Vampire Savior/Aulbath/Matchups
Matchups
Zabel (3-7):This is a hard matchup for several reasons. Zabel has an incredibly fast jump that retracts his lower hurtbox, which makes it hard to pressure him on Oki...or in general for that matter. Zabel’s that upback are more vulnerable to Fish’s 5LP to keep them in check. His Aerial options are as good as Rikuo's and he definitely has the edge in the movement department. A lot of this match is gonna come down to straight guesses. In the neutral game, it's important to realize the length of his stretchy limbs. F.MP is the most likely limb you're gonna encounter most. If you're predictive, you can hit the end of his limb with a sonic wave and follow up. If he's doing IAD pressure, stand jab will interrupt him at the right angles if you time it right. If you knock him down in the corner and bubble, Zabel can teleport out of the way and land on the other side. So if you're gonna bubble him, you have to be fast and hope that he doesn't get a reversal teleport. Thankfully, he does not roll far and you can go for meaties from sweep. Zabel can avoid sonic and poison easily by maneuvering around them in the air, even air dashing after he air blocks. This is a match Fish only wins air to air, because Zabel moves too fast and freely to try and fight him on the ground. When Zabel has a meter, be careful with your pressure, because his ES guard cancel gives a true hard knockdown, giving him a guaranteed meaty unblockable. Also, it's REALLY hard to command throw Zabel because of his crouch walk. This disables a lot of his "Proximity guard" limitations and lets him walk right out of range.
Sasquatch (4-6): One of the main enemies in this fight is Sas's damage output. His overheads are fast and if he connects with one then he'll go into a big damage combo +good oki game. In the neutral game, sas likes to throw stand mp in order to make space, discourage jump-ins, and set-up short hops. His sweep is another long range ground poke. When Sas is on the defensive, look out for ES Ice tower. Just jump over it or chicken guard it, and avoid throwing out regular gas at long range when he has meter. Try to avoid the corner because Sas will DESTROY you there (thank goodness for Aulbath’s Dark Force). Also, watch out for command throw. Hard to see it coming, but if you don't prepare yourself for it, you'll be eating a full combo from it. Sasquatch can use his DF to escape the bubble trap, but you can enforce meaties since he doesn’t roll very far. The keys to winning this fight are to exploit Sas's mediocre defensive options. His 2HP is only really good if done early at a distance, so jumping at him within that range is a great idea. Sas’s repeated hops can be interrupted by mainly by 5LP for a low commit, 5MK for a medium commit you can cancel into bubble, or 5HK for high commit and higher damage. When dashing, MP is the button of choice since it’s the only button that can consistently hit a hopping Sas; expect to get hit for a full combo otherwise.
QBee (3-7): This is an incredibly frustrating matchup because of QBee's mobility and mixup tools. Her S.mp and dash mp are so good against Fish, because they can stuff any attempts to zone her out from mid range with Sonic and Gas. QBee also likes to pester you with stand mp to keep you from jumping out. While it is crouchable, this also opens you up to her iad mixup game. The key in this matchup is to not let yourself be pushed into the corner, because QB will murder you there (noticing a trend here). Keeping her out is very difficult as her float lets her safely hover your projectiles. If you move under her, her homing airdash lets her turn around! Some things to note is that it's really hard to connect with a full poison/echo combo on her, because she is so low to the ground when she is in her stun state, use crouching normals to confirm. It's also really hard to pressure QBee with her short crouch, fast neutral wakeup, long roll distance, and air dominance. So be aware of that and take steps in your strings to prevent her from wanting to jump out (ALL bee players do this). Other than that, it's just a rapid fire guessing game that's in her favor. Aulbath can somewhat fight her air to air and that's most likely where you wanna stay. If you do find yourself in the corner, then try to dark force out. Be aware of her DF too. It's similar to Jedah's but with slower rise. Qbee is one of the hardest characters to Bubble due to her wakeup statistics mentioned earlier. Since she crouches under all your standing normals, the safest way to go throw OSes is to use 632141MP or LP+MP to option select.
