Vampire Savior/Lilith/Matchups
Matchups
With the exception of Aulbath, your primary goal is to try and get your opponent in the corner where you can confirm into LI chains for massive damage.
Anakaris - Despite being the weakest character, this matchup is not as free as one may think. It can actually get surprisingly difficult if you play it honestly. His pressure can get scary if he gets started, and he’ll out neutral you all day if you jump or dash in blindly. Many of his neutral tools are highly punishable, however, and you can crouch under a lot of his kit. The key here is to pressure him as his inability to tech and useless GC make him easy to bully. Your goal is to get him in the corner where his tools become dramatically less useful, and he becomes highly susceptible to your pressure. More so than other characters, Anakaris really struggles to escape the corner, and his corner teleport can be heavily punished with LI if he does it at the wrong time. Lilith can also cheese him in the corner by using crouching lp into dashing close lp, and repeating until the timer drains. Assuming you can maintain execution, Anakaris can’t escape out of it and loses if he lacks the life lead.
Aulbath - One of Lilith’s hardest matchups. She lacks a way of reliably getting out of his bubble loop, so you die if you get knocked down in the corner. This makes it very dangerous to play in the corner as you’re always one mistake away from losing. As such this is a neutral heavy matchup, where you want to avoid getting cornered at all costs. Because of this Lilith struggles immensely, losing out her biggest win con in corner LI chains. Thankfully she is capable of fighting him in the neutral. As with pretty much every other character, you can struggle with getting outpoked thanks to your stubby limbs, so you have to be smart about your rushdown game. You want to play aggressively, not blindly. Avoid letting him get in poison gas or sonic waves, these are huge momentum shifts in his favor, and he only needs one error to win. Soul Flash beats out his sonic waves, including the ES version, and if you time it correctly you can punish gas with your super jump. You can use mk to beat out his dash, and while his dash does go under Soul Flash, he will get hit by it if he dashes in too close. Raw bubbles are pretty slow so you can punish these if he tries to use them too close to you. If the fish player misspaces his corner bubble you can try to escape by neutral jumping into an LI and going over it. If you’re set on trying to pressure him in the corner, stay around the range of your mp to avoid getting thrown and looped. BE CAREFUL ROLLING TOWARDS FISH. This can net him an easy bubble loop.
Bishamon - Another hard matchup. Bishamon’s gameplan is the same as yours, but he’s better at it. His normals will easily outpoke yours, and his damage is as good as yours. His command grab gives him better mixups than you, and his jump ins are strong. He is also very good at stopping your jump ins. His fireball can lead to an infinite, but thankfully you crouch under it and your fireball beats his. The grounded version is also punishable on whiff and can net you an LI confirm if you're close enough. Soul Flash in general is a very good tool at stopping his pressure. Be wary that he is able to slice through them and his long range allows him to poke you through them at times. Shiny Blade can also get him off of you, but be very careful it's not baited out. His DF can be scary as it gives him armor which ends the neutral in his favor, but he's still susceptible to knockdowns during it. If you are able to land an LI during his DF, you can punish his deactivation with another LI immediately after the first for tons of damage. (This works on a lot of the cast, but it's really practical against Bishamon) This threat makes using his DF pretty risky as he has to grapple with being one LI away from dying, forcing the Bish player to be defensive despite having armor. Once you get him in the corner, he struggles fighting against your pressure.
Bulleta - Similar to the Bishamon matchup but not as difficult. While Bulleta's buttons are slightly better than yours, her damage is not (outside of the highest level of play), so you win via burst damage. Her double jump gives her great mobility and unpredictability so be wary of air-to-airs. It also makes her incredibly difficult to tag, so timeouts are pretty common in this matchup. Much like you Bulleta struggles to AA so your jump ins are strong here. Her missile can lose to your fireball, and is crouchable if she doesn't use the low version. You can also jump over them for a punish if she's just hiding behind them. Her dashing pressure is scarier than yours thanks to her very strong ES command grab, so spacing is crucial here. Chicken blocking her dashes is pretty solid thanks to her mediocre AAs. Because you both have the same gameplan, and Bulleta is really good at runaway this match can easily come down to time, so avoid getting desperate. Oftentimes, the winner will be determined on who is the first to maintain their pressure.
