GGST/A.B.A/Counterstrategy

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Summary

A.B.A is a heavily momentum-oriented stance character who frequently switches between her terrible Normal Mode and her terrifying Jealous Rage install stance. Her goal is to spend as much time in the latter as possible. As a rule of thumb, if she is in Normal Mode you're probably winning, and if she's in Jealous Rage you probably aren't. Because these two modes are so wildly different from each other, they naturally have different counterstrategies to employ against them.

Normal Mode

Your general goal against NM A.B.A is to prevent her from getting in and building her Jealousy Gauge. NM A.B.A is very slow, making her very prone to getting zoned or even outright camped out. If she doesn't have any resources and you play patiently enough, it can be very hard for her to stage a comeback. However, it is important to not carelessly throw out projectiles/pokes, as if she reads/reacts to it she can rebuild her Gauge with her parryGuardStartup7Recovery15Advantage- (214S).

Jealous Rage

The main thing you want to do against JR A.B.A, if possible, is waste her time. Being in Jealous Rage is A.B.A's win-con, she has insane mobility, outrageous damage output, and strong, rewarding mixups. However, her Jealousy Gauge constantly depletes while in the stance, so if you can, force her to use that time doing things that aren't stealing 60% of your life bar. This can be done in a myriad of ways, such as zoning (not as good as when she's in NM due to her incredible mobility and huge normals, but still a viable strategy), forcing her to block things (this is easier if you have long-ranged gatling sequences like Bridget), grabbing her (her Gauge still depletes during grab animations, even her own), using defensive resources like YRC and Burst, or even just turtling and blocking her offense (easier said than done). Even if she eventually opens you up, the less Gague she has, the less she can do to brutalize you.

If A.B.A does run out of Gauge, she is forced into a screen-freezing animationGuardStartup1+(59 Flash)Recovery10Advantage- that is pretty much guaranteed to leave her at a frame disadvantage with no Gauge, usually hampering if not outright terminating her momentum. Forcing her into this state can be a huge tide-turner in the course of a match.

Unique Attributes/Mechanics

Jealous Rage

Jealous Rage is A.B.A's signature feature. She spends the game switching between her two stances: the underwhelming, bottom-tier Normal Mode (NM) and the domineering Jealous Rage (JR). Being in the latter is simply how A.B.A wins, much like how Leo wants to get into his backturn stance or how Johnny wants to knock you down and put a cardGuardStartupRecoveryTotal 32Advantage-. on you. She manages this stance with a unique character resource known as her Jealousy Gauge, which she builds by dealing damage in Normal Mode and subsequently uses to spend time in Jealous Rage.

Here are some of the things she gets while in Jealous Rage:

A slight damage buff to all moves.
Greatly improved S and HS normals, with significant boosts to frame data, range, and damage.
The ability to use the extremely powerful Judgment and SentimentGuardAll (Guard Crush)Startup17Recovery25Advantage+4 (623H).
New properties on existing special moves (for example, Intertwine and TiltGuardAllStartup17Recovery12Advantage-1 (236K) becomes an overhead launcher).
Montrous damage increases on her supers
Fantastic
Immensely improved movement, giving her an excellent airdash and backdash as well as replacing her pseudo-step dash A dash that is a short jump or "step" forward with a finite distance, as opposed to a run. with a run on par with Chipp Zanuff.

Needless to say, A.B.A is overpowered in Jealous Rage. Deliberately so. As such, knowing how to minimize its effects and play against it is key to surviving this matchup.

As a general tip, A.B.A players will become extremely aggressive while in this mode, often running at you at full tilt. They have a limited amount of time in JR due to her Gauge depleting over time while in the stance, so they will try to force their way in and hit you with one of her excellent high-low mixups into an incredibly damaging combo. If you can, try to waste the opponent's time by keeping A.B.A out or forcing her into blocking, as the less Gauge A.B.A has, the less she can rob you of your life and the closer she is to losing it all.

Pseduo-Stepdash

When she's in Normal Mode, A.B.A's dash is unique in that it's a kind of mix between a normal run and a stepdash, resulting in a sort of stilted run that moves forward in short bursts. Possibly as a result of this bizarre run behavior, A.B.A can hold back/down-back to block without stopping, meaning she can approach while blocking. As such, NM A.B.As tend to run straight at their opponents holding down back, causing them to block pretty much anything that comes their way and employing standard dash-block strategies like blocking and punishing disadvantageous pokes.

This generally isn't too much of a game-changer since NM A.B.A is so slow, her punish options aren't very good, and the pushback from whatever she blocks will likely put her back where she started, but it's still something to keep in mind. Some tools to combat this include jumping in at the opponent or running up and throwing them.

Round Start

A.B.A always starts the round in Normal Mode, which doesn't really have great options for roundstart due to most of her tools either having short range or slow speed. She might try to low/mid-crush your roundstart option with Intertwine and TiltGuardAllStartup17Recovery12Advantage-1 (236K) or Haul and HeedGuardStartupRecoveryTotal 26Advantage- (214K) respectively, so sometimes it might be better to start defensively with a backdash, back-jump, or blocking.

Neutral

Offense

Normal Mode

Oftentimes you won't need to play on the offensive against NM A.B.A since she wants to get close to you, as otherwise, she can't build her Gauge. However, the best way to play offense against her, by far, is at mid-range. A.B.A's best defensive tools are for close-quarters, and her mid-range options are very lacking due to range and speed issues, so characters like Asuka or Bridget can stand outside of her f.S or K button range and barrage her with normals/projectiles.