Gallon (5-5): Aulbath has a lot of tools to bully Gallon in the corner. He has one of the shortest rolls in the game, making him very vulnerable to bubble loop. If you're at 3/4s to 1/2 screen, Talbain has a slight advantage due to his quick dash/good jumps/ES Beast Cannon. It's generally a bad idea to try to zone here. Aublath can also fight Gallon decently in the air, but due to Gallon’s jump height, arc, and great buttons, you will have to be on point with your button placement. Once you get them to settle down into your gameplan, Wolf isn't nearly as bad.
Aulbath: The mirror match is really frustrating for us, since Aulbath’s tools can be effective against himself. Key thing to note here is that Rikuo can escape his bubble trap by using his Dark Force. So always have a meter on tap. Pushblock -> Darkforce to deal with meaties. After air blocking a projectile, you can advance by drill kicking, but this can be stuffed if the 1st Aulbath then jumps. Many Aulbaths when faced with his dark force like to neutral jump j.HP to deter reckless Dark Force pressure and land safely. Sea Rage (wave super) can be handy for punishing whiffed gas clouds but there are better uses for meter unless you’re looking to close out a bat.
Felicia (4.5-5.5): - Felicia has a number of tools to maneuver around gas and sonic wave, and she also has some options to escape bubble traps. She can blow through these options with her super, including ES versions, so be wary of just tossing out gas/sonar. She rolls very far, but it is slow. While you may not be able to do a meaty bubble setup, you can space it so by taking a step back, she will roll into the bubble, and you can advance to try to stop her if she wakes up in place. Fish has to be very careful about spacing projectiles due to her jump arc and wall climb. If she jumps from a high angle from her wall climb it is very likely that you will either trade or lose to her in the air. Her guard cancel is decent, but not Demitri good. If you stagger strings with jab and lk enough you can bait and block her GC's. Also when attempting to bubble trap in the corner, keep her GC in mind and apply that same strategy. If you bait her into doing one, you'll most likely end up blocking her follow up hits, and force her into the bubble by sheer proximity. This does require a quick readjustment in spacing though. Also, stay out of the corner. You will be eating a lot of overheads, sweeps, OS throws, and even dark force mix-ups if you stay too long. Be careful about reckless jump-ins; Felicia’s anti-airs are strong and lead to her hop mix-ups. Teching is also important when dealing with her Cat Spike mixup, because she is a large frame advantage when using these.
Bishamon (4-6): Bishamon and Rikuo are similar characters in a lot of aspects. They both have solid Dash games and from these dash games can create a lot of frame traps to catch people pressing buttons. Bishamon's traps are especially dangerous because they lead to a full fireball combo into a dangerous Oki game. Bishamon has a good amount of normals that he can use to pin Rikuo on the ground (dash mp, hp) and several things he can do at neutral to discourage Rikuo from moving forward (Iai Giri slash, low hp, neutral jump mp). It's important to not just rush blindly at Bishamon and to pick your spots. Be careful when zoning with gas; his fireball goes right through it. Sonic will cancel his fireball normally. Bish can also escape Bubble trap by doing Dark Force or GC'ing your options; although his roll distance isn’t that long. Bish's GC is actually one of the better ones in the game, so use light attacks to bait and punish his GC. Bishamon's weakness in this fight is his fat body. You can instant overhead/command throw him easier than a lot of characters.