Demitri - Another of Lilith's hardest matchups. Most characters in the game are rush down orientated. Demitri is the exception. His goal is to frustrate you and lead you to make stupid plays. His fireball is incredible at zoning and it will beat yours if timed correctly. He has the best DP in the game which is exceptionally difficult to punish if he uses it correctly. Great grounded dash that gives him invincibility and scary pressure. And a fantastic sweep that can low profile your close range fireballs. Because Demitri is so good at shutting down rush down, this matchup often comes down to trying to get stray hits. Unfortunately, it's easy for him to regain the life lead with his Bite super. Up close you CAN punish a whiffed DP with LI if you time it on his descent, but it's hard. 1-frame recovery means any punish for his DP has to be timed very tightly. It's safer to simply block them and punish with a standing normal. You can also use fast fireball to punish empty DPs and slow fireball to hamper his dash ins. The recovery on his fireball also allows you to approach him on whiff and punish if he's being reckless and spamming it blindly. Chicken guarding against his dashes can be a strong option as it covers both his dashing DP and his command grab. Your corner pressure is not drastically neutered like it is against Fish, so if you are able to corner him, you can use your high burst damage to your advantage. Just be wary of his DPs as Demitris love to use them back to back, and you completely lose pressure if you're hit by one. To win this matchup you have to play very patiently and respect the fact that Demitri controls the screen. Don't be alarmed by the fact that you will have to slow down to walk and block for this match.
Felicia - Arguably Lilith's hardest matchup. Grounded fireballs are highly disincentivized since she can roll under them from afar and low profile sweep from up close. She's incredibly good at AAing you and on the flip side you're terrible at it. Her jumping hp is incredibly strong, so don't even bother trying to AA it. Her pressure is really strong, and she has a DF dependent infinite that does a ton of damage if she gets it off. Her DF also breaks your LIs so be aware that you'll need to use any Soul Flash to restore them following a Felicia DF. Be very wary of neutral jumping hp, as you can just lose your turn if she gets it in. Cat Guard bug makes ES Soul Flash corner unblockables impossible, and you have to be aware of her wall jumps to escape the corner. Also be aware that she is one of the characters that can jump over your throw OS. While it's a hard matchup, it's definitely winnable. Lilith's jumping hk at max range is a good way to punish misspaced jumping normals. Your aerial Soul Flash is also a great way to stop her jump ins, but be careful to not use them too predictably as she can punish them with her Rolling Buckler on a read. Catch her fast jump ins with mp Soul Flash and back jump hk to get back space. Speaking of her rolling buckler, that and her EX roll can both be heavily punished on block. Her DF is also extremely punishable if she misuses it due to its very long deactivation. Even from far away, you can super jump in and start your offense. Felicia gets a ton of invincibility on DF activation, but it also comes at the cost of giving you plenty of time to react. You can super jump out of her range or throw out an ES fireball to stop her Kitty Helper pressure. You're going to want to use dashing mk more often than dashing mp, as Felicia rolls under your punches while mk can beat them out. You can also beat out her rolls with LI as you go over their hitbox. Felicia has the slowest wakeup in the game, so she is easier to oki than the rest of the cast. Her guard cancel isn't great, and she is highly dependent on having good spacing since you beat her at point blank. Punish her whiffs as much as you can. At the end of the day, your gameplan is still to get Felicia in the corner and kill her with LI chains: it's just more difficult to do so here.
Gallon - A decent matchup against one of the best characters in the game. Wolf's air buttons are really strong and difficult to AA. Your best option is TK Soul Flash to stop his jumpins. Use the lp version as a preemptive AA as usual, but also use the mp version if he's closer to you. Gallon's jump ins are fast and his hurtboxes are good. Be aware that his neutral jump also jumps over your throw OS. His neutral jump is one of the best in the game, so be very wary of it. Soul Flash is fantastic at warding off random Beast Cannons, so throw it out a lot. Don't spam it mindlessly, however, as he can punish it with Dragon Cannon. Also his neutral Beast Cannons lose out to LI, since their hitbox is surprisingly small. If you feel you can't stop a Beast Canon, simply block the first hit and either DP or use a normal to knock him out of the following hits. Against Dragon Cannon happy Wolfs, you can punish his long recovery with dashing far hp, which can confirm into LI if you're close enough. His crouch and walk go under your mp, so use mk more instead. He has a pretty wide hitbox, so you LI chains are much more forgiving against him, which coupled with his low life, makes him pretty quick to kill. He's also very wide while crouching so jumping mk does a great job at crossing him up. Spacing is very important in this matchup due to how good his air options are. It is very difficult to beat out a jumping wolf, so try to punish him on landing instead.