At close range, her 2P is 4 frames, a frame faster than the average for abare buttons. This lets her trade/clash with +1 situations and generally makes her better at breaking out of block strings.

If she has meter she gets access to her reversal super, which should be treated like most reversals. Bait/safejump, block, punish, etc. Her parryGuardStartup7Recovery15Advantage- is not a reversal, it can only really be used preemptively at mid-to-long range.

It's important to note that A.B.A has a good kit of anti-air tools, so she's better than average at defending against jump-ins/aerial mix.

Jealous Rage

The aforementioned part from before about not needing to play offense against A.B.A is even more relevant when she's in JR, since she rarely allows you to do so. JR A.B.A is so fast and has such enormous range that she can generally initiate offense against you before you can in turn.

However, if you do put her in a defensive position, she is arguably worse at defense in JR. While she essentially has the same set of defensive tools as well as some new ones like a better anti air in JR 2S and actually viable mid-range pokes, any time A.B.A spends on defense is wasting her gauge. This is where the aforementioned tip of wasting A.B.A's time comes most in handy, forcing her to block for as long as possible will cause her to progressively lose Gauge, with the goal being to stall her until she runs out. She will be more hesitant to use her reversal super in JR since it also depletes all of her gauge, so it's safer to go for stagger pressure or pressure resets. The gauge does not drain while A.B.A is in blockstun, so delaying your gatlings/cancels will drain her gauge faster.

All that being said, your opponent obviously isn't going to let you do this for free. A.B.A still has her 4F 2P for mashing on defense, and your opponent can still use Yellow Roman Cancel or even Burst as a hail mary option to prevent burning out their Gauge, so keep these options in mind and bait them accordingly.

Defense

Normal Mode

Even in Normal Mode, if A.B.A makes her way in she can be deceptively strong on offense. She has potent stagger pressure with f.S, a way to get frame advantage with keygrabGuardAll (Guard Crush)Startup12Recovery30Advantage+2, and the RPS Rock Paper ScissorsA situation wherein an attacker and a defender have options that only beat certain responses from their opponent. For example, on wakeup a defending opponent may use a reversal to stop an attacker from using an attack, but the attacker can also block to defeat the reversal. If the attacker blocks, the defender can use the opportunity to take the offensive. nightmare that is Intertwine and TiltGuardAllStartup17Recovery12Advantage-1.

A general tip for defending against NM A.B.A is to make use of Faultless Defense. Since NM A.B.A has poor range and movement speed, and her best pressure tool, keygrab, is very stubby, using FD can easily push her out of range and force keygrab to whiff, allowing you to punish her. She can counteract this by canceling into 236K for its better range, but it isn't quite as good on block as keygrab.

Defending against 236K is a can of worms in and of itself. At worst, A.B.A is -1 on block after using this move. You may be tempted to try and retake your turn with a 5F abare button, but often this is what A.B.A wants. Since her 2P is 4F, if she mashes back, she will likely clash with your button. If you try to press your button again, she will win, giving her a combo that will likely give her a stance switch. If you chose to block the followup 2P, she can potentially reset the situation or threaten a throw. You can try to throw her 2P, but she can jump and punish. Etc., etc., etc. Thus, the RPS nightmare.

Jealous Rage

The main appeal of A.B.A is her overwhelming offense and damage output in her install state, so needless to say, there's a lot to discuss.

Defending Against Intertwine and Tilt

Much of what makes JR A.B.A's offense so scary is her improved Intertwine and TiltGuardHighStartup18Recovery15Advantage-2, 236K, which goes from a low-crushing, safe on block, unrewarding mid to a relatively fast (18f), mid and low-crushing overhead launcher that's still safe on block. As most people can not react to an 18f overhead and failing to block it leads to full combo conversions, knowing when it can happen is key to surviving her offense.

When waking up, A.B.A has a simple high-low mixup between this and 2H, both giving high reward on hit.

236K, being a special move, can be cancelled into from any of A.B.A's grounded normals. Should A.B.A use a normal that does NOT lead into a low, it is safe to start blocking high, in case she decides to go for 236K. Thus, the only times when it's truly a guessing game are after c.S, f.S, 2S, 2K, and 5K, as they all gatling into lows (2H for the S buttons or 2D for c.S and K buttons). Keep in mind that Restriction and ConstraintGuardLowStartup11Recovery31Advantage-15 is still a low, so if you see A.B.A go into her rekka A series of special attacks that are only available after the first one is performed., Menace and GroanGuardAllStartup12Recovery16Advantage-5, you need to start blocking low again.

If you block 236K A.B.A will be left at -2, meaning a grab will punish her. However, she is not necessarily in grab range after 236K. As a rule of thumb, she is only in grab range if she has dash momentum and cancels from 2K, 5K, or c.S. You can more consistently keep her in throw range if you Instant Block. Otherwise, it's advised to mash your 5f abare button to beat Aba's 2P, should she mash it after 236K. If A.B.A backdashes after a blocked 236K try using a longer ranged button like a 5K or f.S to catch it, though this will lose to her mashing 2P.

Alternatively, Deflect Shield (214D) can be used to deal with her high-low mix and push her far away.