Demitri (6.5-3.5): Many Demitris play with the same gameplan in mind. They lame you out with fireballs and Demon Cradles to build meter/ force mistakes and then when they have meter they fish for knockdowns and try for demon setups. Demitri has a limited mixup game, but it's a big guess on your part. OS throw, Bite Super, low. But there are some common setups you can sniff out (batspin whiff, whiff pursuit, jump in mk, low lp low mp). Demitri has a very solid AA game. His Standing Jab, standing MK and DP are all very good options. The former two can't be airguarded. It's very important in the Demitri matchup to keep variable blockstun pressure, because his Guard Cancel is the best one in the game. Thank goodness 2LK is great at baiting it! Bonus points if you catch him whiffing and punish with a gas, but because of his short landing recovery, you’ll usually just take a sweep punish. If he bounces off of you during a Bat Spin, 5HP or dash HK to punish. You can dash under Demitri’s fireball; when Demitri recognizes this threat, you can then use Fish’s walk speed to take space. Demitri has a short roll distance, so outside of him going for a reversal or a guard cancel, he’s quite vulnerable to bubble loops. As long as you’re not reckless with your neutral and offense, you have a strong advantage here.
LeiLei (5.5-4.5): LeiLei vs Fish can be sloppy fight. Lei Lei has tools to zone out and keep Fish at bay with her items, but she can easily use her pendulum > airdash pressure to create weird/ hard to defend against attack angles. LeiLei's prime directive in this match is to build meter for Tenraiha and land overheads that setup into her unblockable setups or other okizeme options. LeiLei can AA Aulbath from far away with low hk, mp item and f.hp. She even has an escape option with her Dark Force to get out of Bubble setups. However, her short roll and pendulum guard cancel make her very vulnerable to the meaty variant of said setups. But where LeiLei suffers the most is her low stamina. If you do catch lei lei in a few combos, she bleeds. Also if she is in dark force and you're far away, you can sea rage her for free easy damage. When she's in DF mode, be careful attacking her if she's up close. She can't throw you in this mode, so just react to what she's doing and punish her recovery if possible. Play this match carefully and abuse LeiLei's lack of up close game to your advantage.
Bulleta (4.5-5.5): Such a slippery character! She's very hard to pin down with dash pressure, and can get around projectiles easily with her double jumps. Her ES rockets can trade and sometimes beat gas start-up, even full screen. Bubble traps are fairly effective against her if you do them after a knock down. Her only option out of a meaty cr. mk set-up is to GC it. Her GC isn't great however, and may not even give her time to punish in this case. Her roll is fairly long though, so watch the spacing on the setup. Be wary of using Dark Force when she has meter, if you go up too high on the screen you can eat a Huntsman super, and you don't want that (each hit would be unscaled in this case). Tech hit often, and watch her angles on her jumps. BB Hoods like to jump and chicken block a lot, as it's one of her only good air to air options. Try and do full jump chains if she double-jumps or starts high in the air, and unblockable st. lp if you land before her. Essentially both characters can get good ground momentum started against each other, but BB Hood is able to escape and reset spacing much easier than Fish. When BBHood is doing her dash pressure, it becomes REALLY important to try and tech hit her as well as possible, because she always has the threat of Instant overhead. Any solid BBH player can do an IOH and whiff her jmk into 2-3 more jumping overheads between landing. This is hard to see, so spacing and good use of pushblock is how Aulbath plays defense in this matchup.
Jedah (6.5-3.5):- Jedah is another slippery character to fight against. To setup his offensive game, Jedah likes to throw wheels to control space and utilize his high floaty jump arc/ quick dash to start his offense. Probably the most unique thing to fighting him is that he doesn't have a true knockdown from his normals. So it forces a lot of quick guessing games that stack up pretty quick. Because your buttons outclass him, meeting him in the air is rewarding. 5LP and 5LK can stuff dash mixup attempts. A Jedah that knows the matchup can easily maneuver around gas; be careful using the meterless versions. Also be careful about approaching him on his wakeup because a lot of Jedahs will use his Dark Force to escape pressure. But you can bait him to do that and quickly jump straight up to try to meet him. If you do find yourself in his dark force situation it's a tough one to be in because he has a 50/50 that is heavily in his favor. Even if you do block his overheads, he can land and do a Nero Fautica (claw swipe) and punishing you for standing/ go for a contract Super to catch you sleeping. Tech hit becomes your best friend here. If you can sniff the overhead and tech hit him, Jedah loses a lot of momentum. Tech hit any ES wheels that come your way and try to beat Jedah in the air and you'll have a good shot.