Jedah - A mostly even match, arguably in Jedah's favor, albeit it slightly. He dominates the sky; you want to keep him on the ground where your damage is. His spacing is very good, but it comes at the cost of all of his long range moves having really punishable hurtboxes. A very slow matchup because he's difficult to hit. He's also another character that can neutral jump over your throw OS. His AAs are good so don't jump in too blindly, and be aware that he can dash over misplaced Soul Flashes. Don't jump into ES Wheel, as it will fling you forward and get you hit. You'll have to vary your TK Soul Flash timing here to account for his different flight heights. Nero Fatica, is good at both AAing you and checking your pressure, but it's pretty slow and you can crouch under it for a punish if he does it at the wrong time. Your DP is amazing in this matchup due to his airborne dash and his bad hurtboxes. Jedah players love to zone you out so try to constantly maintain the life lead and play patiently. Super jump into air chains are incredibly strong here due to Jedah's propensity to be in the air, and the mixup options you get upon landing. He's pretty weak in the corner, where he loses his ability to space you out.
Lei-Lei - Another very hard matchup. Jumping mp is incredibly strong and a move which you're better off holding. Her item throw is really good at keeping you out. Swords are also incredible at getting you full screen, which is very bad since Lei-Lei is hard to approach. Unlike Bishamon, her DF makes her immune to knockdowns (including LI), so you are better off running away if she uses it as her deactivation is very punishable. The downside to her DF is that she eats a ton of damage, so she'll get hurt if you throw out a ES Soul Flash while trying to get away. Gong works the same as your Soul Flash and will reflect them back at you if you are not careful. Air gong makes it even harder to approach her via the air, since it stops you from advancing. Her air dash is very strong in this matchup as you struggle to AA her. Like Felicia, you're better off just holding instead of trying to AA. In contrast she's fantastic at AAing you, and can do so from nearly full screen. Her sweep low profiles your fireball so be careful using it in your pressure. TK fireball can stop her run ins and swings, and is your best AA option for this match. You can either play this patiently and safely, inching her closer to the corner slowly, or rush her down very aggressively to back her up. With how hard she is to get in on, it's also not terrible to try to get a life lead early on and force her to come to you. This allows you to wall her out and control the flow of the match. Whichever way you choose, Lei-Lei's defensive options are pretty bad overall, so once you get her in the corner you can do massive damage.
Lilith - Lilith mirrors. Soul flash is very strong here to stifle dashes and jump ins. Ironically enough, Lilith is pretty bad at dealing with her own pressure. Because you lack good AAs, jump ins are strong in this matchup. Shiny Blade isn't the best here as it can lose to jumping hp, but it's not terrible. This match will often come down to who can get their pressure started first.
Morrigan - This matchup is pretty even. Overall Morrigan is better at neutral, while Lilith dominates the corner. Soul Flash isn't the best here as it struggles against Soul Fist and sweeps, but her vortex struggles against your DP, and at certain distances crouching mp. Lilith can't stop Finishing Shower cheap kills, so try to avoid being full screen with low life. You can roll towards her to try to mitigate some of the chip damage, as she tends to throw the move while you're still on the ground. You can punish her whiffed sweeps with dashing mk. Morrigan is very squishy so she dies easily. While she can escape the corner free with Valkyrie turn, she's very meter hungry so you are forcing her to sacrifice damage and options for it. Her zoning can also work to her detriment as it'll often put her towards the corner, and she can't escape it meterless as easily as Demitri can. In general this is sort of like the Demitri matchup, but much less intense. Play patiently untill you can get her into the corner where your damage is.
Q-Bee - A really hard matchup. Bee's crouch removes a lot of Lilith's tools. She can crouch under your punches, fireball, and DP, and poke you out very easily so this is a very kick heavy match. She outpokes you easily in general, although you can punish standing mp with your sweep, since you crouch under it and Bee players like to throw it out to stop dash ins and jump ins. Crouching hp is also great at stopping her dashes. It goes under her standing mp which Bee players love to use during their dash ins. Her AA options are solid so be cautious with your jump ins. Bees's damage isn't the best, so you do have a bit of wiggle room here. Move constantly: you don't want to get caught in her high-low game. Jump towards any raw bubbles if she's far away and you can confirm that she won't get in on you. If she's right behind the bubble, your best best will probably be to hold it or pushblock it. Your fireball and DP are also not as bad as her crouch would have you believe. While Bee can remove strong options from your kit the reverse is also true. Her auto-target IAD makes her prone to dashing into Soul Flash which stunts her high-low game. Because of how good you're fireball is, Bee players have to be careful using her IAD mixups, and will tend to compensate by using her float much more. Fireball also restricts C->R, as she'll constantly have to fear it. A wake up DP lets you get out of her high-low if you guess right, and is pretty strong in general at AAing Bee. You will have to vary your TK Soul Flashes a bit to catch her IAD advances. She is very wide while crouching so cross her up with jumping mk. On knockdown, vary your oki with cross over walks, neutral jump air chains, or pressure strings. When above her head use air chains into mixup. Bee isn't the greatest at escaping the corner, so you can pressure her really well when you get her in.
