chained into stand HK, makes it less punishable.
f.HP: 3 hit streching move. Somewhat useful in chains as it creates a delay in the chain. Kinda slow, Tech hit/guard cancel all day on it.
LK: Low kick. Chances are you will only see it/use it in combos (low short, stand short, super). Not much uses except in combos. Safe on guard, special cancellable. Incredibly easy to confirm death voltage from it if used after a cr.lk (cr.lk, stand lk, take a nap, death voltage).
f.LK: Useless move. Streched low kick, not special cancellable.
MK: Stand mid kick, good poke, special cancellable.
f.MK: Same move, just streched. If you want to use a far reaching poke, use f.MP instead.
HK: Interesting move. High kick, Zabel's foot turn into a saw. Zabel's hitbox go back a bit while doing it, which makes it a good anti air.
f.HK: High kick, still a saw. Good reach, good anti air from afar. Not safe at all.
c.LP: Low jab, very good move (lots of + frames either on hit or guard). Move of choice when ground dashing. One of Zabel's fastest move. Main starter of his upclose high/low game due to it's frame advantage. Special cancellable.
c.MP: Low hook, hits mid. Can be linked from cr.lp x 2. Special cancellable.
c.HP: Zabel kinda lays down and throws his chest's bones upward. Good anti air, never use outside of this. If you miss a IAD HP/d.HP and get a dash HP, you're punishable, even on hit. When used as a anti air, it's better to chain it into stand HK.
c.LK: Good move. Low kick, hits low, starter of 95% of his ground combos. Really low frame advantage on hit and guard. Still, a good (great?) move. Special cancellable.
c.MK: Low hitting move, special cancellable, slides forward a bit. Part of his great high/low game (ie: use delayed after an opponent guards a cr.LP/LK ; mix it with IADs and voilà).
c.HK: Sliding saw, hits low, goes under a lot of projectiles. Non cancellable.
j.LP: Fast Move, no reach but has "full guard" after it's recovery (1 frame). Special cancellable.
j.d.LP: Same move, angled downward, has full guard too after it's recovery (5 frame of recovery). Special cancellable.
j.MP: Great move, best used on air to air when your opponent is above you. Happens a lot since you will IAD pretty often. Can go for the unblockable when it hits that way. Big hitbox, can be use to whiff on purpose and mix up. Special cancellable. Full guard after it's recovery.
j.d.MP: Excellent move overall. Same attack but angled downward. Hits farther than j.MP, probably his best air to ground move. Can be used as an instant overhead against some chars. Special cancellable, Full guard after it's recovery. Move of choice for chicken guarding.
j.HP: Chest bones again. Good air to air move when opponent is above, but why use this when you can use j.MP. Usually used whiffed to build meter.
j.d.HP: Chest bones part 3. Arguably his best IAD move. Not cancellable. Not much else to say. Learn to instant IAD j.d.HP, it is required to play him decently. Random note: If you do not IAD as fast as possible, IAD j.d.hp will whiff against a crouching Q-Bee ; the timing to land a IAD j.d.MP against her is more lenient, but j.d.HP has more hitstun.
j.LK: Only one use for this move: unblockable. It's a good move but it would probably never be used if it weren't for the unblockable. The move's last hitting frames is unblockable, learn setups to land that one frame only on an opponent. Special cancellable.
j.d.LK: Downward drill. Land the closest of the 3 drills. Can be used in IAD's. Best use as an IAD against Q-Bee (if you cannot land iad j.d.MP/j.d.HP) or as a setup for the unblockable. Fast, can be chained into but not from, not cancellable. The drill of choice (if you miss your IAD you won't fly for half an hour, with the others you will).
j.MK: Good move, good reach. Zabel attacks with the bone form his shin. Good move overall. Special cancellable.
j.d.MK: Downward drill, moderate distance. Wouldn't use it if I were you. See LK drill for info.
j.HK: Good move on air to air and for IADs. Really hard to chicken guard if done as an IAD AND can be used as a GC trap against grounded opponents (it's a 3hit move, but depending on the height you do it from, you can "control" the number of hits). Also used as part of a setup for unblockables against jumping cornered chicken guarding opponents (happens a lot more than you would think against Zabel).
j.d.HK: Downward drill, goes the farthest. Shitty outside IADs. See LK drill for info.
Special note about "Full Guard": What is full guard? Well it's a bug on Zabel's jumping LP's and MP's that allows him to guard EVERYTHING while airborne if guardable after the recovery of these moves. That includes guarding moves that you are not supposed to guard while airborne (ie. every single grounded normal move).