Lilith (6-4):- Lilith relies on a lot of Frame Trap, throw, jump in mixup. Similar to fish, but without the superior zoning option/normals. She does have a high jump that can avoid your poison/sonic, so be able to react to that. Her DP is annoying, be ready for it and bait the ones looking to abuse guard cancel. Also, if you're at full screen don't just blindly dash/ jump at her, because Lilith likes to throw air FB/ TK FB to control the space in front of her. Similar to Morrigan, she can punish bad jump ins by chicken guard> Luminous Illusion. When blocking Lilith strings, try not to press buttons to try and hit her out. Her strings are surprisingly tight and when she adds in ES fireball, it becomes really hard to time her strings.
Morrigan (6-4): Morrigan can escape bubble traps very easily if she opts to burn meter on a Valkyrie Turn (super where she exits the screen and comes back with a drill). This has invulnerability on start up, and as long as they time their drill attack correctly, they can reposition her away from the corner. She has a decent guard cancel, but smart players can preemptively DP your dash attempts and shut down your offense. Her ground fireball is terrible vs. fish, simply dash under them and punish her if she's still in recovery, or jump them. Her air FB can be somewhat annoying, especially the ES version. The main goal against her is to try and stay ahead of her in the meter game. Once she is out of meter to burn on Valkyrie Turns, it's pretty simple to bubble her, just don't forget about her GC options and quick anti-airs if you attempt a meaty/jump in set up. Oh, and if she uses missile super, do an immediate jump lk to get hit by one of the higher-angled rockets. This will cause you to get knocked down, and as long as you don't roll, you'll avoid the rest of the chip damage. Morrigan has several different angles with her dash that are kinda wonky, so it's important to recognize her setups. Something I don't think a lot of players realize is that she can punish you for jump ins by chicken guarding and doing Darkness Illusion in the air, close to the ground. So when doing Air-Chains, do a full jump-in chain to make it as hard as possible for.
Victor (6.5-3.5): Victor's 2HP is a strong anti-air because it's unblockable in the air/resets you/and has a great hitbox. So jumping from out of close distance is a big no-no. Victor's j.fp is almost impossible to beat on the ground with Fish, because the hurtbox for Victor is above his fists. When spacing Victor, use Poision Gas over Echo. It has a fatter hitbox and Victor has a harder time jumping over it. If Victor puts you in a reset situation, it's a really bad 33/33/33 mixup. Victor's options are Hi/empty jump low/ 360/720. He can also set this up from whiffing his DP after a reset. So you have to guess as much as he does, but it's in his favor. However, if you have a meter you can just Dark Force out and give him the finger. Victor is also another character that's easier to overhead/throw due to his height. He also very vulnerable to bubble loops.
Anakaris(7-3): Don’t write off Anak in this matchup, because he can avoid fish's stuff pretty well if he stays in the air and if he gets his hi/low throw game started...he can wreck you pretty easily. If Anak's in the air, watch out for Curses/ Coffin Drops. Anak is controlling space with those. Show patience in neutral and don’t be afraid to make small gains. Do your best to tech hit his normals and keep him out. If you catch Anak on the ground, abuse the fact that he lacks a meterless GC, a regular throw, and the ability to pushblock. You can keep him locked down for a fair amount of time with your advancing 5LPs, as well as other renda chain lights, forcing a high/low/throw mixup.
Note: Matchup numbers were made by averaging the opinions of several Aulbath players. You can view our individual opinions here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D17Q9zwJhDSPx9GzCkJJqdlWsKnuB7R-JXHYdgARoOI/