Sasquatch - The second best character in the game. Lilith can actually fight this pretty well, but this is by no means a winning matchup. Soul Flash hampers his rushdown, and your DP can stop his mixups. You really want to abuse Soul Flash as a wall. Super jump can go over ES Ice Towers, if timed correctly, leading to a big punish. His dash will go under your crouching buttons, so you'll want to use standing normals heavily here. Lp is great at stopping his dash ins. Standing normals are really good at stopping his advances in general. Merry turn and Shiny Blade do a good job at this as well. Try to prevent him from getting his presure started, either by walling him with fireball or starting your own offense. You can pressure him pretty well since he's a big hurtbox and you out damage him with LI chains. One of his DF functions the same as Bishamon's so his super armor is limited by your LI. He's another character that sweeps under you Soul Flash pressure, so be wary of that. You can space him out with TK Soul Flashes. You can also tricky walk crossover him as oki.
Victor - Lilith's only other undisputed winning matchup. It can be a bit tricky at times, but it's still in your favor. His AAs are very strong, so don't jump in too much. His jumping hp is strong so dash under and punish his landing rather than trying to AA it. Victor is really tall so he's quite easy to bully. He also struggles to hit you. Crouching Lilith goes under a lot of his kit, and opens him up to some pretty big punishes. Lariat can be ducked and punished with a full chain or an LI confirm if you're close. Victor's crouching hp can be scary but it's really easy to punish so be patient and learn to punish it. It's active for a deceptively long time so while it serves as a great AA, he's a sitting duck if he doesn't get the hit. His large health pool doesn't matter too much as he'll die in two corner LI chains just like the rest of the cast.
Zabel - He's top one. It's a hard matchup for the entire cast and Lilith is no exception. He easily outpokes you, and is really difficult to get in on. He'll go over you a lot, so don't just mindlessly hit buttons as it's very easy for him to whiff punish. His teleport is great at getting out of your pressure but he takes massive damage if you guess correctly where he's going. Your DP is great here at stopping his IADs, and your fireball can make him think twice about rushing in. Be smart about using Shiny Blade, however, as a whiffed DP can lead to you eating a Death Voltage for a lot of damage. TK Soul Flash is great at stopping his IAD pressure and walling him out. Unfortunately, he can sweep under grounded Soul Flashes, so be careful with them. You can punish a whiffed normal with LI for good damage pretty well due to how far out his normals extend. Be careful using long blockstrings as his ES GC is one of the best in the game. Thankfully, it can whiff to a lot of Lilith's normals, especially crouching mk at a distance. His jumping hk is a strong air-to-air, but it's difficult for him to hit you while crouching. Dashing lp from up close is a strong pressure tool as it can catch his IAD attempts. This match is extremely execution heavy, and any missed LI confirms will hurt you tremendously. Fortunately he's very frail so he'll die quickly once you can get your pressure started, and any stray LI's you can hit will pay great dividends. Like a lot of other tough matches, the best way to handle his pressure is to maintain neutral and reduce his turns as much as possible.
(Older But Still Useful)
Pros:
+ QBee's fastest normal is 5F (5LK), and her crouching lights are 6F. Frame pressure has a bit more leniency than other matchups
+ QBee crouch is wide; LI confirms have a little more leniency and she must heavy pushblock to create space during dash pressure.
+ QB cannot airblock when transitioning from float/guard to the normal trajectory after block. Where you would air-carry with an air chain, delay one hit and she will be guard broken and reset in the air. Mix this with normal air-carry to ground AA unblock.
Cons:
- QB 2LK will move her forward enough to force 6HP Throw/AA OS into the nHP animation and whiff. In essence, on a predictive AG your throw will not work and QB will recover first. Consider mixing in back-throws or staggering normals to check her predictive AGs.
- DP/GC cannot hit her crouching hurtbox. QB 2LP, 2LK, and 2MP will low-profile wakeup/GC DPs.
- Reach on QB 5MP and 2MK can check/reset higher TK-Flash
- Reach/profile on QB crouch and 2MP can check grounded Flash
- QB crouch low profiles 5MP/dMP (keep her honest with 5MK/dMK)
Caveats:
- QBee standing width is extremely narrow; this can make it harder for the both of you to predict where you will land on crossup attempts, and can create situations where she moves under your jump-ins. Be ready for this and try to create 8j opportunities where you can as a more stable alternative.
- Walling QB out with Flash/TK-Flash is harder than most, but there is a sweet spot that protects you from being 5MP'd/2MP'd. Aim to protect your legs from both options.
- Re-evaluate your frame pressure and normal selection to account for her crouching height.