Command Normal Moves
P Throw: Mashable throw, nothing special. No knockdown. Can be used as an option selected.
K Throw: 1 hit throw, Zabel kicks opponent in the face then does a back flip. Knockdown if not tech'd. Can be used as an option select but P throw is better for that.
Air Throw: Air shoulder toss? Knockdown if not tech'd.
Pursuit: Zabel hovers and stomps you multiple times (normal 3 times, EX 6 times). As all pursuits, can be whiffed to get closer and go straight into mixups, but Zabel's kinda slow... Don't do it often.
Movement
Walk: Zabel's walk speed is about average.
Crouch: Zabel can crouch forward and backward by holding 3 or 1. Crouching has higher speed than walking.
Dash: Zabel crouches forward at higher speed. While dashing pressing any attack button will make Zabel perform the crouching version of the attack with some added momentum. This attack loses its ability to cancel and chain though. The dash can also be canceled by pressing 4. When the dash ends Zabel will stand up for some frames before he can crouch back again.
Jump: Zabel's jump distance is rather short.
Air dash: Pressing 44 or 66 in the air will make Zabel air dash. Pressing 4 or any attack button during the air dash will make Zabel fall down while performing the attack. Zabel can't airblock or chain during the air dash. If Zabel air dashes backward then his air 2K moves will also moves him backwards. The motion for an instant air dash (IAD) is 956. If done quickly enough Zabel will dash very close to the ground. Then you can cancel the IAD into another normal to make an air attack (must be blocked high) very close to the ground. This is a huge part of Zabel's pressure/mixup game, it helps him cover grounds quickly and makes blocking his attack strings incredibly difficult. Last note, IADs are obviously anti-low but can also hover above some standing moves, even when the IAD is done as low as possible (Aulbath's far stand HK comes to mind).
Specials
Death Hurricane - 214K (air): Spinning move. Fast enough, short one is pretty safe. Pretty much has no point except overlapping with Death Voltage.
- (L Version) Short range.
- (M Version) Medium range.
- (H Version) Long range.
- (ES Version) Hits more.
Skull Sting - 28K (air): Foot saw. Useless, guard cancel fodder but airborne on the 1st frame (can be kinda useful against unblockables).
- (L Version) Short range.
- (M Version) Medium range.
- (H Version) Long range.
- (ES Version) Hits more.
Hell's Gate - 426K: Teleport. Invincible from the 1st frame. Strength determines where you'll reappear, no matter which side you're on. No ES.
- (L Version) Left side.
- (M Version) Midscreen.
- (H Version) Right side.
Death Phrase - 623K (GC): Guitar guard cancel (guard cancel only move).
- (Any Version) Fast, knocks down.
- (ES Version) Adds a second untechable hit. This move is quite important for Zabel due to the opponent not being able to ground roll after the second hit, which can potentially set up his unblockable j.LK.
Ultimate Revenge - 623K (DFGC): Dark Force guard cancel. Unblockable. No ES.
Skull Punish - 624P (close): 1F Command throw.
- (M/H Version) Decent damage.
- (ES Version) Adds more hits and good damage boost.
Supers
Evil Scream - 64PP: Electric Stab. This is not a charge move, you simply tap the directions. Extremely fast, combos off anything cancelable and great reach. Whiffs against Q-Bee and Gallon when they are crouching.
Death Voltage - 624KK (air): Electric spin. Huge damage, extremely fast, combos off anything cancelable. Air version travels downwards instead of upwards. Also whiffs against a crouched Q-Bee. Super of choice against every other caracter that Evil Scream whiffs against when they are crouching(Gallon etc).
Hell Dunk - 623PP: Basketball. Auto-targets the opponent. Unblockable ground-catch (grabs standing/crouching opponents within the mouth area). Decent damage but telegraphed startup and very laggy/punishable whiff animation. Very risky, good damage but not recommended for frequent use (only if you predict a projectile and even then, IAD'ing over it on reaction would be better).
Dark Force
Final Transformation: Ultimate Undead - Same strength P + K
- (Any Version) Gold Chainsaw mode. Zabel gets a new set of attacks, while losing his special moves and throws, and his dash becomes a hop rather than his normal crawl. While in dark force mode Zabel's normals do white (recoverable) damage on block
Strategies
Combos
Matchups
Frame Data
Notable Players
T2ya *Sometimes named Tetsuya
Yamakawa (やまかわ)
Sakai (サカイ)
Ogawa (オガワ)
Komemaru (コメマル)
